BPMS Meeting: Friday, September 19, 2025

 ACTIVITIES DIRECTING

By Bobby Pokorny

  

Welcome to SEPTEMBER! We have some important items this month to deal with so let's get to it.

 

 Remembering Don: Longtime member Don Illjes passed away in July. We would like to mark the occasion to ask for members to bring things to tell the group about that relate to memories of Don.  

 Holiday Dinner: Since the last meeting members have been contacting various venues regarding party menus. We MUST nail down a decision at this meeting so we can make arrangements. 

I am sure we will also discuss the latest IPMS News as I will be participating in the Region One Zoom the night before the meeting. 

 

Meeting Date: 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2025

Members start showing up by 5PM to set up.

Feel free to come early and hang-out!

 

 

September Bulletin by Kevin K in PDF Format

Long-time member Don Illjes dead at 74.

It's with great sadness that I am reporting about the death of longtime member Don Illjes on July 19, 2025. He was 74. While his cause of death is unknown to us, his health had been of concern for years. Rest in peace, Mr Wood Doctor. 

 

 

Andy Yanchus

1944-2021

A name that will be familiar to many 1960’s-70s modelers is Andy Yanchus (1944-2021).  Andy was a long-time member of the BPMS, and worked with Aurora Plastics in West Hempstead, NY, beginning in the mid-1960swhere he one of the two Project Managers there. Andy came up with the Monster Scenes idea, a smaller version of Aurora’s classic monster kits, but presented in ‘scenes. 

Andy moved on from Aurora to Marvel and during his 17-year career there, he contributed to several ongoing titles such as UNCANNY X-MEN, ALPHA FLIGHT, and NEW WARRIORS. 

Although Andrew had left his kit modeling career to pursue coloring comics, his passion for the community and his hobby never waned. He later co-wrote a definitive book about Aurora called Aurora Monster Scenes — The Most Controversial Toys of a Generation (2014). He also wrote for Starlog, Fantasy Modeling, and Collecting Scale Models magazines.

Jimmy ‘Shea’ Maroney: 1950 - 2024

 

Jimmy ‘Shea’ Maroney: 1950 - 2024

Long-time Brooklyn Plastic Modelers Society member Jimmy Maroney passed away on August 4. Our quiet, knowledgeable, and unassuming friend was 74 years old.

 

Jimmy joined our club in the 1970s when the group met at the Marcy Photo Studios on New Utrecht Avenue in Bensonhurst. He had a lifelong passion for history and built 1/72 and 1/48 scale aircraft with special emphasis on Irish subjects. Jimmy and his father attended some of the earliest BPMS Christmas dinners. He and his sister, Stacey, returned to Brooklyn for holiday luncheons at Nora’s Deli long after the two relocated from Brooklyn to Suffolk County on Long Island in the early 2000s. Significantly, Jimmy maintained his BPMS membership and contacts years after he moved away from the club.

Jimmy grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and graduated from Bishop Ford High School. He had a long career in New York banking and traveled enthusiastically to his ancestral Ireland. Jimmy was a long-time member of the International Plastic Modelers Society. He attended several regional IPMS conventions with our group. He was also a model railroad enthusiast and helped build the elaborate layout in the basement of BPMS founder Bert Berg.

Though he never held BPMS office, Jimmy was a great representative of our club, friendly, respectful, and inquisitive about modeling. He is missed.