I grew up in Erie,Pa.,the mistake on the lake everyone called it.But it was where I met John Pierras and rhe MieryBay figure painters club.This group of miscreants,unreconstructed rebels,members of the Spanish Inquisition,( no one expects..........) met at the Penn Station Hobby shopon Friday nights to pain and watch Miami vice. All this under the eye of John Pietras.he taughtwith oils and would make the call when he got in the newest Series 77,Poste Militaire,Osprey Book.

He even had a Series77 named after him,John Pietras /Roger’s Ranger.when he took me t o my first Chicago show, he was talking to the names,I read about in Campaigns magazine,

Then life called me into the ranks of the “ storming party called life. Married, moved away,when back for visits always Stopped at The Penn Station meeting. John would have my 4 Ospreys men at arms behind them counter and we’talk away the afternoon about the French and Indian war and the Red Lancer.Years later the call I dreaded came,the Penn Station was no. More.I kept in touch with John,but that stopped in the 2000’s his battle with cancer It happened by meeting of an old miserybay figure painter ,at Chicago ,who told me John had passed away at age 77 in April . I cried my eyes out in hall entrance, so ended an era of my mentor and friend,John Pietras,who would have made a great great cavalrymenj of the 1st Virginia Cavalry CSA. REST IN PEACE MY FRIEND

This shop ?

https://www.airplanesandrockets.com/resources/maxwells-hobby-shop-erie-pennsylvania.htm

That is not the Penn Station I was mentioning.it has been out of busines for a number of years