Greetings and salutations to one and all! First and foremost, thank you once again for those members who volunteered in some capacity at Buffcon and we hope that you all enjoyed the pizza party.

Well that about wraps it up folks, and I'll see you all on Tuesday May 17th.

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - May 17, 2022

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, May 17th, starting at the usual 7:00pm at the usual meeting room in the rear building. No special safety requirements are in effect at this time. We have soft drinks left over from BuffCon, so refreshments will be provided at the meeting. There will also be a 50/50 raffle held at the meeting to help raise funds for the club.

Elections for club officers and EBoard members will be held at the May meeting. In addition to the offices of President, First Vice President, Second Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, there are six members of the Executive Board. Ballots will be provided at the meeting, so be sure to come to the meeting and vote.

The Tony Bartozek memorial "I am not a modeling loser" contest is back! If you want to participate, bring in a new, unstarted kit that you want to build. It must have at least five parts, and you will have to finish building it by the August meeting. It will have to be painted (at least one color), and you need to bring it to the May meeting. No prizes are on offer, just the satisfaction of completing a model on a deadline.

Section 8 Hobbies is now holding a build night every Wednesday from 4 to 9pm. All are welcome to bring their latest projects and work on them in the company of other modelers.

The BuffCon 37 website is now up, and can be viewed HERE.

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 April 2022 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

April 19 - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • None.
• New Business:
  • Eboard elections will be at next meeting and Mike encouraged members to run and nominations should be tonight. Justin S. approached Mike on running. Positions are a 2 year term and Larry O. spoke on recruitment.
  • There was discussion on the Tony Bartozek "I'm not a modeling loser" build challenge over the summer months which lead into agreement to have it for this year. Members are encouraged to bring in an unstarted kit at the May meeting and it must be completed by the August meeting. Additional details will be discussed at May meeting.
  • Al G. stated the club will be starting a 50/50 raffle at the general meetings starting next month.
• BuffCon #37, April 3, 2022:
  • Mike Butry thanked all the club members for helping out with the operations of the show.
  • Tom F. provided financial summary of the show which showed a profit. There were 405 models entered from about 80 people.
  • Al G. provided summary of the raffle which was considered a success.
  • Mike opened up the floor for comments and feedback on the show. This included:
    • Suggested to go with "open judging" where each model is evaluated onto itself with a score. While this is a good idea, the counterpoint is the overall time would increase greatly and many more judges would be needed. AMPS uses this format.
    • Participating judges were only from our club. A suggestion to reach out in advance of the show was made and Mike stated he did that on a limited basis this year.
    • Discussed advertising.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • There was a discussion on model kit manufacturers based in Ukraine and the eastern European region and the difficulties that are faced there with the war in progress.
  • Member's models on the tables were presented.
  • We had the "thank you" pizza party for the help with BuffCon.
  • Justin S. performed a demo on modeling water for dioramas.

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 9 - President Mike Butry led the meeting, held at Section 8 Hobbies.

• Old Business:
  • Election for Executive Board of the club will take place at the May general meeting. There will be 3 positions that will be open. These are the 1st Vice Preseident, and two position as board members. It was noted that any E-board position can be challenged by a new candidate. The members that want to run are Steve Weller, Justin Sczepczenski, along with Dan Price running for 1st VP position.
  • As for the election ballots, Tom F. has action item to create format and Tom B. Jr. has action item to print them.
  • The 50/50 raffle for the monthly general meetings was briefly discussed. Al G. has action item to lead this.
  • Maryann has open action item for an alternative location for the general meeting and report status at June E-board meeting.
  • Mike stated he had communications with John Z. on moving the club's excess kit storage and Mike has action item to follow thru with Al offering assistance in transportation and storage. After review, determination to be made on actions which ranges from club member purchase to BuffCon raffle.
• New Business:
  • Al G. proposed offering the soft drinks originally purchased for BuffCon to the general membership at the monthly meeting free of charge. This can stimulate attendance over the summer months. All E-board members agreed. Al has action item to bring a selection to the meetings.
  • E-board will have a June meeting for the purpose of on-boarding the newly elected members and discuss selected aspects of BuffCon 38 including trophy coordinator. The E-board will take the summer months of July and August off from regularly scheduled meeting but will reserve right to call a meeting if warranted.
  • Discussion on recent and future Region 1 / NorEastCon based on communications with Dave Schwab. Variety of aspects discussed including difference in categories, junior entrants, award placement, etc. No actions considered but stay current with information.
• BuffCon #38, April 2nd, 2023:
  • As previously stated, the Knight's Hall is reserved for our date.
  • Al G. has action item to compile action item time and existing work instruction for June E-board meeting.
  • Brief discussion on raffle kits at the NorEastCon recent event.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Section 8 Hobbies is willing to support a kids build clinic in conjunction with the club. Saturday morning is the current option, 10am-noon. This is in need of members to volunteer to work with the kids with planning and building sequence, techniques, etc. the next generation of modelers are important for the club's and the hobby long term success.
  • The Tony Bartozek "I'm not a modeling loser" challenge build starts at the May general meeting and must be completed by the August meeting.
  • Topics for possible demos at the general meetings were discussed. This included "discipline of modeling techniques by category or by product (Dan P.). Others were airbrush operations and bringing back the round table discussions.
  • E-board discussed older issue of old built models that were offered to membership with a few of them given away by mistake. Mike stated no progress or leads were identified.
  • The old Squadron books and model website is operating under new management.

Dave Armitage sent in some photos of his latest project, a 1914 Mercedes racer in 1//16 scale. Dave thanked Al G. for the kit.

Bruce Mathes provided a picture of his resin Navy N3N-1 from Hannants. Bruce said "Not a Stearman! Basic plane, w/220 Lycoming radial, big wheels but small fuselage just enough to fit student and instructor. Saw them in 'Dive Bomber'. $27.00 kit. But the guitar strings rigging makes the model look realistic, and it only took me less than an hour and a half to complete the rigging."

John Doerr is looking for some figure models that were rescued from the display case that was formerly located at Section 8 Hobbies. If anyone has any information on these models, please contact John.

John also sent in some photos of his current work-in-progress, a 1/72 Hobby Boss Me-262A.

John also passed along a modeling tip: "Anyone who has built a Tamiya kit knows the problems with their thick, 'cardboard' decals. I have a method to make them work."

Moving to the model tables, Mike Butry displayed his 1/48 Tamiya Jagdpanther Early. He used Tamiya and Model Master paints, with weathering added using drybrushing with various paints and the Tamiya weathering system. Mike added Monroe Perdue Studios paper thin zimmerit. The model took a third place at BuffCon.

Bob Butry showed us his 1/48 Revell F-86D. Bob used Alclad white aluminum for the body, and Caracal decals with no weathering because the real aircraft was clean. He said he always liked this aircraft, and they were stationed at the Niagara Falls airbase. The model won 2nd place at BuffCon.

Tom Brown Sr. brought in one of the G.I. Joe figures he's been working on. It was painted bronze, and Tom had to deal with a broken right foot, and he also had to do surgery after his dog chewed both arms off. He also mentioned that the boots are hard to get on.

Al Germann had two items on display. The first was a 1/72 Dragon Sea King Helicopter, "Retrieving the Apollo". Al used Vallejo airbrush paints, with preshading, and added interior detail. He said it was an interesting subject, and it includes the Apollo capsule.

Al's other item was an Aurora C-119G Flying Boxcar in box scale, possibly 1/87. Al is working on filling the giant panel lines with Tamiya putty, and describes the kit as having all of the quality of a 1960's vintage kit, or lack thereof. He said it's an interesting and a bit odd subject, and he got the kit from Rich Bernecki. Al's build mantra: fill, sand and repeat.

Maryann Germann had two works-in-progress for us to see. The first was an MB Master Box Ltd. 1/24 scale SIY-Ianis figure. She said she's just started painting it with primer, so lot's more to come.

Maryann's second subject is going to be a diorama called "Cougar Attack" in 1/25 scale. She's using Vallejo paints, and will be weathering the rocks. The basic structure is a wood base with a plaster rock wall, and Maryann intends to paint or cast shadows of an Indian and a cougar on the rock wall, adding water through the middle.

Mike Heltz displayed a couple of 1929 Ford Model A subjects, both painted with Tamiya yellows and various Testors enamels. The first was a Revell roadster, with added plug wires. The second was a roadster pickup made from another Revell kit with the body cut down to a pickup cab. He used an AMT 1934 Ford pickup frame, drivetrain and grill, and a 1925 Model T pickup bed. Mike said he always liked Ralph Malph's pickup roadster from "Happy Days" and wanted to build something similar.

Eugene Paveljack showed us his Games Workshop figure, finished with Citadel paints, drybrushing, washes and glazes.

Eugene also displayed a Takom Bergepanther Ausf. He finished it with primer, Tamiya red brown, Mig red brown for the interior, and Tamiya dark yellow and flat black. He added weathering with drybrushing, and mentioned that the instructions are definitely not for beginners.

Paul Hines continued with aircraft subjects for his current set of paintings. The first was a Sopwith Camel from 1917 titled "Smooth Take Off". Paul said that Canadian Roy Brown shot down Baron Richthofen in a Camel, and the Camel was accredited with 1,294 enemy kills.

Paul's second subject was a Boeing F4B/12 titled "Pre-flight Check". He mentioned that the aircraft had a Pratt & Whitney radial engine that increased the top speed to 188 mph.

Paul's last painting was a British SE5 from 1917, titled "Britain's Finest". It was the first British fighter to use a water cooled V8 instead of a rotary engine; this gave it the upper hand over the German Albatros.

Jeff Keenan displayed his Bandai Star Wars Collection, which took first place in Collections and the Best of the Rest award at BuffCon. The collection includes a Star Destroyer, a TIE Fighter, an Advanced TIE Fighter, a pair of A-Wings, a Millennium Falcon, a TIE Striker, TX-225 Occupier Tanks, a Snowspeeder and a pair of Y-Wings. Jeff said they were finished with mostly Vallejo paints, with enamel and oil washes. He used panel washes and dot filters for weathering, and said that the models were quick, easy builds and fun to put together and paint. Jeff mentioned that he was surprised with the awards he won at BuffCon.

Bob Conshafter brought in a couple of models. The first was a 1/64 Atlantis (Revell 1956) B-25B Mitchell Dolittle Raider. Bob used Lifecolor Neutral Gray and Vallejo Model Air Olive Drab paints, with Aeromaster Faded Olive Drab for fabric surfaces. He built it out-of-box with painted-on exhaust pipes and pastel chalk exhaust streaks. Bob said the kit required traditional model skills with plenty of sand, fit and putty. He said he likes the B-25 and was unaware that Revell had done a box-scale kit.

Bob's second model was a Monogram 1/72 P-51B Mustang (1967 kit). He added an antenna and engine and gun port exhausts using pastel chalks. He built it out-of-box using a "details with decals" approach, and painted a "plywood" floor. Bob said he picked the subject to get back into building regularly, and the model won 2nd place in the Single Engine Prop category at BuffCon.

Larry Osolkowski brought in his usual collection of stuff. He showed his award winners from BuffCon: a 1/144 Minicraft Thunderbirds F-16 that took a 3rd place; a 1/43 Benetton B186 Formula 1 racecar that got a 2nd; and a 1/20 Tamiya Leyton House Formula 1 racecar that got a 3rd.

Larry also showed his progress on the 1/24 Nunu Platz BMW M6 GT3. He finished covering the floor pan with carbon fiber decals from the accessory detail set; worked on blending in the air scoops on the body along with filling some sink marks; added some photo-etch grills to the rear fascia; painted the roll cage, and did some painting and assembly of chassis and interior bits and pieces.

Larry also showed us a new tool set obtained from Amazon. It's a set of 10 titanium-coated carbide end mills with 1/8" shanks, in sizes from 0.8mm to 3.175mm. He said they work great for grinding out small areas on the surface of a model as well as opening up holes. They are available HERE. They work well with the small hand grinder that Larry brought in a while back, which is also available HERE.

Larry also displayed a fairly new kit from Meng, a 1/24 1966 Ford GT40 Mk. II from the movie Ford vs. Ferrari. He said he'd seen the kit a little while back, but the going price of around $95 seemed rather steep for a 1/24 plastic kit. The prices have come down a bit more recently, into the $65-70 range, but when Larry went to Heritagecon in April, he found a vendor there that was selling it for $70 Canadian. That works out to around $56 US, with no tax and no shipping, so that was an easy decision. It looks like a really nice, detailed kit, with full engine compartment and "frunk" (although they didn't call it that back then.) There was one built-up on the table at Heritagecon and it looked great.

Larry's last item was a new kit from Arena Models in 1/43, a Datsun 240Z race car from the IMSA racing series in 1975. It has a resin body, rubber tires, and white metal and photo-etch parts. It looks like a nice kit in the box.

Ilya Grinberg showed us two new models. The first was a 1/72 BA-64 Armored Car, made from a resin kit by Al-By. Ilya said he used the wheels and suspension from an ACE GAZ-67 kit, a machine gun from Mine World in brass, and tools from SG Models in resin.

Ilya's second model was a 1/72 T-26 from S-Model. He replaced the kit tracks and suspension with direct 3D-printed parts from Syndicate in Poland, and used a resin turret.

Alan Gryfe brought in updates to two of his current projects. The first is based on a 1/25 AMT GMC Jimmy from 1969, along with parts from the 1979 Jo-Han 1/25 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Alan is converting the Jimmy to a phantom Cadillac Escalade. He started work by shaving off the Chevy/GMC trim and flares and adding Caddy chrome trim, with much more to come. Alan said "it seemed like a good idea at the time", but it's actually a project he's been thinking about for years.

Alan's second project will be a phantom 1960s Lincoln MkX. It's based on a 1/25 Revell 1973 Ford Bronco, but is still in the design/concept stage. He said it was prompted by his phantom Escalade project, and got kick-started by finding a box of parts from the '65 AMT Lincoln at BuffCon, plus the new Revell Bronco kit.

Steve Weller displayed some printouts of some web items, and had some free scrap guitar strings for the taking. The web items included an interesting diorama with tips on water and aircraft suspension, a wild/creepy M4 wreck, and a B-17 for sale in 1958 for $26,000.

John Doerr brought in a couple of aircraft models. First was a 1/72 Hobby Boss Mig 15 bis, which he painted with Mr. Color RLM 76 and Tamiya Desert Yellow, Earth and Deep Green. He used an acrylic wash rubbed down with a damp cloth for weathering. John mentioned that the kit didn't have enough room for nose weight, and he had trouble with the seat fit and the canopy; otherwise, it was an easy build.

John's second model is still in progress; it's a 1/72 Academy FW-190 D9. So far, he's used Mr. Color RLM 76 and MiG RLM 81, 82 and 83 paints. He mentioned some minor fit issues, but he found a great color scheme.

There was quite a collection of magazines on the tables that were there for the taking. This has become a really good way to recycle our old modeling magazines.

There were a few unidentified items on the tables.

The pizza party is ready to begin.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to Steve Weller for handling the model tables. Photos provided by Larry Osolkowski.