Greetings and salutations to one and all! I'm not sure about you all but I can't believe how fast summer went and before you know it, the kids will be back in school. To recap, we have 13 members who joined the Tony Bartozek "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" club challenge. For those who like to be under pressure and still want to join, you have a month till the deadline. All build challenges have to be done by the September general club meeting. My build challenge is there and it's slowly moving along. We have three more additions to the list of participants:

As of the typing of this article, it's Friday and I am about to head out the door to do some photography work at Lancaster. Nobody ever gets sick from smoking tires - let's go drag racing!! Our very own Tony Gliszczynski, aka Tony G., and his gorgeous 1965 Ford Falcon and a few other cars.

Lastly, we will soon be getting into the show season and before you know it, the planning stages for next year's BuffCon. Here are the next three shows:

• NNL Buffalo Model Car Show - Sept 10th, 2023. Hosted by our very own Frank Blonski.
• ROCON 41 - Sept 17th, 2023.
• SyrCon 35 - Oct 22nd, 2023.

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - August 15, 2023

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, August 15th 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:

There is a correction to last month's newsletter: the items listed as USMC memorabilia from Tom Brown Sr. were actually an award from the Amps show for Tom Faith's LVT (A)(4) shown later in the newsletter.

Bruce Mathes, our long distance member from Hastings, NY, north of Syracuse is starting a scratch-built 1/48 scale Martin P4M Mercator US Navy patrol bomber. He's looking for the landing gear, wheels and possibly the top turret from a Monogram 1/48 B-24 to simplify this big project. If you can help, please connect with Dick Schulenberg at 716-934-2161 or at the next meeting. Dick can get the parts to Bruce.

We received a phone call from a non-club member recently, requesting some help with selling off his collection of unbuilt models. His name is Paul Rados, and he has around 180 kits of 1/48 aircraft of various types and various model manufacturers. Paul can be reached at 716-694-8626 or by email at: psmrados@aol.com.

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 added in recent months to 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 July 2022 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

June 20th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • Tom F. stated he retrieved the displayed models as part of the World War I exhibit for club members to pick up.
• New Business:
  • Club members rearranged the tables to better display models. Mike reminded that these need to be returned to the original layout. Bob C. took the lead on this task.
  • Tom F. provided basic financial status.
  • Tom F. described an issue with the club's tax filing with New York State. Our check submitted for estimated tax will cover our responsibility.
• BuffCon #39, April 2, 2024:
  • Mike provided a summary of his conversation with Robin at The Knight's Hall which was on their formal name, signage and advertised name. This may be discussed again for the reference on the BuffCon flyers.
• NorEastCon 51, Saturday, April 29th, 2023:
  • None.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • Upcoming shows/events:
    • ROCON 41 in Rochester Sept 17th.
    • NNL Sept 10th in Tonawanda. Frank B. went on to say this event is planning on a real car show, food truck, air brush demo.
    • Erie PA on Oct 1st.
  • New location opening of Section 8 is likely to open at the end of July.
  • Mike informed the attendees he had an offer of a large collection of models, mostly aircraft. The person stated a price of $1,800 if there is anyone interested.
  • Tom B. Sr. provided a review of his tour of Buffalo Fire Dept. fireboat Cotter. Also ask the club if anyone had ideas for a plastic scale model or 3D model of this ship.
  • John D. stated he has a large selection of photos from the U.S. Air Force museum if anyone wants reference photos.
  • A member provided some personal concerns with a low cost tool and supply website called TEMU.
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting, with the tickets sold resulting in a $65/$64 split.
  • Al G. led presentation of members' models on the tables.

To promote greater transparency regarding the operation of the club and the EBoard, action items from the previous 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.

Eboard meetings are suspended for the summer months of June, July and August. Meetings will resume in September.

Tom Faith displayed his Aerosan Diorama. He used Mr. Surfacer primer and flat white paint with black, brown and sepia ink washes and Senalier flat pastels. Tom scratch-built the interior, and replaced springs, the door and the light. He said the kit was great, and it was an interesting Russian subject.

Bill Borkowski showed us his progress on his club challenge build, a Tamiya 1/24 Morris Mini Cooper 1275S Mk. 1. He said it's not ready for paint yet, and the kit has had too many frustrations to count. He picked the subject because he likes Minis.

Paul Hines brought in another collection of paintings, this group being of aircraft subjects. The first was an F86F Sabre Jet, used extensively in the Korean War against the Russian Mig with a 10:1 kill ratio.

Paul's second painting is an FA18. He said he enjoyed this painting because it included four elements: the sky, the sea, the deck, and this aircraft. With its gear down and flaps down, the FA18 landing while steam lingers from another one taking off makes for an action scene.

Paul's final painting represents his all-time favorite aircraft, the F4U Corsair. He said he's always loved the gull wings and big prop of the plane nicknamed by the enemy the "Whisteling Death".

Bob Conshafter showed us his progress on his current build, an LTD Dewoitine D.520 short run kit from 1994. Bob used Testors acrylic Light Grey 76, Grey-Violet 75 and Grey-Green 74, with grey and green fuselage mottling using a Grex airbrush with a 0.2mm tip and lacquer thinner. Added details and scratchbuilding included an electrical connect socket for the prop hub 20mm cannon, Japanese WW II seatbelts, and a "lantern" style gunsight made from clear plastic. The model has a Microscale Flat coat, with the plan being to use pastels for the exhaust, gun ports, etc. Bob said the kit went together well, with some aluminum rods for tail stabilizer supports, and a careful fit of the wings to fuselage using Tamiya epoxy putty and plastic putty. He mentioned that he likes the potential of the kit with the fine surface detail and unusual Bulgarian Air Force markings. Bob said he's enjoying the build, but will need to wrap it up for the next meeting and move to a more straightforward and more OOB linear build. He said the kit can be very absorbing and a bit of a trap for the AMS (Advanced Modeling Syndrome) modeler. Bob added: "it took longer to get done than I expected, but still proud of it, having fun. Not the kind of kit you want to set aside, as you won't go back to it!"

Tom Brown Sr. displayed his progress on his Iwo Jima Monument at Arlington in Washington, DC. Tom used 11 1/2" GI Joe figures, and painted them bronze. Tom said this was his artist's rendition. He started the base with foam, and used strips from vertical blinds around the edges. Tom's family is USMC.

Steve Weller brought in some odds and ends. The first item was his Air Force Veteran uncle's membership certificate to the original, politically incorrect Confederate Air Force. The second item was a set of photos of a scratch-built 1/72 Iowa turret and barbette for a New Jersey museum, with unbelievable detail. The third item was a printout of information on reusable resin-casting mold material. The last item was a set of photos of a 3D-printed tiger tank with complete interior, with insane details, and it's available on eBay.

Tim Grieve displayed his progress on his Monogram 1/24 Mercedes 300 SLR. He used Testors paints in Flat Black, Black, White, Red, Gray and Silver, Extreme Lacquer Silver spray can, and spray can lacquer Aluminum, Steel, Brown and Amber. Tim picked the subject because he loves Mercedes, and he said the kit parts fit was great and the decals are very good.

Larry Osolkowski displayed some minor progress on the Wicked Models 1/24 3D-printed kit of a current Porsche 963 GTP race car from the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car series. The floorpan was painted in Citadel Chaos Black, the brake discs and calipers were painted, and the front splitter received some paint that revealed the need for more sanding of the 3D-printer stepping.

Larry also showed us some progress on an old Heller 1/24 kit of a 1939 BMW 328 race car. This car won its class at Le Mans in 1939. The kit is fairly crude, with lots of filling and sanding required for seams, sink marks and ejection pin marks. The vinyl tires were also really shiny, but looked a lot better after sanding with a coarse sanding stick.

Finally, Larry brought in another future project, a Tamiya 1/24 Mercedes-AMG GT3 race car. This kit has been out of production for a while, but Larry found one on Amazon (!) for a good price. He has a 3D-printed conversion set to bring it up to the current configuration, and a set of decals to make the Weathertech team car.

Mike Butry displayed a completed MPC 1/25 Snap-Tite General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard. He painted it with NAPA Hemi Orange, and built it straight out of the box. Mike said there were two options for the decals: stickers or water slide. He chose the water slide, and also added metal wire for the antenna and aluminum foil for the trim, with minimal weathering. Mike mentioned that he's always liked the car and the TV series, and thought an easy build would be nice for a change.

Ted Szczesny brought in another Pocher model, this one a Pocher/Hornby Hobbies 1/8 Lamborghini Aventador. This was a mid-build preview, with all the good stuff still showing. He used Tamiya Flat Black for touch-ups. Ted mentioned that he had to be careful fully seating the small screws in the kit to prevent stripping; some lubrication helps. He added that gluing a variety of materials to each other required the use of several different adhesives. Ted said he picked the subject because of the challenge of assembly, high quality of the finished product, and high level of detail. He said the two thousand dollar oil changes on the real one are still out of his budget range. Ted added that the Lamborghini kits, along with Ducati motorcycle kits in the '20-teens were part of the second attempt to revive the Pocher brand, after the first attempt with the mid-1980s Porsche and Ferrari kits. Hornby sold the brand in 2017 and repurchased in 2020. Third revival possible?

Maryann Germann showed us her progress on the Odd Job figure from the James Bond 007 movie Goldfinger.

Maryann also started a new figure model.

Al Germann finished his Monogram 1/25 1980 Ford F150.

Al also brought in the bicycle model he's been working on, with the modified wheels using wire for the spokes.

Frank Blonski brought in some info on a new decal supplier, and a flyer for the NNL Buffalo Model Car Show coming up on September 10th.

There was a flyer with updated info on Section 8 Hobbies.

There were quite a few unidentified objects on the tables.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to Al Germann for handling the model tables. Photos provided by Larry Osolkowski.