The Reporter The Official Newsletter of IPMS/Lakes Region Scale Modelers www.lakesregionmodelers.com

Inside this edition “The Briefing Room” club news and the President’s Message. Page 3 Show & Tell Pages 4 – 5 Book Review by Ned Ricks Page 6 Upcoming Events & Monthly Show & Tell Themes and programs. Pages 7 - 8 Join LRSM or IPMS USA - Page 9

Happy New Year & a Look Back at 2014 by Tom Reese Our annual holiday party is right around the corner and it’s hard to believe another year has passed. It seems like a good time to reflect on our club’s 2014.

years since out last visit and it was truly impressive to see the progress that had been made. It’s always a treat to see the real life subjects of the models we build.

Our year started on a sad note with the passing of Ken Macke in early March. Ken’s outgoing personality, his genuine interest in others, and positive outlook in the face of adversity is sorely missed. Ken left his extensive stash to LRSM and now many of our members are building or finishing kits started by him. It’s definitely a great way to remember Ken.

NIMCON III in July was great success! More visitors, more contestants, and more models. What more could we ask for. Dare I say we seem to have the contest planning down to a science? We busy planning for and looking forward to NIMCON IV this May!

Our club auction in April was a great success due to the generosity of our members.

Points of Interest 

Holiday Party at The Fountains Friday January 24th 6:30PM.

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Build Night at G2 Revolution Lake In The Hills. Friday January 16th 6PM.

January 2015

We also benefited from several great how to demos during the year. These included Kevin Stover’s demo on dealing with seams. John Vojtech showed off UMM USA’s latest tools to improve your modeling. And Dave Haas did two presentations on WWII Russian aircraft camouflage and color mixing.

Build nights have always been popular. This year John Graham took it one step further volunteering his company’s facilities to host a monthly build night the 3rd Friday of each month. These have been fun. Just building models and chewing the fat! In November Rick & Bob Miller gave a great presentation on Pearl Harbor. Their father was a Pearl Harbor survivor and we honored to hear about his involvement in the pivotal moment in our history.

So hear we are at the beginning of 2015. We have a vibrant club whose members enjoy each others company Another highlight of 2014 was a return visit to see the ongoing res- and our common interest. We look toration of Mike Kellner’s B-17E forward to a great 2015! “Desert Rat”. It had been several

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President’s Message We didn’t exactly end 2014 with a bang, more of a whimper, actually. Our December meeting was the most lightly attended one that I can recall, but the dozen, or so, of us who were there had a very good time. We enjoyed great camaraderie, interesting “build night” models, and a nice raffle. Our first event for 2015 will be our Holiday Party on Saturday, 24 January. I’ll put in more plugs for our contest, where we’ll award cash prizes for the winners, and for our raffle with its forty plus kits. In February, we’re back to our “normal” routine with a program about making your own acrylic thinner and an overview of the 2014 MMSI show. Our March program will feature pictures of our members’ build areas - so take some pictures and e-mail them to John Graham. Everyone who submits photos can talk about them at the meeting. This should be inspiring for all of us. Finally, I wanted to pass along kudos to Robert Raver, Tom Reese, John Graham, and Neil Butler for their dedication and hard work all year on behalf of the club. Well done! See you at the Party and don’t forget those models for the contest.

Phil

The Briefing Room By Tom Reese

2015 Holiday Model Contest Once again we’ll have our club holiday model contest. The rules are simple.  Must have been built in 2014.  Model cannot have won an award at another contest. That’s it. There will a certificate and cash awards of $50, $30, and $20 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively. So bring your best! Show off your man cave! Part of our March meeting will feature member’s man caves. Show us where you build the excellent models we see at our meetings and let everyone know what makes your bench unique.

We’ll be collecting photos for a slide presentation at the meeting. When your photos come up we’d like you to say a few words about your man cave. You can send your phots to John Graham at [email protected].

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Show & Tell Alphabet Letters X,Y, & Z In designation, manufacturer, name, etc. Photos & captions courtesy of Tom Reese

Chris Gibson: A side by side comparison of the combatants from the movie Fury. On the left is A M4A1 Sherman built OOB for an IPMS review. To the right an early Tiger 1. Both kits are 1/35 scale so you get a sense of what the Sherman crews were up against!

Phil Pignataro: This is Zvezda’a 1/72 SU-27SM. Phil says this is probably the best 1/72 SU-27 kit available but harder to build than the Trumpeter and Hasegawa offerings in the same scale.

Chris Gibson: An OOB IMPS review of Revell's 1/18 Foose ‘69 Z28. Chris painted the black hood strips as the fit of the kit decals was less than perfect. Very sharp!

Dave Hass: Back at his favorite scale Dave presented clockwise from the top Amercom’s DO-17Z, a die cast kit he detailed. F-Toy’s IL-2M3 Sturmovik to which he added aftermarket decals. And finally Zvezda’s snap tite HS-129B

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Show & Tell Alphabet Letters X,Y, & Z In designation, manufacturer, name, etc. Photos & captions courtesy of Tom Reese

Don Norton: This is Verlinden’s 200mm figure of a 5th New York Zouaves that fought for the Union in the Civil War, Dan painted with Testors enamels.

Walt Fink: Walt showed off a pair of X crafts. On the left is the X-4 Bantam. This is MPM’s 1/72 . Walt need to massage this crude kit into the beauty seen here. On the right is Monogram’s 1/72 X15A which he built pretty much out of the obs.

William Wallace: William won this Polar Lights NX-01 Enterprise in the NIMCON 3 raffle. That’s what we like to see, people building raffle kits! Nicely done!

Mike Kellner: A flight of 4 Thunder bolts! The bubble top is a Tamiya kit while the razor backs are Hasegawa kits. All at 1/72 scale and built OOB with aftermarket decals.

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Book Review: By Ned Ricks Jimmy Stewart, Bomber Pilot By Starr Smith ISBN # 0-7603-2199-X

Most everyone knows Jimmy Stewart as a Hollywood icon and star of a myriad of movies. Starr Smith, a combat intelligence officer with the Eighth Air Force in England during World War Two, has penned a great book on the other side of Stewart---that of a patriot serving his country in time of war.

It wasn’t easy, either. Stewart wanted to do his part for the war effort from the get-go, but found his fame as an actor got in the way because the studios (predominately Louis B. Mayer, the forceful and dictatorial head of MGM) didn’t want to let him go. As a rated pilot possessing both a private and commercial license, he owned a Stinson 105 and had logged more than 300 flying hours, so was a strong advocate of aviation. Mayer told him he could have choice roles, help with the war effort as a civilian, contract revisions, anything…..as long as he stayed out of the service and continued to make pictures for MGM.

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reared its head again and “somehow” he was classified as “Static Personnel” with a hold order---which meant that somebody was pulling strings to keep him stateside as an instructor in B17’s.

Jimmy’s continuing pulling in favors finally paid off and he was given orders to the 445th Bomb Group (Heavy), flying B-24’s, and transferred the Group to Tibenham. He went on from there to the 453rd BG and ended his active service as Commander of the 2nd Combat Bomb Wing (H) at Hethel. Stewart flew twenty combat missions---including one to Berlin---in command of his own squadron in the 445th.

Starr Smith has painted a terrific picture of Stewart the man, the leader, the combat pilot, and “one of the guys”. The “Aw shucks, fellas” persona he exhibits in films was not an The Draft Board almost settled that in 1940 by act---that’s how he was in real life as well, sending Stewart a “greeting” and he reported and Smith’s book is testimony to that. Perfor his induction physical exam. And failed it--- haps the greatest review of this book was a because he was underweight. Mayer thought letter inside from his daughter, Kelly Stewart that was the end of it, but Stewart appealed the Harcourt, to Smith saying, “He would feel Army’s decision, and as related by fellow actor honored by this book”. Burgess “Buzz” Meredith who drove him back to the induction center, passed the test. By the way, if you’re into Hollywood names, you’ll get Not a new work---originally written in 2005--your fill in this book. Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot is still available from booksellers. It’s a great read and hard to put down. Stewart was posted to the Army Air Corps and won his wings, but that old villain---politics---

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Monthly Show & Tell Themes and programs January

Holiday Party

February

Between the wars years

2014 MMSI Review & Acrylic Thinner Demo

March

Longest or Unfinished Build

Show us your Man Cave & Build Night

April May June

Club Auction VE Day

Show off your cool tools

Outside the Box –Build Epoxy Putty & Sculptsomething outside ing Demo

July

WWI

TBD

August

VJ Day

2015 Nats Review

September

“Firsts” i.e. first to break the sound barri-

TBD

October

Ken Macke kits

TBD

November

Heavy Metal

Build Night

December

Cold War

TBD

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Upcoming Events 2/7/2015

3/7/2015

3/14/2015

3/21/2015

3/28/2015

4/11/2015

Minnesota Rochester Region 5

18th Annual Hope It Don't Snow Show Ramada Hotel & Convention Center 1517 16th St. SW Zumbro Valley Scale Modelers (IPMS 5-33) Chris Krco 507-254-4646

Wisconsin Cottage Grove Region 5

Madcity Modelers Model Show Doubledays 4586 Baxter Rd. Madcity Modelers Rob Teubert 608-295-9258

Missouri Kansas City Region 5

KC CON 2015 First Church of the Nazarene 11811 State Line Road IPMS Great Plains / IPMS KC AMPS Stuart Malone 816-5608282

Minnesota Fairmont Region 5

12 th Annual Contest and Show Five Lakes Center #1 Center Drive South Central Modelers of Minnesota Dan Bauer 507-822-3938

Nebraska Ashland Region 5

Omahacon 2015 Strategic Air and Space Museum 28210 W Park Hwy IPMS Ft. Crook Scott Hackney 402-8611999

Iowa Des Moines Region 5

Surgicon 21 HyVee #2 Euclid Room 2540 East Euclid Avenue IPMS Plastic Surgeons Joe Lotz 641-202-3579

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JOIN/RENEW LAKES REGION SCALE MODELERS Name ____________________________________________ Telephone (_______) _________________ Address:______________________________________________________________________________ E-mail: City:__________________________________________________ State ____________ Zip:__________

IPMS membership # ____________________________________ Exp. Date_______________________ Additional Family Members: ______________________________________________________________ OK to publish my information on membership list (except)

___ Address ___ Phone number Dues: $10.00 per year

Tom Reese 1300 Meghan Ave. Algonquin, IL 60102

Make checks payable to Lakes Region Scale Modelers

IPMS/ Lakes Region Scale Modelers Chapter contacts President Phil Pignataro, 2091 Carlisle, Algonquin, IL 60102 847. 658 9920 [email protected] Vice President: Robert Raver, 625 Ryan Way, Crystal Lake, IL 60012 815-893-4126 [email protected] Treasurer: Tom Reese, 1300 Meghan Ave. Algonquin IL 60102 847-854-8749 [email protected]

Secretary & Membership Chairman: John Graham, 1330 Stonegate Rd. Algonquin IL 60102 815-353-2248 [email protected] Chapter Contact: Neil Butler 215 N. Jackson Elgin, IL 60123 847. 742 8246 [email protected] Newsletter Editor: Tom Reese, Tom Reese, 1300 Meghan Ave. Algonquin IL 60102 847-854-8749 [email protected]