Greetings and salutations to one and all! Figured it's about time to do my article so why not do it while the Bills game is on haha... Before I continue, the Tony Bartozek's "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" challenge comes to a close at this Tuesday's general meeting (9/17/24). Depending on when the newsletter is sent out, you have plenty of time to finish up, so what'cha waiting for? Unfortunately, I do not think I'll have my challenge build done on time. I'll do my best but there will be no promises.

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - September 17, 2024

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 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:

Long time club member Frank Blonski put on the 2nd annual NNL Buffalo Model & Classic Car Show on August 25th. The show was very successful, with a great crowd and a large number of fine models on the tables. Here are some photos from the show.

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

The minutes from the August 2024 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

August 20th - First Vice President Dan Price led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • Jeff K. provided an update on the club's upcoming display at the Clarence Library and requested members to send him photos of models for planning the layout.
• New Business:
  • None.
• BuffCon #40, April 6, 2025:
  • None.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • Dan acknowledge a new person, Tim, attending the meeting.
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting with the tickets sold resulting in a $68/$67 split.
  • Frank B. spoke about NNL model show on August 25th, Sunday on Erie Ave. in North Tonawanda.
  • Tom B. Sr. spoke about his experience in entering a diorama in competition at the Erie County Fair.
  • Steve W. had a couple of large framed aircraft prints for anyone interested.
  • Larry O. and Ron M. conducted a demo on the disassembly and cleaning of airbrushes.
  • Bob C. led the discussion for the models presented 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 9 - President Mike Butry led the meeting, held at Section 8 Hobbies.

• Old Business:
  • Tom F. provided a basic overview of financial state of the club with has us in a favorable condition. Contributing to this was a profitable BuffCon and the 50/50 raffle.
  • The Tony Bartozek "I'm Not a Modeling Loser" challenge will end with the September meeting.
  • Summary discussion on proposal of the Treasurer position (Tom F.) becoming an appointed one and not elected.
  • Draft from Dick S. of Club's Constitution were discussed. Tom F. motioned to accept but some minor phrasing changes could still take place with Dick and Al completing this. E-board voted to accept as described with minor phrasing/wording modifications but not intent. Last amended in December 2018.
• New Business:
  • Tom F. communicated there is some interest to order more club shirts along with name tags. This is still early planning as minimum order is required. Mike has action item to bring up at general meeting.
  • Tom F. stated that some day he will step down from the club's treasurer so there is a need to identify a successor. Basic accounting skills and basic computer skills are required. Mike has action item to bring up at general meeting.
• BuffCon #40, April 6th, 2025:
  • Printing of flyers was discussed for multiple upcoming shows. Al has action item to email pdf of "save the date" flyer to E-board. Tom F. stated he is printing a large quantity along with the tri-fold flyers that promote the club in general. Tom B. commented on the lack of flyers at two recent shows.
  • Jeff K. led discussion on vendor tables with the plan of 65. Jeff stated he had request to share our vendor list with another club for their show event. E-board agreed to first attain approval from vendors on the list for this activity.
  • The club is still planning on returning the favor of promotional tables between BuffCon and the model train show. Mike has action item to contact Andy on this topic.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Tom B. observed there was a lack of member support to staff the promotional table at the recent NNL show.
  • Observation was brought up that the scheduled build night over summer at Section 8 was not utilized as planned.
  • Briefly discussed two Gundam hobby shops in the Northtowns. Casual Dragon and Mad House Gaming.
  • Discussion on new magazine focused on scale autos called Auto Modeler. Mike has action item to start pursuing contact for possible advertising for BuffCon.

Ron Mikol showed us his latest work-in-progress, a 1923 Fuel Altered body. He sprayed it with automotive metalflake and candy colors. Ron said it was something different not usually seen. He also displayed an interesting skull glue bottle.

Paul Hines brought in three new paintings of automotive subjects. The first was a Shelby Cobra. Paul said "originally it was black with white stripes. I switched the colors, but then didn't know what to do with the background. I decided to go a little abstract with red, white and blue, which makes for a different painting."

Paul's second painting was a custom "rat rod" by California builder Jimmy Shine. Paul commented that he "liked the low angle and again painted an abstract background."

Paul's third painting was a 2015 Corvette Z06. He said "I put it on a racetrack to add a little action and movement, even with a slight slant to the front of the car."

Larry Osolkowski brought in his progress on his recent project, a 1/25 Monogram Porsche Quaker State Indycar. He got some Quaker State green automotive lacquer from MCW Finishes and tested it on a spoon, and found some old Shabo dry transfer Goodyear tire markings since there are no tire decals in the kit. The tires have raised sidewall lettering that is not accurate, but fortunately they can be sanded off, making the tires look much better. Larry tried an experiment on the engine valve covers that was very successful. The covers have nice, crisp lettering molded in, so he primed them, covered the lettering with bare metal foil, airbrushed on some semi-gloss black, and then used some Tamiya hard cotton buds dipped in lacquer thinner to remove the paint from the foiled lettering. He's also made some good progress on cleaning up and priming the bodywork, painting some cooling system bits, and painting the seat.

Tom Petovsky displayed his 1/32 Revell P-40. He airbrushed it with acrylic paints, and built it out-of-box. Tom said the decals were good, but some of them came apart and he had to use paint. He mentioned that this was his first attempt at an in-flight model.

Justin Schroeder showed us a nylon-powder 3D-printed Alien statue in unknown scale. Justin described his finishing process: "first I did two coats of XTC-3D (a smoothing/leveling product), then primed it using black Alclad II lacquer microfiller. I then used a combination of different shades of black from Archive-X paints, along with a little bit of brown. For the egg, I used Vallejo dark green RLM83 and mud brown. I coated the egg using DecoArt Clear pouring top coat to give the egg that wet look like in the movies. The egg was empty, so I filled it with some grayish-white terrain material mixed with AK snow sprinkles and topped off with Green Stuff World Web Serum. For the mouth, I used Alclad II chrome. For the drooling acid from his mouth I used a hot glue stick - melted it in a metal spoon with a lighter, then applied it around the mouth with an old paint brush and painted it with the Alclad chrome. It took two tries to get the drool looking the way I wanted it." Justin said a friend in Minnesota 3D-printed this for him as a gift. He also printed the Dune Atreides Royal ship which is on the to-do list. The base is a bottom battery cover from a $5 Harbor Freight lantern.

Paul Kittel displayed his current work-in-progress, an 1896 1/150 USN Monitor (Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado or Arkansas). Paul said the model is scratch-built, but he has a friend with a laser engraver/cutter, so he's cheating a bit. He said "I had reasonably complete drawings of this class of ship, obscure enough to be interesting, and no one makes a kit of this subject. I was actually thinking of coming up with a kit to produce and market; this is the test build."

Al Germann's 1941 delivery van is ready for another delivery to Wile E. Coyote as Al completed his challenge build. Starting with the Revell 1941 Chevy Pick Up and extending the frame to fit the box van unit, it's all sitting on 3D printed wheels, with just a bit of light weathering to finish it off. "It was just a fun build" according to Al. He certainly had some inspiration from cartoons growing up.

Switching gears to a World War I aircraft, Al Germann started with a kit from Bob Conshafter of a Morane-Saulnier type N, an Eduard kit in 1:48 scale. Once thought to be a "quick build", Al stated while it only had 13 plastic parts, there were an additional 50 in photo etch. In the end it really didn't matter as Al is making great progress and he is satisfied with the results. Something noteworthy, this 1915 subject did not a have synchronized machine gun to fire through the propeller arc so there are metal deflectors on the back side of the prop to extend the prop and fight time. This was replicated with photo etched pieces.

Ted Szczesny showed us his progress on his Tamiya 1/14 Volvo FH16 4/2 Tractor Truck, with three main "cabover" subassemblies ready for final assembly. He's added Tamiya spray lacquer in TS-54 Light Metallic Blue on the body, along with several aftermarket lighting kits upgraded with resistors to allow for higher non-damaging voltages. Several new wiring harnesses were also added. Ted said there were no issues with the original kit, but the 2mm male connectors in the aftermarket main lighting kit required trimming to fit into the Tamiya MFC-03 control board and are not locked in as Tamiya fittings are, but simply tight friction fit. The Tamiya kit-style plugs don't seem to be available separately in the aftermarket. Now on to final assembly!

Dan Marafino displayed a new collection of his aircraft paintings, along with a railroad subject.

There were a quite a few unidentified objects on the tables.

Larry Osolkowski and Ron Mikol gave a demo on airbrush disassembly and cleaning. Larry concentrated on Grex airbrushes, while Ron focused on Badger. The demo was well received, with a lot of questions being answered.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to Bob Conshafter for handling the model tables, and Larry Osolkowski for the photos.