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Thursday, July 02, 2026

June 30, 2026 BPMS ZOOM Mini Meeting Report

Featured Discussion: STENCILS

Fourteen people attended.  July's red, white, and blue theme display is just around the corner. 

Lou reports Tamiya's 1/35 M-24 Chaffee and 1/48 Bf-109 G6 (late) are available.

Frank C asked if anyone could identify the unfamiliar jet he saw in flight and assumed it was part of the July 4th Jones Beach airshow. Turns out it's a L-15 Falcon of the UAE and, yes, they'll be at Jones Beach. 

Hugh is passing the time applying, removing, and reapplying Alclad coatings. 
 
Chuck told us about a good experience he had getting decals for his vintage Do 17 from WingsAndRails,  a vendor he found on Etsy. 
 
Veering a little from the upcoming US sci-fi theme contest discussion, Kevin recalled meeting Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov,  the first man to walk in space, at an autograph event, where he signed the base of a Voskhod 2 spacewalk model Kevin was working on. Then we saw the finished model. 

We also Jimmy's F-18 C cockpit and Ornithopter (his first time using AK gen 3 paint), Chuck's P-40 (two, actually) and Do- 17, Erasmo's F-101 Voodoo and Macci C-200, Lee's Grumman X-29, Kevin's busts of Childs (from The Thing) and Frederick Frankenstein (a Jeff Yager sculpt from, well, you know), and Russ' Huey Cobra.
 
A 1/35 Kubelwagon and Schwimmwagen from Hero - Hobby the acquisitions. At $10 each, why not?
 
Bobby presented this week's tool, a 3D printed miniature painting vise with jaws. At $3, why not?

The topic was stencils, all kinds of stencils - decals, masks, and templates. Many agreed with Erasmo, that 1/72 aircraft stencil decals are more trouble than they're worth. Like Simon said, "decals can be stressful." Lou remembered photoetch stencils for numbers and national markings were popular 10 years ago. Bobby showed us an assortment of flexible plastic stencils he got online suitable for sci-fi and military subjects, and he remembered Don used a lot of stencils for his hypothetical Luftwaffe aircraft. Jimmy posted a link to stencils available from Amazon on the group chat. Temu and AliExpress have them, too. Michael C showed us several metal templates (from Hobby Mio and Easycutting) for use with adhesive backed paper to make camouflage pattern shapes. I expect we'll learn more about these items in future.

The next meeting is Tuesday, 7/7/26 at 7:30 pm. Frank C will send the invites.  Thanks, Frank.
Stay cool and have a safe 4th of July. 
 
~Russ