Some semitrailers are just turning from bamberger strabe into schutzenstrabe. There, at the edge of the ketschenanger, the giant wheel is currently being erected. Other rides and small booths are already in place. "The eiskist’ will be there again this year", says jurgen scholz, one of the two course masters.
Scholz and mike morgenroth are the masters of the 1.80 by 2.40-meter slab on which the coburg bird slide is currently being constructed. As a model, in 1:87 scale, and as true to the original as possible. You can see the finished fairground at the weekend 16. And 17. February at the model building exhibition of the railroad friends steinachtalbahn coburg at the car center hommert. Then the trucks, which are rolling to the construction site for the photo shoot, will be parked at the side. Or quite auber view, just like in real life.
On the miniatur-anger it will flash, the autoscooters will make their rounds, the merry-go-rounds will rotate. Many of these vehicles are available as kits, but jurgen scholz and mike morgenroth don’t want to recreate just any folk festival. It’s all about pushing the birds, and where the kit does not correspond to the coburg model, it will be touched up. Mike morgenroth has patiently worked on even the steps for the "break dance" painted like the original. "Hundreds of hours the two model builders have so far put a lot of effort into pushing the birds. Finally, each gondola for the giant wheel has to be glued together from several tiny individual parts – and to make them look more real, mike morgenroth has also painted them. Even the autoscooter has a different roof than the kit called for: to reproduce the purple tent roof, morgenroth unceremoniously painted a muslin bag and stretched the foil over a frame.
He is the more patient model builder next to the lively jurgen scholz. He knows folk festivals inside out. Not only because he started building models years ago, but also because he occasionally transports the real rides from one fairground to another and has already lent a hand during the construction process. Names of manufacturers and exhibitors are just bubbling out of him. Contacts are important, they both say: you can’t just copy a ride like that. Because scholz knows many of the operators, he and morgenroth were allowed to take photos from all sides and use them for their models. "Anyone can have the typical plastic stuff", says scholz. What is not available as a kit, he and morgenroth have made in cardboard. "The angersporthalle cost 4.50 euros in materials."
The walls of the hall are made of cardboard, the roof of sandpaper, grit 180 and 160. The model hall will – unlike the original – remain standing for the time being. "That’s how people know the vogelschieben", says mike morgenroth. In any case, they will not put up a ruin, because it will never be seen at the real "vogelschieben". Until the festival takes place in summer, the hall is gone.
But the ice chest, which enjoys cult status among the people of coburg, will be back. Jurgen scholz learned about this from the current owner, who is currently having the popular sales booth refurbished. Scholz and morgenroth receive the plans so that their model does not have to wait for the rough prototype.
The 1:87 scale bird pusher will also be on display this summer as part of the real bird pusher event. The exhibition in creidlitz is only a kind of preview. The bird race had its exhibition premiere last year in furth, where several model builders presented their folk festivals. "Even extra people drove there from coburg", says morgenroth still a bit unbelievable. Some of the exhibitors have also come to see how their vehicles look like in the model.