Billy has been experiencing depression for decades. That depression is always present, his mentor and friend Gilles explained. Billy manages his illness, and his modelling activities certainly help; his terrific accomplishments are living proof that one can overcome many of life’s challenges with determination. “Sometimes I get low and need to be alone, and that is when modelling is most salutary; it gives me a sense of satisfaction to see something concrete and tangible that I succeeded in doing. Such is life.”

Billy started building airplane models (and some WWII battleships) in his early teens in the seventies; there was (and still is) a sizeable hobby shop within bicycle range from his home, and he would thriftily spend his pennies buying Airfix kits that, in those days, were sold in plastic bags hanging from a rack, building these with the obliquitous Testors tube cement and finishing his creations with Testors paints. He decorated the walls of his bedroom with a variety of his favourite aircraft and ships.

“Sometimes I get low and need to be alone, and that is when modelling is most salutary”

Like most modellers, Billy took a hiatus from the hobby, and returned to it some ten years ago. He has since refined his model building techniques tremendously, learning to use putty, sanding sticks, an airbrush, and a wide assortment of tools he could not afford or did not know about as a young lad.

Billy has been a volunteer at the Montreal Aviation Museum (MAM) for the past twenty years or so. He actively contributed to MAM’s newly-created “We Build Heritage” (WBH) program, whereas interested parties commission the museum to build a specific model as a family heirloom in exchange for a donation to MAM. He has built at least fifty models during the past seven years, both for WBH and others that expressed a desire to own one of his museum-quality creations.

Today, Billy’s modelling activities are nearly entirely focused on the production of five all-Airfix B-17G dioramas in 1:72 scale, using the B-17G re-box of the 2016 initial release, complete with WWII USAAF Bomber Re-supply sets on frying pan hardstands typical of USAAF Class A airfields in England from 1942 to 1945; two are destined for the UK, one for the Imperial War Museum Duxford (in “Sally B” livery) and the Hornby Hobbies Visitor Centre in Margate (in bare metal livery, 365 Bombardment Squadron, 305 Bombardment Group, RAF Chelveston).

Each aircraft will incorporate four electric motors for the Cyclone engines (complete with prototypical “coughing” at start-up), four speakers, four amplifiers, and operating navigation, landing and other various lights, such as the cockpit, bombardier, tail gunner, waist gunners stations.

Billy is also involved in a most ambitious 1:32 scale diorama of B-17G going to the National Museum of the Mighty Eight Air Force in Savannah, GA; it will also incorporate full electronics, also including operational flaps.

“Most importantly, I derive enormous satisfaction building for others, as my creations are most appreciated by their recipients.”