Lewis Pruneqau's Remagan Bridge shadowbox.
In our senior years,. Lewis calls me almost every day. He seems lonely and now we are 300 miles apart. Since 1985, I tried to get him on the Internet. He has a friend that went on the Internet about that time and his weight shot up to 400 pounds and he seldom leaves his computer except when he sleeps. Lewis believes that will happen to him as well. Today, if I mention it, he gets angry. I even gave him a computer and set it up for the Internet back in the 1990s. He never turned it on.
It's such a pity. I have told him how many fans he has on the Internet. Lewis no longer goes to shows. Way back in 1991, he entered a drag race diorama at an IPMS St. Louis National. It was incredible. Nearly a hundred figures. many scratch built, the stands, the track, cars, everything. It was amazing. Here is the only photo I have of it. A bad photo, but, believe me, it was awesome.
I was there and saw the competition. It was really bad. Lewis didn't even place. Lewis is 6' 3" tall and back then, weighed 250 pounds. He was nobody to mess with and with a simmering temper. He stewed on his loss for a few months. Then he contacted the big shots, got the head judge's phone number and, against my advice, called him. He asked why he didn't place. The judge said he would give him three reasons. 1) That the flags on the bleachers were flying in one direction and the banner over the starting line, another. Lewis told him the starting line banner was moved by the cars screaming off the starting line. Then the judge said that 2) there was no smoke coming off the tires. Lewis responded with there was no way to make credible smoke. Then the judge said that 3) there were no license plates on the cars. Lewis told him all the cars in the diorama were professional drag race cars and didn't have license plates. They weren't driven on the street.
Then the judge got really nasty with him and told him to "Lump it". He stewed on that for a month, then used his talent to create a vignette of himself in 1/15th scale, standing erect, and another man on his knees with his face at Lewis midsection. Yes, you got the idea! It had a shirt with "head judge" on the back. He sent it to the judge. IPMS then bammed him from competition and it has never been lifted. True story.
Lewis is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He'd give you the shirt off his back, it's just that he will not take crap off anybody and I never blamed him for that! It's such a pity he won't even discuss getting on the Internet, you guys would love to see him work and build! He is one of my best friends in the world and has been for40 years.
BTW, I'm not knocking IPMS at all. It was a personal thing with some of that club members and him. Politics have no place in modeling!
Bob