Hang on boys, this is a long one!  We had a very busy meeting today.  We started off discussing IPMS show and Jerry share some pictures of some of his favorite builds.

I think this one might have been one of his favorites.  You can see the SBD, can't you?  Really a brilliant and creative underwater scene.

John asked about the major category winners.  You can find all the pictures and results at this link which includes the entire awards presentation.  There are some really impressive builds!

http://svsm.org/gallery/columbia2016-awards/2_G

Since we're really focused on ships here's entry that won best ship.  It was a 110' WWII Subchaser.  Some photos along with detail shots courtesy of Jerry.

Meanwhile back at the meeting...

Roger and Jerry were very interested in all of the different paint offerings at the meeting.  This is not Roger diving into the donut box (although that may have happened) but rather a poor photo on my part.  They both picked up brochures of various paint offerings and discussed some of the paint related demonstrations.

Dave Shields reminded me that I had forgotten the Blue Ridge Models parts that Roger brought.  Blue Ridge has come out with their own line of 3D printed ship parts in 1/700 scale.  Roger advises that they are planning on 1/350 scale and perhaps some others.  Here are a couple of examples.  Thanks for the reminder Dave!

Probably my favorite part of the show was actually not at the show but touring around Patriots Point with Roger and Jerry reliving their memories of serving on Ticonderoga and Borie which were almost identical to the museum ships USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Laffey (DD-724).  My apologies for being unable to post Roger and Hugh's photo.  We'll try again next meeting.

Hugh picked up a few kits at the show.  One of the most interesting was the Blue Ridge Models USS Wolverine which was a USN Aircraft Carrier training ship operating in the Great Lakes.  This kit is extremely well done as we're coming to expect from Blue Ridge Models new releases.  

Hugh also discussed interesting box art from his Aoshima USS Wasp CV-7 which was torpedoed by IJN I-19 in route to Guadalcanal with reinforcements.  The art work depicts a victorious I-19 passing in review of the the Wasp in her death throws.  As Hugh said is this art work for a submarine or for the carrier?  Interesting choice of art work to say the least.

Another addition that I left out were the 3D printed aircraft from Tom's Modelworks.  These are nicely printed 1/700 scale aircraft that can support your model ships and dioramas.  I don't remember which aircraft Hugh brought but this is a PBM Mariner.  Two planes to the set.  How great would that look in your 1/700 diorama!

John treated us to his new project which I described as a scrape off.  Flyhawk Models has produced a very detailed update set for the Revell 1/700 HMS Kelly which was a K Class destroyer of the Royal Navy.  Roger built the Revell kit out of the box and it was agreed that it would be very interesting to compare the two builds after John completes this one.  We'll be looking forward to this one John!

Rodrigo brought his very impressive work from his project which I was so mesmerized with I forgot to take pictures.  Rodrigo's soldering work is remarkable.  Rodrigo gave us a soldering demonstration which is captured in a video included on our site.  

We ran short on time but we had a chance to play with water color pencils used for weathering.  These can be used as filters or panels, rust streaks, etc.  These show a lot of promise because they are very forgiving to work with.  If you don't like it you can wipe it off with water.  Also because it's water soluble you can soften the effects.  I'm going to play with this a little more and bring it to the next meeting.  Below is a sample of decking like you would see in 1/200 scale and a 1/700 Type IX U-Boat built specifically to experiment with water colors.  

Looking forward to the next meeting!