Our October meeting had 11 members in attendance. Everything is on track for our May contest. We have renewed our IPMS/USA chapter charter.  Our joint display case with Sumter Continues to offer us a way to showcase our work and we are grateful to Hobbytown for supplying the space.

The Celebrate Freedom Show was held at Owens Field in Columbia on 11/8-10/02. This is a tremendous event with lots of aircraft and military vehicles. There were many new aircraft this year including an F-86, C-123, PBY-5, C-47, and Mig 15. Be sure to visit this show next year.

On a sad note, South Carolina resident Joe Tobul was killed in the crash of his F4U-4 Corsair at the show. Joe was forming up with other planes for a flyby over the Dorn Veteran’s Hospital and passing over the runway at Owens when he began trailing white smoke. He pulled up and began to try to circle back to the field but was fast losing altitude. It was apparent that he would not make the field and he was coming up on a residential area and skillfully put the plane down in the one area between the subdivisions that would avoid hurting anyone in the houses. Joe was always glad to share his aircraft and to allow you to crawl all around it to take pictures.  Our deepest sympathies go out to his wife Nancy, son Jim and his daughters and grandchildren.

Our website continues to grow and improve. The site address is  www.oocities.org/swamp001. Everyone will need to be featured to keep this site fresh. Now posted on the website is coverage from the IPMS/USA Nationals. We have a lot of great pictures from Fred Stalbaum and a few from me that will showcase the models and the tours to NAS Oceana, Fighter Factory, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk Naval Museum and the USS Wisconsin. There are a lot of quality photos here and it should be great for all to view. Fred also offers a CD Rom of the photos for $5.00 plus postage.  In addition Randy will have all the contest info and downloadable forms put on the website.

The contest flyer and entry forms are available for download directly from our website. So please pass that info on.

People have been asking for the following demos: Weathering of vehicles and aircraft, plastic polishing, Airbrush tips, natural metal finishes, airbrushing. So volunteers are needed.

We want to make sure that our flyers and Sumter’s are up in the local hobby shops. If you notice either club’s missing when you next visit a shop please let me know so they can be replaced. It is very important to let potential members know both clubs are out there.

Randy gave a treasurer’s report and we have $1428.00 in our account. From this $510 was used to create a contest fund and to pay for our chapter renewal.

New items on display for us to drool over were:

• Finescale Modeler new issue

• Flypast Magazine new issue

• New issue of SAMI

• Aeroplane Monthly new issue

• New issue of Air Classics

• 1/35 Italeri Dukw

• 1/48 Panda models F-35

• 1/35 Revell LVT-A1

• F-15 in Action book

• 1/35 Diorama base of a train crossing with ruined buildings

• 1/35 Hasegawa Kubel wagon 82

• Atlas of eastern Front Battles book

• Encyclopedia of Military Modeling book

•  Bristol Beaufighter modelers guide

• Mosquito Modelers guide

• Elefant/Jagdtiger Strum tiger

• 1/48 Testors o-2A

• Tamiya router

• 1/8 resin Jango Fett figure 

Completed kits and in progress items were:

• 1/48 AMT F7F-3 Tigercat by Hub Plott

• 1/48 Classic Airframes Re-2000 by Hub Plott

• Battledroid from Star Wars by Jason Crews

• 1/72 Napoleonic War Artillery set by Jason Crews

Here’s a list of the upcoming contests:

• Jan. 31^st –Feb. 1 Atlanta Model expo*

• May 17^th Our joint show, Lexington, SC*

Those with an * are the ones members of our club and Sumter are planning to attend. If interested in joining us talk to Hub.

Next meeting:
November 21st will be our next meeting at 7:00PM at Hobbytown. We will discuss our Christmas party. So come on down and voice your opinion and participate. After all it is YOUR club.

Till next time

Hub