Quad-City Scale
Modeler Society’s
March 2007 Newsletter
Meeting minutes:
Well folks, every once in a Blue Moon, I miss a
meeting. I was at
There was a reasonable turnout of ten people, although we’d really love to see more of our devoted member’s smiling faces joining the fray on a regular basis…hint, hint.
As usual, Ronbo brought a table array to ooh and ahh over--this time it included Dragon’s T-34/85 Premium Edition with bedspring armor, Academy’s Korean War era M4A3 Sherman 105mm Howitzer with a bulldozer blade, a Revell MAN 5t milgl 4x4 truck, the Revell 1/24 Sauber F1 Team car by Bavarisch Motoren Worken for the purists out there, Beemer for the nose-in-the-air types, and just BMW for the rest of us, a Dragon Aufklärungspanzer 38(t) mit 2cm KwK 38, and one that really impressed me, a Dragon 1/72 Ki-61 Hien (Tony). This impressed me because of the built-in level of detail I’m not used to in that scale. He also brought a number of boxes of books, videotapes and a few kits from the vault of Jack Bruno. For the meeting’s ‘bring and build’ theme, Mike Valentine brought a Tamiya PzKw IV ausf D (c. 1973). To bring this kit out of the dark ages Mike has added a tank tool assortment from a ’98 PzKw IV H, filled a plethora of ejector pin divots, closed up the motor and battery holes (has anyone really ever motorized one of these?), opened up the driver and commander hatches for future figures, and last but not least, added a crazy number of the tiniest rivets I’ve ever seen… actually I can’t legitimately say “seen”; with these eyes I just have to take Mike’s word they’re there. He had a small tin full of the little goobers—to me they looked like a pile of dust. Mike, if you have the patience for that, buddy…
Meanwhile, Ronbo was busy working on his Dragon T34/76, German Army version. So far he has the lower hull and wheels and upper hull and turret (with new metal barrel and Panzer III cupola) assembled. No wedding date has been set, but he hopes to have the sections properly dressed and married for a reception at our show in March. For show-and-tell, Randy Kidd brought a very cool ARII 1:1 scale “Stiel Hand Granate 24”, a 17 pc kit that looks like it could build into a very convincing “potato masher”. I must say though, after it’s finished I don’t think it would be prudent to put it into a carry-on for a flight to a National! Whoever did the subject for the box art was either an incredible painter to get the wooden handle dead perfect, or they found the real McCoy for the photo shoot. He also had a Minicraft KC-10 of around 1/200 scale with an F-16 taking a big drink off the probe. The F-16 was an unknown scale, somewhere around 1/144, but not quite. Randy said, “It just looked right”. Good enough for me! Brian Clemens brought his Polar Lights NX-01 Enterprise for a photo op. Shawn showed off some pieces he’s working on; various 1/72 StarWars figures from Fine Molds that are very well detailed, an assortment of 1/48 40K figures, a 1/48 Warhammer 40K series Imperial SPG ‘Basilisk’ that he’s modified a bit (?) and added a couple figures. Shawn thought the original open turret didn’t quite have the menacing look he wanted, so a new superstructure was scratchbuilt, and a new gun added. It now resembles a quite futuristic Stug. In keeping with the futuristic theme, he also had on-hand an action figure named ‘Villain’ from “The Adventures of Spawn”. Now, the package said “For ages 8 and up”, but given the way this figure is dressed (or not dressed actually), I’d say this very barely-clad cartoon warriorbabe is more PG-13. Shawn also gave us an addendum to last month’s how-to on figure painting by giving up his secret color palette. As stated last time, he uses Ceramcoat acrylic paint, and the fleshtone colors are: Cinnamon for the base coat, Caucasian Flesh, Mocha Brown or Palomino (for Asian flesh tones) over the Cinnamon, Mocha Brown for highlighting the darker areas in lighter skin tones, and Skin tone, Georgia Clay and Pink Angel for the lighter highlights.
Mike Valentine also brought a video of The History Channel
show “Dogfights”. This episode covered
the sinking of
The Quad Cities Scale Model Show update:
Unfortunately, we seem to have put show prep on the back burner. I guess it’s that loss of institutional memory due to not having done a local show in years. There are number of things that are done, the raffle letters are going out the last week of February, as are the mailings to past attendee’s, Fine Scale was notified, the insurance request has been submitted, flyers have been distributed at several past and upcoming shows, flyers are at the local hobby shops, except MVR, I can never seem to get there when I either 1. Have flyers in my truck, 2. They are still open because I am working late, or 3. They closed early. My timing is really off. Anyway, can some one please make some copies (about 25 would be enough) and drop them off at MVR this week? I will be working last minute details with the hotel the first week of March. I have also inventoried all of our remaining awards and come up with a list to get new ones; this is the biggie that has fallen through the cracks, awards. Normally, we have ordered them and have them back by now. I had planned to visit some award shops on Friday and Saturday last week, but I ended up having to work Friday and the big snow and ice storm hit Saturday. I need some help, please check around and if you know of an awards shop that can turn these around in about 2 weeks, let me know. We 12 plaques, approximately 5x7, 5 plaques approximately 6x8 or slightly larger175 acrylic trophies and some engraving done. If you can help, call me at (309) 523-3671. I need volunteers to judge and we need to set up the duty roster for the show, plus all of the usual last minute show prep stuff. Please try to make it to the meeting in March.
The Dates:
March 10: Chapter meeting
March 31: Quad
Cities Show. Clarion
Hotel,
April 14: Chapter
meeting. Road trip to
April 14: IPMS Plastic Surgeons 14th Annual Plastic Surgeons Model Contest. Contact: Greg Metge gmgha@mchsi.com
May 12: Chapter meeting
June 9: No chapter meeting! We will be at the Regional!
June 8-9: Region V
Regional, Knights of Columbus Hall 401 West Main Street, Ottawa, IL 61350 Contact:
Steve Stohr: 815-434-7279,
An update from the Regional Coordinator:
Hello Region 5,
Well folks, I have survived roughly 2 months now as the Regional Coordinator. It has been fun and interesting. A few hiccups occurred along the way but nothing serious. I regret to inform you all that the Pathfinders and the Nebraska Autos in Miniature chapters were unable to recharter primarily due to lack of IPMS USA members in their midst. I mentioned a hiccup or two. One of them involved the correct mailing address of the chapter contacts. I am provided a spreadsheet by the DLC which provides me with current addresses and so on based on the Chapter Fact Sheets which I have been asking for you to keep current. Most of you guys are doing a GREAT job at that, for that I thank you and hope you can keep it up. Speaking of mailings, I know many chapters frequently mail out flyers, vendor info, etc. for their shows. More than likely someone at that chapter is keeping a list of the chapters and their contacts. The hiccup is possible here. Sometimes there are changes to the chapter contacts (change of individual or an address) information which is unknown to the chapter’s keeper of information. Therefore stuff either is delayed in getting to the right place or person or even arriving at all. There are two ways to make sure that you get your info to the right folks. The hard way is to occasionally go to the IPMS USA website and drop the chapter contact(s) an email to get updated mailing information. The much easier way to drop me an email. I can provide the basic chapter contact info to you either electronically or snail mail. It will be the most up to date information. Next item is the Meteor Gift Certificates. The deadline has passed; I noticed a few chapters failed to take advantage of this offer. It is unfortunate. I think you should be receiving these shortly. I know several chapters just got theirs in the last week or so. It would be really nice if you could take a photo or two and send it to Dick Montgomery. He'll forward them to Meteor so they can get a little PR for their efforts. To satisfy my curiosity and assist IPMS USA, I have a poll question for you all to bring to your membership. A great deal of discussion is occurring on the IPMS USA message board regarding the Out of the Box awards at the National Convention level. In fact, Aris (head of the head judges) mentioned this in the latest Journal. The contest committee is interested in what you, the membership & chapters think. So I ask the following for you to give me a response to. Should the Out of the Box award be eliminated? Should it be left just the way it is? Should it remain but modified to address issues like the newer high tech kits? I hope you will all respond, even if it is yes or no.
Comments are even more helpful. On to more positive types of things. I would like to open nominations for our Region’s Chapter of the Year. How to do this is simple. Since I have only been the RC a short time, I have not necessarily known your activities for the
last year. What I suggest is that you send me a write-up describing what your outstanding cast of characters has done in 2006. Shows, make and takes, demos and community involvements are some good things to highlight (as well as anything out of the ordinary). I also know that IPMS USA has a Newsletter of the Year award as well. I am working on getting some answers on how that is selected. There may also be a Website of the Year, I am not positive on that one but I am checking on it. Should you wish to be considered for either of these last two, please send me an email or give me a call and by then, I should have more specifics for the submission/selection process.
Some info from Dick Montgomery…..
The IPMS Web Site has a new feature entitled, "Chapter Spotlight". Your chapter is invited to submit a club "bio" to Ron Grasmick, the Associate Webmaster for the Spotlight. The first club being featured is IPMS Fresno, the recipient of the COY at the K.C. convention. On another topic, the contest "season" has begun and IPMS wants to feature your event (contest, display, presentation, ABC class, etc) in the Events Gallery. Please incorporate plans in your event planning process to send images of your event to Dick Montgomery, the Associate Webmaster for the Events and Walkaround Galleries. Lastly, the ABC course web pages now include a downloadable Instructor's Manual and a full set of lesson plans, both in pdf format. This program has legs. The program has a proven track record of attracting new members to the IPMS chapters that have organized some ABC classes and also has re-invigorated clubs with a membership that had turned away from "building" models. It is certainly worth a look.
Dick Montgomery
IPMS DLC
A final reminder: I am planning to highlight chapters and individuals within the Region in updates and probably on the soon to be realized webpage. Please forward the info on your chapter and a member or two of your choice so I can begin this.
Future Floor finish and tricking up your canopies:
Randy Kidd gave us a demo on using Future floor finish for canopies, which many of us think we already know how to do, but randy makes it look too easy. Randy’s steps are:
1.) Cut the canopy leaving a bit of sprue to hold on to.
2.) Using a shallow, wide-mouth jar dip the canopy and stir a bit to prevent air bubbles in framing corners.
3.) Wick off excess on a paper towel (cloth towels may leave dust or lint particles.
4.) Always cover the piece, and then let dry for a minimum of twenty-four hours. If any dust should get into the Future you can always soak the canopy in ammonia to strip it and start over.
A little humor from Mr. Valentine:
Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in
"Kenneth," came the reply.
"And what is your question, Kenneth?"
"I have three questions, Ma-am:
First - whatever happened to your medical health care plan? Second - why would
you run for President after your husband shamed the office? And third -
whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White
House?"
Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kiddies that
they will continue after recess. When they resume Hillary says, "Okay where
were we?
Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?"
This time a different little boy puts his hand up; Hillary points him out and
asks him what his name is.
"Larry," he said.
"And what is your question?"
"I have five questions:
First - whatever happened to your medical health care plan?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White
House?
Fourth - why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
And fifth - what happened to Kenneth?"
Book review, courtesy of Cookie Sewell:
Book Review: T-34: Mythical Weapon by Robert Michulec and Miroslaw Zientarzewski; English Language Version published by Air Connection, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 2006 (http://www.airconnection.on.ca) in conjunction with Armageddon Books (ISBN 0-9781091-0-4); 520 pp. with both color and B&W illustrations, drawings and 1/35 scale plans; retail price US $95.00.
Advantages: Very comprehensive coverage of nearly all of the wartime models of the T-34 tank and its tank variants; excellent set of plans and photos covering the details of the different versions of the tank by model and by factory; indispensable modeler's aid to the T-34 Disadvantages: historical section suffers badly from the author's biases, subjective analyses and lack of overall knowledge of the Soviet tank industry in the 1930s and 1940s.
Rating: Highly Recommended (less the historical section).
Recommendation: for all '34 fans and modelers.
Nobody thought back in 1971 that when R. P. Hunnicutt published his book "Pershing" at the
then unheard-of price of $20 a copy that both he and his writing format would eventually
stretch to ten books and a complete history of American armored vehicles. These
ten volumes have since been recognized as the "gold standard" for
objective analysis of specific subjects, and are considered to be the best
"one-stop" histories of their subjects. True, they are not perfect
and modelers will always find some complaint about missing items or a lack of
coverage of others, but overall they are the reference standard for historical
analysis of armored vehicles. The same can be said to a great degree about the
series of "Panzer Tracts" books from researchers Tom Jentz and Hilary Doyle, which cover German vehicles to the
same relatively objective level of detail. With the fall of the
historians and modelers is that this book would be the "Hunnicutt" version of the T-34's history and as such
very useful to all concerned. Now that it has been printed and is available,
upon reading it the sad fact is that such is not the case; while the modelers
win
big on the book, the historians will have to wait for another attempt from
another author. What the book does provide is the following material. The first
260 pages cover the history of the tank and its development; the next 86 pages
cover the T-34 in Polish service; then come 96 pages on detail photographs of
the various T-34s from any of the six factories which built the tank; then 58
pages of 1/35 scale plans and drawings of the
tank in detail, including "stripped down" hulls, turrets and entire
vehicles; and lastly 20 pages of color photographs of museum tanks and color
broadsides of WWII Soviet vehicles. As a professional Russian linguist for 33
years I am a bit put off by the fact that the transliterations from Russian are
all done using Polish transliteration and not standard
English ones, as accepted by most universities and the US Government, which can
make tracing some items back very difficult. Some are easy, e.g. the Polish
"cz" for the Cyrillic character for "ch" or Polish "c" for Cyrillic "ts", but most are not. But this is
understandable considering that the book was written in Polish, so it just has
to be accepted from the first. (I do wish that they would be careful on some
things though; the UZTM factory [Uralskiy Zavod dlya Tyazhyelogo
Mashinostroyeniya or Ural Factory for Heavy Machinery
Construction) keeps getting transposed as UTZM. Oh well.) The book is presented in European A4 size
format, and literally stuffed to the gills with around 1,000 photographs of the
tank in action. While many of the photos are ex-German showing destroyed T-34s
rather than factory shots of the tanks, from a modeler's standpoint they show
details of service vehicles and not "parade ground" ones as well as
markings. As many are destroyed, it also shows some sections of the tank not
usually visible. The detail shots are
very useful as they sort out which tanks were built by what factories and when.
It does fall into the same trap of the popular "Modeler's Guide to the
Sherman Tank" by Pete Harlem in which arbitrary terms are used to describe
the different parts of the tanks. While each component of the T-34 had a
factory drawing (indicated by a 34.xx.xxx or 135.xx.xxx identification number)
most of these are not yet available to researchers so the author has come up
with his own generic terms. (As a case in point, recent information from
Russian researchers on the KV-1 tank shows the turret was
considered "parts group 57" and all turrets for that tank had a
number ending in 57, e.g. 57, 157, 257, or 957.) The plans by Witold Hazuka are incredibly detailed, and should solve many
problems faced by modelers who are trying to replicate a specific factory's
tank in a specific time frame. They by themselves are worth the "entry
price" for this book. For anyone specifically interested in Polish T-34s
and their operational history, the book covers it in amazing detail, down to
serial numbers and which units received which tanks. But the book falls down
badly when it comes to the history of the T-34 and the amazing path it had to
follow to even get into production, let alone "roll with the punches"
to adapt to wartime needs. First off, it
needs to be stated that the T-34 was a product of the Soviet
military-industrial complex during the height of the
are later repaired and returned to service, the losses reported out are only 5
tanks. The other side, who knocked them out on the battlefield, will claim 30
tanks destroyed. (Tom Jentz has noted this with the
Tiger I, as one of the true mysteries about that tank is how
many troops and other weapons systems were lost recovering them under fire to
be repaired.) Not understanding this
fact causes Mr Michulec to
call actual Soviet heroes like Mikhail Katukov of the
1st Guards Tank Corps a liar and somebody guilty of lying to his superiors. In
point of fact, Katukov was considered one of the best
Soviet tank corps commanders and later on one of the prime reasons that the
T-34 became the main Soviet
combat tank and the KV-1 was not. Katukov was the only
Soviet commander of the early part of the war who could stand up to Zhosif Kotin, the KV-1's designer
and a "connected" chap who had married Kliment
Voroshilov's goddaughter, hence ensuring the KV
(which Kotin named for Voroshilov)
would be produced and honored as a "war winning weapon", that it was
a piece of junk and got more Soviet soldiers killed than it saved. Some basic
research would have shown this, but Mr Michulec chose to "cherry pick" facts to suit his
view of things and not look at either the political or
physical conditions of the time. Recent information out of
western analysts that all things in the
arising of the "
And now a word from Paddy McGannon, our
foreign correspondent:
A guy walks
into a
To which she stops doing her tasks, looks at him over the top of her
glasses, and says........
”Bugger off, ye'll no bring it back!"
Kit Review, courtesy of Cookie Sewell
Kit Review: Dragon Models Limited 1/35 Scale Modern AFV Series Kit No. 3539; M51 Isherman - Premium Edition; 831 parts (671 in grey styrene, 117 in etched brass, 22 clear styrene,12 steel springs, 6 brass tubes, 2 DS plastic track runs in tan, 1 turned aluminum barrel); price US $44.98.
Advantages: upgrades the running gear and details from this older DML kit with contemporary levels of detail; replaces disliked two-piece single link tracks with DS plastic and "slide molded" center guides.
Disadvantages: Some lingering problems, but attention to the etched brass fret and supplementary sprues show others have been fixed; directions not correct (again)
Rating: Highly Recommended.
Recommendation: for all Israeli and Sherman fans.
When DML released their highly anticipated M50 and M51
Israeli Sherman kits over 10 years ago (Nos. 3528 and 3529 respectively) they
landed with something of a thud. While DML had many of the details right, and
at the time the best 1/35 scale HVSS suspension, the kits suffered from a lot
of sloppy details (such as water can holders that did not fit) and poor
research on others, such as the signature muzzle brake on the M51 which was at
least 20% under scale. The directions also were murky, as they did not cite the
right parts during assembly. Needless to say, disappointed modelers were not happy nor kind with their comments about the kits,
especially when Academy released an M51 which was better in many areas, had a
simpler suspension to assemble, and vinyl tracks. Fast
forward to 2007. DML has now revamped their M51 kit, and are
re-releasing it in the Premium Edition series. The kit has received a lot of
TLC, etched brass, and some corrections, and while far more expensive than the
originals (some which can still be found at shows or flea markets for
single-digit prices) it is a much more substantial
kit and more in line with the acceptable norms for kits today. First off, the model
retains about 200 parts in mix-and-match sprues from the M50 and M51 kits, with
some updating and corrections, and then adds in the 439 parts of DML's excellent new HVSS suspension from its M4A3E8 and
M4A3 (105mm) kits. Since the Israelis eschewed rubber pad tracks, this works
well as those kits came with the T80 steel faced tracks and that is provided
here with the two DS plastic runs with separate guide teeth. For simplicity's
sake (e.g. simpler cross- kitting) A slide molded
lower hull is provided. Turret and hull details from the M4A2/A3 kits are also
added in, such as the vision cupola, the fuel filler caps, and either the M2HB
machine gun or a .30 caliber Browning.
One of the big slams against the original kit was the fact that the
signature of the big French 105mm smoothbore gun stuffed into the turret, its
fancy muzzle brake was at least some 20% under scale, and many modelers were
upset over this failing. A close examination of the sprues in this kit shows a
more accurate one with more correct
proportions tucked away on the M51 sprues, so DML has at least responded to its
critics by fixing that glaring error. The new muzzle brake copies the shapes
from the original; in his great book "Israeli Sherman" Tom Gannon
noted that DML had the shapes right but was way under scale, whereas Academy
had the right size but was too flat and missed the character of the muzzle
brake. This kit would appear to have fixed that problem. However, there is a
big problem with the directions (par for the course.) The CORRECT parts for the
accurized muzzle brake are H-6, 7, and 9. The ones
which are INCORRECT as they are too small are J-30, 31, and 32; both sets
appear to attach to muzzle cap J-33. Surprisingly, while the kit now comes with
extensive etched brass upgrades, an etched brass muzzle brake is not one of
them. (It would actually be too thin in scale if they did make one that way, so
not a big loss.) The kit does come with etched brass water can carriers,
fenders and braces, and other "standard"
finishing option; the "Zippori" Brigade,
IDF, Sinai 1967. Overall, DML has fixed most of the "gigs" with the
original kit, and anyone who did not get one the first time around will want to
pick this one up, as this time it really requires no additional items to create
a really good model of the vehicle. But I suggest you get good references as
Israeli vehicles are subject to changes from vehicle to vehicle. Thanks to
Freddie Leung for the review sample.
Mikey’s update on the National New Media:
1. WALL STREET
JOURNAL is read by the people who run the country.
2. WASHINGTON POST is read by people who think they run the country.
3. NEW YORK TIMES is read by people who think they should run the country, and
who are very good at crosswords.
4.
5. LOS ANGELES TIMES is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country,
if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave LA to do it.
6. BOSTON GLOBE is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did
a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. NEW YORK DAILY NEWS is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the
country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. NEW YORK POST is read by people who don't care who's
running the country, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably
while intoxicated.
9. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE is read by people who aren't sure there is a country
or, that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they
stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped
minority feminist atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY
country (or galaxy) as long as they are Democrats.
10. MIAMI HERALD is read by people who are running another country but need the
baseball scores.
11. NATIONAL INQUIRER is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. STARS AND STRIPES is read by people who will live and die for their country.
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