Ah, Springtime. Young mens' thoughts turn to fancies of...styrene and resin. April's meeting was a small one, perhaps the rest of the group decided to take advantage of the nice weather for a bike ride or something. For those of you who did miss the meeting, you missed some truly outstanding modeling goodness.

First, the news:

Wonderfest follows closely on NIMO's heels, May 15 and 16. Will the group finish the space station project? Will it look like merde or a showstopper? Stay tuned for act 3 of the drama.

IPMS Nationals is in July, and Larry Johnson is still collecting for our contribution to Make-and-take. It's in Pheonix - they must have acquired a good rate in July...

The IPMS Techmages has decided to produce a run of club T-shirts. These are destined to be sought-after attire for all model shows - so flash the colors, G. John is collecting orders. Remember, buy two shirts as one will almost certianly get pizza stains and superglue spots. The shirts will be about $16, and will be a light gray color.

Front, heartprint

Not-front, across the shoulder blades

(Note from John: The order is in, shirts will be available after NIMO. S-XL will be in the neighborhood of $16; 2XL $17 and 3XL $18 ---- but the quote I got didn't include tax or shipping (which won't be a factor if I can get my butt down to Morton Grove to pick 'em up) so the prices may be adjusted. I'll know soon enough and let everyone in on the secret -- John)

New products:

The long awaited Polar Lights 1/350 NX-01 kit is available. Larry Johnson gives us the rundown:

Finemolds adds to their growing lineup of 1/72 Star Wars kits with a Slave-1. I wasn't going to buy one until I saw the pre-production sample John brought. Now I must have one. John Lester gives us the rundown:

We found a Revell 1/72 Type VII U-Boat kit in Venture's back room, awaiting return due to broken bits. We helped ourselves to a sneak peek. Wow. That's about all I can say. Wow.

Show-and-tell.

John Lester brought that Slave-1 kit for us to drool on, don't worry the plastic wasn't removed. He also brought his online build project, a repair tender conversion of the PL TOS Enterprise. See it here: He's using the new JTGraphics replacement bridge for the PL TOS Enterprise - perfect if you want the kit to look like the (inaccurate) ERTL kit's bridge. It's useful for variants, or for consistency with your existing kits. The Vorlon Fighter kit from Planet V (you know him, you love him) is a nice box full of resin goodies. (Why didn't I get a preview copy? I'm not feeling the love here) (you didn't pay Vinnie good money for one, that-s why -- John). John also showed his new system for mounting the docks for the uber-project space station. It will be tough to mount the LEDs with the rod in there, but we need the structural strength.

Ken had some Macross artwork books for us to drool on.

Larry Johnson's comments on the NX-01 which he bought meeting day are above. Larry builds big naval ships, so it should be interesting to see this move along.

Chad (remember Chad?) brought his Mad Max conversion set for the Torino. It's not great, and he'll likely do the work on a Torino kit himself.

Tony unveiled his Y-wing diorama entry for Wonderfest. These are the 1/48 kits from SMT with additional detailing from Tony. We gave it the "judges eye" review and I'm confident with a bit more work Tony will have another acrylic spike gold medal at Wonderfest. His re-worked cockpits and pilots are just great.

I showed off my damaged Loknar in progress. I'm using the metal foil from wine bottles as structural skin - it tears and bends well, holds its shape and looks good in-scale.

There you have it, the April meeting followed by the traditional greasy dinner (at Fuddruckers this time). We will have a May meeting, and the T-shirts should be available then - just in time for Wonderfest.

Now, back to painting!

Terry

Image: April was a small turnout

Image: A few more souls

Image: And a few more

Image: John brought a box 'o stuff

Image: The first of which - Finemolds Slave 1

Image: The bottom of Slave 1

Image: Another view

Image: Some of the many parts

Image: Here you can see the figures

Image: Some more parts

Image: It was a hit with all

Image: Including Chad

Image: And Neil

Image: The Planet V Vorlon Fighter

Image: Inside the box

Image: The parts laid out

Image: A closeup

Image: The docking spines and Johns PL E conversion

Image: Ken made molds of Legos...

Image: and they work!

Image: Tony liked Larry's NX-01

Image: Chad brought his Mad Max Interceptor kit

Image: Another look

Image: Chad didn't like the body

Image: So he got a new one

Image: Tony's incredible Y-Wing Diorama

Image: Another view

Image: Tony re-worked the cockpit and pilot

Image: Another view

Image: Tony added a beard to one pilot

Image: A back view

Image: Even closer

Image: The top of the Y-Wing

Image: and an engine

Image: From the front

Image: Another look at the detail

Image: And the cockpit

Image: And again

Image: An aft left quarter view

Image: Another look at the cockpit

Image: Another look at the nose

Image: No glass - like the studio models

Image: Battle damage

Image: A little closer

Image: Tony built a trench for his Y-Wings

Image: The back wall

Image: A full view

Image: Lots of detail

Image: The deck

Image: The edges

Image: Weathered

Image: The deck again

Image: The ship mounts

Image: Closeup of the mount

Image: Terry's Battle Damaged Loknar

Image: The saucer

Image: The nacelle and strut

Image: Another angle

Image: The other strut

Image: Tony added a beard to one pilot