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.

August 2015 Meeting Minutes

Marietta Scale Modelers IPMS August 2015 Meeting Minutes

Meeting was held at Hobbytown USA Kennesaw on August 8, 2015. We kicked off at 1300 (1:00 P.M.) with 22 members on hand, a great turnout for a hot summer’s day. There were 10 models on the tables, which seems low but the quality was there (along with a few sizeable pieces…)

Dave kicked off the presentation with some pictures presented by Jim Pernikoff of the displays at Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection of aircraft and armor in Everett, WA. Allen is one of the co-founders of Microsoft and has amassed a nice collection of running airplanes and tanks.

An post-Nationals rundown was next. Nearly a dozen members made the trek to Columbus, OH, with Paul Crawley and Mike Idacavage collecting awards for their models.

Kevin Westphal of HTUSA had a nice bounty of new items from the store shelves:

Manufacturer	Subject	Scale	$ MSRP
Revell Germany	FW190 F8	32	124
Tamiya	Mosquito FB Mk IV	32	215
Moebius	Interstellar Ranger	72	32
Mirror	US Recovery Tractor/Bulldozer	35	75
Moebius	Ford 1971 Ranger pickup	24	32
Glencoe	Thor ICBM	87	30
Eduard	Spitfire Mk 16 (two kits)	48	75
ICM	Dornier 215	48	45
Mirror	Diamond T Wrecker	35	75
AMT	Beech Staggerwing	48	24
Squadron	F-4 Phantom II in Action	N/A	20
Valiant Wings	D-Day to VE Day Air Battle over Europe	N/A	14

Looking ahead to upcoming events, on September 12, a Warbird display will be at Peachtree Dekalb Airport. Wings over North Georgia Airshow takes place on October 3-4 in Rome with the F-18 and F-22 solo flight displays and Falcon Field in Peachtree City will host the Blue Angels on Oct 31-Nov 1.

For less noisy gatherings, IPMS Huntsville has its annual show on Sept 26 and IPMS Arm/Air in Salisbury NC goes on Oct 17. Murfreesboro TN holds its show on Nov 7, and the ACME Southern NNL contest will be in Smyrna on Nov 14. That’s it locally until January at Chattanooga.

Member John Vallrugo, a Colonel in the USAF, shared with us some images he took during his summer “vacation” (read Deployment). John and his unit won an all-expenses paid trip to Spangdahlem Air Base near Trier Germany, with deluxe accommodations in a KC-135. As a guy who is used to traveling across the Atlantic in Delta’s Business Class, I cannot say I was envious! At least he had a few days to explore the Rhineland. Thanks for your service, John!

Mike Idacavage had a few tools he purchased from vendor UMM at the Columbus Nats. One was the Hand Sanding bar around which one wraps sandpaper to facilitate any sanding task. The other item was the Detail Sander, which features a small area to apply self adhesive sandpaper in the end of what looks like a sanding tool.

On to the models on display! McLean Gilbert not only builds military subjects, but he also has somewhat of a model railroad collection. Mac has his “O” Scale (1/48 for modelers…) railroad engine house. He was given a Polar Express locomotive by his wife and needed to properly store it. This was built initially with the Atlas kit, to which Mac added lights, a base, an interior and a loading dock to bring it to life. Mac used basswood for the extra details and painted it in Model Master colors.

Gregory Dyar brought in a memory from my past. Greg had a Me110 Zerstorer in 1/72 scale. He built Monogram’s kit OOB with Micro Scale decals and Model Master paints. Another great job on an old friend.

John Vallrugo also specializes in some of the vintage 72^nd scale aircraft. He presented Heller’s Saab J-21A. He scratch built the cockpit and finished it in Model Master paints. This type was the first combat aircraft with an ejection seat. Another very nice build from John,

Mike Idacavage has a couple of in-progress works. He is continuing progress on the DLM SA-9 Gaskin Anti-aircraft missile vehicle. He has added wiring for the missiles using thin wires based on pictures of prototypes.

Mike also is starting a space project. The subject is the Sigma 7 Mercury Spacecraft. He is using the Revell and Real Space Connections kits and details to model the capsule in flight. Mike is modeling the craft to represent astronaut Wally Schirra’s mission.

Paul Crawley finished another 1/72 civil conversion, this time an Avro York airliner. Paul used CMR resin conversion kit with Matchbox Lancaster wings to complete this propliner used by Dan-Airas a freighter. Painted with Testors and Alclad, Paul added Preiser figures, a Viking forklift and tug and trailer by Airfix to a Max Models resin base.

Keith Scruton also chose an older kit to demonstrate some advanced painting skill. Keith took the 1/108 scale Revell Tug Boat and added windows which were not included in the kit. To depict a boat he saw beached along the side of the road in Chesapeake, VA, Keith used rust ground into powder from an old steel wool pad along with Model Master paint.

Fred Heil had an in-progress WWI/WWII Subchaser. Fred added parts from 2 Airfix Air-Sea Rescue boats to the 1/74 Glencoe Subchaser. He is converting the kit from a WWI vintage to WWII by detailing the cabin and deck and adding details to the kit 3” Poole Gun.

Gary Litavis completed a KrAZ-255B Russian transport truck. This is the Roden kit in 1/35 scale, to which Gary added a tissue paper tarp roof over the truck body. Painted in Tamiya colors and weathered with Mig pigments, Gary’s 7 ½ ton cargo truck is marked as one from the DDR NVA (German Democratic Republic’s Army).

Dave Lockhart brought in his Berlin Airlift C-47. This old Italert kit in 1/72 scale included some eduard photo etch and Quickboost exhausts. Dave’s paint choice was Model Master and he based the plane on a Verlinden tarmac sheet. Dave used Cutting Edge decals to mark the plane as one of the “Candy Bombers”.

Keith’s tugboat was the Model of the Month. Unfortunately I did not recall the gift card winner for this month.

Next meeting will be held on September 12 at 1:00 PM.