April in the USA is NAMES time (that's the North American Model Engineering Society, or NAMES for short). This year marks the 20th anniversary of the show (making it "China" of which I doubt there was any in evidence). As has been the case in recent years, it was held at the Seagate Convention Centre in Jefferson Ave, Toledo, Ohio over April 18-19 and as usual again, was extremely well attended with models of every conceivable type present.

We can expect that the Official NAMES web site will provide photographic coverage in the fullness of time, but Model Engine News Members were present and have rushed a few choice photos to me for us all to enjoy.

Click on photos to view in mode detail and larger size

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Photo 33

Photos 1 through 17 were send in by Canadian Member, Dave Sage. They show the quarter scale Bristol Mercury made by fellow countryman, Ian Wynd, a member of the Hamilton Model Engineering Club of Hamilton Ontario Canada. His nine cylinder radial is superb piece of work. Other photos in the set show a flying example of Westland Lysander (aka the "Lizzy") which was powered by this engine. Note that the exhaust and inlet ports are at the front of the engine. The coppery colored edge of the engine cowling is the actual exhaust collector ring, known as a Townsend Ring" after its designer. This places the shape and heat exchange improces overall engine cooling and the color is due to heat. I've always thought this was a very clever piece of engineering.

Photos 18 through 33 come from our own Les Stone who displayed some of his own engines, always prepared to show standard. This year, the generous folk at Sherline Machine Tools were awarding prizes for examples of model engineering that fit with a cube, four inches per side. Les entered his Elf Goose-egg 4 and Original Ohlsson, receiving enough loot in return to pay for his accommodation. We won't get rich in this business, but we do have a lot of fun. Now some notes on Les' pictures. As he says, a number are the usual suspects that have appeared at other shows. These are very fine models—otherwise they would not be here—but we'll confine the notes to newer subjects: