Pmi

[FRD]

It's been a number of years since I've looked but it looks like PMI is starting to "get back on track", Lou's old site was like in, "suspended animation" for quite some time after he sold it. (Good for them!)

[FRD]

I had just finished the Monitor model, Lou printed only 20 copies when he asked Marji and I if we wanted to buy PMI.


If I remember correctly, he was asking $57-k for it "lock, stock and barrel".


Marji declined because she said: "it would be too much like work"...

[ccoyle]

Do you have a web link? Searching for "paper models international" directs one to a rudimentary site based in Germany.

[FRD]

ccoyle, now that you mentioned it, I may have been mistaken because I had only seen the site once or twice since Lou sold it and both times it was "static", what I saw yesterday was just a "brief glimpse" of what I thought was PMI but it apparently wasn't, that's sad, I really had my hopes up for them...

[Jason]

Hi Guys,

Thought maybe I could add some history to the thread as I am always wondering why the site never went live again after it was sold. I dealt with Louis a couple time previously and reached out to him when he had the site for sale, but could not justify the asking price once I ran the numbers. At the time Eventually they sold the site, lock stock and barrel, to a gentleman named Mark around July 2009. For a couple years afterwards I tried reaching out to Mark to try to buy the site, but never got a response from him. It was a shame that the site died as Lou and his wife had run PMI for about 30 years when he sold it. I have not talked to Lou since 2015 as I think I had shutdown my site by then and really hope him and the wife are enjoying their retirement.

Jason

[John Wagenseil]

Louis Dausse Obituary (1934 - 2020) - Portland, OR - The Oregonian
He was a founder and contributor to the North American Paper modeling scene.

[Jason]

Thanks John,

I did not realize that he had passed away. It was a shame about what happened to PMI, but even more a shame that he did not have more time to enjoy retirement. I am very sorry to hear that both he and his wife passed away.

Jason

[Don Boose]

Here's to Lou and Barbara, who were instrumental in bringing me into the community of paper modelers in the 1980s.

Don

[Tyler Durden]

PMI is what got me into card modeling.

Lou Dausse apparently had some American WWII fighters commissioned as paper models which were then sold in model shops which is how I came across the hobby. The first paper model I built was the PMI P-38. That was back in 2000 I think. I ordered models from him for years, and on one of my trips home on leave I contacted him to see if I could stop by his shop on the way back to ND. He said it was ok but he didn't have an actual storefront and was concerned about the neighbors seeing strange cars parked in front of his house because it was a residential neighborhood and not zoned for businesses. This was Portland btw. Some things never change... I was very impressed with his "shop". He had a room in his house that had rows of shelves all full of printed models and there must have been dozens of aircraft hanging from his ceiling. Many of them were large airliners which he liked to build. He was very kind, and I visited for a while, eventually buying quite a few kits to take back with me to ND. I continued to receive his catalog for a few more years then I believe it went online, and after I transferred into the Army I didn't have time for models for quite some time and I lost touch with him.

Its sad to hear he passed away but I am glad I had the chance to meet him in person, and I have had many years of enjoyment from the hobby that he inadvertently introduced me to.

[FRD]

I'm very sorry to hear that Lou and his wife Barbara have both passed away.

I was a 20 year old growing up in the Columbia river Gorge 41 years ago in 1982 having very few prospects in this remote region, only 45 miles away when that same year he set up PMI in Beaverton Oregon.

Lou became a very good friend and "mentored" me, he bought my first model and then it's copyright back in '82, he taught me everything I know about card models, he told me about the roles that they had played throughout history as well as telling me all about HIS "personal" introduction to card models as a young man in the military, stationed in Germany (?) as well as his own, personal "building techniques", I still do it the same way today as he taught me more than 40 years ago.

It was Lou who put me in touch with NOAA to design the Monitor Model, unfortunately, when initiated, neither one of us knew that it would take four years to complete, the Model was completed just as he retired back in 2008, that's why only 20 of the monitor models were ever printed, those models that I produced in that 4 decades, he was more than happy to publish, his distribution actually benefited several museums.

Marji and I last visited him and Barbara back around 2015, talked to him a few times after and the last time I talked to him he said that he and Barbara were spending their time on the Oregon Coast.

I literally "owe my career" to Lou and "hope to do him proud"...

(Thanks Lou!)