Death of a paper modeler

[John Wagenseil]

Miles Mandell, who did much to promote the paper model hobby died earlier this year.
Mr Mandell had obtained the rights to the late Geoffrey Heighway's MicroModels. He reprinted many of them, making them available to another generation of grateful paper modelers.
Mr. Mandell was one of the original organizers of the International Paper Model Convention, and hosted the first meeting in his home in 1997, and took an active role in the subsequent meetings that were held in Dayton, Ohio through 2000.
It is unfortunate that via the internet we know of people, but we never really get to know them.
Without realizing it, the users of this forum owe a debt to Mr. Mandell. He kept the MicroModels franchise alive and provided us with paper models.
He also co-founded the International Paper Model Convention, which changed paper modeling in the US from a solitary pursuit into a socially interactive hobby where we have an opportunity to schmooze with our fellow paper pasters, and get to meet some of the artists who supply our raw materials.

Thank you, Mr. Mandell. From all of us.

[iligan3pm]

Thank you, Mr. Mandell for your contributions, we are forever grateful.

[Retired_for_now]

Interesting historical narrative - and a (belated) thank you to Mr. Mandell.

Yogi (knowing what has gone before is to appreciate what is now)

[papermodelfan]

Myles Mandell was a great guy, a successful businessman who travelled a lot. He started building Micromodels in the motel rooms, and became passionately involved with the hobby. He was a very welcoming and friendly fellow, who supplied me with many reprints and anecdotes of the folks who had been involved in Micromodels on both sides of the Atlantic. He completed publication of the Kremlin and Caernarvon Castle Micromodels. He not only had the rights, he had a substantial amount of the original artwork, drawn at 200%, including cover art, and the original card art. After his death on October 8, 2007, Peter Heesch took over the task of trying to find a buyer for the artwork collection, on behalf of Mrs. Mandell. I think he is still looking for a buyer, but I might be wrong. He brought the collection to the IPMS Convention 2 years ago, when those attending got to see them, and to swap Myles stories For more on Myles role in the early days of the IPMS Conventions, see here: International Paper Modelers Conventions

Myles was a great help in the Micromodel project that Kell Black and I took on, that of finishing of the original United Nations model. He had a copy of the original artwork, with galley correction marks, which he sold on EBay for a good price, but negotiated with the buyer to allow us to have a non-commercial copy - we used that to reproduce the UN model as Geoffrey Heighway designed it. Myles offered his encouragement all along - this model is now for sale at Matt Spark's MicromodelsUSA

The obituary in the Dayton Daily News, on October 10, 2007, is as follows:

Myles Mandell


Family-Placed Obituary


75, a long time Centerville resident, passed away Monday October 8, 2007 after a long illness. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Dorothy, and four children: Brad and wife Renae, and grandchildren, Lydia and Julia, of Columbus, Ohio; Melanie and husband, Peter Abela, of British Columbia, Canada; daughter Denise Marks of Chicago, Illinois and daughter, Pamela Mandell, and her husband Paul Bowen of Williamsville, Vermont, and step- granddaughter, Megan Bowen of Chatham, MA. Myles was a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and was a marketing executive and consultant for many years working for Howard Hughes, Philco, Coopers & Lybrand and as Vice President for Cambridge Glass in Boston. In Dayton, he has his own company, Static Handling, then later a company, Informaze, a computer service that provides data on government purchases. He was a founder and member of Paper Modellers Association and published four books on model making of historical buildings, ships and airplanes. We wish to thank all the wonderful people at Hospice of Dayton for their care and support. Services will be private. BRADFORD-CONNELLY & GLICKLER FUNERAL HOME handling arrangements. MANDELL, Myles

[Wyvern]

Rest in peace.

Wyvern