WARNING: Explicit non-food content!

We firstly stepped into this shop with a view to grabbing a quick, quirky photo for our new play thing, Snap West. But what we found was so cool we figured it was worthy of its own more detailed post.

For those from the broader community who come here for the eats, we apologise.

For fellow westies, we hope you are tickled at least a little bit as much as we were …

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Collectors Aircraft Models Australia, 40 Cranwell St, Braybrook. Phone: 9318 1276

It was only a few weeks into the new routine of school in Sunshine that Bennie and I altered our route.

Instead of heading up Ballarat Rd and confronting the sometimes white-knuckle stress of turning right against the incoming rush hour, we started going straight ahead at the Ashley St lights and on to Cranwell St, past car yards and factories and beyond to school.

This may not be faster, but it’s more fun and far more relaxing.

We pass parks, a huge Buddhist temple complex and even a couple of junkyard dogs for whom we feel sorry.

And it has brought riches – most notably some classic graffiti that cracks us up still on an almost daily basis and the tasty South American delights of La Morenita.

But it’s very unusual for us to be cruising this neighbourhood later than about 8.15am or on a Saturday.

But that’s certainly the case today as we’re on our way to pick up our mate Daniel.

Thus it is we pass a sandwich-board sign outside an older style industrial property that immediately has us parking and going or a look-see.

Given the premises, I envisage some sort of makeshift operation – maybe something like Dirt Cheap Books with wings.

Instead, what we discover is a well-established shop that has been in place for about 13 years.

The lovely room is crammed with aircraft models of many different sizes, shapes and configurations.

There’s even a couple of airports!

I figure this is some sort of blokey refuge along the lines of anoraks and train spotters, and that the average age of the customers is somewhere between 45 and beyond.

But proprietor Terry Mahoney tells me his customer base is a lot broader than that, and that business is pretty good.

As with a lot of niche operations these days, Terry finds a lot of his business comes from the online direction.

Consequently, he finds the lack of passing trade a small price to pay for the comfort and minimal overheads his unusual Braybrook location provides.

He tells me that the old-school factory set-up of which he is a tenant also houses an operation that produces gut tennis strings and surgical sutures.

Check out Terry’s website here.

We may never step foot into Terry’s shop again … but we dig the hell out of the fact it’s there!