Due to a scheduling conflict, we are moving the September meeting from September 6th to September 20th.  Location, time, and theme will all remain the same.

Please let others know, especially if they don’t check the website and aren’t on the Discord server.

Chad

Good day gents.  The August meeting went very well with 24 folks in attendance.  Every one say hi to our new member Coby!   Coby brought a super sharp US WW2 destroyer to show.  Welcome to the Ravenhood Coby.

We had several other guests attend and I am sure we made a good impression and they will join the chapter at the next meeting. It is so great to see the chapter continue to grow and to add to the talent pool – especially with Warhammer subjects!

It was great seeing John attend-he brought a stunning Quarles truck that he intends to take to Nats.  Good luck John!   Equally great was Ross being there and seeing his car carrier with luxury sports cars on it.  That will be at the PennCon show in September.  Good luck Ross!

Tom Lacy is our project manager for Ravencon 2026.  He will be recruiting members to help with the show so raise your hand to help out when he reaches out to you.   Club members can compete in Ravencon but members can only enter one subject per category.  Lets be gracious hosts!

September is the auction month so bring that kit you never will get to and are willing to have it be sold to raise funds for the club. Randy’s never-used 3D printer will be raffled.  The model theme for September are The Big Wars – so bring models of anything built from 1914-18 or 1939-45 civilian or military.   Remember December is helicopter month and the best helo builder gets a cake!  October is airbrush demo lessons and November Todd is giving an update fiber lighting demo.

Keep building!

Chris

Happy 249th birthday to all!  The July meeting was very good.  Mark’s insights into this year’s and follow on Nationals were interesting.  Mark’s industry insights were very interesting as well!  Get whatever kit(s) you want now!!

The vignette theme was a big hit.  Bruce’s WW1 tank was superb. Pats early USN jets were fantastic. Pat is good at doing the uncommon aircraft subjects.   Big and lil Bob’s cars were zoom-zoom good.  Kj’s self made flat bed trailer was superb.  Amazing skill.

Thanks once again to Scott for another good lecture on dio construction.  The completed Sinclair dio is going to an eye catcher for sure.

See you all in August.

Chris

Good days gents. The June meeting was packed and highlighted by the attendance of a new member!  The Cold War theme of the models on display.  The A-37 and USN cruiser were very sharp looking as were all the models.  Jeff’s trucks are getting ever bigger in scope and complexity.  Keep it going Jeff!

The July meeting theme is vignette, so bring your model on a grassy field display base to show off.  The August meeting will be Foreigner 4 themed.  Basically any model tied to any foreign country.  Polish, South African, German, whatever.  For Todd, a sci fi kit represents a model from the 5th Dimension so that would work too!

Nationals is coming up and best of luck to those entering.  Randy is one. Our member at large John is also entering.  Mark will be there as a vendor and possibly entering and Scott will enter too!  The Ravenhood will be well represented by these superb builders.  

See you all in July!

Chris

The meeting went very well with about 16 members attending. It was a pleasure to honor Marcin for his award as Region 2 Member of the Year for 2024!   

Scott gave an in depth presentation on rust applications using a blend of techniques he knows and a new product from AK that produces a rough texture for a 3d rust effect.  Thanks Scott for a great demo.  I did a short presentation on how bases can set your model off better and make it stand up (literally) from the crowd. 

We got a new member too!  Welcome Mark and thanks for your service with the Coast Guard. 

The models on the table were fantastic. Todd’s scratchbuilt Star Wars ships were stunning and Tom is becoming quite the figure modeler!  Pat’s P-40 was super; what a great save by Pat!  Mark’s sports car looked like it was ready to race!  Good job by all. 

Remember that June is the Cold War era theme. Bring a model or figure from that time frame (1960-1990).  Thanks Pat for the theme idea!

Chris

What a great meeting!  Lots of attendees and great discussions.  It was fantastic to have Scott talk about his article in the IPMS Journal and to see the new and improved Woody’s Garage diorama.  Scott is the man!

Speaking of the man as well, congrats to Randy and Mark on their recent contest wins!  Way to go guys.

As discussed, send your ideas for the March 2026 contest.  I would like to get this finalized by the next meeting to afford everyone time to build.  The first rule of the March contest will be no entries for any model/dio/vignette that has won anything anywhere- – it has to be a new build!

Several of us will be at NOVA Apr 12. Wear your club shirts to all who are going so we can show our colors and club camaraderie.  

Thanks to Tom Lacy for bringing samples and talking about that new paint he discovered.  He is a master at finding new tools and talking about them each meeting.

Thanks to all who have joined Discord.  It has been a great way  to share and communicate ideas and techniques.  Good on Chad for setting that all up for us all.

So far this year we have not had any lectures/presentations on skills. We pride ourselves on being a teaching club so let’s remember to do this.   Send me your “wish list” of topics to hear and learn about or tell me you want to present on X topic.  

-Chris

Wow…what a fun “out of comfort zone” contest!  I was so pleased to see everyone had fun and enjoyed the good-spirited contest.  By popular vote, we will do this again next March, so start planning now for your build.  It is appropriate to do this on our anniversary month to celebrate what each of us has learned from each other and from the group to make your own builds just that much better.

Congrats to all the winners today and for the creativeness of the builds.  I want to give a shout out to Andre for his very out of the box approach to his tugboat; to Chad for modifying his US Army motorcycle to a civilian post war one; and to Todd for that amazing scratch built semi truck. 

Please forward to me your wish lists for topics to either go over in the group session or for a break out session.  If anyone as well would like to offer to demonstrate a technique they are good at, let me know too!

The next closest show is NOVA in April. I think several of the members are planning to attend.   There are some other shows in March and April but they are quite the drive and not sure how many, if any, are willing to do a long distance trek.  Whatever event members attend, wear your shirt to show off our “flag”.

We welcome our new members to the club – again how neat it was they showed for our March anniversary meeting.  We look forward to seeing your craft, helping you where we can, and learning from you.  We help, guide, and support each other in the Raven-hood and we hope you enjoy your time with us.

Martin will look into programs to support kids’ programs in the area.  Various folks agreed to see if their local library would like to host us for adult/kid programs they run that can use our crafts and skills for their clients.   Chad is going to look into creating web-based themed chat rooms for members to join and hopefully he can set that up for us as well as making “good job” tokens we can leave next to builds we like at show events.

See you all in early April for the meeting and again for NOVA and the museum tour late in April.  Until then, keep building.  As for me, I have a guillotine to paint!


Chris

Good day gents.  Sorry, no photos to share as I just forgot to take any at the February meeting.  The meeting went very well with Randy taking the lead on what judges look for in competitions with a good assist from Scott from the builders point of view.  The use of the room by the kitchen at the church is a much better venue as it gives more space.  Everyone welcome our new members Robert the Big and Robert the small (father;son duo) to the club.  Robert (the dad) was offering good conversation on car builds so we look forward to hearing him out on other occasions.  The models on display were quite good.  I especially liked Scott’s before and after versions of the same model truck – a neat display idea.  Scott’s idea is to place those two trucks on a nice display board with a simulated road way.  Should be another of Scott’s wins at a upcoming show.

Speaking of Randy, he brought the first diorama he ever made many moons ago.  When I asked him why he kept it all these years, he said he used it as a reminder of where he was skills-wise to where he is now (which is remarkable).  That was a neat story.  I thought it might be a good idea if others might want to share a good modeling story like that.

Speaking again of sharing, it is 2025. Everyone think of topics they would like to have presented during this year.  Ours is a teaching club so let’s continue to learn from each other by having presentations on this or that technique, this or that paint or paint method, this or that anything.

It came out in the meeting I am running for IPMS/USA Secretary.  The election is sometime in 2025 and one other person is running for the office.  Voting is done by IPMS/USA members so when that comes out I would appreciate your vote and your getting the word out to friends in other clubs near and far.  It would be a great thing for propel the Raven-hood forward.

Best
Chris

Happy Monday, everyone. The January meeting went really well despite being delayed a week due to bad weather.  We had a few folks return after long absences and even had a few new faces! I believe there were 21 people in attendance.

The main focus of this month’s meeting was an airbrush demonstration by Dave Monet, the instructor that Tom has been taking classes with.  He was generous enough to come down from Hagerstown and give an introductory lesson for us at no cost and was able to answer some questions folks had.  He also gave a few of us a chance to try using an airbrush for the first time.

Dave said he’s more than happy to come down again in the future.  If enough people show interest in having him come back then perhaps we can make a list of things we’d like to see covered and let him tailor a more specific session for us.

As a reminder, make sure you’ve updated your calendars to show our new meeting schedule.  We’ve switched to the first Saturday of every month which means our next meeting is just 2 weeks away!  No big demonstration is planned so be sure to bring in anything you’ve been working on or want to talk about.

For those of you who didn’t pay your dues at the January meeting, please remember dues are….due… between now and the March meeting.  See you guys in February!

-Chad

Good day gents.  The annual Christmas party was a big hit.  The food was fantastic.  My personal favorite was Chad’s banana pudding dish-or more correctly Chad’s wife’s banana pudding.  Randy brought his Bunkeramania best of Armor award-it was a full size wrestling champion belt!  It was great seeing Marcin and son again.

The gift exchange event was much fun.  Marcin, who went second, opened up a 1/48 Eduard P-51 and amazingly not one person after he went stole it!   But I was stolen from over and over again!  That was not right-just saying.  Just kidding, I wound up with a neat WW2 Soviet ski sleddee that should look pretty cool on a snow base.

Remember. Our meeting in January will be on the second Saturday but all meetings thereafter the meetings will be on the first Saturday of each month.
I sent the article about our club to IUJ Monday morning (22Dec) and before dinner the same day they responded that they liked it and will get it in a edition soon.  Woohoo!

-Chris