...or News from the Nameless One
Let me start out by thanking a couple of folks for their contributions to last month's awesome Christmas party. Thanks to Tony G. for once again procuring some righteous eats at a great price and for making sure that they got to us intact. You da man Tony! Also, a big thanks goes out to Tom Brown Sr. for once again coordinating with the Marine Corps to have soldiers visit and pick up our boon of toys for the annual Toys for Tots drive. Thanks, Tom!
Finally, but certainly not least, thanks to you guys (and gals) for once again stepping up with so many great donations. I don't have my official tally on hand (somehow, all of my club notes found their way into storage,) but I know that we made it over the 200 mark. Once again, Jacob Gadek was the show-stopper with over twenty donations! Great job Jacob, and great job all!
Our next meeting will be held on the fourth Monday this month due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Please note that next month's meeting will also be on the fourth Monday due to President's Day.
To reiterate, this month's meeting will be held January 23rd in the usual spot at the Harlem Rd. Community Center at 7PM.
This month, Bob Collignon will be doing his much-anticipated tree and shrubbery demo. We were going to do this one in November, but had to postpone. This should be pretty interesting.
Finally, we begin our annual Kid's Classes this month. To those that have volunteered, thanks so much. Our first class will be on Saturday, January 21st in our room at the Community Center. Please contact either Bob Conshafter or me with any questions or concerns.
See you all on the 23rd,
Justen Hanna
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA #45680
Notes from the December 2011 Meeting
This was our annual holiday pizza and wings party. We had 57 members and visitors in
attendance, including 3 US Marines who were there to accept our donations to Toys for Tots.
Your generous donations overfilled 2 pool tables. You guys always come through for the kids.
Thank you on their behalf.
President Justen Hanna started the meeting with a moment of silence in memory of long time club member Ray Weick who passed away on December 6. Several members shared their remembrances of Ray. Most of you will remember that Ray was at our last meeting and showed a bunch of his builds of old "collector" kits. Ray, you will be missed. An informal gathering of family and friends was held at Brighton Community Church on January 15, 2012 which was attended by several club members. Memorials may be made to Doctors Without Borders.
On a happier note, we received thank you notes for the donation of many model kits supplied by Keegan Brill and supplemented by your donations, to the Wounded Warriors IPMS Chapter at the Intrepid Center in Texas and to the big VA Rehab Center in Bath, NY to use in the vet's art program. The note from the Bath VA Center mentioned that the vets were excited about the helicopter and armor kits because many of them worked on or operated them.
Bob Conshafter reminded everyone that we need more volunteer mentors for the upcoming Kids Class, starting in January. See Bob's appeal later in the newsletter.
Besides the good food, we had some interesting items on the display tables. Bob Conshafter walked us around and asked the appropriate leading questions.
Steve Weller started off by showing his 2012 stash, all bought in one fell swoop from Squadron Mail Order's super Black Friday sale. Quite a pile. I wonder if Steve will make a dent in it before the end of 2012.
Joe Villone brought in a mixed bag of models. He picked up a 1/48 die-cast F-14 which looked pretty good and a number of small snap type warships. He passed them all on to several people. Joe is fascinated with post-WW II heavy metal Reno racing planes and his modeling choices reflect that. This month he showed his 1/48 racing Bearcat "Able Cat", built from the old Hawk/Testors kit cross kitted with parts from the Hobbycraft kit as well as a number of scratchbuilt and modified parts. The finish replicates the dirty condition of Able Cat when racing. Decals are from Red Pegasus Decals. Joe showed us their catalog and noted that owner Keith Davidson also provides a custom decal service.
Joe Szczygiel finished his 1/35 M728 engineering vehicle up to the point of painting.
Joe ended up rebuilding and lowering the front suspension to replicate the nose heavy look
of the vehicle. Joe also showed the beginnings of his 1/35 Husky rolling x-ray machine. His
heavily armored vehicle searches for mines, wires and other buried bad things using downward
looking x-ray technology. It's all scratch built with resin wheels and tires.
Tom Faith showed his almost finished Russian GAZ truck with a 4 barrel Maxim machine gun
mounted on the deck. He's made a lot of progress since we saw it last month. The truck is from
a pretty rough plastic kit and the Maxim is from a little better resin kit. Tough job but it's
looking good. Tom also showed his British Dingo armored car from an old Alan kit. It's
basically a solid but plain model to which Tom added resin, photoetch and scratch details.
Looks great now!
Ilya Grinberg brought in his latest acquisition, a 1/72 scale British Bren Carrier, a
lightly armored 2 man tracked multipurpose vehicle. This is a brand new kit from IBG and is
quite finely done. The tracks are all individual links and come with an assembly jig. As nice
as it is, some of the flat parts can benefit from photoetch replacements which will hopefully
be available soon.
Prolific modeler Dave Armitage had several models on display, starting with a 1/87 (HO)
scale 1915 vintage Erie Model B-2 steam crane from the very nice Jordan Miniatures kit. Dave
also showed one of his HO scale structures, a scratchbuilt model of the Hanover Junction, PA
railroad depot where President Abraham Lincoln changed trains on the way to give his Gettysburg
Address in 1863. What would our meeting be without one of Dave's shadowboxes? Dave obliged with
one of his Christmas themed boxes, featuring a Dollar Store Santa and a built in music box.
Dave sells these as Christmas decorations in case you are interested.
John Zachritz's daughter Melanie, a first time visitor, demonstrated a Gundam figure she
recently completed. I say demonstrated because this particular kit can be reconfigured at will
just like the popular Transformer toys. It's a cool model in its own right and has diorama
possibilities. Nice job!
Another visitor, Al Germann shared an interesting idea to save some money when using spray cans. When you're done spraying, you're supposed to invert the can and spray to clear the nozzle. At the price of model paints these days, this is an expensive use of the propellant. Al pulls the nozzle from the can, sticks it on the end of the spray tube of an inexpensive can of "Dust Off" or similar and uses the canned air to clear the nozzle. Neat idea. Al also showed us the sci-fi Condor kit he bought from Russia via E-bay. It's about 1/48 scale and is intended for a game called RoboGear. Al's working on possibilities for a small diorama.
John Zaranek finished up the table discussion with a sales pitch for some of the Olfa cutters he ran across at an industrial show. The cutter he showed looks like it will be an excellent scribing tool. John will be trying this out and will report back. There are some other tools that look like they could have modeling uses as well.
Finally, some around-the-room shots of the gang enjoying the meeting, the pizza party, and
the table of Toys for Tots donations along with our Marine representatives.
Good meeting all around and good to see you all.
Thanks to Bob Collignon for the photography.
Ray Weick
We've lost another of our members. Ray Weick passed away on December 6 at the age of 61.
Many, if not most, of the members of IPMS Niagara Frontier didn't get a chance to know Ray very well, but those of us who've been around for a while knew Ray to be an enthusiastic and wide ranging collector, an avid builder and a good man with an engaging low key dry wit.
For us, Ray was a pioneer in the more esoteric areas of big scale vacuum formed kits and full resin models. I remember him excitedly bringing in a pair of 1/35 scale Renault FT-17 tanks cast in Spain in dark red translucent resin. They were rough and clunky, but they were the only FT-17s out there 25 years ago and the first resin models I ever saw. I don't know how he ever found them, but they opened up a whole new world to some of us. He loved the big Combat vacs and built a number of them, not an easy task.
Ray was also a collector of all kinds of kits and aviation information. He especially liked out of the ordinary subjects and often contributed data to the small specialty kit manufacturers like Combat and Lone Star Models.
Ray dropped out of active modeling and participation in the club seven or eight years ago to be a full time caregiver for his mother. When she passed on a couple of years ago, Ray was back. He was once again active in club activities and volunteered to be a mentor at the Kid Class for several years. He really enjoyed the kids and had a ball working with them. He dug out the oldest kits in his stash and started building. Happily, he shared them with us as a real slice of our modeling history.
I was lucky enough to carpool with Ray to a number of models shows and really enjoyed the shared time with an interesting conversationalist.
I will miss Ray.
Dick Schulenberg
Some of Ray's models:
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.
