Click here for June Contest Results

Click here for June Model Pictures

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May 3rd, 2019 Meeting

"Automotive"

Theme (Points) Contest

 

Best of Show and People's Choice Winners from May's "Automotive" Theme Contest

Best of Show & People's Choice Juniors	Best of Show & People's Choice Basic	Best of Show & People's Choice Intermediate	Best of Show & People's Choice Masters
Alex Tate	John Wyre	Bob Henderson	Scott Jaworski
VW Beetle	4-Engine Dragster "Showboat"	Ford F-100 Pickup	Ford GT

 

Meeting Pictures

                   

                     

            

                   

                   

"Dallas Air Show" Presentation

                       

                       

This article is a summary of the five model displays conducted by ASM during 2019, and a thank you to everyone that participated in the displays and/or contributed models. Our goals with the displays were to promote the hobby of scale modeling, to let the public know that Albuquerque has an active model club, and to perhaps gain some new members. All the displays turned out to be highly successful. Descriptions of the display and pictures are included below. More detailed stories and additional pictures are available below on this ASM 2019 Meeting Pictures webpage:

Our first 2019 display was at the Albuquerque South Broadway Cultural Center and Library and it ran the entire month of February. The theme was "What is Scale Modeling" and we had 79 models in three display cases. We also put on a Make & Take on February 9 in conjunction with the display.

Our second display was at the Kirtland Air Force Base "Air and Space Fiesta" airshow on May 18. We had five tables with 77 models at the event. The theme was the "History of the USAF" with some Real Space and Theoretical Space thrown in due to the theme of the air show. We were located in the center of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and Space Pavilion hangar, and the estimated crowd that flowed through the hangar that day was 30,000 people. Airshows are where we get max exposure of the hobby, and the people really loved the models.

Our next model display supported the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing event at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The museum was running the film "The Day We Walked on the Moon" three times on Saturday, July 20, simultaneously with other Smithsonian-related museums across America. The museum also had Apollo Program artifacts from their collection on display for the duration of the event. The ASM model display had a total of sixteen models and ran from mid July through mid September. It included eleven Real Space models from the American space program and five Theoretical Space models from the 1950s.

Our annual model display at the 2019 New Mexico State Fair on September 5 - 15 had the theme "1939 - 80th Anniversary of the Beginning Of World War II." We filled one case with 36 models. The conflicts of 1939 covered by the display included the Invasion of Poland, the Winter War (Russia versus Finland), the Khalkhin Gol/Nomonhan Incident (Russia versus Japan), and the second Sino-Japanese War (China versus Japan). A more detailed article on the "1939" display will be published in the February ASM Newsletter. As of January 2020, the 2020 ASM display theme will be "70th Anniversary of the Korean War" with models from anytime during the war (June 1950 - July 1953).

ASM did not conduct a model display this year at the Folds of Honor New Mexico's "Red, White, and Blue Celebration Dinner" fund-raising event on September 23. The 2019 event was held at a small venue and they did not have space for our normal display. ASM did contribute a 1/48-scale A-10 Thunderbolt model for the auction, which sold for $150, and they appreciated that very much. They do want ASM to put on a display at their 2020 event. So please work on some models that could be used in that display. We currently need modern armor and naval subjects (ships and submarines).

The Albuquerque Scale Modelers club provided a 1/48 scale A-10A Thunderbolt II "Warthog" model for the auction at the Folds of Honor New Mexico's "Red, White, and Blue Celebration Dinner" fund-raising event held on September 23, 2019, at the Tanoan Country Club in Albuquerque. The Folds of Honor Foundation provides scholarships and other assistance to the spouses and children of soldiers killed or disabled in service to our country. The model was built by Mike Blohm. The Monogram model kit was donated by Brian Peck. The Folds of Honor was very appreciative of our donation and thanked us for again contributing models for their auction. ASM had two F-16 models for their 2018 event.

The model was built as an A-10A of the 78th Fighter Squadron "Flying Tigers" of the 23rd Fighter Group while assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group at Jacobabad, Pakistan, in March 2002. The scheme was from the Print Scale 48-073 A-10 Thunderbolt II decal sheet. The kit came with decals for a warthog-faced A-10 of the 47th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 917th Tactical Fighter Group, Air Force Reserve in a Europe 1 paint scheme (two greens and one gray). However, I wanted to build a three grays scheme with the colorful shark mouth used by the 23rd Fighter Group Flying Tigers, as that would be more appealing to any potential bidders on the model.

The A-10 model sold for $150 in the auction. The winner donated it to the nine-year-old son of one of the scholarship recipients at the dinner. The boy is a special needs child who is "all about airplanes."  So the model is going to a good home. The 2020 Folds of Honor event will be held at a larger venue, and they do want ASM to put on a large model display for that event. So start building for that!

The ASM model display at the 2019 Air Force Ball went very well. The event, held on Saturday, September 21, at Kirtland AFB, celebrated the 72nd birthday of the USAF as well as the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. ASM had planned to have three tables in three different rooms on which to display models, but we ended up with just two. One was in the main room where the festivities took place. It was decorated in a USO theme with lots of camouflage netting and we set up 31 D-Day-related models there. The other table was located in the entryway into the club where the attendees checked in. We ended up closely-packing 45 models on that table, covering the Korean War, Viet Nam, Air Defense Command, and Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Inherent Resolve. We brought 23 tubs of models but due to the space limitations not all were put out on the tables. We did have a total of 76 models on the two tables.

Lots of people stopped by and asked questions about the models and we were thanked for putting on the display. Ken Piniak wore a World War II tanker uniform complete with pistol and submachine gun, so he got lots of questions. Thanks to the following ASM members for setting up and manning the tables during the event: Josh Pals, Frank Randall, Ken Piniak, and Matt and Mike Blohm. Thanks also to John Tate for dropping by with his models and helping with the set up. Thanks to the following people who loaned models for the display: Glenn Bingham, Tony Humphries, Keith Liotta, Larry Glenn, Steve Brodeur, Jim Medina, Len Faulconer, Dave Tingley, John Tate, Josh Pals, Frank Randall, Ken Piniak, and Mike Blohm.

                       

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2019 New Mexico State Fair Model Contest

September 5 - 15, 2019

Creative Arts - Division 13

Models – Military, Science Fiction & Others

Sections 471 – 474

Sponsored by

Albuquerque Scale Modelers Club

  Click here for the 2019 NM State Fair Contest Results Webpage

   

   

Registration of Model Entries: 19-20 August 2019

Judging of Model Entries: 27 August 2019

 

ASM's "1939" Display at the 2019 New Mexico State Fair

This article provides a look at ASM's model display at the 2019 New Mexico State Fair that occurred on September 5-15, 2019.  The display's theme was "1939 - 80th Anniversary of the Beginning Of World War II."  The conflicts of 1939 covered by the display included the Invasion of Poland (Poland versus Germany and Russia); the Winter War (Russia versus Finland); the Khalkhin Gol / Nomonhan Incident (Russia versus Japan); and the second Sino-Japanese War (China versus Japan).  Most people have probably never heard of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, which had a major impact on Japan's expansion strategy in World War II.  Likewise, people probably know little if anything about the Winter War, which likely encouraged Hitler to invade Russia in 1941.  The display provided the opportunity for fair attendees to learn something new as well as view some nice models.  The display had a short history of each conflict along with maps located at the top of the case.  Pictures of these histories and all the models are also available on the ASM Website's 2019 NM St Fair Contest webpage. 

 Picture captions:

The Albuquerque Scale Modelers (ASM) club provided a model display to support a 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing event at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  The museum was running the film "The Day We Walked on the Moon" three times on Saturday, July 20th, simultaneously with other Smithsonian-related museums across America.  The museum also had Apollo Program artifacts from their collection on display for the duration of the event.  The ASM model display was set up at the museum on July 15th and 16th, and has a total of 16 models.  Eleven are Real Space models, and five are Theoretical Space models from the designs of the late 1950's and early 1960's.  See pictures below.  We have two models from Apollo 11 - the Command Service Module Columbia and docked Lunar Module (LM) approaching the Moon in 1/72 scale, and the Lunar Module Eagle in 1/48 scale; and one model from Apollo 17 - the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) in 1/35 scale.  There are also models representing the X-15 program, Project Mercury (Mercury-Redstone 3 - Alan Shepard), Project Gemini (Gemini 3 - Gus Grissom and John Young), and the Space Shuttle program (Challenger), along with an astronaut with Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), a V-2 rocket, the Vanguard TV-4 satellite launch vehicle, and a Soyuz space capsule.  Theoretical Space models include the Lunar Lander Concept Design by Dr. Wernher von Braun, 3 Stage Ferry Rocket and Retriever Rocket from Colliers Magazine, the Nuclear Exploratory Vehicle design for a nucler-powered spaceship, and the Mars Liner from the Disneyland Rocket to the Moon exhibit.

We had five vertically-standing rockets that would have been nice to display, including three from the July 12th "Man In Space" contest, but unfortunately the display case provided to ASM would not accommodate those taller models.  The Space Shuttle Challenger with boosters and central tank was displayed laying on its "belly" instead of standing up on the crawler-transporter, to provide a complete set of all the NASA manned space programs.  We had a short time to pull this all together but it turned out very nice.  Jim Walther, the museum director, mentioned to me that "it was good to have models from the model club back in the museum again."  Hopefully ASM will be able to support future museum programs as well.  Because the display lacked an Apollo command module, the "Apollo 11 Lunar Approach" model was started on Saturday, July 13th and the build "raced" Apollo 11 to the moon.  The model was completed and delivered to the museum on Friday, July 19th as the real Apollo 11 went into orbit around the Moon, fifty years ago.  More on that build in a future article.  Thanks to the following ASM members for loaning models for the display: Steve Brodeur (LM), Ken Piniak (LRV and MMU), Frank Randall (X-15 and Gemini), and Mike Blohm (remaining models).  The model display will run at the museum until approximately August 1st. 

The Albuquerque Scale Modelers (ASM) conducted a model display at the Air and Space Fiesta Air Show at Kirtland Air Force Base on Saturday, May 18. Our goals were to promote the hobby of scale modeling with a display of USAF and space-related models that fit the theme of the air show, and to let the public know that Albuquerque did have an active model club and to perhaps gain some new members. I think that we put on a great display and successfully met those goals.

We had a very primo spot for our display near the center of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and Space Pavilion hangar. Whereas we thought we were going to be allowed only two tables for the display due to space limitations, we ended up with room for five. We had brought some spare tables, and they also had one spare for us to use. We had brought a lot of models, thinking we would have to pare down based on what would fit. With the five tables we ended up using them all and had 77 total models in the display. From left to right around our horseshoe setup (see pictures), we had sections on the USAF in the Korean War, the "What is Scale Modeling" P-51Ds vignette in five different scales, the Viet Nam War, USAF helicopters, New Mexico Air National Guard aircraft, the bombers and aircraft of the Strategic Air Command, the Military Airlift Command/Air Mobility Command, the Air Defense Command, and the aircraft in Desert Storm through the current operations in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Finally, there was a section with Real Space and Theoretical Space models. Some attendees did inquire about models of World War II aircraft. One thing I had thought about bringing was a 1/72-scale B-17 and a B-24 to talk about Kirtland's past role as a bomber training base during World War II. Unfortunately I left those at home, thinking that we would not have space. So we will need to look at making sure to bring those next time around.

We were there at 8:00 to set up, so we were well ahead of the folks coming on base for the air show. We heard later that there was a big traffic jam with very long waits. We had a continual crowd of lookers all day long, and had lots of questions and comments on the models. Based upon comments that I heard, people's favorite aircraft was the F-4 Phantom followed by the A-10 Warthog. A lot of folks mentioned that they had previously built models and wanted to know where they could get kits to get back into the hobby. We pointed them at our favorite neighborhood hobby shop. We passed out a lot of ASM handouts and perhaps we will get some new members. We did get a lot of thank yous for putting on the display. One of the USAF members supporting our hangar came by as we were packing up and told us that there were more than 40,000 attendees at the air show, and that about 32,000 people had visited the STEM and Space Pavillion. There were a lot of cool interactive-type displays in our hangar, plus shade. So I guess ASM and the hobby of scale modeling did get some good exposure with the public during this air show.

Thanks to all who contributed models and to those who set up and manned the display. Model loaners included Victor Maestas, Keith Liotta, Ken Piniak, Jack Garriss, Larry Glenn, David DeYoung, Josh Pals, Bob Henderson, Frank Randall, Mike Blohm, and the Defense Nuclear Weapons School Museum. Manning the display were Josh Pals, Ken Piniak, Larry Glenn, Jeff Frickstad, Ken Piniak, and Matt and Mike Blohm.

The Albuquerque Scale Modelers (ASM) model club conducted a month-long model display at the South Broadway Cultural Center and Library in Albuquerque from February 1-27, 2019.  The theme of the display was "What is Scale Modeling."  Models of all genres and scale - 79 total - were on display in three cases.  See pictures below.  One case had five P-51D Mustang models lined up in all the popular scales:  1/24, 1/32, 1/48/ 1/72, and 1/144.  Signage was included to explain what scales they were and what that represents.  A large tri-fold display board provided information on what scale modeling is, what the scales mean, pro's and con's of the various scales, availability of model kits, and examples of model building supplies.  Promotional materials for ASM and IPMS/USA were provided.  Five ASM members helped set up the display:  Josh Pals, Jack Garriss, Chuck Herrmann, Frank Randall, and Mike Blohm.