Greetings and salutations to one and all! I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer so far and you are all able to get a little bench time in. Before I go any further, I will not be at this month's general meeting so our vice president, Dan Price, will be filling in for me.

Lastly, as I mentioned above, the start of show season will be upon us and we will have to start preparing for our show for next April. I know it's early but it'll be here before we know it. We have a lot to accomplish but we've got this!

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - August 20, 2024

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 20th 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:

We recently received some information regarding an upcoming model show. Here are the details:

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 included in 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 2024 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

July 16th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • Tom F. provided basic financial status which is has our club in good shape.
  • Tax filing issue is finally resolved with the help of a local political representative. Thanks to Tom for all his work on this.
  • Jeff K. provided an update on the club's upcoming display at the Clarence Library and requested members to send him photos of models for planning the layout. The plan is to present a large variety of subject matter. The shelves have a depth of 11" that might limit some dioramas. Jeff is requesting to bring models to the August meeting for collection so please package appropriately. Promotional pamphlets are needed. This is a great promotional opportunity for the club.
• New Business:
  • None.
• BuffCon #40, April 6, 2025:
  • None.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting with the tickets sold resulting in a $50/$50 split. There was also a raffle for a balsa wood B-17.
  • Frank B. conducted the secondary raffle of a bag of coffee.
  • Frank B. spoke about NNL model show on August 25th, Sunday on Erie Ave. in North Tonawanda. Frank is providing a promotional table to the club at no expense.
  • Steve W. spoke about an issue he had with a mail order decal company where he never received the product after paying.
  • Al G. conducted a "hands on" demo on the making of a brick wall from a single piece of insulation foam. Starter piece and basic tools were provided and Al narrated the technique for the participants.
  • Bob C. led the discussion for the models presented 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.

There are no EBoard meetings held in June, July and August.

Jim Greenfield displayed his Robotech Resin Garage Kit Spaceship that he recently obtained. He's made some modifications to fix part warpage so the ship will be straight. Jim said he loves Japanese Anime.

Paul Hines brought in three new paintings of automotive subjects. The first was a Ford Shelby Mustang GT350. Paul said "I wanted to show the car in action making a hard left turn, so I dropped the right front to show lean, as well as the driver's head. The background was blurred to create depth."

Paul's second painting was a blue AC Cobra. Paul commented: "With a big Ford V8, it had lots of power in a light weight car. I used a light gray to push the background back and bring the car forward, giving the car a 3D effect."

Paul's third painting was an orange gasser. Paul said "a little smoke on the tires gives excitement, and the fans in the background add depth to the painting."

Larry Osolkowski displayed a couple of items this month. The first was another Salvino's JR Models kit of a current Indy car in 1/20 scale, the Penske Chevy of Scott McLaughlin in Pennzoil livery. The kit is very high quality, with clean molding, great detail and a full engine along with excellent decals including a large sheet of carbon fiber. The kit instructions also look very well done. They plan on doing a series of these kits including both Chevy and Honda engined cars.

Larry's other item was the progress on his Tony Bartozek Challenge model, a Moebius 1/1 Hal 9000 Computer panel from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey - it's done! Larry said this is the first time he's ever finished a Challenge model well ahead of the deadline. He mentioned that he had some paint issues that required stripping and repainting a couple of parts, but the kit went together well. The touch sensitive switch worked out well, so when you touch the "2001" on the base, the sound card plays the famous line from the movie, which was demonstrated at the meeting.

Ron Mikol showed us his progress on three model cars that we saw last month. The first was a Caddy Pickup that had significant modification and scratch-building to the body. It was finished in Sozar Gold Pearl with a clear coat.

Ron's second model was a '57 Buick Pro Mod done in Orange Pearl and Black with Prismatic Pearl.

Ron's last model was a Pontiac Bonneville Sedan Delivery finished in Candy Raspberry over Silver Flake.

Al Germann brought his "Challenge" build to show its progress. This started with the Revell kit of a 1941 Chevy pickup but extended using junk parts to accommodate a box van that came from eBay, a Jimmy Flintstone resin. Additional purchases include 3D printed commercial truck wheels and to top it off, decals for the Acme Anvil Company. A throwback to Wile E. Coyote and his endless deliveries. Al stated he had the kit for a long time but it took a while to identify the theme of the build. The bench seat for the interior is covered with tissue paper and diluted white glue to simulate wrinkles in the fabric which is very easy to do and shows great results when dusted with some pastel chalks. The only thing to add is that the body and frame are with Al's usual Kryon spray paints.

Ted Szczesny brought in his latest large scale RC project, a Tamiya 1/14 Volvo FH16 4/2 Tractor Truck, with a Tamiya MFC03 Electronics Package and a Futaba 4-channel Radio/Receiver. Painting to date includes Tamiya spray lacquer in Surface Primer, Gunship Grey, Gloss Aluminum and Semi-gloss Black, along with Tamiya acrylics for touch-up. Ted said he replaced the ABS chrome wheels with aftermarket aluminum wheels, and the rear light housings required modification to accept circuit board mounted LEDs included in an aftermarket lighting kit. He mentioned that he had issues with the lighting kit because the components plug into their own circuit board which then uses a set of 10 jumper cables to plug into the MFC03 control board. Those cable plugs are too big to fit into the MFC03 board, so he's waiting for a response from the vendor before modifying the jumper cables. Ted said he's in the process of painting, assembling and wiring the remaining kit components while waiting for the arrival of more aftermarket LED lighting components - you can never have enough lights!

Frank Blonski had flyers on the table for the upcoming NNL show and associated T-shirt.

An old balsa wood airplane model was raffled off.

There were a few unidentified objects on the tables.

Al Germann gave a demo on making brick walls from insulating foam. He brought materials for members to use to make their own brick walls. It's a simple process and produces very realistic results.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to Bob Conshafter for handling the model tables, and Larry Osolkowski for the photos.