Being Pinoy

One of my earliest modelling memories was going to Greenhills and visiting the Greenhills Arcade. It was around 1978. For all you young ones out there, its the mall in Greenhills which used to house Mom and Pop green grocers, Krizareth the old comic place, and the mysterious, unnamed model shop. I never found out the name of the shop, only that it was run by a few young guys, not unlike my Uncle Rommel, in their 20s.

It was right next to the novelty magic shop where they sold rubber chickens, plastic poo and frankenstien masks. I remember the smell of the plastic and rubber; it smelt... freshly imported? Anyways, the great thing about the greenhills model shop was it had a glass display case wherein there were built kits on display on red felt paper circles. And they were awesome. I saw my first built M3 Stuart there in 1/72 scale I think. There was a whole slew of 1/72 armour.

And then there was the aircraft. The biggest was the 1/32 Phil Air Force F-86A. It even had a stepladder and some doors open. And then there was the P-26 in Philippine army air corps markings.

I never forgot that P-26. It was an ugly, squat thing. But it shot down a Zero. Even I knew that then, in my youth. Jesus Villamor was a big hero to me because of all the history readings and stories my grandfathers (both of them) used to tell me. And I told myself I will build one of those one day.

Flash forward to 2002. Just recently having joined IPMS Australia, I wanted to do something to show off to the club that would be sore of a defining moment; something everyone would remember about me for a long time. One time I was browsing through VHC and I saw a second-hand Hasegawa P-26. Opening the box, it still had the colour chart with the brown and sand PAAC blue diamonds. A quick purchase later, and a Squadron mini source book later still, and there we have it. Villamor's P-26, his amazing flying machine.

But it will also be a tribute to those young men and their amazing red felt paper circles.