Enjoying a Model World
S
CALE model fans should
get themselves to the
Army Museum-NQ at Jezzine
Barracks on October 1.
The North Queensland
Scale Modelers’ Group will
be displaying the best of
its members’ work - scale
models from motorbikes and
cars through to aeroplanes
and ships - at its third
annual Scale Model Expo.
With several former Defence
members in their number,
there will also be a fair
representation of military
vehicles - land, sea and air.
It’s the third year the
group has exhibited and,
like last year, it will be at
the Army Museum-NQ.
Group spokesman Dr
Greg Canning (pictured)
said the Sunday exhibition
would be the culmination
of a full weekend of
modeling activities.
There will be a model
building display and
workshop at Toyworld in
the Hyde Park centre on
Saturday, September 30,
followed by a barbeque
and a buy, swap and sell meet.
The Expo will feature a number of competitions,
including the People’s Choice Awards where people
visiting the expo vote for their favourite exhibit.
The other competitions - in no less than 16 diff erent
categories - will be judged by everybody in the competition.
“If you’re a competitor, you’re also a judge,” Greg said.
“Every competitor gets a card and picks the
best three models in each category.”
It’s an interesting method of judging a competition and is a
small indication of the personality of the group as a whole.
“We don’t have a president, secretary or treasurer,” Greg said.
“In fact, we don’t have fees.”
It’s just a group - mostly men, although there are a couple of
women as well - each of whom has a passion for scale modeling.
They meet once a fortnight at the Aitkenvale library where
there is a community room set aside for groups such as this.
“Members bring along what they’re working
on for a bit of show and tell,” Greg said.
“They share their problems, and, for others,
their experience to help solve them.”
Greg said many of them were ex-military and
some found the focus and serenity of building
models helped them manage PTSD symptoms.
Greg, a former reservist who
was a doctor in 11Bde’s 9Fd
Ambulance during the 1980s,
said he became a modeler
when he realised he needed
to “de-stress” after work.
A keen model builder as
a child, he again became
engrossed in it.
Seeing a model, saving to buy
it, then building it, was a lot
of excitement for a young boy
in the 60s and 70s, Greg said.
These days, patients at his
Hermit Park practice can
inspect a range of models on
display in the waiting room.
At the moment he is working
on a model of Russian
explorer Vitus Bering’s
ship the St Gabriel.
Bering is as well known to
Russian schoolchildren as
Captain James Cook is to
Australian schoolchildren.
Bering, a Dutch-born
seaman was recruited by
Russian Tsar Peter the Great
in 1724 to explore the far
northeast of Siberia and to
determine whether Russia
and Alaska were joined.
Bering and his party set
off from St Petersburg and travelled by road to Tobolsk.
It took almost two years and when they arrived,
their fi rst task was to build the boat on which they
would conduct their exploratory journey.
Except for the wood, which they sourced locally,
they carried everything they would need to construct
it - including the ship’s eight cannons.
The St Gabriel was built in a few hectic months and, after
a seven week journey, up into the water separating Alaska
and Russia - now known as the Bering Strait - he concluded
the Americas were not a part of the Asian continent.
Greg said the history surrounding each model
members of the group built was an important
part of the pleasure of building the model.
“Usually, you have some connection, so the military
fellows might build models of the machines they
used when they were in the Army,” he said.
The St Gabriel model was a gift from his wife
Veronica, who was born and raised in Russia.
Greg said all the money raised from the
weekend of modeling would be split between
Hounds4Healing and the Army Museum-NQ.
Find out more about the group on Facebook or at nqsm.blogspot.
com.au. Or email them at [email protected].
SEPTEMBER 2017 | 9