It's time again (already!) for our annual Holiday Party at our regularly scheduled club meeting on December 16. Our traditional pizza and wings holiday fare will be on hand and we encourage you to bring in a sweet treat to share.

John R. Zaranek
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 47993

Model Table Round-up for November 2013

Eric Hillebrand returns after a hiatus with his 1/35th scale Russian Cannon by Dragon. Eric gave it a base coat of Model Master Dark Green from a rattle can and painted the tracks black. He highlighted the tracks by using a product called "Rub-n-Buff" to give it a metallic sheen. Weathering further commenced by using a dark wash followed by traditional drybrushing to bring out the highlights. Eric was inspired to build this subject after seeing a film of a similar gun being fired point blank in Berlin, 1945.

Paul Hines is continuing to impress all with his hand drawn portraits of automobiles. Paul brought in four 9 x 12 drawings of: "Burnout", "Formula 1"; "Cobra" and "'62 Corvette". Paul primarily uses watercolors to achieve the color effects and enhances them with some pen and ink detail. Most dark colors are achieved with multiple thin washes until the desired effect is brought to life. Paul pretty much chooses his subjects to his liking but the Formula 1 racer is a try at "abstract" painting.

David Safe brought in another of his impressive dioramas - a 1/60th scale Chinese Junk in a simulated water base along side a mountain cliff face. Dave gave the ship it's weathered effects by using wood stain. The mountain was created using foam. The difficulties in creating this diorama, according to Dave, were cutting the lines to fit the ship into the water and carving the foam to give it a realistic look.

Mike Butry showed off his niece Kristina's model police car she built for her father. Her dad is an officer for the Town of Niagara and although the make of the model isn't clear, the customized decals are the highlight of the build. Mike contracted FAB Resinworks of Buffalo to create the custom decals for this patrol car based on photographs taken of the real one. They most certainly look the part. (Sorry, no photo of the car.)

John-Allen Price is demonstrating a work-in-progress - a 1/72nd scale Revell A-20C "Havoc". John-Allen is building this strictly out-of-the-box and is hand painting it with Polly-Scale, Pactra and Humbrol paints. He states that, "I wanted to do this plane for nearly 30 years and finally got the chance." The only issues he's finding so far is that there is no control panel in the kit, so he's hand painting one to replace it. He also related that he's "rediscovered how relaxing painting can be."

Bob Collignon brought in a presentation book for a long-term collaboration project called "French Children of the Holocaust". Bob didn't elaborate on how the details are being accomplished, but you can see how chillingly realistic this model is.

Brand spanking new member, Jason Wesolowski, offered up a Warhammer 40K Imperial Baneblade armored vehicle. The fantasy gaming tank was first primed with Krylon grey spray paint, followed by white. After using standard masking tape to outline the pattern, Jason sprayed the camouflage with Folk Art acrylics diluted with tap water. Jason chose this particular subject as a baseline for future conversion projects and states that he's "happy to be here". Welcome aboard, Jason!

Matt Klukowski offered up a couple of HO scale structures that he's working on when he gets stuck on his car projects. He brought in a Walter's HO scale bar and a scratchbuilt (by Justen Hanna years ago) White Castle restaurant. Matt is using Citadel acrylics to finish the buildings.

Al Germann has completed a kit he purchased at the club's model sale last month, a Pfalz E.IV aircraft in 1/72nd scale. He finished the model using spray paint from a can and a Sharpie marker. Al said he chose this subject as practice for a future build of a WWI German bomber and was the first time he attempted to rig an aircraft model.

Al also showed his "Hogan's Heroes" jeep which he converted into a resort "courtesy car". Al actually "kitbashed" this subject. What he did is take the base kit and extended the rear deck with another jeep kit to get the three rows of seats. Al said that he built this kit about ten years ago. He applied the paint via spray can and applied the zebra pattern using decals.

John Zachritz brought in a multitude of projects that he's been working on, so here goes: The first is a Tamiya 1/35th scale M3 Lee battle tank, but has a bit of a twist to it; the bright pink paint job is not the typical North Africa theater of operations in WWII, but based on the Japanese television series, "Girls Und Panzer". John applied the "Very Berry" colored paint via Krylon spray in the rattle can. Next up is John's Polar Lights Sergeant Pepper Band based on the animated Beatles movie, "Yellow Submarine". John related that the kit is a pre-painted snap-kit and was completed in a day. Per John, "done is better than perfect". The third offering is his Kaiyado "Astralopithecus Anemesis" four part kit. This is John's first attempt at ground work, of which he replicated the tall grass by using some "decorative grass" from a dollar store and used the gravel from a local baseball infield. Now, onto his aircraft models. John built a total of five Pegasus 1/48th scale kits: Hurricane, FW-190A, Zero, Bf-109G and Me262. He shuffled the decals around and depicted each plane as a "captured war prize" of other combatants. Lastly, he finished a model started by past member John Doerr, an Academy 1/72nd scale Grumman Corsair. He finished assembly, painted it and applied the decals... phew!

Brian McFee demonstrated his work in progress, a Renwal Nike Ajax continental defense missile battery.

Anthony Gliszczynski showed us his Revell 1955 Ford Pro-Sportsman drag car. Tony added details including the distributor wires and lowered the front suspension to give it the "proper stance". The kit isn't without it's problems, specifically lots of mold seams and misalignment of molded parts which need to be corrected. He gave it a finish using Duplicolor "Ford Red" decanted and applied with an airbrush along with Tamiya White. He also brought in a very nice Revell Bob Glidden T-Bird Pro Stock car. Tony painted it Tamiya Bright Red and White. He also coated the wheels and valve covers with Clear Red to "give it class" and make it more realistic.

New member, Doug Kozub offered up three of his recent creations: first, a Hasegawa 1/32nd scale Bf-109G6. Doug detailed the kit with some Eduard photo-etch, scraps of styrene and wire. It was painted with Testor's enamels with both air and paint brushes. Second, a Revell 1/32nd scale Junkers JU-88 built out of the box and finished with Tamiya paints. Last, switching over to armor, Doug showed us his 1/35th scale Tamiya Sturmtiger. He replicated the Zimmerit anti-mine paste by using Squadron putty and a small-tipped screwdriver.

Tom Brown, Jr. is continuing his line of Games Workshop fantasy subjects. This time it's a Space Marine Starter Kit. The figures were first primed with Citadel Skull White then a base of Ushabi Bone. After all of that dried, a wash of Nuln Oil was applied to deepen the shadows. For the bases upon which the marines stand, Tom used Scenic Railroad products Green Flocking.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Joe Szczygiel brought in a series of photographs of the late president. Joe explained there really was no effort in bringing them in to show and that he obtained them from "some old guy" in the neighborhood when he was much younger.

Tom Brown, Sr. is interested in building full scale replicas of firearms, so he showed off his dueling pistols that he's trying to get finished for the President's Modeling Challenge. The only problem Tom's encountered is he has only one completed and has totally lost interest in finishing its twin.

Michael Martinez is also trying to finish his 1/35th Italeri Sturmtiger in time for the challenge as well. He was perplexed with the single link tracks the kit provides, but American ingenuity prevailed. Mike connected the individual links by laying them facedown and attached them with two strands of fine line and then glued together. Mike also replicated the 3-D camouflage by using roots from his garden and gluing bits of sponge to them and painting with acrylics.

Last and least, your truly brought in a Tamiya 1/35th scale Chieftain Mk. 5 main battle tank of the Royal Army. I plan on replicating the camouflage used by the Berlin Brigade forces during the Cold War. The base coat of Tamiya White was applied via the airbrush over a base coat of NATO Green. The NATO Green is being maintained below the hull and will include all road wheels. Parts of the hull and turret were masked off with Tamiya tape and a coat of Tamiya JGSDF Brown was applied. More masking with tape was done and the final camo color, Tamiya Medium Blue was then shot through the Iwata airbrush. All masking was removed and the basic camouflage is now revealed. A protective gloss coat was airbrushed onto the model in preparation for some weathering.

I also brought in another work in progress, Tamiya's 1/35th scale Quad Gun Tractor used by the Royal 8th Army in North Africa. I plan on using this model along with an Italeri 1/35th 40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft Gun I've kicking around for a few years, in a diorama setting.

Somehow, we still managed to miss getting information on a few other items on the tables. Please, don't forget to fill out the information forms if you have stuff on the tables!

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

Thanks to Bob Collignon for the photography!