I’ve posted this in General Aircraft rather then Early Aviation as I thought more may enjoy it.

With all the excitement concerning the Wingnut Wings Camel I thought I might take a few minutes to share a recent experience that centered around one of their kits. At nearly 63 years of age I have been building models all of my life- all subjects,
genres and mediums. My earliest recollection is a bagged aircraft kit brought home to me by my now long gone father and built together on the kitchen table when I was no more than 5 years old. While my current interest is primarily 1/48 scale WW II aircraft with an emphasis on Japanese types and I have more kits than I can complete in my lifetime, I felt I owe it to myself to build one of these kits as it is obvious to everyone that they are wonderful. This past May that almost came to be.

  My wife and I traveled  from our home in New Jersey to visit with her brother and his wife in New York. My brother -in -law Jim is an avid armor modeler and as luck would have it his club was putting on the NoreastCon Regional Meet that weekend. I spent Saturday admiring all the entries, finding some bargains among the vendors and participating in the two raffles that the club put on. The first raffle was the Red Ticket raffle and was a general event - they drew tickets one at a time and if your ticket was called you came up and chose from a selection of kits in your turn. The second raffle was the Blue Ticket Special event - six or so popular current high end kits, one of which was a Wingnut Wings Roland- the only Wingnut Wings kit available to take home in the entire show. This event had a can for each of the kits and you placed your tickets in the cans for the kits that you wanted. Tickets were drawn from each can and if your ticket was drawn you won that kit. I placed all my tickets in the Roland can as did most of the others participating.

  The first Red ticket drawing started at 1:45 p.m. with a successive drawing of twenty tickets every half hour. The Blue ticket event was started at  2:45 p.m. immediately after the second round of the Red event. While I had no luck in the first round I was drawn in the second and chose yet another 1/48 scale aircraft kit to add to the pile. Then it was time for what everyone was waiting for - the Blue ticket drawing.

  The first drawing was for a 1/32 Trumpeter Hellcat. The ticket was drawn and the number announced with no one claiming the prize. The number was put up on the board and the winner given an hour to claim the prize. Next was the Wingnut kit and believe me, it had everyone's attention. The ticket was drawn and the number read with the same result - no one came forth to collect their winnings. It was announced that there would be another drawing for these two kits in one hour if they went unclaimed.

  After a bit Jim and I went over to await the second drawing as no one had claimed either kit. While waiting an elderly gentleman from Jim's club ( I later learned he was about to turn 90 ) came up and stood beside us , his withered hands turning a bunch of Blue tickets over and over.

He was very slight - he reminded me very much of my own father- and on his head he wore a ball cap proudly proclaiming his status as a WW II veteran and on the brim were his campaign ribbons to prove it. He asked almost constantly if the Wingnut kit had been claimed yet, or if he had missed the second chance- we did our best to assure him that he still might get it. While we waited he would tell us of his experiences in the US Army Aircorps and of his following career as a policeman. He asked me if I had ever built a Wingnut kit as he had built several and I replied that as yet I had not but would love to do so. All he could do was sing the praises of this product and his eyes seldom left the Roland kit on the table before us.

  It so happened  there was one more Red drawing before the Blue drawing and I happened to win again. There was nothing that I was really interested in so I motioned to old gentleman to come and choose something but he gave a very gruff " no thanks" and never left his spot in front of the Roland and only briefly averted his gaze to reply to me. I chose my prize from the slim choices remaining and then it was time for the redrawing for the Hellcat and the Roland.

  The Hellcat was redrawn first and this time the winner claimed his prize right away and so that left the Roland. I checked my numbers one more time and my last ticket bore the numbers 0141.

At this point it was dead quiet as the ticket was drawn. The ticket was drawn and announced -
 0142 ! Ha ! I missed by one, so I glanced over at the old gentleman hoping it was him , but it was not. More silence as , once again , no one claimed their prize.  The announcer said they would wait 5 minutes and then draw again. Unbelievably no one came and so they drew for the Roland a third time. This time the number read was - 0141- my last ticket !  After the momentary shock cleared I glanced over at the old vet and knew what I had to do - I thanked him for his service and handed him the winning ticket. He was a little confused at first - I think he asked
" What - don't you want it ?" but when I assured him that I would rather see it go to him he didn't waste any time grabbing it. He thanked me and blessed me profusely and then excused himself as he had to meet his ride in the parking lot. As I watched him leave he clutched the kit to his chest with both arms and cast wary glances over his shoulders in both directions for fear , I suppose, that I might change my mind ! What a hoot !

  So there you have it. Wingnut Wings have created something so good that not only did they set the modeling world on it's ear but they also inspire passion in people like this old gentleman who's eyes have likely seen more than their share of the unpleasant things in this world.

Thanks to my wife and daughters I now have their Albatros DV in the stash - a Fathers Day gift - and I think it needs a mate in the form of the Camel !

Best of the Holiday season to all the Aeroscale family - Richard                                                                                    

 

Richard,
What a touching Holiday story. Another reason why I'm so looking forward to meeting you at the Mosquitocom this coming April.

Joel

Joel - Likewise ! - Richard