Any good hobby shops in the DC metro area?

[Rauhbatz]

I used to go to Air, Land & Sea several years back in Old Town Alexandria to find vintage kits...a real treasure trove there.

[Garth]

The only real "Modelers" shop in the DC area is Piper Hobby in Chantilly. It's in a stripmall complex (Metrotech Drive) at the intersection of Rt.50 and Centreville Road (just off Rt.28) and only a few short miles from NASM Udvar-Hazy.

It's a great place, although you won't find the vast collection of vintage kits that Air Land and Sea had (btw, the owner of Piper, Bill, used to work there). They do have a very, very good inventory of current-run kits, books/magazines and some aftermarket goodies (including oop decals). Occasionally he'll acquire someone's collection/stash. But those items go out the door seriously fast (had one of about 30 kits that came in two weeks ago and is now - as of Thursday night anyways - picked clean except for two 1/72 Hasegawa F-14As and a 1/72 Revell F-16B.)

Best times to go in are Saturday mornings; 11:30 or so tends to see a lot of local scale modelers show up more to chat and hang out than anything else. There's also an informal modeling club with 15-20 regulars that meets there the second Tuesday of every month at 7:30pm. Bill provides free pizza (Papa Johns) and sodas. The local modeling crowd is extremely knowledgeable about the subject matter, since most of them are current/retired military or DoD civilian.

Other hobby shops in the area are a place called "Hobby Hanger" that's near Piper in a stripmall complex off Rt. 50 between the Centreville Rd and Rt.28 interchanges. It specializes in RC, but has a good selection of Hasegawa kits too (all scales).

For generalist shops (so gaming, trains, rockets, astronomy, Legos/Bricks, etc), on Main St/Little River Turnpike in Fairfax there's a "Hobby Works" franchise, small but respectable selection of scale kits. There's also a HobbyTown in Manassas. I've never been to that one.

Hope this helps!

--Garth

[Rauhbatz]

Thx for the feedback...was too busy with museums but might hit this next trip