Greetings and salutations to one and all. First and foremost, Happy New Year to one and all!

This F-4C will be done up in the 107th FIG out of Niagara Falls, NY, when they first received the Phantoms in the SEA (Southeast Asia) scheme.

This A-10A will be done in the markings of the 174th TFW out of Syracuse, NY, aka "The Boys from Syracuse."

This will be built as a P-39N that was assigned to 430th CCTS out of Ephrata AAB, Wash.

And this beaut will be built with a twist. It'll be done up as a 425th NFS bird (one of two P-61 units in the ETO), but as a "what if" plane.

Just one more thing - we are still looking for people to do demos. They do not need to be long - 15-20 minutes max, but if you have a certain technique or a way of assembling, please share. If you are shy, that's ok, you can always do a write-up with step-by-step photos and it'll be published in our newsletter.

• Paint chipping
• Masking canopies
• Filling in seams; different materials/techniques
• Bare metal foil application(s)
• Figure modeling/painting; skin tone techniques

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - January 21, 2025

NOTE: CANNOT ACCESS FACILITY BEFORE 6:50PM

7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.

We would like to encourage all club members to join the national IPMS. Help support your hobby on a national level. IPMS provides the insurance that allows us to have our events, and membership includes a nice monthly magazine. The website can be found at: IPMS, and an application form can be found HERE.

The monthly general club meeting will be on Tuesday, January 21st at the Williamsville Youth & Recreation Center, 5005 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221, starting at the usual 7:00pm. Parking and entry to the building is in the back. There will also be a 50/50 raffle held at the meeting to help raise funds for the club. Directions:

Dues for 2025 are now due, and can be paid at the upcoming January meeting. Full year dues are currently $20 for adults 18 and over, $5 for juniors age 11-17 and free for under 11. If you joined the club after November 1, your paid dues are applied to 2025 for the full year.

Member Tim Carson passed along some information of interest to the club:

To keep our club mailing list up-to-date, if you are a member of IPMS Niagara Frontier and have recently changed your email address or are not receiving the club newsletter and meeting emails, please contact our website coordinator, Larry Osolkowski, and pass along your email information. Thanks!

A link to the current Sprue and Glue News has been included in the Newsletter Blast emails provided by National IPMS. For those readers from other chapters, and anyone else who might be interested, our website has a Newsletter page with buttons to select any of our newsletters from the current year. There is also a button on that page to access the Archive page, which has links to all of the newsletters published since September 2007.

A NOTE TO NON-MEMBERS

The minutes from the December 2024 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

December 17th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • Dick S. led discussion to recap recent revision to the constitution. This was put to a vote and passed unanimously.
  • Mike B. led review of our club's participation at the model train show at the Erie County Fairgrounds where we had a table for club promotion. This event was favorable to the club and there is talk about their show in February. Mike B. has action item to follow up.
  • Jeff K. provided an update to our display at the Clearance Library. Five display cases are available for collection Monda,y March 1st. Our plan is to retrieve models prior to BuffCon.
• New Business:
  • Club Treasurer is in a local hospital for a recent medical condition.
• BuffCon #40, April 6, 2025:
  • Raffle kit collection is ongoing with several collected at this meeting.
  • Mike stated the need for all members to help with the event. An event this size needs everyone's help which in turn lightens the workload for everyone.
  • Short discussion on printing flyers for #40 and Al G. has action item to provide a draft for a "save the date" flyer for #41 in 2026.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • New member named Dan was recognized. Dan is mainly a ship modeler.
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting but the amount was not recorded
  • The discussion for the models on the tables went around the room where people sat.

To promote greater transparency regarding the operation of the club and the EBoard, action items from the current month's EBoard meeting will be published in the newsletter. These will not be detailed minutes of the meetings, but highlights that the general membership should be aware of.

January 16 - President Mike Butry led the meeting, held at Section 8 Hobbies.

• Old Business:
  • Mike B. called Tom F. to join the meeting. Tom is home from the hospital and is on the mend.
  • Treasurer Tom F. spoke with the new manager at the Knights Hall. She was unware of the details of BuffCon. He will get back to her and make sure arrangements are all set, including table delivery.
  • Mike B. is checking with a relative who is an accountant regarding Treasurer activities. It was suggested that, on average, it would involve around 1/2 to 1 hour per month. Access to relevant club info, such as the Paypal account status, would be necessary.
  • Dues will be collected at the January general meeting.
  • The club display at the Clarence Library in March should be announced and promoted at the next two general meetings.
• New Business:
  • Tom B. mentioned the possibility of the club purchasing a small shed to be used for storage of club materials and supplies. Justen at Section 8 is receptive to locating it on the shop's property.
  • Tom B. will also get some checks from Tom F. in case they are needed for reimbursement and expenses.
  • Tom R. suggested taking a member survey on the direction of the club this year and desired changes to how things are done. He has an action item to provide paper and pens at the next meeting.
• BuffCon #40, April 6th, 2025:
  • The flyer was updated by Larry O. and should be ready for printing
  • Tom F. has action item to have flyers (500) printed.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Demos were discussed again. There are three demos lined up for the next three meetings, but members should be asked about doing future ones.
  • Short discussion on IPMS Chapter of the Year, which IPMS NF has won in the past. There is a list of requirements posted on the national IPMS website. Community involvement is one of them, and the Kids Class was mentioned again, although the club doesn't have any of the supplies or model kit access that we used to.
  • Short discussion on the Buffalo Naval Park situation regarding our display. Tom R. has had difficulty contacting anyone there; they are too preoccupied with current major ship issues.
  • Short discussion regarding other club exposure opportunities, such as the Erie County Fair, and the car shows at the Wurlitzer complex in NT.
  • Short discussion on model categories and the lack of consistancy at other area shows.

Paul Hines continued with his maritime theme this month, showing us two more paintings. He described the first as "just a pretty picture of a fishing boat heading back to the dock with a nice sunset behind it. The light captured my attention, so I decided to paint it."

Paul's second painting was a "JAX - a racing yacht of the highest caliber, built by the Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine. I was attracted by the black sails and the lean of the boat in the water. It was fun painting the wave swells alongside the boat. Maritime art is a welcome break from painting cars."

Ilya Grinberg displayed a 1/72 Arma Hobby F4F-4 Wildcat. He used AK paints for finishing, and added MG ports made from tubing; he also thinned the landing gear doors and detailed the cockpit.

Jeff Keenan brought in a Dragon 1/72 M2A2 Bradley ODS. He used mostly Vallejo Model Color paints. There's no weathering yet, but he plans on chipping the paint, spraying on some dust and adding some wear and tear. Jeff drilled out the barrel and he's replacing the "horrible" rubber mud flaps with sheet styrene; he'll also be adding some stowage. He mentioned that it's a pretty great kit with no issues so far. Jeff said he's really enjoying how quickly a 1/72 armor kit goes together.

Dave Zoerb showed us his Hasegawa 1/1500 Space Pirate Battleship Arcadia, finished with Tamiya Field Gray and Tamiya Panel Liner. Dave said it was an excellent kit with no fit issues.

Al Germann showed us his progress on the AMT 1/25 Ford LNT-8000 Snow Plow. It's pretty much done.

Steve Weller displayed a photo he found online of an Edmund Fitzgerald diorama. Steve said the modeler would not say how he did the excellent water, but it's pretty cool.

Tom Petkovsky showed us his Tamiya 1/32 F4J Phantom II. He used Tamiya White and Pink primers and X-4 Blue; Mission Models White and Light Gull Grey; Vallejo Dark Grey; Ammo Rail Center Aluminum; and latex house paint(!). Tom said his modifications included Sprue G (Tamiya), Tamiya Epoxy Putty (seamless intakes), and he used the rubber tires from the kit to support the in-flight mount. Ammo Rail Center Fuel Staining and Streaking Grime were used for weathering. He mentioned that he had problems matching the blue on the decals with the Tamiya X-4. Tom picked the subject because "F-4s are cool".

Larry Osolkowski had three items on the table. The first was his minimal progress on the old Monogram 1/25 Porsche Indycar. He ran into problems fitting the turbo and pipes to the exhaust headers, which broke off several times. The fit of the engine parts in general was not very good. Larry also scanned the decal sheet and heavily revised the Quaker State decal that goes on the nose of the car. The original was overprinted in white and looked bad; the revised version was printed on white decal paper and should work much better. He also chopped up the rear wing into separate elements that will be joined to photo-etch end plates.

Larry's second item was some progress on a BBR 1/43 Ferrari F310B from the 1997 F1 season. He started the kit a number of years ago, and decided to finish it. The floor and body are assembled and primed, along with primer on the seat. It's a nice kit.

Larry's last item was a pre-painted Metal Earth kit of a grand piano. He built it as a Christmas present for his wife, who is a pianist. Larry said the kit is pretty amazing - the paint detail is excellent and it went together well.

Jim Greenfield displayed a Warhammer 40K Tau Piranha Light Attack Craft. He used Citadel, Mission and Tamiya paints for finishing, and added weathering with washes and drybrushing. Jim reconfigured the kit and modified it with spare parts. He said there were no problems with the kit, and it's something different.

Tom Brown, Sr. had a few items this month. The first two were cars from 1960: a 1/25 Ford Ranchero, and a 1/24 Chevy Impala. Tom said he's having trouble keeping his fingers out of the super glue.

Tom's other items are related to his Cut the Herd category for BuffCon. Tom lost his brother to cancer recently, and decided to build his entry in memory of his brother. He was inspired by a statue outside of Roswell Park, and made a replica from the Cut the Herd Buffalo. He made the base from foam, used real weeds for grass, and 3D-printed letters.

Ted Szczesny was back with another Metal Earth kit. This one was from the Premium Series, and is a Western Star 54900SF Log Truck and Trailer, with 244 parts. He used Sharpie markers for touch-up. Ted also mentioned that assembling these kits is easier with some specialized tools, and he brought some in to show us. He highly recommended the AHIER 23 metal puzzle tool kit, available from Amazon for $25, which has a good collection of shaping and bending tools along with several other useful items. Another highly recommended tool set is a pen disassembly punch set. The PKDISET Pen Disassembly Set, $28 from Amazon, contains some larger sizes and longer rods that can be very useful.

Paul Kittell displayed a work-in-progress, a 1/150 Wyoming Class Monitor (ca. 1895-1902). The model is scratch-built, with the use of a laser cutter to make hull shapes from drawings. Paul described the weathering as "naturally accumulated dust from neglect". He picked the subject because it's not commonly modeled.

Austin Stegall brought in his Tamiya 1/35 M13/40 tank. He used Vallejo paints in Desert Yellow, Hull Red, Rubber Black and Steel, and Tamiya Buff. Austin added weathering with chipping, washes and pigments. He said there were no problems with the kit, and he wanted to do a unique tank that wasn't from the main nations' typical models, such as Russia or the US.

Mike Butry displayed a Tamiya 1/48 P-51B Mustang work-in-progress. He airbrushed Vallejo Model Air paints, including invasion stripes and theater ID bands on the horizontal stabilizers that were masked and painted. It's built mainly out-of-box, with aftermarket tires and exhausts. Mike plans to add weathering with panel washes. He said it was a pretty straightforward build except for removing the panel lines from the wing surfaces. Mike added that this was for a group build for the anniversary of D-Day. It was started on January 1st, 2024, and was to be completed by June 6th, 2024. Oh, well...

Mike also brought in a new release from Das Werk/Takom - a 1/35 Panther Ausf. G Late Production. He said this will be used for a future group build on "The Plastic Posse", one of the Facebook groups he's on. Mike mentioned that the kit has some really nice detail, and it's simplified like Tamiya kits. It comes with photo-etch grills and a metal barrel, all for just $25 - a great kit for the price.

There were a few unidentified objects on the tables.

There were some magazines free for the taking.

The annual club Christmas pizza party was well-attended and enjoyed by all.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to the members for handling the model tables, and Larry Osolkowski for the photos.