Greetings and salutations to one and all! Summertime is nearing and the grills will be firing up soon if
they are not already. I am glad that last month's meeting had a really good turn out and I hope this trend
continues. Other than that, not really much is going on as summer usually means a slow down with building for
some.
At the last meeting, a member asked about what happened to our out-of-the-box categories and a good discussion began. Dick Schulenberg wrote a piece on this matter, which you can find later in this newsletter, and it hit the nail on the head. Instead of out-of-the-box categories, have Novice categories for aircraft, armor and cars. In short this will be for newbie builders, inexperienced to moderate. Some brainstorming will have to be done, but I think this will draw in people who may be timid to compete with the more experienced modelers. Also this could create new memberships as well or at least create more revenue for BuffCon. Again, this will have to be looked at as there is a lot of grey area but it's worth a shot!
Also remember every meeting, bring in something to work on or build.
Until next time, happy modeling!
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - May 18, 2021
7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.
7:10 PM - Meeting called to order.
Old Business:
- Come up with ways to create more awareness of the club to the public - draw in possible new members.
New Business:
- Possibly replacing out of the box with Novice categories for aircraft, armor and cars.
Questions from the floor.
Table discussion: Members tell the club about the models they have on the tables.
Break: 10 minutes.
Members catch up on what's been going on since the last meeting.
Call for adjournment.
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, May 18th, starting at the usual 7:00pm. We will be
returning to the traditional meeting room in the rear building. Here are the safety guidelines we will be
following:
If everyone follows these guidelines, we can have a safe meeting. Please consider coming to the meeting to
support your club, and bring your current projects. Hope to see you there!
Club dues for 2021 are now due. The Eboard realizes that club activities have been greatly reduced due to
the pandemic, but the club still needs revenue to cover expenses. We have been fortunate that our club
meeting facility, the Knights Hall, has not been charging us for the months that we've been unable to hold
general meetings, but that will change as soon as meetings can be held again. Also, the club was not able
to have our annual BuffCon show, a major source of income, last year, and there is a real chance that we
may not be able to hold a BuffCon in 2021. If you can afford to pay the annual dues of $20 and help support
the club during difficult times, please send a check to:
Tom Faith
7381 Clinton St.
Elma, NY 14059
Make checks payable to IPMS Niagara Frontier. Thank you!
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 the 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.
The Spring 2021 newsletter of the IPMS Patriot chapter is available HERE.
The Links page on the club website has recently been updated with information contributed by members. If you have a favorite website for modeling info, forums, etc., email the information to larryo@ipmsniagarafrontier.com.
A NOTE TO NON-MEMBERS
IPMS Niagara Frontier is a group of people from the Western New York area who enjoy the hobby of scale model building. We have about 80 members with 40+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Monday of every month at The Knights, 2375 Union Rd., Cheektowaga, NY 14225.
A typical meeting starts with a short session related to club business. This is followed by "Show & Tell" - many members bring in their current work in progress to share experiences with other members. There is usually at least one model-related demonstration by a club member at each meeting. Meetings are free to the public. If you are in the Western New York area we would love to have you drop in to one of our meetings and say hello. We welcome modelers of all skill levels - from beginner to expert.
Our annual BuffCon event held each year in April continues to be one of the largest shows in this part of the country.
As a community-oriented club we also gather toys each Christmas for the "Toys-for-Tots" program and are proud of our support of this worthwhile program.
A brochure that describes the club and its activities can be found HERE.
The minutes from the April 2021 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.
Apr 20th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
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.
May 14th - 2nd VP Larry Osolkowski led the meeting, held online via Zoom.
Thoughts On Why We Dropped the Out of Box Categories
by Dick Schulenberg
At our last general club meeting there was quite a discussion concerning the decision to drop the few Out of Box BuffCon categories we've had for a number of years.
Here's my thoughts on this subject.
Out of the Box categories limit entries to those models built from the contents of the kit box with a few exceptions. The kit instructions are required to be displayed with the entry so that this limitation can be verified by the judges. The exceptions are minor and may depend on the particular contest. Some examples are the addition of seat belts from tape, rigging if shown on the instructions or the use of aftermarket decals. The intent is to focus on the fundamentals of plastic modeling, like form, fit and finish. This is very much the basis of IPMS USA judging that we, as a chartered Chapter, subscribe to. The addition of aftermarket products like resin cockpit, wheels and the like, as well as all kinds of photoetched bits or scratchbuilt stuff, is not allowed in these categories.
In some ways, these categories were, and still are by some, considered to to be entry level or novice categories. They don't "require" the addition of relatively expensive or hard to get supplemental or replacement parts. You work with what comes in the box and can feel like you are entering a category with a level playing field. The focus is on form, fit and finish. In other words, all the seams are filled and smooth, there are no glue marks, clear parts are still clear, everything is square and symmetrical, all the wheels are touching the ground, there are no brush marks, overspray or orange peel in the paint and the like. Really, it's just basic modeling skills and good clean workmanship.
"Hi-Tech" kits, which started to come out in the mid to late '90s, changed things for these categories since the "hi-tech" stuff in the box was what used to be aftermarket but is now a necessary part of the build. It blurred the line between Out of the Box and the rest of the categories. The fundamentals of form, fit and finish are still the basis for judging. All the "hi-tech" stuff makes for more opportunities to mess up on the fundamentals. Admittedly, it's eye-catching, but if not done well, it's not a plus and catching eyes is not one of the IPMS USA judging criteria. That said, eye-catching is what matters if you're going for the "People's Choice" award, which we don't have.
The same applies to entries in the "regular" categories. It's still all about the basics of form, fit and finish. If you can build and paint your model well and don't mess up the add-on details, you could be a winner in a regular category. If you can build and paint your model well out of the box, you could be a winner in that same category. It's not what you add but how well you handle the basics. You might be surprised at how often picking a category winner comes down to comparing the number and extent of glue or brush marks between otherwise nice models.
Given that, and if the IPMS USA judging fundamentals are followed, a well done Out of the Box model is on an equal footing with the model with added bells and whistles.
This was driven home to me a number of years ago when I was helping to judge the small boats category at an away from home show. Not a lot of entries but the top two were an early WWII 77' PT boat modified from an old Revell PT-109 and an equally old out of the box Chris Craft cabin cruiser. Lots of work went into the PT including a scratchbuilt superstructure, but there were several obvious glue marks and some rough paint. By contrast, the simple cabin cruiser was clean and sharp with immaculate paint including wood grained decks. My heart was with the PT, but, as the other judges pointed out, it's back to form, fit and finish and the cabin cruiser had all that nailed. It took me a while to accept that.
With all of that in mind, I believe the separate Out of the Box categories are redundant and an unnecessary expense of awards and judging time. I believe that contest entrants often enter in both the Out of Box and regular categories which further undermines the entry level or novice argument for Out of Box categories.
I agree that it can be intimidating to a first time entrant and that we need to allow for that. To my mind, the entry level or novice argument for our of the Box categories is better served by replacing them with something like "Novice - Aircraft, all scales" and the same thing for Military Vehicles, Automotive and Other, or something similar. "Novice" would need to be defined, probably more than just the first time entering BuffCon, but it could be done. Policing it could be problematic so it might have to be just an honor system.
In any event, we have some time to consider this before our next BuffCon.
Dick Schulenberg
3D-Printed Resin Kit of a Mooney Mk20J
by Bruce Mathes
This is my initial try at a 3D computer printed resin kit. VFR of Luxemburg makes the kit, and as far as I can see they do pretty darn well. They are every bit as good as Anigrand kits although just as pricey. This little gem set me back just under $50 US with postage from overseas.
The kit consists of less than 30 parts. The one piece fuselage already has the fin and rudder cast with it. Then you have the engine cowl, and the two wings and horizontal stabs. The interior has a floor, seats and 2 tiny control wheels that fit into the instrument panel which is already in the fuselage. The landing gear consists of two mains and a nose wheel strut along with separate wheels and gear doors. A propeller spinner and 2 prop blades complete the parts.
Upon opening the box, you find that the moldings are on something that resembles a bridge girder. Lots of different size vertical spikes that hold the moldings, and these go right down to the landing gear doors which are molded thin, so be careful when removing these. In my example one of the wings was warped with a downward twist, but running it under hot water and then taping it down flat until the part cooled seemed to solve the problem. The other wing was fine.
I found a really colorful photo online and as is my practice, I will try to match the photo with the paint job on the kit. The decals with the kit are just junk, so don't even bother with them. As you will see, painting is much better than decals and gives you the option of many different paint jobs.
The inside of the cabin area was sprayed Testors Tan, and the seats were brushed the same color but trimmed with a dark Red Brown for contrast. Just a swipe of Black suffices to cover the instrument panel, and a dot of White paint in each instrument hole gives a satisfactory illusion of an instrument panel. The two control wheels were painted Black and glued into the holes provided in the panel. Things are so small that I didn't even bother with seat belts on the seats. With the interior glued in place, next the two solid piece wings are glued to the fuselage and then the horizontal stabilizers, all with Super Glue. Just a tad of putty was needed here and there to make all joints smooth. Then everything was primed with Tamiya Surfacer, allowed to dry, then lightly sanded smooth with wet sand paper #400.
Now the moment of truth: the clear cabin cover and windows part which is a vacuformed piece must be liberated from its oversize casting. I do this by placing thin masking tape over all window-windshield areas, and also along the border of the finished size piece. Then I used my Dremel tool with a sanding wheel installed to just ease away all of the excess material until I have a perfect finished part. I just leave the back edge with a slight overhang which fits over the fuselage casting, and then this is faired in with just a little putty until the edge disappears. Just remember to dip the part into Future so as to prevent finger marks from appearing when the Super Glue vapors come off the liquid glue as it cures, and your part will remain CLEAR.
All that remains is to paint the basic airframe first with primer, then spray several coats of Tamiya Gloss White over the entire model and the landing gear doors as well as the prop spinner. The spinner even has two holes for the separate blades to glue into. Blades were painted Black with White tips. When the White has dried I covered everything on the model except what I wanted to be Brown. This was sprayed and let dry. Then I cut VERY THIN strips of tape and masked for the ORANGE color, leaving the gaps between the two colors White. This applies to the fuselage, wings and tail parts. Since everything turned out so well, I even masked out and sprayed the small Chrome Yellow panel between the Orange and Brown on the fuselage and sprayed this. Remember, the colored stripes run up over the cabin windows all the way to the windshield, so your strips of tape must be very thin in width to appear realistic.
When the paint was dry, I sprayed Testors Gloss Cote over everything as a base for the only decals on the model - the White FAA registration on the fuselage sides, and these all came from a decal sheet with White letters and numbers. This done, now the landing gear struts are glued into their locating holes inside the wheel wells and when dry, the wheels are glued to the struts and then the gear doors go on the outside of the struts and either side of the nose wheel well. The White spinner has the prop blades glued in and this is glued to the nose of the model after putting a drop of Black paint into each side of the cowl's air openings. Last, the exhaust pipe is glued into its hole in the lower cowl.
The photos enclosed show a proper looking Mooney Mk20J in the 1970's era. I think you will agree that it's much better to mask and paint than to attempt to use the decals that come with these general aviation kits. My next one may be an Aero Star Twin to go along with my Beechcraft Model 50, Twin Bonanza. More later, if you can stand this sort of stuff.
Bruce Mathes
We start with current projects that members have sent in via email, and then continue with models on the tables at last month's live, in-person meeting.
New member Bruce Mathes, who submitted an article that appears above, also sent a couple of photos
of additional aircraft projects.
Bruce also sent along some photos of an interesting 1:1 restoration project, a 1955 Willys 4x4
Wagon. He said it has a 6 cylinder motor, and has been fully restored over 4 years time, including
the full interior with headliner, electric wipers, solid state ignition, both trans O.H., new heater,
radiator, Saturn OD, new UV's (4) of them, custom wire wheel covers, 12V, painted 2 years ago. Bruce
mentioned that "it's on Hemmings as I'm too old now to do much with her, but it sure is fun to drive.
Gets lots of looks."
Dave Armitage sent in photos of several new models. The first is the SMS Emden. It was built from
a Revell kit from the 1970's in 1/350 scale. Dave mentioned that this light cruiser, built in 1908, was
sunk near the Cocos Islands by the British cruiser Sydney on Nov. 9, 1914.
Dave's second model is a Harbor tug from a 1955 Revell kit. Dave said no scale was given, but judging
by the figures, I would say 1/96. He said the only problems were brittle plastic and very old decals.
Dave's last item is titled "Escape the Tentacles of Fate". Dave said it's a reissue of an old Lindberg
kit - Pirate with sword cuts chain to free other from octopus.
John Doerr sent us some photos of his current work on 1/144 aircraft.
Continuing with the model tables from the meeting, Dan Price displayed his Nurgle Plague Furnace.
It was finished with Mission Models base coats and Citadel and Reaper paints. Dan said he will
probably put drips of toxic waste coming out of the cracks. He said the kit build beautifully, and
it will be part of his army for 40K, and supplied fun with color.
Al Germann had a couple of models for us to see. The first was a Revell 1/25 1970 Firebird work
in progress. Al said he's changing the car from a Trans-Am to the Esprit trim level, and has an old
Firebird body to cut up for body parts and pieces. He's building it for his brother; it was one of
his brother's first cars around 1980, but unfortunately there are no reference photos.
Al's second model is a 1955 Ford Panel Truck from the 1/25 Revell Harley Davidson kit. Al said he
used Krylon paint with dry transfer lettering, and artist's oil over Tamiya tan for the wood floor.
He mentioned that he's converting it down from a performance engine. He found an early T-Bird engine
and some stock wheels, and is building it as a tribute to his grandfather's grocery store.
Dave Armitage also brought a collection of models to the meeting. The first was an Engine House
in HO scale, finished with acrylics. He replaced the tar paper roof with shingles, and added some
drybrushing for weathering. It will go on his model railroad.
Dave's next model was the Steamship Great Western, finished with acrylics and rattle can paint.
Dave said he scratch-built the railing over the paddle boxes. He also mentioned that the instructions
were in Chinese. He said it was the first steamship to make an east to west crossing of the Atlantic.
Dave also showed us a 1/24 Camping Trailer diorama, done with acrylics and Chinese instructions.
Dave had a couple of figures on display. The first was a Russian soldier with a PPSh 41 submachine
gun. Dave said he likes Russian stuff, and actually has a real PPSh 41.
Dave's other figure was a 1/6 resin bust of Catherine the Great, finished with acrylics.
Dave finished up with a WW I diorama. He said he scratch-built the rafters on the damaged
building, used acrylics and rattle can paint, and drybrushing. He mentioned that the dirt roads are
plaster, and the ruts were made with a small screwdriver as the plaster hardened. Dave likes WW I
subjects, and added that the diorama is a mixture of 1/72, 1/76, OO and HO figures and vehicles.
Paul Hines is back in the model-building groove, and brought in three new subjects. The first
was the "Seguin" all wood plank-on-frame steam tugboat, bought directly from Blue Jacket Shipcrafters
in Searsport, Maine. Paul said the Seguin is the last wood steam-powered tugboat in the world.
Paul also had two automotive models: a 1968 Chevy Nova in white, and a 1969 Dodge Charger RT in
silver. Paul said both cars are set up for drag racing with riser blocks in the rear. He said the
engine in the Charger is fully plumbed with spark plug wires, heater hoses, breather hose and battery
connection wires.
Jim Greenfield brought in a model of the Hovership Nebuchadnezzar, a 3D printed resin kit in
around 1/150 scale from the movie The Matrix. The model is currently in Testors black primer, with
added landing gear and a modified gun. Jim said the kit has its challenges, but it's workable. He
picked it because "it's weird".
Eugene Paveljack displayed his War Hammer done in Citadel primer, paint and washes. He said
the fit was not the best, needing a lot of filler and sanding. Eugene said he likes to paint
figures, and his son uses them for gaming. Eugene had a few other models on the table as well.
Nick Carluccio showed us his AMT 1963 Ford Galaxie, finished in Krylon Coral Isle. He added
bare metal foil for the trim. Nick said he was unable to adjust the ride height without modifying
the one piece chassis. He mentioned that he just felt like building something straight out of the
box without making any modifications.
Mark Budniewski brought in a couple of items for us to see. The first was an AMT 1965 Dodge
Coronet which he found on eBay. This model was a cover car for an issue of Car Model Magazine.
Mark said he got it because he didn't want to see it taken apart or rebuilt, and he's building
a new copy from a kit from Polar Lights.
Mark's other model was an in-progress 1937 Chevy Sedan Delivery body in resin from an unknown
caster. Mark said the body was broken and warped at the front when he got it, and it's been repaired
with a section from a styrene body. He got it because it was cheap!
Tim Grieve displayed four models this month. The first was a Roden 1/72 UC-123K Transport. He
used a variety of Testors colors, added spray bars under the wings and at the tail, and weathered
the exhaust. Tim said he had some issues with missing parts from the original AC-123K kit so he
modified it to another model.
Tim's second model was a Roden AC123K Black Spot. This was built from the replacement of the
original kit (see above) that was missing parts. Tim said he enjoyed both builds.
Tim's third model was a Hobby Craft 1/48 Vampire FB5, finished with Testors and Model Master
paints. Tim said he liked the design, and the decals were great.
Tim's final model was an Airfix 1/48 Douglas SBD Dauntless SBD-3. This one was painted with
Model Air and Testors paints, with weathering on the exhaust. He used decals from Marks Models,
and made the front tire from modeling clay. The original decals were old and shattered. Tim said
he likes dive bombers.
Larry Osolkowski showed additional progress on the 1/20 Tamiya Leyton House F1 car. He got
the brakes and wheels mounted at both ends, and put chrome tape on the mirrors which are now
painted. He discovered a big problem with the upper body - the vents on the side can be swapped
from side to side so they wind up backwards. He had to remove them and switch sides, requiring
filling, priming, sanding, etc.
Larry also brought in another Metal Earth model, this one of the Starship Enterprise from
Star Trek Next Generation. These kits come as sheets of laser-etched metal, and assemble using
tabs fitting into slots and bent over. They go together quickly and are fun builds.
Larry's last item was an upcoming project - a Revell 1/24 Ford GT race car. This one will
be done in the Wynn's livery, which is a very striking metallic purple with orange stripes.
He got decals from Scale Motorsports, along with the correct purple paint from Splash Paints,
a photoetch set from Studio 27 and some resin wheels and tires from Decalcas. It should be a
good looking car when finished.
Mike Butry brought in a new kit, a Suyata 1/48 Panther A with maintenance crane and display
base. Mike said this is a brand new offering from Suyata, which is the sister group of Jakan. He
mentioned that this is a full detail kit, inside and out.
Mike also showed us his progress on the 1/35 Tamiya armored Jeep. He said he used thin sheet
stock for the armor plating, with a mixed bag of sources for stowage: Verlinden, Tamiya and aluminum
foil. He's also using GasPatch's 1/35 flexible ammo belt, which he says is very neat. Mike has a
thing for Jeeps.
Dick Schulenberg displayed his 1/24 scale 1890's Gilbert Class B Geared Logging Locomotive, all
scratch-built. He used Vallejo Model Air paint over Tamiya grey spray can primer. Dick said the model
was all scratch-built from plans/photos in "The Geared Locomotives of Dunkirk". He bought the bell
and whistle, and heavily modified the light, back head valves and water hatch. Dick said: "lots to
learn. Made master for wheels and had Frank Blonski cast 8 copies. The wheel set side frames are all
plastic and assembled in a jig. The boiler and water tank are wood covered in card stock, with pins
for rivets. I grew up in Dunkirk with relatives who worked for Brooks Locomotive Works/Alco and only
recently learned there was another locomotive builder in town. This model will be donated to the
Dunkirk Historical Society Museum for their railroad display."
Dan Marafino took over the artwork section this month with a collection of watercolor paintings
of WW II subjects taken from a WW II book, plus an acrylic painting of a Wildcat on canvas.
Bob Conshafter had two new in-progress projects for us. The first was a joint effort with John
Doerr, an Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Mk 16e, #421 Squadron RCAF. It's painted with Tamiya SF-83 on the
bottom and XF-82 on top with XF-81 green camo. Bob said that John did the interior with Eduard
instruments and seat belts and the basic build of the plane. Bob re-sculpted the prop blades for
better accuracy, and is enjoying the build, especially the airbrushing.
Bob's second in-progress project is a Monogram 1/72 P-51B Mustang, out-of-box. Bob used
Aeromaster olive drab faded #41 on top, with Tamiya XF-83 medium gray on the bottom. He plans
to build it with the markings of Captain Richard Turner's "Short Fuse Sallee". Bob said he picked
the subject to get back into plane building; it's the first 72nd plane he's built since the '80s.
Ron Mikol brought in a couple of his latest automotive projects. The first was a 1970
Pro Mod Superbird, finished in PPG Sublime and Clear. The model started out as a glue bomb,
and Ron chopped the top, extended and lowered the front end, stretched the body and added
aluminum interior panels.
Ron's second item was a '58 Edsel Panel Delivery. He used a custom mix of PPG Grey, Orange
and Clear. Ron cut up the body, added a Nomad roof, built the side panels, and combined two
floor sections. He did it to "make something different".
Brian McFee showed us the progress on his current aircraft project.
David Safe decided to try to kill the newsletter editor by bringing in a display of
twelve of his automotive builds.
#1 is a Meng 1/24 2013 Jeep Rubicon, done in Tamiya Blue with Rustoleum Flat Red
for the interior. David really likes the Meng kit.
#2 is a Revell 1/25 '58 Chevy Impala, done in Rustoleum light blue for the interior
and Tamiya blue for the outer body. He added a detailed engine and textured seats.
#3 is a Revell 1/25 '66 El Camino finished with Tamiya maroon, a flat red interior, and
chrome pen for the trim.
#4 is an MCP 1/25 '84 GMC Pickup, painted with a variety of Rustolem paints. David added
model junkyard parts, rust holes in the body, and made it look like an old truck with replacement
body parts, primer, rust, etc.
#5 is a Monogram 1/25 '48 Ford Woody Sedan. He used Tamiya blue, with a lighter blue on the
interior, and added real wood on the sides using veneers from a cigar box, stain and clear yellow.
There are also travel decals on the windows.
#6 is a Tamiya 1/24 Limited Grand Cherokee Jeep. The body was not painted; the interior is flat
black Rustoleum. David said the parts were so clean, he just polished the body.
#7 is a Revell 1/24 '97 Ford Ranger Pickup, done in Tamiya slate grey metallic with Rustoleum
grey for the interior. He put in a roll bar, made a tube bumper, and used the tonneau cover for the
right look.
#8 is a Revell 1/25 2007 Cadillac Escalade Ext. Pickup. The body is Rustoleum red with a Tamiya
clear coat. David said it came with TV monitors, including the big screen TV with sub woofer speakers,
visible in the truck bed when open.
#9 is a Mobius 1/25 '65 Ford Styleside Custom Cab Pickup, done in Rustoleum Sea Mist with decals
on the doors.
#10 is a Revell 1/24 Datsun Off-road Pickup. He used Rustoleum and Tamiya paints with decals on
the sides and a few added details.
#11 is an AMT 1/20 GMC Sonoma Pickup in Rustoleum White with a Tamiya black interior. He added
mud spatter to the outside of the truck.
#12 and last is a Meng 1/24 Hummer H1 with a polished body and Tamiya black and Rustoleum grey
primer for the interior.
If memory serves, Al Germann brought in some cheap useful items that he found at the dollar store.
Tom Faith showed us his progress on his current projects since last month.
Finally, some around-the-room shots.
Thanks to all of the members who sent in photos and updates on their current projects.
This is probably the largest newsletter we've ever done - members have been busy building!
