Retired doctor a prolific model builder

After practicing medicine for nearly 40 years at Central Community Hospital in Elkader, Ken Zichal has retired and turned his attention to another passion: building model tanks.

There are more than 1,100 tanks, trucks and personnel carriers and artillery pieces in Zichal's collection. Each one was meticulously put together, painted and put on display in one of several glass cases in his basement.

'My wife Fran has the main floor and upstairs of the house,” he said with a smile, 'but the downstairs is all mine.”

His collection runs the gamut from World War I all the way to the present and represents all the major powers during that time period.

”I have loved building models since childhood,” he said. 'I started out with tanks, airplanes and boats. After college, I got out of it, but after a couple of years I decided to get back into models. Fran and I just had a small apartment, and tanks took up less space. Besides, I was always fascinated with military history.”

Zichal's collection continued to grow, and when he built a new home on the outskirts of Elkader, he made sure he would have space for future expansion.

By 1990, he had just built about every type of armored model kit that was on the market.

'Then there was an explosion in armor kits,” he said. 'New companies were offering a variety of variants of the original model types, and I was back in business.”

Many of the newer kits had as many as 600 to 1,200 pieces.

'It certainly doesn't hurt to have a steady hand, patience and attention to detail,” he said. 'That goes for both modelers and physicians. One kit can take up to 40 to 80 hours to build.”

The Zichals have traveled extensively throughout Europe over the years. That has given Ken a chance to further pursue his hobby.

'The first thing I do is look for a tank or armored museum while we are planning a trip,” he said. 'When we get to our destination I will say something like, ‘By the way, there's a museum in this town'. Fran is really a trooper. When I enter a museum, the museum personnel can tell that I am really serious about these things. Most of the time one of the museum's people will take pity on my wife and show her to a lounge area and offer her some coffee or a snack while I am off snapping pictures of just about everything in the building.”

Zichal was instrumental in getting Elkader its own tank.

After the Army started using the M1 tank, many of the older M 60 A1s were mothballed.

Local communities could apply to receive one through AMVETS, and that's precisely what Zichal did.

He discussed moving the tank with John Patrick Moyna, who owns a construction and earth moving company in Elkader.

'We didn't hear back from the Army for several months,” Zichal said. 'In 1990, Fran and I were on vacation in Egypt. One day John got a call from the Pizza Ranch in Manchester. he man said that a truck had just dropped off a tank and that it was sitting in the parking lot. He also said that the driver told him to contact Moyna to come and get it.

'John and one of his employees who had driven tanks in the army hooked up a heavy equipment trailer and drove down to get it. Getting a 56-ton tank onto the trailer was easier than either of them expected. The driver suggested trying the engine, and to their amazement the thing started right up, so the driver could just drive it onto the trailer. he tank, minus the engine, now sits at the entrance of the Elkader City Park.”

Zichal isn't finished with his models yet. He has about 300 more kits stacked around his 'tank museum”, waiting to be built. He plans to build about 30 a year now that he is retired.

'Being in such a small town, this was the perfect hobby to have after I was done working or was on call,” he said. 'It's a hobby you can pick up and put down whenever you want to. You can work on something for five minutes or five hours. It's a very good relaxation technique, especially if you were having a hectic day.”