I’m going to visit Chicago in 18/6 till 24/6. Can anyone please tell me any good model shop’s address or if it is going to be placed any air show in any airbase close enough to chicago to visit it?
thanks again
Well, it’s about a 2 hour drive, but I suggest you visit theUS Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio. You can leave Chicago early in the morning, make a day at the museum and be home that night. Admission is free, so your only expense will be gas and meals. The museum has an excellent gift shop with aviation related items, and models!
Steve
My Sweet Home Chicago.
I live in the NW Suburbs so the model shop I frequent is Venture Hobbies up in the Wheeling/BuffaloGrove Area. It’s on Dundee Rd. (IL Rte. 68) East of Buffalo Grove Rd.
Here’s their website:
http://www.venturehobbies.com/
…as for airbases. Well, there was Glenview Naval Airbase used for training during WWII, but that closed years ago (late 80s, I think). Sound familiar? It is now a number of housing developments and a couple of strip malls.
And here I am, a Chicagoan exiled in Phoenix. In Chicago, actually Elmhurst - near O’Hare - try Al’s Hobby Shop. Great place. In Oak Lawn there is M & M Hobbies (lots of the more exotic, hard to find stuff). For bases, though it’s not aircraft, go to Cantigny.
Ahh, Dayton is more than 2 hours away from Chicago (by road). I live in Cincinnati, which is 5 to 6 hours south-east of Chicago. Dayton is about an hour north of Cinci; and Indianapolis, which is 3.5 to 4 hours from Chicago, is 90 minutes from either Dayton or Cinci. I’d figure 5 hours to get to Dayton from Chicago.
(Couple of years ago I took a turboprop commuter flight from Dayton to Midway; that was an hour flight. By car it’s GOT to be 5 hours, if not longer.)
Unless someone knows something I don’t.
I second the visits to Al’s and to Venture. About an hour and a half to the north is Oshkosh which has a great museum full of nice subjects plus you can fly around in the TriMotor. About 2 and a half hours to the east is Kalamazoo, MI, the home of the Air Zoo, again lots of nice planes and models on display.
The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry has an actual WWII U-Boat. Any military history fan should not miss the opportunity to step on board an take a tour. I did it once, and all I could hear in the back ground was “duh da daaaa, da DAAAAA” (poor imitation of main theme of" Das Boot.")
thank you all…
The Science and Industry also has a Spitfire Mk IA and a Stuka replica, several helicopters and a 727 you can walk around in. You should go maybe 100mi. south to Rantoul, a small town near Urbana-Champaign. That once was Chanute AFB, and now is a museum. They have one of 8 B-58 Hustlers left. www.aeromuseum.org
Dayton is definitely a five hour drive (been there, driven that) if 80/94 isn’t a parking lot. The Chanute museum is not such a long haul (2-3 hours depending on which side of Chicago you are at) and has some real gems beside the B-58 (P-51H, for instance). The downside of the Chanute museum is that it is underfunded and most of the display aircraft are less than perfect (especially when compared to the USAF Museum in Dayton). As for airshows, I believe LaCrosse, Wisconsin is hosting the Thunderbirds on the 18th and 19th of June. La Crosse is not too far north (maybe a couple of hours, but I haven’t made that trip-yet). The closest active base is Scott AFB down by Saint Louis (four to five hours away), and I am not sure they will entertain visitors at present. The Science and Industry Museum is worth the visit (U-505 will have been open in its new underground display for about two weeks when you are here- I recommend it high ly). Anyway, there’s also a museum of sorts at the Aurora Airport (I have never been able to find anyone that knows when it’s open) that has some various Cold-War era aircraft (F-105, A-7, F-86, T-39). You may also see the B-25G that lives up there. Just some suggestions for this area- maybe we’ll see you up at LaCrosse.
If you decide to make the drive down to the Dayton Museum, The Grissom Air Museum is pretty much right along the route. The museum building isn’t huge, but they have a nice collection of 20 or so birds, including one of the Eight Remaining Hustlers. (You could see three B-58’s while here. ) http://www.grissomairmuseum.com/home.htm The Air Zoo in Kalamazoo Michigan is an easy drive down I-94 from Chicago and has the (I think) the only SR-71B (Trainer) in captivity. http://www.airzoo.org/
The airzoo also sells discounted tickets online, but you need to order a couple of days before you visit. Down I-94 a little further, in the vicinity of Ann Arbor there is another museum but I don’t know much about it, maybe somebody else here knows more.
The Stuka in the Museum of Science & industry isn’t a replica. It was taken down a few years ago and was displayed at the EAA museum in Oshkosh but it has since been returned and is again hanging from the ceiling. If I recall it took a shell to the engine.
The U-Boat is under renovation right now. But GO FOR SURE TO VENTURE HOBBIES. It is a very nice hobby shop. Lots of models, probably the bigest you ever been in.