...or News from the Nameless One
It's kind of funny trying to write a newsletter at this time of year. One feels compelled to try and write something inventive and up-lifting that will stir your readers and convey the grandeur of the season. You want to be the guy that composes the next "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus," but at the same time you have to try and keep it from sounding corny and over-stated. It has to sound inspiring without being preachy or clichéd.
It's not easy folks.
And while I was leaning back in my Office Depot, $13.99 special pondering this and frustrating myself to no end, something dawned on me. With you guys, I don't have to do that at all. It's pure vanity on my part to think that I should try to put you guys "in the spirit." Every December, (long before I was ever even a member) you have been getting together and having what I would consider the ideal Christmas event.
With little to gain and nothing at stake, you gather together to share good times, true friendship and honest fellowship. This is done not out of necessity, selfishness or pomp, but out of genuine camaraderie and enjoyment of each others' company. Through our Toys for Tots drive you bear gifts that come from the heart, for people that you will probably never even meet. Without provocation or assistance, you come through with, not only the tangible gifts and donations, but with the more ethereal true spirit of giving, something infinitely more valuable and worthwhile. As journalist Eric Sevareid once said, "As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is." You see, there's nothing that I can say in this month's Dizpatch that you don't already know and practice every time we get together.
Friends and family are what make this time of year so important to me and you guys are certainly no exception.
The next meeting will be Monday, December 19th at 7pm in the basement of the Harlem Road Community Center. Please remember to bring your unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots. This will be the meeting that our friends from the US Marine Corp will be stopping by to accept them. After that day, they stop accepting donations, so this will be your last chance to donate.
Also, we will be having our annual Christmas pizza party. A big "Thanks!" in advance to Tony G. who will be "hooking us up." Bring an appetite.
There will be no e-board meeting in December due to the holidays, We will be re-convening in January.
Bob Conshafter will also have the forms for Kid's Class sign-up. Please volunteer if you are available to help out. Bob will have more on the dates and procedure later in this newsletter and at the meeting.
That's all that I have for now folks. See you on the 19th!
Justen Hanna
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA #45680
Notes from the November 2011 Meeting
President Justen Hanna started off with a quick review of the recent Cleveland Model Show.
We had a few club members in attendance. The show was bigger than previous shows, with vendors
back in the big gym. The entry count was up to 504 models of Regional event quality and the
awards were quite colorful. Should have been there. Wish I had been.
Several club members reported that the invitational visit to the Niagara Air Museum's storage area was quite nice. The items stored there are really interesting and they got to see an excellent movie about the recovered Bell P-39 now at the museum. A good day for all.
Justen and Bob Conshafter reminded everyone that the annual Kids Model Building Class is coming up in January. Signup sheets and Youth Center info sheets went around and will go around again in December if you didn't get to sign up.
Justen also reminded us that we'll be collecting for Toys for Tots as we have for many years.
As most of you know, the club was asked to handle Keegan Brill's donation of many new, unopened kits to the Wounded Warriors IPMS Chapter at the Intrepid Center in Texas. Club members added to the donation at the joint 3 Guyz/Section 8 sale in October. So much stuff was collected, thanks to your generosity, that the E-Board elected to send much of the club donated items to the big VA Rehab Center in Bath, NY to use in the vet's art program. Joe Sczycgiel and Tony delivered the substantial package to Bath to save us the shipping costs. Thanks, guys.
Steve Weller moderated the table discussions. Lots of good models to look at and talk about.
Dave Armitage brought in a bunch of stuff, starting with 3 Civil War shadowbox dioramas; one a complex Union Army artillery scene, the second an equally complex scene called "Stonewall Down" with heavily modified horses and figures depicting the death of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, and the third replicating in 3D a famous Civil War photograph of three Confederate prisoners of war using soft metal figures from Carolina Miniatures. Dave also showed a number of other interesting models; a Verlinden White Army general from the 1918 Russian Civil War, a tiny Yukon River paddle steamer from the Glenco reissue of someone's very old kit, a 54mm Warriors resin WWI German trench raider, a Union Army infantry officer with added scratch details like scabbard and harnesses, and the Lindberg reissue of the very old ITC 1/48 Grumman Goose twin engine amphibian.
Dick Schulenberg showed a few 1/72 aircraft in progress starting with a Heller
French Mistral (Vampire) fighter, the new Airfix F-86E and a Hobbyboss F-84E. The F-84 and
F-86 were painted with the new Tamiya Bare Metal spray can. Dick also showed his 1/144 A-Model
Grumman SA-16A Albatross, also in progress. This one has been a chore.
Justen Hanna had his in-progress 1/48 WWI Albatros DII. It's a classic Eduard kit and
looks very good in its painted wood finish and skull and bones markings. Will be cool when
it's done.
Ilya Grinberg had a couple of interesting new 1/72 kits. First was a snap-tight!!! Yak-3
fighter from Zvzeda that Ilya says is the best yet and only needs some minor corrections.
The second is a new very high quality resin La-5 fighter from Propagteam. Very fine and
clean details with photoetch to come.
Eric Hillebrand is working on the big, ugly Russian B-4 howitzer from the 1/35 Trumpeter
kit. Unusually, it has a tracked carriage. With about 400 parts, there's some serious work
involved.
Mike Martinez came across an interesting item, a Williams Brothers 1/6 scale German WWI
Parabellum aircraft machine gun. It's intended for detailing large scale radio controlled
models but is good enough to be a stand-alone model.
John Zaranek brought in a couple of new future projects. His 1/72 Revell Warrior MCV
will probably end up in a Bosnia diorama while his 1/350 Academy USS Rueben James frigate
is intended to be backdated to the USS Oliver Hazard Perry (lead ship of the class) because
of the local War of 1812 connection.
Larry Osolkowski has a really neat collection of styrene spoons in various shades of
Alclad over several different primers. It's a good way to keep track of what's happening
with the paints and makes it easy to clarify what products to use to get a desired result.
Great idea and cheap, too.
Jacob Gadek showed us his current project, a Polar Lights large scale Spiderman (ex-Aurora?)
that's nearly ready to paint. He's using non-toxic window putty to fill and smooth the
considerable seams. It looks like it's working nicely. It should be interesting to see how
it paints.
Jacob's Dad Mark Gadek finished up the 1/32 Trumpeter MiG-23 that he showed us last
month. Basically it's out of the box with an aftermarket ejection seat and came out very
nicely. It's an imposing model.
Mike Butry is really into autos right now (I hope he gets over it and gets back to
aircraft soon - Dick)(well, I think he's doing fine with cars - Larry) and brought in a
couple of current projects. We saw the beginnings of his curbside Porsche by Tamiya last
month and now it's painted and ready to polish out. His other project is a curbside funny
car, sprayed with decanted spray gloss black, clearcoated and polished out. Mike said
it didn't take too long to do and it certainly is shiny and smooth.
Frank Blonski used a Starfix 1/72 sort-of P-51D in his seam filling demo a while back
and decided to use it as a metallic finish test model. He's sprayed a couple of different
things including Shimrin's House of Kolor metallic and pearls over silver and black bases
as well as some Testors RC paints and even finger nail polish. They all worked out pretty
good and have promise.
Tom Faith is pretty deep into a Russian mode. He added a Plus Models quad barrel water
cooled Maxim machine gun to the bed of the GAZ truck he built for this year's Tim Hortons'
Challenge. The gun was very difficult to build with poor instructions and needed
replacements for many of the small parts. It certainly looks good now. Tom also had his
captured Komsomolets tractor, an old and poor kit, much modified and adapted to carry a
German 37mm flak gun. It looks appropriately complicated and very top heavy.
Joe Szczygiel is into 1/35 heavy military equipment among other things and brought in his
two current projects. First is a Hercules heavy lift armored vehicle. It's an updated and
much improved M88A1 with a bigger gun, a bigger engine and more lift capacity. Joe's building
this beast starting from the AFV Club kit. His other project is an M60 tank fitted out for
demolition. The basis is a combination of Tamiya and Academy parts with lots of Evergreen
plastic. This isn't a combat vehicle but it does carry a short barreled gun for demolition
along with a lift rig and a bulldozer blade. Good stuff with lots of room for some serious
scratch building.
Paul Hines brought in one of his signature models, this time the Bowdoin, a famous steam
and sail exploration vessel that made 27 trips into the arctic region. It features an ice
crushing bow and still exists as a National Historic landmark. Paul built the model from a
Bluejacket plank on frame wood kit with lots of extra details and rigging.
Young Sean Foley showed his T-Rex skeleton. It was a gift from his grandmother. The neat
thing is that he got to dig the "bones" out of a sand pit and then assemble them just like a
real junior paleontologist.
Finally, Ray Weick believes in building those old collectors kits rather than squirreling
them away. Most of them are from the 1950's and are more than nostalgic for us old modelers.
Tonight, Ray showed his 1/48 Revell English Talley Ho coach and English steam fire engine, an
Aurora mating "Terror Bird" diorama featuring lizards for lunch, and a more recent pair of
velociraptors in camo paint from a Lindberg kit. More power to you Ray. (Sorry to report
that Ray passed away recently; we'll miss him - Larry.)
Finally, some around-the-room shots of the gang enjoying the meeting.
The next meeting is December 19 at 7 in the basement room of the Amherst Community
Center as usual. Be there, bring a friend and bring a model.
Thanks to Bob Raithel for the photography.
Renewal of our Special Offer for All IPMS Niagara Frontier Members for 2011 - 2012
We had another good year at BuffCon so the Executive Board has determined that we
can extend our special IPMS USA national membership support offer for a third year,
through the end of April 2012.
We will rebate ½ of the cost for a one-year membership to IPMS USA for new national
memberships and renewals. The tangible benefit to this membership is 6 bimonthly copies
of the excellent modeling publication IPMS Journal.
Adult memberships are $25.00 per year and Juniors (17 years old and under) are $12.00,
so your rebates are $12.50 and $6.00 respectively.
You complete and submit the application (you can get one from Dave Schwab) along with
your payment directly to IPMS USA or do it on line at the
National website.
You will receive a membership card in the mail a few weeks later.
To get your rebate, you just have to show your current IPMS USA member card to Dave
Schwab and he will give you money. How simple is that?
The E-Board encourages everyone to take advantage of this offer. It's a good way to
get your feet wet and see what IPMS USA is all about.
Appeal for Volunteers for The 2012 Kids' Model Building Class
6 Saturdays from 10am to 12pm
January 21st-February 25th, 2012
By Bob Conshafter
Ah Fall, steady rains wash leaves of olive, ochre, and crimson into gutters and downspouts.
Spiders weave their last webs before the cold and thoughts turn to pumpkin carving, apple
cider, and playing hide and seek in piles of leaves. Okay, enough of that sappy gibberish.
Fall is also time to prepare for our annual Kids' Model Kit Building Class. The 2012 class
will be held, as usual, in the basement of the Harlem Road Community Center for six
consecutive Saturdays starting on January 21st and ending on February 25th, 2012.
This year's class started off with 23 eager builders with nearly 70% from the 2010 class.
We had a rather unique class composition this year with 1/3 of the builders between the ages
of 5-7. We also had 5 girls this year, I think an all time high, and very welcome to see.
Our Kids Class simply would not be possible without the annual support we receive from our
membership. Every year the following people can be depended on to volunteer their time, when
possible, and provide direction and a positive modeling experience for young builders. They
are: Frank Blonski, Tom Brown, Bob Collignon Tony Gliszczynski, Stan and Matt Keysa, Brian
McFee, Dick Schulenberg, and Dave Schwab. I would like to also welcome our recent newcomers
whose support is gladly appreciated: Matt Anger, Alan Gryfe, Samantha Hanna, Nick Morris
(who returned this year as a mentor after being a student), Ray Weick, and Jim Wolfe.
Please consider being a Mentor. It's okay if you can't make every session. Whatever time
you can provide will be greatly appreciated by your fellow members and especially the kids.
Every year we strive to make improvements to the Kids' Class and your involvement and
suggestions are greatly appreciated. Our main goal is to have every child come away with a
finished model and a positive experience with modeling.
Remember, it would be great if you could volunteer for the whole class but it's okay if
you can only attend some sessions. A sign up sheet will be passed out at the next 3 club meetings.
