Greetings and salutations to one and all. Before I begin, this is our second reminder that our annual Toys
for Tots collection will happen at this upcoming general club meeting Tuesday, November 19th. Please bring a new,
unwrapped toy(s) and give preference to toys for older children who are often overlooked at Christmas time. Thank
you for your support!
Now on with the show. Anyone attend the Cleveland Model Show? Thoughts, comments? I heard that there were 113 vendor tables and the final model count was 643. That's amazing as this show is really growing and is one definitely to look into.
On November 23rd and 24th, the Hamburg Fairground will be holding the Fall Train and Toy show and once again, we are joining the guys from the National Model Railroad Association as they reserved two tables for us. I will be passing around a sign-up sheet as we'll need volunteers to man the tables both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday hours are 10am-5pm and Sundays hours are 10am-4pm. If you are able to attend for a few hours, that is great or for the whole day, all the better. Whatever time you can do, it will be greatly appreciated! Just remember, you can't use the Bills game as an excuse as it's their bye week. I'll need the volunteers to bring in a model or two to showcase and or bring in something to build. The latter will definitely draw attention which is what we want, to let the people know and see that such a club exists.
Next month will be our annual club's pizza-n-wings Christmas party. So, if anyone wants to bring in a dish/dessert to share, please do so.
We are still looking for volunteers to do demos at our monthly meetings. Just a few hints:
- Basic methods of applying decals
- Paint chipping
- Masking canopies
- Weathering
- My favorite modeling tool (club interaction). Brief description of what it is and it's use
- Application of a wash
- Filling in seams
Upcoming shows:
- Buffcon40 - Sunday April 6, 2025. Knights Event Center, 2735 Union Road, Cheektowaga, NY, 14227.
- 11th Annual Spring Thaw Model Show (Scale Vehicles), May 4th, 2025 (9am-3pm) - Willowvale Fire Co., 3459 Oneida St., Chadwick, NY 13319.
Lastly, don't forget that at next month's meeting we'll also be taking a vote on our club's constitution that was revised. Dick Schulenburg will address this matter at this Tuesday's meeting.
That's all for now and I will see you on Tuesday (11/19/2024) for the general meeting at 7pm at the
Williamsville Youth & Recreation center at 5005 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221. Parking and entry to
the facility is in the back.
Happy modeling,
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 52196
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - November 19, 2024
NOTE: CANNOT ACCESS FACILITY BEFORE 6:50PM
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:
- Hamburg Fairground volunteers.
Questions from the floor.
Demo: Anyone, anyone?
Break: 2 minute stretch.
Table discussion: Members tell the club about the models they have on the tables.
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, November 19th 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:
Revisions to the club constitution were proposed by Dick Schulenberg last month. Minor corrections have been made, and the updated document is available HERE. The vote to accept the revised constitution will be held at the December general meeting.
The club has a long-standing annual tradition of collecting donations for Toys for Tots. This year's collection has been moved up to the November meeting in order to give more time for the Marines to collect and distribute the toys. Please bring new, unwrapped toys and give preference to toys for older children who are often overlooked at Christmas time. Thank you for your support!
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
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 60 members with 30+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Tuesday of every month at the Williamsville Youth & Recreation Center, 5005 Sheridan Drive, Williamsville, NY 14221.
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 October 2024 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.
October 15th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
To promote greater transparency regarding the operation of the club and the EBoard, action items from the current 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.
November 12 - President Mike Butry led the meeting, held at Section 8 Hobbies.
Justin Schroeder has been busy. He brought in a few items to show us this month. The first is an
Empathetic Robot REACH, a 75mm figure in high quality resin by Mindwork Games. He used AK True Metal
paints on the robot and base, as well as Alclad Gold Titanium and Vallejo Dioram FX Dark Earth. Justin
also added cracks to the base for more realism.
Justin's second model was an MPC Star Wars Shuttle Tydirium in 1/38 scale. He painted the model with
Archive-X paints, and added LEDs by Evan Designs.
Finally, Justin displayed his awards from the recent ROCON show: 1st place and Best of the Rest for
the MPC Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Tydirium; 1st place for a Bandai 1/72 scale Y-Wing Diorama; 2nd place
for the Empathetic Robot REACH; 2nd place for a Bandai 1/72 scale Hoth Battle Scene Diorama; and 2nd
place for a 1/35 scale Academy M997 Ambulance.
Paul Hines continued with his nautical theme this month, showing us two paintings. The first was a
modern day sailboat. Paul said "it's the cream and orange paint job that attracted my attention. It
also provided me with a chance to paint background rocks and far and near water reflections.
Paul's second painting: "on the second painting of a shrimp boat, I decided on a dark evening sky
to set off the white and green colored boat. A few figures on the stern brought life to the painting."
Ron Mikol displayed some award plaques won at the Toronto show for six cars, and some medals won at
the Erie show.
Eugene Paveljack showed us his latest model, a War Hammer Tank finished with Tamiya paints. He used
pre-shading for weathering.
Jim Greenfield brought in a work-in-progress, a Renwal 1/32 M-51 Sky Sweeper Anti-Aircraft Gun. It
doesn't have any paint on it yet. Jim said it has lots of bits and pieces, and the kit is from the
1950s so it's a little toy-like. He mentioned that he brought a live bomb shell home on his bicycle
when he was 10 years old. He didn't know the kit was made until he found it at ROCON.
Larry Osolkowski had several items on the table. The first was his ongoing progress on the old
Monogram 1/25 Porsche Indycar. He finished the driver's seat with Alclad Aluminum with Tamiya black
panel line wash, added seat belts and aluminum shifter and shift rod. The tires are the kit vinyl
tires that had gotten hard, so he sanded them, repainted in Tamiya Tire Black, and added Goodyear
markings using old Shabo dry-transfer markings with a little black pastel powder to knock back the
bright white. He also added 3D-printed valve stems. Suspension parts and driveshafts have been
painted, and the bodywork is primed in white.
Larry's second item was something mentioned last month by Justin Schroeder. Justin used a coating
called XTC-3D, used for smoothing the fine lines that often occur on 3D-printed parts. Larry had never
heard of this stuff, so he bought some and brought it in.
And speaking of 3D-printed parts, Larry got some interesting bits from Spot Model in Spain. They
have 3D-printed nuts and bolts in various styles from a company called Decalcas, and he bought some
allen-head bolts that come in a range of tiny sizes, with 100 pieces (!) of each size.
He also got some 3D-printed detail parts from another company called Falcon Scale Models from Spot
Model. One set included a couple of different styles of hose clamps, and the other was a detail set
for 1/12 scale motorcycle kits.
Dick Schulenberg had three models on the table this month. The first was an Entex 1/100 F-15
Eagle converted from the single seat A model to the two seat G model. He used Polly S paints, all
brushed on, and scratch-built the cockpit including a new, larger canopy that was vacuformed over
a homemade mold. Dick said he doesn't remember any issues with the build - it was a fun build and
his first significant conversion. He thinks his references probably came from Squadron. Dick
mentioned that he thought it was cool and he liked the idea of small scale. Tamiya was just
starting a line of 1/100 models which quickly petered out. The model was built in the early 1980s.
Dick's second model was a Vargas 1/335 3D-printed US Army pre-war MZAZ (Mae West) light tank.
He used Vallejo OD and US Light Green wash over Tamiya Gray primer, and built it out-of-box. He added
some weathering by scrubbing on some green/brown and gray water colors from Tambow water color pens.
Dick said the instructions are pictorial only and vague, and the printed parts are brittle, so care
is needed to remove them from the printing supports. He mentioned that he likes pre-WW II stuff, and
nothing like this is available in plastic yet. Dick also said the kit doesn't come with painting
instructions or decals. "Tanks Encyclopedia" has some good info and specific decals are on the way
from Decalcomaniacs.
Dick's final model was a Hasegawa 1/72 Beech T-34B Mentor with Tug (a mid-1970s kit). He used
Vallejo Golden Yellow acrylic over Tamiya Fine White primer. He built it straight out of the box
except for two large mirror brackets that were lost when he dropped the nearly complete Tug. He
also left off the nose gear doors per Navy practice. Dick said there were no issues with the kit -
the fit was perfect. The only problems were ones he created during painting. He mentioned that the
subject fits his small collection of 1950s Navy trainers. It's a hard kit to find at present, and
it comes in a white/red scheme so all decals are from his spares box.
Austin Stegall displayed his Tamiya 1/48 F4F. He used Vallejo Light Gull Grey and Tamiya XF-18,
XF-1 and XF-16 paints, and added weathering using sponge chipping, washes and airbrushed oil stains.
Austin said there were no issues with the kit, and he wanted to do something different from a tank.
Mike Butry brought in a Tamiya (Italeri molds) 1/48 Italian AB41 Armored Car. He airbrushed it
with Tamiya paint in a 50/50 mix of XF-60 Dark Yellow and XF-59 Desert Yellow. The Italian ID flags
were masked and airbrushed. Mike scratch-built the antenna and mast as it was in the "stowed"
position; 14 parts later, he had an extended antenna. Weathering was done using a mix of Model
Master paints that were dry brushed, along with Tamiya's Weathering Masters sets. Mike said the
overall fit was not good, as nothing wanted to line up, and there were a lot of gaps to fill. He
mentioned that this model was done for a group build that he took part in on Facebook. He said he
just wished that the kit had been designed by Tamiya.
Al Germann displayed a couple of models this month. The first was an AMP 1/72 Victory 357. He
finished it using Vallejo paints for the interior, Rustoleum Chrome for the fuselage, and Tamiya
Gunmetal. It was built out-of-box, with no weathering yet. Al said the interior was fantastic, but
the exterior fit was awful. He picked the subject because of the interesting fiction of Diesel
Punk - Diesel Punk comes after Steam Punk (obviously).
Al's other model was an Eduard 1/48 Fokker E.11 finished with Vallejo acrylics. He built it
out-of-box, but it came with some photoetch parts. Al said the kit was labeled as a "Weekend
Edition" which is taking much longer, but he's had no problems except for brittle decals. He
picked the subject because it's the counterpart/adversary to the Morane-Saulnier Type N that he
recently finished. Al mentioned that he will start working on the rigging soon, and this aircraft
is a "wing warping" design so it doesn't have ailerons.
There were a few unidentified objects on the tables.
Mike Butry gave a demo on making tarps from aluminum foil.
Finally, some around-the-room shots.
Thanks to the members for handling the model tables, and Larry Osolkowski for the photos.
