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Well, not quite. Almost 30 years go a guy called Ian Wares started Scoonie Hobbies in the town of Leven, moving to Kirkcaldy (once linoleum capital of the world), both towns being in God's own country - Scotl and.
In January 1988 Andy McCue took over and turned the business on its head. He kept the name Scoonie because it rhymed quite nicely with Loonie - and that sums up the semi-organised chaos the business has been in ever since. Andy's misspent youth as a railway, military and boat modeller finally paid off. He has also become expert at vertical landings with fixed wing aircraft. His theory is that you do not wear out the tyres if you land on the spinner.
His son Steve joined him 6 years later and brought some (not a lot) sanity into the running of the only asylum in Scotland staffed by the inmates. Steve's particular interest is in the cars. Slot-racing, plastic kit or radio controlled.
Both of them are experienced modellers and well experienced in the use of small tools and equipment, so that they are well able to give good practical advice on power tools for the modeller.
With the two of them in the shop it has freed Andy to do more research into further boat fittings. Scoonie, rightly or wrongly, has developed a name and reputation for specialist fittings for fishing-boats and for a good range of general boat fittings.
The shop also attends modelling events, as a trader, all over the UK. The battered old Ford Transit and Ford Escort vans were familiar sights to modellers from the north of Scotland to London and Liverpool. The Transit carried the same paint scheme as British Rail's InterCity Class 91 loco and lived up to the nickname "The Scoonie Loonie Road Train". During 1999 the shop attended 134 show or event days. Quite a record for a wee two man business. Sadly the "Hesperus" (the old Transit) and "Convulvulus" (the Escort) have both gone to that great scrap yard in the sky and have been replaced with 2 more up to date Transits so that the team will be able to cover even more ground.
Andy's wife and two daughters are also roped in to help out. Chris (Andy's wife) sees to all the typing and runs the computer (Andy broke the last one!) and helps out at shows. June (elder daughter) runs the shop on Sundays. Kirstie (younger daughter) helps out at shows. The crew have now been joined by Jim - June's husband, who is full time in the shop and will be running the second Transit to some extra shows. The 2 grandchildren are a bit young to be involved - YET!
Finally, we must mention Findlay - the engineer and ultimate all round hobbyist. He served his time as a shipyard engineer on the Clyde, went to night school and took his Marine Architectural Draughtsman ticket. He spent all his working life with Harland & Wolff, then John Browns, both on the Clyde - the cradle of shipbuilding. On the hobby front, Findlay has bound his own books, made his own wine, grown his own tobacco, scratch built model railway locos, built pond yachts, built hulls, made electronic model railway gadgets, and kept Andy's feet on the ground.
That is the team, and that is the story.................SO FAR.
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