[tankmodeler]

Guys,

I was also at the reunion with Geoff, yesterday. I had known about the reunions in the past, but, without an invite, had never attended. Mark Falls, son of regiment member Bill Falls, had borrowed one of my Ram Mk II models for a display at Sunnybrook (the Veterans hospital in Toronto) to commemorate the regiment on the occasion of his father's birthday, last August. As you might imagine I was more than happy to provide the model.

It was my first time at the reunion and I hope to be able to join them in the future. It was a moving experience. There weren't more than a dozen of the vets in attendance, though they seemed to enjoy themselves and the opportunity to see old friends again, but it was clear that most are in, at best, fragile health. Ken Ramsden seemed particularly fraile, but I did get a chance to tell him and Erskine Duncan how much I enjoyed their history of their regiment. It also allowed me to tell all of those present how proud I was to be able to have even a small part in recognising and memorialising their fine regiment.

The occasion was somewhat saddened that the father of my sponsor, Bill Falls, couldn't attend from Sunnybrook as he was too ill Saturday to travel. Hopefully it is temporary, but Mark says his father is rather fraile lately with a number of conditions needing constant care.

I brought a selection of my WW II Canadian AFV models for the vets and their families to look at and they seemed to enjoy seeing many of the old vehicles again.

Being a modeler I had to take the opportunity to ask the men, expecially Erskine Duncan, from the LAD, a couple of modelling questions. As far as he or any of the other vets there could remember, all of the Rams that were converted to Kangaroos, were "grey green" when they arrived. Certainly not brown. I take this to be SCC15. Erskine couldn't remember any of the regimental vehicles being brown, but one gentleman, a driver, contradicted him and was sure a few of the B echelon were brown, with the majority being green.

As it turns out Mark Falls wants me to build a small diorama of a Kangaroo for the Sunnybrook museum. His preference was of a scene in the Hochwald in the winter of 45. He wanted a scene that would illustrate to casual observer that this vehicle was not a tank, but meant to carry troops and that it was a combat vehicle and not just a glorified truck

I'll be working on a dio with a Kangaroo debussing it's squad over the side, or at least the last 2-3 guys of the squad. The ground will be the sodden ground before the treeline with the Kangaroo almost bellied in and leaving a smoothed scrape avcross the groundwork and the tracks deep in the soil. The brush at the edge of the forrest will be just in front of the 'Roo and the soldiers will be moving towards the action, offstage to the front of the 'Roo.

I think this will illustrate the role of the Kangaroo. Any comments?

Paul Roberts