KevOs4 Past Events and News

This year's FinnFest militaria show in Duluth, MN., was a joint effort between Brent Snodgrass (gunboards.com) and Marshall Kregel (kevos4.com). Brent brought all the heavy equipment, including a 120mm smoke mortar, maxim machine gun, Russian DP machine gun, PanzerSchreck, and the mannequins we used for our uniform displays. Marshall brought some of the uniforms, Lotta gear, and a lot of the smaller display items seen in the center section of the show. We both worked on the video displays, easels and display boards, posters, and display boxes. We estimated that at least 3000 people came through the display during the 3 days we had it up and running. It was an overwhelming success and we didn't hear a single negative word about the display. People loved it!
Entering door, looking left at the display. The picture displays were very popular.	Looking down the center of the display from the doorway	Looking across the room from the doorway. We had 2 ballrooms with a total space of 50' x 50'. The back wall had a lot of newspapers from the war, including American, Finnish and Russian.	Connie Kregel at the sales table. She put a lot of effort into the sales of the books and dvds, plus she kept the records for the show.
A wood carving done by a Finnish war veteran (of Marshal Gustav Mannerheim)	Examples of items carried by Finnish soldiers during the war	A doctor's tunic with a pre-war medical case	Examples of eating utensils
Examples of items a Lotta might have carried with her	Various magazines and manuals, along with a Lotta's briefcase	More items carried by Finnish soldiers	Pioneer tools and gas masks
The poster on the left is a copy of a painting done with uniforms provided by Brent Snodgrass	The maxim was complete with spare barrel carrier and canvas cover	We put large posters on the walls around the display. These pictures measured 20x28 inches.	Examples of tunics ranging from Continuation War to 1920's.
A great civil guard patch display by Brent	Besides the panzerschreck, Brent had some ice mines and molotov cocktail bottles.	Closeup of Lt. Infantry with poster in background	Lt. Infantry with winter coat
Example of winter whites and ski boots	A Lotta dress complete with shoes, hat, belt, medals	Continuation War soldier with Kp31 Suomi machine gun	This flag dated back to the civil war. This is the first, and probably last time, it will be displayed.
Some of the gang at the show: (from left) Joe Strohl, Marshall Kregel, Ben Strout, pale dummy, Brent Snodgrass, Jim Kippola	Joe Strohl and Jim Kippola during a quiet moment of the show	Marshall and Brent talk to a "Sami" Finn war veteran who used an SVT sniper rifle during the war	Marshall Kregel interviewed several war veterans during the show
The Suomalainen Sisters came to the display and sang some songs	2 of the Suomalainen Sisters sing a duet to Joe Strohl and Marshall Kregel	Putting a show together like this takes months of planning and a lot of hard work. Putting the show up, and then taking it down, are also very labor intensive. We would like to thank Tom Hazelton and Joe Strohl for staying very late on a Saturday night and helping us pack up the show after the event was over.

Paavo and Jorma put together a great show at Finland Week in Lake Worth, Florida, on February 13th and 14th, 2009. These are the first pictures to come out of the event. The show was in the museum at the Finland House. Most of the foreground images are Paavo's personal collection. The background gear belongs to the museum. The museum also has a great collection of gear like that used by Larry Thorne. The Thorne collection is a highlight of the museum.

In July, 2007, Brent Snodgrass (from Gunboards.com) and Marshall Kregel (webmaster - KevOs4) went to the FinnFest 2007 Finnish Festival in Ashtabula, Ohio. Brent set up a tremendous display for the event and included some very rare military items used by the Finnish army during the war. On display were some rare tunics, rifles, pistols, helmets, newspapers, and many other items. It was worth the trip just to see this display! Marshall was working on his book project and interviewing Finnish war veterans. More about that project can be seen at www.FinnishWarrior.com. There were close to 4000 visitors to FinnFest this year, and as many as half of those visitors made their way through the display at one time or another. There was a large screen TV in one corner playing old Finnish war movies, and in the opposite corner, there was a CD player with Finnish songs that were popular during the war. With the large picture boards, background music, videos, and large table displays, it ranked as of the best Finnish Military History displays ever put together in the U.S.