...or News from the Nameless One
Let me start by saying, great job everyone! I haven't seen the actual numbers yet, but it goes without saying that this year's BuffCon was a great success.
Thanks to everyone who helped. As I've said before, many hands make light work. But, even with as many hands as we had, there was a lot of heavy lifting to do. As a club, you folks did it spectacularly.
The rough count shows this as the highest number of entries in a few years. The raffle table and kitchen were booming. The vendor's room was a veritable beehive from start to finish. We had folks come from NYC, Ohio, all over Canada and as far away as Tennesee! We had several folks attend AMPS down in Virginia, then drive all night to attend our show. How cool is that!
Dave Schwab will have the numbers available at our next meeting. I can't wait to hear all of the financial specifics.
As always, the April meeting is our BuffCon wrap-party. We'll have our usual pizza extravaganza. Bring an appetite!
Also, don't forget that April is election month. We have a couple of e-board seats that need filling this year. If you want to run for an office or an e-board position, please let me or Dick Schulenberg know as soon as possible. As always, we are looking for some new faces to step up. Future success is forever dependant on new ideas and energy. Having been on the board now for a few years, I can tell you that it's not all work. We have a lot of fun and really get to know each other like family. If you can commit to an extra meeting a month, I urge you to throw your hat in. I promise that you won't regret doing so.
That's about all I have for now. This is a short 'From the President's Desk' due to my being BEAT from show day. See you all next Monday, April 18 at 7PM in our usual haunt, The Harlem Road Community Center basement.
The next e-board meeting will be at Paul Hines' house at 7pm on April 25th.
Justen Hanna
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA #45680
PS: The 2011 "Timmy Ho's I am Not a Modeling Loser Part 5" will be beginning in May. A new format will be instituted. Attend the April meeting for further details... (muhahahah! MUHAHAhahaha!)
Notes from the March 2011 Meeting
At the March meeting, we had our customary 'Judge's Seminar' to prepare the judging teams
for the upcoming BuffCon model contest before the model table round-up. This month's table
moderator was Frank Blonski.
Starting things off, Joe Coyle brought in a Trumpeter 1/35 scale Swedish 'S' Tank, which
is under construction. Also a work in progress is a Tamiya 1/35 scale Russian KV-2.
Tony G is happy with his early version Academy M1A1 in 1/35 scale. He reports that it
went together nicely.
A 1/35 scale JS-3 Stalin Russian tank was displayed by Jim Wolfe. So far, he's
applied the base coat and some shading, and it's nearly completed.
Paul Hines showed his Model Shipways 1910 Elsie Schooner. The decking was done one
plank at a time and he rubbed a graphite pencil on the edges of each of them to create
the caulking. He used Bob Collignon's soldering technique on the front winch and did
lots of extra detail work on the lifeboats - making seats and oars. Paul states that
the major challenge on the project was the rigging. He coated all the rigging lines
with beeswax.
A German Opel Blitz truck depicted having been captured by the Russians was built
by Ilya Grinberg. The 1/72 scale Fujimi kit has had an engine taken from a Roden kit
and photoetched parts from NH were added. Ilya cut out the molded in windshields and
replaced them with plastic film. He also replaced the Fujimi tarp with a resin one
from Black Dog.
Jon Zaranek showed 3 armored cars: The first was a 1/35 Dragon BRDM-2M - a small
Armored car with rocket launchers. Next, he had a 1/35 Shanghai Dragon BTR-70 Soviet
armored car. John rebuilt the hinges on the hatches with Evergreen Rod, replaced the
hand grips with wire, and replaced the struts with plastic rod. The last model was
an Italieri 1/35 U.S. Marine LAV-25 Air Defense armored car. John replaced the hand
holds with wire, and replaced parts of the suspension with plastic rod - having
melted the original parts by overheating them trying to soften the plastic with a
space heater.
Joe Vallone displayed three 1/72 scale colorful airplanes: Two Furias racing
planes, one featuring a big radial 4350 engine. A "Miss Ashley", a heavily modified
Mustang racing plane. All models were manufactured by HighPlanes kits, which require
lots of carving and sanding and the plastic is very soft and nearly crumbles when
working with it. However Joe reports this is not a problem as it is easy to work with.
He also says that the interiors require a lot of sanding to make them fit.
Steve Weller brought in an old copy of American Modeler from August 1959 that he
got from his niece who collects antique clothing. She also gave him a World War 2 era
Popular Mechanics magazine that featured Hellcats. Cool stuff!
Dick Schulenberg showed a 1/72 Meikraft Brandenburg W29 seaplane, a long range
German reconnaissance plane. The top of the wings consist entirely of decals. The
water was achieved with clear acrylic gel over clear plexi-glass with paint underneath.
Dick also brought a 1/35 scale French Panhard armored car dating from 1939/1940.
The Alby plastic kit was a weekend build that Dick had fun putting together.
As with all of Dick's modeling projects, both models were hand-painted.
Larry Osolkowski had a 1/43 scale Porsche with the body painting fully
underway. Larry painted the body Sunoco yellow, then masked it off before painting
the Sunoco blue color. He used Scalefinishes.com enamel paints and reports that
they take a long time to set-up. Larry says that the company also sells an acrylic
lacquer and in the future, he will most likely stick to the acrylics. All the other
assemblies are finished, so as soon as Larry finishes the painting, the model will be done.
Tom Brown brought two Albus Dumbeldore bust castings. One is cast in plaster, the
other was cast by Frank Blonski in resin. Tom intends to use the plaster cast as a
practice piece before painting the resin one. He plans on finishing it by BuffCon.
Dan Marafino brought his latest acrylic painting projects. These depict locomotives
in scenic surroundings and in motion. He did winter scenes so that he wouldn't have to
render the railroad ties. Dan is trying to put the Central Terminal Building in as many
paintings as possible to give them a local flavor.
A new tool set being sold at 3Guyz was presented by Bob Collignon. The set is from
Small Shop and is a punch and die set for modelers. Bob has gotten the example shown
as a test set and the company has graciously let him keep it. After using 5 other
brands of punch sets, he reports that this is the best of the bunch, partly because
this set has a refuse reservoir that catches the punched-out part and allows the punch
to pass through the punched material and clears the punch for the next operation. It
also has a substantial 'deck' and the tips can be replaced if broken.
Mike Martinez had a very cool RAFM "Battle Triceratops" with Orcs and stowage.
Mike plans to enter the figure at BuffCon.
Tom Mooney displayed his Revell B1A Bomber in 1/48 scale. This plane model is
big! He painted the plane with Tamiya acrylics and some metalizer.
John Doerr showed his Trumpeter Camopeder jet aircraft in 1/48. He chose the
subject because he loves the wild camouflage scheme. John combined parts from
Tamiya and Eduard to complete the build. John also had a stack of reference books
to lend to interested parties.
Ernie Yuhnke brought some vintage BuffCon awards from 1975! That would make them
from BuffCon 7. That's before many of the current group got here!
A purple GTO Snap-Tite kit was displayed by Kayla Nichter. She says that she
used stick on decals to detail the model.
Apologies, but there were a few other unidentified works in progress.
Finally, some photos of members around the room and the model tables.
YOUR 2011 DUES WERE DUE IN JANUARY!
Your club dues for the 2011 calendar year were due at the January 2011 meeting.
Regular memberships are still $10.00 per year and Juniors (under 18) are still $5.00.
You can pay the Treasurer Dave Schwab at the meetings or by mailing a check to Dave at
28 Wanda Ave., Cheektowaga, NY 14211. Please make checks (or money orders) out to Niagara
Frontier Chapter IPMS.
Make sure that you share any updated information like addresses and e-mail addresses with
Dave as things change.
Extension of our Special Offer for All IPMS Niagara Frontier Members
We had a good year at BuffCon so the Executive Board has determined that we can extend our special
IPMS USA national membership support offer through the end of April 2011.
We will rebate ½ of the cost for a one-year membership to IPMS USA, our national "umbrella"
organization for new national memberships and renewals until BuffCon 2011. The tangible
benefit to this membership is 6 bimonthly copies of the excellent modeling publication IPMS Journal.
Adult memberships are $25.00 per year and Juniors (17 years old and under) are $12.00, so
your rebates are $12.50 and $6.00 respectively.
You will be responsible to complete and submit the application along with payment to IPMS
USA. Dave Schwab has application forms. You can also do this on line at the
National website.
You will receive a membership card in the mail a few weeks later.
To get your rebate, you just have to show your current IPMS USA member card to Dave Schwab
and he will give you money. How simple is that?
The E-Board encourages everyone to take advantage of this offer. It's a good way to get your
feet wet and see what IPMS USA is all about.
