Greetings fellow IPMS Niagara Frontier Chapter members:
It is finally Spring and the month of May brings up a couple of important club issues, the first being it's time to elect your Executive Board for another term, and the second is the Tony Bartozek "I'm Not A Modeling Loser" Challenge begins.
Let's get the business out of the way first. The Executive Board guides the club's business activities and each member of the board holds a two-year term. The ballot for the next term (2016-2018) is:
| President | John Zaranek (incumbent - running unopposed) |
| 1st Vice-President | Justen Hanna (incumbent - running unopposed) |
| 2nd Vice-President | Larry Osolkowski (incumbent - running unopposed) |
| Treasurer | Tom Faith (incumbent - running unopposed) |
| Secretary | Al Germann (new candidate - running unopposed) |
| Member-At-Large (choose 6) | Frank Blonski (incumbent) |
| Ed Button (incumbent) | Paul Hines (incumbent) | Brian McFee (incumbent) | Joe Sczygielski (incumbent) | Clint Keidel (new candidate) | Tom Brown, Jr. (new candidate) |
Long time club secretary Dick Schulenberg decided that he will not seek re-election to this post, but wishes to remain as the chapter contact. I appointed Johnny Newmann to the E-Board last year to fill a position until this election. Johnny has also decided not to seek another term on the E-Board.
Ballots will be distributed to all club members who are current with their dues. Members who are delinquent are not eligible to vote, nor run for any office.
Now, onto the fun part - the annual "Tony Bartozek Memorial I'm Not A Modeling Loser Challenge". Here's how this annual tradition works: if you accept the challenge you will bring in to the club meeting on May 16th an unstarted model kit. It doesn't have to be new, it just can't be started. It can be any subject and any scale, just not started. We will document you and your selection and, with a $5 Tim Hortons Gift Card as your entry fee, you pledge to complete the model, in its entirety, by the August 15th club meeting. By "finished" we mean it must be completely assembled, painted and decaled. Additional weathering, mounting on a base, adding photoetch, resin or scratchbuilt details is entirely up to you, but whatever you decide, it MUST be completed by the August meeting. We'll divide the entrants into two teams and the team with the most completed projects will collect the $5 gift cards from the losing side. Each member of the losing team will be photographed with themselves displaying the letter "L" on their foreheads with their fingers, branding them as modeling losers for the year. The winners will be photographed displaying the letter "W" in a like manner, posing as the winners that they deservedly are. In the event of a tie, you will receive your $5 gift card back and everyone goes home a winner. Tony Bartozek started this tradition several years ago and called it the "Tim Hortons I'm Not A Modeling Loser Challenge" and it's been popular ever since. After Tony's untimely passing a few years ago, we decided to name the contest in his honor and to keep the Tim Hortons tradition going.
To end the news for this month, the May meeting will be a return of the "Build And Bull" sessions. We'll take care of the elections and the modeling challenge and then for the rest of the meeting, bring some model related project in to work on (that's the "build" part) and shoot the breeze and socialize with fellow club members (that's the "bull" part). I'll probably bring in my Airfix Sepecat Jackal army vehicle in along with some basic modeling tools (Xacto knife, nippers, sanding sticks and glue along with my magnifiers). You are more than welcome to do the same.
That's all for this month and I hope to be see you all on Monday night.
John R. Zaranek
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 47993
Model Table Round-up from the April meeting
Jim Greenfield brought in a Tamiya 1/35 M-41 Walker Bulldog. Jim used Testors and Tamiya paints, with pigments and
drybrushing for weathering. The lack of a kit interior motivated Jim to create his own, using an M-8 gun motor carriage
interior with an SU-27 ejection seat. He also added an M-48 searchlight, gun shields, dunnage and AFV tracks. Jim said
he saw a picture of this version and said "that's awesome!"
Coincidentally, Dan Marafino displayed an M-8 Motor Carriage Howitzer. Dan used Tamiya paints in khaki drab, olive drab
and olive drab faded colors, with weathering using drybrushing and pastels. Dan said he likes armor.
A Tamiya 1/35 JSU-152 work-in-progress was shown by Rich Bernicki. Rich said he added an aftermarket metal barrel which,
of course, can't be seen in the photo.
In the automotive realm, Jason Ignatjew had a nice AMT 1968 Roadrunner on the table. Jason used MCW Factory Blue (B5)
with Testors One Coat Clear over that. The model was build box stock, with the substitution of MRC Keystone Classic mag wheels
and AMT Redline tires. Jason said that the kit "fell together", and that he builds exclusively 1/24 & 1/25 scale cars.
Jason also brought in his next project, a new kit of the 1965 Plymouth Belvedere in 1/25 scale from Moebius Models. The
painted body is looking good.
Jim Lewis had his funny car work-in-progress on display. Jim acquired a die-cast body with no chassis, so he's
scratch-building a frame out of brass tubing. Looks like an interesting project.
Tom Brown, Jr. loves war gaming. As proof, he had a set of Citadel Space Marines to show us. Tom said he finished them
with Citadel and Vallejo paints. (Next time, I'll try to get all of them in focus.)
Not to be outdone by his progeny, Tom Brown Sr. had a pair of figures on the table. Tom described them as follows:
"I took a Buster Bison bobblehead, ground off all raised letters and the hat, reshaped the hands into hooves, and removed
the Pepsi logo. I photo-reduced our club logo off of my T-shirt, and made a do-rag out of flag pieces." This effort
produced a Spruester bobblehead, with the original Buster Bison for comparison. Tom mentioned that the hard resin was
difficult to grind and shape. He collects bobbleheads, and wanted to build a Spruester for the club Buffalo build.
Larry Osolkowski brought in a couple of 1/43 kits that he's working on. The first is a Tameo Williams FW-16 Formula 1
car. The body now has a first coat of Williams FW-16 Blue (yes, it's a specific color for just that car) from Zero Paints,
and the wheels and tires are assembled, along with the suspension corners and front wing.
Larry's second kit is a 1955 BMW Side Car racer from MEAkit43. The kit is pretty rough, with pinholes to fill and lots
of cleanup, but it's a rather unique subject. Larry said he's building his small scale stuff while his eyes still work.
Larry also brought in a new release from Revell of Germany, a 1/24 Porsche 918 Spyder with Weissach package in
Martini livery. Like most recent kits from RofG, it looks very nice, with lots of detail and a great decal sheet.
Clint Keidel displayed a Monogram 1/48 P-39 Airacobra, finished with Vallejo, Tamiya and Testors Model Master
paints. He added gun bubbles and a "spinning" prop, and weathered it with Mig products and dry pastels. This is #2 of
his Buffalo Build projects.
Frank Blonski provided another progress report on his 1941 Plymouth ProMod project. Frank tried using Tamiya gray
primer from the bottle with good results.
Brian McFee had some reference material for his next project, another F-16 (he likes F-16s).
Paul Hines had some new artwork for our viewing pleasure: a 1965 Lola T-70 race car, and a 1969 Chevy Camaro SS.
Paul said he has more to come to capture the history and design of the automobile.
There were a couple of other items on the tables.
Finally, some around-the-room shots.
Thanks to Larry Osolkowski for the photography.
