President s Report AGM

Transcription

1 President s Report AGM This is my first Presidents Report, for the COMS AGM of 18 November COMS Management I want to thank all COMS members for their support this year and particularly thank Steve, Simon and Grant for the work they do keeping the Society operational. We also benefit from the support of family members at different times, so a big thank you to them too. At the start of the year our membership numbers dropped when Andrew Snodgrass moved his family home to Ranfurly. However, Andrew, Ryan and Lochland have since rejoined the club. Lee-Ann Mash and Jake also moved out of Central Otago at the start of the year. Workshops This year we held twelve monthly meetings at the Alexandra Scout Hall and ten monthly meetings at the Alexandra Community House. We made the April and August Scout Hall meetings into our 'weekend workshop' format because of members desire for more modelling time. The April weekend was an addition to our previous single August weekend event and it was well received by the COMS team. N Central Layout N Central was displayed at the Cromwell SantaLand event (December 2017), in Dunedin (May), Invercargill (IPMS-July), Alexandra Blossom Festival (September) and in Invercargill (Model Engineers - October). Because of a lack of suitable towing vehicles for our trailer, Rex and Grant took small layouts to Ashburton in July to fill in for N Central. The Model Engineers 'Great Little Train Show' was a renewed activity for the COMS as that date has normally conflicted with us being in Christchurch that month. We plan to alternate attendance between displaying in Invercargill, Christchurch and Ashburton as is convenient at the time. Simon achieved great progress leading construction on the new 'loader module', Grant started development of much plaster rockwork on a new module that had been waiting for attention from someone for a long time, Rex painted new background scenery on the irrigation dam module. The whole team put in good work adjusting the length of track on module ends to suit our new expansion track module joiners. In the rolling stock department we lost the use of two locos, have purchased one replacement steam loco and also gained new sets of 30 coal wagons and 8 coal wagons. I developed an improved rolling stock storage case system and changed many wagon and loco couplers to a standard knuckle couple type for better running operation on the layout. IPMS Modelling Our plastic modelling members continue to gain lots of pleasure working on and displaying their plastic models. The COMS attended the IPMS South Island modelling champs in Invercargill (July), hosted the IPMS Southern Inter-Club competition (Alexandra - August), attended the IPMS South Island Champs (Dunedin - October) and the IPMS Nationals in Cambridge (November). We supported a modelling activity at the annual Mens Camp at Brass-knocker Road in November. Trophies In December 2017 the Nelson Redshaw Memorial Trophy was competed for. It is presented annually to the member who best suits the COMS value of 'Striving for Excellence'. This year two candidates had done such fine work that they were both awarded the trophy. Ronald McCauley received it for his first tank model and Bob McNeil had done a great scenic job on a

2 small N Gauge layout he had built for his grandsons. At our August weekend workshop the Max Birtles Memorial Trophy 'Life-like Reflections' for the best picture of a model that could have been the real thing was awarded to Jude for a stunning image of his model aeroplane backlit by the sun. Conclusion We have another busy year ahead of us, with Cromwell SantaLand in December then the Cromwell Model Train Show in March 2019, plus plenty of models to work on and keep us entertained. Thanks again to all members for their efforts and support during 2018 and I look forward to sharing more fun and modelling challenges with you in Rex Johnson COMS President Upcoming Diary Dates Dec 6-9 Santa land Cromwell Dec 9 w/shop com house Dec 16 w/shop scout hall Dec 25 receive more models and trains Presidents Report My Presidents Report for the last year is with this newsletter, showing how busy we have been enjoying our modelling, be it running trains or building plastic kits. We also debated a recipient for the Nelson Redshaw Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the person who has best met the goal of 'Striving for Excellence' over the last year. I am humbled to be the recipient of that award for my effort in painting a mountain scene backdrop on a model train module. The painting improved the quality of our 'irrigation dam' module, but included a lot of online research for me to find out how to fade sky, shape and colour hills and paint clouds - none of which I had any expertise in when I started that project. We finished off our meeting by awarding ourselves large pieces of yummy cake. With the holiday season fast approaching, the COMS still has work to do in early December putting on a train display at SantaLand in Cromwell, plus getting preliminary plans and budgeting in place for the March 2019 Cromwell Model Train Show. Any club member who is available to be part of a working committee to organise the show will be welcome. As this is our last COMS News for the year I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday break, along with expressing my thanks to members and their families for their support to club activities during the year. Merry Christmas everyone. Rex Johnson Community House Workshop Sunday 9 th November 1-5 and Scout Hall Workshop Sunday 16 th November 1-3 Cromwell Planning Meeting 3-4 Committee Meeting 4-5

3 Steve s Report Welcome to our last newsletter for this year and here s hoping there were plenty of fun times building models and running trains. No doubt the wish list has been addressed to Santa and hopefully these items will find their way under your Christmas tree so you can look forward to more fun times in the coming year. Annette was also seen working on a plastic kit set model last workshop. This was a kit of a church building made on a 3D printer complete with all the interior detail. Lots of flash needed to be cleaned up and the fit of parts seemed to be ok just the plastic has that funny feel to it but i am sure it will build into a nice little building. It looked approx N scale so perhaps it will find its way onto a layout. This weekend some of our members will be attending Santa Land in Cromwell and running some smaller layouts this year instead of our club layout. This is a trial to show something different as the club layout has been there for many years. Many thanks to those who supplied their layouts and to those volunteering their time to run them. There will be a workshop at the scout hall next Sunday and I think that Rex wants to get the ball rolling for our up and coming Cromwell train show in March so all ideas will be appreciated. We will be having our 1st workshop for 2019 at the scout hall on January the 20th. This will be a great time for show and tell about all the goodies that came our way for Christmas maybe we could get a photo of said items for the newsletter?????? At our last workshop at the scout hall Annette bought along her latest railway layout for show and tell. This I believe was built at the miniature convention up north. Just goes to show what can be achieved in a very small space with exquisite workmanship and now she just has to work out how to make the train move very well done. With Annette branching out into railway and kit building she may be considering coming over to the dark side and joining us on a regular basis. After all it is still building miniatures so keep up the good work. Please don t forget that your subs are due now and guess what! there has been no increase over last year. I will be trying to catch up with members just to make sure that I have all the correct details on file. A membership form is attached with this newsletter. This is how busy we were at the men s camp last

4 month with building models. A shower of rain seemed to drive people inside and we had to run to help all those trying to build models (some for the first time in their lives) and to get cutters and knives shared around. The photo in last month s newsletter was of Steve helping some youngsters build some Lego models (I still had a ball) and eventually we had a tower approx 1.5m tall. 37 models were started most got finished and some even were painted and decals applied. This was a busy but fun day. Last month Simon and Steve flew to Auckland and then got a rental car and travelled to Cambridge to attend the IPMS Nationals held at Lake Karapiro. This was an awesome location and the venue for the indoor displays was great however the models only managed to fill a small portion of the massive building. They were over by the windows in the picture where the light was the best and surrounded by traders and other club displays. Upon arrival at 0830 we got the models entered and placed on the tables and then proceeded to check out the many things offered for sale and needless to say some bargains were obtained. About 4 hours later we went and spent some time looking at the models there was just so much to look at. It was a beautiful sunny day by the lake and there were displays of all kinds including over 100 different military vehicles which took considerable time to check out and ask lots of questions. A highlight was to see and hear a T34 tank running and moving (normally you would have to go to Bovington to see this) as well as numerous other vehicles driving around. After checking out all the military reenactor camps and watching mock battles and the radio controlled boats( and real ones ) some over 2m long and the aerial displays and the vehicle parade where every thing that wouldn t destroy the sealed road did a lap of the domain then it was back to the models. As we weren t asked to be on any judging teams this allowed us to be free to check out other things and have plenty of chat time with fellow modellers from other clubs. This was a great event and the models entered in the competition and on display were of a very high standard and once again a figure won best in show. Many thanks to the host club, it was worth the trip up and all my models survived the journey with no breakages and got plenty of looks from the airport staff. A list of all class winners is included.

5 Kit review Trumpeter Liberty Ship Kit review Trumpeter liberty Ship Jeremiah O Brien 350 scale kit # this kit can be built waterline or full hull and for some strange reason trumpeter decided to mould bow and stern deck with a small portion of the hull side. This left an ugly seam line front and rear that was very hard to get blended together as the hull and deck seemed to be moulded on slightly different angles so lots of putty and super glue were needed to get a decent finish. All the superstructure walls fitted outside the roof panels leaving huge seal lines exposed that needed filling. This kit must build some different versions as there was a raised lip at the rear of the superstructure to locate some more walls but none supplied in the kit these would need to be removed or as I did incorporate some extra deck detail to blend it all in. Also there is no open wheel house on top of the bridge which is a bit strange because it is included in their 700 scale version of the same ship. All the derricks can be displayed in any position you want giving licence to all sorts of dioramas but no fittings are supplied for the top of the masts where all the pulley blocks go for the cranes. All the deck winches are 4 part items giving great detail which responded nicely to some washes. The general fit of all the parts was good and assembled the full hull and then all the minor subassemblies which aided the ease of painting and then everything just fitted together. I wanted a rusty beat up ship so a few new techniques were tried out and twice it was stripped back to bare plastic till I got it right. I followed an AK interactive DVD on how to make dented plates on the hull and chipping and with some oil washes applied it was 3rd time lucky. Garry convinced me to put some rigging on the ship so first of all I had to catch some spiders and train them. This was a little difficult as there weren t too many to be found in the house as wifie keeps the house pretty good but there were heaps in the wood shed. The spiders weren t cooperating so I purchased some suitable thread and set to work with good lights, tweezers and patience and had a go at the lifeboat lines first and then on to the cranes. I had to drill small holes in the top of the masts to allow the thread to pass through and wrap it around those beautiful winches and carefully apply some superglue to hold it all in place. The decals were over size for where they were to go and the bridge side ones had to be trimmed after installation also the stern name was printed flat and had to be cut to allow for the curve of the stern. Some crew figures were placed around the guns to give the ship some life. I cracked off the full hull as it provided a good hand hold whilst working on the model and fitted the waterline plate as I have plans to put this ship in a diorama. This was an enjoyable build apart from the paint learning experience but it looks good and managed to get first in the nationals.

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