Welcome to the new Stella Scale Models Blog!

Greetings to one and all, and welcome to the new Stella Scale Models Blog! We have been busy with so many different things lately, and that includes reaching out more. Even though I'm not alone in this endeavor, most of the posting from our end here will be from me, Jim Harr, but of course alongside me are the namesake of the business and our truly faithful companion, Stella, and my beautiful and talented wife Lorine.

In case you're not familiar with Stella Scale Models, we design and produce scale model kits of distinctive prototype structures. While we don't adhere to any particular region or architectural style, we certainly favor the Northeastern US, where we are based. The homepage features a couple of images of some of our work; starting at the top we see a close-up of Owens Monumental Company, kit #SSM-040, and at the bottom we see The New Erie Cafe, kit #SSM-010. Both kits are HO scale and are available via our website at www.stellascalemodels.com.

Also, while it is certainly our goal here to promote our products and the hobby of modeling in general, we may post on just about anything, but it will stay fairly close to the main theme, scale modeling. As you can see from my bio on the home page, I've been modeling for nearly 42 years in some form or another. It started with a small 1/72 scale World War I biplane model, a German Albatross, that my brother Jeff convinced me to try and build. I think it was most likely an Airfix kit, but that memory is long faded. Regardless, I was hooked. That was at about age 6, or 1969 to you mathematicians out there. Jump ahead a year or so to 1970 when my parents gave me an N scale Postage Stamp train set - I think it was Aurora. Again, hooked... I stuck with N scale until around 1974 when I got a new train set, this time HO scale. This one was made by Model Power and it featured a 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive plus freight cars and a caboose, decorated for the Santa Fe. Santa Fe lasted through High School, when it all got packed up and mothjballed. Fast-forward again to 1992, when I got back into the hobby after flying over the ATSF's Corwith Yard in Chicago. I saw all those scale trains there and thought, "hmmm... I have to dig out those boxes..."

Long story short, here we are. Or I am. If you've stuck with me this long, bear with me for a while longer while I get some interesting stuff together and let's have some fun. I'll be posting tips and tricks, techniques, modeling articles, and lots more, so I hope you come join me, and in the meantime, Happy Modeling everybody!

Jim