Local veteran Harold Illers has built to-scale models of area buildings, landmarks

The model building Harold Illers first built stands out from the rest of the dozen or so on display at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau.

While most of the models he's built are log cabins, the little barn with the silos and ranch house are different -- they are the only models he decided to paint. He says they still hold a special place in his heart.

"What inspired me was making my folks' barn and silos and stuff like that that I was familiar with since I was a boy," he says.

The Illers Dairy, which he says dates back to the 1930s in Jackson, reminds him of where he grew up.

Since he retired in 1989, he's begun building other models of buildings, some landmarks, others just personally significant.

Model buildings built by Harold Illers are displayed at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau.Fred Lynch

There's one of Old McKendree Church and one of a seminary building in Altenburg, Missouri.

Another depicts a house built by his uncle.

"Out the road about half a mile down, my uncle had a house that I stayed at as a boy, but I had no idea I was staying in a log cabin at the time," he says with a laugh.

At 90 years old, some of his models are ways to remember places fondly, while others, like the one of Old Bethel Baptist Church, are just places he found interesting. But all of them, he says, are meticulously reproduced.

"These are all made by scale," he says. "If you don't make them by scale, they don't turn out what they should be."

His wife Becky calls him a perfectionist. She says she'd get worried when he used to stay out in his shop into the morning hours. He says he's just always enjoyed making things, especially for the grandkids.

"It's something I could leave when I passed on," he says, "and I've kept busy. When you retire, be sure you have a hobby. If you don't, it won't be very amusing."

And in his hobby, precision is key.

"First thing you have to go out and do is go out and measure the height, width, depth, windows, steps that come out and all of that before you even get started," he says. "Then you got to figure out what scale you want, either 1/8 of an inch or 1/16 of an inch."

From then, he says, the rest is just putting in the work.

"The hard thing about making these things is the corners," he says, pointing to the hundreds of tiny half-lap joints that run up along the edges of the models.

"The corners you have to saw out, and that takes a while to do."

Now that he doesn't have access to the same tools he once did, he doesn't do a whole lot of building, but even in his prime, he says, the process wasn't fast.

"Some of them might take a couple weeks to build," he says. "If I get tired and quit ... then [I] have to start up all over again."

And if he had to pick a favorite, he says his tastes differ from most people's.

"A lot of people like the one I built of my grandpa's house," he says while pointing to the largest model, standing at the back of the display. "But they just like it 'cause it's big. I'd have to say my favorite one would be that barn and silos and house."

And although the land the Illers dairy farm once stood on has been sold, he says, that barn is still standing.

"And in good shape," Becky adds.