My parents decided to visit us fairly last minute as a lot of things lined up to where it would work out; they were here the second to last week of October. Cory and I had started Dad’s Christmas present already when we heard they were coming but we rushed to have it ready in time for him to take it home with them. My parents live in the St Louis area of MO and so we see them only about once a year.
Dad’s present: I got Dad talking about airplanes (which is always very easy to do) and found out that the KC-135 Stratotanker was the airplane he flew in the most in the Air Force and one he generally worked with a lot. Airplane picked, Cory looked up the length of the real thing and figured out the measurement to make an outline at 1/100th scale. He traced a photo of one he found online that was from one of the Air Bases my Dad worked at while he was in the Reserves!
Now with an outline made to scale he somehow figured out how to print it in sections to make it correctly to scale to make his wood cutout. I painted clouds with some vapor trails on MDF and Cory cut a frame from 1”x2” boards, stained and sanded all of the wood and glued it all together. I am really happy with how it turned out but even more happy with how my Dad recognized it instantly. I’m proud of my Dad and his 20 plus years with the Air Force. I think the plane was a way to honor that.
