March already. The year has flown by so far. We're closing on NIMO and Wonderfest at an alarming rate, and I know I'm not ready for either. Whether ready or not, here they come.

A how to demo - Pastels

Joe "cruise director" Suttie asked for volunteers to demonstrate some pastel techniques at this meeting. Larry Johnson and I showed a couple of techniques. Larry showed that you don't need to grind the pastel on sandpaper, but merely scrape the chalk lightly with a blade. This works very well. He then showed how to simulate whitewash on a surface. A paste of white pastel dust is made to the constituency of loose toothpaste. He didn't use a flow aid, but a bit of dish soap can increase spreadability. He spread the sludge on a glossy model airplane wing, and let that dry. After drying, he used a soft toothbrush to remove excess to the point where he was happy. It's pretty impressive, and will work easily well at making the surface of a tank caked with dust or sand, for instance.

I showed a more traditional brush-on method for using the pastel dust. Whether highlighting panels, simulating gunsmoke residue, oilstains or when using some red and grey, simulating hydraulic fluid leaks, the technique is easy. Pick up the pastel dust on a soft paintbrush (no longer suitable for paint) and grind lightly into a matte surface.

The pastel dust can be removed with a kneaded eraser. It can be fixed in place with dullcoat, but be very careful - very light coats are required in order to not damage the dust.

Some Official Business and Sci-Fi news

Larry Johnson is still collecting for the National IPMS show's Make-and-Take. Please part with a few bucks to support this worthy cause. The modeler of tomorrow is often the make-and-take participant of today.

Neil Butler reminded us that the LAKES region club meeting is the last friday of the month.

The DVD Revolution has really caught up with SF television. Yes, Lost in Space is now available for your viewing pleasure. You can now revel in tinfoil outfits, styrofoam boulders and the seething Dr. Smith to your heart's content. Also available are Andromeda and Stargate Season 6, both at reasonable prices. Other entertainment news includes news about the ending of Farscape, which will be in a jam-packed miniseries format. No filler, all frellin' is the word on the streets. If you are interested in an effort to save the lackluster Enterprise show, this might be of interest to you. Stargate Season 7 has drawn to an end. And what an end it was. Now we get to wait 'till July for Season 8 and the premier of Atalantis.

There are new kits available at Starshipmodeler and Federation Models, if you have purchased any and would like to submit a mini-review for the club, please let me know.

Now, the show-and-tell.

Ken brought some hard-to-find Gunbuster ship kits. These were interesting designs, and should be fun projects.

Tony showed his Death Star surface tiles for his Wonderfest project. As usual, very nice. He also showed a very old scratchbuilt study model of the Deathstar and explained how to create a concave divot on the sphere. It involved a compass, heatsmashing plastic and very careful cutting.

Art showed the new(ish) PNT Models destroyer conversion for PL's Enterprise kit. He also showed off by bringing a completed kit for the second month in a row. This time, the Roswell UFO kit which served as a testbed for using Alclad. He also repositioned the little alien pilot who now stands on the base, waving. Art also brought along an AMAI Galvion robot kit, which caught his imagination. Art..must...build...giant...robot...

Jon "Vir" Kunatz brought his painted PL Klingon D-7 kit. This was the kit he showed last meeting, unbuilt. He's also trying to finish his PL Ent conversion, the Zhukov destroyer.

John Lester brought the dock spine for the spacedock project, the new SM 1/2500 Star Trek kits, and his chica figure which is coming along nicely. This is the figure which he's re-sculpting to add fatigues, a new tank top etc. It's an ambitious project.

I, Terry, brought finished examples of those SM 1/2500 kits, the Larson, Loknar and Odonata class vessels. I also brought along an essentially finished USS Loknar conversion for the 1/1000 PL kit. I'm also learning some new miniatures painting techniques and brought some minis to show that off.

Neil brought the custom decals for his PL Tug conversion. These include "Techmage Heavy Industries" logos, some graffitti and other ideas like bumper stickers "If you can read this you've been hopelessly irradiated."

Joe showed us many items for the spacedock and PL Enterprise kits. These included the motor assembly, mounts for the ships to the spine, and a number of electronic goodies. He's got a nice sequence for the warp nacelle, and the navigational lights.

Don B brought some of the TOMY second batch ST minis, which are going to include some very interesting subjects. He's also started a Black Pearl model - which I look forward to seeing in progress.

So there you go, another big meeting. See you in April, either at the meeting on the 10th, or NIMO on the 25th, or both.

Terry Miesle, President

Image: Larry shows a whitewash

Image: Art's getting a bit DEEF!

Image: Ken's Gunbusters

Image: Another view of these sleek ships

Image: Tony's scratchbuilt lighted Deathstar

Image: Art's Roswell UFO

Image: Art wanted to try a BMF with Alclad

Image: Art's little alien

Image: Jon's already built a PL D7 - in Romulan colors

Image: The Docking slip John built for the WF project

Image: Terry's nearly finished SM Chicago

Image: You got your Loknar class in my docking slip!

Image: Terry brought quite a few little things

Image: Terry's minis

Image: Terry's gaming minis and 1/2500 Larson

Image: Terry's 1/2500 Locknar and more gaming minis

Image: Terry's 1/2500 Odonata and Locknar

Image: Neil's decals for his PL tug conversion

Image: Joe's single chaser nacelle lighting

Image: Joe's triple chaser nacelle lighting

Image: I forgot who brought this PL E scout conversion kit

Image: The WF project with docking bay coming along

Image: Lit up!

Image: Enterprise on approach

Image: Enterprise docked