Greetings and salutations to one and all! I can't believe this is the last month of 2020, and what a year it has been.

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - December 21, 2020 - NO MEETING.

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.

Unfortunately, due to revised Covid guidelines caused by recent increases in infection cases, the general club meeting for this coming Monday, December 21st, has been cancelled. If you know anyone that was planning to attend and doesn't get our emails or see the website or FaceBook page, please pass the word.

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

The November 2020 general meeting was cancelled, so there are no minutes.

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.

November 9th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• There were no recent E-board minutes to approve.
• Old Business:
  • There was no response from the Knights Hall as there are several questions outstanding that includes BuffCon options and table rental deposit. Tom Faith has action item to follow up.
  • Ongoing general meetings are obviously dependent on COVID restrictions. We expect mask, health survey, body temperature and social distancing to be in effect for quite some time.
  • Larry O. sent email to club members asking on meetings attendance and if anything is affecting individual decision of not coming. The club may consider options from responses. Paul commented that the next 3 meetings can be used to gage or estimate future attendance. Also a request to send in photos and descriptions of modeling projects as part of the newsletter.
  • Toys for Tots collection is still on for the December meeting but the traditional attendance by additional US Marines will not be attending. Tom Brown Jr., as an active US Marine will handle the collection. A reminder that donation should be packaged that supports cleaning with regards to COVID protocols. Basically, original enclosed packaging and not a stuffed animal toy (as example).
  • The pizza party as part of the December meeting was discussed with the conclusion that it will not take place this year. Factors considered were heavily based on the current and frequently changing COVID protocols along with the expense at a time our revenue is down.
• New Business:
  • E-board members asked if there is any information such as suggestion to run meetings or club events in current COVID restriction era. No one had information and with current environment, this will be an open question for pursuit in the future.
• BuffCon:
  • E-board discussed likelihood of having event in traditional April or contingency date in October. Need to wait and see improvements to public gatherings after a vaccine is available or continuing restrictions. It takes 4-5 months of planning for a routine event.
  • There was some light discussion/brainstorming on displaying or judging models using large screen with a video camera. Someone described a virtual model show at wrightcon.com presented by Wright Field Scale Modelers.
• NorEastCon:
  • E-board continued discussion on prioritizing BuffCon over NorEastCon. There was a motion to end our pursuit in the current joint venture with the Rochester IPMS club. There was a second to the motion and all were in favor. Mike B. has action item to contact Dave S. on the club's decision.
  • Mike B. has action item to contact the hosting hotel to get our deposit back. Input from Dave Schwab may be required for the hotel.
• Miscellaneous:
  • Format of the general meetings were discussed with regards to include build night and model sale. Mike was in favor of attractions/activities that could help attendance and is in favor of this. There was no counter-point discussion.
  • Tom F. suggested meetings or supplemental meetings be based on the Round Table meetings. With being a small focus group, they may be allowed with COVID restrictions. Another idea was to use Zoom website for virtual meetings allowing attendees to show their model to others in real time.
  • Tom B. Jr. described gaming tables at Section 8 Hobbies and their uses along with potential uses for our club, such as a few members having build time together. Tom B. Jr. has action item to ask about availability.
  • Ace Hobby in Niagara Falls is still open and worth a visit.

Unfortunately, we've run out of material for member profiles, and haven't been able to get photos due to meeting cancellations. We'll get back on track when meetings start up again.

The Start Of a Snow Sherman, Part 1

When it comes to using aluminum foil, the name brand doesn't really matter as I use whatever is in the house. There are two types of aluminum foil: thin, and heavy duty which is thick yet still easy to work with.

Now pick your thickness and start from there. Depending on where I'm going to use the foil, I'll cut a piece a little bigger than I'll need. From there I'll fold it over itself maybe once, then position it where I want it. I'll put the piece of foil in place and with either my finger or a Q-tip, I'll start to form the foil to shape/contour and tweak as I go along. Then with tweezers, I'll lift the foil carefully, not wanting to deform the said tarp.

I use super glue to permanently put it in place, but I use it sparingly. I make sure that all the areas that will be touching said surface get hit with the super glue. Then I'll put it back and place, and go over it again with my finger or Q-tip to make sure that: 1. It is laying down well, and 2. To re-tweak and re-form where needed and, if need be, apply the super glue with a tooth pick to any edges that I might have missed prior.

Outside of using Tamiya's accessories set of bags and some resin bags, you'll see in the following photos where I placed the tarps.

On the back of the Sherman you'll see the long tarp. I have roughly three more various sized tarps lying underneath that one.

And yes, all the gear that you see on my build is permanently in place because at least for me, it'll be easier to paint along with blending when it comes to weathering, but most of all, there's less of a chance of getting glue on the final paint.

In the next newsletter, it'll be the priming stage, then to the painting stage so stay tuned!

Happy modeling!
Mike Butry

My Projects For the December Sprue and Glue News

I've almost finished the three Dewoitine prewar French fighters. Here's what they look like at the moment. Left to right are the D500, D501 and D510. The differences are cowl guns only on the D500, underwing gun pods and through the engine nose cannon on the D501 and 510, and a more powerful engine, three blade metal prop and larger fin on the D510.

These three are all built from late '70's Heller kits except for the D501 which is a Smer repop with bad decals. I kept the raised surface details because they looked pretty good after a light sanding. Not much to see inside because of the small cockpit openings but I did add tape seatbelts. Decals on the D500 and, eventually, on the D510 are from dedicated Printscale sheets. I've read complaints about these but they worked just fine if I used warmish water to soak them in. I used an old Carpena (now Colorado) decal set that covers a bunch of the prewar French military kits, the Heller first introduced in the '70's. This worked perfectly too, except that the rudder flash was too small so color matching for touchup was a little fussy. These are nice crisp kits, especially the Heller castings.

Dick Schulenberg

Club members' current projects:

Dave Armitage has been busy as usual. After resolving some email communication issues, we received a bunch of photos of Dave's current work. His first model is a 1/24 scale San Francisco cable car built from an Occre kit.The model is all wood and metal, and is made in Spain. Dave also scratch-built a background diorama.

Dave's next model is a 1913 Model T fire engine in 1/25 scale, built from an ICM kit.

Dave also built an 1883 Benz Motor Wagen from a multi-media kit in 1/25 scale.

Dave's last item was a train model created from a 1/24 scale wood and metal kit by OCCRE of Spain. The locomotive is the Jupiter, one of the two that met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869 at the joining of the transcontinental railroad.

Jeff Belling sent in photos of two recently completed models. Here is his description of his work: "Attached are photos of my recent completions. Both are 1/72 scale and I used rattle can Rustoleum silver spray paint for the silver finish. It's interesting that as soon as I get close to the desk I build on, my hands are replaced with gigantic gorilla hands which are also covered with something that sticks to everything and either leaves fingerprints or sticks to a small part and won't let me release it. The landing gear and some of the small parts on both of these suffered this misfortune. Of course, when I was putting the finishing touches on the F-86 I broke the front part of the canopy. Probably will need to take one from another kit at some point. The P-51 (Hasegawa) shows the markings of Otto Jenkins of the 357th FG. I got the kit without a box or decals so I had to use a sheet from Repli-Scale. You'll notice the stripes under the fuselage are odd in that there is a black stripe on each end. References show this is correct. Jenkins scored 10 kills, and was killed himself after his last mission buzzing the airfield. The F-86 is the Testors kit which is a re-box of the Fujimi kit. John Glen's a/c. He scored his last kill on the last day of the Korean war. As I mentioned before, I am amazed by the clean, perfect builds that come from our club. What looks like clever weathering on these two is really repeated covering up of some type mistake. BTW, lead foil seat belts from wine bottles in both."

Al Germann provided an update on two of his works-in-progress; here's his description: "Some significant progress was made on the 1/48 scale Fokker DVII once I overcame the obstacle of scratch building some of the outer struts. The Monogram/Revell reissued kit dated 1991 (but likely much older) was missing one of the struts and two others were not as straight as they should be. Dick Schulenberg gave me an idea to shape the streamline feature to stock styrene strips after my first two attempts didn't work out. Working off Dick's idea, I clamped two new razor blades in a 'V' configuration then pulled some styrene stock through it to get the shape needed, at least to look 'scale appropriate'. I made the 6 outer struts so they would all match. The red was Citadel, Tamiya NATO black, blue was a mix of Vallejo and the white was also a mix of Vallejo paints. All brush painted. The decal set represents Wilhelm Kuhne Offsty of Jasta 18 from August 1918 and while these were Super Scale International decals, the first one just about disintegrated with no way to salvage it. I used the crosses from the kit decals and to make the Super Scale decals work, I coated them with Microscale Industries 'liquid decal film', and this made all the difference. Still have more work but I am very happy with the appearance."

Al's second model: "The 1969 Chevelle has the body in paint, wet sanded up to 12,000 grit and polished with Novus #2. I have a habit of sand/polish through the paint somewhere so I am very cautious and maybe hold back a little but still happy with the paint and shine. The seats needed to be made more accurate so I filled in some of the recessed areas and added a release button. Some .030 half round styrene was added for the chrome trim. I used Tamiya liquid cement to attach this. Still need to scratch build headrests. Working on new arm rests too. Engine is almost complete and includes alternator and air cleaner from my parts box."

Larry Osolkowski had two items. The first is a 1/20 multi-media kit of the Red Bull RB-5 Formula 1 race car from 2009. He attended the Belgian Grand Prix in 2009, and is trying to collect as many cars from the grid as he can find. This one came from a member of F1m.com, an online forum, and the kit is by E-Jan, a subsidiary of Model Factory Hiro in Japan.

Larry also had an update on his progress on the 1/20 Tamiya Leyton House F1 race car. He got the nose decalled and clear-coated, and started the polishing process during which he burned through the clear coat and into the green paint. This required a touch-up of the green, followed by more coats of clear and a very careful polishing. It turned out OK.

Larry masked the tub and shot some black to provide a base for the carbon fiber decals. There were a lot of decals, applied with a lot of Solvaset and heat from a hair dryer. The tub is about ready for clear coat.

Finally, Larry finished the engine wiring and shot some Alclad stainless steel onto the exhaust headers.

Here's what Jeff Keenan has been working on: "I'm almost done with a 1/72 Airfix Focke-Wulf Fw-189 A-2. This kit is only 4 years younger than I am, and it shows! The canopy is a mess, the details are soft, and there was a lot of 'it's good enough' just to stay motivated to finish. I started with Tamiya's Black Green and Dark Green and realized they are close enough to make it difficult to notice a difference, so I lightened the Dark Green and resprayed. Of course, after I clear-coated it the colors went really dark again. Oh well, onward! The bright spot of the kit was the decals, which managed to go on well with some Solvaset. There are also 3 included figures but the figures are molded so much better than the rest of the model that I kept them to use somewhere else."

Jeff continues: "I'm also almost done with the 1/72 Italeri Camionetta AS 42 Sahariana that I brought in October. It just needs some weathering and work on the base - I need some sand for a desert scene. The Italians marked the gas cans with white if they contained water and black if they had oil or coolant. I drilled out the barrel and the seat back, and used a Micron marker to draw the sight.

Jeff concludes: "I've also plugged away at a 1/35 Dragon ZSU-23-4M anti-aircraft system with Czech markings. I've never done tracks with individual links and this is giving me a hard time. I wish I could pick the armor modelers' brains on how this is done. The pictures didn't turn out great, sorry. I've been trying different matte clear coats (Warpaints, Krylon, Rustoleum, Mig Ammo) but everything still has a semi-gloss sheen to it. Maybe I'm just not shaking things up enough. I love the Testors rattlecan Dullcote but it's been hard for me to find lately. Next up is Bandai's 1/48 Snowspeeder and the figures I can never seem to finish - the 1/35 German winter troopers and the early 90s-era French Foreign Legionnaires."

Tony Gliszczynski sent some photos of his most recent build, a Pro Stock '72 Chevy Vega. Tony said this kit was the worst one ever - nothing fit properly, and he had a lot of sanding and cutting to get it together.

Nick Carluccio updated us on his latest project: "a 1963 Ford Galaxie that I rescued off of Ebay for about $6.00. I stripped the old paint, sanded down any rough spots and repainted it in coral. The engine replicates a Ford 390 with 6 two-barrel carbs. I will be doing the chrome in a couple of days. This is just a quick build just to keep busy."

Tom Faith has a few projects that are coming along nicely. The first is a diorama centered around Italieri's 1/32 scale 80' ELCO PT Boat. Tom said he started this model in September of 2017. The ship includes scratch-built stern components, a wood deck and lots of gear. The diorama features palm tree uprights on the dock made of wooden dowel wrapped in hemp rope strands; the dock is made up of scale lumber structural supports and deck; there is a scratch-built mechanics shed and crane, with figures yet to come.

Tom's second item is a diorama based on Verlinden's old Italian Farm House with lots of add-on's. The outside surface is modeling pumice with scale lumber structural supports, and the vehicles (yet to come) will be the Schwimwagon and Skdfz. 7/11.

Tom's last model is a Russian diorama featuring the Mini Art Gaz AAA with Shelter. The shelter and cargo box are scratch built scale lumber, not the plastic contained in the box.

Thanks to all of the members who sent in photos and updates on their current projects.