RIP John Alcorn

Noted scratchbuilt modeler John Alcorn died this past Sunday of complications of Alzheimers and congestive heart failure.

I first met John 45 years ago, when he walked into a meeting of Golden Gate IPMS in Berkeley, California, at the behest of his good friend and co-worker down at Stanford Research Institute, the great George Lee. He brought in a 1/32 Bf-109E scatchbuilt in wood that looked like it was injection plastic.

Over the next couple of years, he brought in bits and pieces of his famous 1/32 scratchbulit A-20C - the landing gear that worked just like the original, the gunner's position that looked like he'd hit the real thing with shrink spray. Another year after he'd completed it, I moved out of the Bay Area and we saw each other sporadically at events until I moved down to Los Angeles and got involved in the movie business. Lost track of him till the 1998 IPMS convention in San Jose, where he brought his magnificent 1/24 DeHavilland DH.9, which won Best of Show. Connecting with him was like the last time we had seen each other was the weekend before. Stayed in touch with e-mail till the Alzheimers ended that

The best modeler and one of the best human beings I ever met. There isn't a major scratchbuilder out there who doesn't consider John a mentor.

The first photo is the Dh.9. The second is George Lee'sO3U that John finished after George died. It's in the National Museum of Naval Aviation, with a couple other of his models.

Fair skies and a tailwind, old friend,

1 additional image. Click to enlarge.