Greetings and salutations to one and all! Before I begin, I want to again remind everyone per Larry's
email (sent April 14th) that our regular third Monday of the month meeting has been moved to Tuesdays
temporarily. The Knights Hall bingo has gotten the green light and they'll be utilizing both buildings due
to the SOP of Covid/social distancing. So with that being said, our next meeting will be this coming
Tuesday, April 20th, 2021. We'll be meeting at our original meeting spot which is the back building to the
left.
Now on with the show! First and foremost, I am glad that we had such a good turnout at least month's
meeting. 32 members attended and again, I was super stoked to see everyone, so thank you for coming! Also on
another good note, as of the last meeting, we had roughly 46 paid members. If anyone still needs to pay their
dues, please do so at the next meeting or send Tom faith a cheque at the address below.
Tom Faith
7381 Clinton St.
Elma, NY 14059
Make checks payable to IPMS Niagara Frontier.
Secondly, and the most exciting news, is that I'd like to welcome a NEW member to our club! Let's all give a BIG Howdy Ho to Bruce Mathes who is a long time modeler and from what I have heard, he builds things with wings! He resides just outside of Syracuse in Hastings NY. Hello Bruce and welcome to the club!
Until next time, happy modeling!
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - April 20, 2021
7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.
7:10 PM - Meeting called to order.
Old Business:
- Get remaining members paid up.
New Business:
- Possible kids classes to be held at Section 8.
- April 3rd, 2022, Buffcon is a go!
Questions from the floor.
Table discussion: Members tell the club about the models they have on the tables.
Break: 10 minutes.
Members catch up on what's been going on since the last meeting.
Call for adjournment.
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, April 20th, starting at the usual 7:00pm. We will be
returning to the traditional meeting room in the rear building. Here are the safety guidelines we will be
following:
If everyone follows these guidelines, we can have a safe meeting. Please consider coming to the meeting to
support your club, and bring your current projects. Hope to see you there!
Club dues for 2021 are now due. The Eboard realizes that club activities have been greatly reduced due to
the pandemic, but the club still needs revenue to cover expenses. We have been fortunate that our club
meeting facility, the Knights Hall, has not been charging us for the months that we've been unable to hold
general meetings, but that will change as soon as meetings can be held again. Also, the club was not able
to have our annual BuffCon show, a major source of income, last year, and there is a real chance that we
may not be able to hold a BuffCon in 2021. If you can afford to pay the annual dues of $20 and help support
the club during difficult times, please send a check to:
Tom Faith
7381 Clinton St.
Elma, NY 14059
Make checks payable to IPMS Niagara Frontier. Thank you!
Dick Schulenberg sent along a pretty cool video on "Beautiful Old Airplanes". Take a look:
The Links page on the club website has recently been updated with information contributed by members. If you have a favorite website for modeling info, forums, etc., email the information to larryo@ipmsniagarafrontier.com.
A NOTE TO NON-MEMBERS
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 80 members with 40+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Monday of every month at The Knights, 2375 Union Rd., Cheektowaga, NY 14225.
A typical meeting starts with a short session related to club business. This is followed by "Show & Tell" - many members bring in their current work in progress to share experiences with other members. There is usually at least one model-related demonstration by a club member at each meeting. Meetings are free to the public. If you are in the Western New York area we would love to have you drop in to one of our meetings and say hello. We welcome modelers of all skill levels - from beginner to expert.
Our annual BuffCon event held each year in April continues to be one of the largest shows in this part of the country.
As a community-oriented club we also gather toys each Christmas for the "Toys-for-Tots" program and are proud of our support of this worthwhile program.
A brochure that describes the club and its activities can be found HERE.
The minutes from the March 2021 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.
Mar 15th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
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.
April 12 - President Mike Butry led the meeting, held online via Zoom.
Stripping Paint
by Al Germann
At some time, the paint job just doesn't turn out the way we planned on. I mean, not even close to what is acceptable. And there are some of us that love to scrounge through the boxes of bag kits, parts and glue bombs searching for the next great build. In either case, we just can't lay down another "top coat" paint job on what is already there. We have to remove the existing paint. Just sanding it away may work for a couple of small parts but not for a car body or other models with hatches, rivets or other embossed or engraved detail. That requires actually stripping the paint. I asked about this to a few people, looked on line and then experimented for myself.
I heard about some paint stripper actually for models, figuring that would be the ultimate, but did not find it at the hobby store. Doing a web search, talking to a couple of people and then some YouTube watching, I came up with a short list.
- Automotive brake fluid. Just the name or thought of it was too intimidating for me to consider.
- Isopropanol Alcohol (IPA). I am very familiar with this because I use it all the time. I use this for wiping down plastic parts just prior to painting as it is a solvent for mold release, oils from your skin and it dries faster than soap and water. However, I am not sure about using it to remove paint but I hear it does work.
- Automotive "Purple" De-Greaser / Cleaners. This is one that came recommended and I saw a few videos on YouTube that produced the results I want for the two most important factors: remove the paint, and don't damage the plastic.
My experiment consisted of bottles of Purple Power and Super Clean (which I think was a Castrol product at one time). Both are for automotive degreasing and I picked them up at Wal-Mart. Price was in the $5 to $10 range; I do remember that one was cheaper than the other. Even though these come in a spray bottle, pick up some plastic food containers with lids. Just spraying it on won't work. My source for those was Dollar General in the $5 range for a multi-pack. Get the size to fit your biggest piece. For me, it is a car body in 1/25 scale. Also grab some rubber or latex gloves as this solution is caustic so protection is recommended.
I first tried a single piece for a side-by-side comparison. I had two different car hoods that both
appeared to have some rattle can paint job, so I am assuming enamel. Around 3 hours showed definite
softening of the paint, and at 4 hours the paint came right off with an old tooth brush. Consider adding
that to your shopping list. While both met my criteria, the Super Clean performed a little bit better as
I could just push the paint off with my gloved fingers. The tooth brush made nice work of cleaning the
under-hood texture. While not totally removing the paint using Purple Power, it is still acceptable. The
topside of the hood was great.
How this all started is that I had a kit of a 1971 Dodge Challenger and had an old can of a Rustoleum
Metallic Sage Green that would be a great 70's color. While the paint job laid down nicely, and it
wet-sanded with some fine grit very nicely, the polishing with Novus #2 was awful. Polishing it was at
least a week after paint so I believe the paint was fully cured. I don't know what happened, except
something went bad with the paint itself. So, that lead me to the search for a paint stripper.
With the size of container I used (to fit the car body), I poured most of the Super Clean bottle in. I also used a second container as a water rinse. I will also wash it again and more thoroughly later. Without any other preparation, I placed the car body and some additional pieces in the solution. I checked it at 2, and then again at 4 hours; there was some blistering of the paint. Then I accidentally forgot about it and left it in for a total of 6 hours, but everything was fine. While wearing the gloves, I gently used the tooth brush and gave it a water bath when it looked complete. Paint removal was great and the embossed script was perfectly intact. I snapped the lid on to the container to save the solution for another project, although all that dissolved paint is also in there.
After just a bit of 400 and 600 grit light sanding, it was ready for new primer and top coat.
Automotive touch up lacquer spray paint is now on the model. A new can of Jeep Wrangler Rescue Green
(a color from the 2014 era) was used as I thought it could easily double as a 1970's color. It is even
better than my original plan of Sage Green Metallic. The new paint job is great and I enjoyed the
learning process. Most importantly, I saved a model from becoming just another addition to my giant
parts box.
Al Germann
North American AT-6E Experimental "Texas Ranger"
by Bruce Mathes
I found an Academy AT-6 kit (the good one) after searching for 3 years, and by the time I got it, I couldn't remember how I was going to build it or paint it.
While rummaging through my parts box, I came upon some unused vacuform parts for a Fairchild AT-21 Gunner kit. It was powered by the 12 cylinder Ranger engine. What I had was the nice resin engine front, and the nose bowl of the cowl. So why not build the fastest version of the Texan? A simple conversion?
There really isn't much available on this airplane other than a photo in the Squadron book on the AT-6. I did find a few photos online and using this as reference material I began to convert the Academy kit.
I spent two hours with my Dremel Tool removing the solid resin material from the nose cap. When I finally hollowed out enough space in the nose cap, I painted the resin Ranger Engine front "Steel" color, and I super-glued it in place in the cap. Next, I super-glued the two nacelle halves from the AT-21 to the nose cap.
Using the online photos and the panel lines in the photos and the common lines on the Academy kit, I sectioned both halves of the kit, in order to switch the Pratt & Whitney radial with the Ranger. Sounds daunting, but all it took was some time and some sheet plastic, and some putty. First, I found that the nacelle parts were too narrow to match up with the resin nose cap assembly, so I sawed the nacelle apart and inserted small plastic wedges to make the final shape. This allows a nice faired-in transition between the new Ranger engine and the Academy fuselage. This process took me three days of puttying, sanding, priming and repeating this over and over until I finally got the Ranger engine part to line up perfectly with the Academy fuselage. I put a thin sheet plastic firewall on the open end of the Academy fuselage to accept the Ranger conversion part(s). I built up the Academy kit fuselage as per instructions, but I added thin tape strips, painted, for seat belts & shoulder harnesses in both cockpits. I also placed decals on both instrument panels for some additional cockpit detail. With the basic fuselage completed, I just matched the work that I was doing to the photos that I had to make a perfect transition between the resin parts and the plastic fuselage. I placed two vents made of little squares of plastic on both sides of the otherwise completely smooth Ranger engine cowl. Two holes were drilled in the bottom of the engine section and I inserted pieces of plastic rod to serve as exhaust pipes, again, working from the photos. That was about it for converting the Academy nose to accept the resin Ranger engine. The wings and tail feathers were added to the fuselage, and any sanding and blending-in was done using putty and Tamiya Surfacer. With the model all primed, I had to decide what color to make it. Since there was only one example produced, it was naturally all aluminum - unpainted.
I wasn't about to spend all of this time and effort on just a plain aluminum model, so I decided to use the "WHAT IF" process. This being, what if, a naval commanding officer saw the converted Texan sitting dormant in the 1950's somewhere, and decided to refurbish the plane and use it as his personal craft at the base that he commanded? Not too far a stretch. So I selected the mid-fifties colors for a Utility Aircraft: Engine Gray fuselage with Chrome Yellow wings & tail, and Red stripes on the wings, with a Red rudder, and finally a Red nose. As the photos show, the model does look impressive (at least to me) and now I scrounged through my spare decals box until I came up with what I needed for the markings. They sort of match photos of other Navy Utility aircraft. I placed some Silver dzus fasteners on the engine cowl just for a little more color. The clear canopy parts were masked with tiny pieces of tape, then sprayed Dark Gray first, then the final Engine Gray color.
I used the kit propeller and I found a slightly larger spinner that blended with the Ranger Cowl a little better than the kit's spinner. The wing nav lights were painted Silver first, then Clear Red and Green for their respective wings. The landing gear was painted and installed, and then the canopy was white-glued on with the front section "open". Wing walks came from another T-6 decal sheet left over. The lettering had to be as my photo showed with some parts White but still matching the size of the Black lettering. I glued the pitot tube to the right wing leading edge, and finished off the model by putting propeller decals on the blades.
So this added a rare version of the AT-6 Texan to my collection, and used up some spare Ranger engine parts that were lying around, and I got to paint the model up in really sharp looking, "WHAT IF" colors. As I was told years ago by my modeling mentor, Dan Dossert, "they never took pictures of every airplane built". And I also got to use artistic liberty to paint the model in an attractive set of colors.
Bruce Mathes
We start with current projects that members have sent in via email, and then continue with models on the tables at last month's live, in-person meeting.
Dave Armitage sent in photos of a couple of new models. The first is the Russian Battleship
Borodino, from an Eastern Express kit. Dave said it turns out, the kit is the same as the Knyaz
Suvarov, by Zvezda. He said the kits were identical part for part and sprue for sprue; however,
the instructions were far superior in the Zvezda kit.
Dave's second model is a shadowbox diorama of Godzilla destroying Tokyo.
New member Bruce Mathes, who submitted an article that appears above, also sent a couple of photos
of additional aircraft projects.
Continuing with the model tables from the meeting, Tom Faith had an AFV Club Schwimmwagen, which
is a new work-in-progress. The model has no paint yet, and Tom said it will require major alterations -
the kit matches few reference photos inside and out. He said the muffler is a major feature that isn't
even part of the kit! Tom has a photoetch set from Aber that he likes, but the parts are tiny. He said
his favorite feature of the real vehicle is the wooden floorboards, so he built floorboards with scale
lumber.
Iyla Grinberg brought in several of his tiny masterpieces this month. The first is a 1/72 GAZ-66
Radio Truck in resin and PE; the kit is by Alex Miniatures. He used AKAN paints, and did a fully
detailed interior. Ilya said he picked the subject because he "loves it!"
Ilya's second model is a 1/72 Zil-131 truck, again finished with AKAN paints. He commented on
construction details: the bed and canvas are resin, the wheels are resin, the bottom of the cab is
resin, the top of the cab is plastic, and PE details were provided by SG Models.
Ilya's last model is a 1/72 Academy F-18C, a work-in-progress. Again, Ilya described some details
of the model's construction: the wings are resin by CMK, the wheel wells are resin designed for
Hasegawa but fitted into the Academy kit, and the cockpit is resin also designed for Hasegawa but
adapted.
Paul Hines said he was in a pickup truck frame of mind, so he brought in three new paintings:
a maroon 1930 Ford Pickup, a red 1953 Ford F100 Pickup, and a blue 1941 Ford Pickup.
Since Paul was really in a pickup frame of mind, he also brought in two models (!) of pickups.
The first was a black '53 Chevy 1/4 ton, and the second was a red '64 Chevy Fleetside "Santa Truck"
filled with presents.
Tom Brown, Sr. brought in his completed 1:1 scale model of a French Wheellock Pistol. Tom
finished the model using enamel gold and silver-gold paint markers and acrylic browns. Tom mentioned
that a couple of pieces were missing, but the kit went together well. Tom collects 1:1 scale firearms.
He also displayed a box of Crayola markers in flesh tones from around the world. Tom said he wanted
to try them on white-primed figures.
Dan Price showed us his most recent project, an Asterus Heavy Tank. It was painted with Citadel
and Mission Models paints, and Vallejo Earth Texture for the mud used in weathering. He also used
decals from Forgeworld. Dan said the kit had big resin chunks that required lots of shaving to make
things fit. He mentioned that the model is part of his 40K army and it is a centerpiece. He added
that the blue glow is used to represent the energy from the sleds, and also is why there is less
mud near the sleds.
Nick Carluccio displayed an MPC 1968 Dodge Charger. He finished it with Painter's Touch Jade
and used Novus polish to smooth the paint. Nick said he filled holes, sanded glue marks, fixed
scratched windows using Novus polish, and used Bare Metal Foil for the chrome. He mentioned that
this model was acquired in a trade with Mark Budniewski, and Nick really likes 1968-1970 Dodge
Chargers.
Speaking of Mark Budniewski, he brought in several items for us to see. The first was a pair
of Toyota C-HRs: an Aoshima 1/32 snap kit, and a Modelers 1/24 resin kit. Mark said he owns a 1:1
version of this car, and didn't think there would be any kit of it. He said the 1/32 kit is even
molded in the correct color.
Mark's next model was an in-progress AMT 1965 Pontiac 2+2. He said he shortened the incorrect
length Bonneville body to the correct 2+2 Catalina length, and also corrected the non-matching left
side drip rail on the roof.
Mark's last item was an AMT 1967 Ford Fairlane GT. He's putting some work into this project - he
had to replace the left quarter panel and repair the right one due to radiused wheel openings. Mark
mentioned that he had two left quarter panels from junk models, but no right side pieces, so he had
to fix what was there. He said he's been doing time consuming repairs recently that he hasn't gotten
around to.
Larry Osolkowski showed his continuing progress on the 1/20 Tamiya Leyton House F1 car. He
got some decals with green touch-up paint on the top of the rear bodywork, and assembled the
cockpit into the main tub, which was then glued to the floor pan. He also attached the radiators
and associated duct work.
Larry also showed some Tamiya masking material he recently obtained online. It's a roll
of Tamiya tape with clear flexible plastic attached, for masking large areas.
Al Germann brought in four (count 'em!) automotive subjects. The first group included three
generations of Ford GT: a 1/24 Fujimi 1966 Ford GT40, a 1/25 AMT Ertl 2005 Ford GT, and a 1/24
Tamiya 2020 Ford GT. All three kits were painted with Testors spray can lacquers for the bodies,
and Krylon and Tamiya paints for the interiors and engines. They were all built out-of-box, with
a wet sand/polish with 4000 grit and Novus #2, followed by car wax. Some minor washes and panel
line accents were added. Al said they all went together well, and the new GT and the GT40 were
Christmas gifts; the 2005 GT was already in his stash. Al added that he painted the 1966 GT40 as
driven by Mario Andretti (his favorite driver), and he wanted a two-tone for the new GT to
highlight the design and shape.
Al's final model was an AMT Ertl 1/25 1977 Mustang II. Al said this project was started around
8 years ago as a design experiment by using ~2006 Mustang wheel wells and its engine and wheels.
He also cut the roof across at the B-pillar to slant back the windshield. He used some Bondo body
filler, and shot it with Tamiya French Blue spray paint. Al mentioned that he has a few models on
the shelf that are around 80% done, and he wants to finish them off during his regular new builds.
Paul Kittell showed us some 1/100 Ships Boats (Cutter, Pinnace and Lifeboat) for the Paddlewheel
Frigate USS Michigan circa 1865. These are being scratchbuilt with plank-on-frame over a carved hull
form. Paul said they are just something to do. And so they are.
Eugene Paveljack has been busy, as demonstrated by a group of Games Workshop War Hammer figures.
These were finished with Citadel primer and paints.
Eugene also displayed a totally different monster, the Trumpeter 1/35 Leopold Railway Gun.
It was primed in flat black, and finished with Tamiya Dark Yellow and Red Brown. And it's big.
Bill Borkowski had three models on display. He said the Mini Cooper and the Porche Boxster
were shown in previous newsletters in progress and complete. He brought them to the meeting so
they could be seen "in the Plastic" so to speak. Bill said the BMW Z3 roadster is a Tamiya 1/24
scale kit that is his latest project. The chassis is done, and he is working on the body.
Jeff Keenan brought in a Revell 1/48 AH-1F Cobra helicopter. Jeff used Model Master Acryl
and Enamel, plus Vallejo and oils for finishing. He said it was the first time he tried using
the hair spray technique; he painted a Helo Drab undercoat, then added US Gulf War Sand and
chipped it. Pre-shading was also done, along with oil washes for weathering. Jeff said the
model required lots and lots of putty - the two halves didn't match up very well. There was
a lot of flash since it's an old kit, the general fit wasn't very good, and a few parts looked
like they had melted so the molds are probably shot. Jeff said he had started the model a while
ago, and he's trying to finish one uncompleted-but-started model per month. He also mentioned
that the cockpit and figures were great, which is ironic given the shape of the rest of the kit.
Joe Rennie showed us his Revell "Long Beach" Harbor Tugboat. He used Humbrol red, green
and brass paints, along with Floquil weathered black paint marker and Colourcoats Royal Navy
Buff for the stack and fenders. No modifications or weathering were done, and the kit went
together well. Joe said he picked the subject because he likes tugboats, the nice old box
art, and a friend gave him the kit after he cleaned out his dad's house.
Mike Butry brought in a new project, a Tamiya 1/48 P47D Thunderbolt. He's using Model Master
and Tamiya paints, and is building it straight out of the box. Mike said he used Tamiya tape to
make simple seat belts, and is using Tamiya weathering sets and washes along with drybrushing
for weathering. He mentioned that he's had no issues so far. Mike likes the Thunderbolt, and
will be finishing it in the scheme of a family friend who flew with the 78th FB, 82nd FS.
Unfortunately, we ran out of info sheets, so we don't have details on a couple of additional
items on the tables. The first is the current project of Brian McFee.
The second item is a group of War Gaming figures from Tom Brown, Jr.
Finally, some around-the-room shots.
Thanks to all of the members who sent in photos and updates on their current projects.
