Sometimes when we least expect to find something truly unique in this hobby it smacks you right in the face in the strangest of places. Such was the case two weeks ago in our local big box arts and crafts store when I was looking for……well to be honest, I can’t even remember what I was looking for. Probably yet another paint pallet! I was standing next to a couple who were looking at some woodland scenic products and I asked if he was a model railroader. BINGO! Sure enough he was!
Well we got to talking about the things we model and it turns out he is a fine scale detail freak like me and the rest of you! As we were discussing projects he told me about an HO Scale diorama scene that he created that was based on the old TV comedy sitcom show, The Munsters! A show that ran for about two years in 1964 and 65, all about this friendly family composed of Monsters called the Munsters. Needless to say, for generations re-runs of this show dominated American family TV sets during the 1970s and 80s. Some of us old timers remember it well. You youngins, probably not so much…. 
So I asked Kelly Nagle (the modeler) who lives in my town of Mechanicsburg, Pa. if he could send me some photos of it to my email. Which of course he did! I was so impressed that I had to call him and ask him if I could share this cool diorama with all of you, to which he agreed. So I hammered him with a series of questions, because I saw a modeler with some vision and someone willing to try something a bit outside the box of normal in scale modeling. The diorama is 17″ by 18″ built on a sheet of plywood in HO scale, and it took him a few months.
He scratch built the garage and the back of the house, and the front is a model by Moebius Models based on the one in the tv show, and yes it is plastic, but Kelly crushed this kit with his detail work and painting. He took a theme kit and turned the entire thing into what any of us would envision as 1313 Mockingbird Lane! The cool munster car is a Johnny Lightning vehicle and the figures are Preisers that he painted to match up the character cast! He thought of everything with this diorama and his obvious boyhood love of the TV show the Munsters, down to Spots doghouse and what we would imagine Spot (the family pet) must look like, seeing how they never really showed him entirely. 
The trees are all natural that he made from sage brush, and his scenery around the house is first class! It was definitely a treat to see such a cool creative scene and we would be remiss as HO Scale Customs to not share this with our fellow fine scale freaks! So please take a few moments to enjoy the photos he provided and make sure when you are out and about and sense you are among fellow modelers to talk with them, make new friends, and discover a whole world you may never have known of in model railroading otherwise!
