When Logan Hacker brings people down to his “man cave” in the basement of his Newark home, their first reaction is usually amazement. 

The majority of his basement is filled with models — of planes, trains, cars, trucks, ships, space shuttles and dinosaurs — all carefully crafted by Logan.

Dozens of planes hang from the ceiling and the homemade shelves on the walls hold trucks of all sizes. 

When asked how many models he has worked on over the years, Logan smiled.

“It’s hard to keep track,” he said quietly.

Logan was introduced to models by his father and has been interested in them for many years. 

Not only does his interest keep him busy, but it allows him to be creative. Many of his models are customized, with unique paint colors and special additions. At Logan’s work bench, some paper towel rolls can be turned into logs on a lumber truck or popsicle sticks into the deck of a pirate ship or a gunport for a Civil War cannon.

He has several work benches and a variety of supplies to enhance his creations. 

Some of his favorites are his F-14 Tomcat and F-4 Phantom planes and Night Hawk helicopters.  His next model project is a Kenworth W928 semi-truck.

When he’s not in the basement building, he enjoys researching his next model and shopping at craft stores. He also likes putting together puzzles, which he preserved with Mod Podge when he’s done.

His job at McDonald’s in Heath helps him save up funds to put toward his hobby. He also enjoys traveling on trains and is saving up for an AmTrak trip this fall on a California Zephyr train.

Over the years, he’s taken train rides throughout Ohio and Western Maryland. 

He recently got a new model train for his birthday and is thinking about building a railyard and a train station to go with it. 

He’s also got plans to buy another model of a 1957 Chevy Bel Air that he can paint light blue.

He’s getting ready to hang more shelvings in his “man cave” so he can have room for more models.