Reminder!

The next IPMS Niagara Frontier Chapter meeting will be held at 7 PM on Monday, December 17 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 2736 Union Road, Cheektowaga, NY 14225. We will meet in the BuffCon contest room. I'm looking forward to seeing you all.

The December meeting is always set aside for our traditional holiday pizza and wings party. If you haven't been at a meeting in a while, we encourage you to come on Monday and renew old acquaintances and meet our new members.

A long standing part of this holiday meeting is our participation in the annual Toys for Tots program sponsored by the US Marine Corp. We've participated for over 20 years and are honored to have representatives from the Marines on hand for this meeting. Please join us in supporting this worthwhile program by bring in an unwrapped toy or other appropriate gift. This year, the program is looking for toys and gifts suitable for teens, who are often forgotten. Each year, we end up with quite a pile of gifts that help our community thanks to your generosity.

This year, we are resurrecting an old tradition thanks to the prodding of Carlos Martinez. Back in the day, we had a gift exchange that was well received within the club, and it's time to start again. The idea is to bring in a wrapped gift to exchange for another wrapped gift someone else brought in, basically a one-for-one swap. It needn't be a kit or even model related, but, obviously, no junk.

Along with that and the models on the display tables, this meeting is definitely the social highlight of the season.

Again, if you haven't been at a meeting in a while, we'd love to see you.

See you Monday!

John Zaranek
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 47993

Model Table Round-up for November 2012

Joe Szczygielski showed us again why his models frequently are in the "master" category... He has taken the Hobby Boss 1/35 scale HEMTT truck base and made it into a transporter for the Dragon 1/35 scale Abrams Main Battle Tank. The most impressive part of this work in progress is how he is creating the battle damaged effects on the tank. Using household rubber cement he applied as paint masks showed us some very impressive, multi-dimensional burnt paint effects. Charred engine components were made by burning and crushing plastic sprue. This is one build that is sure to place very high in competitions once completed.

Mike Butry also continues to impress with his builds, this time it's his recently completed US Army jeep in Braille Scale. Mike impressed everyone in that he scratchbuilt roughly 20 parts... not an easy task in this scale.

John Zaranek brought in his recently completed 1/72 scale Revell (Germany) Bundeswehr Panzerhaubitze mobile artillery piece. This modern German Army piece was fun to build and is only his second armor piece completed in this scale. He usually builds in 1/35th, but wanted to try something different. This model is presented in the current 3-color NATO camouflage scheme and weathered with thinned acrylic paint through the airbrush.

John also brought in a current work in progress, his 1/48th scale Grand Phoenix Fairey Firefly Royal Air Force fighter plane. He has the basic color coats down (British Sky on the undersides, and British Dark Green / Extra Dark Sea Grey on the topsides) and is working on the final bits. It will need a clear gloss coat to apply the decals as representing the British Far East Fleet in 1945.

Brian McFee brought in a Hasegawa 1/48th scale F4G Phantom II "Wild Weasel" as a work in progress. He has the fuselage assembled and is using aftermarket resin parts for the cockpit. This model will be representing a craft flown by the Idaho Air National Guard during the first Gulf War. We're looking forward to seeing the completed model in Brian's traditional award winning style.

Paul Hines again brought in some awe-inspiring pencil drawings of hot and rat-rods. Paul explained that he uses only one pencil in creating these beautiful drawings.

Matt Anger brought in an experiment in using "rattle can" spray paints on slot car bodies. Firstly, he showed us a very ingenious way of holding the car bodies with a homemade wire holding rack mounted on a wood dowel... this will definitely keep your nasty fingerprints from marring the finish. He is not impressed with the finish he created. He's tried both Tamiya and Pactra brands of spray paint, both resulting in a bad "orange peel" finish. He's going to continue experimenting and give us his results.

Young Jacob Gadek demonstrated a very nice completed Focke-Wulf FW-190 in traditional Luftwaffe colors. He proudly stated that it won an award at a recent show in Ajax, Canada. Keep up the great work, Jacob!

Jacob's dad, Mark showed us his recently completed Trumpeter Mi-4 helicopter in Polish Air Force markings. Mark likes the kit very much but was frustrated with two things: Lots of ejector pin marks on the inside of the model (this is why it's closed up) and he used Vallejo paints. Vallejo paints beautifully through the airbrush but are very fragile once cured. Nice job, as usual, Mark. We can see you have a very talented family!

New member Matt Klukowski has jumped right in and brought his completed 1966 Ford Fairlane with a home modified airplane wing on the trunk lid. Matt said this project took him two months to complete and he's ready for the sure to come Zombie Apocolypse seeing that the Ford's interior is covered in blood.... keep 'em coming, Matt.

Club Website Virtuoso Larry Osolkowski brought in a newly acquired kit... the Fujimi F-1 Vodafone 1/20th scale McLaren Mercedes racer. He was most impressed because he found an exact paint color match by a vendor in Hong Kong for the McLaren colors. Gotta see this one completed, Larry!

A recently returning member Greg (sorry, missed the last name) bought a 1/32 scale Ford Shelby GT 500 as a way to "get back" into the hobby. Good luck to you Greg, and welcome aboard!

Since retiring, Tony Gliszczynski has been busy... so busy he brought in one aircraft model and three scale cars. Tony's airplane is a P-51 Mustang in an Olive Drab paint scheme. His cars are as follows: a '68 Dodge Dart, a Ford Mustang and a Cobra Jet. Tony is planning on adding scratchbuilt details along with brass parts and homemade wiring. I can't wait until I can retire... way to go, Anthony!

The proprietor of Section 8 Hobbies, Justen Hanna, brought in a very nice how-to book from AK Interactive on how to weather out your Rat-Rod by Doctor Cranky... a quick look-see shows it proves to be a valuable asset in your modeling arsenal. Justen says that YouTube videos on these techniques are also available.

Larry Osolkowski showed off his Airfix 1/32 Mini Cooper, which he's going to convert from standard British right-hand drive to US left-hand drive. He's also modifying the wheels to match his son's Mini Cooper S and add the tire treads to accurately match the real deal.

Justen Hanna's Eduard 1/48th scale Fokker E.V is an impressive kit and his most recent adventure into Great War aircraft modeling. He states that the Eduard kit is so good that it nearly 'snaps together'. We definitely want to see this one completed.

Club Secretary Dick Schulenberg brought in a beautiful collection of 1/72 scale in near finished status... a Scorpion fighter, Spitfire/Seafire, a P-39 and an F-84. Dick is using Tamiya spray can paint and Citadel Miniatures "chain mail" brushed on selected panels.

Tom Brown, Jr. is continuing to amass his Warhammer gaming armies. He is mastering the base, detail and wash coats of his figures and is starting to rival modelers with much more experience.... keep up the good work, Tom!

John Zachritz displayed his 1/144th scale Martin Marauder medium bomber model. His inspiration for it is that his uncle flew it during World War II. He also brought in his 1/48 scale Revell/Monogram FW-190 Torpedo Plane prototype. I must honestly say that I never thought a FW-190 would carry torpedoes - very well done, John! John also brought in some paint pens marketed for Gundam figures but which can easily be used for other modeling purposes. The trade name is Gashapon from Japan and John is impressed with their opacity and coverage. Highly recommended.

Here are some additional shots of items on the modeling tables.

Justen Hanna presented a demo on simulating woodgrain finishes using oil paints.

John Zaranek presented a demo on polishing out scratches or removing molding seams from clear plastic parts such as canopies.

Finally, some around-the-room shots of the meeting.

Thanks to all for your efforts and showing us your completed models and works in progress.

Thanks to John Zaranek and Frank Blonski for the photography.