Mango Airline - C. Baxter	The actual models on display were of a wide variety with most classes very well supported. This was also true of the ship class and here one particular model was an instant attraction - the brilliantly executed USS Hornett aircraft carrier by John Elford to illustrate the start of the Doolittle raid on Tokyo in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbour. He succeeded to capture the moment of motion very well as a B25 is about to take-off from the carrier. Rotorcraft is often frowned upon but Bert Gaffen’s 32 scale Mi24 Hind bowelled them over and the sheer size served as the initial talking point of an otherwise beautifully executed model. It remains amazing how in a relative short time span a new subject appears in model form. This was certainly the case of Chris Baxter’s Boeing 737 in the colours of Mango Airlines – South Africa’s latest domestic carrier. Decals were done by MAV decals from South Africa. Aircraft class was very well supported with amongst others an amazing 32 scale Tornado, 2 Sqdn Korean Sabre and a Mirage 2000 with airbrushed alternative colour scheme. As luck would have it as soon as Charlie Deale cleaned his airbrush the decal sheet for this particular Mirage 2000 appeared on the market – still an impressive airbrush effort. One of the most admired models on display was the Focke Wulf TA 152-HO by Mark Barris who subsequently received “Best Large Scale Aircraft” for his effort. In the popular 48 scale class was a model of perhaps the most famous P-40 within the South African context as “Lady Godiva GL-O” from 5 Sqdn SAAF. The colour scheme on this batch of aircraft was the subject of a heated debate on various forums on the Internet over the last several months. Remarkably a South African researcher, Stefaan Bouwer who also modelled this particular model for Nats 2007 thoroughly researched the subject and illustrated the correct colour scheme as part of SA Colours & Markings no 4 more than three years ago. Still this particular model remains a stunning model in anyone’s collection.
Small scale - M. Cilliers
P40 Lady Godiva - S. Bouwer

 In the Diorama class Chason d'Autoume by Tappie Scholtz was instantly admired. Inspired by the book “The Longest Day” by Cornelius Ryan the project started off as a scratch build bridge and what to do with it. The ever popular armour class was well supported with very interesting subjects including some scratch build SANDF subjects. At each subsequent Nats the small scale armour grow by an ever increasing margin. In all the quality was very high, subjects unique as not the normal run of the mill with a large number of South African subjects ranging from aircraft to armour.

Focke Wulf TA 152-HO - M. Barris