August Meeting Debrief
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.
