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Fifteen people attended.
There's a group build at Pier 57, in Manhattan (11 Ave & W15 St) Saturday, 9/5/26, in the Seahorse classroom, from 1-6 pm. This first-class venue is accessible by public transit, spacious, well lit, and free. Thanks to Julio for arranging it.
Lou reports Kinetics' 1/48 F-16 D (Thunderbirds markings), three Israeli F-16s (Sufa, Brakeet, and Barak), and three Mig 17s (Chinese, East German, and USAF markings) are available.
The theme for September's in-person meeting is Build Big. Frank C is working on a C-5A, and Michael C is working on a (very) large scale 3D printed AT-AT. It'll be interesting to see what else shows up.
Last Friday, IPMS Region 1 Coordinator Mark, a regular at our Zoom meetings, made the long drive from Hudson Valley to present the R1Member of the Year Award to Julio and the R1 Chapter of the Year and Website of the Year Awards to BPMS. On Tuesday, he shared photos of Friday's meeting, said some nice things about the BPMS organization, the people he got to meet, and the quality of pizza in Brooklyn. Too bad there wasn't enough time to teach him how to properly fold a slice. But seriously, we appreciate the visit and hope he comes back.
We saw Mark's MINI-Cooper (painted with acrylic pens), Erasmo's Twin Mustang, Macchi C-200, RF -101, A 7E, Fokker E. III and Yak-38 (a three-year build), Vaughn's Skycrane and extensively converted B-26 aircrew, Michael C's 20" high AT-AT, Kevin's Inspector Kemp ( from Young Frankenstein), Gil's 3D printed Thunderbird 4, Frank C's English Electric Lightning and C-5A and Russ' Huey Cobra.
Lots of acquisitions - a metal template for cutting thin strips of tape or foil, masks from TopNotch Masks, figure sets from D DAY Miniature Studio, and Moon Monster bust.
Gil showed us different tools for removing stuck jar and tube caps - silicone grippers designed for specific hobby paint bottles, adjustable jar openers from MicroMark and others, and grippers for opening tubes of paint.
On the question of who has the best instructions and why, Tamiya, Ryefield, Meng and Fujimi were favorites for use of color to show progression, understandable paint callouts, clear assembly sequences, and pamphlets with a history of the prototype. Kevin said that garage kits don't always have instructions and sometimes they don't even include a picture or sketch of the completed model. The lack of instructions in Edouard's Overtree line doesn't bother Hugh because they're available online. Michael C found a good example of a bad instruction sheet. The instructions for Kangam's 1/400 Tirpitz may be confusing, but they make it very clear that you shouldn't eat or suck the pieces.
The next meeting is Tuesday, 9/1/26, at 7:30 pm. Invites to follow. Don't show up chewing the wing of a model airplane unless, of course, you're King Kong.
Hi all,
Two little points re: mentions at the Zoom meeting. Michael was asked about the scale of his ATAT. He responded that there was none listed.
The sci-fi geek in me too a look and the "accepted height of an ATAT is 74 ft. Michael said the model is about 20 in. so that works out to 1:44 in scale. I meant to mention it when I had the floor, but forgot. :/
There is a free ware app called Scale Master that will instantly calculate a model size, scale, subjects, and also a scale conversion. Nice little app for your desk top.
Secondly, Mark showed a nice little vignette from the Nationals, and there was a few comments on it. FYI and FWIW they are called box dioramas popularized by the late great Shep Paine. There is a website dedicated to it - https://www.boxdioramas.com/
. Looking thru the site goes to prove that it's not only to highlight figures. The maintainers of the website also do a semi-regular podcast called Small Subjects. A very informative show (even with one of them has a very annoying laugh, IMHO). ;) https://smallsubjects. buzzsprout.com/?mc_cid= 2c824d7fa4&mc_eid=d0143b1bb6 Have a good weekend everyone!
KevK~
