Crazed Plastic X-20 Articles and Models Being Discussed

This was posted on Facebook November 28, 2016 in the group Space Modeling.  I present it here because Facebook gets to losing details with all the social media that is going on daily.

For the X-20, I also remembered some older articles that we did for the Crazed Plastic Magazine published by the IPMS Gateway group here in St. Louis. Issue 31 in 1986 and Issue 35 in 1987. I can't believe that it has been 30 years now! I also did a short article on the X-15 at the time in Issue 31. The articles written by Mike Burke as well as the artwork, and front cover artwork by him in CP-31, where he detailed the vehicle itself and CP-35 covered the landing gear which most people have questions on. A few phone pics of the issues follow (not the best, but quick).

The front cover to CP Issue 31, artwork by Mike Burke.	The same details from the scale drawings could be used for the vacuform, plastic or resin kits.
What was interesting is that the article from the front cover to CP#35 on the recovery of Mercury Liberty Bell 7 by Mark Zimerman, was several years earlier than the actual recovery efforts. It was spot on. This magazine and several others from modeling clubs were the precursors to the slick magazines that we see today. (I did the front cover artwork for CP-35). I will have to show more of my line work on another page shortly.	This is what the modelers were looking for, better details and measurements. Mike Burke delivered. He used the information from his talks at the Missouri Aviation Historical Society for the basis of this article.
The articles were done by hand on a typewriter, then copied to the correct size (this was done before computers came into play), the art pasted on blue-line paper and the whole shebang taken to a professional printer.	When I acquired an 1/72 Eagles Talon kit of the X-20 (many moons ago), it went for $24.95 and included a resin propulsion module. The X-20 is a vacuform which is workable.