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Morne Meyer
48 articles

South African Nationals 2018

April 2, 2018 · in Show Reports · · 14 · 2.8K
This article is part of a series:
  1. South African Nationals 2018
  2. South African Nationals 2018: Aircraft
  3. South African Nationals 2018: Busts, Figures, Vignettes and Dioramas
  4. South African Nationals 2018: Autos and Motorcycles
  5. South African Nationals 2018: Rotorcraft, Ships and Sci Fi

This Easter weekend the South African Nationals was held in Port Elizabeth. The venue was the SAAF Museum which consists of hangers dating from WW II. Our Nationals were very well supported with over 350 entries from most of the regional clubs in SA. I have decided to post some of the most outstanding armour and military soft skin vehicles on show, from my perspective at least. The Le Torneau Landing Craft Retriever in scale was completely scratchbuilt and won the trophy for best scratchbuilt model and best in show.

Reader reactions:
4  Awesome

31 additional images. Click to enlarge.


14 responses

  1. Outstanding entries! That retriever scratchbuilt is a monster. I've never seen anything like it.

    Thanks for sharing, Morne!

    • Hi Jeff. Apparently only one was built. He also built a much larger landing craft retriever after WW II. He sure was a genius. His creations were weird indeed!

  2. Some very fine looking vehicles. I had to Google that retriever. LeTourneau made some pretty bizarre equipment

  3. Great venue, great show. Thanks for a fantastic week end. It was great finally meeting up with you.

    • Likewise Marc. Will surely see each other at the next Nats in Cape Town. Be so kind as to post photos of your winning entry on Imodeler! Cheers!

  4. Very interesting selection, Morne.

  5. Easy to see why that scratch built carrier won what it did...outstanding work.

    • From the start I predicted that it would be the best model in show simply because it is an unusual subject and the scratch built details are amazing!

  6. Some amazing kits on display. The Retreiver is unbelievable! WOW!

  7. Profile Photo
    said on April 2, 2018

    Thanks for posting Morne.

  8. Great work on that retriever. I never knew it existed until I saw the first pics from the show.

  9. Truly awesome scratch build. Here is a clip of the real one found on Youtube

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