Hi, I am Mark Jacques. After attending Nordicon 2005 as a visitor and as an entrant in 2006, I joined the Twin Cities Aero Historians in late 2006. What impressed me was the array of exceptional craftsmanship showcased at the show in each genre; so I took the plunge and joined – and discovered along the way that several of us carry dual memberships in the 2 clubs that regularly meet at Flemming Field. In May of 2009, after months of coaxing by a few members of multiple clubs, I started MSM-South with meetings in the southwest metro. In early 2013, the membership of MSM-South elected to rename the club to OMG Modelers. I guess this, unofficially, makes me a “modelaholic” with memberships in (much to my long suffering wife’s chagrin) four local clubs; plus IMPS-USA and AMPS.
Like many of the guys, I began model building as a kid when my Dad built a car model with me. In my case the first model we built was a Lindberg Jaguar Saloon car. My first “solo” kit was a 1/24th scale AMT ’64 Ford Galaxy 3-in-1 kit. My first model that I was actually allowed to paint without “adult supervision” was the Revel B-26 “Flak-Bait” kit that I got for a Christmas present when it first came out. After that I built the usual gamut of cars (AMT and Monogram), aircraft (Airfix, Frog, Monogram and Revel), and ships (Airfix and Lindberg). This was back in the mid-60’s in the Chicago area; so any model shopping was at the local “full-service” drug store. Then I spotted a Squadron ad in a modeling magazine and ordered my first mail order kits (as I recall this included some Airfix and Fujimi fighter plane kits from the ad). Along with the order came a subscription to the Squadron Monthly newsletter. This included an article on the highlighted “Kit of the Month”. Included in the catalog were listings of various WWII tanks. For those of you not old enough to know, in the 60’s there were several TV shows (Combat, Rat Patrol, The Blue Light and Twelve O’clock High), seemingly endless movies (Battle of the Bulge, Tobruk, The Desert Fox, etc.) and several comic book series (Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank and G.I. Combat) with WWII subject matter. That got me interested in armor (because of the low prices at the time, from Airfix and Fujimi, 1/72nd scale armor was cheaper than 1/72nd scale aircraft). I stayed interested in model building off and on since then. Mostly, this involved building models of WWII fighters and bombers and custom cars (Paddy Wagon, S’kool Bus, Rommel’s Rod, etc.), with an occasional (sailing) ship (the Bounty, the Seawitch and Columbus’ original mini flotilla) to placate the wrath of Mom.