Greetings fellow modelers! BuffCon34 was a great success this year. Despite a couple of early morning hiccups, it went very smoothly. According to Registration boss, Frank Blonski, there were 350 general admissions (up from last year) and 406 entries cataloged last Sunday (down from last year). Dave Bailey, one of Canada's biggest supporters of BuffCon counted 460 individual models on the tables. Not too shabby, I say! I wish to personally thank all of you who gave up a beautiful sunny day to help out at the show. Without willing and enthusiastic members, BuffCon would not have the outstanding reputation it has, so a big, rousing round of applause to YOU!

Model Tables from the March club meeting:

Dave Schwab brought in a "Tornado" by Mach 2. He's been correcting the kit's interior and says that there's "lots of sanding" to make the airframe look right.

There must be a sale on Mach 2 kits this month, because Dan Marafino is working on their X-2 offering. Dan explained that it's in progress, needs a lot of putty and will probably finish it in white. Dan also completed Monogram's B-17G in 1/48th scale. He used paints by Tamiya and weathered the finish with pastels and blended them with a soft rag. Other than the ball turret giving him fits to paint, he enjoyed it and will build another one.

Nick Carluccio showed us a beautiful, Monogram 1956 Thunderbird. Nick used Krylon Burgundy spraypaint and polished the finish with Novus #2 polishing compound for an excellent shine. He also used Bare Metal Foil for the trim.

Mark Gadek had his Airfix 1/24th scale Hawker Typhoon WWII-era fighter this month. Mark explained that despite the superb details and excellent parts fit, there were "pesky" ejection pin marks all over the pieces. "Every single part has to be sanded to remove the mold lines". Despite all of that, Mark wired the engine with solder wire and braided scale hoses and painted it with a custom mix of Tamiya acrylics.

Jacob Gadek is continuing his collection of his 1966 Batman series of figures this month with Moebius' "Robin 1966". Jacob's only complaint was that the parts fit of "Robin" isn't as good as the other figures in the line. He further related that it's relatively easy paint because he did them in subassemblies. The Tamiya line of paints was used throughout the project.

Tom Mooney was on a modeling streak this month with four projects he's sharing with us:

1.) The Tamiya 1/12th scale "Virago" motorcycle was completed with primer, metallic silver, metallic burgundy and black.

2.) The Revell 1/16th scale dragster was finished despite the poor fit of many body parts and too thin tubing. He used a variety of paint including titanium gold, metallic green, and burnt iron.

3.) A Revell 1/25th scale "Chi Town Hustler" funny car was painted burgundy metallic and steel.

4.) Verlinden 200mm busts of Civil War generals Sherman and Lee were presented to us this month by Tom. He's using artist's oils by Windsor & Newton to paint the figures. Tom says he enjoys the larger busts because the details are much stronger and Verlinden produces the "most consistently excellent details at a reasonable price". (Sorry, only got a photo of one of them.)

Larry Osolkowski made a little more progress on his 1/25 Revell Chevy Corvette C-7R race car. The hood was finished with decals and clear coat.

Larry also brought in a 1/43 Provence Moulage kit of the Audi R8R that won Le Mans in 2001. It's painted with Alclad aluminum and gloss clear, with the red areas done with decals which took a lot of setting solution to get them to conform. Larry said it should be ready for BuffCon.

He also showed us some small diameter, thin wall brass and aluminum tubing from Albion Metals in the U.K. They were obtained online from Sprue Brothers.

Mike Butry presented the Tamiya 1/48th scale "Marder III" which is built out of box with scratchbuilt tarps and covers from aluminum foil and also a home made ammo storage box. He's using a variety of paints from Model Master and Tamiya, finished with washes by Mig and Tamiya.

Dick Schulenberg had three subjects for us this month:

1.) An Airfix Boeing B314 Clipper (kitted by Minicraft) in 1/144th scale. He's building it as a desk display model for a friend, so it'll be kept clean (no weathering).

2.) A Revell PBM Mariner Flying Boat in 1/118th scale (old Revell "box-scale" kit vintage 1957). This is another desk model for a friend and will be omitting the weathering. He's used Tamiya Primer from the spray can and Vallejo acrylics brushed over it. He's left off the gun turrets to create the transport version of the airplane. He is going to use a collection of left over decals to complete the Mariner.

3.) An F-Toys Grumman S2F-1 Maritime Patrol Aircraft he's adding to his growing collection of 1/144th scale 1950's naval aircraft. Dick explained that it is a snap together, pre-painted resin model with plastic parts. Again, he's using Tamiya Primer from a spray can and PollyScale acrylics brushed over it. He is also obtaining decals from an eBay seller in the Czech Republic.

Paul Hines continued his efforts in automotive art this month with a 1955 "D" type Jaguar, a 1964 Chaparral 2, a Superformance Ford GT40 Mk. 1 and a 1958 Lister Jaguar.

Tom Faith continues work on the 80-foot Elco Torpedo Boat. He's adding a wood plank deck, full interior including crew quarters, chart room, engine room, muffler assemblies and levers, helm detail and an armored cover. He's using paints by Tamiya, Floquil and Testors. Tom says that the models' deck needs to have a "crown" added and it will definitely cause some fit problems that he will have to resolve.

Tony Gliszczynski brought us a 1957 Ford "Gasser" by AMT and a Jeff Gordon Monte Carlo. He build the Monte Carlo out of the box and the Gasser was a kit bash. He cut and made the frame rails and added a Chevy Big Block engine. He painted the Gasser pure white and the Monte has a clear red coat over a gold base.

Gene Paveljack finished the Roden Omnibus Staffwagen in, I believe, 1/35th scale. Gene was able to work around the misnumbered parts for the windows in the instructions and used paint by Vallejo to finish it. He's added jerry cans and camo netting from scratch. Final finishing included chipping, pinwashes and drybrushing techniques.

Al Germann's work in progress was a 1957/67 Chrysler. He is impressed with Krylon's "Shimmer Metallic" paints that he applied to the body just before the club meeting. He says, "it's amazing paint. Prepped with primer with 1500 grit, sprayed two coats and haven't polished it yet. Super glossy right out of the can".

Nigel Usiak finished a Tamiya 1/35th scale M41 Walker Bulldog and used Tamiya paints to finish it.

Samantha Hanna's Warhammer "Age of Sigmar" wargaming figures were finished with Citadel base paints, washes and highlights. She also showed her Bandai "G Guys" plastic figures that she's put together "for fun".

Jeff Keenan made some additional progress on his Monogram "Pie Wagon". Jeff said it was his first car model (from the Secret Santa gift exchange), and he's having fun with it.

There were a number of additional unidentified items on the tables:

Finally, some around-the-room photos.

Thanks to Justen Hanna for handling the table duties, and Larry Osolkowski for the photography. A final reminder: if you bring in a model for the tables, make sure you fill out a form with the description, and make sure that John (or the officer running the meeting) gets the form at the end of the night. The forms can be downloaded from the link on the website front page, or picked up at the meeting.