Greetings and salutations to one and all! Warmer weather is finally here, I think, so the grills will be firing up which means building will slow down for some.

The completed builds need to be no less than five parts and will have to be painted at least one color. All builds need to be done by the August meeting so you have time to get 'em done.

Well that about wraps it up folks, and I'll see you all on Tuesday, June 21st. Remember, this will be another Build 'n' Bull meeting, so bring in your current project(s) especially for those who are participating in the Tony Bartozek "I'm not a modeling loser" club challenge. Happy modeling!

IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - June 21, 2022

7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.

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.

The monthly general club meeting will be on Tuesday, June 21st, starting at the usual 7:00pm at the usual meeting room in the rear building. No special safety requirements are in effect at this time. There will also be a 50/50 raffle held at the meeting to help raise funds for the club.

Elections for club officers and EBoard members were held at the May meeting. The new slate of officers and EBoard members is as follows:

• President - Mike Butry
• 1st Vice President - Dan Price
• 2nd Vice President - Larry Osolkowski
• Secretary - Al Germann
• Treasurer - Tom Faith
• EBoard member - Bill Borkowski
• EBoard member - Maryann Germann
• EBoard member - Jim Greenfield
• EBoard member - Jeff Keenan
• EBoard member - Justin Sczepczenski
• EBoard member - Steve Weller

The Tony Bartozek memorial "I am not a modeling loser" contest received 16 entries. Here are the photos of the guilty parties:

Section 8 Hobbies is now holding a build night every Wednesday from 4 to 9pm. All are welcome to bring their latest projects and work on them in the company of other modelers.

A link to the current Sprue and Glue News has been added in recent months to the Newsletter Blast emails provided by National IPMS. For those readers from other chapters, and anyone else who might be interested, our website has a Newsletter page with buttons to select any of our newsletters from the current year. There is also a button on that page to access the Archive page, which has links to all of the newsletters published since September 2007.

A NOTE TO NON-MEMBERS

The minutes from the May 2022 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.

May 17 - President Mike Butry led the meeting.

• Old Business:
  • Election of Executive Board members took place. With some continuing incumbents and new candidates running unopposed, Larry O. motioned the Club Secretary Al G. cast one vote for each. He cast a vote for all identified candidates with the following results:
    • President - Mike Butry
    • First Vice President - Dan Price
    • Second Vice President - Larry Osolkowski
    • Treasurer - Tom Faith
    • Secretary - Al Germann
    • Executive Board Member - Bill Borkowski
    • Executive Board Member - Maryann Germann
    • Executive Board Member - Jim Greenfield
    • Executive Board Member - Jeff Keenan
    • Executive Board Member - Justin Sczepczenski
    • Executive Board Member - Steve Weller
  • Tony Bartozek "I'm not a modeling loser" build challenge started with photos of the modelesr and their unstarted kits acting as the record.
  • Maryann G. presented update on an alternative hall for the monthly meetings. Potential locations and price were discussed. An onsite visit will take place to evaluate facilities. A small committee will be formed as part of this evaluation and recommendation process.
• New Business:
  • None.
• BuffCon #37, April 3, 2022:
  • Tom F. provided overview of financial results which was positive.
  • Feedback to the hall on the kitchen vendor will take place.
• Miscellaneous/Open Floor:
  • The recent NorEastCon #50 event highlights were discussed. It was stated that NorEastCon #51 does not have a host yet. Talk included future events could be co-hosted by multiple local IPMS clubs.
  • 50/50 raffle was run at this meeting with 89 tickets sold resulting in a $45/44 split. The winner donated his share back to the club.
  • Jeff K. led the presentation of members' model on the tables.

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.

The June EBoard meeting will be held after publication of this newsletter, so the minutes will appear in next month's newsletter.

Club member Bruce Mathes contributed a collection of photos of his aircraft builds. He starts with VFR's computer generated resin kit of the American Champion Citabria, built out of the box.

"Another shot of the VFR computer generated kit of the American Champion Citabria."

Bruce's next model: "Here is an example of a terrible vacuform-resin 'conversion kit' of the B-24N single tail. NO instructions, no drawings, the resin parts were full of pinholes to be filled, and the nose piece was a thin clear vacuformed piece and you were left to your own devices to install it. There is NO reference material on this plane. All I had to go by was just a single online photo. I used the Hasegawa B-24D as the base model. But here it is for better or worse."

"Another view of the single tail B-24N."

"MPM's Bell XP-77 plywood fighter with Ranger 12 cylinder engine 550 hp 12 cylinder inverted vee air cooled engine. Had single 20mm cannon firing through prop hub, but not fitted to prototype a/c. I sectioned the tiny vacuformed canopy to show the cockpit detail."

"Tail view of XP-77."

"1/72nd scale resin kit from AirCast in Ukraine! I masked & sprayed all of the paint. Used Gold stripe & tail emblem & N numbers from spares decals box."

"MPM's little XF-85 'Goblin' on its carriage which is the only way to display the model unless you hack up a B-29, B-50 type."

"Another example of a 1/72nd scale resin Piper Tomahawk from Air Cast in Ukraine. Full interior and a well done set of resin parts & decals."

"Resin 1/72 kit of X-Tra 300 acrobatic plane."

"Close up of Extra 300."

"Heller P-39 kit with DRAW racing decals on it."

"YES there WAS a Cougar painted & marked like this. I found a photo online & used decals from my spares box to do the tail Skull & the nose shark mouth. You don't see Cougars like these."

"A friend gave me an old FROG kit of a Corsair, and I added an engine & some cockpit details to make up LUCKY GALLON racing Corsair using DRAW decals."

"WOW, what a Mustang! When I saw this decal sheet from DRAW, I just HAD to build it. Airfix P-51D kit."

"This is an old Micro Scale decal sheet that I tried to see if it was still any good after 30 years and you can see the result. ESCI C-47 kit. The paint job was tricky to get the O.D. stripe the correct width and match the shade of the tail decal."

"Another VFR computer generated kit of the Grumman American traveler. I masked & sprayed the paint scheme from an online photo."

"Another racing mustang with DRAW decals used."

"I used my computer to remove the figure's 'bathing suit' back dating the B-29 to the originally painted nose art. It was ordered removed by CO's wife after she saw it on Okinawa during the early part of the Korean War. It's raunchy but it IS original artwork."

"Enough for one day? Airfix P-51D flown by Bob Hoover with DRAW decals on it."

"My winner from last year's Rochester show."

"Vac-u-formed B-32 kit that I got at a Buffalo show a few years back."

"Academy B-29 with scratch built dropped wing flaps and of course that GREAT nose art decal."

"A Hobby Craft Beech 18 kit modified to a VolPar tri gear different nose & cabin windows. Paint scheme is masked & sprayed to match an online photo. Black thin decal striping used for cheat lines."

"I saw a photo of this in a book titles High Viz aircraft. I finally got hold of a S-55 and everything on this model is either masked & sprayed or I made up the faces parts on clear decal. The eyelashes stumped me until I hit on using the Black part of some sharks mouth decals. I trimmed them out and applied them and they worked. More photos to follow."

"Close up of Clown's face copter. I changed the spots in the book's photo from all dark Green to the better multi-colored spots using frisket paper masks for each dot. Dots were cut from frisket paper using my circle template for each one. I'll bet the guys will get a charge out of these pics if you put them in the newsletter."

"Pavla 1/72nd scale Curtiss AT-9 'Jeep' Multi-engine trainer."

"Academy A-37B in Boys From Syracuse markings. I got the remaining 6 kits that I needed for the full collection of the 8 aircraft flown by the Boys and built them in time for the Albany show."

"Old FROG Gloster-Whittle prototype jet airplane. No interior, so I put in a FULL COCKPIT Seat, side consoles, thin strips of tape for seat belt & harness and an instrument panel decal."

"F3 Demon that I got from Dick Schulenberg in April."

"A tight close up of the 1/72nd scale A-37B."

"Special Hobby 1/72 scale F-86H. I made up Boys from Syracuse to put on tanks as the kit's decals are White and for the camo version, and the Boys natural metal w/ yellow nose is nicer looking."

"Syracuse F-47 in 1/72 scale German Revell kit. The Red checkers had to be put on one row at a time to make them fit and look correct. Decals by me on my computer."

"Sword 1/72 scale F-94B with boys markings. Note Johnny Lightning crest carried by the Boys. Line artwork was left to me in 1980 by Don Jewell a GE artist, and I tried them on clear decal paper and they took. I hand brushed in the various colors in the crest."

"MPM Douglas A-20G nose art from a special decal sheet from China."

"Following are some photos of a 1/48th P-39 diorama."

"...and I came up on his six..."

"P-39 diorama."

John Doerr emailed that the person that brought his models back to him found a kit that was WIP and returned it to him. He will bring it to the next meeting.

Moving to the model tables, Frank Blonski displayed a work-in-progress, an AMT 1969 Olds 442. He scratch-built the Ram Air hood, using scoops from the 1970 Jo-Han Ram Air hood. Frank wanted to produce another option for production of a FAB Resinworks product.

Nick Carluccio showed us his AMT 1961 Corvette built from the original kit, actually a glue bomb purchased on eBay. He finished it with Duplicolor Gunmetal Gray, and used bare metal foil for the trim and paper clip wire for the trunk hinges.

Tim Grieve displayed his Atlantis B-36 in 1/184 scale. Tim used Testors Silver, Red, Yellow and Green paints along with Model Color Transparent Green and a Sharpie ultra fine marker. He said he added nose and tail guns, and picked the subject because he thought a 10 engine aircraft was interesting since it was a crossover (prop & jet). Tim said it was a quick build with good fit.

Dan Marafino brought in his 1/48 Italeri P-40E. He used Vallejo Iraqi Sand and Neutral Gray paints, weathered with pastels. Dan said the kit was supposed to be a K version, but he converted it to an E. The model was a shared build with Tom McGuire.

Dick Schulenberg displayed several items. The first was an ICM 1/35 FCM 36 French late 30's light tank, contemporary with the Tamiya Renault 35. Dick started with Black Citadel primer and White Tamiya primer, both from spray cans. He said it will be finished with brushed and sprayed Vallejo Model Color and Model Air paints. Dick described the model as totally out of the box. He mentioned that he was concerned about the glueable vinyl two-piece tracks, but they worked perfectly and look good. He's planning on using water color pens for stains and color blending, and maybe some real mud. Dick added that there were absolutely no problems with the kit - everything fit perfectly and there were no ambiguities in the instructions. He likes the small pre- and early war Allied light tanks, and wishes that someone would do a Matilda I.

Dick's second subject was a Hobbycraft 1/72 Northrop F-89H Scorpion work-in-progress. So far, he's used Tamiya spray can gray primer and gloss aluminum. He said the rest of the paints will be white Tamiya spray can primer followed by large red Vallejo Model Color Arctic markings. Dick said the basic airframe is OOB and better than he expected from Hobbycraft. He mentioned that the kit tip rocket pods were clunky so he replaced them with 3D-printed ones from Flying S Models. He said the model will be finished very clean, typical of 50's USAF. Dick said he started the kit years ago, but stopped when he saw how clunky the tip pods and Falcon missiles were; he restarted when he spotted the Flying S tanks and missiles online. The pods required some assembly and 400 grit sanding, but that was far easier than even the basic assembly of the kit pods.

Dick's last model was a Special Hobby 1/72 Douglas Skystreak D-558-1, another WIP. It had Vallejo Model Color Carmine Red over Tamiya spray can white primer, and is being built out-of-box. Dick said it will stay clean and semigloss consistent with research and testing protocol. He mentioned that he didn't use any of the photoetch supplied as cockpit detail, since you can't see it through the small windows anyway. The PE main gear covers were also a pain. Dick's working on a small group of early US transonic/supersonic research jets.

Bill Borkowski displayed his completed Tamiya 1/24 Morgan 4/4. He used Tamiya acrylics, brushed and airbrushed, and spray lacquer, and built the model out-of-box. Bill mentioned that there were lots of tiny parts to glue in tight spaces, and the kit black plastic did not take glue well, even including ZAP-A-Gap. He said that some mounting points were too small for the part or not molded in, and the build instructions and diagrams did not always match the kit. Bill likes classic cars.

Bob Conshafter showed us his Monogram/Academy Bf-109E3 kitbash, painted with Testors RLM 02, Lifecolor RLM 71 Park Green and RLM 65 Light Blue, and Testors RLM 04 Yellow. Bob used the Academy cockpit, canopy and wheels. He said the final finish will be satin. He's planning on doing the Horst Perez White 4 that's on display at the RAF Museum at Hendon Aircraft from JG26. Bob said he will need to make a tiger emblem for below the cockpit.

John Doerr also brought in a few aircraft. The first two were a Minicraft FW-190A and an Academy FW-190D. They were both painted with Mr. Color RLM 76; the A also had Tamiya Neutral Gray and MiG RLM 75, and the D had MiG RLM 81, 82 and 83; all were brush painted. Weathering was done with black acrylic. John said the Minicraft fit was awful, and the fuselage and wings were warped.

John also showed us a work-in-progress, a Tamiya 1/48 Bf-109E-3. So far, he's applied Polly S RLM 02; Tamiya Nato Black, Red Brown, Gloss Black and Silver, and Model Master Steel. He's doing weathering with a basic black enamel wash and light gray and steel dry brushing.

Paul Hines continued with more aircraft subjects for his current set of paintings. The first was an F9F Panther Jet used extensively in Korea. It was Grumman's 1st jet fighter and worked well off carrier decks.

Paul's second subject was an F-86 Saber Jet. Paul said the Saber went head-to-head with the Mig 15, and with superior training and tactics the Saber scored a 10-1 victory ratio over the Migs.

Jeff Keenan displayed a couple of new projects. The first was a Uni Models (UM) 1/72 Sd Kfz 140/1. Jeff said it's in just black primer so far, but he plans on making this a really muddy, dirty tank. He said the kit included some photoetch, and he's drilled out the barrels. Jeff mentioned that everything was great until he started the link-and-length tracks. The road wheels were misshapened and he had to scratch build a lost part. Jeff said he picked the subject because the kit is from a Ukranian manufacturer, it's his first small tank (not just the scale), and he wants to get better at weathering.

Jeff's second model was a Trumpeter 1/72 Strv 103c MBT work-in-progress. So far, it's just in Tamiya Nato Green as a primer. Jeff replaced the molded-in handles with wire. He said the bottom half fit was good; the top half, not so much. He's struggling with the main gun and the fit for the cupola. Jeff said the Swedich S-tank is pretty unique with no turret, and it will have a cool looking splinter camo scheme. Jeff said he's really enjoying 1/72-scale armor.

Steve Weller brought in a picture of a 1/1200 scale Yamato diorama taken from the web. He said the water is tissue and white glue, and the model uses rigging from sprue and Uschi elastic spool. Steve was impressed by the "ridiculous diorama in 1/1200 with REALLY small details, rails, LED gun blast, etc."

Larry Osolkowski brought in another new kit, a new version of the BMW M6 GT3 in 1/24 from Nunu Platz. This one is the Rundstrecken-Trophy 2020 Winner, sponsored by Playstation. Larry said he's planning on building around six of the M6 GT3 cars, and got two of these kits to use with aftermarket decals.

Larry also showed his progress on the 1/24 Nunu Platz BMW M6 GT3. He added the front suspension bits and radiator assembly to the chassis floor pan, which is now finished. Larry also masked the interior floor and painted the access panels and electronic boxes. He then removed some of the masking tape and applied some masking fluid for the electronic wiring that's molded in. The roll cage is also painted, but needs some padding added to some of the bars, and some carbon fiber decals to the box on the driver's side that contains the master cylinder reservoirs.

The detail set for the kit includes photo-etch rear wing supports, and Larry added some shims made from styrene sheet to close up the mounting slots so the photo-etch parts will fit better. This will also have to be done on the rear body.

Some progress was made on interior bits, including painting the door panels and dashboard. The body had additional work on blending the air scoops in.

The last item was the front grill. Larry spent some considerable time and effort opening up the slots in the grill, only to discover that a 3D-printed part was availble for around $4 with even better detail.

Al Germann displayed his progress on his C-119G Flying Boxcar in approximately 1/87 scale (box scale). He's using Tamiya putty in a never ending cycle of fill, sand, prime and repeat. Al said he's making progress.

Al also made some progress on his Apollo Recovery diorama. The 1/72 Dragon Sea King helicopter is finished; Al used mostly Vallejo paints, airbrushed with preshading and mild washes. He also added detail to the interior and retracted the main landing gear, as well as adding microphones to the crew helmets. Al is now working on the Apollo capsule and rescue basket. The diorama will be modeled as the recovery of Apollo 11.

Jim Greenfield displayed a work-in-progress, an armoured Vedeete French river craft in Viet Nam. He modified the deck and interior, and scratch-built the cabin and top. He picked the subject because it's not mainstream.

Maryann Germann showed us her progress on her "Cougar Attack" diorama.

Eugene Paveljack displayed his Bergepanther Ausf. A, finished with Tamiya Red Brown primer, Dark Yellow and Flat Black. He said the kit instructions were terrible, and he's had the kit for a few years and the time was right.

There were a few unidentified items on the tables.

Finally, some around-the-room shots.

Thanks to Jeff Keenan for handling the model tables. Photos provided by Larry Osolkowski.