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 110 members with 40+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Monday of every month (unless there is a holiday) at the Community Center, 4255 Harlem Road, Amherst NY 14226

Mike Memmo

Mike Memmo passed away at home on Monday, May 11 after battling a number of escalating health problems. He had spent the last few weeks in the ICU at Buffalo General Hospital. According to his daughter Michelle, he was glad to be home and relatively comfortable, but ready to let go.

Mike was an active member of IPMS Niagara Frontier since 1984. Many of us remember the big WWII ground warfare diorama he brought to BuffCon in the Lancaster Middle School that year. He was so proud of his model and so excited to meet other people with similar interests. Mike never lost that pride in his models or that excitement in being with other modelers.

If you met Mike, you wouldn’t forget him. He loved armor models and had recently gravitated to 1/72 scale and eventually became a dedicated dealer for a number of Eastern European manufacturers. He was a wheeler & dealer and thoroughly enjoyed buying and selling model kits. He loved turning kits over as fast as possible, always at a fair price. As much as he liked selling, I think his biggest delight at shows was giving a kit to a kid. I know he made a lot of kids happy.

Mike was the master of the art of selling raffle tickets at our shows and at the AMPS Nationals. He could convince anyone to buy an arms length of tickets and he made a lot of money for us. We will miss that booming “Get your raffle tickets here”.

Mike was also a great story teller. He loved to talk and he always had an opinion. Model show road trips with Mike were always fun, even if you were the butt of one of his good natured jokes. Often, the rides there and back were more fun than the shows. I think each one of us who rode with him has a favorite story.

Mike was one of the first people I met in this club and we joined up at the same time. For many years, we carpooled to the meetings, so I was lucky to spend a lot of time with Mike. We exchanged a lot of our own philosophies and Mike always impressed me with the depth of his feelings and beliefs. He was proud of his wife Pat and his daughter Michelle and felt blessed that they were his family.

Please keep Pat and Michelle in your thoughts. We will have a card at next Monday's meeting.

Dick Schulenberg 5/15/09

Mike Miodonski – 1964-2008

Our friend Mike Miodonski passed away on December 27, 2008 when his recurring heart problems finally overtook him. Mike was a member of Niagara Frontier IPMS for many years, going back to our days at the Harlem-Genesee VFW Post. Perhaps “member” is too bland a word to describe how Mike related to this club. Mike was never a spectator but always a participant and often a leader in club activities. A long time E-Board member, Mike served as Vice President for many years and President for three terms, resigning in this last term because of his health. He pushed us into trying different things. Didn’t always work, but he always looked forward.

Mike was a late bloomer at attending contests other than BuffCon, but he made up for that over the past few years, hitting all the shows he could, even in horrendous weather. He always volunteered for the judging teams wherever he went and, at the Kansas City Nationals, he was one of the computer gurus who kept registration on track. I know he was looking forward to the Columbus Nationals in 2009. At our shows, he captained the registration effort for as long as I can remember and so became one of our most “public” faces. Mike was at his best working the crowd, as he did when leading the group in the discussion of the models on the display tables at our monthly meetings.

My favorite memories of Mike will always revolve around the annual Kid’s Model Building Class. Although he and Katie never had children, Mike truly enjoyed working with them. He loved building models one-on-one with the kids, especially the youngest ones. Watching him coax little kids into talking about their models in front of a large group was always a highlight of the class. I didn’t know that he coached for the Lovejoy T-Ball team too, but it’s fun to imagine him and little kids with bats. Old friend Frank Ciccarella summed it up pretty well, saying “For those of us who knew Mike, we will be grateful for the time we had together with him.”

We’ll miss you, buddy.

Dick Schulenberg 12/30/08

Photos of the Old Fort Niagara Diorama are now available on the Gallery page.

The June 2009 newsletter is now available for download.

Photos from the 2009 Kids Class are now available on the Gallery page.

A large photo gallery for Buffcon 26 (2009) is now available on the Gallery page.

Check the Events page for more model show news.

Some photos from the Pacific Coast Air Museum have been posted in the Gallery - take a look!

All of the photos from Buffcon 2007 and 2008 are now available in the Gallery - take a look!

 Info on model shows in our area as well as our own Buffcon event

 Check out the photos from the Pacific Coast Air Museum, Buffcon 2007, 2008 and 2009.

 Hints, tips and references for building and painting better models.

 Download the latest club newsletter in Adobe PDF format

 Find out where to shop in our area!

 Important hobby sites related to and for our members.

 Ongoing reviews of new kits, books and tools.

 Find out about our members, meetings and events!

 Contacts for club events and questions.