Greetings and salutations to one and all! I am not sure about you guys 'n' gals, but it was really
great seeing everyone at our first monthly meeting last month since COVID started.
We had 20 people in attendance, and instead of having the meeting in our usual place, we had it next door where the bingo takes place (model show vending room). It's the first building you see when entering the parking coming from the street. The room was set up in compliance with the SOP of social distancing.
Since fall is upon us, this is the time that we usually look forward to the show season getting underway, but since COVID had other plans, all shows have been canceled.
Before I wrap things up, starting with this coming meeting (10/19) the meetings will be geared towards building, so whatever your current or next project, please bring it on in and we'll get some work done!
Really looking forward to seeing you all next Monday!
Until next time, happy modeling!
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - October 19, 2020
7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.
7:10 PM - Meeting called to order.
Old Business:
- Approve minutes of last general meeting.
New Business:
- Discuss future outlook for club - meeting space, model shows.
Around-the-room question:
- Since the start of COVID to present time, where do you think the hobby is going and why?
Questions from the floor.
Table discussion: Members tell the club about the models they have on the tables.
During the meeting - bring in a current build to work on it.
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 October general club meeting is ON, at the usual time (7:00pm) and place (the Knights Hall), on Monday,
October 19th. The same rules will apply as last month to keep us safe and keep the Knights Hall out of trouble:
These are all pretty common procedures these days, so if you have any issues with any of the above, please be considerate of your fellow members and our meeting facility and stay home. Thanks, and hope to see you at the meeting!
There is some sad news for the automotive builders in our club. Scale Auto magazine has decided to cease publication, effective after the October 2020 issue. The magazine has been owned for some time now by Kalmbach, who also owns Fine Scale Modeler, and they say that some Scale Auto content will subsequently be included in Fine Scale magazine. If you have a subscription to Scale Auto, the remainder of it will be honored with issues of Fine Scale.
Club member Brian Yurko has started a group on a new social media app called Telegram. This app will allow club members to join and chat about modeling and club activities. The app can be found at Telegram, and is available for PCs, Macs and Android and Apple phones. If you install the app, visit this page to join the IPMS Niagara Frontier group.
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 September 2020 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.
September 21st - 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.
September 14 - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
Unfortunately, we've run out of material for member profiles, and haven't been able to get photos due to meeting cancellations. We'll get back on track when meetings start up again.
My Projects For the October Sprue and Glue News
by Dick Schulenberg
I've just about finished my scratch-built 1/24 Dunkirk Gilbert geared logging locomotive. It's painted and permanently mounted on its base. All that's left is to glue the cab in place, touch up the paint here and there and fill it up with firewood. The paint is all Vallejo blacks over Tamiya spray primer. I'm looking forward to bringing it to a meeting when I'm comfortable with indoor groups. This whole Covid thing really sucks.
I finished up the 1/35 Tamiya kit of the French Renault R-35 WWII tank. I started it in early
March, building the hull, turret and fenders subassemblies. That's where I stalled out trying to
come up with the perfect assembly/paint sequence to finish it up. Up to that point, the kit assembly
was a breeze. Everything fit perfectly and there wasn't a single seam to be filled. Very well
engineered. Then it sat for six months.
I found myself wanting a break from my locomotive model and pulled the R-35 off the shelf, bit the bullet and primed everything with Tamiya gray spray can primer. All the remaining painting was done with Vallejo Model Color acrylics. I sprayed the tracks, still on the sprues, with Gunmetal and everything else with Refractive Green. The tracks were given a wash of Mahogany Brown and highlighted with a silver pencil. Next, I transferred the camo pattern to the hull, turret and fenders by eye with pencil, then filled in the shapes by brush with Pale Green, Gold Brown, Mahogany Brown and Pastel Green. Kind of a three dimensional paint by number. At this point the colors were so bright that it looked awful and I was tempted to scrub all the paint off. Adding the black color boundaries with a fine point Sharpie improved things, so I installed the tracks, which went together flawlessly, and the fenders. A coat of Matt Varnish helped blend the color tones and sealed the paint for my brand of "weathering", since it still looked too garish. I find weathering to be a difficult concept to process. I typically like clean models, even though I know they can look toylike, but this one needed more than a dull finish. I've been playing with a Tombow ABT Dual Brush watercolor pen Number 969, Chocolate, to use for a local wash. The pen has both a fine brush and a fine point. I got it at Michael's. There is quite a range of colors. I dabbed dots of the watercolor over a square inch or so, then scrubbed the area with a slightly dampened round brush (I usually just touch the brush to my tongue) to blend in the dots and work the color into crevices and corners. It's easily removed with a wetter brush if necessary. I gave the finished model another coat of Matt Varnish to seal everything up and that was that.
I've never seemed to be able to work on one model at a time. Here's what else is on my desk now.
I made some progress on the 1/72 Grumman F5F-1 Skyrocket so now it's ready for decals. I'll glue the canopy on after the clear coats. The partly assembled model that looks like a fish is a 1/72 Azur French 1930's Breguet 27 short run kit. It's an Army observation plane that saw some service early in WWII. There's a bunch of little bitty resin stuff inside that took a while to sort out but it's ready to prime now. It will look more like an aeroplane once the top wing is in place. The other model is almost a first for me. I haven't built a car model since the Sixties. It's a Heller 1/24 1958 Renault 4CV. I've been looking for one for a couple of years since one was my wife's first car and she still talks about it fondly. It's been fun to build so far.
I hope to see you all soon.
Dick Schulenberg
Model tables from the September meeting:
Al Germann brought in a 1/144 Minicraft C-54 Candy Bomber. He finished it with some rattle
can silver paint, Tamiya and Vallejo for the brush work, and a Citadel panel line wash. Al is
scratch-building candy bars and parachutes made from thread and paper towels with Elmer's glue.
He said the model went together well, and it's been a fun project and a good part of history.
He picked the subject because his wife liked the story of the candy bomber during the Berlin
airlift.
Al also showed us a second project, a 1/25 AMT 1970 Chevelle Malibu. He painted it with
Krylon, with a wash for the engine. Al changed the model from an "SS" to a Malibu, which
included a reshaped hood, vinyl top and modified dashboard. He said the model is going well
considering all of the modifications needed. He will be adding resin door handles and some
photoetch details. This was his wife's first car.
Larry Osolkowski brought in a current project and a new kit. The current project is the
1/25 AMT 1966 Mustang that he reported on last month, with minor progress on the chassis,
interior and suspension.
Larry also brought in the new Tamiya kit that was just released, a 1/24 Ford Mustang
GT4 race car. He plans to build it as a replica of a car raced in the US IMSA Continental Tire
series from a couple of years ago. The car was sponsored by a company called Volt, and a decal
set was available from Indycals, along with the correct
paint from Splash Paints and Studio 27 carbon fiber
decals.
John Zaranek showed us several new items. The first was a vignette entitled "Autumn Ride
in Kosovo", which includes a Trumpeter 1/72 Challenger II British Army (KFOR). He used
Tamiya greens, blacks, browns and greys in the painting process, and added model railroad grass
and foliage. John used an old plaque for the base, with a plaster road bed and shoulder. He also
incorporated a scratch-built guardrail. He said there were no issues with the kit.
John's second model was an ICM 1/72 Sd.Kfz.263 Radio Communications Vehicle, WW II German.
He finished it with Tamiya German grey and Vallejo browns and blacks, and Tamiya enamel washes
with pastel browns, rusts and greys for weathering. John said he built it out-of-box except
for the radio antenna cable which was made from lead solder. He said 1/72 armored cars are very
tiny, and the PE hatches were difficult and fiddly to fold properly.
The third model John displayed was a Revell 1/72 ADAC Air Ambulance. This was built
out-of-box, and finished with Tamiya lemon yellow and black, with Vallejo silver and a Tamiya
enamel wash. John mentioned that this was a former Matchbox kit with great decals, but the
window glazing was slightly to small for their openings. John likes helicopter ambulances.
John's last model was a Hasegawa 1/72 Rosenbauer 6x6 Scorpion Airport Crash Truck. He
used Tamiya, Testors, Vallejo and Model Master paints in the finishing process, and built it
out-of-box. John said this was a well-engineered kit. He mentioned that there are very few
emergency vehicle kits on the market, so this was a very cool subject.
Paul Hines had four automotive subjects for our viewing this month: a 1969 Camaro, a
1967 Ford Mustang, a late 60's Austin Healey and a 1956 Cadillac. Paul said they were painted
with Liquitex Acrylic Heavy Body. He uses four steps: 1) an accurate drawing, 2) several light
washes to build up color, 3) two coats with gloss medium added, and 4) final highlights.
Maryann Germann displayed her current work-in-progress, a 1/12 scale Ferdinand II from
the Armored Knight Series. She painted it Tamiya silver with a black wash and gold accents.
Maryann had no problems with the kit, and finds the subject interesting. Her next project
will be a 1/24 Altores Studio Cougar Attack.
Jim Greenfield brought in his current project, a Moebius 1/4105 Battle Star Galactica.
Jim hasn't reached the painting stage yet, but he added armor and gun emplacements and has
a photo-etch detail set at the ready. He said it's a beautiful kit to build, and Science
Fiction has been his COVID theme.
Eugene Paveljack showed us a couple of new models - a 1/35 Mini Art FL 282 V5 Kolibri
and a 1/35 Mini Art B Type Military Omnibus, both finished with Mission Models paints.
Tom Faith brought in his latest diorama, a Gazz-3 with Field Kitchen titled "Too Many Cooks".
The Gazz-3 with shelter and Russian Field Kitchen are both Mini Art kits, and they were finished
with Citadel and Floquil paints along with oil-based pastels and powders. Tom scratch-built the
cargo box and shelter from scale lumber. He added weathering using a white-wash on the truck cab,
fenders and hood applied with oil-based pastel, not paints. Many washes, scale snow and real grass
clippings were also incorporated. Tom had one warning: "be careful buying photo-etch; when it says
it's made for a particular brand model, they mean it!" He picked the subject because of the box art.
Mike Butry displayed a pair of new models this month. The first was a Tamiya 1/48 Bf-109G-6.
Mike used a mixture of Tamiya and Model Master paints applied with both straight airbrushing and
dry-brushing, along with pastels for weathering. He said he built it out-of-box except for Tamiya
tape for seat belts and stretched sprue for the antenna. Mike had no issues with the kit, and
liked the subject of a captured US Bf-109.
Mike's second model was a Tamiya 1/48 British Universal Carrier, finished with Tamiya and
Model Master paints. Mike said he used aluminum foil for the tarps and a selection of Verlinden
accessories for stowage. He mentioned that there were no issues with the kit other than some
small parts. Mike liked the subject which included a captured gun.
There were a few models on the tables without info sheets. Please make sure you fill out a
sheet and get it to Larry by the end of the meeting.
Finally, some around-the-room photos this month.
Thanks to John Zaranek for leading the model table discussion, and to Larry Osolkowski
for the photos.
