03/25/2021 BPMS Zoom mini meeting report

Fifteen people attended the meeting and they were surprisingly good at Name That Sprue. Any subject, any scale, it didn't matter. Every sprue except one (more later) was identified, Sea Lynx, Jet Ranger, Ekranoplan, Lear Jet, Kingfisher, Typhoon, Avenger, Typhoon, Neanderthal Man, Brumbar, Priest. You get the idea. Maybe we'll see this contest again. One new release reported, Takom's Panther G, early, with zimmerit. In progress and completed work included: MiG 21 bis, Type XXI U-boat, Viggen, Dune Buggy, Metal Earth's Box Car and Gondola, Ford 5 Window Coupe, Galaxie sedan (conversion from Police Interceptor), Fw-189, Junkers G-24, Zeppelin and K Type Blimp (the un-named sprue). Even with that supertanker parked in the Suez Canal, guys are still getting stuff: Border Models' early Tiger 1, Ryefield's Panzer 3 with interior, Legend Productions' Zombie heads, weapons and equipment, Airfix's Spitfire 5C, RS Models' Coudron C-445, Arma's Hurricane Mk 2 B/C and FM-2 Wildcat, ARBA's Ar-581-4, Antares' He-162, Me-262 and Fw-190 Mistel combinations and Academy's pair of T-6 Texans. We heard several helpful hints. Metal leafing glue, intended for gold leaf, can be used to salvage old Bare Metal Foil sheets and Kabuki tape is very good for canopies. And we saw how a jigsaw or a Sawzall can be used to agitate paint bottles and spray cans. You had to see it to understand it. That's why you should join us on 4/1/21 at 8 pm. Invites to follow. hope to see you there.
~Russ

03/18/2021 BPMS Zoom mini meeting report

Sixteen people attended the meeting. Two of them were brothers. If you didn't attend, you'll have to guess who they are. One new release was reported, (Ryefield's) Initial Production Tiger 1, with interior. Too many Tigers? Nah, there's always room for more. In progress and completed work included: WW1 cavalrymen, MiG 21 bis, Challenger 2 with enhanced armor and plow, three submarines (Type VII C, Type XXI and Gato Class), Fokker DR-1, Hawker Hurricane, multiple Pz Kw IVs and T 34s (this will be one heck of a wargame table), (Metal Earth) Caboose, Mad Max Interceptor, Ho 229 and two Me 262 variants. Acquisitions include : (Meng) Super Hornet, (Pj Production) pilots with jhmc helmets, (Master Box) zombie hunter and (Academy) PBY 5A. We heard how tail-heavy solid body aircraft can be balanced by drilling out the body and filling the cavities with Liquid Gravity. We saw the new Revell acrylic paint. Actually, we saw the 18 ml container which looks like a tinlet in a box. Expect a review of the paint in a few weeks. However, we did get a detailed review of PanPastel, soft pastels that can be applied like paint or even in place of paint, Gil's Mad Max Interceptor being a case in point. More durable (and more expensive) than chalk pastels, they work well on flat and gloss finishes and come in a number of colors, including metallics. Thanks, Gil. Our next meeting of is 3/25/21 and it marks ONE YEAR of weekly virtual meetings. The first one was 4/2/20. We'll celebrate the anniversary with "Name That Sprue," a memory contest for modelers. Invites to follow. Hope to see you there. 

 
~Russ

A Visual Guide to the Fake Fleets and Inflatable Armies of World War II

 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wwii-ghost-army

A Salute to Model Making - The Tank Museum

 https://tankmuseum.org/tank-nuts/news-and-articles/a-salute-to-model-making/

03/11/2021 BPMS Zoom Meeting Report

First, many thanks to Frank C. for preparing this report. 

Twelve people attended the March 11 Zoom meeting of the Brooklyn Plastic Modelers Society and showed the Club’s usual variety of pandemic work-in-progress (WIP), plus some interesting tools and insightful techniques. 

 

Mark N. revealed his varied WIP with a 1/35 scale Tamiya R35 French tank, Trumpeter T62 Soviet-era tank with reactive armor, Meng 1/35 Bradley armored personnel carrier, Dragon Hetzer anti-aircraft vehicle, Tamiya Panzer D tank and Meng Rolls Royce armored Car from early WWII North Africa. To add a little variety, Mark is also building a Revell 1/32 Spitfire. Mark showed the group how steel 1-2-3 blocks work like a vise to help align wheels and other vehicle parts.  

 

Frank C. finished his Dragon 1/72 MiG-17 Fresco in Angolan markings with a helpful Cuban conscript figure glued in place to keep the tail-sitting jet fighter on its nose wheel. 

 

From his Connecticut workshop, Gil showed a 1/24 scale Mad Max/Road Warrior interceptor made from the Aoshima kit.  Gil also recommended using plastic parts the Tamiya 400-Grit diamond file made to clean up photoetch.  His tip of the week was that he scans decals sheets from any model over 10 years old to keep a ready-to-print replacement in his decal library.

 

From the not-so-deep South, the always-productive Bob K. showed off an Amiot 351 pre-war French bomber nicely built from the “unbuildable” Mach 2 kit and an Italeri C-47 Dakota finished in olive drab.  Bob also told the club the best way to ensure a totally flat finish with Testors DullCote is to pour off the standing thinner from the bottle and replace it with fresh lacquer.

 

Vaughan continued to make progress on his 1/48 Hasegawa SH-3 helicopter and showed his almost-finished wood model of the America racing schooner with cloth sails rigged by hand. He confided, “I learned how to sew. I now have a sewing machine.” Vaughan also showed how ParaFilm stretch plastic can be used to mask models for painting. 

 

Steve continues his work building 1/72 wargaming tanks to represent the Battle of Kursk in mid-summer 1943. He showed how simple Pegasus T34s can be spruced up with generic sandbags, tools, and stowage items from Value Gear. 

 

Jimmy reviewed some recent mail order acquisitions including the Meng 1/48 Super Hornet, AFV Club 1/35 Dragoon, and numerous tank accessories. His tool of the evening was a Tankraft aluminum base to keep spill-prone glue bottles upright on modeling benches. 

 

Bobby continued to show off the improving quality of 3-D printed figures, this time with a rookie Judge Anderson from the movie Dredd smoothly printed in one piece and a heavily armed Joe Pineapples from the UK comic book series 2000 AD. 

 

Angelo meanwhile showed of a less-than smoothly molded 1/48 P-24B from MisterCraft and an enigmatic Scithian Warrior from Black Dog.

 

The night’s discussion focused on kit instructions, and why even the most seasoned modelers should still look at ‘em.  The quality of assembly instructions varies with the kit manufacturer.  Frank C said the instructions in the otherwise excellent Kinetic Mirage III/5 kit left some small parts out altogether. Nearly everyone has found ways to make assembly easier and cleaner by changing the assembly order in kit instructions. Mark reminded the group of those unfortunate instances when aircraft need holes drilled out before wings are assembled, and Vaughan confessed that he masked and painted areas on his Sea King only later to find the markings were on the kit decal sheet.  More embarrassments are likely at the next BPMS Zoom meeting on March 18. Invites to follow. 

 

~Russ

BPMS 03/04/2021 Zoom Mini meeting report

Eighteen people attended the meeting, including a few we haven't seen in a while. Glad to know you guys are holding up. No new kits announced but we did get a glowing recommendation for "USAAF Aircraft weapons of WW2" from Canfora Publishing. Sticking with books, we heard the FSM magazine, "Building and Detailing Aircraft" has an extensive aircraft paint color guide covering various eras and countries. Thanks, Charlie. We saw a lot of in progress and completed work: Fairey Swordfish, He 122, WW1 Cavalrymen, I-16, P-51, OH-6, SH-3, Bf-110 G4, MiG-17 (with a clever way to correct a tail sitter), Fishing Trawler, Me-262 conversion, Hover Truck and a scratch-built Hover Tank that started life as a telephone housing. In the tool session, we the handle from a JLC Combo Saw used to hold photoetch sawblades. Much better than holding the blades with your fingers. We also saw that baseball card sleeves are good for holding photoetch and other delicate items, like the blades of the aforementioned JLC Combo Saw. Thanks, Gil. The featured topic was broken models and DNR (Do Not Repair) Orders. We heard about damage done by overzealous cleaners, pets wanting to get comfortable and glue breaking down. Models with special significance will be completely rebuilt. Maybe not right away but one day. Some will be replaced by the duplicate kit in the stash and wind up as spare parts. The general feeling seems to be, if it broke after others saw it on display, full reconstruction isn't worth the time. Changing topics, we started a discussion thread that went from wargame tables to markings for T-34s to T-34s in the 2012 film "White Tiger" (From Russia, not to be confused with the 2021 movie "White Tiger" from India) and ended with a video on the T-34 (Tank Chats #68 - T34) from the Tank Museum at Bovington. All in all, a fairly typical meeting. The next meeting is 3/11/21 at 8pm. Frank C sent the invites yesterday. He'll will be hosting. Thanks, Frank. 

 

~Russ