Greetings and salutations to one and all! Well gang, this is it. We are down to the wire as the Tony Bartozek "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" club challenge is coming to a close. All build challenges have to be done by next week's general club meeting (9/19/2023)!

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - September 19, 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, September 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:

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

June 20th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • There are 3 more entries to the Tony Bartozek "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" challenge.
• New Business:
  • None.
• BuffCon #39, April 2, 2024:
  • BuffCon preparations will start soon.
  • Mike B. has action item to follow up with Robin at The Knight's Hall for the status of kitchen service/access.
  • Mike B. has action item to ask the hall if food trucks are an option.
• NorEastCon 51, Saturday, April 29th, 2023:
  • None.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • Tom B. led discussion on using/hiring a small tour bus for out of town shows.
  • Dick S. provided a review of the Patterson Library that had a very notable collection of models and dioramas on the Pacific Theater of World War II. This is on display through September 8th.
  • Upcoming shows/events:
    • NNL Sep. 10th in Tonawanda.
    • ROCON 41 in Rochester Sep. 17th.
    • Erie PA on Oct. 1st.
    • SyrCon on Oct. 22nd.
  • Tom F. stated that Fine Scale Modeler magazine has coverage from HeritageCon.
  • New location opening of Section 8 is close to opening.
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting with the tickets sold resulting in a $39/$39 split.
  • 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.

September 11 - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • E-Board still planning on conducting meetings at the new location of Section 8 Hobbies, but it is not open yet.
  • The summer challenge memorial build, the Tony Bartozek "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" contest, will conclude at the next meeting. Mike B. has trophy for this event.
• New Business:
  • Larry O. stated he will not be available to publish the October newsletter. The following discussion included finding an alternative, or if Larry can publish it early for release at the regular time. Mike B. has action item to address this.
  • Bill B. has action item to take photos at the September general meeting as Larry will not be attending.
  • Al G. proposed an idea of having the club create a YouTube channel as source of promotion and revenue. Initial structure was discussed and further E-Board discussion needs to take place.
  • Mike lead discussion on posting articles of modeling techniques on the club's facebook page. No outcome or action items identified.
• BuffCon #39, April 7th, 2024:
  • Mike discussed recent thoughts on contact from Squadron on past and possible future donation.
• Miscellaneous:
  • The recent NNL model show was attended by some with reports that it was a well produced event.
  • Mike received another email from a hotel in Niagara Falls as possible location for a future BuffCon. Mike has action item to follow up to acquire basic information.
  • Mike brought up thought of option of off-site build nights. Discussed but nothing formalized.

Dick Schulenberg brought in an Iron Shipwrights' 1/192 kit of the USS Panay. Here's his description: "This is a resin kit of the USS Panay, a US Navy shallow draft Yangtze River gunboat tasked with protecting American interests in 1930's China. In December 1937, Panay was bombed and strafed by Japanese Navy airplanes, and sunk in shallow waters while escorting three Standard Oil tankers down river loaded with Chinese escapees from Japanese attacks in Nanking. A large American flag was painted on Panay's upper deck canvas but the Japanese said they didn't see it. 4 people were killed and 43 injured on board Panay or on lifeboats as they pulled away and US public opinion was inflamed. Japanese authorities accepted responsibility for the 'unintentional' sinking and ended up paying a cash indemnity which cooled off the public and newspapers, preventing further armed conflict between the US and Japan for four more years.

The Iron Shipwrights kit is all resin castings from my scratch built masters and photoetch and decals by Ted Paris. The hull was carved from basswood and sealed with superglue to create a smooth, hard surface. Everything else was made from Evergreen plastic sheet, strip and rod. Working plans came from US Navy archives supplemented by some great detailed photos, sketches and descriptions from Arthur Herrick, Jr., a noted naval historian, model builder and member of the USS Panay Association.

The Steve McQueen movie 'The Sand Pebbles' and 'The Sand Pebbles', by Richard McKenna, the book the movie was based on, are great (and realistic) depictions of Navy life on Chinese rivers during the '30's."

Bill Borkowski showed us his progress on his club challenge build, a Tamiya 1/24 Morris Mini Cooper 1275S Mk. 1. He used Testors spray enamel for the blue finish. Bill mentioned that the instruction sheets were not very good, requiring experimenting. Bill likes Mini Coopers.

Tom Faith brought in a 1/10th scale resin figure of Robert Rogers of the Rangers. Here are Tom's comments: "He is depicted in winter gear, most likely near Fort Ticonderoga in 1758. He was sculpted by Dave Ackerman who was a member of our club and distributed by Custom Dioramics. I have had him in my stash about 20 years now. He has a blanket coat typical of the period, jockey cap for running in the forest, and a Brown Bess musket. He has a beard which was not in fashion at the time, but I will not try to remove it."

Paul Hines displayed two new automotive paintings. The first was a 1967 Ferrari 330 P4, considered one of the most beautiful race cars. Paul said this painting went together beautifully; the drawing came out perfect, and the color and shading just fell into place. Paul mentioned that he would put this painting as among his best works.

Paul's other painting is a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. This vehicle is one of the most highly prized collector cars of all time. Paul said he found a picture in this unusual color and had to paint it.

John-Allen Price displayed a work-in-progress using a 1/72 Revell A-6 and a 1/72 Hasegawa A-6 Intruder. John-Allen said he plans to "Frankenstein" the two kits to make one plane. So far, he's used Polly-S light tan, Model Master gloss white and flat black acrylic paints. He mentioned that it's very difficult to fit the tail hook plug into the fuselage assembly. The model will continue his "Jungle Cats on the Flight Deck" series, and he's looking forward to the challenge.

Al Germann had two models on the tables. The first was a 1/48 Roden Stagger Wing. Paints used included Krylon, Rustoleum (exterior), Tamiya and Vallejo (interior), and a Krylon satin clear coat. Al said he scratch-built snow skis for Antarctic Service. He mentioned that, other than the windshield needing some fitting, there were no problems with the kit, but he had to strip and repaint the orange due to the primer being too dark. Al said he always liked the Stagger Wing, he loves bright colors, and the aftermarket decals provided a unique subject.

Al's second model was a Crazy Parisian Taxi 1/24 built kit. He used Krylon primer, and added headlight buckets and custom taillights from a 1957 Chevy custom parts, and a Ferrari 308 engine with blower and rear wheel drive transmission. He said that so far, it's been the usual fill, sand, repeat. Al mentioned that the kitbash was inspired by the old Tijuana Taxi show rod kit, and he's having fun and enjoys the occasional kitbash custom.

Steve Weller brought in some odds and ends again, but neglected to provide details.

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 seatbelts were finished and installed on the seat, which was mounted to the interior. The interior now needs only the steering wheel to be complete.

Larry also showed us some progress on the old Heller 1/24 1939 BMW 328 race car. The body has had seams filled and sanded, and primer applied.

Larry also displayed a 1/40 Metal Earth kit of the Insight Mars Lander. He's built several of these kits before, but this was the first one to have pre-painted parts. The kits are assembled by bending the flat parts into shape and inserting tiny tabs into tiny slots, and bending them over or twisting them to hold them in place. The kit was a gift from his son, David.

Finally, Larry brought in the Tamiya 1/24 Mercedes-AMG GT3 race car that we saw at a recent meeting, but this time he also had the 3D-printed trans-kit to convert it to the current version of the car, along with an aftermarket decal set to make the Weathertech team car.

Tom Brown Sr. had a couple of interesting photos from years back. One showed a diorama he made of the old Clutch Artists Autorama car show, and the other was a diorama of BuffCon.

Ted Szczesny displayed his completed Pocher/Hornby Hobbies 1/8 Lamborghini Aventador. It was built out-of-box, with Tamiya flat black acrylic for touch-ups. Ted said there were lots of thin long lines in the instruction panels, pointing to part positions; an Optivisor was very useful for following them. He said he picked the subject because of the challenge of assembly, the high quality of the finished product, the high detail level, and the sleek design. Ted mentioned that there were around 800 parts in the kit, 300 of which are about a dozen different types of fairly tiny screws. He also said that there are supplemental instructions available on a DVD from Paul Koo for those who want to super-detail the model, but that's way too serious for him.

Ted also showed us the engine and transmission for another Pocher kit, the 1/8 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza, a 1960s vintage classic kit. He said that assorted shades of existing red chassis and body parts will be painted with Tamiya Italian Red spray lacquer, which is currently in the mail. 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 and facilitate the build. He said that kits of this era were criticized for poor fit and finish and, unfortunately, this was apparently true. He found improperly sized and misaligned screw holes, excess flash on plastic parts, varying shades of the same color parts, poor instructions, etc.

Maryann Germann showed us her progress on the Cloud Knight figure. She's using Vallejo paints, with layers of washes for weathering. Maryann is making a platform out of styrofoam that will form a bridge for the figure to stand on, and it will also get arch railings.

Bob Butry brought in a 1/48 Roden AU-23A Peacemaker. He used Model Master Olive Drab, Gray and Black, with weathering done using a light tempra wash. He also added simple seat belts. Bob said issues with the kit included removing flash and mold release, the soft plastic made it hard to cut small parts from the trees, and the decals were bad. He mentioned that he picked the subject because he needed to start drinking again, although he doesn't drink.

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.