Thanks everyone for another good meeting.

Before we get started several of us are going to be gone to the IPMS Nationals in Omaha next month.  As a group we decided to take a break and cancel the July meeting.  We'll meet again in August at the usual time and place.

From last meeting here is Victor's beautiful USS New York (not to be confused with USS Texas).  It's gained some rigging since we last saw here.  👍

Okay...

We started the meeting with some official business.  I learned that Roger became an ordaned minister so that he could perform a wedding ceremony.  Well, it was clear that Roger needed to become our official Navy Chaplain.  An appropriate cap was ordered and now Roger is our official Chaplain.

Great to see John back.  This week John shared some of his new acquisitions.

First his model of the Cathedral of St. Barbara by HPH models.  This is molded in 1/700 scale.  The kit is cast in resin and also includes photo etch parts.  I'm looking forward to seeing this one finished.

John also picked up a photo etch set for the 1/700 Trumpeter Jeremiah O'Brien.  John said this might just inspire him to build this model again.  This is from a new company called CRM out of China.  

Another 1/700 kit John brought us is from another new Chinese company called Very Fire.  It's of the USS Montana which was the planned successor to the Iowa class battleships.  They were approved but never built in favor of Essex class carriers.  The kit is well molded and also includes a wood laser cut deck and photo etch parts.  We had a good chance to look it over.  It is well molded including the deck in case you didn't want to add the wood deck.  A great value with everything you get.  A nice first offering from this new company.  It's on preorder at Freetime for $59.  You can find it now on eBay for about the same price or you can get it from Hobbyeasy for about $47.

John wasn't finished!  Here's a super detail set for the Fujimi kit, IJN Haruna.  This kit includes 15 frets of photo etch!!!  Also provided are brass barrels and some resin detail parts.  This should build up into a fantastic model.  

In the spirit of the meetings topic Sam brought in his 1/700 Charles F Adams.  Sam started this model some 20 years ago and came back to it recently.  This is the original Skywave release which was then later released by Dragon.  Big Blue Boy makes a very nice photo etch set for this model.  I love the look of these destroyers!

I picked up an interesting tip from Sam on this build.  The big whip antennas are actually bug mounting needles.  Last night I ordered some samples for us to play with.  I'll bring some to the next meeting (August) to share.  They come 100 in a pack so I'll be glad to share them with you.  I'll never use that many myself!  They come in either stainless or black enamel and I got the black ones.  

Hugh finished off show and tell with his model of the 1/700 Aoshima HMS Ark Royal.  Hugh spoke about the challenges of correcting his model to be more like the prototype.  In this case Hugh discussed how the openings on the bow and stern should allow you to see right through.  Aoshima blocked these off.  Unfortunately Hugh had already closed off the deck before he obtained some references.  Hugh posed the question to the group about buying two kits.  One to assemble to find out what needs to be corrected, and one for the finished model.  He also discussed all of the missing items that are visible (winches, boats, bits, and such)  that should be visibile through the openings in the side but not included.  Hugh showed us how he scratch build parts to fill in the spaces which really brings the ship to life.  

We finished off the meeting with a discussion on modeling Mojo.  What it is and how to recover it.  I enjoyed this because everyone participated with their own stories.  It was a great opportunity to laugh at ourself and think about how to get moving and keep the hobby fun.  I will try and post the power point on the blog later.

Martin suggested a book called...

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

Martin suggested a book called...

The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield.

I ordered a copy through Audible (audio book) which I'll listen to on my way to and from work.  You can pick it up from the usual places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.  Not very expensive and gets very good reviews.  Thanks Martin!