Halton Hills Newspapers

Independent & Free Press (Georgetown, ON), 7 Nov 2019, p. 4

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 7, 20 19 | 4 Friendly, Caring Dentistry for Kids & Adults • Family-Friendly • Female & Male Dentists • Direct Insurance Billing 905-877-7171 369 Mountainview Rd S, Georgetown (Tim Horton's Plaza) MVDENTAL.COM M 8-8, Tu-Th 9-8, Fr 9-5, Sat 9-3 IMPLANTS NOW OFFERING FREE CONSULTATIONS with Certified Specialist Francis D'Oliveira care- fully brushes glue on the model parts on his table, places the pieces of the Wel- lington engine together and then uses a tiny clamp to hold them together. No de- tail is too small to escape his attention. He points to a partially completed model of a Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft. "When it sat on the run- way, the flaps hung down," he says. Knowing that's how the finished product will be displayed, D'Olivei- ra has altered the flaps that came in the model kit to re- flect this. Growing up in British Guyana on the north coast of South America, D'Olivei- ra came by his love of planes naturally, with both of his parents working at a U.S. air force base. His dad was an aviation enthusiast and much of their conver- sations revolved around the war and activities at the base. Even when he got in- volved in building models, most of the models for sale were Second World War planes. Though he drifted away from model building in his teens, he eventually re- turned to it when his then two-year-old son found one of his old models in bottom of a cabinet and broke it. In repairing the model, he rediscovered his love for his old hobby. Now, D'Oliveira admits he has more model kits than he can build in his life- time. But he's found an in- teresting way to determine what projects he'll work on. Four years ago, he ap- proached the Halton Hills Public Library about creat- ing a display for Remem- brance Day. Rather than just displaying random planes, D'Oliveira looked into the history of local vet- erans and chose aircraft, ships and other military ve- hicles and equipment that they would have used. He also enlisted fellow members of the Peel Scale Modelers to help him with the project. Displayed with each model is the story of a veter- an who flew that plane, or served on that ship. "I wanted more people to be aware of the history," he said. This year, a second dis- play has been set up in the Acton branch of the library. D'Oliveira says knowing the stories of the veterans makes the building of the models even more mean- ingful. He built a model of a Lockheed Hudson MK IV for veteran Chuck Fogal, who flew one of the bomb- ers during the war. That's why the accuracy of the models means so much to him. Not content to simply apply the decals pro- vided with the kit, D'Olivei- ra makes sure they are his- torically accurate. "I spend a lot of time re- searching them," he said. "There's not a lot to change, but I use the reference be- cause it's really important to get it right." COMMUNITY PEEL SCALE MODELERS DESIGN DISPLAYS FOR HALTON HILLS LIBRARIES Using models created by the Peel Scale Modelers, Francis D'Oliveira has created displays for the Georgetown and Acton libraries. The models are linked to stories about local veterans who flew planes or served on ships that have been re-created. Halton Hills Public Library HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com

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