Freeminutes for May 2008 Fremont Hornets Meeting written by Mick Burton
Held at Irvington Community Center
21 members present
Meeting started 840 PM, ended 1030pm approx.
Quick summary of business portion of the meeting: Al Gerace has moved completely into his new address for "Hobbies Unlimited" now at 937 Manor Boulevard, San Leandro CA 94579. Mick Burton gave an update on upcoming contests for May and June for West Coast, with shows coming in Puyallup WA and Ontario CA featured. Lively and flattering discussion of the SVSM 2008 Kickoff Classic went on, finalized with announcement of the Fremont Hornets having won First Place there in Collections category with their Spitfire family entry.
Later in evening with arrival of member Woody Yeung, the appropriate surprise assault was launched by present membership. With loud sudden applause as he entered room properly confusing him, this so we could present Woody with the award for the club's winning entry of which he'd had a Tamiya Spitfire as participant. Other members in the entry group were Jim Priete, Mark Schynert and Mick Burton. Business wrapped up with RC for Region 9 Chris Bucholtz noting local chapter news and then reporting on the very successful Aces Symposium held at the Sacramento Air Museum featuring this round P-51 Aces. Chris noted the gentlemen present were very very
appreciative of the models on display and even signed one of them on right upper wing before Mike Woolson (the builder) could stop'em!Fremont Hornet Mick Burton sent along six 1/48 scale Mustangs of Aces in support, sadly for him couldn't make event in person.
Mark Schynert reminded everyone of next month's Fabulous Fremont Hornet Auction to signal business close, which prompted Mark McDonald to note he'd brought his agreed upon storage commitment for that event this month in error. This happily was resolved in swift fashion, with an impromptu auction! A Roden OV-1A Mohawk in 1/48 went for 16 dollars, followed by a Tamiya Stug for 15, DML "Isherman" for 21 and lastly Hasegawa Falcon 50 in 1/48 for 20. 71 more bucks for support of the October Hornets TriCity V contest, which had first run flyers for distribution at meeting, produced by Mick Burton. Model talk time was finally called for!
Okay, now we had 21 members present and yes they did bring some support of our monthly theme 'Commie Stuff" amongst other works.
Theme works first: Cliff Kranz's 1/35 BTR-80 in two color camo in 1/35, one of two APCs he got in Hornet's December gift exchange.Mark McDonald had an in progress Soviet Tank which I didn't note the type of (sorry). Long absent member Laramie Wright showed up with some fine entries, starting with a Mikro 72 Sturmovik Il-2. He reported was a struggle to build with much satisfaction at the end in how right it looked. Hasegawa's I-16 Rata provided him another lovely small scale Russian to show us. Lastly Laramie had a Trumpeter KV1 1941 version with cast turret which he has in progress. Hornet Treasurer Mike O'Leary graced us with his marvelous "Lend Lease" P-47D-25 "Russki Bolt" in 1/48. Ray Lloyd kept with the 1/48 Soviet theme next door, with his fine rendering of the KP Su-22 swing wing Fitter in Iraqi AFscheme. Ray also made HobbyCraft's MiG-17 in PLAF scheme look lovelier than kit would lead one beleive possible, plus a sweet metallic MiG-15 of Tamiya for comparison. Ray's MiG-21F-13 (Fishbed C for those who don't speak MiGese) in 1/48 which was converted using Neomega resin kit attached to the Academy late model Fishbed completed his set. Brian Sakai went in somewhat smaller scale support of the month's theme, probably wise in at least one case of subject. Namely his Kursk submarine in 1/700! Brian also had an I-16 Rata displayed, his in a Spanish Civil War scheme (in keep with "Winds of War" theme for SVSM KC2008 contest) this was an A-model in 1/72. Messr Sakai next wreaked Havoc in form of his 1/144 Mi-28 helo, fully loaded with armaments! Lastly he had a MiG-25 Foxbat in 1/144 that was dearly well done, from LS kit.
Not to be outdone, Jim Priete brought his WIP A-model Yak-28 solid nose "Firebar" in 1/72 assembled "ala Chun" (with masking tape) quite a well traveled model as it turned out in next two weeks (Jim never picked up model at end of meet. So it flew on its merry way to Fremont Denny's, Santa Clara's Round Table Pizza and finally met up with Jim three weeks later at San Jose's Mini Gourmet. Not bad for no glue)
Gabriel Lee reprised his recent completed Su-30mk2 in Venezualan AF scheme, nearby was Frank Babbitt's An-14 twin engine utility bird in 1/72. Mastered from the East German VEB kit. Frank's model was done in East German AF three color camo scheme. Frank noted when asked that he indeed had been taken in by reviews of this kit that it was indeed the best kit from VEB's line. Which it is, but this author and Mr Babbitt both know that's like saying Sandstone is softer than Granite when talking to sculptors accustomed to clay. Frank sadly didn't translate his noting of the Soviet nickname "Pchelka" (English translates to "Little Bee", one can surmise how we Hornets would re-interpret that term had it been unveiled at the meeting, especially those who know what an Son of a VEB kit is to complete). Lastly for the theme kits on table, Mick Burton brought a smattering (left home seven more finished items, so not to be lynched for hogging time/table) of items, Start of lineup, DML's Su-100 in Russian 1945 scheme, alongside a T-34/85 in NVA markings also DML 1/35. Next was a 1/48 P-63 Kingcobra in Olive/Gray Lend Lease scheme from the "unbuildable" Hi-Tech of France kit (not his terms, this was the "knowledgeable reviewer/builder of great experience who also flies "real planes" who reviewed this kit along with MPM version on the Internet, btw Burton built MPM P-63 too). ICM's Yak-9K in 1/48 "out of box" garnered a good rating from Mick. MPM's 1/48 Pe-2UT was given its due, while not an easy build and in some eyes a great way to "uglify" a lovely airplane, this trainer version of Petlyakov offers something to twin engine quarter scale fanciers.
Wrapping up the "Commie Stuff" for the theme was Burton's WIP of the Hasegawa 1/72 MiG-25 Foxbat which he hopes will turn out at least half as nice as Brian Sakai's in half the scale.
There were other items on table and my apologies ahead for any I missed here, but my notes were taken on the fly so to speak, trying to pack my displays before meeting end while also photographing meeting and occasionally holding a conversation (just imagine!)
What I did get writ: Ben Pada's "Passionate Patsy" Pacific Theater of Ops scheme for the Tamiya P-47D in 1/48 is slowly finishing should be ready for October. Chris Bucholtz's FM-2 Wildcat in 1/72 scale is following same timeline, he also had more progress to report on his P-51D-5, P-47D-30 in 1/72 which feature use of new items in his Obscureco line, which also were on display. These being the revised tail (no fillet) for the D-5 Mustang and dropped flaps wing for any version Tamiya P-51D, and "fillet tail" for late model P-47Ds. Brian Sakai had a "Sweet" kit of P-47D on table as well, the 1/144 scale kit by Platz. Gabriel Lee had his completed "Armada", a submarine that first saw service as the USS Tilefish in WW2, and later was refit to serve in the Venezualan Navy. Nice refit by Gabriel in scale as well. Mr Lee had another phase of progress on his fantastic "Rutanator" twin engine menace, more on this when he publishes his article in future. President Mark Schynert was in progress with a FGA-9 Hawker Hunter, in its WIP scheme he could have easily surmised it was in scheme for stand-in D-558-2 Skyrocket from movie "The Right Stuff" (an all white Hunter was used for the tiny screen time overhead overflight of that plane in the movie, guess they didn't want to pay to pull one off pylon at Antelope Valley College campus and refurbish it) Ray Lloyd headed up the table with his WIP two seat resin conversion of SEPECAT Jaguar in 1/48. Ray was grinning with evil menace when he realized his Jaguar was eligible for the October 18 2008 contest of Hornets theme "The French Connection", a glint of "I can finish this" was in his eye.
It didn't hurt his incentive any with awarding of "Model Of The Month" for his well crafted MiG-21F-13, either. Well deserved and done Ray!
With much flourish and little time for sarcasm to be noted, we had our raffle and madly dashed to get packed, room secured for departure.
til next time...mickb out
