I'd like to thank everyone who volunteered to submit their modeling tips and techniques. Here is a summary of those who gave me your proposals and the topics they would like to cover. At the August meeting, I will have hard copies of a "boilerplate" template to which you can add your topic in a step-by-step demonstration format. Once this is done, we can then add them to our website. I will also provide you a sample of how we'd like them presented. As always, your participation is very much appreciated and will only add to showcasing our talents as a club.

TIPS, TRICKS AND TECHNIQUES

Onward and upward,

Notes from the July 2012 Meeting

This was our first meeting at our new location at the Knights of Columbus Hall, in the room where we hold the contest part of BuffCon. We had a great turnout and snagged a new member too. Many of you may recognize Anthony Acquisto who works at Niagara Hobby. Anthony likes stock cars, funny cars, WWII subs and WWII aircraft. Welcome, Anthony!

Not much business again this month. President John Zaranek reminded everyone of a couple of things coming up. First is that the Tim Horton's Challenge models are due at the August meeting. I hope you're all ready. Second is that ROCON, the annual IPMS Rochester show, is coming up on September 16. We'll have flyers at the next meeting or you can check it out on line at www.ipmsrochester.com. John also reminded us that we are interested in adding more tips and demo material to our website. We have essentially unlimited space, so we can handle videos as well as text and photos. As John mentioned, we have writers who can add words and photos to your ideas and techniques, so let's see what we come up with collectively. Our new space should allow us to work on this kind of thing at club meetings as well.

John Doerr volunteered to be our tour guide for the models and stuff on the tables.

I (Dick Schulenberg) brought in a 1985 conversion of the even then elderly Revell Bf109G into the Czechoslovak Avia S-199, using old school techniques, limited references and a Horizon vacuform conversion "kit". I was also able to show the first resin casting of my 1/350 Whaleback Great Lakes freighter. I dropped off the master to Ted Paris on the Saturday before the meeting and Ted cast it over the weekend. The finished kit will be available in Ted's Iron Shipwright line this fall.

Mike Butry brought in the brand new Tamiya 1/48 IL-2 kit. It looks really good in the box and is supposed to build up pretty easily.

Jacob Gadek showed us his nicely finished 1/48 Pegasus Hurricane night fighter. Jacob has done really well with these kits and always seems to have a cool paint finish.

Larry Osolkowski brought in a newly reissued Porsche 356A Carrera coupe by Fujimi. It's quite complex and very nice. Larry also showed his progress on his Glencoe SPAD 13C for the Tim Horton Challenge. Still lots to do. Finally, Larry showed another new and complex racing car kit. This one was the Revell Mercedes Gran Prix Petronas MGP WO1 which features some superb decals including lots of carbon fiber panels in different tones.

John Zachritz models to a different beat and we are the better for it. He found an interesting Star Wars related photo on line and decided to make it in 3-D, all from various kit bits. I won't try to describe it, so check out the photo. In that same vein, John showed his 1/1 scale reproduction of a scene from an anime cartoon. In the cartoon scene, the character is building a biplane model in his hospital bed and the partly built model ended up broken on the floor. John used a vinyl floor tile as the base and a Fokker D7 kit for the broken model. A different beat, as I said. John also showed some new Comic Models kits: a big scale Thing almost done, a futuristic Crusader and a Lindberg Protoceratops that will end up with an interesting camo scheme.

Bill Borkowski brought in his in-progress 1/72 F-117 for the Tim Horton Challenge. It's a bigger model than I expected. Bill also showed a new Hasegawa 1/24 Mini Cooper S Countryman kit. It's a curbside with great detail and two sets of wheels.

Dan Marafino showed the biggest kit box of the day for his new all resin Conan figure. It's a huge model and Dan's first all resin kit. Best of luck, Dan.

On the subject of resin kits, Ted Paris brought in a batch of the brand new Commanders Models kits. There's quite a variety, starting with a WWI British Mark 1B with full interior, an M1A2 automatic anti-aircraft gun and a pre-war M-2-4 truck. Ted also shared that he's found his new favorite superglue, Loctite in the blue bottle from Home Depot. Ted says it's exactly the right consistency for kit building.

Ilya Grinberg showed us two current 1/72 projects. His Revell T-72B is upgraded with a number of resin parts while his new Sword Spitfire IXC features an Aires cockpit and brass cannon barrels. Ilya added some foil panels and wing root fairings to further detail this very nice kit. He says the foil requires a lot of patience to apply.

New member Anthony Acquisto showed some photos of his models and provided the background for them. His 1/48 Bell Cobra helicopter is from the old yellow box Testors kit with some scratch details and fantasy markings while his 1/48 Monogram B-24 (sorry, no photo) is carefully researched and detailed. Nice stuff.

John Zaranek had his finished Tim Horton FV107 Scimitar light recon AFV on display. He used clear epoxy for the headlights and Tamiya clear yellow over epoxy for tail lights.

Frank Blonski showed some more of his flying rocket models. These things are pretty big and powerful. His America has flown 3 times and his AGM-85 scale model has 2 flights. His current project is a 3 motored giant called Seireron 3 that should be an impressive flyer. They all feature Frank's clean building and high quality finishes.

Bob Raithel's 1/72 Academy Me-163 rocket powered bomber destroyer is almost ready for the Tim Horton challenge. Just a little more to do.

Brian McFee's Tamiya P-51B is all ready for the Challenge. He did a lot of research to match paints and posed it on a nice base.

Paul Hines showed another of his large scale ship models. This time it was a vintage Lindberg Nantucket lightship. It's basically out of the box with lots of cleanup, refinement and a neat paint job.

Rich Bernecki's Tim Horton Challenge entry is a 1/48 Tamiya late model Japanese Zero fighter in the green and orange trainer scheme. Rich is almost done with this clean build.

John Doerr also had his Challenge model on display. He chose a 1/72 Hobby Boss F4F-4 Wildcat. It's almost done in an early WWII scheme. John likes the model but he's convinced that the cowl is too small.

Tony Gliszczynski is almost done with his Challenge model, a 1/24 Revell Dodge Dart done up in a flawless finish. Very pretty.

Mark Budniewski brought in a challenging project he's taken on. It's the reissued AMT Vantasy custom van from a very long time ago. The model has great potential but the molds are so worn that just building it out of the box requires some advanced modeling skills. Mark took us through some of the work he's done already and there's still lots to do.

Justen Hanna showed a variety of kits. First was one of the earliest resin kits to hit the market, an Airmodel 1/35 scale kit of something German that I didn't write down. The Airmodel kits were pretty much a mixed blessing. The masters seemed pretty detailed but the casting was not so great. Justen also found that the resin is odd and that superglue in several varieties just didn't stick. Justen also showed a collection of kits he's put together for a proposed 1/35 science fiction diorama starting with a fantasy KV2 in resin along with a MIG kit for a turret with legs and a Marshydog (?) Voltran series Marine soldier. Justen plans to build this diorama as a modeling demonstration at Section 8.

Finally, some around the room shots of the meeting.

The new space seems to work well for us and the turnout of people and model stuff was great. We'd love to see your models here too!

Our next meeting is Monday, August 20 at 7 PM, at our new spot in the Knights of Columbus Hall, 2736 Union Rd., Cheektowaga. See you then, bring a friend and don't forget to bring in a finished, in-progress or new kit to show off.

Thanks to Bob Collignon for the photography.

The 2012 Tim Horton "I Am Not a Modeling Loser" Team Challenge V

2012 Tim Horton's Challenge Teams