October 10, 2015 McKinstry Meeting
Theme: Stripe Nite

Program: Charlie Scardon – Making Water

Notes by Paul Gasiorowski and The Tick

The Stripe Nite theme was not quite accurate, as the meeting was held on a Saturday afternoon!

12 modelers were in attendance, including: John Koziol, John Koziol Sr, Charlie Scardon, Dan Paulien, Mike Hanlon, Lee Lygiros, Paul Gasiorowski, Carl Geiger, Mark Murray, Norris Graser, and Frank Ress.

The Christmas party date and place was announced. Discussion for doing a display at the Butch O’Hare show Nov. 7 was led by Dan Paulien.

F-82 Twin Mustang, Revell,1/48, built by Paul Gasiorowski

Under construction. Good fit. Will be finished as a night fighter with radar.

A-90 Orlyonok, Zveda 1/144, built by Paul Gasiorowski

Russian ground effect vehicle, part boat, part airplane. Different kit to build, not finished, decals need to be applied. Thinking about building a base for it. Would like to see some photos of what the water would look like under it. Not a bad kit, fit problems on the intakes to the engines, instructions not very clear.

Kawanishi Type 97, Trumpeter 1/144, built by Paul Gasiorowski

Kit went together will. Hardest part was the frames of the cockpit, side blister and rear blister frames. Really small in 1/144 scale. Used Micro Mark Mask to fill in the windows. Worked out well.

Thundercals T48004 1/48 Decal set by Norris Graser

New decal set. 2 Decal sheets. Lots of profiles; detailed instructions, full page aircraft and group history notes. 5 different P-47s/ total of 8 options – All 318th FG/ Pineapple Air Force. Nice decals set, Only 500 sets left!!

Spitfire, Tamiya kit 1/48, built by Mike Hanlon

Nice kit to assemble, Mike used XtraDECALS and Italeri paints.

P-47, Tamiya 1/48, built by Mike Hanlon

DAN’L BOONE, 333rd FS/318thFG from new Thundercals decal release. (T-48-004) Used a new metallic paint called Extreme Metal. Avaialble in several shades. For this model, AK479 Aluminum.

P-47 Razorback, Tamiya 1/48, built by Mike Hanlon

Markings for this O.D plane are “The Witch” from Thundercals T-48-002. Tamiya Acrylic for O.D./Neutral

B-25G, Hasegawa 1/72nd, built by Carl Geiger

Markings for “DOLLY”, 1st Air Combat Group CBI, WW II

Nike Hercules Missile, Revell 1/40, built by Mark Murray

One of the original box scale kits – model made to fit the box. Mark indicated it had a lot of flash, rough fit and a REAL rivet monster.

Mark is building the Nike for the January 2016 theme, Land of Lincoln. There were several Nike Ajax and Zeus sites in and around the Chicago area during the mid ‘50’s through the mid ‘60’s.

B-17G and a couple of cast metal engines, built by John Koziol

B-17G HK 1/32 scale, Zero Bandai 1/24 scale. Replicated and cast in solid nickel chrome. Scratch built and cast nickel Zero canopy.

P-51B Mustang, Monogram 1/72, built by Frank Ress

It was a great kit for its day. If the panel lines were recessed it would be as good as any current kit. Name of this plane was “Iowa Beaut”, and the kit was decorated based on a single picture that’s been published many times.

It was all painted except for the Stars and Bars, tail codes, cowl lettering. The cowl lettering was originally hand-painted, as well, but when a decal sheet for this subject became available several years later, the decal replaced the paint.  (If I’d guessed the name right, I might have left it alone, but I thought it was “John Boat”!)  A vacuum form canopy was made from the kit canopy as a master, and a scratch built rear mirror was added. This model received a Silver Medal at the 2013 Butch O’Hare show.

Program: Charlie Scardon – Making water

Charlie Scardon did a hands-on demo to show how he makes water for his ship dioramas. For this process, Charlie uses Dental buff stone, which can be bought in some hobby shops that deal in HO gauge trains (Woodland Scenics markets it as ‘Hydrocal’). Or, if you know “dental” people like the 2 technicians or dentist who are members of McK, you have an alternate source! It’s a harder material than plaster of Paris, and a bit less porous. Working time is usually about 20 minutes – give or take… Charlie will show his painting technique for water at the November meeting.