September 5th, 2023 - BPMS Zoom Mini Meeting

Twelve people attended the meeting. No Tuesday Zoom meeting next week as the in-person meeting is Friday, 9/15/23 at the Community Center. Kevin K will present a clinic on painting 1/35 scale figures. Details are in the flyer, which is in the mail. ]

Lou told us about a new kit from Tamiya, The Walking, Swimming Duck (not to be confused with the DUKW). Italeri's 1/72 AMX Ghibli is also available. 

Gordon showed us some of the sprue cutters he's been evaluating. Watch for his detailed write up in a future newsletter. Mark visited the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center in Horseheads, NY. He'll share photos at a future meeting. 

In progress and completed work included: Eurocopter Tiger (Vaughn fabricated the complex gun sight from laminated plastic on an improvised lathe), Jersey Devil, Pz 4G, Catwoman figure (Gil is getting into 3D printing), B-58 and VW Type 87. Acquisitions included: 5 gal. portable air tank (we remembered some old alternatives to compressors and why they went away) and plexiglass sheets etc. for creating extra display space. The tool of the week was a pop-it fidget toy. Acrylic paint doesn't stick to it making it an easy to clean paint pallet. 

Revisiting last week's topic, maximizing display space, Bobby, Vaughn and Gil gave Frank several options for building supplemental shelves and Don gave important advice on tools and procedures to cut Plexiglas safely. Moving to this week's topic, we talked about what influences our decisions on what to build/buy. For me, if a vehicle was ever on display at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, I'd buy the kit. For Gil, it's anything Volkswagen. Also, space ships, particularly from the old Irwin Allen shows. Kevin built Aurora's monsters when he was a kid and moved up to limited run monster kits and real space kits. A work assignment got Vaughn interested Soviet aircraft, so he built quite a few. Frank likes building F-4 Phantoms because with all the variants and all the national and operational markings/paint schemes used and payloads carried, he can make every model unique. 

The next meeting is Friday, 9/15/23. Doors open around 6PM, meeting starts around 7:30 pm. No invites needed. Hope to see you here. 

~Russ