...or, News from The Nameless One
Happy August everyone! I hope that everyone is having as fun a summer as we are here at the Hannaluftministries. Between work and household projects, The First Lady and I have found plenty of time to spend with friends and take the occasional day trip here and there. Recently, we got our son, Red up to Niagara Falls. He hadn't been there since he was two, so it was all new to him again. The look on his awe-struck face was well worth the $10 (YES 10!) for parking. Next week we're going to take him to the Arcade and Attica Railroad. I'm looking forward to the look on his face for that!
Regrettably, a trip to the IPMS Nationals in Phoenix is not in the financial cards for us. I'm sure this is the case for many folks. If anyone was able to attend, please give us a report at the next meeting. Pictures, too, would be greatly appreciated.
Now, down to business. As we are now all aware, our club annually tests its bonds of friendship and common decency with an exhibition. This exhibition is one of wit, staying-power and emotional fortitude. The laurels of victory are as lavish as the failure is shameful. Well... not really. But, the coffee's good!
The August meeting is the wrap on this year's annual I Am Not A Modeling Loser Tim Horton's Coffee Challenge Thing Part 4 (I think?) Whatever... For those who have opted to participate (you know who you are,) you must have your completed model/s present August 16th. Again, if you cannot attend, your model must be presented in absentia. If you do not have a completed model, you will be expected to provide a $5 Tim Horton's giftcard to those who did complete their project within the near future. And God have mercy on your souls!
For all challengers: Please be prepared to talk about your project. The selection this year was really varied and interesting. I, for one, am really interested in how most of these went together (or didn't as the case may be.) What problems arose and would you build it again?
With summer winding down, show season is going to gear-up. Our close friends in Rochester are having their annual show September 19th. ROCON 31 will be held at the same location as last year at the Radisson on Jefferson Rd. in Rochester. I've been to this show many times and it's always a good time. It's a short drive and well worth the trip. If you can, please show your support to our friends in the East and attend.
The Cleveland Show (Hey, Petah!) was NOT held in July as the IPMS Journal once had us believing. This year it will be held on November 7th. I will be attending this show for the first time, but I've heard many great things. Info about both of these shows can be found on the IPMS USA website (www.ipmsusa.org.)
See you next week!
Yours,
Justen Hanna
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA #45680
Notes from the July 2010 Meeting
The Tim Horten's "I am not a Modeling Loser" challenge is in full swing. Several entries,
in progress and finished, were brought in and put on the tables for preview. If you haven't
started your entry yet, start buying TH gift cards now to avoid the sticker shock later.
Remember, the entry you committed to is due at the August meeting!
We discussed the donation policy adopted by the E-Board and described in the July Dizpatch.
The policy, which is intended to make every effort to use donations as intended but still
allow some flexibility to account for those things that just don't work, seems to have been
well received.
Last month, we announced that the Cleveland Model Show was scheduled for July 11, at very
short notice. A lot of us complained because it's a great show, usually held in the fall,
which we look forward to. Well, turns out that the announcement was in error. The show is
really on November 7 (11/7, not 7/11), so all is well. It's easy to get to and well worth
the gas to go.
John Kavalich at Niagara Hobby is offering a 10% discount on our purchases just by
mentioning that we are IPMS Niagara Frontier members. Remember that the next time you stop in.
Bob Collignon announced that he was finally able to ship 2 big boxes of kits and supplies
we collected to our troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Our original contact was unable to make
the right connections, but Bob found a new contact through Missing Lynx, an armor modeling
website. Everything got shipped with huge thanks all around.
We had a couple of visitors too. Jim Stratton, who now lives in Florida, was up for a
family visit and stopped in. Jim is a former IPMS Niagara member and one time vice president.
He's an active (and excellent) modeler too. You can see some of his recent stuff in the
review section of the IPMS USA website. Phil Mahar also stopped in. Phil builds something
of everything. We didn't scare him off and he signed up as a member. Welcome aboard, Phil!
Jerry Fuglewicz, one of our newer members, mentioned that he sells kits from his booth
at Antique World on Main St. in Clarence on Sundays, so you might want to drop in.
John Doerr shared some really good news with us. His son is now back from active duty in
Afghanistan, with a Purple Heart but safe. He was hurt in an IED attack on his Stryker vehicle
but didn't tell his parents until he got home. Kids are like that, even grown ones. Glad
everything is OK, John.
Lot's of good stuff on the model tables too, with the discussion led by John Doerr.
Paul Hines started us off with a 3/32"=1' model of the Harriet Lane, a US Treasury Dept.
pre-Civil War Revenue Cutter. It's a solid hull wood kit from Model Shipways that Paul did
his thing on, too. Lots of added details, copper hull plating and all the rigging and cordage
really make for a fine model.
Bob Collignon showed his 1/72 Leonardo daVinci tank for the TH challenge. This little
resin kit turned out to be harder than he thought, mostly because of its size. Bob's planning
to paint it in red and white, the house colors of the deMedici family who funded the concept
at the time. Neat model.
Tom Faith had a couple of new 1/35 models all finished with oil pastels scrubbed on
for paint. His Dingo light armored car is from the Maquette kit with new tires and sand
shields along with a bunch of scratch details. His tiny Russian Kosomolets personnel
carrier is overburdened with a 50mm open gun as modified by the German Army during WWII
and the sled mounted Flak37 on a scratch built sled is really cool. Tom said that
applying the extensive Griffon photoetch to the Flak 37 was a very tough, torturous
project. Sure looks good though.
Dick Schulenberg brought in a new book by English publisher Aviation Workshop oddly
named "Wings of Stars" covering US Army Air Corps aviation from 1919 to 1941. It's all
color profiles of mostly pursuits with lots of references for the color schemes shown.
I like it a lot and am looking forward to the next volume.
Larry Osolkowski had some really neat detailing stuff for 1/20 scale Formula 1 cars;
photoetch for the Hasegawa 79 Lotus and a variety of really fine seat belts with photoetch
hardware. Very high end stuff.
John Zaranek brought in his nearly completed F/A-18E Super Hornet from the Revell-Germany
kit. It's neatly built out of the box with a concentration on the finishing techniques. John
preshaded the panel lines and used custom mixed colors. The final finish is 2 parts Tamiya
flat base in 3 parts Future, shot at 10 PSI, which looks very good. Something to try next time.
Frank Blonski had his challenge entry, a 1/72 Hasegawa Ki-84 Frank Japanese WWII fighter
ready to paint and a nice Revell 1/25 kit for a '66 Chevy SS 396. He also dug out a 1/144
A-10 kit by LS that he found he had started long ago. The glue is well cured, so he can
finish it up now.
Joe Saccomanno is really into HO scale slot cars. This month he brought in a couple
of cars that he's put some real nice work into. Starting with an old Aurora AFX '32
hardtop Ford body, he chopped it down into an open body with no hood and then cast it
in resin to fit a standard Tyco chassis. He added a new cast resin engine and finished
it off in real hot rod style. The flames you see in the pictures were cut from vinyl
using a computer aided Cricket cutting machine. They look just great in place.
Alan Gryfe showed us his progress on the British OO scale apartment house he's
modifying into a motel for the TH challenge. He has some computer drafted cutting
layouts ready to go. Good luck, Alan! Alan also brought in a set of Jablonski's "Air War"
WWII histories he found in a garage sale, some old built up car models including a
1/32 Pyro '34 Ford and some sample photos he took of his car model on a diorama base.
Joe Szczygiel is one of those overachievers who decided to do 2 models for the TH
challenge. He finished up the 1/48 Hobby Boss A-7E Corsair already so he's halfway
there. He says the kit build up OK, and it looks nice when done, but it's just too
expensive for what you get. Joe added a pilot left over from the Kinetic E2C kit he
finished recently for a nice touch.
Brian McFee completed his 1/35 Italeri WWII DUKW amphibious truck for the TH challenge
already. Now he's finishing up a scenic base. His next project is a 1/48 Trumpeter F-100F
that he plans to finish as a Viet Nam Anti-SAM Weasel.
Dan Marafino followed up his Three Stooges model with a completed 1/12 Airfix "Bond,
James Bond" figure from the movie "Goldfinger". He used lots of different finishing media
with a quick spray of DullCote between each layer to prevent unwanted interactions. Real neat.
Finally, John Doerr showed us a few models he just finished as a no-worry break
from the heavier duty models he's been building. You really had to squint to see the 1/700
PT boat (from Dragon) and the only slightly bigger subs. Seem to me that something that
small would increase my stress. Very nice though, and no problem figuring out where to
display the finished models.
Great meeting with lots of fun and good conversation all around.
Here are some shots of the group gathering around the table to hear the explanations
of the models and building techniques.
