6/3/21 BPMS Zoom mini meeting report

Fourteen people attended the meeting. Not much in the way of new releases this week. Last week's big story was Squadron. This week it's Kitty Hawk / Panda. Are they closing down? No one knows. Like we said about Squadron, let's see what happens. In progress and completed work : Ar-234, cold war era Phanton FGR-2, Buick Riviera, Chevy Suburban, DM 13 Katyusha, Metal Earth train, and two 1/8 scale automotive pieces, a Shelby Cobra 427 engine (weight - couple of pounds) and James Bonds Aston Martin (weight - 28 pounds). The Ar-234 and the FGR-2 builds led to an interesting discussion of the development history of both aircraft and the changes and unusual measures required to accommodate design modifications. Thanks, Vaughn and Frank. Acquisitions included: Machination Studio's armored walker, the mouse from The March of the Wooden Soldiers (aka Babes in Toyland), Bassist Katarina, Jack Palance as Dracula , Fritz Lang 'ish' Fem-Bot, RQ/MQ- 1 Predator, Russian pilot figures, German WW2 license plates (PE) and Sparmax airbrush. The featured tool was Gil's airbrush maintenance station, a heavy Plexiglas block, drilled to accept one end of a quick disconnect fitting. With the fitting's other end attached to the airbrush, it can be securely mounted to the base for disassembly, cleaning/repair and reassembly. Magnets countersunk into the block prevent metal parts from rolling away. Depressions cut into the block do the same for nonmetallic parts. Pretty neat. The discussion was about finishes. Apparently, we use a variety of products, Dullcote (even if it changes the color of what's being coated), Gunze Flat (even if it's hard to get), Rustall Flat (even if it's from MicroMart), Vallejo Gloss, Flat & Semigloss and a new one , to me at least, Polycrilic Varnish from Minwax. It cleans up with water and it's very thin. Golden Paint makes a matt finish BUT IT HAS TO BE CLEANED UP WITH AMMONIA. Many people recommended overthinning these products which led to questions about airbrush tip sizes and which work best for a specific task. Now that you know all about finishes, join us on 6/10/21 at 8 pm and learn about weathering with pencils. Invites to follow. Hope to see you there.

~Russ