President’s Corner

Those who have been with the club awhile know the routine, but by tradition the first three club meetings of the year have a standard schedule, as per below, but note the special additions:

  • January 5th – Special Contest- Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Real Space & Real Science.  Non-points special contest open to theme entries, per ASM contest guidelines, such as Gundams, rockets, Star Wars & Star Trek, Hobbits & wizards, real-science models, you name it.  Additionally, ASM Pro-Tem member Patrick Dick expressed interest in a “Robotics” sponsored contest piggybacked on our special contest, so fire up your robot models.

  • February 2nd – Swap Meet.  Bring your no-longer-needed kits and turn ’em into cash.

  • March 1st – Open Contest #1.  Open theme points contest, open to any kit, any scale, per ASM contest guidelines.  ASM guest speaker Harvey Chace is also penciled in to give a presentation that night on the WWII Soviet air force Il-2 Shturmovik.  Hmm, there might even be a sponsored contest to go with that topic.

Also at the January 5th meeting, I’ll be bringing some boxes full o’ kits for a “$5 and under sale” with proceeds going to ASM.  No one is flush with cash in early January, right after the holidays, so all kits will be in the $1 to $5 range.  Most of these kits are fun and buildable so pick some up as workbench fodder, to hone your modeling skills.

Contest Director Ken Liotta has been working hard on our 2024 contest schedule that will be unveiled at the Friday meeting.  There are some neat contests and guest speakers lined up for the coming year so plenty of reasons to cut sprue and get some models to the contest tables.

I’d also like to express thanks to ASM member Joe Lavender for his excellent “scratch” presentation at our December meeting, covering his amazing work crafting miniature ship models.  Like other club members, I’m in awe of his skill in building these micro-vessels, which borders on the miraculous.  Joe’s talk qualified as one of the most interesting clinic presentations I’ve seen, part how-to, part ship modeling overview, and part history talk.  And best of all, Joe is set to give a talk in May on the WWII Battle of the North Cape in December 1943, the last major naval battle in the European theater that involved only surface vessels.

Happy New Year to everyone and looking forward to Friday’s meeting and contest.

John Tate
ASM President