After a couple of tough Wisconsin Winters there is some noise about becoming Snowbirds and wintering in Florida. A couple of friends live in an area known as “The Villages” and enjoy it. My questions are : Is there any hobby shops in the area? And, Are there any modeling groups that meet and glue stuff & BS?
Thanks for any input !
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Contact these guys for info. I tried google and didn’t get anything promising.
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Per internet legend one should be more worried about the crabs than the alligators in the New Orleans of The Retired…wink 
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Unfortunately, Gainesville is almost 2 hours from The Villages area. The Villages is its own community with no other larger town/city nearby, so you may have to travel a bit. You want to look in the Leesburg, Taveres, Ocala area to be closer.
Here is a hobby shop in Leesburg, it looks like mostly RC stuff though.
Lets race hobby | Leesburg FL | Facebook
Also, as AB says, look out for Cougars and Crabs.
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I saw the location. I just figured they must have some sort of hobby resource info on the region. Their membership probably extends far beyond Gainesville proper.
Orlando would be worth an occasional venture. However places in Florida suffer from the loss of brick and mortar stores like everywhere else. The Villages is its own enclave away from everything else so odds are heavily against any hobby shops there.
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There is nothing near the Village beyond Hobby Lobby. There is a really small shop near Ocala but he does not have much in the way of kits; he orders stuff for people but you can do that yourself. Nothing in Gainesville as the last hobby shop there closed back in the early 90s.
Even Orlando is short on quality shops. Colonial Photo & Hobby was about the last place left.
WOW!!! Thanks for all the quick responses !
Barnslayer, thanks for the link to gator modelers ! I’ll check in with them.
Armor Buff, I did hear rumors… 
and other nasty things
I had hoped that there would be a club and a shop there. Heck, (I hate the term, “Baby Boomers”) but my generation got the ball rolling in modeling,IMHO. You’d think that there would be a group of like minded persons that got together and build.
IF… we do pull the trigger and Snowbird it maybe I could start an informal group or something. It’s so true about on line stores. 48 hours I can have just about whatever I need thru the internet.
Thanks to all who responded with advice !
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Sure. A golfing club more than likely.
Lmao !!! It does have 4 legs and tail though right ?
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There’s a nice hobby shop in Orlando called Colonial Photo and Hobby.
Shop Online | Colonial Photo & Hobby (cphfun.com)
They specialized mainly in photography, but they have a decent selection of scale models and supplies.
634 N Mills Ave, Orlando, FL 32803
I used to live in Leesburg, which is literally next to The Villages and worked at the airport, so it was alwasy my thing to head over on the weekends.
I mentioned Colonial above. I used to live 4 blocks from them.
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I used to live off Millenia Blvd. before I moved up to Leesburg. Right next to the mall.
Oh, god, I hope you didn’t use I-4 to get to Colonial and back.
Negative; I used to cut through Clermont using OBT at times.