"Now is the time for all good members to come to the aid of their club".

Notes from the May 2012 Meeting

New President John Zaranek led off the meeting with a call for a vote of significant impact on the club. For some time, it has been increasingly apparent that we are outgrowing our space at the Youth Center. Seating is getting tight; we are not able to have multiple discussion centers as we wish due to the acoustics in the room and the center posts are becoming increasingly annoying during the general part of the meetings. Parking is often a hassle as well, particularly in winter.

The E-Board has been actively seeking an alternative site for almost a year. Based largely on the negotiating efforts of Dave Schwab, we have the opportunity to move to the Knights of Columbus Hall on Union Road, our BuffCon site, into the room we use for the contest part of BuffCon. The cost is $100/month. We are currently paying $60/month of which $30/month is forgiven because we provide the support and materials for the annual Kids Model Building Class at the Center.

Some advantages of the Knights of Columbus Hall are more room, better acoustics, no parking problems, easy access and good relations with hall personnel. The increased costs are sustainable for quite some time without increasing dues even if we have a poor BuffCon for some reason. Because the hall is not closed for Federal holidays, all of our meetings can be on the third Monday instead of having to juggle our schedule for January and February.

Our current contract with the Youth Center is at up the end of June, so this is a good time to make a change.

After some discussion by the general membership, a vote to move our general meetings to the Knights of Columbus Hall, starting with the July 2012 meeting, was called and approved by a very large majority. John Zaranek and Dave Schwab will finalize the arrangement over the next few weeks.

We'll be sending out a reminder about the new location to everyone before the July meeting.

As required by our constitution and IPMS USA rules, retiring Treasurer presented the annual financial report covering the period from 4/30/11 to 5/1/12, including all BuffCon 2012 transactions. We are in sound financial shape with sufficient resources to sustain our normal activities for quite some time. If you weren't at the May meeting, a copy of the report is available to all paid members upon request.

We also welcomed new member Patsy Schulmerich from Rochester. Patsy's a long time modeler and BuffCon regular. Of much more significance, Patsy is Dave Schwab's fiancée with a wedding planned for this summer. Congratulations to you both.

May was also the month to step up for the annual Tim Horton's Challenge. We had a lot of willing suckers sign up this year. You can read the rules, entrant list and teams in the separate article. Good luck to everyone.

Justen Hanna reminded everyone that Section 8 Hobbies will open in a brick and mortar shop located at 2243 Seneca St. in Buffalo on Friday June 1. Flyers were available. Good fortune to Justen and Sam in this ambitious endeavor.

There were lots of items on the display tables this month.

Mark Budniewski brought in a really nice 1/25 scale kit of the 1955 Chrysler 300 by Moebius. This is a brand new kit that's part of an ambitious program of diverse kits from this new company. Their new 1/128 scale Seaview sci-fi submarine (the movie version) is over 3 feet long.

Rich Bernecki also brought in a new kit, but this one was a reissue of the 1950's vintage Renwal 1/32 scale US Army Terracruzer missile transport complete with a Martin Mace cruise missile. Revell reissued this kit with the original Renwal box art for an impressive package.

Jim Wolf had a couple of things to show us. First up was his 1/30 scale WWI French Senegalese infantry soldier. This is from a new range of WWI figures that looks very nice, even if the scale is odd. Next was the rekindling of an old project. Long ago, Jim put a lot of effort and add-on parts into modifying a 1/35 Italeri Panzer IVG back to the E version. He finished the turret but not the rest of the tank. With new kits specifically for the E version available, the turret could have been scrapped. Jim decided to use it a gun emplacement on a fixed superstructure for an interesting vignette. This will be an interesting partially scratchbuilt project. Cool!

Ted Paris gave us a preview of several brand new 1/35 resin armor kits from Commander Models. First was an impressive (and large) British WWI Mk. 1 Male tank with full interior. Next was a 1930's vintage US Army M2 armored car and finally, Ted showed his new International M-2-4 cargo truck which comes complete with the T-45 rocket launcher used by the USMC at Iwo Jima. I hope the pictures show the detail on these castings. Google Commander Models for more information.

Mike Martinez had two very different kinds of armor to show us. His metallic red dragon is from the Grenadier castings and really shows off its scaly stuff with careful drybrushing. His other armor was a 1/35 Trumpeter late version German WWII SdKfz 7/2 halftrack carrying a 3.7cm Flak 37 antiaircraft gun. Mike found Terry Ashley's building tips for this model on the Perth Military Modelers website to be essential for a trouble free building experience. He's brush painting the model in one of the dark camo schemes. It will end up in a diorama so watch for it.

John Zaranek has made some progress with his Normandy concrete gun emplacement for his almost finished 22mm Flak 38 four barreled anti-aircraft gun. This should be a nice diorama/vignette when he's done. The emplacement is based on a broken Verlinden hydrocal casting with some nice, home made groundwork.

Brian McFee displayed one of his signature clean builds, this time a Canadair Sabre Mk. 4 from the Hasegawa 1/48 kit. He finished it in RAF Germany markings in the dark green/dark grey/PRU blue scheme from the 1960's. These colors give the Saber/Sabre a very purposeful look. Another nice one, Brian.

Finally, Mark Gadek showed a 1/48 Italeri Saab JAS-39 Gripen jet fighter that looks sharp as all get out in light gray lowers/medium gray uppers and Swedish crown markings. Mark says it was a weekend build. I thought it looked flawless. I would need a month of weekends to get close to Mark's work.

There was a lot of interesting stuff and great work on the tables this month. We'd love to see yours here too!

Here are the entrants and their models for the Timmy Horton challenge.

Earl Hochdanner and his AA/FA Altered "Winged Express".

Mike Martinez and his Panzer Spahwagen.

Larry Osolkowski and his Glencoe SPAD XIII French Aces.

Bill Borkowski and his US Air Force Stealth Fighter.

Tom Faith and his German Field Oven, and Tony Gliszczynski and his '68 Dodge Dart Hemi.

Piotr Gajowka and his P-39N Airacobra.

Jacob Gadek and his 1/48 Pegasus Hurricane.

Mark Gadek and his 1/48 KP Su-22.

Brian McFee and his 1/48 Tamiya P-51B Mustang.

Steve Weller and his Airfix 1/600 Cossack.

Dave Schwab and his Revell PT-17 Stearman.

Pat Schulmerich and her Revell 1/100 Apollo Command Module.

Rich Bernecki and his Tamiya 1/48 A6M5 Zero.

Ed Button and his Launch Pad Nike-Ajax missile.

John Doerr and his Hobby Boss F4F-4.

Joe Saccomanno and his Lindberg Jaguar XK120.

Scott Udave and his Revell Van.

Frank Del Russo and his invisible Henschel Observation parasol.

Mark Budniewski and his AMT Dirty Donny Chevy Van.

Jerry Fuglewicz and his Lindberg Velociraptor.

John Zaranek and his AFV Club 1/35 FV107 Scimitar.

Bob Raithel and his Hobby Boss Me-163.

Bob Collignon and his Warhammer Steam Tank.

Finally, some around the room shots of the meeting.

Our next meeting is Monday, June 18 at 7 PM, still at our usual spot in the Amherst Youth Center. See you then, and don't forget to bring in finished, in-progress or unstarted kits 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