Okay now you have an update. Check out our Flickr account for three new sets of pictures from previous meetings. I am sorry I didn’t post it sooner but not real sorry. Perhaps you can visualize my forefinger and thumb being as close to each other as I can get them without touching. I heard some grumbling about a lack of website updates at the last meeting. Well let explain some things. First off I’ve asked to the point of begging for articles for our newsletter but as of yet we’ve got nothing back. Second in my capacity as a retail store manager during the Christmas season I have little time and even less motivation to sit down at a computer to hammer out a BLOG entry. In fact we don’t schedule vacations for any of the staff starting in November through the end of January. Now that we’ve hit the middle of February things are a little different. However I would still like some articles for the newsletter. All we need is some written words and a few pictures. As for the written part it doesn’t matter what format as we will find a way to convert it but the obvious choice would be as a MS Word document. There was also an idea from our past which I like and that is to have some profiles of the various members. I could create a basic template to get things started but the main thing is if you guys want updates during the November to January periods you will have to supply the content.
If you look back through the previous post there has been some talk about holding a contest. It looks like we are moving forward with those plans. I’ll have more information next month but I have to say that everything looks good so far despite our small membership. The contest will be a great way to gather a database to send email or snail-mail about our club. I think once word gets out that we are here, what we offer and how much fun we have the club will grow. Of course I’m of the opinion that once that happens the next contest will be a lot easier since all of the work can be spread out. I also believe that larger membership will make the meetings even better as we can learn what different modelers have to offer. Right now we have had a lot of great demos and our raffle is based on how many tickets we sell. Now if we had more club members it sure would make the raffle quite a bit bigger and a lot more fun. The demos we’ve had were great but what if we could find someone out there using the new extreme techniques like using pigments and airbrush modulation. Personally I’d be interested in seeing that done somewhere other than a magazine article where I could ask some questions.
Speaking of demos I’m looking forward to seeing Ric Hester presenting his techniques on drybrushing at the next meeting. Ric wasn’t able to make it to the last meeting so hopefully nothing comes up this month to keep him attending. For those of you who don’t know Ric is quite the artist so you’ll want to make it if at all possible.
The next meeting will be held at Modesto Hobby and Crafts on Friday February 27 starting at 7:00. I hope to see you there.
This is a reminder that the November meeting has been moved up one week to the third Friday of the month due to a scheduling conflict with Thanksgiving. The new meeting date will be November 21, 2008. Please also note that the December meeting has been moved up one week to the third Friday of the month due to a scheduling conflict with Christmas. The new meeting date will be December 19, 2008.
This might be a good place to throw out the idea of putting together a club membership directory so we can email all the members when things like this come up. I know a majority of the membership do not read these posts so how are they going to find out about the change in meeting dates if they missed the last meeting where this was decided? The idea of a club roster has been brought up before but due to certain issues such as who would and wouldn’t have access to the list in order to prevent everybody from getting junk email or strange calls from strange people at bad hours. It’s not that we don’t trust each other but rather if we post it online everybody who is online would have access to it including some very untrustworthy people. I know I guard my privacy and keep all club contact through work since I have to deal with the public anyway. Since I respect your privacy just as much as I guard mine I’m going to ask for your input about how we might create and distribute a club roster in order to contact everyone about reminders such as this one. Please give us your input so we can figure something out.
Another subject we need to discuss is the need for club dues. Some people felt it was unfair that I had to pay for the cost of domain and the hosting of the club website out of my own pocket. Others have noted that it isn’t right that I’ve made up the shortfall in money when the raffle didn’t break even. I never said a word about either of those things because it’s hard enough getting people to attend the meeting without twisting arms for club dues. Besides that a lot of the members have been kind enough to donate kits to the raffle so I just consider that part my donation. However there is one thing we can’t get around. If we are going to grow the club we need to talk about the c word. Yes, I’m talking about a contest. A contest always seems to bring out some of the closet modelers in the area. In order to participate they have to fill out a registration form where there is contact information. Then we can send them reminders about the meetings. Of course that leads to a few of them investigating the club meetings. Now think about it, many of us made contact with a club via a contest of some sort. The dues would be the seed money for a contest. I think most of us know how that works but for the uninitiated the money is used for trophies, sending out fliers and raffle solicitations, rent on a facility and so on. The nice thing about a contest is if it makes money then we don’t have to worry about dues for a few years. If you choose not to have a contest club dues can also be used for other cool club events like some other clubs have done. We could have a meeting where pizza is delivered and the club picks up the tab. Again, that is a way to get new members or to have old members come back for at least that month. Then if we have a good demo or such maybe that will be incentive for them to keep attending. The reason we want the club to grow is that the new guys will almost always have something to contribute even it’s sometime down the road. Remember at one time we were all new guys in a club.
Another thing that was brought up at the October meeting was the idea of a gift swap for the December meeting. Now I have to admit that I’m not sure of the ground rules because I haven’t seen one in action and I don’t really remember what was discussed. The bottom line is this is something else we need to talk about at the next meeting so that everybody understands and so I can post it here.
I have to apologize for being late with this post but I didn’t want to sound like a broken record about how great the meeting was and how you missed another great demo if you didn’t make it but I wanted to post the reminder closer to the meeting date so it wouldn’t be forgotten by the time the meeting actually takes place.
Let me end this on a good note, at least a good note for some of us. As president of the club I’m going to extend the deadline for the club project until the January meeting. Besides I’m paying for the gift certificate for the winner so I think I should be able to make that move. Okay if you have an issue with that we can put it to a vote but let’s face it only the people who got it finished might be against it. Since we will be back on a normal schedule for our meetings in January it will be on the 23rd. That will get us past all the holidays and by then most people will be back in a normal mode. I feel the with the shopping and all the other things that keep us busy this time of year it’s only fair to extend the deadline. In the past meeting attendance goes down this time of year so it makes sense. It seems like even if someone had enough time to finish their project they might not be able to make it to the meeting so they should get the chance to participate. I also felt since there is a gift certificate riding on this I figured it would be only fair to those who are almost finished but won’t have the chance to work on it due to the circumstances.
I hope to see everybody at the next meeting. If I don’t see you there let me take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!
For those of you who missed the September meeting you missed another good one. The people participating in the club project made show and tell quite interesting. A one month extension was voted on and passed unanimously. The project is now due the day of the November meeting. Don’t forget that I will be awarding a prize of a gift certificate to Modesto Hobby and Crafts to one of the participants. See my last post (August Meeting Debrief) for details. This is a good time to point out that our November meeting will fall on the day after Thanksgiving so we need to talk about moving the meeting to another day. Last year we moved it to the third Friday of the November.
Unfortunately we don’t have pictures this month as no one brought a camera. I pretty much knew this was going to happen since Alan Weber who normally takes pictures was busy with the demonstration. It was a great demo as usual, we are lucky to have such talented members who are so willing to share. After seeing that I know everybody has made a trip to their favorite paint or hardware store to pick a can of Varathane. I was going to put a link to the website but they have so many products I wouldn’t want to confuse the issue. However you can always use Google and search for waterbased Varathane. The company website also has a locate a retailer feature if you still can’t find it locally. I don’t know why I’m writing this and giving you that information as the stuff is so good I’m thinking about buying some for resale at Modesto Hobby. For the October meeting Bryan Finch has agreed to put on a demo showing how to use CA adhesive to glue clear parts and windows. Trust me you don’t want to miss this one because you’ll regret it when you see how perfect the windows turn out. What’s better it’s pretty easy. I followed his technique on my 1/48 scale He-111 and they turned out great. Now if I say it’s easy and they turned out perfect you better believe it’s a good technique to learn. I hope to see you there.
One last bit of club business that I forgot to bring up at the meeting that I’ll mention here and that is the club website domain and hosting has been renewed. I paid for it out of my own pocket so no club membership dues for now unless we want to hold a contest. We would need some seed money for such a venture. This is something else we need to talk about once we are past the holidays. It would be a great way to boost membership and as you can see from our demos we all benefit from a strong membership.
I don’t want to end this post on a business note, but rather I’d like to keep these fun and useful. I’m going to post a link here to two of my favorite model related websites. The first one is as the name says an index listing just about every model related website that you can imagine. http://www.scalemodelindex.com/ It even has our website listed under IPMS/USA clubs. The only thing I would suggest is that you right click each link and select either open in a new window or new tab so that you can add any of the sites you like to your favorites. The second one has the best new release information I’ve seen. Trust me I’m in the business and this guy has the scoop. For example the company that owns Revell (Hobbico) also owns a wholesale distribution company (Great Planes). Great Planes is the North American importer of Revell AG. I check the Great Planes website just about everyday. This website had the information months before I was able to order the new kits from Great Planes. The same thing can be said for Hasegawa kits and their importer Dragon Models USA. http://www.cybermodeler.com/special/2008_releases.shtml It’s a good website so you can easily navigate to the rest of the site from there if you wish to explore further. I also have to give him credit for deleting any release news that certain companies can’t seem to live up to.
That’s all for now, hope to see you all at the next meeting on October 24th. Don’t forget October has five Fridays this month. Remember the meeting is on the 4th Friday, NOT the last.
For everybody who missed it you may now see pictures of the August meeting that have been posted at our Flickr account. The hit of the meeting was Bryan’s demo on using brass tubing. For those of you who don’t know, Bryan is a multiple IPMS/USA National award winning modeler. He has also won multiple regional and local best of show awards. Unfortunately pictures do not do his demo justice. It would also be nearly impossible to describe his techniques here in this format. However those of you who did miss it might ask him to write an article for our next newsletter. We already have the pictures so an article would be a good way to have context for those pictures. I know it would also be a great refresher for those of us who did see it. Heck, I’ll ask right now. Bryan would you please write an article based on your demo for the next newsletter? Perhaps someday we can shoot videos of these demos and post them online so everybody can see them, but in the meantime you should really make it to the meetings or you will miss out on more great demos that we have planned for future meetings. I also need to mention that after a short discussion about the club project that the use of aftermarket decals will be allowed. We know how old some of those decals are so it’s totally understandable if you want to replace them with something else. Please don’t forget to bring your in progress projects to the September meeting. Part of the idea for this club project is so everybody who chooses to participate will have common ground to share their techniques and to be honest, to either ask for help in solving problems or sharing how we overcame many of the difficulties that come with these kits. Anybody have warped parts and fit issues? I thought so. It was also asked if old builds qualify for the project. Well, like I said in my last post this is all for fun. So please do bring in any of your old completed 1/48 scale models built from Monogram kits to the meetings. It will be a lot of fun to see them and take a nostalgic trip down memory lane for most of us, and as I said you can talk about them during show and tell as a great way of sharing techniques. However I’m announcing a special incentive to get your current club projects done. I will be awarding a gift certificate to Modesto Hobby and Crafts to one of the participants. To make things interesting the amount of the award will be based on participation. The gift certificate will be in the amount of $10 for each model completed. In other words if we have ten completed models the gift certificate will be for $100. However only models started for this project will be eligible for the prize, so we will all have to see something in progress at the next meeting since the deadline is in October. I know what some of you are thinking. What if I can’t make it to the September meeting? My answer would be for you to share the progress of your project with one of your fellow club members outside of the meeting. Most of us subscribe to the theory that model building should be something social to create enthusiasm instead of something solitary that leads to stagnation. That’s why some of us have made offers to carpool to the various contests around the region. So here is a perfect example and opportunity to make an invitation to your fellow club members. You can also send me pictures of your project which I always like since I’m always looking for good content to post. However I do warn you that if I get good in progress pictures that I may ask you to write an article for the newsletter. My email can be found in the contact list on our website. Just remember to put something about SJVSM in the subject line. Okay we all know there is no way to tell if you are just finishing a shelf queen that you started years ago so you are on the honor system there, but if this is enough incentive to finish it we still benefit from the participation. I also hope the prize will foster some good natured peer encouragement and motivation to finish your projects. Since I am paying for this certificate out of my own personal funds I will be using my own criteria to judge the entries. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be asking for input, but it won’t necessarily be the best technically built model according to IPMS rules and standards. I will take into account the model builders level of experience and will be judging it against previous efforts they have brought to the meetings. I will be looking at basics like alignment and seams but other things I will be looking at will include how ambitious of a project the model was. For example multi-engine versus single engine, how complex the finish (paint and decals) was, and subjective things like weathering. Speaking of paint and decals, that leads to a reminder that our next demo will be a follow on to Alan Weber’s July demo on airbrushing Polly Scale paints. Alan will be doing a gloss coating as a preparation for decaling demo for the September meeting. For those of you who don’t know Alan is also a multiple time winner at the IPMS/USA National contests. Trust me this is something you don’t want to miss. I am also requesting that anybody who has a camera to please bring it to the meeting and shoot some pictures since Alan is the one who has been taking most of the pictures at our meetings. Obviously he will have his hands full with the demo. I’d also like to publicly thank both Bryan and Alan for putting on these demos. I think it makes the meetings much more than just a social event for like minded people, but also a great learning tool for making better models. I personally think that is what a club should be, a balance between a social event and a place for learning new techniques. I truly believe we are on the right track thanks to all of you. We might be small right now compared to other clubs but we will grow as word gets around what we are all about.
Alan Weber is going to follow up his paint demo from the July meeting with gloss coat and decal demo. And don’t forget to bring your club project model, regardless of degree of completion!
We are proud to announce our first official club project. After some discussion over the past month we have come to a decision regarding a club project. It will be 1/48 scale Classic Monogram aircraft kits of the pre Pro Modeler era. This includes all 1/48 scale kits of the 1960’s right up through the early 90’s. Propeller, jet, single or multi engine are all included. If it has raised panel lines it’s eligible. One of the goals of this project is to provide the members a simple and easy way to use the techniques we have seen demonstrated at our meetings over the past several months. It also allows for a common basis for a discussion during the show and tell section of the next few meetings. The rules are simple; they will be per IPMS out of the box. Rules can be found at the IPMS website. See section III. http://www.ipmsusa.org/NCC/NCC.htm There will be a few exceptions to ease construction and to use some of the techniques we have had as demonstrations at the last several meetings. This includes the use of lead foil to make seat belts, metal or plastic tubing for gun barrels, adding a nylon or stretched sprue antenna aerial, and restoring or scribing panel lines lost to filling seams. Of course this is fun so the rules will be interpreted in a loose way and of course can be amended. The deadline for this project will be October 18, 2008 at the IPMS Tri-Valley contest. For those of you not attending the contest the deadline will be our regular meeting at Modesto Hobby and Crafts on October 24, 2008. If you have any questions or concerns please let us know. A flyer for the project can be downloaded here.
Here’s the project flyer!
Don’t miss out on this month’s meeting on August 22nd. Bryan Finch will be doing a demo on using brass tubing for gun barrels and other items!
We are happy to announce the release of the first SJVSM newsletter in over a decade! Just click the “Newsletters” link on the left and download it there.
Don’t forget about the meeting coming up this Friday! Alan Weber will be demo’ing painting techniques using Polly Scale paints.
