Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Military in Scale 08 2004


Trains. Models and Hobbies, the successful Bognor Regis model shop with the name that reflects its business, is changing hands. Long-standing owner Alan Wickham has owned the shop for over 30 years but is now retiring. The new owner is Rupert Harper who has great knowledge of. and love for fine models of all kinds. Trains. Models and Hobbies has been a well-known institution in Bognor Regis and Rupert Harper aims to maintain the shops core business of model railways, cars, plastic kits, radio controlled models, war games and also modelling and artists materials. Well-known brands include Brio. Scalexthe and Warhammer among many others. The shop will also continue to deal in second-hand toys and models. At the same time. Harper plans to develop the business to accommodate the latest trends. Commented Rupert Harper: "I'm looking forward very much to this great opportunity to expand this already flourishing business by combining current successful lines while emphasising continuity. It is a great privilege to take Trains. Models and Hobbies on so that it will provide many years of service still for local model makers", concluded Harper.

Military in Scale 11 2004


One of the side issues of a hobby such as ours is that we often create miniatures that are exciting to look at without necessarily caring about those brave souls that either drove or flew them in action. Fortunately, we are provided with yearly reminders of their work and this year that reminder came in the form of a sixtieth anniversary celebration of the D-Day landings. Over the month of June we saw a wide variety of events that marked this anniversary, with a huge number of veterans in attendance. At the time MIS considered creating a special issue to help commemorate this event but chose instead to allot some space to remembering celebrations post June Sixth -as indeed we are doing this month with John Norris' special report on the festivities in Normandy. To mark the occasion world leaders including HRH Queen Elizabeth II visited the Normandy region to pay tribute to those veterans still alive and pay their respects to the fallen of all armies. However, as always, the celebrations really belong to the veterans who fought in the Normandy Campaign. Each year they arrive from America, Britain, Canada and of course France and Poland. This year for the first time the presence of Germany was formally accepted as being appropriate to the ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary.