Blast into Coles New World

Concept

I saw a  model of the first Coles New World Supermarket located in the Melbourne suburbs at an exhibition of retailing at the State library of Victoria in Melbourne a couple about a decade ago. 

Supermarkets were starting to take hold in the late 1950s and by the 1960s they were sprouted in many suburbs in Australia.  The space race and the first landing of the moon in the late 1960s encouraged Coles to include the rocket ship on the front of the supermarkets with the New World Supermarket theme. 

I wanted to include one of these supermarket on my layout. 

Here is a photo of the Geelong Coles sourced from http://han dle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/359701

Researching a suitable model

I search the internet to find a suitable model that could be used to represent the mid-century architecture of the Coles supermarket and found a possible use of the Santa Fe Station by Walthers for a kitbash to use in the required space on my layout. I used most of the window sections of the kit.

Above: Modern brick Santa Fe Station from Walthers Cornerstone Part # 933-4064

 Sourcing parts

Apart from the the main supermarket building, I also used the Faller shop interior fitting set to give the model some interior features. 

I made my own signs and decals including period grocery prices from Supermarket ads from the early 1970s as this is the period when the layout is set. 

By far the hardest part to source was the 3D lettering on the front of the Coles Building. I used Times Roman Font and was able to make a coloured decal sign but wanted it to be 3D lasercut. I found a supplier on Ebay that could produce this at a height of 20mm high but found that this was too large to fit the words across the building.

I contacted two local suppliers and found that modelsnmore could do it and I received the laser cut lettering in a week. I am pleased with their work and highly recommend them. Below is the finished painted signage .

 Completed Model

 I added a backdrop, period figurines, period cars to the carpark as well as a fence, Below is the completed model I have yet to include the space rocket which I had sourced but misplaced it