Glenview Naval Air Station Museum Project

Shortly after the closure of NAS Glenview, a museum was established to focus on the history of Glenview, both as a means to recognize the contribution of NAS Glenview during its operation and to record its importance to the area. The former airfield was being rapidly redeveloped into a high-end housing and retail complex. The only evidence remaining from the Navy days are the chapel, the golf course and the control tower building, kept for “authenticity” purposes.

Now retired and living on the grounds of the former air station, Bob Reder, the co-founder and one-time president of Monogram Models, was involved with the museum effort.  He began looking for someone who could help him secure models of the aircraft that were stationed at NAS Glenview while it was in operation.  He called Walt Fink, a well-known, proficient, and experienced modeler.

As Walt recounted, “I got a phone call one day, just out of the blue, from a gentleman who said he got my name from an old IPMS Quarterly magazine, and since I lived fairly close to him, he thought I might be a good person to contact.  He said, ‘You don’t know me, but my name’s Bob Reder’ and I replied, ‘Oh yessir, I know who you are big time although we’ve never met face-to-face’.  We had a nice chat and he explained that he’d retired from Monogram and moved to a Senior Living Village in Glenview, on the property of the former Glenview Naval Air Station.  It’s now called The Glen and comprises very upscale merchants, luxury townhomes, and the like.

“Bob told me of his desire to come up with a display of models representing the aircraft which had been stationed at Glenview over the years, and that he had been in contact with the Von Maur department store who had semi-offered a vacant office space for such a display, to be part of an NAS Glenview Museum.  He wanted to know if I knew anyone who might be interested in building the models and when I told him ‘Probably five or six model clubs full of people who’d love to be involved’, the die was cast.

“I forget now exactly who I personally contacted but it was pretty much everybody I knew well in the clubs and they passed the word to their membership.  Joe Sojka was a designer for Monogram so Bob talked directly with him.

“I remember the first time we met and saw the office space in question. I don’t recall everyone who was there, nor what models were brought along.  It was a vacant storefront across the street (maybe Patriot Blvd) from the Von Maur store itself.  I do recall a gent there by the name of Ace Reilly who was part of the NAS Glenview Hangar One Foundation and who’d flown Corsairs among other Navy birds, roughly picking up at least one of the models and waving it around while explaining pretty loudly how great a plane it was.  The modelers there bit our respective lips for the expected outcome, but the model didn’t get damaged after all.

“I forget how long Von Maur allowed the Museum to stay there – not too long as I recall – but in the end, money won out over charity. The museum was moved to a facility north of The Glen.  It stayed there until the move to what I believe is the present location on Lehigh Ave.”

Bob volunteered to be in charge of the model building project for the museum. The IPMS McKinstry Chapter volunteered to organize the job of building an example of every type of aircraft ever stationed at NAS Glenview. Each model was to be painted and lettered as it was when it was stationed at Glenview. All were to be 1/48 scale, except for some large transport aircraft which would be 1/72 scale. Most of the models were built by McKinstry members, but several were built by members of other local IPMS chapters, and 2 were built by Joe Sojka.

Click any of the pictures in the gallery below to open a slideshow view with full-size images.  Click the ‘x’ in the upper right of the slideshow to return to this page.

Project managers – Bob Reder and Norris Graser

NAS Glenview Museum Model Inventory

	Subject Aircraft			Model
Manufac- turer	Desig- nation	Name	Modeler	Kit & Scale
Beech	SNB-5	Kansan	Terry Miesle	1/48
Consolidated	PB4Y	Privateer	Charlie Scardon	1/72
Consolidated	PBY	Catalina	Lee Lygiros	Revell 1/48
Curtiss	SB2C-5	Helldiver	Dick Smith	ProModeller 1/48
Douglas	SBD	Dauntless	Mike Hanlon	Accurate Miniatures 1/48
Douglas	C-118	Liftmaster	Steve Kumamoto	1/72
Douglas	AD-4	Skyraider	Terry Miesle	1/48
Douglas	A-4L	Skyhawk	Walt Fink	Fuji 1/48
Fairchild	C-119	Boxcar	Steve Kumamoto	1/72
General Motors	FM-2	Wildcat	Al Jones	1/48
Grumman	F6F-5	Hellcat	Al Jones	1/48
Grumman	AF-2W	Guardian	Joe Sojka	1/48
Grumman	TBF-1	Avenger	John Koziol	Accurate Miniatures 1/48
Grumman	F9F-8	Cougar	Mark Storer	Fonderie Miniatures 1/48
Grumman	J2F	Duck	Mark Storer	Classic Airframes 1/48
Grumman	F9F	Panther	Michael Grajek	Revell 1/48
Grumman	F4F	Wildcat	Mike Hanlon	Tamiya 1/48
Grumman	F8F	Bearcat	Norris Graser	Academy 1/48
Grumman	S2F	Tracker	Terry Miesle	1/48
Lockheed	P2-V	Neptune	Dick Smith	Hasegawa 1/72
Lockheed	P-3	Orion	Paul Hackmann	Hasegawa 1/72
Lockheed	KC-130F	Hercules	Steve Kumamoto	1/72
Lockheed	TV-2		Walt Fink	Hobbycraft 1/48
Martin	AM-1	Mauler	Mark Storer	Collect-Aire 1/48
North American	FJ-4B	Fury	Carl Geiger	Grand Phoenix 1/48
North American	SNJ	Harvard	Dan Paulien	Monogram 1/48
Sikorsky	CH-34J	Choctaw	Clarence Guenther	Revell Germany 1/48
Stearman	N2S	Kaydet	Joe Sojka	1/48
Vought	F4U-5	Corsair	Steve Grajek	Hasegawa 1/48

NAS Glenview Museum Kit Reviews

Builder	Subject Aircraft	Kit Review
Walt Fink	Hobbycraft TV-2
Clarence Guenther	Revell Germany SH-34J
Dick Smith	Hasegawa P-2V Neptune
Norris Graser	Hobbycraft/Academy F8F-1/1B Bearcat