Uptown Automotive Hobby Shop
The Biggest Little New and Used Car Showroom in Central New York
The Biggest Little New and Used Car Showroom in Central New York
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Uptown Automotive Hobby Shop The Biggest Little New and Used Car Showroom in Central New York |
In Memoriam Contents:♦ Bernie's "Biggest Little Car Show" -NEW- ♦ "The Woody Man" Conrad Jurgens ♦ Norm Glista - Skilled Craftsman ♦ Thomas King Mills - TKM Models ♦ Jon D. Fague - Master Modeler ♦ Ron Merkel - Merkel Model Car Company Bernie Radigan was a young 75 when he left us in July of 2021. He was a was a quiet, low key builder of an amazing assortment of cars and trucks. He thought, and built, "outside of the box". Always on top of the latest trends in actual vehicles, his models reflected those trends...though not always obviously. If one of Bernie's well painted models sat on a table near another modeler's similar vehicle, they may at first appear to be, other than exterior color, much the same. Until Bernie's model was examined on the underside. When it became popular to install rack and pinion steering in actual street machines, Bernie's models also included it. Independent rear suspension? The same. Any new concept seen on actual vehicles was incorporated into the various models Bernie crafted. Rat rods, extended pickup truck cabs, whatever it was, Bernie built a model long before there were any model kits representing these vehicles or features. He would also scratch build parts and pieces if they were unavailable from another kit or aftermarket source. Pickup truck caps, trailer hitches, and all sorts of other things to complement, enhance, and complete a specific model or theme. While I'm not aware of Bernie owning an an old car or truck, he was a member of "The Sopranos" Car Club. He became well known locally for his model car displays at area cruise ins. He called his *display "The Biggest Little Car Show", and it featured a variety of vehicle types.
*it has been said that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". I don't know that Bernie intended such, but the name he applied to his display is very close to one of our (Uptown Automotive) advertising lines, as we had been "The biggest little new and used car showroom in Central New York". Bernie was not only an occasional customer, but became a buddy, and in addition to entering model contests, we had fun together administrating a model contest that he was not entered in, at one car show. He was well versed, and is much missed.
Jim Amado, 3/11/2023 I met Conrad Several years ago when I journeyed 90 miles to attend a model club meeting. Actually, the Northland Toy Club included members who had varied toy interests, but many of them were "car people". I soon realized that the distance precluded regular attendance at their meetings, but I have kept in loose contact with some of the members, and still enjoy the semi annual toy shows the club puts on. Conrad was one with whom I communicated throughout the years. Conrad specialized in building scale models of wood bodied vehicles, hence he became known as "the woody man". His skill became well known among we who appreciate such things, and his models have found homes in various states in the U.S., and in several foreign countries. Sadly, in November of 2021, we lost Conrad to illness at the age of 84. Prior to that, as long as his health allowed his attendance, he could be faithfully and reliably found as a vendor at what has unofficially become known as the Albany (NY) Toy Show. Displayed on his table were models and conversions which were offered for sale, as well as photos of models he had built, and could build, for interested individuals. No matter the medium, be it plastic, die cast metal, or resin, Conrad would modify it as required, to accept a tediously hand built appropriate wood paneled body...using real wood, which would then be stained or varnished, just as the actual vehicle would have been, creating unique authentic models. Rest in peace Conrad. Your memory and your handiwork live on.
Conrad was a "car guy". He built and/or modified models of various vehicles, mostly station wagons, but not only wood paneled wagons. The Oldsmobile "Nomad" style is likely a diecast basis, as was the International. The Citroen likely began as a plastic 2CV, and the Plymouth I would guess to have been a resin based model. See below:
Jim Amado, 3/9/2023 Throughout the years that Uptown Automotive was a brick and mortar shop, I was blessed to have several individuals walk in as customers, and walk out as friends. One such was Norm Glista, who after an illness, was taken from us near the end of December in 2020. Norm was very open about his affinity for vehicles, especially trucks, yet equally discreet about the extent of his interest in them, and in the depth of his hobby. Even knowing him as long as I did, and being well aware of his knowledge of vehicles, because of his humility it wasn't until he had passed that I realized just how involved he was in the model hobby. I shouldn't have been surprised, as I had glimpses and hints throughout the years as he would, though rarely, show me a truck that he had modified. He was a skilled craftsman with both plastic, and diecast models, modifying, altering, and fabricating as required to achieve the desired result. Many of the trucks were made to resemble those used in family businesses operated by his father and his uncles. In doing so, he often created the lettering and logos appropriate for each. Truly, Norm was multi talented. Both his talent and his friendship will be missed. [The military wrecker on shelf behind Norm is a plastic model he built, of
Jim Amado, 1/18/2022 Our Hobby Has Lost Another Pioneer. In February of 2021, Thomas King Mills, at the age of 75, succumbed to a heart ailment. Tom was TKM Models, an early "cottage industry" producer of unique hand made 1/25 scale model cars, which he then hand cast and offered for sale as kits. His kits were simple, but challenging in that they required patience and labor to finish into respectable models, yet they could and often did become very attractive replicas of vehicles, which were otherwise unavailable from any other source in any scale. Though TKM models may not have been "state of the art", they were an alternative, and welcomed by many who appreciated the cars they represented. Tom himself was very talented, very personable, very good to work with, ...and he will be missed. TKM '50 Chrysler Town & Country TKM '56 Packard 400 Jim Amado
Jon D. Fague left us unexpectadly on April 4, 2019, at the age of 67. "Jon D.", as I called him, was a multi talented builder, known for imaginative and creative customs and rods, as well as his paint finishes and often unique colors and patterns. Though in recent years he seemed to favor rat rods, he could and did build a variety of antique, classic, custom, stock, race, rods, or commercial vehicles, as well as whimsical phantoms. Often he would win awards in multiple classes at model shows. Always experimenting, always learning, always improving, he pushed the envelope with techniques employed, and materials used; he was an innovator. In addition to being an experienced master modeler, Jon was also often a vendor at car and model car shows. More significantly, he was a friend, to me, and to countless others in the hobby.
Jim Amado
In the first issue of Scale Auto Enthusiast magazine, back in 1979, that was the title of Ron Merkel’s column. Prior to that, Ron had written for Model Car Journal. He was around, and in the hobby, long before that. He began building model cars in the mid fifties, when his dad took him to purchase one of the 1/32 scale Revell ’55 Buick kits. How fitting that his final years were spent in the employ of Revell. Cancer took Ron from us in June of 2011. Ironically, in his final months, in between treatments, he again built some of those early Revell car kits. Not because he was working for the model company, but because he now had skill and patience which he may have lacked as a child. He had recently completed the ’55 Mercury 4 door sedan, and was working on a 1/48 scale Kenworth tractor trailer. This one frustrated him. Certainly it was not beyond his ability; on the contrary, it was because parts “disappeared”. Ron speculated that, as he told me: “the driver must have jumped off of the the table, and walked out of the room”. He had his sense of humor ‘til the end. As Ron’s health worsened, I suspect the Kenworth was not completed. Yet I thought it was great that he had his hobby to distract him from his illness, and also the “coincidence” (was it?) that he had gone back to his beginning, as it were, as he was nearing his end. Ron claimed to be “not very religious”, but this made me wonder… Ron was involved in the hobby in a big way, for a long time. He and a friend, the late Tom Lima, Jr., formed a model car club which they called The Old Town Escorts. Together they put on the largest model car displays Chicago had ever seen. Initially at the Chicago Auto Show, an annual event which showcased all the new cars from U.S. and foreign auto manufacturers, then at their own model car shows, where vendors, hobbyist, and collectors came from all over the country. For many years Ron was a fixture at the Chicago Auto Show, where he sold models, then eventually he bought a trailer and went on the road. The saying that: “Behind every successful man, there is a woman” certainly applied to Ron. Somewhere along the way he met Vicky and they became not only husband and wife, but some time thereafter, “The Merkel Model Car Company”. In addition to raising two sons, Ron and Vicky worked side by side in the trailer – their mobile store. After several years of traveling to car shows around the country, Ron opened a “brick and mortar”store in a Chicago suburb, and Vicky got a job, not surprisingly, at a model company. Ron and I became friends many years ago. I knew him long before I met him. I know that seems odd, but it’s true. I don’t remember how it began, probably I saw an ad? We corresponded for years, two model car nuts sharing a hobby via long distance. Then in 1970, while in the Air Force, I met and became friends with a gentleman who was from Chicago. When I returned from overseas, I stopped in Chicago on my way home, to visit my buddy, meet his family, and, since I was there, I called Ron and we met face to face...for the first time. A few years after my discharge from the service, I opened my model shop, and began going to Chicago to attend the Old Town Escorts car show on Saturday, and their model car show on Sunday. Ron and I had kept in touch ever since. At “Lead East”, in New Jersey, possibly in 1984? I was a vendor and I saw a young boy carrying a model car kit under his arm. I asked him where he had acquired it. “There's a guy in a trailer selling models on the other side”. So I wandered over there, and saw the Merkel model Car Company in operation. In the evening I went back there and Ron and I shared pizza and visited for a few hours. That was the beginning of a “tradition”. Thereafter, any time I was in Chicago, not only would we visit, but we'd also enjoy pizza together. Ron and I would speak with each other over the telephone from our respective shops, and discuss the hobby, our individual shops, family (he was justifiably proud of his sons), our vehicles and their maladies, and any other aspect of life which was deemed appropriate at the time. Sometimes we'd help each other by exchanging models which one or the other of us needed to fill a customer's request. And always we joked and laughed. The hobby changed, and Ron eventually closed his shop and was hired by Revell. I always wondered why it took so long for them to realize that Ron was a wealth of knowledge and experience, and would be a valuable asset to a model car company. Apparently, somehow they had – eventually – come to the same conclusion, however. While Ron was at Revell our conversations were kept brief for obvious reasons, but we still spoke somewhat regularly when either of us had a question, or suggestion, for the other. Then one day the conversation veered away from models, as Ron's health began to take a turn for the worse. Topics were usually health related in conversations after that, and yet, there was always humor and optimism from Ron...until he became too worn out to speak. Our conversations, and Ron's time, grew shorter. I had hoped to see him once more, but it was not meant to be. Ron was called away to a more urgent meeting. Vicky lost her husband, her sons lost their father, we in the model car hobby lost a knowledgeable, valuable, asset and ally, and I lost a good friend. Jim Amado
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page updated 3/13/2023
