Greetings and salutations to one and all! Well this is it, this will be our last general club meeting at
the Knights of Columbus hall. Starting on June 20th, we'll be meeting at the Williamsville Youth &
Recreation Center at 5005 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221. However, Buffcon is set for next year at
the Knights Hall, all as considerations for future shows.
Take a minute and think (scary, I know), and come up with a demo you'd like to see, or one that you can present to the club. Either way, we'd love to hear from you and I mean it - don't be bashful.
Also in June, we will start the Tony Bartozek "I'm not a modeling loser" club challenge. It will begin at the start of the June meeting and will end at the Septembers meeting. The item that you select has to have more than 5 parts and in some degree needs to be painted. I know it's early, but start the gears turning and I look forward to seeing what everyone will be doing for the challenge next month.
The eBoard held its last eBoard meeting before the summer break, and will resume with the meetings in September.
Lastly, we'll be holding off our annual after Buffcon pizza party until the June meeting. Not only is this to celebrate our successful show, but to welcome a new chapter at the Williamsville Youth & Recreation Center.
That's all for now and I'll see you next Tuesday (5/16/2023) for the general meeting at 7pm.
Happy modeling,
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 52196
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - April 18, 2023
7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.
7:10 PM - Meeting called to order.
Old Business:
- None.
New Business:
- Move the general meeting to the Williamsville Youth Center.
- Demos.
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 16th at the Knights Hall, 2735 Union Rd., Cheektowaga, NY 14227, starting at the usual 7:00pm at the usual meeting room in the rear building. There will also be a 50/50 raffle held at the meeting to help raise funds for the club. This will be the last general meeting held at the Knights Hall. Starting with the June 2023 general meeting on June 20th, we will be meeting at the Williamsville Youth Center at 5005 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221.
Membership dues for 2023 are overdue. Please see Tom Faith at the meeting.
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
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 30+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Tuesday 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 2022 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.
April 18th - 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 8 - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
John Doerr sent in some photos of recent builds.
Moving to the model tables, Steve Weller brought in a new kit of a P-40B in 1/32 scale by Great Wall.
Steve said the detail level is ridiculous out-of-box - it probably doesn't need anything else. He mentioned
that the P-40 is his favorite single engine aircraft from WW II, and this is the best kit he's seen for
this subject.
Steve also had a couple of other items on the table, free for the taking. The first was a set of used
guitar strings that are useful for detailing, and the second was a bag of wooden tongue depressors (not
used) that have lots of possibilities.
Dick Schulenberg displayed several aircraft models this month. The first was a 1/144 Arii RA-5C
Vigilante converted to an A-5A carrier-based nuclear bomber. Dick said he reprofiled the wings and tail,
deleted the rear "canoe", flattened the top of the fuselage to remove a bump, reprofiled the intakes and
nose, and closed the gear doors. He mentioned that finding good triple views to work from was harder than
he thought it would be. Dick said he likes the RA-5C, but the A-5A is sleeker, and looks fast.
Dick's second model was a 1/32 Hasegawa P-26A Peashooter with Starfighter decals. He used Tamiya spray
can acrylic lacquer in Camel Yellow and AK Interactive acrylic Olive Drab 22 paints for the primary colors,
with Vallejo Model Color and Model Air for the rest. It was all topped with a Vallejo Model Air Satin
finish coat. Dick said he used a Lone Star Models resin cockpit, but should have scratch-built it. He did
scratch-build the antenna, gunsight and windscreen, and the engine is a combo of kit and Vector Resin Wasp
parts. The rigging is 0.015" stainless steel wire. Dick mentioned that he's still thinking about some minor
weathering. He also said that he had trouble with Tamiya Olive Drab, and stripped and repainted with AK
Interactive. The decals required lots of slits and setting solution, and still didn't settle quite right.
He picked the subject because he loves P-26s and this marking scheme from the back cover of the Squadron /
Signal Mini "In Action" book. Dick said he stretched this one out over too many years, and he's not really
sure he likes the satin finish.
Dick's final model was a 1/72 Hobby Craft F-89H Scorpion with Flying S Resin wingtip rocket pods and
missiles. He used Tamiya spray can Silver Leaf and Italian Red for the main colors, with Vallejo acrylics
for everything else. Dick replaced the kit pods with Flying S Resin parts because they were "clubby"
looking and he wanted the missiles out. He said he used the kit decals for the primary markings. He
didn't have any stenciling and it looked blah, so he printed a copy of Revell F-89 stencils on a Bare
Metal Foil clear decal sheet and used them. Dick picked the subject because it's a really cool-looking
'50s jet. He still has a Revell F-89D to do with resin tip pods.
Paul Hines had only one automotive painting for us to see this month (slacker!) - a 1936 Ford Coupe.
This subject is very typical of the old school drag cars that ran on gasoline - hence the name "gassers".
Paul said he loved the low angle and stance, and just had to paint it.
Al German brought in three models this month. The first was an AMT 1/25 1953 Ford Pickup. He finished
it with Tamiya light red metallic. Al extended the cab in length, added a tuck-and-roll headliner, and used
an interior from a 1957 Chevy. He said the length extension was rather easy, and he really likes the way it
turned out. The kit was a Christmas gift, but he's always wanted to build a '50s style custom.
Al's second model was a Testors 1/24 De Tomaso Pantera GTS. He used Rustoleum and Kryon paints, with
a panel line wash. The kit was built out-of-box, with no issues. Al said he always liked the Pantera, but
the kits are getting rare and expensive. He found this kit at a train show at the Fairgrounds. He said it
was an easy build and he likes the way it's turning out.
Al's last model was his Chinese Spy Balloon that he entered at BuffCon. It's in approximately 1/144
scale, and was finished with Tamiya and Vallejo paints. It was mostly scratch-built, but also used some
helicopter parts and 3D-printed solar panels. Al said it was an easy 10 day build, and he picked the
subject because it was a current news item. He said he wanted to finish it for BuffCon this year, and
he hopes it will not be relevant next year.
Bob Heiss is starting on a new project, a 1/8 Moebius model of "The Mummy". He will be using a
paint mask set from Aztek Dummy for the sarcophagus lid.
Gregory Fox brought in his 1/32 MiniCraft Models Grumman Hellcat.
Tom Brown Sr. showed us his next project, a 45 caliber Thompson Submachine Gun. Tom said he plans
to build it up to look new. He found the kit at BuffCon, and he said some parts were missing but he
can deal with it. Tom mentioned that he'll have to change the magazine and pistol grip. Tom likes to
collect 1:1 scale model weapons.
Tom also displayed a photo of his diorama of a BuffCon show. He showed us a model of himself
sitting in a chair from the diorama at last month's meeting, but unfortunately, the diorama has not
survived.
Larry Osolkowski displayed his progress on the Wicked Models 1/24 3D-printed kit of a current
Porsche 963 GTP race car from the IMSA Weatherteck Sports Car series. He painted the tires with
the new Tamiya LP-series of lacquers in rubber black and added the Michelin decals. Other bits and
pieces have primer and paint, and the body is getting the "stepping" effect from the 3D printing
sanded out. He also showed us a new tool from Micro Mark, a power sander with small, stick-on
sandpaper pads in various shapes. Larry said the tool works well.
Larry also brought in a recent acquisition, a Gunze Sangyo 1/24 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. This
kit has been long out of production, and has been getting crazy prices on eBay. Larry found one at an
online store called Plasmojo. They're based in Hong Kong and
carry a variety of rare, classic model kits. They had the Shelby kit in stock at a relatively reasonable
price. It's a multimedia kit, including styrene, white metal, vinyl and photo-etched parts. Larry had
a photo of one of the real cars, of which only six were made, taken a few years ago at the Sebring 12
Hour race weekend. The photo includes the designer, Peter Brock.
Mike Butry displayed his Tamiya 1/48 Jeep with Bandai Trailer. He used a mix of Vallejo Model Air
and Tamiya paints, all airbrushed. Mike said he added a lot of scratch-built goodies, along with Black
Dog rear stowage and trailer stowage from the parts box. He lowered the Jeep's rear suspension a tad
to give it that "weighed-down" look, and used Tamiya's weathering sets, dry brushing and AK's
weathering pencils. There were no major issues with the build. Mike said he picked the subject
because he has a thing for Jeeps, but this will also be one of four vehicles to be used in a future
diorama.
Ron Mikol showed us a collection of inexpensive (read CHEAP) tools from an online shop called
Temu. Included were a hobby knife, sprue cutters and a set of
pin vices. Ron said the quality was decent.
Bob Butry displayed a Trumpeter 1/48 Wyvern S.4, Early Version. He utilized Tamiya paints in
Sky, Dark Sea Gray, Red, Khaki, Red Brown and Flat Black, and Alclad Aluminum AL-101. The model was
built out-of-box with a simple panel line wash for weathering. Bob said he had to make the choice
of using gears to make the props counter-rotating, or left freewheeling. He used the gears. Bob
picked the subject as something different from what he normally builds.
Jeff Keenan brought in his current project, a Zvezda 1/72 Mi-28NE "Night Havoc" helicopter. He's
using Tamiya and Vallejo paints. Jeff said he's replacing some overly large/thick parts with stretched
sprue and sheet. He's also using a Res-Lit B8V20 rocket launcher set in resin. Jeff said there have
been no issues so far, except for the aftermarket bits being significantly smaller. Jeff likes combat
helicopters.
Someone brought in some flyers for the re-opening of Section 8 Hobbies.
Finally, some around-the-room shots.
Thanks to Justin Sczepczenski for handling the model tables. Photos provided by Larry Osolkowski.
