BPMS ZOOM Mini Meeting: 4/23/24

Featured Discussion: What have you built outside of your usual interest? Did you enjoy it?

Seventeen people attended. There were two updates from the in-person meeting. Kevin collected enough money to sponsor two awards at the upcoming IPMS Nationals, Open Top Axis AFV and Aircraft Diorama (thanks, guys) and Chuck recommend a hobby shop (hobbyoutlet.net) in Cresco, PA. The owner is Clayton Colefield, 570 594 1466. Call before you go. 

 

Lou reports Academy's 1/144 KC 135 R and three Border 1/35 tanks, Leopard 2A6 (Ukraine), Merkava 2D and early Tiger 1 are now available. 

 

Ready for a road trip? Mark says the Philadelphia Navy Yard has a drydock tour of the USS New Jersey. Mr. K told us the Cherry Point Air Show is May 11&12. 

Closer to home,  Julio arranged a modeler's meet-up for May 25th at Pier 57.

 

In-progress and completed work included: S-67 Blackhawk (Vaughn explained how the S-67 Blackhawk and the UH-60 Black Hawk got their names), Mi 4, Puckish vignette, Sherman Jumbo, D-day bunker diorama (with a twist?), Me-410, 77 Ford van, 97 Ford F-150, P-36, SdKfz 251/1, Stummel, Phantom (Hellenic AF), F-104 (Belgian AF) and Schwimmwagen. Acquisitions included: XXXG-OOWO- Wing Gundam and F-18 (with aftermarket decals from CAM). 

 

Old and new tips were thrown around during the meeting- Tamiya air brush thinner will glue styrene,  tree branches can be made by coating a wire armature with matte medium and sawdust, highlighting the ID letter on each sprue is helpful when building kits with many sprues, soak resin parts overnight in Dawn dish washing liquid before assembly and don't put Alclad clear over Tamiya. 

 

The topic was building outside your comfort zone. Comfort zones could be categories (armor, aircraft, etc), media (resin, vacuform, paper) or static v moving (think railroad layouts). Most of us have tried and liked building outside our cz (unless there's a lot of road wheels). It seems like a lot of car models went into storage once it came time to paint. 

 

The next meeting is Tuesday,  4/30/24 at 7:30 pm. Invites to follow. Hope to see you there.

 

~Russ

 

BPMS Zoom Mini Meeting: April 9, 2024

Twelve people attended. We welcomed Alyssa, an aircraft modeler from Massachusetts with a special interest in helicopters. 

There's no Tuesday Zoom next week as the in-person meeting is Friday the 19th. Doors open around 6pm and the meeting starts around 7:30. It's Work in Progress night. Details are in the Bulletin, which is in the mail. 

 
Lou reports Academy's 1/144 EC 121, 1/72 Leopard 2 A-4 and 1/35 USMC M4-A2 are available. 

 
Several club members went to Mosquitocon last Saturday. Charlie's F-8 Crusader placed. Gordon's photos are on the BPMS Facebook page. Thanks, Gordon. 

 
In progress and completed work included: S-67 Blackhawk, M117 Guardian, Jaguar E, Schwimmwagen and Cthulhu. Acquisitions included: MG RX77 Gundam conversion, Zvezda 1/48 Mi-8, C130A book and Bandai 1/48 T34/76. 

 
Frank C was our tool man this week. His find was two inexpensive photoetch saws from AliExpress. The offset blades are about 1.5" long, just right for those hard-to-reach places. This led to a discussion on how to get discounts from AliExpress. 

 
The featured topic was dealing with ejector pin marks. Although Lou knew a guy who used a hot screwdriver, most of us either cut them down or fill them flush. To cut, we use rotary tools, blades, micro saws, files, sanding sticks and custom-made sanding blocks. For fillers, we use proprietary (Tamiya, AK, Vallejo, etc.) modeling putties, automotive glazing putty, modeling epoxy putties and sprue dissolved in glue. While pin marks that can't be seen are usually left alone, some exposed marks are intentionally overlooked (once you convince yourself they look like structural details). 

 
The next meeting is Friday, 4/19/24 at the Community Center, in Brooklyn. No invites needed. Hope to see you there. 

 
~Russ

MosquitoCon 32 Photos

Photo report for MosquitoCon 32. I had taken 1 photographs of almost every model entry prior to 12pm. Totaling over 450 photos. Some photos of models are not cluster together with it's category since I had to go back for some late entries. Please see the link below for the gallery.

~Gordon

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jBZA2j1dFmh2SkKN8

BPMS Members at MosquitoCon 32

It was a great day for us at MosquitoCon in Wayne, NJ. We did some shopping, touring the models in the contest area and then off to lunch. It's like tradition that we all met up at Grasshopper Too, a near by pub for lunch. Today I had also taken almost a photo of ever model entry prior to 12pm. I'll have the gallery up soon. To our buddies entering the contest, good luck! 

~Gordon

BPMS Zoom Mini Meeting: April 2nd, 2024

Fifteen people attended the meeting.

Mosquitocon is this Saturday, April 3, in Wayne NJ. The flyer is on the BPMS Facebook page. The page, btw, is 14 years old according to Gordon and it has a surprising number of followers. 

Lou reports Trumpeter's 1/16 SdKfz 251/22 and 1/35 18-ton Flakwagen are available. Jimmy posted some new kits (mostly Tigers this time) on our Facebook page. 

Gordon told us about Model Colors, an app that keeps track of your paint, among other things. Joe U uses a similar app, paintRack. 

In-progress and completed work included: B-26, S-67 Blackhawk, Jagdtiger (just the engine but at 1/16 it's a kit in itself), Marylin Monroe bust (Kevin used pastels for highlights and confirmed the 'shadow switching sponge' Gil told us about last month really removes pastels from paint brushes), Bishop sp artillery, Flint's Car 2077 (3D printed Flintstone car of the future) and Schwimwagen. Acquisitions included: Leprechaun figure, 'Female Warrior with Useless Armor' figure and stainless-steel cutting mats for camouflage masks. 

We heard from people we missed last week. Don was introduced to scale modeling by his uncle, a lens maker whose work ranged from WW2 bombsights to a camera that went to the Moon. Frank C remembered his father getting him a Strombecker kit on a family vacation on Long Island. 

This week's tool was the Artist Brush Washer. It's for cleaning and drying brushes. It must be good, because it was "borrowed" almost immediately. 

The topic was working with worn-out expendables. We heard a lot about sandpaper. Everybody seems reluctant to replace theirs even though it's cheap, abundant and comes in sheets, discs, rolls and pads. We treat blades differently; Vaughn replaces them with every new kit, others do it as needed. Gil repurposes old blades into scrapers. Jimmy has a simple approach to expendables, buy cheap and stack deep. 

Next meeting is Tuesday 7:30 pm. Invites to follow. Hope to see you there. 

~Russ

BPMS "Bulletin" - April 15, 2024 Meeting

Minutes from the March Meeting

 

Attendance: Members – 19, Guests – 1, Models – 16
President Tom Govia gaveled the meeting to order at 8:00PM.
Business: The Manhattan Group Model Build on 2/24 was quite a success. Julio reminds us that there will be another meetup later this spring

•There is still time to Pledge a build to build for the end of the year.
•Next month is WIP Night. Take what’s on your work table and bring it in.
•Dues now due! $35 pp
•The Meeting reconvened at 8:40PM for a raffle. There were 10 winners.
•A show and tell of the models on the display tables. There were plenty of GREEN MODELS for the theme.
•Jim T. gave a demo on his new “cordless” airbrush. He says it has a .3 needle, and can operate for at least 30 minutes before it needs a recharge. Recharging, he says takes under 15 minutes. See images below.
•The meeting was adjourned at 9:10PM

April Activities:

• WORK IN PROGRESS NIGHT: This would be a good time to show us where you are with your Pledge Model or anything / everything that's on your work bench!
  

Meeting date:

April 19, 2024

Location: BBSC

 

Business starts at 8PM, but members are at the facility by 6PM. Feel free to join us early!   

  
Download the FULL BPMS Bulletin in PDF format HERE.