Peter Westbrook

An Appreciation by George Bandurek

Peter came to modelling in 1993 after he had retired from a career that began in the RAF at the end of the war and continued for many years as a quantity surveyor.  He soon established a reputation for superb workmanship, precision and fine surface finishes.  His displays of US Navy, between wars and German First World War aircraft appeared at many shows. 

He was motivated by competitions and was a regular winner at our Mid-Sussex monthly meetings. At the Nationals he achieved 107 awards in 10 years and managed 510 at shows around the country.  His modelling room had an impressive collection of trophies, including a cup for "Irish control line champion, 1950". However, Peter never boasted about his success and we only found out the totals after discovering his log books.

Many people have used the word ‘Gentleman’ in describing Peter.  At club meetings most of us regarded it as a rare triumph to beat him, but his response to victory or defeat was the same in an old fashioned, honourable, diffident way. I suggested to him during his illness that there was a chance for the rest of us to win, now that he had stopped modelling. He grinned, there was a wicked twinkle in his eye, and he tried to deny it.  Peter was always ready to explain his techniques, perhaps confident that others would have difficulty in getting the same results even when they knew what they should do. How many of us would rub down and paint a surface eight times before we were satisfied?

During the last year of his life Peter was affected by a variety of problems, partidularly cataracts, which all prevented him from modelling. His personality and optimism remained strong and a week before his death he was looking forward to starting a new collection of British First World War aircraft.  He died on 20th July 2004, leaving his widow Margaret and two daughters. 

Peter's models remain an inspiration to us all.  He has set a high standard for us to aspire to.

In agreement with his family we are instituting the Westbrook Award in Peter’s memory.  Click here for more details.

Colin Pratt-Hooson

An Appreciation by Matt Peerless

Colin came back to modelling in the late 1980’s. As his father was in the RAF when he was a boy it was natural that Colin would like aircraft. He wanted to join the RAF but he had cataracts in both eyes so he could not join up. He worked for American Express and then for the NHS in Worthing in the IT department.

Although Colin was not up to Peter Westbrook’s standard of modelling he made up for it in enthusiasm. He liked a variety of subjects, prototypes, one-off and brightly coloured paint schemes, some American fast jets, his favourite was the F-14 Tomcat, and being a keen aircraft spotter too, he liked to make civil airliners.

Colin’s real passion though was the underrated Hawker Hurricane. When asked why his answer was simple, “I get fed up with people saying that the Spitfire won the Battle of Britain, there were far more Hurricanes in the battle than there were Spitfires.” He was so passionate about it that he started to write a book on the Hurricane, as it progressed it became more of a record of each aircraft built, it was estimated to fill twelve volumes but unfortunately it was never finished.

Colin helped the club in many ways; if he was available he helped at the Newhaven Fort Show, and designed, ran and was the webmaster for the club first website. Colin did not win lots of competitions at the club, but as he said he was sometimes impatient and this let him down on some of his projects and also he was not in it for the winning but for the building, the building and the building, oh and for that old classic, lots of loft insulation!!!!!

In 1997 Colin finally got his wish and managed to join the Royal Auxiliary Air Force 4624 squadron. His jobs were loading and doing the trim sheets for many different aircraft, The C-17, VC-10, Tri-Star and both variants of the C-130, H and J models. He got the chance to fly too and always tried to get a ride in the cockpit if he could. He was also deployed to many exotic places, Pristina, Kosovo, South Africa, Belize and Naples. Colin also helped out with 176 squadron of the ATC in Hove, he helped them with model competitions and they even won a few too.

After coming back from one of his jollies Colin started to complain about pains in his left leg, and was told by a doctor that it was a rare soft tissue Sarcoma, a type of cancer. Colin had the usual treatments and gradually recovered. In fact he fully recovered and was allowed to go back on deployment with the RAF.

In the winter of 2005 Colin complained that he was feeling tried and sought medical advice. He was diagnosed with leukaemia. Colin was devastated. Two lots of cancer in one lifetime are not fair.

He was determined to beat it and went ahead with the treatments and a search for a bone marrow donor was made. One could not be found. He still built kits when he could, but he was not ‘in the zone’.

He thought that he had beaten this terrible cancer too but was informed that he had not and only had a certain amount of time left to live. In May 2006 he married his long term partner, Madeline; I was privileged to be his best man. A few days later he passed away aged 42.

His funeral was a military affair, having Military Honours by the RAF, it was attended by his Family, friends, 4624 Squadron, ATC 176 Squadron, and members of this club.

Colin may be gone, but he will be long remembered.