Welcome!

TO PAUSE BULLETIN - PLACE MOUSE POINTER OVER THE SCROLLING MESSAGE BOX

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Member Interviews: President Gordon Cheung




Meet Gordon Cheung: As part of an internet presence over ten years ago your humble narrator extended a cordial invitation to Gordon to check out a BPMS meeting. He’s been a committed member and put into service under various positions ever since. Before we get to his illustrious career within The Club, we need to tell the tale of our 39 year-old president. 

As a lifelong Queens resident, Gordon is currently employed as an accounts receivable specialist at a prestigious Long Island university for over ten years. He has distinguished himself at work for his ability to embrace new technology and put it to good use, saving time and hours. His knack for tech drew him, like many in the hobby, to the internet for research.

Models weren’t anything new to Gordon as his earliest hobby experience was during his childhood when his father bought him a kit of the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard. I wonder how much that model is worth now since the show has been pulled from various networks last year? But I digress, when they got that kit home, his dad observed how complex the kit was and put it aside until he could find someone who could help his son with this. Undeterred, Gordon found the hidden model and built it on his own. A modeler was born! After that he kept it up, building mostly snaps at first, then more complicated glue together models, he started painting his work during his middle and high school years. When the maturity of college came around, Gordon started becoming more serious about the hobby. Like many of us, his skills improved through various books and magazines that he devoured for knowledge. Then the internet brought a wealth of information to everyone’s fingertips. At that point he learned expert skills that allowed him to build at the level of precision that he does today.

 Gordon is a disciplined hobbyist, keeping his model-world contained within his own bedroom. From there he builds largely science fiction models with a preference for the Gundam Universe. His favorite model must be the Master Grade Gundam RX-78-2 version 1.5 from Bandai. It was a model that represented the robot that spawned the entire series. What’s more, the model was the start of those complex kits from Bandai designed to assemble perfectly. It would really bring him joy if Bandai would add some more kits from WAR IN THE POCKET as they only had two offerings from that series.

Despite recent advances, Gordon believes the hobby has many challenges. The high prices for models are discouraging young people from entering the hobby. Couple that with the way technology has a grip on younger people (between social media and video games), it’s an uphill battle to encourage young model builders.

In a couple months Gordon will finish up his two-year term as President of the BPMS. At that time he would like to resume his previous role of posting photos from the various club contests on the Photo Blog and Facebook page. He might even have time for his other diversions, such as archery and video games. Regardless, his heart is with The Club: I have not met a more laid back scale hobby club then the BPMS!

Bulletin: October 2016


BPMS 
Bulletin 
by Bobby B2 Blue Pokorny 

SEPTEMBER was a light meeting. The traffic was pretty rough, so it might’ve been a factor. We had 20 members and no guests who brought in 16 models. 

September Meeting 

BASIC SKILLS: Joe Bergman and Joe Barrett gave the group some very useful pointers on early stage building and priming despite the lack of time. Thanks guys! 

New Member: Tom Govia attended three meetings and showed us some armor he built so voted him into The Club. Welcome to the fold! 

HVHMG 2016: The BPMS will be sponsoring the Award For Best Aircraft at the IPMS Mid-Hudson Show. The show will be on October 22 at the Elks Club Lodge in Poughkeepsie, NY. See hvhmg.org for details. 

Holiday Luncheon: While it might be early to put in a reservation, it’s never too early to save the date. The group agreed to return to 
Nora’s Park Bench CafĂ©
3019 Quentin Rd
Brooklyn, NY 11234 
718-376-0033 
on Saturday, December 3, around noon. 

RAFFLE: We had quite a sizable raffle this month. We’ll likely have another for October. 

On the agenda: October 

NOMINATIONS: Prez Gordon and Veep Joe have put in their two years of service. It’s time to shake up those seats up front. Who will ascend to the throne? 

MODEL PLEDGES: I hope you’ve been working on your models all year because this is the meeting you get the pay off. Simply bring in your Pledge Model, regardless of completion or not. If you got the job done you will get a bonus FIVE Super Raffle tickets in November! 

SUPER RAFFLE: The Super Raffle is in November, but you might want to start looking through your stacks for items you may want to donate. Thanks in advance! 

Meeting Date:
October 21, 2016

Same time,
Same place!
See you there!