> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Colby Evett: Santa Monica’s model citizen - URL: https://www.smdp.com/colby-evett-santa-monicas-model-citizen/ - Published: 2005-09-12T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T07:46:27.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Mom-and-pop hobby shops a rarity* *By ROBERT FATURECHI Special to the Daily Press* Colby Evett never learned how to separate business from pleasure, so he combined the two. For nearly 60 years, he’s turned a longtime passion — model airplanes — into his livelihood, selling neighborhood kids and kids-at-heart the miniature wings, engines and propellers they need to fly. His Santa Monica store, Evett’s Model Shop, is something of a childhood fantasy itself. “This is his sanctuary,” said Evett’s wife, Yvonne, 71. Suspended from the shop’s ceiling are tiny fliers, all shiny and polished, of ruby red, sky blue, army olive and desert tan. Evett — an 85-year-old with gold-rimmed glasses and a red apron — greets his customers with a warmth his regulars say keeps him in business. For almost six decades, Evett’s Model Shop has survived rising rent, thinning interest in the hobby and the pop-up of mega-sized franchise hobby stores that more often than not put mom-and-pop joints like Evett’s to rest. “It’s the last of its breed,” Yvonne said. “There’s no more hobby shops around.” THE UNDERDOG It’s just a five minute drive from Evett’s. Hobby People, 21 stores strong, offers the gamut of hobby-related merchandise, and since the franchise spread to the Westside more than a decade ago, Evett’s sales have taken a big hit. “There are a lot of hobby shops that want to shut competition down,” said Adrian Franco, the manager at Hobby People’s West Los Angeles branch. “But a small store will never overcome a franchise, just too much buying power. “They’ll pretty much go out of business before we will.” Franchises like Hobby People cut out the middle man, buying in bulk and slashing prices far closer to cost than smaller shops can afford. “An average small shop maybe at the max can buy four items, whereas we buy in bulk,” Franco said. “Twenty-one locations, 21 times, 10 big pieces each. That’s a greater buying power.” Some say franchise customers are trading experienced customer service for price cuts. “It’s like Wal-mart. They’re the wholesalers, and they’re supposed to be selling to me, but they’re selling to the public,” Evett said. “They can cut my throat.” Evett’s managed to stay afloat by changing the way he does business. Instead of shooting for big item sales — a niche the franchises have taken over — Evett sells the little things like replacement valves, igniters and tiny fuel tanks. He’s had to expand his clientele, too. Instead of just catering to hobbyists like he used to, Evett now sells to local art students in need of balsa wood — a lightweight material used in model airplanes, as well as sculptures. “I’ve become a small hardware store for people looking for little bits and pieces or paint,” Evett said. His adaptability and modest needs have allowed Evett to stay in business so long his model shop has become one of the oldest businesses in Santa Monica — and virtually the only mom-and-pop hobby shop left in the region. More than anything, Evett attributes his longevity to the way he treats his customers. “So many of my customers are friends,” Evett said. HIS PASSION It all started at the county fair. Evett, enamored after hearing word of Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic, gathered pine stove wood, made boards and put together his first model airplane. Evett won the blue ribbon and hasn’t looked back since. Though he no longer flies his models since he had eye surgery, the passion is still with him. “People all have things they like to do,” Evett said. “Like maybe a guy likes golfing, but he has to work at something else he doesn’t like in order to pay for his hobby. I was able to do the thing I like to do, and I’ve been doing it now for 57 years.” > “I’ve been able to stay because I don’t need a profit anymore to stay,” > “I just enjoy working with my people.” — Evett said Originally from a little town in South Carolina — where he married his childhood sweetheart, Mary — Evett eventually wound up in the Naval air service. His love for planes may have saved his life. Because Evett had a strong background in aviation, he worked on a repair unit that patched up carrier-based warplanes in the Pacific through four years of war — a job that kept him out of the line of fire. “Fortunately I never got out into the rough stuff. Nobody wanted to get shot at or killed if they could help it,” Evett said. “I got to work with airplanes. It’s what I wanted to do.” After the war, Evett and his wife settled in Santa Monica, where they both worked at the Douglas Aircraft factory, then located on Ocean Park Boulevard. Though Evett’s wife started out as a “Rosie the Riveter,” she soon left the factory to start her own model airplane shop, at the same site still standing today. After a few years, business boomed and Evett decided to leave the factory to work full-time at the shop. And he still can’t get enough of his job. Though Evett says he’s been financially able to retire for years, he comes into work seven days a week, including this past Labor Day. “Now it’s just peaches and cream as far as I’m concerned,” Evett said. A GENERATION GAP John Marot, 52, first came to Evett’s hoping to get his son into model airplanes. So the Santa Monica resident bought his 11-year-old the same USS Arizona that he had in the third grade. Things didn’t take off like he planned. “So far he hasn’t bit,” Marot said. “He’d probably rather watch SpongeBob.” Instead of introducing his son to the hobby, Marot built the plane himself, rekindling a childhood passion in the process. Marot’s situation isn’t uncommon, as interest in model airplanes has waned among today’s youth. “They spend too much time on their damn computer games,” Evett said. “It would be so much better if they learned how to use their hands or if they got out into the fresh air and chased something.” Most model airplane hobbyists today are adults, many of whom were first introduced to the craft as children. Because many of the older hobbyists no longer have the time to spend months on end piecing together models, ready-made sets have become more popular. An influx of almost fully assembled model planes from China has changed the hobby of making models, offering customers a rock-bottom price and a quick fix. “Planning was half the fun. Now the airplanes are coming in from China,” Evett said. “Instead of the guy gluing on all the bits and pieces, he glues on wings and a tail. They’re losing all the fun of building something and actually seeing something take shape.” Though even Evett can’t deny the craftsmanship of the Chinese pieces, some serious hobbyists have rejected the new breed, instead choosing to build their planes piece by piece the old fashioned way. “The ones that are made in China, they come in a package. One piece breaks, and your set is useless,” said 45-year-old Rico Lubrico, a hobbyist who stopped by Evett’s to pick up some parts for his F-27 Stryker. A FAMILY AFFAIR Yvonne and Evett are relative newlyweds. The pair’s been together not even 10 years, but they complement one another as if they’d been together for decades. And they met by chance. Yvonne, a home health worker, watched over a married couple that Evett and his first wife often visited. After Evett’s wife died, he visited alone, slowly building a friendship with Yvonne in the process. Then the other couple passed away — first the husband, then the wife. That night Yvonne called Evett to let him know the news. Evett responded with an invitation to dinner that would change both of their lives. “I keep telling her I need someone to take care of me, but I’m too tight to hire her so I married her,” Evett said. Though Yvonne still cares for one patient, she spends most of her time at the shop, helping customers and keeping Evett company. She claims to not know much about planes, but quite often she responds to customer queries with the deft of a wily hobbyist. The couple gives the shop a family feel that makes many of Evett’s customers regulars. “Very cozy, very family oriented, low key, pleasant all around,” rekindled hobbyist Marot said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/091205-01_01.jpg) Colby Evett has operated his hobby store, Evett’s Model Shop, at 1636 Ocean Park Boulevard for nearly 60 years. (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 12, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)