Greetings and salutations to one and all! I can't believe that the year is already winding down and that
the show season for 2021 has come to an end. As much as I was looking forward to the shows and waiting in
anticipation, poof - with a blink of an eye, the shows have come and gone!
Speaking of shows, there are four months and three weeks before Buffcon, but who's counting, right? That should give everyone enough time to get one or two builds under their belt before the show, says the man who's been on the same build for roughly 5½ months!
Changing gears for a moment or two, at our last club meeting in October, after the break, we spoke about our annual Christmas party. Since we did not have a BuffCon in the last two years due to Covid restrictions, we came up with a plan to help fund the party. Every club member who wants to attend the party will chip in $10, and the funds will need to be turned in by this coming Tuesday's (16th) meeting. This way we will have a head count of who will be attending so we can order accordingly. There will be a sign-up list at the meeting to keep track of who has paid. If anyone should have a question, please reach out to either the board or myself. Again, we'll elaborate more on the Christmas party at this month's meeting.
Also, start thinking about Toys for Tots, as this is a really big hit with the club and before you know it, December will be here! Please keep in mind that we are gearing towards kids roughly ages 11 and up. I'm sure at this coming meeting, Cpl. Tom Brown Jr. will have more details.
Gearing back to BuffCon for a bit now, at the October meeting Jeff Keenan who is our Dealer Coordinator brought in six or so forms for vendor tables. By the end of the meeting all the forms were taken, so with that being said, for those who have interest in getting a table or two or three, please complete and hand in the forms as soon as possible, with the money, to Jeff K.
The last show of the season was the IPMS Cleveland Model Show 24 at the Kirkland School Complex which was held on November 7th. I wasn't able to attend, but a few of our club members did, and from what I've heard, overall it was a good show. Total models on the tables was set at 575 which set a record, and there were 98 vendor tables. I also heard that the few club members that went brought home some good hardware. Congratulations to all that won as you make us proud!
I think that covers it all, but if I missed anything, well I'm sure I'll be told or it'll be added in.
Now back to that 5½ month build...
Until next time, happy modeling!
Michael Butry
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA No. 52196
IPMS Niagara Frontier Meeting Agenda - November 16, 2021
7:00 PM to 7:10 PM - Place models on tables with description forms.
7:10 PM - Meeting called to order.
Old Business:
- Tom Faith will have a sign-up sheet for the December pizza party. See Tom with your $10 if you intend to come to the party.
- Tom Faith had good news that he negotiated with the Knights Hall to pay for the hall rental for the general meetings on a monthly basis starting in January.
New Business:
- Discuss judging needs for BuffCon 37.
- Discuss vendor participation for BuffCon 37.
Questions from the floor.
Table discussion: Members tell the club about the models they have on the tables.
Break: 10 minutes.
- Tom Faith will do a demo on the use of oil pastels.
- Members catch up on what's been going on since the last meeting.
Call for adjournment.
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, November 16th, starting at the usual 7:00pm at the usual
meeting room in the rear building. Here are the safety guidelines we will be following:
If everyone follows these guidelines, we can have a safe meeting. Please consider coming to the meeting to
support your club, and bring your current projects. Hope to see you there!
Our annual collection for Toys for Tots will be held again at the December meeting. Please plan on bringing new, unwrapped toys to that meeting. Representatives of the U.S. Marines will be there as usual to collect our donations. The current plan for the December pizza party is to have members that want to attend contribute $10 per person to help offset the cost. There will be a sign-up sheet at the November meeting to keep track of who has paid. If you would like to attend the pizza party, please bring your $10. Tom Faith will be collecting the money and handling the sign-up sheet. If you can't make the November meeting but want to attend the December meeting/party, please send your $10 to Tom Faith, 7381 Clinton St., Elma, NY 14059 before the December meeting.
Speaking of Toys for Tots, if you are part of an organization that would be interested in supporting the Toys for Tots program, you can find information at Toys for Tots. Click on the "Get Involved / Volunteer" link on the menu at the top of the screen.
Member Jeff Belling will be bringing a collection of books for sale to the November meeting. They are mostly aircraft related, but include some WWII history and some cars. All are $2 each or three for $5. The books are from the collection of deceased member Frank DelRusso.
We are saddened to report that Roc City (Rochester IPMS) member Jim Incavo passed away on October 19th. Jim was well known to many IPMS Niagara Frontier members, and attended our shows regularly. He will be missed.
A number of our fellow club members had a successful outing to the Syracuse model show Syrcon on October
17th. Award winners included:
Cleveland Scale Model Show 2021
After Action Report
by Frank Blonski
It was a beautiful Sunday morning, sunny with a little nip in the air. A perfect day to take a journey down the 90 to Kirkland OH, it was a little less than a 3-hour tour, arriving about 10:30 am. As we approached our destination we saw a sea of cars filling the parking lot. Oh boy, this place looks packed; fortunately, a space was found in front of the main entrance. 10 bucks for unlimited entries and 3 bucks for general admission, you know it's going to be packed.
As we approached the line of people out the door waiting to enter their models, we noticed many people were leaving with bags of kits and wares. I thought to myself, there must be some great deals here. Oh my God, what I am missing, if I could only get through this line. I couldn't wait to see the vendors. Finally, I got through registration; okay, let's get to the contest room. I turn the corner and I see the vendors down the hall on both sides of the aisle. What is going on here? Overflow with 93 vendors tables that's what. I located my categories and placed my models on the table. It was hard to find an open spot, but I got them all in. I see several club members have entered the show as well. The tables are full of great-looking pieces with most of the categories chocked full. They had an enormous amount of automotive entries; some were outstanding. The contest had a lot of stiff competition, with many great-looking pieces on the tables. Their official count was 568; Steve Weller did a Dave Bailey count close to 700 - both are new records for Cleveland. They had very sharp-looking award plaques for 1st through 3rd, and even nicer ones for the Best-of and special awards. The judging was a little slow, but with all these entries that would be expected.
They also had a great raffle with a ton of kits, tools, and accessories. 20 bucks got you an arm's length, which was well worth it for the several kits I won and probably will never build.
Our club was represented by Tom Faith, Dick Schulenburg, Rich Bernecki, Steve Weller, Bernie Blonski, and me. Congratulations to all the winners that entered models in the show. During the award ceremony, someone named "Sam Adams" got called several times. After a while, I started getting thirsty and got thinking about a cold glass of beer, I don't know why! Weird!
All in all, Cleveland put on a great show like always, and it was well worth the trip.
Photo galleries from the Rochester and Syracuse shows will be posted to the IPMS Niagara Frontier website soon.
The BuffCon 37 website is now up, and can be viewed HERE.
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 the 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.
The Links page on the club website has recently been updated with information contributed by members. If you have a favorite website for modeling info, forums, etc., email the information to larryo@ipmsniagarafrontier.com.
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 30+ attending each monthly meeting. Our club meets at 7:00pm on the third Tuesday 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 2021 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 11th - President Mike Butry led the meeting, held online via Zoom.
John Doerr sent in some photos of a couple of his model aircraft. The first is a Mitsubishi A6M2,
an old model that he has not displayed before.
John's second model is a 1/72 scale Hobby Boss Bf 109 E3, that he back-dated to an E1 in the
fall of 1939 camo scheme.
Bruce Mathes sent in a photo of his old Airfix 1/7nd scale Bristol Bulldog fighter kit. He said
"I built it after watching the movie 'Reach For the Sky', the story of Douglas Bader, the RAF pilot
that flew after losing both legs crashing a Bulldog. This one actually has his exact markings when he
crashed in the '30s trying to show off. Note the electric guitar E strings used for rigging the thing.
It only took me just about one hour to totally rig the model. I pre-drill locating holes for all the
wires, then I just take a piece of wire and cut & check until it fits in the holes and place a drop
of white glue in them and that's IT! It's now no big deal to rig biplanes."
John Doerr had a Hobby Boss 1/72 Bf110C on the table. He used Polly S RLM-02 and RLM-65 paints,
along with Tamiya Black-Gray for finishing. John said there were no details to the interior, and he
had to cut out and glue the instrument panel decals. He also added an MG-17. John said it was an
easy build of his favorite subject.
Dick Schulenberg brought in three new models. The first was a Heller 1/24 Renault 4CV, 1955 model.
He built it out-of-box, with Vallejo Model Air paint over Tamiya fine gray primer. Dick said there
were no issues with the build, which surprised him. He said the hardest thing was picking the exterior
color without asking his wife, as this was a surprise present for her; he was "close". Dick's wife's
first car was a '57 4CV, identical to the '55. It was a gift from her uncle for high school graduation
in 1964 - she loved it and drove it for years. It had a 19HP 4 cylinder engine with a 3 on the floor.
Four college friends lifted it up and put it on the sidewalk to "surprise" her. This was Dick's first
car model.
Dick's second model was a Hasegawa 1/72 F9F-8 Cougar in progress. He used Resin Art wheels and nose,
an Obscureco resin ejection seat, and finished it with Vallejo Model Air and Model Color paints over
Tamiya fine gray spray can primer. Dick said the build had no issues except for his own carelessness.
He broke off the nose gear and had to make a replacement from brass rod and the wheel and scissors from
the kit gear. Dick said Navy Blue is his current theme, along with everything else that catches his fancy.
Dick's final item was an AZ Models 1/72 P-26A, finished with Polly Scale Blue 23 acrylic brushed,
and Polly Scale Yellow 4 sprayed over Tamiya fine white spray can primer. He used a mix of Starfighter
resin and kit parts for the interior; a Starfighter hatch, engine and prop; and scratch gunsight,
antenna mast and exhausts. Dick said the usual short run fits needed some adjusting, but nothing really
concerning. He mentioned that he still has PE rigging to do which is a bit worrisome. Dick said he has
liked P-26s since he was a kid, and saw the Jo Koltura painting of one on the cover of Model Airplane
News in 1957. He has five more to go in 1/72. He also mentioned that the decals are from Starfighter
Decals, and they took 4 days to get them on just to avoid any damage as he went.
Jim Greenfield brought in a work-in-progress, a Revell Patrol Gunboat USS Ashville in 1/131 scale.
He's used Citadel paints so far, and is adding an interior to the turret of the bridge. Jim said it's
an old kit, and it's something different.
Larry Osolkowski brought in four items. The first was the current state of his 1/43 Merit Benetton
B-186 F1 race car. The body is pretty much done, but the front suspension assembly is fighting him.
Larry's second item was the progress on bits and pieces of the 1/25 AMT Bobby Unser Penske PC-6.
Progress has been made on the tub and suspension bits - the front upper suspension arms are painted in
Alclad polished aluminum; the seat had the molded seat belts removed and was painted semi-gloss black,
and the engine and various other bits have been primed and painted.
Larry also had a project he's working on with Ilya Grinberg. It's a 1/72 Russian civilian vehicle,
and Ilya asked him to give it a nice gloss black paint job. The kit is 3D-printed resin, and in spite
of lots of priming and sanding, printing lines are still visible so more work is required.
Larry's last item was a Tamiya 1/20 Red Bull RB6 F1 race car. He said he's collected a variety of
detail sets over a period of a few years, and recently added a Studio 27 patterned carbon fiber decal
set that was re-released. Larry also has a few different versions of Red Bull metallic blue, and
tried them out on plastic spoons.
Paul Hines displayed two new car models. The first was a 1968 Dodge Dart with a Hemi engine, set
up for drag racing.
Paul's second model was a late '60s Chevy Nova made into a gasser drag car. He said he modified
the front suspension, cut off the front bumper and scratch-built the exhausts. Paul said he had some
issues with the parachute and arresting cable. He mentioned that both cars have extensive engine
detailing added, including spark plug wires, heater hoses, radiator overflow lines and battery wires.
Al Germann brought in his finished AMT 1/25 289 Cobra, and displayed it next to a scale brick
wall that he made from insulation foam. He had extra foam pieces available for anyone that wanted
some.
Tim Grieve had two models on display. The first was a Revell 1/72 Fw 190F-8 with BV246
"Hagelkorn". He used a variety of Model Color paints, and added some detail parts from an Eduard
set. He mentioned that if you use an Eduard set, look ahead to see what parts it replaces before
you seal the wing together. Tim said the model has an interesting flying bomb that looks like a
sailplane.
Tim's second model was an Academy 1/72 OV-10A, finished with Model Master paints. He added
wire antennas, and otherwise had no issues with the build. Tim said the kit had very good
instructions, and he always liked the layout of this aircraft.
Maryann Germann displayed a new woodburning picture of a late '30s Chevy in a field.
Maryann also showed us her 1/12 Wingnut figure, a bust of a Wizard with Owl. It took a
3rd place at the Rochester show.
Justin Sczepczenski brought in his Bandai RGM-089 Jegah figure. He used paints from Tamiya,
Mr. Hobby, Mig, AK, Alclad II and artist oils. Justin added photoetch details, scribed panel
details, LED lights, a custom base, and 3D-printed to scale soldiers. Weathering was added
using oil streaking, paint chipping with fluid, a brush and a sponge, washes, pigments, a
soldering iron for physical damage, and an airbrush for dust effects. He mentioned that the
pads for the shoulders had to be trimmed to get the full range of motion, and the gun needed
some seam removal work. Justin picked the subject on a challenge from a friend for a build-off,
and he said he threw everything he had at it. The results were worth it: "I was shocked that at
Syrcon I took 1st in class, Best Sci Fi and Best In Show. I was truly humbled and honored to
have earned that." Nice work, Justin!
Steve Weller displayed his Airfix 1/76 M4 Sherman tank, finished with Vallejo and Tamiya
paints. Steve added a guitar string antenna, and weathering with washes & pastels and a fine
point marker. He mentioned that this was "the worst kit I ever finished. Nothing fits - not
hatches or much else, treads won't take any glue - finally fused them in place with gobs of
catalyzed super glue. Steve always wanted a pink Sherman (weathered British Desert Sand). Be
careful what you wish for. The model did take a 3rd place at Syrcon.
Mike Butry had good results at both Rocon and Syrcon. At the Rochester show, Mike took:
Out of the box: 1/48th Bf-109G6 - 1st; Soft Skin: 1/35th armored Jeep - 2nd; 1/48th armor:
Universal Carrier w/ 3.7 PaK - 2nd. At the Syracuse show, Mike took: Out of the box: 1/48th
Bf-109G6 - 2nd; Soft Skin: 1/35th armored Jeep - 1st; 1/48th armor: Universal Carrier w/3.7
PaK - 1st.
Bob Butry also scored some trophies at Rocon and Syrcon. At the Rochester show, Bob took:
Out of the box: 1/48th F-86D - 3rd, 1/48th TBM-3 - 2nd; Civilian aircraft: NASA F-104 - 3rd;
Axis 1/72nd: Ki-61 Tony - 2nd. At the Syracuse show, Bob took: Out of box: 1/48th F-86D - 3rd;
Axis 1/72nd: Ki-61 Tony - 2nd.
There were a number of other models on the tables along with their awards from Rocon and
Syrcon.
Finally, some around-the-room shots.
Photos provided by Larry Osolkowski.
