Something About Me

At the risk of appearing somewhat pompous in devoting space on this site to my own personal profile, I guess that as you've followed the hyperlink to this page, you must have an interest, no matter how slight, in the brains (?) behind this operation.

I'm a member of the Ontario Provincial Police which, for my American friends, is the equivilent of your respective state police departments. Newcastle is a small village on the north shore of Lake Ontario, approximately 45 miles east of the city of Toronto. I entered the O.P.P. upon graduating from Queens University at Kingston, Ontario, in early 1979, where I majored in History. I have an abiding passion for the study of armoured fighting vehicles and modern Canadian military history in general. I'm married, with a very supportive spouse Debi, and we are proud to have a daughter Amanda, and son Michael.

As a result of my interest in armour of all nations, I began collecting reference sources in my early teens and that in turn led to an interest in building armour models shortly thereafter. I continue collecting references to this day, although my modelling time has suffered considerably since becoming involved in the computer world!

I decided to publish a web page at the instigation of George Bradford who has become a valued friend since I first came on-line in mid 1996. Without his encouragement and occasional "push" to get me involved in new aspects of computing, none of this would have been possible.

I chose to create a site dedicated to Canadian armour as I felt I was somewhat competent in the subject matter, and it's a relatively untapped area of interest for most armour enthusiasts. Basically, as with anything in life, I chose to go with that which I knew best. The study of Canadian armour will never rival that of German, U.S., Russian, British or French armour, but nevertheless, there are aspects about it that I hope will interest enthusiasts across the board.

In the event you've found yourself dozing at the screen while reading my "ramblings" above, I may as well shock you to your senses with a photo of myself.

"Yours Truly" in the driver's seat.
M4A2(76)W HVSS

(49)
My daughter and son on the; for want of a better name, 'Grizzly C'
at Worthington Park, CFB Borden. The 17pdr turret was apparently
mounted on a Grizzly hull and chassis to portray a 'Firefly' for the
collection. The sign refers to it as the 'Sherman V "C" M4A6 Firefly' !!
It's definitely NOT that elusive Sherman IIC.

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© Chris Johnson, 1997