Greetings and salutations to one and all! How is everyone doing, as I hope all is well? I'm sure like
me, in the last couple of days everyone thought it was summer once again. However, I have a feeling that
his will be the last hurrah before old man winter settles in. So with that being said, I hope everyone
has some modeling project lined up to keep them occupied, but most importantly, keep the hobby alive!
I hope that everyone has seen Larry's email from November 9th.
Firstly, we would really love to see more people get involved with sharing their latest builds/projects with the rest of the club in the newsletter.
Secondly, I know that COVID is still around; however, as long as we practice social distancing and we wear our masks as required by the hall, the tables are set up to accommodate these requirements. So, essentially we'd like to know why one would not come to the monthly meeting and what we could do to help encourage our members to attend outside of health issues. (NOTE: Mike wrote this before the meeting was cancelled.)
Until next time, happy modeling!
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - November 16, 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, November 16th, 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.
A NOTE TO NON-MEMBERS
IPMS Niagara Frontier is a group of people from the Western New York area who enjoy the hobby of scale model building. We have about 80 members with 40+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Monday of every month at The Knights, 2375 Union Rd., Cheektowaga, NY 14225.
A typical meeting starts with a short session related to club business. This is followed by "Show & Tell" - many members bring in their current work in progress to share experiences with other members. There is usually at least one model-related demonstration by a club member at each meeting. Meetings are free to the public. If you are in the Western New York area we would love to have you drop in to one of our meetings and say hello. We welcome modelers of all skill levels - from beginner to expert.
Our annual BuffCon event held each year in April continues to be one of the largest shows in this part of the country.
As a community-oriented club we also gather toys each Christmas for the "Toys-for-Tots" program and are proud of our support of this worthwhile program.
A brochure that describes the club and its activities can be found HERE.
The minutes from the October 2020 general meeting are included below. Thanks to our Secretary, Al Germann, for the meeting minutes.
October 19th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
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.
October 13th - President Mike Butry led the meeting.
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.
Models I Built in the 1970's
by Al Germann
I suppose I started building models around the age of 9 or 10, pretty much around 1970. Some model kits came from the Twin Fair store, only if I behaved during a shopping trip with my mother. I remember some from the basement toy section of Grant's at the Thruway Plaza, but most came from a place called the Walden Auction which was on Walden Ave. near Pine Ridge Road. It was in Cheektowaga but not too far from the city line. It was an old movie theater being used to sell miscellaneous items with a huge amount of plastic model kits. There were new kits but some boxes were damaged - like surplus purchases. The place still had the theater's sloping floor and I think the models were just on plywood sitting on saw horses with poor lighting. This may or may not be accurate but that is how I remember it. I went there at least once a week, always with other kids from the neighborhood and the models were cheap. Later on, I remember Abel's Hobby on Harlem Road near Walden. The hobby shop was upstairs which was huge. At least it seemed that way, or maybe it was just that I was smaller. They also had slot car and HO racecar tracks. Even though the list below looks like I built a lot of models, none of them could complete with current junior builders at BuffCon.
For cars & trucks: 1955 Chevy Bad Man, T'rantula dragster, 1965 Chevy station wagon with trailer, 1950
Chevy Pick-up, Mustang Funny Car - Long Nose, 1970 Corvette, 1971 Mustang, 1972 Chevelle, Ford Pinto, Chaparral
racecar, Lotus Grand Prix racecar, turbine Indy car, 1956 Ford, Peterbuilt semi-truck, tandem trailers, Don
Garlits' dragster, big scale hemi engine, see thru V-8 engine, Mongoose funny car, 1933 Willys drag car, "Big
Al" Allison powered funny car, 1932 Lincoln, 1937 Ford (modeled after my Dad's jalopy racecar), 1940 Ford, 1910
era car, big scale T-Bucket hot rod.
For aircraft & miscellaneous: Spirit of St. Louis, Kitty Hawk Wright Brothers plane, P-51 & Bearcat which was a dual air racer kit, Boeing 707 jet, P-38, WWII aircraft carrier, Gemini Space Craft, Starship Enterprise, large scale farm tractor, Patton Tank, see-thru submarine, motorcycle kit.
I also had a balsa & tissue Fokker DVII, a large radio control plane, and a variety of Estes rockets.
I did have a good amount of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars along with HO racecars and tracks. Out of all this, only one Matchbox car and some HO racecars were saved. Now, I save almost everything. Building mostly scale model cars, I am always thinking about customizing or kitbashing so I love having a large parts supply on hand.
I hope to see you all soon.
Al Germann
My Projects For the November Sprue and Glue News
by Dick Schulenberg
I finally finished up the 1/24 Dunkirk Engineering Works geared locomotive I've been scratch building for most of 2020. I've got an informational engraved plaque coming to mount on the base in front of the boiler. It's going to the Dunkirk Historical Society Museum whenever they can reopen.
I made some progress on the 1/24 Heller Renault 4CV I'm building to surprise my wife. I couldn't
remember if it was dark green or dark gray, so it took a ploy to get her to tell me it was gray. Not
too much more to do on this one.
The two 1/72 planes I was working on have been shelved. I misplaced the props and one wheel special
for the XF5F and messed up the vacuformed windscreen for the Breguet 27. The windscreen supports the back
of the upper wing, so I need to work out something.
Rather than mess with these two at the moment, I'm starting a new project. I've always admired the mid-1930's French Dewoitine D.500/501/510 fighters and had collected a Heller kit of each one in 1/72 scale. They are all late '70's kits with unfortunately unusable decals. Print Scale just issued some really nice decals, so this seemed like a good time to do a mass build of all three. I have a great resource in the 2005 Aero Journal special issue for inspiration. Let's see how this works.
Dick Schulenberg
Model tables from the October meeting and current projects:
Al Germann had two models on display this month. The first was a 1/25 AMT 1970 Chevelle
Malibu on which he's made some good progress. Al said "the model is almost done. I used
aftermarket resin door handles from Fireball Models which are excellent, although they are a
bit more flexible. I attached them using .020 plastic rod to pin them to the model, and used
liquid cement and the Testors glue for clear parts. Another great addition was the photo etch
parts for the Chevelle and Malibu scripts and the '307' for engine displacement; I attached
them with the same Testors glue for clear parts. This is very safe over a good paint job. I
still need to add the side view mirror and finish the panel lines. This model was a lot of
work but I really enjoyed it and am very happy with the results. My wife is also pleased with
this and it brings back memories of her first car."
Al also showed us a second project, "Earl's Cadillac". Al said he added grass to the
base, and still needs to add a scratch-built side mirror.
Al also sent in some photos of his newest project with the following information:
"I started on a 1969 Chevelle which was my first car. Starting with the AMT kit of a Chevelle SS,
I have to convert it down to a Malibu trim level which means doing surgery on the hood to remove
the 2 big blister/bulges. Back in the day, I picked up a fiberglass hood scope of a 1967 Corvette
at the Walden Super Flea Market. Most likely a J.C. Whitney item as I paid $15 for. The photos
show the progress so far. I also thought it fit well together and looked pretty cool."
Larry Osolkowski brought in a few items. The first was a work-in-progress build of the Star
Trek Deep Space 9 space station. This project has been languishing for years, but he got back
into it recently, and is adding wiring and LEDs to light the model.
Larry's second model was a 1/12 Platz Bonsai #1. He said this was a fun project, and mainly
a painting exercise. The model had only a few parts, with the green tufts already attached, so
Larry used Tamiya acrylics to paint the pot holding the plant, and as a base color for the "wooden"
base. He then used oil paint for a wood grain effect, and oil pastels for the branches and the
ground.
Larry's next item was a small update on the 1966 Ford Mustang that has been an ongoing project.
He displayed the tires and hubcaps, which have been painted in aluminum, a darker magnesium and
gloss black, with added valve stems.
Larry's last model displayed continued progress on the 1/20 Tamiya Leyton House F1 race car.
He painted the nose in the appropriate Tamiya coral blue, then masked and sprayed the green area
after a failed attempt to use the kit decal for the green. Since the meeting, Larry's spent a
serious amount of time applying carbon fiber decals to the floor, which has all areas that will
be visible on the finished model completely covered in carbon fiber. Fun, wow.
Maryann Germann showed us her current work-in-progress, a set of figures titled "Cougar
Attack". Maryann said she used Tamiya paints with drybrushing and a top coat, with no weathering
done yet. She mentioned that there were no issues with the kit, and it was a gift from Al.
Dan Price brought in two models. The first was a Slanesh Noise Marine, painted with Citadel,
Reaper and Mission Models paints. Dan said he won the kit, and "a crazy model like this needed
a stage" so he 3D printed the speakers. He said Bolthrower is an actual band that made music
for the game. Checker pattern is for the Goff Rockers, a band of Orcs.
Dan's second model is a resin Space Marine with added smoke plumes. The resin model has
just a basecoat, and Dan said the smoke plumes add dynamics to the model and the flight stand
that came with it was garbage. He found the design online, and got six designs for $3.50.
Tim Grieve displayed four models on the tables. The first was a Minicraft 1/72 F9F-8
Cougar, finished with Model Master Blue Angels blue and yellow, plus silver, gloss white
and red. Tim said there were no additions or issues, and it was a relaxing build.
Tim's second model was a Lindberg 1/72 Gloster Gladiator Mk. II, on which he again used
Model Master paints in silver with aluminum on the control surfaces. Tim said he had a kit
with no cowl that he had to do something with, so he used a cowl donated from a previous
build. He was also inspired by a photo of an actual plane on his computer.
The third model in Tim's group was a Brengun 1/72 A-36 Apache RAF or Invader USAF. Tim
used Testors dullcoat, along with some spare decals for the cockpit and pencil on the hinge
lines. He said getting the canopy to sit down right was a problem, and the painting directions
could have been better. Other than no decals for the cockpit, the provided decals worked very
well, and the fit was good for the most part. Tim said he always wanted to do an A-36.
Tim's last model was another Apache, but this time a Condor 1/72 A-36A, finished with
Model Master paints in light gray, olive drab, yellow, red and green. He added a dark wash
and some exhaust marks, and mentioned that the decals were "crap" and disintegrated easily.
The subject was chosen as something different from a D model.
Paul Hines had three automotive subjects for our viewing this month: a good example of
a typical "rat rod" made from junk parts, and two '32 Ford Deuce 5 window hot rods.
Jeff Keenan showed us several models this month. The first was an Italeri 1/72 Sd.Kfz.
234/3 which was finished with Tamiya and Vallejo paints. Jeff said it was built straight
out of the box, with washes and drybrushing for weathering. He mentioned that he lost a
piece of the main gun about two moves ago, and was fishing through a tote and found the
part recently, so he could finish the model. Jeff said he's been working on armor and got
tired of road wheels so he switched to actual wheels.
Jeff's second item was a collection of various Bandai Star Wars models comprising a
pair of A-Wings, a Y-Wing, a Snowspeeder and a Millenium Falcon. They were all finished
with Tamiya, Vallejo and Model Master paints and, for the first time, oils. He added
weathering with pin washes, pastels, oils and drybrushing. Jeff mentioned that the kits
came with stickers, and he didn't want them to look like toys so he painted all of those
details. He said the kits are amazing, and he loves Star Wars.
Jeff's last item was a set of Dragon/DML 1/35 French Foreign Legion figures circa
early 90s / Desert Storm. He used Tamiya, Model Master, Vallejo and oil paints, with
weathering to come. Jeff drilled out the goggles and made lenses. He said the kit had
typical soft molding from that era, but he found the subject interesting. Jeff mentioned
that he's trying out a wet palette for the first time; it allows blending of the acrylics,
which helps with the flesh tones.
Clint Keidel couldn't make it to the meeting, but he sent some photos of his current
project, a Revell 1/32 Bf-109G-6. He's building it as Franz Steigler's aircraft during his
encounter with Charlie Brown's B-17 "Ye Olde Pub".
Tom Brown, Jr. sent a photo of a Warhammer 40K Death Watch Terminator Chaplin that he's
been working on.
Mike Butry displayed a pair of models this month. The first was a Tamiya 1/48 British
Universal Carrier, which is now finished. He used Model Master and Tamiya paints, and added
weathering with pastels, enamel washes and pencils. Mike also added Verlinden stowage packs,
and made tarps from aluminum foil. He said it was just a neat subject, especially with a Pak
35/36 gun as a war prize.
Mike's second model was a 3D-printed 1/24 Mopar Hemi parts set, made by a friend of his.
Mike said his friend gave it to him as a gift and to try it out.
Brian McFee brought in his current project, a Miss Budweiser racing boat. He's looking for
some of the small, miscellaneous sponsor decals, if anyone can help him out.
We somehow managed to miss the info sheet on one model. Please make sure you fill out a
sheet and get it to Larry by the end of the meeting.
Finally, some around-the-room photos this month. Sorry about the bad color on the photos,
but there's something weird about the lighting in that room that can't be adjusted out.
Thanks to Bob Conshafter for leading the model table discussion, and to Larry Osolkowski
for the photos.
