John Tate

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NowPresident

President’s Corner

A reminder to ASM members that we will be having a club meeting on Friday, March 3rd, 2023, at 6:30 PM at the usual spot- the UNM Continuing Education Conference Center.

The E-Board voted last week to create a new job position- Media Manager- to replace the old Webmaster/Newsletter Editor combo. The new staff position will be “responsible for all web focused content creation, distribution and maintenance.” That means the website plus a variety of other media, from YouTube to Facebook to Instagram. We are fortunate to have a couple of young IT pros- Casey Rupley and James Barrett- volunteer to serve as our media managers, and both also happen to be excellent scale modelers. It will be exciting to see what they have in store for us and Casey will give a presentation at Friday’s meeting.

Also on the schedule for Friday is a presentation on the battleship Bismarck by a new ASM member, Joe Lavender, who is an expert on the WWII Kriegsmarine and also an outstanding modeler. We are lucky to have Joe on board as an ASM member and his talent is a real asset to the club.

Along with Joe’s presentation, I will be sponsoring a trophy for the best subject (Kriegsmarine or Royal Navy) related to the Bismarck or her fateful final voyage so bring any model that will fit the theme, new or old.

March is also an Open Contest so hope to see the contest tables full of new models- good luck to all modelers in our first points contest of the year.

John Tate
ASM President

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Combat Air Museum

The Combat Air Museum in Topeka, KS, has some interesting aircraft displays and exhibits. They have a number of cabinet displays with model aircraft that could provide ideas for personal model displays in our homes. The museum itself looks like it’s well worth visiting and within a realistic distance from Albuquerque for those interested in a three-day weekend trip.

Main website: http://www.combatairmuseum.org/

Aircraft on display: http://www.combatairmuseum.org/aircraft.html

Exhibits: http://www.combatairmuseum.org/exhibits.html

 

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Cole’s Aircraft Aviation Art

Ron Cole combines authenticated parts of historic aircraft with his original art in these handmade wall-hanging and desktop limited edition displays.

Check out his work at https://roncole.net/

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(ASM does not claim to endorse or represent aforementioned company and it’s views. Content is shared for entertainment purposes only.)

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The IPMS History of ASM

Albuquerque Scale Modelers (ASM) has been around a long time; from past conversations with club old timers, its origins date back to the late 1960s.  I could not pin down an exact year when the club formed but it was not an IPMS group- that came much later.  The early club met at different locations in Albuquerque; a long-vanished hobby shop in the North Valley and a local bank conference room were among early meeting locations.

Since there are no club records of those early days, I tried to locate more information on club history from IPMS publications; this is what I found.

The first time our club made it into print in an IPMS publication was in a “Chapter Happenings” column by Steve Kumamoto, then IPMS Director of Local Chapters (DLC), in a November/December 1983 issue of the IPMS Update: 

 

 “Albuquerque Scale Modelers Club (Albuquerque, NM) – This is one of the latest clubs to receive their IPMS charter.  Congratulations!  I would like to welcome you to the growing list of IPMS-chartered clubs in Region VI (which then included Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas).  At the June meeting, a guest speaker gave a talk on the various rockets and satellites launched from Vandenberg AFB in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  In July, they hope to feature a sci-fi contest and IPMS audio/visual presentation on the basics of scratchbuilding.”

 

Our club was listed sporadically after that, with Jack Garriss designated the IPMS point-of-contact for “ASMC” in the July/August 1984 issue of the Update.  About 1985, Region X was expanded to include all of the Mountain West, and in the November/December 1985 issue of the Update, DLC Bob Dye listed “IPMS Albuquerque” as the tail-end chapter in the region, No. 14 of 14; here’s a then-current map pinpointing IPMS chapters and regions across the country.

 

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In August 1988, an IPMS Journal column, “Regional Ramblin’s,” by DLC Bill Devins, reported the following:  “IPMS Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM- the chapter has successfully concluded a membership drive.  Some 60 new members were added to the rolls.  Perhaps they’d like to share the secret with the rest of us through the pages of the Journal.”  Looks like even then, ASM (or “IPMS Albuquerque”) was a big club!  Larry Cobb had been the listed IPMS point-of-contact for the club since 1985; longtime ASM member Larry Horyna informed me that Larry Cobb was also a former ASM president, prior to ASM president Pat Trittle’s term, in the 1980s.

 

A “Regional Ramblin’s” column from September 1989 mentioned that a Region X contest was being planned for the following June in Albuquerque, with further details to be provided.  Sure enough, in the April 1990 IPMS Journal, mention was made of a Region X Regional contest to be held on June 15/16, 1990, hosted by IPMS Albuquerque, at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel; point-of-contact was Don Alberts.  In the July 1990 IPMS Journal, Jack Garriss was mentioned again as the IPMS point-of-contact for our club.  IPMS Albuquerque continued on as a chartered chapter, with a mention in the November 1993 IPMS Journal that the club was meeting the last Friday of the month at Cutter Flying Service in Albuquerque.

 

ASM’s involvement with IPMS eventually led to what can be regarded as a high point in the club’s history- hosting the successful 1995 IPMS Nationals in Albuquerque, NM.  Below are some IPMS Journal ads for that event:

 

 

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It is remarkable the club was able to bid and run an IPMS Nationals with only one IPMS Regional contest under its belt.  This is really a testament to the talent and ability of ASM members at the time who organized and staffed a national contest.

 

Since 1995, ASM has not been idle, putting on a regional contest at the Wyndham Garden hotel in June 2001 followed by four popular Chile Con regional shows from 2006 to 2017.  Today, ASM is one of the premier IPMS chapters in Region X, with a large membership and several Chapter of the Year awards to our credit.  We have weathered club politics, budget shortfalls and a pandemic that came close to wrecking us for good, but ASM pulled through every time and there is every chance the club’s best days are still ahead.

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Museum of Flight

Check out these great photo galleries of assorted aircraft on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA, as documented in articles on DailyKos.com.

Museum of Flight: World War I French and British airplane models

Museum of Flight: World War I German airplane models

Museum of Flight: World War I multi-engine models

Museum of Flight: World War I seaplane models

Museum of Flight: World War II model airplanes

Museum of Flight: World War II Japanese seaplane models

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Jack Morris – Obituary

Jack Morris, a longtime ASM member and friend to many in the club, passed away on 1/16/21 after a brief illness; he was 80 years old.  Jack is survived by his daughter Amanda, and his friend Dianne Fogel.  Jack was a Colonel, USAF (Retired) and a Vietnam veteran who had a distinguished career in the development of aircraft munitions and weaponry.  Jack had resided in Santa Fe, NM, since 1994.

Jack joined IPMS/USA back in the 1960s; he had a coveted, low membership number of 716 and was an experienced national contest judge.  Our club membership records show him on the roster going back to 2000 but I recall first meeting him at a local scale modeling show in the late 1990s.

In retirement, Jack had a second career as a graphic artist, specifically producing aircraft profiles and decal sheets for the scale modeling hobby.  He was well known in our club for the custom decal sheets he graciously produced for club members; a 1/48 VNAF Criquet sheet he produced for me a decade ago is the most prized decal sheet in my collection.

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Jack Morris Decals

 

Most of all, I remember Jack for his wit and comradery, joining us at our after-meeting Village Inn diner gatherings and sharing a wealth of information about aircraft, the Vietnam War, scale modeling and IPMS. His passing is a real loss for the club. I once asked Jack what his favorite aircraft from the Vietnam War was, and without hesitation, he said it was the Phantom. I can’t think of a better tribute from ASM members than building a Vietnam-era F-4 Phantom II jet model this year to honor his memory.

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Albuquerque Scale Modelers