Model Maker is the Newsletter of the Modellers of Ballarat Inc Club Office Bearers Patron: Lemmy President: Gary Zimmer Vice President: Sean Haley Treasurer: Wayne Eagles Secretary: Steve Pulbrook Committee : Mark Pilbeam& Tim Mitchell Publicity Officer: Yvette Eagles Newsletter Editor: Leigh Edmonds Address for correspondence: Modellers of Ballarat Inc, Box 1141, Ballarat Mail Centre, Bakery Hill, Victoria 3354 Editorial Address: snail mail, as above. email, [email protected] Club Membership Fees: (1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014) Single adult $30 Junior $15 Associate (Newsletter only, on approval from committee) $15 Annual membership fees for new financial year are due and payable from 1 July 2013 (Note: New members who join during or after April and pay full membership are members until the end of the following financial year and do not need to pay again at the end of the current financial year. Fees may be paid in instalments with the agreement of the Treasurer.) Monthly Meetings: The first Saturday of every month except for January Doors open at 7:30pm. The meeting starts at 8.00 sharp. Location: Kohinoor Community Centre on the corner of Errard and Sebastopol Streets, Ballarat. Disclaimer: Any views expressed in the articles in the MOB Newsletter are not to be taken to be those of the club or its members as a whole unless expressly stated. Accordingly, any concerns in regard to any articles should be addressed to the writer of the article and/or the editor who will pass them on to the relevant person. The Modelers of Ballarat (MOB) is an incorporated association and operated under the model rules presented in the Associations Incorporation Regulations, 1998 Tis but a scratch manage to drop something, some tiny part that may I recently spent a few days incarcerated in live in the carpet indefinitely. Then sometimes I find hospital. It’s only a flesh wound, as the Black Knight it after months or years, and resume building the from Monty Python and the Holy Grail said. The model it belonged to. This couldn’t happen in usual way to kill the hours in between getting jabbed hospital, any dropped part if not recovered with sharp pieces of metal is to read a book. Three immediately would end up in the 300hp industrial problems there, I didn’t have a book, or my glasses, vacuum cleaner wielded daily by the ultra-efficient nor managed to stay awake long enough to read cleaners. anything. Assuming I was, then what about other However the biggest problem is that in some hobbies? I don’t think the staff would be too pleased circumstances the brain does not function on all if someone arrived bringing me my angle grinder and cylinders. I realized this while trying to watch QI, mig welder. and if you don’t have your wits about you it is near Most evenings home I typically do some impossible to follow such a show. You seem to be work on one of the many in progress models that about four gags behind the plot. My observation is clutter up the place, why not do some modeling in that modelling is a hobby that requires an active hospital? The first problem would be getting one brain, and I hope the opposite is true, that by doing a from home, assuming anyone else on the planet could hobby that required thinking, dexterity and a bit of actually find anything in my house. As you know it coordination will keep what’s inside my skull from just can’t be any model, it has to be one that I have a clogging up with cobwebs for now. Use it or lose it, particular passion for at that time. One that has been as they say. on the bottom of the pile for the last five years might Anyway thank you Mark (who works there not be the one I want to do right now. Or probably anyway) and Leigh who dropped in to distract me for ever, if we want to be realistic about the situation. a while. In the event that I had a kit with me, it The Eastern Suburbs club swap meet happens wouldn’t be much good on its own. Just looking on Sunday 9 March, there’s no Gestapo and no around me I have a plethora of modelling tools, both standing in queues for the fun of it, it’s good. conventional and otherwise. I don’t think the nurses Zim would like me to have paint, thinners or turps. Of course every single time I work on a model I always The MoB are off and running for another year. The Christmas break seemed to go so fast this time, to me anyway, which is another way of saying that not much modelling got done by me during the festive season. Being a gazillion degrees doesn’t help either when one has to walk what seems to be miles balancing an airbrush, paints, kit bits and pieces all with one hand whilst trying to keep the million little black malley fly’s from invading your nostrils, eyes, ears and trying to dive down your throat. Dennis's 1911 Fire Tender interested in doing the old original plain white tail with the stylized letter B, I have some fond memories regarding this scheme from the very early 1970’s when I lived in Cairns. That was when the place was a lovely sleepy little place to bring up kids and have fun. The above doesn’t stop me buying new kits though but I have eased off considerably in the last Jason’s Bf109G-6 and Bf109K-4 six months compared to a year or so ago. After seeing a set of newly released decals from Hawkeye showing the markings for a 1/72 DC3 to be done as one of Bush Pilots Airways aircraft from Far North Queensland I was overcome by nostalgia and asked Prof to get me a set. The only small problem was that I didn’t have a 1/72 kit of the DC3, the Prof was also happy to help out by off loading one of his ancient ESCI kits which had been pushed to the back of his wall of doom. Have I started it... No. I’m more OK health wise with these guys. Peter tabled a very interesting book full of old photos and cuttings from bygone eras which I didn’t get to look at properly but items like these are getting far and few between, we humans seem to more than happy to consign history etc to the dustbins all too readily so it’s great to see people like Peter and others who are helping to preserve our history. I remember when working in Townsville, some plonker threw out at the Thuringowa tip a few massive boxes of old sepia plus black and white photographs taken in and around Townsville during the 1880’s and early Mark’s epic Halifax III 1900’s, there were hundreds of them, I managed to save as many as I could and then took them around to For those who are not aware of it, the Prez the Townsville Historical SocietyMuseum. I thought has had to spend some time laying on his back they were going to pass out in ecstasy when I handed annoying Hospital staff (and trying to con any of the them over. Must have been too much trouble for the nurses into a date I’ll bet) when they would let him plonker who threw them out to see if they could have out due to the fact that he ended up with a highly been more appreciated by others or more than likely infected toe. Prof visited him to cheer him up; Mark he couldn’t make a buck out of them at the time. also visited him to tell him that he wasn’t going to The model table had some nice models once croak. I decided I’d better do my bit to cheer him up so I phoned him and asked him if still had all his toes or had they amputated them? They finally let him escape about a week ago so hopefully by the time you get this newsletter El Prezidente will be back to his old self. Rod’s little Fokker again for members to look at, keen eyed members will notice that I didn’t table anything this time around, the first February meeting to not have something new to show. Mick’s modern armour Dennis once again tabled something out of Good to see that the show committee the ordinary, this time he wandered in with a 1911 members are on track. I’ll send the begging letters to Christie Fire Tender which had everyone’s attention; Dawn Trading and Southern Model Supplies in the I’m looking forward to the rest of the years offerings coming weeks. Sean has been busy and has already from Dennis. Jason has been busy completing his hit most of the local sponsors. Harpers Hobbies have 1/32 Bf-109G-6 latest fighter from Revell and his been absolutely brilliant in supplying raffle prizes, 1/32 Hasegawa Bf-109K4, both very stunning I’ll leave that for Sean to reveal all the details at the models. next meeting. Leigh as usual was able to fill the back wall Hopefully next meeting will see the return of of the tables with interesting subjects; this time the Maryborough sub branch as Matt, Len and Allen around he tabled an Arsenal VB-10 French fighter, a were missing from the Feb meeting, hopefully all is very nice Boeing 757-300 in Continental Airlines livery, a Hustler B-58 which has always been a nice looking aircraft from a time when aircraft looked just right, well, for jets anyway.