September 2015 Meeting Minutes

We kicked off the meeting and Rob Morales ran the slide show. One notable discussion point was the upcoming campaign by the Chattanooga IPMS Club to secure the upcoming IPMS National Convention. The target date is either 2018 or 2019. As the Executive Board discussed at our recent lunch meeting, we as a club need to lend our support to this effort, as is the Atlanta club. Additionally, the Atlanta club is asking for our support for the 2016 Atlanta Show. Again, the board has committed our full support for this effort.

Kevin Westphal joined us to display an abundance of new products that hit the shelves at HTUSA this month. (I had to get the ANZACs and Gurkahs!)

New Kits:

Scale	Manufacturer	Model	Cost
144	Roden	Lockheed Jetstar Presidential	24
48	Revell	Stearman Areobatic	17
35	ICM	Panhard 178	50
520	AMT	USS Akron/Macon Dirigible	28
48	Encore	A-37B Dragonfly	40
35	Tamiya	Panther D	50
35	Dragon	UH-1D Huey	60
35	ICM	Gurkha Infantry 1944/45	16
35	ICM	ANZAC 1915/16	16
35	Bronco	Panzerflammwagen II	54
35	Dragon	Tiger 131	80
35	Meng	T-10M	90
35	Trumpeter	BMP-2D	60
Book	Valiant	Workbench Aircraft Modeling Guide	17
Book	Valiant	D Day to VE Day	17

Show and Tell Models:

Scale	Manufacturer	Model	Modeler
72	Historic Wings vacuform	AS57 Airspeed Ambassador British European Airways	Crawley
72	Rareplanes vacuform	Vought SB2U-1 Vindicator USS Saratoga VB-3 (WIP)	Pezold
48	Hobby Boss	F4F-3S Wildcatfish Prototype	Scruton
35	ESCI/ERTL	LAV-25 Command Vehicle USMC (WIP)	Litavis
Box	Lindbergh	Fleet Submarine USN WWII	Heil
72	Glencoe/Airfix kitbash	WWII Subchaser (WIP)	Heil
48	Academy	North American F-86E Sabre 334th FIS USAF Lt Chuck Cleveland (WIP)	Beam
32	Czech Models modification	Lockheed T-33/TV-2 twin-tail prototype (WIP)	Murray
48	Eduard	Messerschmitt ME-109 (WIP)	Grzenia
72	Hasegawa	General Dynamics F-16B Fighting Falcon 177 FW NJANG (WIP)	Morales
72	Heller	SAAB 35 Draken Royal Danish Air Force 725 Sqn	Young
+/- 32	SMT Resin/AMT kitbash	TIE Bomber (Empire Strikes Back)	Goode

We kicked off the show and tell with Paul Crawley’s latest civil aircraft creation. Paul tackled the Historic Wings AS57 Airspeed Ambassador in 1/72 scale. He added scratch-built components such as the cockpit, passenger entry, engines and landing gear bays. He added metal rod wing spars to strengthen the assembly. Paired with a photo-etch set of passenger stairs by Aircraft In Miniature, Paul’s Ambassador in British European Airways livery is parked on a Max’s Models base and awaiting Preiser passengers.

Another modeler who appreciates challenging builds is Buz Pezold. Buz had his in-progress Vought Vindicator SB2U-1 dive bomber in 1/72 scale. This is the Rareplanes vacuform with a scratch-built interior wheel wells and more. Buz also incorporated an Engine & Things engine, Aeroclub propeller and MPM photo-etch parts. He is aiming to replicate a dive bomber of VB-3 from the U.S.S. Saratoga, CV-3 circa 1938.

Keeping a NAVAIR theme going was Keith Scruton. Keith brought in a Hobby Boss 1/48 scale Grumman F4F-S Wildcatfish. This was a trial development during early WW2 to supplement the floatplane fleet with a better fighting airframe. There was only one built, and Keith replicated a worn finish by fading, washes and Prismacolor Silver pencils.

From the air and sea to the land with the U.S. Marine Corps, Gary Litavis brought his work-in-progress LAV-25 Command vehicle in 1/35 scale. He used the ESCI-ERTL LAV Coyote kit (with its reputation as a “poor” kit) which Gary assembled nicely. He plans on camouflaging it in the standard NATO Tri-Color scheme.

Fred Heil had a few naval subjects to share this month. First up was in in-progress WWII Subchaser conversion. This kit-bash of the Glencoe Subchaser and the Airfix Air/Sea Rescue Boat in 1/72 scale includes plenty of scratch-building. Some added items are depth charge racks, ammo lockers, midship gun platform and railings. Fred is modeling the ship after one in Squadron’s Sub Chaser book.

Fred did have his completed Lindbergh Fleet Sub on display as well. Although no specific class of boat is indicated, the kit is reminiscent of a Gato-class WW2 sub. Fred added some white metal 20MM guns on the conn gun deck and sprue to detail railings, deck guns, torpedo tube doors and sonar and radio antennae. Fred references Squadron’s U.S. Subs In Action book for this build.

New member Larry Beam brought an in-progress build of Academy’s F-86 in quarter-scale. Larry has done some modification to model an “E” model of the Sabre. She will be displayed in flight with a clear resin rod support placed in the exhaust. Larry is building the kit for a friend, Korean War ace Chick Cleveland.

Art Murray continues to make strong progress on his Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star Twin Tail prototype. Aside from his earlier progress with the canopy rails, Art scratch-built the twin tail section and added a resin cockpit, tailpipe and wing tip tanks. The prototype was constructed to improve the aircraft’s stability. The tests were successful but not enough to justify full production.

Mark Grzenia has started another quarter-scale single-engined fighter. This time he’s building a Messerschmitt Me-109-E4 from the Eduard Profi-pack series. The kit includes a beautiful DB engine that refuses to be closed under the cowling. As he states,’ Lots of cussing at difficult assemblies”. He will finish this as a Battle of Britain fighter.

Tom Rice brought an older finished kit. He built the Tamiya 1/350 scale U.S.S. New Jersey. The kit represents the Iowa-class battleship in her 1980’s configuration with the deletion of some secondary 5” and 40mm Anti-aircraft guns and the addition of Tomahawk missile launchers. Tom added a Star Wars 1/350 TIE fighter to the helo deck to spice things up too!

Rob Morales had his in-progress General Dynamics F-16B Fighting Falcon. This 1/72 scale kit from Hasegawa represents a Block-25 Falcon as flown by the 177^th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard. He was able to find Repli-scale decals for the kit and hopes to represent one of the wing’s fighters that he trained with in 1989 for ground support.

James Young continued the one-true-scale mission with his 1/72 scale Saab Draken. This delta wing fighter was built with the Heller kit. James replicated a worn paint finish as seen on the green Drakens of the Royal Danish Air Force. The decals came from Model Decal.

We have the pleasure of introducing a new member this month! Doug Goode is a Florida native and recent transplant to the area from Baton Rouge, LA. Doug models many different types of subjects and was very involved in the Baton Rouge IPMS club. He brought a 1/48 scale TIE Bomber. The original kit was the AMT Darth Vader TIE with AMT Resin TIE Bomber fuselage. He used Tamiya paints to finish this conversion. We are looking forward to Doug’s participation and future builds!

Mark Grzenia won the gift certificate, and Paul Crawley’s Airspeed Ambassador was the Model of the Month for September.

Our next meeting will be on Saturday, October 17 at 1 P.M. We will be meeting in the Game Room (venue change) for this meeting.