...or, News from The Nameless One

June 2010 Model Table

John Doerr was June's model table moderator.

Ed Button started the discussion rolling by describing the work he's put into restoring a pre-built model of a late 70's/early 80's Monogram Me-262 Kit in 1/48 scale. He decided to depict a real plane surrendered on March 30, 1945 by Heinz Frey and has finished the model as an unpainted, all-aluminum later-war example. In his reference material, Ed has a photo of the actual plane flying over Ohio en route to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Ed used no decals on the model and created stencils from photo copier paper. A well-done model of a unique subject!

Paul Hines brought a Nantucket Light ship built from a very old, 1950's manufactured Lindberg kit. Paul added lots of rigging and extra details to the 1/96 scale ship. Paul spent about four months on the model.

Bob Raithel brought a commissioned sculpture of a Warhammer gaming figure. The sculpture was constructed from Sculpy and Aves Apoxie Sculpt over a wire armature. It depicts a creature called a 'Ghorgon' which is basically a four-armed minotaur. Bob also brought his 'Timmy's Challenge' entry - a 1/35 scale V-1 flying bomb from Bronco.

Bob Collignon showed his unbuilt 1/32 scale Junkers J-1 Bi-plane. Bob was attracted to the kit because it's known as a 'flying tank' and because it has no rigging! The original plane was made from aluminum, which make this a unique subject for a World War One plane. Bob declares that he will build the kit "Someday."

Jim Wolf displayed his nearly complete 1/35 Trumpeter KV-1 Russian tank. Jim reports that it was an easy build and that all that remains to be done is a bit more weathering. Jim used Tamiya paints to finish the model.

Paul Kittle showed a sailing ship hull that he describes as a 'practice ship' he used to experiment with techniques he used in building the 'Ontario' model for Fort Niagara. The model is scratch built and includes a small, 11 piece model of a row boat mounted to the deck. The hull is a wooden core covered in sheet plastic. The decks are made from wood.

Tom Mooney brought his 1/8 scale Revel 'Bathtub' car model. Tom says there were serious issues with parts fitting. He used Model Master enamels to paint the model which, despite the fit problems, resulted in a beautifully done piece. (Sorry about the tree that jumped in the way.)

Stan Keysa had a scratch built pine tree trunk he brought as part of his tree-building demo. The skeletal tree took about 18 hours to produce. Stan says that it takes a lot longer to model a dead tree than a live one. (Sorry about the car in the background.)

Matt Keysa is back from his European adventure and brought with him some actual war relics from a visit to Normandy. There were a few American .30 cal rounds, a 20mm German shell casing and a German 20mm ammo clip. The relics were purchased from shops in the area that sell recovered war items found on and around the D-Day beaches.

Justen Hanna shared his 'Timmy's Challenge' entry, a 1/48 Nieuport 11 from Eduard. He is about 60% done with the model. A major challenge was finding the right shade of yellow (which, he claims, looks completely wrong under the meeting room lights.) Justen applies decals by giving the model a spray of Future, then applies additional full-strength Future to the area where the decal is positioned with a brush and lays the decal right into the puddle of wet Future. Justen reports that this method softens the decal and allows it to shrink into the surface detail similar to Solvaset.

Justen also brought a 1/48 scale model of a Siemans Schuckert D III biplane - a very early Eduard kit. This is an on-going project and he has the cockpit wood-grain painted, which takes a lot of time due to the long drying time of oil paints. Due to fit issues, Justen has to construct an engine from two different engine castings to make it work. The top wing also has a serious warp to it. Looks like this is going to be a challenge!

Dick Schulenberg's F-84F is an old Airfix kit that he started around ten years ago. The model represents a plane from a Belgian display team. The ModelDecal aftermarket decals for the kit were old, so Dick used a technique similar to Justen's - using Future to resurrect the decals. The model is entirely hand-brushed and Dick reports that the panel lines are very lightly scribed on the wings after painting using a small plastic ruler as a guide. Dymo tape and thin metal eraser guards can also be used as scribing guides.

Dick also brought a Fiat 3000 tank model from Tauro that dates back to the 1980's. The model represents a tank that was in service in the 1920's. Bob Collignon pointed out that this is one of the worst tank models ever produced and that's Dick's example might be the only one that was ever fully built! Dick liked it because it is a interesting subject.

Dick also had a newsletter about old kits from the 1950's - all wood, no plastic.

Samantha Hanna displayed her BA-20ZD Russian Armored car model made by RPM, which she reports has serious fit problems and requires a lot of putty and sanding. She's gone through two sanding sticks on it! The instructions are written entirely in Russian, so there's a lot of guesswork in the assembly of this model.

Frank Blonski brought Frank! His Timmy's Challenge project is a 1/72 scale Ki-84 Frank airplane kit from Hasegawa. He's got the wings and fuel tanks assembled and it's looking good! Frank will be returning to car models after the August meeting. Frank also brought some paint tests he's doing for his on-going truck project.

Mike Butry brought an F-16 which he is building for a friend. He did extensive alterations with vacuum-formed intake covers and wiring on the landing gear. His client told him to just have fun with it, and it looks like that's what he did!

Mark Gadek showed us his FA-18 Academy1/72 jet aircraft model. Mark reports major problems with the decals - they just disintegrated. He used Gunze and Model Master paints mixed together to match the colors for Canadian aircraft.

Mark also brought a SU-27 Russian jet fighter, model which he will enter in the Timmy's Challenge contest.

Jacob Gadek brought in a figure model of The Beast as his Timmy's Challenge kit. The model is primed and ready for painting.

Ernie Yuhnke showed his Mokorex Chess set, an ongoing project for his grandson. Ernie gotten a second chess set for his other grandson, but he wants the set of US Presidents Ernie's been working on. Ah well... Nice job on the chess set, Ernie!

Brian McFee displayed his completed Timmy's Challenge model - an Italieri Duck amphibious vehicle. He assembled it out of the box and painted it with acrylics and enamels. Brian added Verlinden cargo items to detail the model.

Dan Marafino had his model of the Three Stooges on hand. Dan says the flames on the torches were a challenge to render and he believes the faces need more work. He's had fun building the kits and used the original shows as reference.

Joe Saccomanno brought in a pair of HO racing cars on a piece of track. One (the gray one) is an original Atlas Slot car and the blue one is a resin copy. Joe belongs to an HO racing club and these cars are raced for fun at various area HO race tracks. Joe used parts from various other car models to detail the custom jobs. The cars are about 1/87 scale.

A Polar Lights Batmobile is Dave Schwab's entry in the Timmy's Challenge. He's painted it with Model Master enamels, buffed it to a nice shine and given it two coats of Future to gloss it up. Dave also brought in a set of Life Color paints. This set is the US World War 2 Uniforms set. They are acrylics and he has not tried them out yet.

Here are some shots of the group gathering around the table to hear the explanations of the models and building techniques.

And finally, here are some pictures of Stan Keysa's demo on making trees.

The next meeting is Monday, July 19th. Bring your in-progress "I Am Not a Modeling Loser" uncontest entry if you wish, your stuff to sell, new kits and projects to show, stuff to work on, or just yourself. See you Monday.

IPMS Niagara Frontier Policy for Donated Items

On occasion, IPMS Niagara Frontier receives donations of kits and other modeling related stuff. Usually, these donations are from club members in response to specific requests to support the Kid's Classes or to pass on to our troops overseas. Sometimes we get donations from non-members as well. We are very fortunate that we have such generous club members and friends.