Hi all, a bit of a preamble, then I promise I'll get to some shots of the models!
It seems a bit of a reintroduction is required. Some of you may recall I joined this friendly place right in the initial days. In fact, I think I have a membership number somewhere in the low double digits. I contributed over the years long enough to ring up a few hundred posts. And then life (read: kids and work) gets involved, and suddenly the time available for modelling in general, and posting in particular unfortunately falls by the wayside. You know how it goes. All this is to say that is that for those that I haven't met or who don't remember me, "Hi! I'm back!"
What I did have time for over the years is the cultivation of friendships made through this very forum. In the early days I got mixed up with a certain ex-fighter jock who now fancies himself as a forum moderator. Through Lance, I got introduced to Chris (CJohnson), Gary (Trackpad), and the American ex-officio Canuck of our group, Mark (MGunns). We would continue to hang out virtually until we met at the CapCon model show in 2015 in Ottawa, Canada. It was so much fun hanging out in person, sharing stories over a few too many beers, that we did it again in 2017.
Those keen eyed pattern recognition experts out there would notice that it's now 2019. CapCon is going ahead again, but this year due to logistics and circumstance, the meeting venue became the Western Canadian Regional Model Contest in beautiful Nanton, Alberta, Canada, a quick 3,500 km drive west. Unfortunately this year Chris and Gary couldn't make it, but Mark made the effort to come up from south of the border, and we were joined by another forum member also named Gary (gedmundson).
From left to right that's Mark, Me, Gary, and Lance.
The show took place at the Bomber Command Museum of Canada. It's one of those hidden gems that has a small dedicated staff, a collection of interesting aircraft, and oh yeah, a Lancaster with four running Merlins. A definite highlight of the day were the two live engine runs of the Lanc's Merlins, followed by the running of the Bristol Hercules. There must have been some lingering smoke in the air as my eyes got a little misty for some reason.
There were also models at this...model show. Over 500 entries made for a lot of interesting viewing. Our little genre was well represented, with entries numbering in the teens. Lance, Gary, and I all entered a few of our examples. Let's be honest here, folks, my models weren't fit to carry Lance and Gary's model's sprue clippers, but they were kind enough to let me park nearby.
Gary's Entries
Lance's Camel
A look down the table
Lance and Mark engaged in erudite and eloquent conversation
Afternoon came and so did the judge's decisions. Lance walked away with a very deserved Gold and Silver for his Albatros DVa and LVG, respectively. The judges temporarily took leave of their senses and awarded my dH2 a Bronze. Gary's Fokker F.1 Triplane was awarded the Best Single Engine Fighter of the show. Gary then followed those up with a Gold and Silver for his Mk. IV and Mk. I tanks, along with another special award for the Best Main Battle Tank Pre-1959 for the Mk. IV "Deborah".
Lance's Albatros
Lance's LVG
My dH2
Gary's F.1
Gary's "Deborah"
We then retired back to the hotel for another night of debrief and fellowship over a couple more pitchers of beer. I marvel to think that through this forum I've made some lasting friendships and have been able to meet some interesting people in person. The incredible models are just a nice side benefit of being able to hang out with such a great group of guys.
If you got this far, thanks for reading.
LT
