From The President

    As John is laid up, recovering from an injured ankle - and the surgery required to fix said ankle, I'll directly post the update.  Let John's suffering be a warning to all - do NOT allow cats to sleep on the stairs.

You might also notice the email addresses of some of our adjunct members on the email listings, and even some Foreign Legionnaires.  Hi guys, welcome to the show.

July 2005 Techmage meeting notes:

July 9th, 2005
Attendees:  Chad, Neil B, Bob F, Art, John M, Neil P, Jon K, James F, Joe, Baltasar, John L, Terry.

This was the first meeting in our new digs, the Blackhawk center of Hoffman Estates.  It’s a long room with enough space for most anything we want to do, and does have a sink.  It’s a bit loud, as the walls are cinder blocks.  It’s not bad, and I think there’s enough space to move around for better looks at our show-and-tell items.

Now we need to keep the momentum and interest in our club to maintain the use of this room.  I don’t think this will be a problem, we have a lot of regulars now, and I think this room will be even better for demonstrations.  Our meeting time is pushed back a bit, now 5:30 to 7:30.  There’s time for a trip to Venture in the afternoon, and perhaps a quick bite to eat before or after the meeting.

Upcoming events:

Summer Plastic Meltdown aka "Son of NIMO" August 14th    Details at the end of the newsletter.

Our Techmage Picnic will be pushed back a week, as Joe is on vacation the second Saturday of August - and that's also the weekend of Summer Plastic Meltdown.  The picnic will be the third Saturday of August, the 20th.  It's potluck, and I'm sure Joe will coordinate to make sure we cover the basics.

Dues:

We're going to collect $18 per person, when factoring in our regular members this covers the cost of the room rental, $40 a session for 8 meetings per year.  We collected at the meeting, including a $6 pro-rated contribution to cover this year.  We will set up a club email account and a paypal account attached to it.  Please pay your dues, and come to a meeting in our new venue.

Now, for Show-and-Tell:

Art:
He's finished the XAAM kit of the NX-01 shuttlecraft, and placed it on a simple base with a figure.  The figure is from Tamiya, with a few changes to make it look more like an early Trek person.  He played with Alclad aluminum and polished aluminum on this model.  Very nice work Art, keep it up.  Oh, he's made a lot of progress on the Deep Space 1 model.  This first deployed ion engined probe seems to be quite successful thus far, and so is Art's model.

John M:
Refused to show us his progress on the 1/32 scale Allison engine for his Trumpeter P-40.

Jon "Vir" K:
Jon is among the group heading to Atlanta.  He showed off his Russian M4A2 Sherman destined for the "Sherman in Atlanta" special category.  He also showed off his Stalin's Organ rocket launcher truck which turned out quite nice.  He described a sponge stipple technique for painting armor, which looks quite convincing.  I think we'll have to draft him for a demonstration at an upcoming meeting.  He's also working on a PaK 40 artillery piece - nice to see towed artillery once in a while - and a SF reworking of the M1 Abrams.  I say name it an "M1-B5!"

Neil P:
Brought along an Estes kit of an X-Prize contender.  It’s a rocket plane glider, a large vacuformed shape which has great potential for SF model work.

James:
Brought a whole lot of stuff.  He's bashing/correcting a tie fighter, changing the wings for the interceptor, to make it more like the actual filming model.  He's finishing a TOS Jupiter II using the Skyhook correction parts, and the lighting kit.  His build is looking VERY nice, and whoever contracted this will be quite happy, I'm sure.  James also showed off some 1/48 Space Shuttle plans - and it's pretty darn big.  Also, he showed us some Aztec pattern masks for the 1/350 refit Enterprise, but I’m not sure where he got them.

Joe aka Master of the Greeblies:
Brought the GGRU molds along.  Wow, Just Wow.  As of the meeting there was still space in the last mold for more bits.  He also brought along some Battletech minis he wants to use as the basis for a 1/35 build for the year-delayed stealth diorama.

Baltazar:
Brought his Sand Speeder, which is nearing completion.  This is his experiment with pastel and oil washes.  It's looking nice, but he's trying to decide what to do with the canopy glass.  Smoked glass was suggested, but I prefer the idea of mirrored glass - it's a desert warfare aircraft, reflective glass makes sense to me.  He also got ahold of one of Zarkus' AT-PT scout walker kits.

John L:
Brought an Emhar Mk V (Hermaphrodite) WWI tank.  He's retrofitting this beast to depict a US Civil War era technology tank.  Steam engined, with appropriate weaponry, this will be accompanied by numerous Union Soldiers in 1/35 scale for a forthcoming diorama.  He also showed us the new Batmobile kit, from Batman Begins.  At $40 it's moderately priced, and every bit as nice as we've come to expect from Japanese kits.  His big Walker kit is assembled, and moving along.

Terry:
Showed my nearly completed WARP Stargate diorama kit.  I built two of them, one for me and one for Tracy of Federation Models as a display.  I also brought the primed Cold Navy Khadorn minis, and the battleship Chris Lynch sculpted to accompany the Khadorn ships.

     So that's about it.  See you next month at the picnic, if not at the show in Crystal Lake.

Ter

You are cordially invited to attend the first annual Summer Plastic Meltdown hosted by IPMS/C.A.R.S. in Miniature and IPMS/GTR Grand Touring and Racing Auto Modelers, co-organizers of the Northern Illinois Modelers Open (NIMO).  The first annual Summer Plastic Meltdown is the first all new forum for multi- subject plastic scale modelers in our area.

We patterned this show after numerous successful "NNL" style automotive model shows.  Our show is not a competitive show in a traditional sense, however, it offers a forum for the scale modeler to display his or her work for others to enjoy and appreciate.  We will bestow (with the help of your fellow modelers), "Peoples Choice" awards for Best Automotive, Best Military Vehicle, Best Aircraft, Best Science Fiction and Best Ship category (all scales, all types for each category).  Every person entering the show will have a chance to decide which model will win the "People's Choice award" in each category.

There is no limit to the number of models you may display; bring as many models as you like ---we will provide 8' tables on risers for your viewing pleasure.  Admission is $5.00 per person all ages at the door which includes a pizza lunch (soda and bottled water will be available to purchase).  As an added feature we are offering free vending/swap space in our parking lot for the great Summer Plastic Meltdown "trunk sale."  Show-goers and vendors are invited to sell and swap out of their vehicle’s trunk, come rain or shine*

Image: John, Chad, Jon, Neil Sr, Neil P, James

Image: Art, Baltazar, John, Bob, Larry J, Terry

Image: Art's Foil Practice

Image: NX-01 Shuttle Pod

Image: Trumpeter P-40 Engine

Image: Stalin Organ rocket launcher

Image: SF reworking of the M1-Abrams

Image: Russian M4A2 Sherman

Image: Tie-Intercepter on Base

Image: Third party Star Wars base

Image: Juptier Control consoles and seats

Image: Juptier Power Thingy

Image: Where's Art?

Image: Shuttle Blue Prints

Image: Great Gribbly Round Up Bits

Image: BattleTech Fire Scorpian

Image: BattleTech Goliath

Image: Golaith Belly

Image: Goliath Side

Image: Jonny Flinstone's Cadishack Gopher

Image: Small scale detailed 'copter

Image: Sand Speeder

Image: Zarkus' AT-PT scout walker

Image: New Batman BatMobile

Image: The spider tank

Image: Emhar Mk V (Hermaphrodite) WWI tank

Image: The Stargate

Image: Jafe Serpant Gaurds

Image: Cold Navy