Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Labor of love pays off for Sun City Model Building Club

Model Builders

Heather Cory

With a finished model boat on display in front of him, Bob Sylvester, a member of the Sun City Summerlin Model Builders’ Club, works on a new project at Desert Vista Community Center.

Members of the Sun City Summerlin Model Building Club showed off their skills and sold their miniature replicas for the first time at an open house on Saturday. This is the second year the artisans have opened to the public their clubhouse in the Desert Vista Community Center, 10360 Sun City Boulevard.

The 35-member club wanted to show the community the model planes, trains and automobiles and the doll houses it crafts, said club President Bill Winchester.

“We’re trying to get new some members, too,” Winchester said. “A lot of people don’t know we’re here.”

Only Sun City Summerlin residents are eligible to join the club.

Some modelers spend as much as a year on their work. Club members rarely offer the fruits of their labor to the public, Winchester said.

“The guys never want to sell their models. They make them and take them home,” he said.

New members don’t need to be experienced craftsmen. Members are always willing to help each other out, said Laura Williams, one of three female club members.

“If you’re not good at painting, there’s somebody who is,” she said. “Some come down just to socialize.”

Members provide a lifetime of expertise, some having worked on or piloted the full-size versions of the planes and boats they now build.

“They’ve been there, done it or been around it. The conversations are interesting,” said modeler Stan Roche, a retired aerospace engineer.

For more information, call Winchester at 240-9900.

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or [email protected].

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