IPMS/USA
Montgomery, AL USA
Meetings:
The 1st Thursday of every month at 7:00pm in the Learning Arts Center.
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Meeting Report
Twelve members attended this meeting. Many new items and projects were on display. Mark Davis brought a nearly-completed Hasegawa 1/72 Tiger I and the old Revell Atlas rocket kit in the box. Jim Birchfield brought Italeri's new LVT-4(A), which was nearly complete and huge! He noted some problems with molding marks and pins, but said it built up pretty easily. He also brought Skybow's 1/35 BEEP kit, which he said was great to build-very detailed and well fitting. Both were painted and ready for marking and weathering. Karl Ryan brought two older Tamiya kits: an M41 Walker Bulldog in JASDF markings, and the T-34/76 1942 kit. Both were very nicely finished and weathered, especially since both were completely brush-painted. Budd brought a 1/700 resin model of the Takao from Skywave. The castings on this model truly need to be seen to be appreciated. He also brought Tamiya's new 1/700 USS Indianapolis, which has been called "best 1/700 injection-molded ship ever" by several sources. Budd also had a resin model of a Soviet `Juliet' class submarine. He also brought a very nice reference book on HMS Hood published by a Polish company. Will brought a few projects he is working on; a DML SiG 33B self-propelled gun that he is adding some scratchbuilt detail to, Tamiya's new Schwimmwagen, and Revell Germany's M4A1 which he has corrected and added tons of scratchbuilt brass details. He is correcting and superdetailing the interior of the Schwimmwagen based on very detailed photos of the real thing he found on the internet. James Booty brought a Soviet BA-20 light armored car in the box. It was produced by an eastern European company, but it wasn't possible to tell which one. The parts looked a little rough, but showed nothing he can't fix. He also brought an Armada book on WWII Soviet tank camouflage. The photos in this books were very striking, as they dispel the myth that the Soviets used nothing other than medium green and whitewash in the Great Patriotic War. Robert Blanke brought his personal photographs taken while on deployment in the Persian Gulf in 1992. Some were of US and Saudi aircraft at a Saudi airbase, while others photos were taken during flight ops on the USS Independence. Roger brought his PST 1/72 scale IS-2, which he had almost finished. He replaced many of the clunkier details with brass wire, and tried to make other improvements wherever possible. He also brought the Hasegawa 1/48 scale `skeleton Zero'. A huge amount of photoetch is provided to model the fuselage structural members. The kit is very detailed and would make for a great display if completely `tricked out'. Roger also brought several books, including profiles of the Yak 1/Yak 3 and the Yak 9, Squadron's Swordfish in Action, and Flugzeug's Cockpit Profile #6.
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