Woodland Scenics, along with its PineCar and Scene-A-Rama divisions, manufactures model scenery, gravity-driven pinewood racecars and educational arts and crafts.
The company was founded in 1975 by David Osment, the owner/operator of the architectural firm, Osment Models, Inc., based in
Shawnee Mission,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
. Osment Models built commissioned architectural and engineering models for national and international corporations. Some of his work included office buildings, airports, sports stadiums, resorts, and a portion of
Oral Roberts University
Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a private evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963, the university is named after its founder, evangelist Oral Roberts.
Sitting on a campus, ORU offers over 70 undergraduate degree programs ...
in
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
.
Woodland Scenics sells wholesale to distributors who sell to retail hobby outlets or stores with hobby departments. Their product distribution network covers Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America. Woodland Scenics is considered the prime innovator-inventor of realistic model railroad scenery and the industry leader responsible for setting the current industry standards.
[Model Retailer. August 1993, page 17]
History
The 1975 recession hit the architectural modeling industry hard, and Osment researched various ways he could diversify his business by capitalizing on his modeling skills.
[The Coupler, Northeast Region National Model Railroad Association. December 2004, page 30] On a tip from an acquaintance, Osment researched the model railroad industry. He found the industry lacking in commercially available, realistic scenery material similar to the products they manufactured to landscape their architectural models.
Osment assembled a sample of his manufactured architectural landscape scenery and displayed it as a vendor at a model railroad trade show in Chicago. Osment obtained several patents and began mass-producing scenery, doing business as Woodland Scenics.
The company’s first catalog featured 28 products consisting of tree kits, foliage and turf material and stumps.
Between 1976 and 1982 Woodland Scenics manufacturing output increased substantially. By 1981, Woodland Scenics had more than 100 distributors nationally and was exporting to Canada, Germany and Sweden.
As the business expanded, so did the need for more physical plant manufacturing space. In 1981, Woodland Scenics relocated to
Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks is a reservoir created by impounding the Osage River in the northern part of the Ozarks in central Missouri. Parts of three smaller tributaries to the Osage are included in the impoundment: the Niangua River, Grandglaize Creek ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, specifically, the town of
Linn Creek.
Missouri Secretary of State
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References
External links
Official web site
{{Authority control
Model manufacturers of the United States