Shop display in Bremen

[Siwi]

Last week I was on a long cycle tour and had scheduled the route to visit Bremen. Of course I went to see the Roland figure, had an expensive but delicious cake in the Markt, the animal town musicians, the Bottcherstrasse, and the Schnoor. In this area I found a small model shop which had a fantastic display of Schreiber-Bogen kits of all sorts, assembled and in the window. Unfortunately as far as I could see the shop was not open - and probably any kit I bought might not have survived another week carried in my Ortleibs. My favourite is the Nautillus cutaway.

[Don Boose]

A magical shop window!

Thanks for sharing the images of the wonders on display.

Don

[Philip]

They certainly know how to make eye-catching displays in Bremen.

[Heiner]

Hi Siwi!
What You have found was Atelier GAG in the Schnoor-block of Bremen. It´s a real shame, that You missed the opening hours (or they missed You), because inside it is even better! I recommend You to come back…
In fact this is one of the last real world shops, where You can see, touch and talk cardboard-modeling, whether You buy something or not (You will, unless You are completly broke – which, of course, You might well be after Your visit – be warned!) – at least I don´t know anything alike. For modelers over here it feels like maybe Hogwarts would. A few years back, some vandals shattered a couple of display windows in the Schnoor and thorougly destroyed a lot of models, but when the window was repaired, a lot of fine built donations came in from modelers all over Germany and abroad to fill the display again (take this, damned death-eaters!), so I guess not only the lucky ones from Bremen consider this place to be their own. Online-shopping and downloads are fine – but this here feels like home…

[Siwi]

So according to that web link it was in fact open when I was there last Monday. Would have been nice to go in, but I doubt I could have taken enough care of a kit with another six days of bicycle travel back to the UK, squashing my bags into lockers and camping. I looked for a model shop in Den Haag that might have paper models on the last day but there was only a model railway and plastic kit shop that did not have any paper kits at all.

[Erik Zwaan]

Hi Siwi, those pictures of the Bremen shop window are like looking inside a candy store..... I see Burg Eltz. Built this model myself quite some time ago. Great model but simply too big to keep, so I took pictures of it prior to demolition. It happens at times....

Paper models in model or hobby shops are rare, you need to visit specialist hobby shops for this. Next time when you're in NL, you could try Sjaak's Hobbyshop in Voorhout (just north of Leiden; they used to be located in Leiden but moved out a few years ago) or Leon Schuijt in Alkmaar. Of course, you can always check out several Dutch websites, such as zeistbouwplaten.nl, or leonschuyt.nl and elfrink-bouwplaten.nl. There are more sites, but these just come quickly to my mind. Another good site for ships is scaldismodelclub.nl.

Cheers,
Erik

[Siwi]

Thanks Eric, good tips. I made a few internet searches but came up with only vague information about where hobby shops were. Having seen so many on my travels I was mainly after a model windmill!

[Mike Stamper]

I visited that shop a few years ago - and it was open. Many of their kits are of local places but not made by the "big publishers" Heiner is right, my wallet was a lot thinner when I left! what made it even thinner was my wife who found a coat in the shop opposite!

I found a large collection of Windmill kits in the souvenir shop in Kinderdyke - a museum of full sized windmills in holland. When I went into the shop I couldn't find any kits - Then I noticed a pile of paper in one corner, it was all kits. I guess there isn't much of a market for kits. Even the people serving gave me a strange look when I bought almost one of each mills!