Greetings, modelers! Thanks to everyone for a great Christmas meeting last month. It's very heartwarming to see nearly every
member of the club turn out to extend fellowship and good will to each other. Your donations to the US Marine Corps' "Toys For
Tots" campaign was, as usual, overwhelmingly generous and my hat's off to all of you. It's another reason why we are one of the
premier scale modeling groups in the country, so, give yourselves a pat on the back!
Here's a gentle reminder to all of us that our annual membership dues shall be collected at the January 19th meeting. Please bring your $10 to stay active in the club. We will also be asking you to review your contact information (name, address, telephone number and email address) and make any necessary changes. That way, we'll be sure to be able to provide you with information pertinent to club activities.
Our annual show, BuffCon, is rapidly approaching and we're busy gearing up for it. Within the next several months, the EBoard will be asking for volunteers to help with various activities that make this show one of the best in the IPMS circles. So, please sign-up when asked. There isn't much this club asks of its members, except for helping out at the show; every little bit helps make it a success.
Along the lines of making BuffCon successful, we're going to continue our series of "How To Judge" seminars this month. A few months ago, Johnny Newman did an excellent job of showing how to judge miniature figure entries. Vice-President Justen Hanna will be doing his presentation on judging aircraft models at the January meeting. Justen is an outstanding aircraft modeler and will demonstrate what we need to look for when evaluating and critiquing these models at the show. It's one you won't want to miss!
As usual, we will be asking members who come to the meeting to bring in any kits (un-started, in-progress, or finished) for our monthly round-table discussion. I really enjoy seeing the results of everyone's efforts and especially any techniques you use to construct and finish your models. Due to the recurring bouts of horrendous Buffalo weather, our theme entries from the previous months were a bit thin, so if you have anything from The Great War or Pearl Harbor, please bring those in. This month's theme is the Vietnam War and if you have anything related to it that you've built in the past or are currently working on, we'd love to see it.
I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Monday, January 19th at 7PM - keep on gluing!
John R. Zaranek
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 47993
Model Table Round-up from the December meeting
Bob Collignon took an Ertl John Deere 1940's era panel van die-cast toy bank and modified it to look like a "handyman
van". Bob's goal was to make it not look like a die-cast toy bank and turn it into a nice replica of a vehicle that an
enterprising workman would use back in the day. Bob used an enamel primer and various acrylics to make it beat-up looking
and added many scratchbuilt details for authenticity. He built this for his dad for Christmas about 25 years ago to go
along with his G-scale train layout.
Paul Hines presented another collection of very nice drawings he's been doing. This month, he shows us two vintage race
scenes. The first is an Alfa leading a Ferrari and the next a vintage Grand Prix Mercedes Benz. His last one is a vintage
Ford drag racer.
Larry Osolkowski brought us a new project, still in the box, of a Minicraft 1/16th scale 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing
Coupe. Larry picked it up as a "good deal" at the Rochester show and the kit looks good in the box.
Matt Klukowski is constructing a building to go into his train layout. It's called "Ariana Nights" and the kit is from
DPM. Matt has scratch built the stage, bar and ceiling lights. The top windows of the kit are modified to look bigger. He's
finishing it with Citadel and Vallejo acrylic paints.
Eric Hillebrand brought in his finished Sturmtiger by Italeri. He used Testor's spray paints along with Testor's washes
and Tamiya weathering powders. Eric felt that the kit was a pretty good build and really likes it's "awesome gun"!
Jason Wesolowski showed us another of his Warhammer 40K projects. This month, he selected the Tau Crisis Team figure.
Jason explained that the team lead is magnetized, he scratch built a shield and modified the fusion blaster. He did say that
the ankle joints were weak and he had to pin them for strength. Jason used Krylon black primer, Folk Art acrylics to finish
it and a Nuln Oil wash.
Al Germann brought in two projects he's been hard at work on. The first, for the club's World War I theme build, is his
Eastern Express 1/72nd kit of the Hansa Brandenburg D.1 biplane. He built it straight out of the box and used Tamiya paints
followed by a minor wash for details.
His second project is a "Sea Bottom Buggy" submarine in 1/72nd scale which is currently "in progress". The kit was meant
to be powered by a rubber band propulsion system, so he had to eliminate those features and plug the holes. He also needed to
scratch build some seats. Another interesting feature of Al's work this month is that he had to make his own "bow lathe" in
order to effectively sand the torpedoes smooth. I'm glad to see someone's thinking in this club!
Bob Raithel brought in some figures he built about 10 or 15 years ago, which still exist today!
Wayne Dippold brought in his AFV Club F-5E Aggressor, which was featured in the December 2014 issue of Airfix Model
World magazine. This is a nice article about an excellent build of a difficult kit in a prestigious international magazine
- great work, Wayne!
Our fearless leader, John Zaranek, brought in some armor works-in-progress, but neglected to provide details of his
own models. Ah, the weight of leadership.
Tom Brown brought in some photos of some dioramas from the past, including one of BuffCon.
There were a few other items on the tables for which we, unfortunately, don't have any details.
The contributions for Toys for Tots filled several tables. The US Marines sent a couple of very appreciative
representatives to pick up the gifts, and they obviously enjoyed their job.
The annual holiday pizza party was enjoyed by all.
Finally, some around the room pics.
Thanks to Bob Collignon for the photography.
