October 20, 1999

Model club sticks together

Great Lakes Scale Modelers Club holds monthly meeting

Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       In his spare time after school, Scott MacIntyre delves into history, aviation, engineering and even manufacturing. A sixth-grader at Blair Elementary School, MacIntyre is not really that enthused about schoolwork and studies.
      His research is just part of his hobby of building scale models, where accurate depiction of even the smallest detail is important. So if he is unsure about something, like hull color or decal placement, he looks it up.
      "My dad has books on old planes and I look at them and read the captions to learn about different things," MacIntyre said. "I learned a lot about the history of what I have built."
      MacIntyre has built everything from planes to fighter jets to spaceships from Star Wars. After completing a piece, he creates hanging dioramas in his room depicting scenes such as an air battle.
      Taking model kits that contain hundreds or even thousands of pieces and painstakingly gluing them all together is not child's play. However, during his short career building models, MacIntyre has learned that even mistakes can be advantageous in the long run.
      "Right now I am working on an old airplane, but it didn't fit together right and it has gaps between the pieces," MacIntyre said. "So I am making it an airplane that crashes in my diorama."
      MacIntyre is a member of the Great Lakes Scale Modelers Club, along with his father, Don, who is president of the club, and older brother, Eric. The ten-year-old club has 20 members, about half of which show up regularly to their monthly meetings to discuss the ins and outs of building intricate scale models. But the most important part of every meeting is the show and tell, where each person brings in their latest and greatest projects, whether under construction or finished, and shares them with the others.
      But for members of this club, building scale models is about more than just making cool things to display in your own home. They are also working together to raise funds to purchase models for disabled veterans in veteran's hospitals around the country. Some members are making scale model cars that will be included in the miniature Traverse City currently under construction by Jim Ison and Dave Stiffler.
      The Great Lakes Scale Modelers Club also wants to get the word out that modeling is a fun hobby. Members host an annual model show at the Grand Traverse Mall outside of Hobby Town USA. On Saturday, November 13, they will sponsor a People's Choice show at the Traverse Area District Library to introduce people to the hobby of scale modeling.
      "Building models is an interesting hobby, there is a lot you can do with it," said club secretary/treasurer Chuck Hulett of Blair Township. "It is rewarding and it teaches you patience, for one thing. It is also a very inexpensive hobby for beginners, although you can rack up a lot of bucks into it if you want to."
      Hulett has been building models for 40 years and is currently working on a three-foot long model of the sailing ship USS Constitution. His personal favorites are older racecars, and he searches old books and manufacturing catalogues for details such as exact paint colors and styling. He is also working on a _-inch scale model of a 1930s era Rolls Royce that contains more than 3,000 pieces.
      "People think you just open up a box and slap it together, but it takes a lot of research to get it right," said Hulett, who works as an assistant grocery manager at Tom's Food Markets. "For me, I enjoy the research and the actual building; when a model is done, it is kind of a letdown and I say the heck with this one and go on to the next one."
      The Great Lakes Scale Modelers Club meets the second Saturday of each month at the Traverse Area District Library. For more information on the club, contact Hulett at 943-4228.