...or News from the Nameless One
Let me start out this month's Dizpatch by putting a huge "well done" out there to our brothers in Rochester. As a good number of you know (since you were there,) ROCON 32 was a blast. At my unofficial count, 20 of our guys (and girls) were able to attend. With that, about 30 awards went home in the gritty, X-Acto-scarred mitts of BuffCon Boys. One BuffCon Boy in particular, Paul Hines, went home with a beautiful and well deserved Best of Show for his USS Constitution. Congrats, Paul!
Thanks again to the Rochester gang. We had a great time as usual!
Speaking of shows, Syrcon is coming up Oct 16th. There will be several of us attending. If you can, please check it out and help support the Syracuse gang. They are great supporters of us and great friends as well.
Our next meeting will be Oct. 17th at 7PM in our usual haunt (see me work that Halloween reference in there,) the Harlem Road Community Center basement. On hand this month, we will be doing a gap-filling demo. Frank Blonski will revisit his "Really Good Goo" method, John Zaranek will show his putty method, and I will show a basic Zap-A-Gap/CA method. Finally, David Schwab will feature a new method that he figured out using Gator Glue. This should be pretty interesting.
On the topic of demos: As I'm sure you are all aware, the space that we meet in is very acoustically "lively." Even low level discussion travels pretty far with disruptive results. This is something that we, as a club, have been trying to figure out how to work around and adjust for. Couple this with a growing membership and a bunch of folks that haven't seen each other for some time and want to catch-up and the result is: "GUYS KEEP IT DOWN, PLEASE!"
This month for the "Around the Table" portion and the demo, we ask that all of the side conversations stay in the pool table area (Hey, we pay for the space, why not use it?) Meanwhile, the demo will be held at the opposite end of the room near the coffee pot. The lighting is a bit better there I think anyhow.
So, I ask for everyone's cooperation on this one. Not only should this help with the meeting, but it will help Bob Raithel decode what is recorded for his monthly table write-up. I've heard his play-back and sometimes its really tough to make out what is being said about the models on the table.
Thanks in advance, guys! Our next e-board meeting will be 7pm Oct 24th at Paul Hines' house.
See you soon!
Justen Hanna
President
IPMS Niagara Frontier
IPMS USA #45680
Notes from the September 2011 Meeting
The moderator for the September model table round-up was John Zaranek.
Paul Hines started things off with his award-winning USS Constitution model. The 1/96
scale kit was manufactured by Revell/Monogram. Paul used Flo-Quil paints, and textured the
planking on the deck by scoring it with a razor saw and giving the painted deck an oil wash
to bring out the texture. He discarded the kit's rigging hardware in favor of scratch-building
the parts. He also tied the rat lines individually by hand. Paul would go on to take the "Best
of Show" award with this model at the Rocon Show.
Dave Armitage displayed an HO scale "Klein's Pharmacy" model. It is mostly out of the box
except for the tar-paper on the roof and the pictures in the window. The kit is made from
Laser-cut wood and soft metal casting. Dave added pigeon droppings to the roof. Nice touch!
But that's not all! Dave showed a well-done display of the USS Huntley as shown in a
photograph from the Civil War. Dave scratch built the decking and used a part of the actual
photographic image as part of the background. The ship is a Verlinden model and the figures
are metal and from Carolina Miniatures. The ship is one solid piece of resin.
Dave also brought a wooden catapult kit from Academy. The miniature siege weapon took
Dave about half an hour to assemble. In addition to all this, Dave brought a caisson model,
a 3 inch ordinance rifle, a battery forge, and a Parrot rifle in 1/16 scale. Dave installed
lights in the caisson to give the illusion of the coal glowing. The cannon kits are from Model
Shipways. Always a prolific modeler, Dave also had a damaged World War 2 village diorama.
The featured building is Verlinden's Ruined Church. Dave added a scratch-built altar and books
along with HO scale bits. The ground work is done with a spice called 'summer savory.' The
figures are a combination of resin and metal figures.
Mark Gadek brought a Revell 1/32 scale Arado 96 float plane. He says it was a nice kit for
the low price and it went together well. He spend a week on the main part of the plane and
another week just on the canopies. Mark says the canopies were lop-sided on the sprue and were
a real pain to assemble and paint. Another problem was putting the correct weights in the front
of the floats so the model would sit properly. Still, an impressive model!
Jacob Gadek showed his very nicely painted Revell "Mummy." Jacob used different shades of
sand and grey-green for the mummy's head to produce the finish. A wash brought out the details.
A really outstanding figure model!
John Zachritz had a pack of four Velociraptors from Lindberg. These were the first models
that John did extensive ground work on, using static grass and other materials. The results
are convincing and the paint schemes are imaginative. John also brought a B-117 cockpit to which
he added an alien Star Wars pilot.
John Zaranek showed a 1/72 scale Hobby Boss Royal Navy Lynx helicopter. John added the
markings for the Antarctic research ship HMS Endurance. He added masking tape seat belts to
the out of box model and lead weight to keep the nose down.
John Doerr is fascinated with the Guadalcanal campaign and he brought a trio of ships
from that battle. He brought the USS Laffley in 1/350 scale, and the North Carolina in 1/350
as well. The models were all brush painted with washes. John plans to complete his collection
of every class warship involved in the conflict.
Eric Hillebrand displayed his Krupp Proetz in 1/35 scale from Tamiya on a beautifully
done diorama base. The display was accessorized with the Italieri city gate and the ground
work was made from Celluclay, static grass and cat litter.
A desert pink B-24 Liberator called "Lady Be Good" in 1/72 scale from Mini-Craft was brought
in by Anthony Aquisto, who reports that he had some problems with removing and replacing
inaccurate decals for the model. Using the Italieri decals, he was able to correct this. He took
seven months to complete the kit as some kit-bashing to correct inaccuracies was required. The
paint color, MFS 31575, is no longer commercially available and he mixed it himself.
Frank Blonski showed a 1/25 scale Batmobile from Round Two. The model is pre-painted.
Larry Osolkowski showed a partially assembled Tamiya Honda Accord. When completed, the
car will be almost completely covered in decals. Larry gave the body a coat of Tamiya white
primer, followed by Tamiya white and then he polished it to give a quick gloss finish. The
model will be an out-of-box project.
Joe Szcziegelski displayed a 1/35 scale Up Armored Humvee from Bronco. Joe finished it
in an early camouflage version and has fully detailed the interior. He added a scratch built
sparks system to the front of the model. The Rhino IED detection system was added as well.
A 1923 American LaFrance Steam engine was brought by Ray Weick, intended to have the
model finished for the Niagara Air Show.
A small collection of patches was shared by Brian McFee. They include the 301st, the
332nd, and (and then things got too noisy for me to hear... sorry Brian.)
Steve Weller brought a collection of paper model ship kits. The USS California will be
over three feet long when finished! Steve also brought a book of photos of World War 2 ships.
As always, thanks to Bob Collignon for the photography.
Renewal of our Special Offer for All IPMS Niagara Frontier Members for 2011 - 2012
We had another good year at BuffCon so the Executive Board has determined that we
can extend our special IPMS USA national membership support offer for a third year,
through the end of April 2012.
We will rebate ½ of the cost for a one-year membership to IPMS USA for new national
memberships and renewals. The tangible benefit to this membership is 6 bimonthly copies
of the excellent modeling publication IPMS Journal.
Adult memberships are $25.00 per year and Juniors (17 years old and under) are $12.00,
so your rebates are $12.50 and $6.00 respectively.
You complete and submit the application (you can get one from Dave Schwab) along with
your payment directly to IPMS USA or do it on line at the
National website.
You will receive a membership card in the mail a few weeks later.
To get your rebate, you just have to show your current IPMS USA member card to Dave
Schwab and he will give you money. How simple is that?
The E-Board encourages everyone to take advantage of this offer. It's a good way to
get your feet wet and see what IPMS USA is all about.
