Greetings and salutations to one and all! First things first - you are getting this newsletter a tad early as Larry is going on vacation. Make sure to set a reminder for the October meeting!

Overall, the Rochester show was really good, with a good selection of models on the contest table, especially in the armor and car categories. Model count was around 240+ with five categories that had no entries. The vendors were tucked outside under a large shelter and the selection was decent as well. So, a big Thata Boy to the Rochester crew for doing a job well done!

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - October 17, 2023

NOTE: CANNOT ACCESS FACILITY BEFORE 6:50PM

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, October 17th 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:

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

The minutes from the September 2023 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

September 19th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • Conclusion of the Tony Bartozek "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" challenge was at this meeting. Many finished their models while some did not. Select members, led by Mike B., chose a "best of challenge" and presented a trophy. This trophy will be re-used for future challenge builds.
• New Business:
  • Frank B. donated and raffled a bag of special coffee and donated proceeds to the club. This resulted in a $30 donation.
• BuffCon #39, April 2, 2024:
  • None.
• NorEastCon 52, 2024:
  • None.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • Short discussions on reviews of the recent shows, NNL in Tonawanda and ROCON, were both very positive with many members in attendance.
  • With occurrence of ROCON 41 in Rochester Sept 17th and Erie PA shows occurring before the next general meeting, Bob C. requested to bring in any winning models with trophies for display at our October general meeting.
  • Upcoming shows/events:
    • Erie PA on Oct. 1st.
    • SyrCon on Oct. 22nd.
  • There was a further review of the Patterson Library in Westfield that had a very notable collection of models and dioramas on the Pacific Theater of World War II. The main display of this has now passed.
  • New location opening of Section 8 is expected to open September 18th.
  • There was a very positive review of the hobby shop Buffalo Road Imports out on Main Street in Clearance.
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting with the tickets sold resulting in a $78/$78 split.
  • There was a $20 donation from a member to keep the free drinks for the meetings. This is much appreciated.
  • There were the usual free magazines from various members.
  • Bob C. led presentation of members' models on the tables.

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.

This newsletter was published before the October Eboard meeting, so the minutes for the October and November Eboard meetings will appear in the November newsletter.

Jim Greenfield had three items on display on the tables. The first was a 3D-printed model from an unknown source of a 1/48 German High Angle Anti-aircraft Gun from WWII. No paint or weathering has been applied yet, and Jim said he will have to modify the optics of the sighting equipment. Jim added that the fit was perfect, and he got the model for a diorama. The second model was a 1/48 Ertl Star Wars Droid Fighter/Bomber. He kit-bashed two fighters together along with some sheet plastic, and picked the model because "it's different".

Jim's third model was a 1/48 Eduard He 280 Fighter Jet from WWII. He's modifying the nose for guns, and said the model is coming along "so far, so good."

Justin Schroeder came to his first club meeting, and brought along a Star Wars diorama in 1/72 scale. It included a Bandai Y-Wing, Hasegawa US Pilot and Ground Crew set, and a Hasegawa Aerospace Ground Equipment set. He used Archive-X and Vallejo paints with spray paint for the base, in a combination of airbrushing, dry brushing and hand painting. Justin said he used a soldering iron to create the damage to the engine nose cone on the Y-Wing, and a lighter for the fire damage on the engine. The corner office was scratch-built from styrene, and the corner wall was made from Legos which he modified, glued together and painted. Weathering effects included a rust technique that Justin developed, using Metal Effects Iron, MM rust activator, Humbrol rust weathering powder, and red oxide acrylic ink. Justin mentioned that he started this project over two years ago, when he first got into the hobby, so he had to learn a lot to finish it.

Paul Hines brought in two new aircraft paintings this month. The first was a squadron of four F-18s out on a training mission. The second was an F-4 Phantom with German markings about to make its final flight on 6/29/2013. Paul said both paintings were done using acrylics and finished with Kamar Varnish for the final look.

Gregory Fox displayed three automotive subjects: a 1/25 AMT Ghostbusters ECTO-1, a 1/24 AMT Lamborghini Countach LP-500, and a 1/24 Revell Shelby Cobra 427 S/C.

Tim Grieve brought in two new models. The first was a 1/48 Monogram B-25J. He used Model Masters paints in chrome and flat black, and Modelcolor paints in olive green, tan, red, yellow, brown, dark flesh, olive drab, white, light blue and aluminum. He also used pin striping tape in 1/32 and 1/64 inch widths, and added an antenna. Tim said the kit parts fit was great, and he picked the subject as his club challenge entry.

Tim's second model was a 1/72 Airfix Spitfire Mk. 1A. He used Model Master dark earth and RAF dark green, Model Air light gray, Modelcolor black and interior green, and Testors brown leather, yellow, flesh and black, with a Dullcoat overcoat. Tim said he needed to do a Spitfire, and this was a good one with good fit and interesting markings and history.

Alan Gryfe showed us some elements of an upcoming project, including an MPC 1/25 '32 Ford panel van "Truckin' On Down", and a resin 1/25 '32 Ford ambulance/hearse. Alan plans to build it as a stretched-out bus, possibly lengthening it by one window. He mentioned that he found the resin body at the recent Buffalo NNL show for a good price.

Ron Mikol displayed his awards from the Buffalo NNL show, along with a Dumas '56 Chris Craft. He added an engine compartment along with a detailed engine. Ron said building a boat model was something different for him.

Larry Osolkowski brought in several items. The first was some additional progress on the Wicked Models 1/24 3D-printed kit of a current Porsche 963 GTP race car from the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car series. The steering wheel was finished and added to the interior, which is now complete. He also showed the rear diffuser with Tamiya tape being applied to make patterns for carbon fiber decals.

Larry also showed us a new kit, the Moebius HAL 9000 from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". This is a simple kit depicting the front panel of the infamous computer, complete with glowing red LED. He also got a sound module that will be added to provide the well-known line "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

Larry also displayed the completed 1/40 Metal Earth kit of the Insight Mars Lander. Larry said this was a lot of fun, but a tricky build with lots of tiny parts to bend and fit. This was the first kit of this type that he's built that included pre-painted parts, and they are very well done. He also mentioned that he bought an inexpensive set of special small pliers to use for forming the metal parts.

Tom Faith displayed a Tamiya 1/35 Jeep. He used Testors olive drab for the base color, and added Citadel browns, blacks and olive drabs. Tom added detail with a Calscale pintle and 30 caliber gun, resin seats, Aber photo-etch, and seat frames scratchbuilt with solder. He applied weathering with Army Painter washes, homemade washes, pigments and dry pastels. Tom said there were no real problems with the kit, although the clear glass parts were too thick. He mentioned that he had built a trailer and needed something to pull it.

Tom Brown Sr. showed us his progress on the Iwo Jima Monument model, which he's been working on for several months now. It's finished in bronze paint, and took a first place in the Miscellaneous category at Rocon. Tom said it still needs helmet straps, one guy still needs a rifle, and some engraving is required.

Ted Szczesny displayed the engine and chassis assembly for the 1/8 Pocher 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza 1960's vintage classic kit. He said that assorted shades of existing red chassis and body parts will be painted with Tamiya Italian Red spray lacquer. Ted mentioned that he doesn't plan on using any aftermarket parts; although they are available, a lot of modifications done to the kit are simply to repair flaws (of which there are many) and facilitate the build. Ted said he found out that this kit had the most quality control problems of any classic Pocher kit. Also, the Pocher "factory" was actually an assembly building; all parts were "job shopped" to families' living rooms and basements. Once the sourced bags of parts arrived, a lot of Italian ladies would box the parts at the "assembly" building. He said that the poor quality of the kit was not surprising for one of the first releases. The "no glue use" and "working brake" rumors for this kit are wishful thinking. CA glue is very useful for repairing, stabilizing and aligning parts. The brakes may move a fraction of a mm before some system failure.

Ted also showed us a Mould King Armored Recovery Crane, a Lego Technic compatible kit with over 5500 parts. Ted said that aggressive engineering tends to stretch the ability of the plastic and pneumatic components to handle the loads required of them. Also, the battery is too small, providing limited "play time", and many functions operate very slowly. Ted picked the subject because he's a Legoholic, with no known cure. He said: "no screw, no sprue, no glue - paint optional. Hours, days, and in some cases weeks of fun! The highlight of the kit is the building process; functionality is secondary in my opinion. Following building instructions is key, disassembly to correct mistakes is less fun to do."

Maryann Germann showed us her progress on the 1/8 SOL Model Cloud Knight Samuri figure. She pre-shaded with white and black Krylon primer, and did most of the painting with brushed Vallejo paints. She scratch-built a missing sword and the bridge base, and added shading and highlighting for weathering. Maryann said there were no problems with the kit, and she thought it was an interesting subject and she liked the colors.

Jeff Keenan had three items on the tables. The first was a Bandai 1/144 AT-AT from Star Wars. He used Tamiya and Vallejo paints, with weathering added using enamel washes, oil staining and streaking, pastel chalk on the cannons, and he tried doing white paint "snow" but decided that didn't turn out very well. Jeff said he made the red screen from clear glue mixed with Tamiya clear red paint. He said there were no issues with the kit; it even came with spares of the small guns that break easily. Jeff likes Star Wars subjects, and is trying to decide if he wants to use the model in a diorama. He also displayed his Bandai Snowspeeder (which was really a fourth item, but who's counting).

Jeff's second item was a 1/72 Revell Arado E.555. He used Vallejo and Mission Models paints, and will also be using Tamiya and craft paints. Jeff said he's planning on adding some scratch-built details, and so far, it's been a great build with no problems. He mentioned that he picked the subject because he likes the dihedral (anhedral?) wings and unique shape; it has a "what-if" factor that he likes. Jeff said the kit was produced in 1998, but the fit and detail is really good.

Jeff's last item was an ICM 1/72 MiG-29 "Ghost of Kiev". It's covered in Tamiya primer so far, and will be built out-of-box. Jeff said the fit isn't great, and lots of puttying and sanding has been required. He mentioned that he wanted to support a Ukranian company and also wanted a Mig-29 in the display cabinet; he also likes the digital camo scheme. Jeff said that the decals are notoriously too small, so he's trying to find paint to match.

Ilya Grinberg had two items on the tables, but, unfortunately, we didn't get any photos. The first was an Arma Hobby 1/72 YAK-1B, with added detail using some photo-etch and decals by Aviaelogy, and paints by AK Real Color and Tamiya. Ilya said it was an awesome kit. The second model was a Flyhawk BT-7 in 1/72 scale, with AK Real Color and AKAN paints. Ilya said this was also a great kit.

Al Germann displayed a couple of models. The first was his Crazy Parisian Taxi, based on a 1/24 IMAI Citroen 2CV6. He painted it Krylon Baby Blue, and added customized headlights and taillights, front and rear spoilers from the parts box, a wine rack above the rear bumper, and a Ferrari V8 with a blower. Al said the interior will be from a PT Cruiser. He mentioned that he always liked the old Monogram Tijuana Taxi kit, but never bought it.

Al's second model was his completed 1/48 Roden Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing in US Antarctic Service. Paints used included Rustoleum Red, Krylon Orange, Vallejo interior colors, and a Krylon Satin Clear Coat. Al scratch-built snow skis based on some internet photos, and used aftermarket decals. He used Snow-Coat from Cammett.co.uk that he bought at a model show years ago for the snow base. Al said it took three tries to get the paint right, and it still has a few small flaws. He said he always liked the Staggerwing, and he likes bright colors. Al commented that it was a very satisfying build of a beautiful aircraft.

Al also displayed his "Earl's Dead, Cadillac For Sale" diorama. Unfortunately, we ran out of info sheets, so we don't have any details.

Bob Heiss displayed a work-in-progress, a Revell kit of "The Mummy". He's used Tamiya acrylic flat desert paints so far. This model was his challenge build which, unfortunately, isn't done yet.

There were a few unidentified objects on the tables.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to Bob Conshafter for handling the model tables. Photos provided by Larry Osolkowski.