When WNW initially announced their excellent kit of the Sopwith Snipe, some of us in the Great White North looked forward to building E8102, the Snipe piloted by Canadian Major W. G Barker when he won the Victoria Cross on October 27, 1918. Our enthusiasm was short-lived as, when the kit came onto the market, the markings for Major Barker's Snipe were not included.
By this time, three Canadians (Lance Carroll, Chris Johnson and myself) had built a friendship via the Forum and email as we worked away at another Canadian subject, the Bristol Fighter of Major Andrew McKeever, top Bristol Fighter Ace in the RFC/RAF. Lamenting the non-inclusion of Barker markings in the Snipe kit, we came up with the idea of contacting Rowan Broadbent of Pheon Models to see if he might produce a small Barker decal sheet. Over the ensuing weeks, and several emails, Rowan very kindly agreed to do a sheet of markings including the Barker markings and those of two other Snipes plus markings for three Fokker DVII's that had found their way into the fledgling Canadian Air Force in 1919.
And so it came to pass that Sheet 32044 appeared in all of its glory. In the accompanying instruction/information booklet, Rowan wrote in the Acknowledgements:
"This set was originally intended to provide just the decals for Capt. Barker's VC Snipe, but the infamous Canadian modelling crew, led by Gary "Trackpad" Barling, on Des Delatorre's excellent web forum at www.ww1aircraftmodelling.com, encouraged me (more or less "gently" - although the Canadian Mafia have their methods, eh!) along the lines of covering the markings of some of the Canadian War Prize Fokker D.VIIs as well. In all honesty I was a willing conscript to the Canuckian cause!" And so we kind and gentle Canadians became labelled as "The Canadian Mafia." Mind you, we do have a retired Police Officer, a retired fighter pilot and a retired tank/reconnaissance commander in the group, so maybe the label is well chosen!
Came the UK Nationals at Telford in 2013. We three thought that a nice "Thank You" gift should be presented to Rowan and his wonderful wife Sabine for all of their support for Canadian subjects over the years. So we had a plaque made up for presentation by the group which referred to both the provision of "Captured! Volume One," (Sheet 32040, which notes my "gentle chivvying" of Rowan for this sheet) and the Snipe/Fokker DVII sheet. It was subsequently presented at Telford on the Friday before the show opened. Here is a photo of the plaque, a red metallic plate fitted to a pure Canadian Maple wood base:
And here are Rowan (Right) and Sabine with Gary (Canadian flag pin in poppy...eh!) when the plaque was presented:
And now you know the full story of
"The Canadian Mafia!" 
