BPMS Zoom 2/20/23 Mini Meeting Report

Sixteen people attended the meeting. Thanks to Julio, there's another Modelers Meet-up in the Daffodil classroom at Pier 57 (25 11 Ave, near W15 St) in Manhattan this Saturday, the 24th, from noon to 5pm. It's free. All you have to bring is a model to build. 

We welcomed Jessica, a modeler from CT (and the new Secretary of the IPMS executive board) who told us about the swap/sell/make meetings her club holds to promote the hobby. Mark shared photos of Hudson Valley club members preparing for a make & take by test building kits they plan to distribute.
We saw several simple, inexpensive display bases. 

Don discussed the pros and cons of AliExpress, Mark observed that 0.170 vinyl tubing is the perfect size for decanting Tamiya's spray paint and Jimmy recalled how surgical gauze was turned into camouflage nets, back in the day. 

In-progress and completed work included: Hawker Hurricane, B-26, the Fly (Joe improved the control panel), Moon Suit, SdKfz 232, Challenger 2, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (from the 1951 Scrooge), Frankenstein's monster (as described in Mary Shelly's book), Hotel Transylvania Wolfman (Kevin's latest sculpture), Vickers twin turret tank, Falcon 10 and Chani (from Dune - Gil printed the 3D figure). Acquisitions included: Goliath and Assault Pioneers, Tankcraft books, Jaguar XKE, Ghost of Christmas Present, Gotha bomber and IJN Akagi Island/flight deck. 

The featured tool was a watch case knife. Designed to pry tight fitting pieces apart, it also works well as a seam scraper. 

The topic was what do you save at the end of the build and what do you salvage before trashing an old kit? Most of us save the extra/optional parts included in the kit. We save specific parts like canopies, cockpit components, ordnance, landing gear, wheels for aircraft and vehicles, tank tracks, decals, vehicle stowage and tools. We also save parts because of their shape or size. Tom G saves instructions, Chuck saves long, straight lengths of sprue. Many save figures from military vehicles although older figures don't meet today's standards. We salvage resin and well molded parts from kits headed for the trash. Most would save the boxes if they had room. Having a viking funeral for boxes was mentioned, but that was joke, right? I repeat, right? 

The next meeting is Tuesday, 2/27/24 at 7:30 pm. Invites to follow. Hope to see you there. Or at Pier 57. Or both. 

~Russ