Author Topic: A new home for Des Delatorre's model collection  (Read 2356 times)

Offline Dave W

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A new home for Des Delatorre's model collection
« on: May 22, 2018, 06:12:06 PM »
Following the tragic and unexpected death of the WW1aircraftmodels.com Forum owner Des Delatorre in February, there have been moves behind the scenes to find a new home for his significant collection of museum-quality models.

We wanted, if possible, to keep Des’ unique collection of kit and scratch built models together, ideally in an appropriate place where they could be appreciated by others and inspire future modellers.

We are delighted and immensely proud to announce that Des Delatorre’s models are going to one of the finest WW1 aviation collections in the world – the 1914-18 Aviation Heritage Trust, for eventual display in the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Marlborough, New Zealand.

The Aviation Heritage Centre features a world-class collection of priceless aircraft and aviation memorabilia which tell the story of aviation in both World Wars.

Sir Peter Jackson has played a central role in developing the Aviation Heritage Centre as a Trustee and called in the unique creative talents of WingNut Films and Weta Workshop for the displays.

We are enormously grateful to Wingnut Wings which has played a pivotal role in placing Des’ models with the 1914-18 Aviation Heritage Trust.

Wingnut Wings’ General Manager Richard Alexander kindly arranged the move and Wingnuts’ Sales & Logistics Manager Dave Johnson flew to Australia to personally organise the packing and shipping of all Des’ models collection to their permanent new home in New Zealand.

On behalf of Des’ wife Adrienne and the family, and on behalf of our 3099 members of the Forum family, we are very grateful to the 1914-18 Aviation Heritage Trust and Richard and Dave at Wingnut Wings for their kindness and amazing support in ensuring Des’ models will be housed in a world-class facility to inspire future generations of modellers.



For those not yet familiar with the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre, their website is at: http://www.omaka.org.nz/


Dave Wilson
Forum Administrator


Owner and Administrator of ww1aircraftmodels.com and forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com