Greetings fellow IPMS Niagara Frontier Chapter members:

Model Table Round-up from the March meeting

Joe Szczygielski's love of combat engineering vehicles prompted him to build the Meng 1/35th M9 ACE. Joe said it went together very well with no problems. He's used Tamiya's NATO Green, Black and Brown for the camouflage colors.

He has also been busy with the Tamiya 1/35 M48 A3, which he updated from the M48 A1 by lowering the hull, raising the turret and fixing the gun and fenders. The tank's colors were Tamiya Dark Green mixed with NATO green and weathered with Mig powders and mud. He's planning on adding it to a diorama with a Tamiya M113. Speaking of M113's, here's his model by Tamiya, again in 1/35th scale. He's used Tamiya Dark Green mixed with the same brand NATO Green and used decals by Verlinden. Mig weathering powders were added along with mud.

Lastly, he showed us a project he's just started, the huge Trumpeter 1/16th scale M-ATV MRAP. Joe related that the kit is "great" and the fit is good; unfortunately there are no interior details, so he'll be scratchbuilding them including radios and a mine roller.

Rich Bernecki's desire to build an Israeli Spitfire inspired him to build the Tamiya 1/32nd scale Spitfire IXE. He used an Eduard color instrument panel and sprue K from a Spitfire Mk. XVI kit to make the E variant wing.

Johnny Newmann brought in his 28mm Fallschirmjager figures and a bust of US Army General George S. Patton. He used Vallejo, Privateer Press and Citadel paints to finish them.

Tom Mooney offers up a 200mm bust of a US Army soldier. He says he has lost some parts, but persevered by using artist's oils by Windsor & Newton.

He has also been busy building a vignette of a "Bansai Charge" in 120mm by Verlinden. He has, yet again, used artist's oils by Windsor & Newton and Grumbacher along with black washes.

Justen Hanna's self-professed "love of turtles" prompted him to build the Wingnut Wings Fokker E.II in 1/32nd scale. Justen used Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics for the paint work, some Humbrol Metalcote for the cowl and artist's oils to simulate wood grain swirls and other weathering. Some aftermarket bits include Scalespoke wire wheels and an airspeed indicator from Gaspatch.

Mark Budniewski showed us an in-progress project, the AMT 1949 Mercury. So far, he has sectioned the body vertically 3 inches and chopped the top 3 inches as well. Mark says he's trying to see how low he can make it compared to the stock version. The resin piece he's using is proving problematic because it's slightly lopsided. He corrected the problem by separating the roof from the body on one side and filling the resulting gap, then reassembling it. Mark also tried a new, unconventional modeling product that claims to adhere almost anything - kind of like superglue - but it can be cured only by directing an ultraviolet light to it. He said it comes in a pen-like device with a built in UV flashlight. He says it works as advertised.

Matt Klukowski is continuing his efforts in building his HO train layout with his storefront and apartments. So far, he's put on one coat of paint by Citadel and it will need another. He's not quite sure what type of store it will be right now.

Jim Wolfe brought in his completed diorama of a Lithuanian City Building and IS-2 tank during WWII. Jim didn't elaborate on the construction and finishing process this month, but did say that he brought it to the meeting to shake off any loose debris because he doesn't want it spread around his house.

He also showed us his completed science fiction figure project called "Mars Attacks" by Moebius Models. Jim used oils, acrylics and simulated worn paint using the hairspray technique.

Jason Ignatjew offered us his AMT 1958 Plymouth. Jason cut the top off to make the car a convertible. He used Tamiya paint from rattle cans as the final color coat.

Jeff Usiak finished his "Buffalo Build", the 1/72nd scale Grumman F9F Cougar modified to look like the aircraft at the Kenney Field playground in the Town of Tonawanda (corner of Colvin Boulevard and Brighton Road). Jeff says he used paints from Vallejo, and scratchbuild the nose of the plane. He used putty to simulate corrosion, and scotch tape for metal patches.

Larry Osolkowski brought in a couple of works-in-progress. The first, which he hopes to have finished for Buffcon, is a 1/43 Chaparral 2C from a Marsh Models kit. The resin body required filling out-of-scale panel lines and rescribing them, and cleaning up the rear edges of a large number of louvers. He also replaced the exhaust pipes from the kit, which were poorly cast white metal, with lengths of stainless steel thin wall tubing.

The second model is another 1/43 kit, this time a Williams FW-16 Formula One kit from Tameo. These are nice kits, with cleverly designed one-piece photo-etched suspension corners, and really tiny multi-part brake assemblies.

Finally, on the other end of the scale spectrum, Larry showed us a set of turned aluminum wheels with resin centers, to fit a 1/12 BMW 3.5 CSL Race Car kit from Doyusha. He found them on eBay, and says they should make a nice improvement over the kit wheels.

Finally, there were a few other unidentified items on the tables.

Thanks to Larry Osolkowski for the photography.