With a heavy heart I am letting you know that Derek Pennington passed away last Friday January 17. He had a nasty fall in October and went through five hospitals since then, testing him to find an elusive infection. By the end it was found in his pacemaker, and also on a heart valve and the blood, and replacing his pacemaker one month before he turned 86 was not recommended.

Derek was a very active member of IPMS Toronto since he founded this club back in 1966. He had been coming to meetings as late as a few months ago. He had also embraced the internet as an active member on sites such as HyperScale.

Derek Pennington was born on February 18, 1934 in the East End of London, UK. He joined the RAF at 15 in 1949 as a “Boy Entrant”, and did eighteen months training in Kirkham and Cosford in Lancashire! After the training in 1951 went to Hemswell in Lincolnshire. In 1954 went to Singapore and Malaya until 1957. He then went to Watton, Norfolk, for the remainder of his career in the RAF. He mentioned to me that he handled aircraft weapons such a bomb/ordnance armourer. By the time he left the RAF he was a Corporal.

He came to Canada in 1964 at the age of 30, and founded IPMS Toronto in 1966 I recall, and met him personally in 1977 when I joined as a mere lad of 15. He served about 12 years as president of our club he told me. Derek was always happy to share his modelling experiences with club members. He was also a huge influence to Bernie Hengst – his close friend, to start the Harwood/Ajax Model Shows that went on for well over 30 years!

Derek had (then) a long career at McDonnell Douglas in Toronto, finally retiring from Bombardier at 68. He will be sorely missed.

We offer our sincere and deepest condolences to Derek’s family. He is survived by his spouse for 34 years Raquel Baranyai, his step-daughters Adriana, Nora and Patricia Baranyai, their spouses Doug Quinn, Francisco Nogueras and Kevin Conroy, and beloved grandchildren Oliver and Hailey Conroy.

Sincerely,

Harvey Low

IPMS Toronto – President

Please join us for a celebration of his life at our IPMS Toronto meeting on Monday February 3, 2020 at 730pm.

A reminder that the September meeting will be held on Sept. 9, the second Monday of the month due to the Labour day holiday.

Due to an unfortunate conflict with regards to the booking of our meeting venue, the August meeting has been cancelled.

See you all in September!

A reminder to members that John Maher will be running his presentation at tonight’s May meeting due to some logistical issues which prevented us from doing it in April.

“In his last presentation, IPMS Toronto member John Maher talked about applying armour techniques to aircraft.  If you missed it, you can refresh your memory with another look at his seminar here.

In this upcoming session, John will talk about applying aircraft techniques to armour.  He will present how he used aircraft building techniques to assemble the stowage on this Korean War Pershing.  He’ll also review the painting and weathering techniques employed to create the finish on this model.”

Just a reminder to members that due to the upcoming long weekend, the September meeting will be held on the second Monday of the month, September 11, instead of the first Monday.

See you all then!

Just a reminder to members that due to the upcoming long weekend, the August meeting will be held on the second Monday of the month, August 14, instead of the first Monday.

See you all then!

Just a reminder to members that due to the Canada Day holiday weekend, the July meeting will be held on the second Monday of the month, July 10, instead of the first Monday.

See you all then!

Happy New Years to all IPMS Toronto members and friends of IPMS Toronto!  Let’s kick off another year of world class modelling with a great meeting on Jan. 9th at the usual location.  Bring out your favorite project from the past year to share with our members.

Special announcement on behalf of the Southwestern Ontario Figures Club:

We are very pleased to announce a first of its kind in Canada – esteemed figure painter Fernando Ruiz will be coming to Toronto all the way from Spain for a painting seminar on June 13th & 14th!

The Southwestern Ontario Figure Club, with help from The Bent Bristle, Hornet Hobbies, Acrylicos, Vallejo, and of course, FeR Miniatures will be hosting the two day event where you will learn Fernando’s painting secrets in an interactive workshop. You’ll even receive a yet to be released 75mm medieval knight figure to paint during the seminar!

Seats are limited to 20 spots, so register now to secure your spot. Tickets are $300 CDN. For registration and more information, please visit http://www.swofc.com/fernando