July 8, 2016 McKinstry Meeting
Theme: Innovators – Anything history changing, ex. Wright Bros., Spirit of St. Louis

Notes by The Tick and Paul

Attendees were: Paul Gasiorowski, Mike Hanlon, THE TICK, Charlie Scardon, Steve Kumamoto, Jim Batchelder, Frank Ress, Lee Lygiros, Carl Geiger, Dan Paulien

Bell X-1, 1/32nd, Revell, built by Lee Lygiros

Lee detailed the cockpit, including wiring the instrument panel. Modifications were made to the empennage. For extra detail Lee put a piece of wood on the seat that Chuck Yeager had to use to close the canopy, since his shoulder was injured in a late night horseback ride. (The kit came with two right fuselage sides, and Lee had to go the factory in Morton Grove to get the left side. Kit happens.)

A6M-5 Zero, 1/48th, Tamiya, built by Mike Hanlon

Aeromaster Decals, Tamiya Mitsubishi green and Tamiya IJA grey paint.

Ki-27 Nate, 1/48th, Hasegawa/Mania, built by Mike Hanlon

P-43 Lancer, 1/72nd, Rare Planes, built by Steve Kumamoto

Vacuformed kit. Scratch-built interior and landing gear. Used MicroScale decals.

P-47N Thunderbolt, 1/72nd, Johan, built by Steve Kumamoto

Built 40 years ago. Lengthened the wings 18″ and modified wingtips. Modified the prop from symmetrical to asymmetrical 13’ blades. Vacuformed canopy. Scratch built the dorsal fillet. Added wheel well detail. Household aluminum foil used to replicate the natural metal finish.

P-47M Thunderbolt, 1/72nd, Airfix, built by Steve Kumamoto

This was built from the Airfix P-47D razorback 45 years ago. (There were no bubbletops in 1/72nd at that time, aside from the even older Revell kit.) Scratched or highly modified: Spine, cockpit interior, engine crankcase. Cut and dropped the flaps.

Modified prop and canopy. Scratch built air and oil intakes, and detailed the landing gear. Steve was inspired because an IPMS chapter made P-47 decals and thought to include an M – even though no kit was available. Markings for 63rd FS /56th FG.

F-15C MSIP II, 1/48th, Great Wall Hobby, built by James Batchelder

Model Master paints, Bullseye decals 144th FS. Jim liked this one a lot. The only issue he found was that the canopy clear could have had more of a base on the rail. Not much to align it to.

USS Nautilus, 1/300th, Lindberg, built by Paul Gasiorowski

Just a total of 20 parts including the two hull halves and deck planking. Overall flat black with nonskid deck in dark gray. Modified the diving planes to fit against the hull. Conning tower consists of 9 periscopes and antennae.

The decals supplied were not used as they had a red outline around the white numbers. Some “spares” decals about the right size were used instead. This kit was probably geared towards a beginning modeler because of the ease of assembly and didn’t need to be painted.

Vickers Vangard, 1/144th, Airfix, built by Paul Gasiorowski

A straight forward build, most time spent on masking for painting! Primed with Tamiya light gray followed by Model Master Acrylics and non-buffing Aluminum metalizer.

Used MicroMark Mask for the windows. The decal sheet for the stripe/windows was clear. Any paint on them would have shown up. All the decals went down well, except the wings could have used a little more Future prep work. The aircraft ID number had some silvering.