201: May 2021 Monthly Meeting

The Southern Maryland Scale Modelers will be meeting at a new location on 27 May: 

High Tide Games 

22599 MacArthur Blvd 

California, Maryland 

(San Souci Plaza, between McKay's and Mission BBQ) 

Time/Date: 7pm until 9 pm, Thursday, 27th May 

Theme: Desert Storm -- 30th Anniversary (Whitey has to bring his builds!)

Format will be the same as it was pre-pandemic:  

• Announcements (if any)
• Around the room to talk about your models
• Socialize and look at the models (voting on the best completed Theme model)
• Then the raffle

Bring your 357th FG Mustangs. 

Please note that you must follow CDC guidelines and mask up if not fully vaccinated. 

LTM #43: Let's Talk Models!

April 29th.

Modelers: 15

Models: 32

Okay, that's a high for us.  32 models to chat about.

A couple of announcements:

1. The May meeting will be at High Tide Games on May 27th from 7pm until 9pm.  Rebecca has confirmed we can meet then.  Most of our members will have completed their vaccinations by then and the crew at HTG will have theirs as well.
2. Firehouse Hobbies will be having a Driveway Sale on May 15th from 9am to 1pm at 11802 North Marlton Avenue, Upper Marlboro, MD.  

We also agreed at the previous meeting to record our zoom sessions and post them.  So with that I created a YouTube Channel for Southern Maryland Scale Modelers.  Link to LTM #43 video. Jonathan gets to be the cover photo...

Pandemic Group Builds

May 1st

So over the last year we came up with four group builds (or themes) that some of us decided to do in addition to the list here on the site:

• 1/48 Scale Mustangs of the 357th -- Bene has a stack of decals and we build a P-51B/C/D with the yellow and red checkers on the noses.
• 1/48 Scale Bf-109 without German markings -- Any kit, any variant, but no Luftwaffe markings.
• 1/48 Scale Spitfires that are not British -- Any kit, any variant, but no RAF or FAA markings.  
• 1/700 Battleships -- Deviating from the trend above, we decided to go small.  Any kit, any battleship or battlecruiser from any period.  Waterline or full hull is choice of the modeler.

Hopefully we can get everyone together at once to show these off well before a show.  I'd like some photos to post here.

LTM #42: Let's Talk Models!

 April 20th -- Okay folks, picture time again!

The April Theme is "A Trek to the Stars" -- Any spacecraft, real, sci-fi, or what-if.  

The only completed theme model was the Enterprise -- so bragging rights goes to Joe.

LTM #41: Let's Talk Models!

 April 8th.  

16 Members tonight and 19 models.  It's becoming obvious that if we don't have to transport our models to a location we can talk about more of them!

LTM #40: Let's Talk Models!

April 1st.  Has it really been a year?  It feels like things are changing for the better as Maryland and the USA in general gets vaccinated.  Many of our members have their first shots already.

We had 15 members tonight and talked about 24 models.

We also discussed sharing our zoom session info to get more modelers involved like Paul -- a local who found out about us and is now fully in and building models and a stash.

We decided that's not practical because we are limited to 100 for the lowest price point AND if the invite got out we could be just a bit too popular -- meaning our core members may not be able to talk about their models!

We also agreed on the next face-2-face meeting locations: 1) The Clubhouse at Leonard's Grant on TUESDAY 20 April; and 2) Accokeek on Saturday morning 24 April.  

Ultimately we want to compare the Clubhouse with the High Tide Games location and make a choice as to which is better for the members.  (For reference, the Accokeek location will be booked solid once Maryland opens up.)

LTM #39: Let's Talk Models!

 In person at Accokeek on March 27th.  Unfortunately I cannot find my notes but I vaguely remember 10 (yeah, it was limited to no more than 10) socially distanced.  We brought about a dozen models for show and tell.