3D Printed Kits with Brad Belsheim: PMM Episode 140

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
The Voice of Bob (Bair) (00:11):
Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a
podcast dedicated to scalemodeling, as well as the news
and events around the hobby.
Let's join Mike and KentuckyDave as they strive to be
informative, entertaining andhelp you keep your modeling mojo
alive.

Mike (00:44):
Well, happy May Mojovia and welcome to episode 140 of
Plastic Model Mojo.
Dave, how are you doing tonight?

Kentucky Dave (00:52):
All right.
Wife cashed a winning ticket onthe Derby, so all is right in
Kentucky.

Mike (01:02):
Well, it's also the 4th of May, so may the 4th be with you
, all our Star Wars geeks outthere.

Yep, yep, as a matter of fact, I was talking to
Jim Bates this afternoon and hewas at the museum out there,
the Air Museum out there, andthey were putting on a— I saw
that they were putting on a Isaw that he posted some pictures
of some models some of the clubhad put on display out there
for May the 4th.
And it was just more thanmodels.

(01:32):
They were having the reenactorsout there and activities and
really a great time, and youlove to see stuff like that.

Mike (01:41):
Well, good, glad to see Jim out and about doing it Me
too.

That's exactly what I told him.

Mike (01:48):
Well, Dave, what is up in your model sphere, my friend?

Well, besides going to derby parties and
besides my wife cashing awinning derby ticket, it's hard
to talk about.
Up in Indianapolis there was anindividual man who died and to
say that he had one of thefinest collections of a library,

(02:18):
focused on mostly navalmilitary history, but it was
much more wide-ranging than that, one of the finest collections
I have ever seen in my life.
And obviously he was survivedby a widow who, like all widows,

(02:38):
is faced with how do I get rid?

Mike (02:41):
of all of this stuff.
Yeah, how do you dispositionall that?

Yes, how do you do that If they've not?

Mike (02:46):
had a plan.

That's right.
We all need to make plans sothat our spouses don't go
through this.
Well, she had an individual, afriend, family friend, who had
spent about nine months helpingto liquidate things, helping to
sell books and all, and InchHigh Jeff, inch High Groves, got

(03:13):
in contact with this guy andthen he and a couple other
people went and made purchasesfrom this library, but even
their purchases at superdiscounted rates did not begin
to put a dent in the size ofthis collection.

Mike (03:34):
Did they offer a top-end estimate of how many volumes
were in this thing?

It's two full rooms full of bookcases packed
together so tightly you have towalk down them sideways.
I'll post a couple of picturesI took on the dojo so you all
can see this.
But after spending about ninemonths liquidating a tiny
fraction of this library justbecause it was so huge,

(04:01):
basically he had the individualwho was helping the widow had a
deal to sell the entirecollection and it fell through.
And after almost a year, rathernaturally, this lady simply
wants her basement back once itall cleared out.

(04:22):
And basically the guy who washelping her was like I'm going
to have to call a dumpster andjust pulp all of this stuff.
And Jeff, to his everlastingcredit as both a modeler and a
librarian close to my heart,begged the guy and said please

(04:43):
don't do that.
Give me a little time toorganize a rescue mission.
So Jeff reached out to me, jeffreached out to album, musical
albums, you know, 33 vinyl CDsjust unbelievable.
Me and a couple other people andthe widow just wanted us to
come in and take as much as wewanted and find good homes for

(05:30):
it.
No charge, no, nothing.
Just come in, take what youMake it go away.
Make it go away and if you canfind a good home for it.
That would make her feel better.
So I drove up to Indy, metIncha to Culver's.
We had a nice little lunch,then went over to this house

(05:53):
where I spent three and a halfhours and took a ton of books.
A bloody filled my I drive aVolvo XC60.
Maybe literally a ton of books.
A bloody Phil, I drive a VolvoXC60.
Maybe literally a ton.
Yeah Well, yeah, you could feelthe car drove way differently

(06:15):
on the way back Front wheelsbarely touching the ground.

Mike (06:18):
It's amazing Like an overloaded pickup truck.

It was amazing.
But in any event I cleaned outa bunch of these books.
Inch took a bunch more, johnBishop took some, and then some
of the other people, and westill have not put a huge dent
in this collection.
I did rescue a lot of reallygood and valuable books, some of

(07:11):
which I'm going to keep in mycollection because they are
things that interest me.
But a lot of this stuff I amgoing to try and be rehoming and
I may post a few on the dojo ifpeople are looking for some
stuff.
But it was a surreal three and ahalf hours.
I mean just I pride myself on,like I said, I joke around here
that I am a librarian who modelsoccasionally.
I pride myself in having seen awhole lot of military history
books and I was going throughthese shelves and it was like,
oh my gosh, I've never seen thatbefore.
I wasn't aware of that book,book after book after book and,

(07:33):
like I said, it was one of thefinest private collections that
I have ever seen in my life.
And you know, jeff, and myselfand John Bishop and some other
people are going to rehome asmuch of it as we can.
I don't know.
I mean I think eventually afair amount of that stuff is

(07:56):
still going to get pulped.
I'm reaching out to the indieclub to try and get some of
their people over there, andJeff's going to reach out to one
or two more of his contacts andmaybe we can get some more of
it rescued.
But, oh my Lord, the one lessonI did I think we all came away
from is A organize your stuff,because this guy had a really

(08:22):
great collection but it wasutterly unorganized.
The books on the shelves youwould occasionally encounter
like half a shelf where all ofthem were the same subject, like
Pearl Harbor, but then you'dencounter another shelf and book
to book.
There was no rhyme or reason.
So organize your stuff, guysand I'm preaching to myself on

(08:47):
this as much as anybody, becauseI need to get way better
organized.
And number two, make a plan.
Do not burden your spouse at thetime of your passing.
And let's face it, statisticsare statistics.
Most of us are going to diebefore our better halves and you

(09:11):
need to make a plan so thatwhen, whatever that is,
everything goes to the modelclub, everything goes to some
club members who take it andvend it to try and generate cash

(09:33):
for the widow or whatever it is.
I don't care what your plan is.
Make a plan, because no planreally puts a lot of extra
stress on your spouse, who'salready lost you and this lovely
lady I mean she had you know itwas her husband's collection.

(09:54):
She didn't want, she wanted tosee something happen to it to
preserve it.
But by the same token, afternine months and the basement is
still 99% full, I understand whyshe was ready just to get rid
of it all.
So please make a plan.
So that's what's up in my modelsphere, mike, not bad.

Mike (10:18):
Not bad.
I'm curious to see what thehaul was.

Oh well, I will send you pictures.
See what the haul was?
Oh well, I will send youpictures.
Seriously, the weight was somuch that the car drove
noticeably different on the wayback, and I would bet that my
gas mileage went downsignificantly as well.

Mike (10:38):
Ruthie just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Well, yeah, less said about that, about that the
best, so we'll get through thatin any event.
So what was up in your modelsphere?

Mike (10:53):
well, I had had to miss out on that.
I'd like to ridden up with youand, and oh, partaking in that,
but what?

in the cards.

Mike (11:01):
You'd have been strapped to the roof on the way back
because the front seat thepassenger seat was completely
full well, I'd had a rainy dayto up and back to cincinnati and
it's just an exhausting day andI had crap to do around here.
So what in the cards?
But my model sphere?

(11:21):
Yes, you know, I got someinspiration from our last guest,
jake McKee.
Yeah, he was talking aboutresearching the Clubmobile.
Right, and I was eating that upbecause I knew exactly what he
was doing there and how it wasgoing down, because I've done it
before several times.
Yeah, and you, just you go downthese rabbit holes and all of a

(11:42):
sudden you're faced with a leftor right turn and it just goes
down and down.
You meet some people andsomebody knows somebody, who
knows somebody, who knowssomething, and that's just the
way it works.
Well, I'm like, if Jake canbuild this club mobile, I can
get this Raboboton thing moving.
This is stupid.

This is a Hungarian truck.

Mike (12:03):
Yeah, this is all me being lazy and not putting any effort
into this, whatever.
So there's a Facebook page andit's a publisher I think it's
called Huns on Wheels, and allthe books they promote on there
are all Hungarian subjects.

Oh, wow, oh, Huns on Wheels.
Yes, okay, when I hear Hun, Ithink German, but I got it Huns
on Wheels.

Mike (12:36):
So they've done all these books on the more prominent, the
Toldy and the Tehran and someof the Saba armored car.
You know, the ones that havebeen kitted primarily are the
ones they've been focusing on.
You know that makes a lot ofsense.
But I'm slogging through thisBotan project.

(12:59):
I kind of lost my contact atthe Reba company and not gotten
a response back yet from themafter reaching out again yeah,
also after Jake's appearance onthe show.
But I was like man, they got toknow somebody that knows,
somebody that knows something.
So I messaged them throughFacebook Messenger, through

(13:21):
their Facebook page, and it tooka few days but they got back
with me and they put me incontact with someone.
A couple of guys have beencreating a 3D model of the truck
, kind of like what I'm doing,and I don't know what stage it's
in, but there's a printed bookconceptually in the works.

(13:42):
I don't know if it ever come tofruition or what, but that's
kind of where it is right now.
Right, they've kind of donethis thing.
So I'm at the front end of theconversation with these guys,
one of them in particular.
So thanks, jake, Thanks forreminding me how I'm supposed to
do things and we'll see wherethis goes.

(14:03):
Interestingly though, the onepart that has me stuck right now
in the chassis is is one theykind of had to gloss over and
guess themselves.
So still some work to be done,but we'll see what.
What else they have that mightbe of interest to me.
But you know this, this projectkind of come back online a

(14:25):
little bit Well maybe you allcan collab on the 3D.
Maybe we can.
That would be cool.
So that's my model sphere.
Primarily is putting some newkindling on that and seeing
where that fire goes.
So we'll see.

Well good, well good, since we're recording.
I know you've got a modelingfluid, maybe one left over from
a derby party or something.

Mike (14:50):
Or a birthday.

Or a birthday.
That's right.
It was your birthday recently.
What did the birthday boy get?

Mike (14:59):
The birthday boy got a Walcott bottled in bond.
Oh wow, which is?
I need to go look at thedistiller.
I don't know who makes it.
Uh-huh, they've got it inspades at Total Wines Maybe a
Total Wine kind of deal, I don'tknow.
A collab, probably.
I've had Walcott featuredbefore, but not this one.

(15:21):
This is the Bottled and Bondwith the blue label, but that's
what I got.
What Walcott featured before,but not this one.
This is the bottled and bondwith the blue label, but that's
what I got.
What do you have?

Well, I actually am doing one of my rare repeats.
I have from the brewer in yourtown, Mirror Twin Brewing, the
West Coast India Pale Ale calledTwo-Way Street.

Mike (15:47):
That's going to be hoppy out the wazoo.

Yes, and I've had it once before, as I said, and
the lovely wife brought it homeagain from Trader Joe's beer and
wine and liquor store.
You get her a checklist.
Yeah, I should, and, and youknow I want I.
I was not overly impressed thefirst time, so I want to give it

(16:11):
another chance because you knowI, I think you always probably
ought to, ought to give itanother chance.
Oh, by the way, wolcott is fromBarton 1792 Distillery.
Oh, did you just look it up?
Yes, I did.
No, I knew that.

(16:32):
I pulled it out of the top ofmy head.

Mike (16:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I looked it up.
I looked it up, so I'll let youknow how this goes down at the
end of the episode All right.

Mike (16:43):
Well, the listener mail is is slipped back into moderation
.
Okay, so we're not inundatedand we're not want either.
Okay, so a good spot.
So we should probably get intothe listener mail, dave, yep,
all right.
Well, first up from Dallas,georgia, is Bill McCullough, and

(17:04):
he sent us a list of thingsfolks can do while attending
AMPS or you know, adjacent tothose travels.
Right, of course, yunglingBrewery is around there
somewhere, so that's going to beon draft about everywhere you
go.
Yeah, which is not a bad thingit's good beer.

It's good beer.

Mike (17:24):
And just east of Harrisburg is Fort Indiantown
Gap, which is now a PennsylvaniaNational Guard training site.
He says there's a fewinteresting static displays
there.
So if you want to go to ampsand you're coming from a
direction that lets you get toFort Indiantown Gap, or either
coming or going, there'sapparently something to see
there.
There's a EC-130 Commando Solo.

(17:44):
Oh wow, there's a TF-102.
Nice, and an M12 GMC.

All right.
Well, there had to be somethingwith an AMPS tie-in right.

Mike (17:57):
I think so.
Yeah, these are all on the mainroad across from the airfield
and also along the way.
Is Moose's LZ a great place tofind quality modeling fluid and
some of the best burgers in theFort Indiantown Gap area.
There you go.
In addition, dave, an hour eastof Camp Hill in Redding,

(18:19):
pennsylvania, is theMid-Atlantic Air Museum.
The Mid-Atlantic Air MuseumDave has a great collection of
civilian and military aircraft,but the must-see attraction is
their P-61.
Oh, wow.
Which is currently beingrestored to flyable condition.
He's seen it several times overthe years and rarely misses a
chance to visit this museum whenhe's in the area.
He's provided a link whichwe'll put in the show notes.

(18:41):
But it's a Black widow, right.

Right Indeed it is.

Mike (18:45):
Yeah, That'd be interesting One to see flying
again.
Yes, it would.
He also mentions Gettysburg isvery close, but it's a very hard
thing to experience on a daytrip.
It's just too too much.

Brad Belsheim (18:56):
Yeah.

Mike (18:57):
He tried that once and barely scratched the surface.
A weekend was barely enough.
So you know you're going toneed a couple three days there
at least.
And we mentioned Antietam,which he reminds us of, but not
to forget Harper's Ferry, yes.

Harper's Ferry is beautiful.
If you've never been throughHarper's Ferry, you ought to go
just to see it.

Mike (19:15):
And I've been there, and I would recommend that you go
very early in the morningbecause it's just a beautiful
time of day to be there.

Oh yeah, Up on one of the mountains surrounding
the town.
Yeah, there's a lot of mistykind of sunrise it's just a
really, really cool thing.

Mike (19:32):
So yeah, if you can do it, go see Harper's Ferry.

Yep.

Mike (19:36):
So we appreciate the recommendations.
We always like the adjacentperipheral stuff to do while
you're at a major model event.
It's kind of become our keynotething.

By the way, other listeners, if you're up and
from that area, food andmicrobrewery recommendations are
greatly appreciated.
Many of the folks attendingAMPS are going to be there for
multiple days and, you know,while you find a close
microbrewery Mike and I haveemphasized this before go out

(20:10):
and experience the town, whichmeans go to multiple restaurants
, sample a variety, see theplace while you're there.
That adds so much to theenjoyment of the contest.

Mike (20:26):
Well, he's got a small bone to pick with us, Dave.
Uh-oh, During the Wheel ofAccidental Wisdom.
The question posed was whichscale we'd eliminate and why yes
.

And he says we eliminated 125th scale and I
would either make armor in one24th or one 25th scale so that
it went with all of the civilianvehicle kits.
So no, I didn't eliminate 24thor 25th.
I actually wanted to promote24th or 25th by eliminating 16th

(21:07):
scale, which I think is too big.

Mike (21:09):
I'll have to look at that again.
I tend to agree with you.
We might have suggested theypick one or the other and roll
with it.

Well, you're right, because there is both
24th and 25th scale.
I don't remember.

Mike (21:21):
He's a big rig guy, so he's got a lot of 25th scale.

Gotcha.

Mike (21:26):
Stuff going on.
He says his feelings are hurtand he may have to file a hurt
feelings report against the dojo.

Oh no.
Well, if he shows up at Amps,I'll buy him a beer and we'll
call it a settlement.

Mike (21:37):
There you go.
Ever the attorney Dave.

That's right.

Mike (21:42):
Well, thanks, bill, that was a lot of fun.
Well, dave, up next is CharlesRice, and Charles is from the
well, the show he wants us tomention is the Simpsonville 2025
South Carolina ModelAssociation Upstate Model
Contest on May 17th.
This is primarily a car contest.
Uh-huh, they got a big swath ofcar categories and then the

(22:07):
other half is everything else.

Right.

Mike (22:10):
In their respective categories but not cut nearly as
fine as the automotive category.
Yeah, Simpsonville, SouthCarolina.

Even if you don't build autos, let me tell you,
going to a show that isprimarily autos even at IPMS
shows I will spend a fair amountof my time looking at the
automotive categories.
There is some fantastic workbeing done.

(22:41):
The depth of finish that someof these guys get and the
details it is super impressive.
And so, even if it is a mainlycar contest, go talk to the guys
, have a good time.
If you don't build cars, butyou build something else, take
something else to help bulk uptheir non-car category.

(23:03):
So share and share alike.

Mike (23:06):
This show is going to feature the sixth annual Box
Stock Shootout, a showcase formodel builders skills, also got
the 2025 Stock Car Challengewith individual class awards
plus best stock car award, andthe 2025 Big Drag Classic with
the top three awards plus thetop eliminator award.
So they're really promoting thecar side of this, which is

(23:28):
fabulous.
And they also have armor,aircraft and ship category
figures, sci-fi, dioramas,miscellaneous.
Again, it's not parsed as fineas the automotive, but take what
you got and go support theseguys.

Yeah, now what was the date of that show again?

Mike (23:45):
The date of that show, Dave, is May 17th 2025 at the
Simpsonville Activity Center,310 West Curtis Street,
Simpsonville, South Carolina.
And that is a little south ofGreenville, in the
Greenville-Spartanburg kind ofarea there, Gotcha.
So it's not too far fromCharlotte, not too far from
Atlanta, not too far fromColumbia, South Carolina.

(24:09):
So we wish them the best ofluck and a great show.
Yep, Absolutely.
Tom Choi has written in againand he is empathizing with our
situation where, you know, weattended a bunch of shows last
year, kind of we're unsure howthat, how that manifested itself
and how that's probably notgoing to be how we roll this

(24:30):
year.

Yep.

Mike (24:31):
Anyway, he's probably going to three shows this year.
Two of them he's alreadyattended because we saw him up
at Heritage Con.

Yes, we did.

Mike (24:37):
That was one of them.
Yeah, and he was at RoscoeTurner, which we both ended up
missing, yep which we both endedup missing, yep, but Tom's
number three show will be ScaleModel World at Telford.

Oh, oh, rub it in .
Hey listen, if you can't makequantity of shows, quality of
shows counts.
And man, Telford is Telford'son that bucket list side.
That's a bucket list item, so Ienvy him.

Mike (25:12):
Well, he's got an explanation of how all this came
to fruition, but I won't getinto all that.
He's going to be taking thistrip and he's going to be taking
it solo oh wow, and everyone'son board under his roof.

So good on him.
That's right.
You need to get the MrsSomething special.

Mike (25:27):
Well, after the back and forth about losing emails, Ray
Legrand has written in again.
Okay, we're getting his loudand clear.
I will say once again yes,we're getting these and we don't
often respond to.
We respond to a few emailsimmediately, yes, but most of
them we bank for the show.
So if you don't hear back, it'sbecause it's going to be

(25:48):
covered on the show.
So that's the way we roll rightnow.
And when he was talking aboutthe, he had written about the
model with the high fragilitywe'll call it that the space
subject that he built.
That was not going anywherebecause it was probably going to
get broken if he did.

Yep.

Mike (26:10):
So it kind of begged.
The further question who do youbuild for competitions or
yourself?

Oh, I can answer that one real easy I build for
myself.
Now I will tell you, when I wasyounger and first started going
to model contests back in the80s, I was more into competition
and so, while I didn'tnecessarily build for the

(26:37):
competition, I certainly caredmore about the competition,
cared more about the competitionand I've seen by the way I have
seen that's a progression a lotof modelers go to when they get
into the hobby.
But I have seen it ruin somemodelers where they get so wound

(26:57):
around the pole on contestresults that it ruins the hobby
for them and you don't want todo that.
You do not want to.
Contests are fun, contests aregreat.
It's good if you win at acontest.
It's a nice validation thatyou've built a nice model and

(27:18):
that it was award-worthy on thatday on that table.
No-transcript.

Mike (27:33):
Well, I will use that to suggest that when you're
building for competition, Idon't think this is an either,
or I think it's just a differentobjective.
Yes, I agree, if you'rebuilding for competition, you're
still building for yourself,but you're trying to get
something else out of it Right,other than just building it to

(27:56):
do it Right, other than justbuilding it to do it Right
Either some sort of validationor whatever.

Right, maybe you're testing your skills to
see if you can pull somethingoff and have it be award worthy.

Mike (28:11):
True, and also some people get wrapped up in it.
It becomes part of theiridentity.

Yes, that's true.

Mike (28:18):
And that's probably not a good place to be for long anyway
, and, like you said, we've beenthrough it.
I've certainly been through it.
You know my story and I've toldit on here too many times.
But yeah, now I don't care.
I am truly doing things formyself, at my own pace, and just

(28:38):
could give a rip about anythingelse, but it took me a while to
get here or back here.
Back here, yeah, back here.
Good question, ray, and I hopeyou figure out how to get that
Jupiter C somewhere.
Yes, I'm sure a lot of peoplewould like to see it.

Yep.

Mike (28:54):
But we completely understand.
I'm sure a lot of people wouldlike to see it, yep, but we
completely understand.
From Covina, california, daveSteve Burke told, and he wants
to know if we know about anyperson or service that you can
send old decals to, that cancopy them onto a better quality
material because they're expired, they've given up the ghost,
they're yellow, they're gross,they're brittle, fragile,

(29:17):
fragile, whatever.
A short answer is no, I don'tknow anyone who does that.
Generally.
What I would suggest is you gowatch a few videos from greg's
models in the uk yes, he managesto take some very, very old
decals and get them to work no,he takes some very old decals
and copies them on something.

(29:39):
Right, well, he does that too hedoes it a lot and I'm really
curious what he's doing.
I suspect it's a scanner and acolor laser printer, I would
suspect On the right paper, butI don't know Greg's Models.
I would recommend that YouTubechannel anyway.

Yes, it's a great channel, but if you'reels, I
would recommend that YouTubechannel anyway.
Yes, it's a great channel, butif you're curious, I would reach
out.

Mike (30:02):
I don't have an email address, but there might be one
in his channel somewhere.

Well, you can comment on his videos and ask
him the question.

Mike (30:11):
You could do that too.
Yeah, but if there's an email,if he's put an email in there
and folks can use it, that'seven a more direct line.
But either, or generally, yes,I would reach out to greg of
greg's models and see what he'sdoing there and then I would
give you a clue as to if it'ssomething you would want to

(30:32):
pursue on your own or if youknow someone else who has the
equipment.
Maybe you just go get the rightdecal paper and somebody can
help you out there.
But it'd be a step in the rightdirection.
Well, dave, that is the end ofthe email side of things.
What's going on with the directmessages?

Well, we had a fair number of direct messages.
First is Martin Pietta.
He remembered the episode wedid with Jeff in Chai Groves
where Jeff mentioned that due tosome medical issues and
medicine that he was taking thathe couldn't drink alcoholic

(31:12):
drinks at the present time.
And Martin likes Blue Moon andhe just encountered the fact
that Blue Moon is now making anon-alcoholic Blue Moon and he
bought some.
He tried it out.
He said it wasindistinguishable from regular

(31:35):
Blue Moon and thought that Jeffmight like that as a
non-alcoholic alternative.
And Martin, since I saw Jefftoday and had lunch with him, I
passed along your suggestion andhe was very flattered that you
thought of him and wanted toreach out and help.

(31:58):
So he said to tell you thankyou.
Next is our friend, chrisWallace, who posted a video of
his build of the Tester's F19and 48 scale that I was involved
in getting to him atHeritageCon, much to my eternal

(32:20):
embarrassment and shame ofhaving supplied him with that
kit.
And in his video he manages toreference, again to my eternal
shame, that I'm the one who gotthat kit to him.
So I just I want it to go away.
Don't mention it anymore, chris.

(32:42):
Our friend in England, neilGilborn sent photographs from a
place that he'd never beenbefore, but was just 10 miles up
the road from him a bar calledthe Dam Busters Inn.
Up the road from him, a barcalled the Dam Busters Inn, and,
of course, the logo is theimage of one of the Dam Buster

(33:03):
Lancasters dropping theBarnes-Wallace bomb, and in the
bar they have a full-sizeLancaster tire, which, by the
way, is huge, isn't?

Mike (33:16):
it for a table.

No, no, it actually was up as a display and
he said that you know, he hadbeen there all the time.
It's only 10 miles away, buthe'd never gone to it.
He found out about it.
He went and he says they havereally nice modeling fluid Well,
good.
And he says they have reallynice modeling fluid Well good.

(33:53):
Warren Dickinson contacted mebecause, as you know, I had
mentioned that Fine Molds isdoing one or more 72nd scale
A6M5s in addition to the onesthey're doing in 48th scale, and
Warren was querying me.
He was thinking he was going togo ahead and pre-order them,
because a lot of fine molds kitstend to be very limited release
and he didn't want to miss them.
So he was thinking that he wasgoing to go ahead and pre-order

(34:13):
them, and I'm not so sure.
That's not a great idea, andthat's what I told him.
I may well jump in on that,just because I don't want to
miss out on those.
Ron Smith, he and I had a reallynice, pretty long DM
interaction in regard toorganizing your hobby room and

(34:37):
so we had a you know we hadtalked about that on a previous
episode so we had a generaldiscussion and then he sent
photographs of the differentways that he organized different
things paints, tweezers,nippers, whatever Much of his

(34:58):
organizational items werehomemade.
But the one thing that he and Iboth agree on that is essential
for your hobby room, fororganizational purposes, and
that's a p-touch label maker.
It's super important and youand you've got all this stuff in

(35:21):
all these drawers and stufflike that, and having that
P-Touch and being able to labeleverything is essential to good
organization.
Finally, jared Nuss reached outbecause we had talked about how
we really liked thedisplay-only models at Madison

(35:45):
and talked about the differentways to display.
And one of the things we weresaying was you know, while the
room in Madison for the displaymodels was beautiful, it was
separate from the contest areawas beautiful, it was separate
from the contest area and,frankly, we talked about ways to
blend them together or to atleast get them in the same room.
And he reached out to tell usthat at Hampton, the display

(36:10):
models you know they call themthe tiger meat models the
display models are going to bein the contest room Now.
They're not going to be in thecontest room.
Now they're not going to be onthe contest tables, they are
going to be on separate tables,but they are going to be in the
same contest room.
So when you go to see and viewthe contest models, you'll also,

(36:33):
without having to go someplacedifferent, be able to see the
the non-contest entry modelswell, I think that's great, I
think that's true.

Mike (36:44):
It's step in the right direction.
Yeah, or it might be thesolution.
I mean that I don't, it couldbe either way.
I mean, sure it's, more peopleare going to see them if you do
that, yes, and they have.
If they have the room to do itthat way, that might be even a
better way than interminglingthem, commingling them on the
table, right?
Yep, at least from the judgingstandpoint, right.

So I think that's a great idea.
Contests are evolving, and oneof the evolutions is more and
more models just being displayedbut not competing Yep, and I
think that's a wonderful thing.

Mike (37:27):
And at least we've seen on the invitational level that
they're evolving to where theword contest might be obsolete.

Yes, you're right , anything else, nope.
That's it from the GM side.

Mike (37:42):
Well, folks, if you want to write into the show and we
hope you want to write into theshow we encourage you to write
into the show.
You can do it a couple of ways.
You can send us an email toplasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, or
you can send a direct messagevia the Facebook messenger
system, and Dave and I will takethose and work them into the
show and have as much fun as wecan answering them.

(38:03):
It's a lot of fun for that andwe really appreciate it.
In addition to these methods,there's also a give us your
feedback link in the show notesthat you can use to send us a
message that way too.
It can be a voice message or awritten message or whatever.
So we encourage you folks towrite into the show.
It's a great segment.
We get a lot of good contentand a lot of good information in

(38:25):
it.

And we appreciate it if you would rate the
podcast on whatever podcastingapp you're listening to us on,
or if you would go to the ratethe show link in the show notes
of this episode and rate theepisode.
It helps us out.
It helps us be more visible.
In addition, if you have amodeling friend who's not

(39:15):
listening to the podcast, wewould appreciate it if you would
recommend the podcast to themand help them.
If they need a littletechnology help to be able to
get the podcast, download it,subscribe to it, et cetera.

Mike (39:32):
Well, in addition to that, we've got several other things
we'd like for you folks to do.
First is check out all theother podcasts out in the model
sphere, and it's really easy todo.
You can go towwwmodelpodcastcom.
It's model podcast plural.
It's a consortium website setup with the help of Stuart Clark
from Scale Model Podcast out ofCanada.
He's aggregated all the bannerlinks to all the other podcasts

(39:55):
out in the model sphere and it'sa one-stop shop to go find them
and you can check them all out,subscribe to them if you like
or do what you want, and it's agreat place to check them out.
In addition to podcasts, wehave a lot of other blog and
youtube friends, contentcreators out there in the model
sphere that we'd like torecommend.
Some of our friends andfavorites dave, you already

(40:15):
mentioned, mentioned ChrisWallace, model airplane maker.
Yep, has he done a video onthat stealth fighter thing?

Yes, he did, and he let everybody know that I was
instrumental in getting themodel to him.
I'm never going to live thisdown.

Mike (40:31):
And you spent the day with Jeff Inch, high Groves yes
Digging through the massive bookrepository.

Yes.

Mike (40:40):
He may have a blog post about that in the future.
That'd be interesting.

There will be a blog post about it, I have no
doubt, and we got to spend sometime talking about what he's got
coming up on his blog, so keepan eye on it guys.

Mike (40:56):
And that blog would be the inch high guy blog.
Yes, a lot of 72nd scalecontent there.
Spru pie with fret Steven Lee.
Speaking of 72nd scale content,I've been talking to Steve a
little bit.
I don't think he's going to beat amps but we may see him later
in the year.
The national convention, I hope.

I hope he gets down Not too far from him yeah.

Mike (41:17):
Evan McCallum, panzermeister, 36.
And boy, I hope he's coming upin the next episode.
He just got back from themotion show in Hungary and, uh,
had a great time, sounds like.
Check out his YouTube channel.
And finally, paul Budzik, scalemodel workshop on Patreon and
on YouTube, and he just droppedanother little short video with
some really insightfulcommentary in it, so folks need

(41:41):
to check that out as well.

If you are not a member of IPMS USA, ipms Canada
or your national IPMSorganization, please join.
They're good organizations runby volunteers to help the
modeling community and if youhave any interest in armor or
post-1900 figures, amps, whichis having their national May

(42:08):
15th through 17th in Camp HillPennsylvania consider joining.
Consider going to the contest.
It's a great group of guys whoare super dedicated to armor
modeling and its relatedsubjects and I cannot recommend
them highly enough.

(42:28):
They really are a great groupof guys.

Mike (42:31):
Really looking forward to this show.

You and me both brother.

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by
Model Paint Solutions, yoursource for harder and
steam-backed airbrushes, davidUnion power tools and
laboratory-grade mixing,measuring and storage tools for
use with all your model paints,be they acrylic, enamels or
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Check them out atwwwmodelpaintsolutionscom.

Mike (43:01):
Well, dave, I was sitting at my bench pondering about all
the things I don't like about 3Dprint models.
Then I remembered at HeritageCon we put one of our little
plaques down next to a littleRussian tank that had been built
by listener Brad Belsheim.
I reached out to Brad andlearned that he'd built a number

(43:24):
of these, that I flat asked himI mean, what's your experience
with this kind of thing?
And he told me he'd built quitea few Surprising number.
Really considering my buildpace, I would even say
embarrassing for me.
I would even say embarrassingfor me.
Brad agreed to come on and wehad a little conversation with
him about, you know, the ins andouts of these kits and the good

(43:44):
and the bad and the ugly andjust what he's experienced.
And it's pretty interesting.
You know I get these ideas whenthings aren't going good at my
bench sometimes and you knowI've been working on a 3D
printed model not one I've donemyself, but purchased STL files

(44:11):
and having a little troublethere at times not really
trouble, but frustrations.
And we're up at Heritage Con andwe ran into Brad Belsheim and
Dr Dave Morris, who we seetogether quite a bit, and Brad
has joined us tonight.
Brad, how are you doing?
I'm good.
How are you guys?
We're great.
And, speaking of HeritageCon,it was good to see you up there

(44:32):
and the reason I kind of came toyou with this topic of 3D
models and their idiosyncrasiesand we'll get into that in a
little bit, but you had an entryup there.
That little Russian heavy tankthingy was on the table and,
honestly, we've seen a lot ofyour work over the last several
years and it keeps gettingbetter, and I think that one

(44:53):
came out really, really well.

Yes, it really did, it was eye-catching, thanks
guys.

Mike (45:00):
I reached out to you and you said you'd had quite a few
of these models under your beltand I just thought it might be
an interesting conversation totalk about the various aspects
of building these things and theups and downs and the good and
bad.
So you up for that.

Absolutely.

Well, let's start with asking you that kit that
was on the table.
What was it?
Where was it from?

Yeah, so that's.
It's a Danish.
Sorry, it's a Dutch 3D printcompany called RTM and it's Jan
I don't remember the guy's lastname, but it's an MT-25, which
was a kind of a typical Russian.
You know the BT-5, bt-7, youknow run on tracks but you can

(45:46):
take the tracks off and run onthe wheels kind of a concept.
It's like a mini KV right, it'sa little baby KV and it is an
amazing.
I think it's the best 3D printkit I've ever done.

Obviously it came as a kit.
You didn't buy the STL filesand print it yourself.

No, I did not, okay, but I actually hooked up
with the guy through through robriv, who we all know because
he's got that new york accentyeah, he's been pushing that guy
pretty good.

Mike (46:24):
That's fairly new company, I think fairly, yeah, fairly
new.
Yeah, well, you say it's thebest 3d kit you've ever built.
Let's, let's start with the,the gamut of kits that are out
there and then ones you'vetackled.
How many have you built at thispoint?

Oh, at least 10.
I've built a bunch of SS models, which is a Chinese 3D print
company, probably six from themI've built.
Bovington has a kind of acaptive Bovington Museum because
I know they're kind of steppingback a little bit.
So I know the guy who runs thehobby shop at Bovington Tank

(47:04):
Museum, which is amazing.
We are best friends.
I've known him for 20 years.
He's an amazing modeler in hisown right, tim Roberts, and he
hooked me up with the guy whodoes some specialized 3d prints
for the museum.
They did a little Willie print,okay and great in some aspects,

(47:26):
not great in other aspects.
But I've also done, if you lookat, some of Vargas's prints,
vargas models I'm actually onthe the, the box prints, the
cover, the cover art for some ofhis kits and so, yeah, I think
I have a lot of experience witha 3D print.

Mike (47:44):
Basically, there are kind of two camps in the design world
for the 3D printing kits.
There's the one that has afairly substantial parts
breakdown, and then there arethe ones who try to print
everything in as few parts asthey can.
Yep, I have a preference there.
What's yours?

I don't.
I think it depends, which iskind of a non-answer, but I'm in
sales, so of course.

I was going to say.
I thought maybe you were apolitician.

Well, you're the lawyer, there you go.
Fair cop, it really depends.
I mean, ss Models does somereally amazing stuff with not
that many parts.
Ft Models, which is a Spanish Ithink it's FT Models, spanish
company.
They're not that great, notthat many parts count and also

(48:37):
not that great of products atthe end, I guess.
And also the thing with 3Dprint is the layer lines.
At the end of the day, it allcomes down to layer lines and so
I've built.
I mean, I think the perfectexample is I'm totally into
British armor and if you go intoeverything all the websites and

(49:01):
facebook pages and whatever, Imean I'm called the 50 shades of
green guy yeah and so because Ilove, I love commonwealth, I
love american armor, world warii, etc.
And I think that that layerlines is a big issue.
And so if you look at thematilda one, right, yeah, ft

(49:25):
models came out with a 3d printand I, when it came out, I was
like, oh, this is great, but I'dmade the resin model version
from accurate armor and Ithought that was great and I was
like the ft models is not thatgreat.
And then vargas came out withhis kit and it was that is, I
think that's vargas's best 3dprint kit.

Mike (49:46):
It is amazing I've got that one and my kit in
particular is going to need alittle work, but we'll get into
that.
It's kind of a different kindof nuance of these models.
But why I bring up the tryingto print it all in one, which
Vargas kind of does he's one ofthose guys, I guess, as an
engineer, where, where it makesme a little, it gives me a

(50:08):
little heartburn, I guess Iwould say, is back to your
comments about layer lines.
If you print it all in one gowith all the detail on it,
something in that print is goingto be suboptimal.
Yes, for the layer lines whereif you'd have broken it up you
could have optimized every pieceto their best print orientation
for the layer line issue, and Ithink things are easier to

(50:32):
handle that way.
And this is all my opinion.
I've dabbled with a couple.
I'm working on one that I'veprinted myself, so I'm kind of
get to play around with that.
But the, the vargas kit of thematilda one, you know I might
have a lot of layer lines on the, the, that front plate that
holds the idler wheels on thefront yes, yeah, and that's, and

(50:53):
that's that.

That's exactly where that they are.
They're right there, you,you're absolutely correct.

Mike (50:58):
And the other issue with that kit at least my copy was
that front plate was warped, sothe cylinders, the mounting
drums, the hubs for the idlerswere towed out, so the forward
edges pointed outward.
The forward edges pointedoutward.
And the issue with 3D printedresins at least right now with

(51:18):
most of them, is the old hotwater and bin to fix.
Doesn't really work in myexperience.

It doesn't.
However, recently I've beenlooking at a bunch of things
online and it still helps.
Right With the warm water, butnot hot water.
Cause hot water you're going toget, you're not going to do
yourself any favors.

Mike (51:45):
So mine was warped and I had a plan to fix it.
I ended up I ended up breakingit.
So I'm going to have to rebuildthat whole front part.
But you know, I can do that.
I just, unfortunately, mylittle clumsy clumsy hands kind
of kind of took care of it forme.

But so did I.
What I understand is you youdownloaded on cause you have the
your own 3d printer.
Is you've got that 38 T basedKubla Kubla?

Mike (52:11):
The Kubla.

Kubla blitz yeah.

Mike (52:12):
Right it's.
It's not bad.
It's got some things about it.
I would done differently, eventhough it's multiple parts, but
I'm working through it.
I don't think it'll take methat long to finish it.
I just got to get to the benchand do it.
But I've played around with alot of print orientations and I
joked maybe on the last episodeeven it's going to end up being

(52:33):
the most expensive model I'veever built, hands down, just
because I'm burning throughresin and that sort of thing.

So what's your level of print?
I mean, you have your ownprinter, so what is it?
Where are we now in the printlevel?

Mike (52:50):
Mine is a Formlabs Form 3, which is a commercial printer
actually for most people.

It is what we had 8k, 12k, what is well?

Mike (53:03):
it's, it's, it's a.
It has a laser scan unit.
It's not a dlp printer ah, okayso it's a little different than
that.
The reason I got it I got itsecondhand on the cheap.
I got it for a really goodprice and it's what we use at
work, so the learning curve waszero.
I mean, when I got it, I justthrew it together, back together
, filled it up and startedmessing with it and honestly, at

(53:27):
this point in the game, likethe printers Vargas is using or
any of these other really nice3D print model makers, they can
print circles around them onForm 3.
Absolutely, but I don't.
Really nice 3d print modelmakers.
They can print circles aroundthem.
I form three, absolutely, but Idon't.
I'm not using it that way.
Yeah, doing more gross shapesand general shapes and and jigs
and fixtures and things likethat.
Will I ever utilize it forother things?

(53:48):
Probably.
I'm printing this one model onit.
It's.
It's came out pretty nice, butthe small details there's not
that many on it, so I'm kind oflucky in that regard.

Yeah, so my sons, both engineers.
They keep threatening to buy mea 3D printer because you're
like well, dad, you know we'llfigure it out for you, Right?
And I mean I think that's,that's great, you know, because
I'm always willing to get freestuff from my kids because I
paid for their college, so thereyou go.

That's right, it's the least they can do.

It's the least they can do, right yeah?

Mike (54:26):
they're not that much by comparison either.

Yeah, that's right, they're not that much by
comparison.
But the thing is, it's allabout the quality, right.
It's all about layering andangling and all that.
And that's where RTM, I think,really is amazing.
I mean, Jan, he's got somereally good stuff going on and

(54:52):
he's got a thing coming out andI can't share it with anybody.
But I'm really hoping that hesends me a test print of this
and I get to do it, because he'sgot it figured out.
He really does.

That's another issue that I think you know.
You talked about the differentmanufacturers, that you built
stuff and the varying quality,that you built stuff and the
varying quality, and I think atleast part of that has to do
with the fact that the 3D printtechnology is advancing so

(55:26):
quickly, absolutely, that youcould be cutting edge at the
beginning of the year and byFebruary of the next year you
are hopelessly out of datebecause the technology moved
yeah, not because of anythingyou did.

Yeah, it's like electric cars, it's like your
battery was the best yesterdayand not tomorrow, but I will say
so.
I kind of, you know, went outto some buddies of mine Dr Dave,
some other guys that I reallytrust and value their opinion,
and you're looking at not only3D print kits but, excuse me,

(56:08):
accessories.
You know, light guards forShermans and light guards for
you know whatever 3D print thisand 3d print that and what I get
feedback from is you know, Ithink of myself as a pretty good
modeler.
I mean thanks to you guys forhaving me on the show and

(56:29):
everything.
And there there's a issue with3d print.
Is it's so hard to get these?
You buy these things.
They're not cheap, right?
I want to buy Sherman lightguards, Cool, right, they're
easier than PhotoEdge.
Sorry, riv and you put them on.

You're right, he's wrong.

Thank, you, oh my God.
I want to say that over andover again.

Okay, well, you can send that to him on a loop
when this comes out.

Yeah, I will send that on an infinite loop, but
it's really hard to get them offof their to the old school.
The sprues they're not sprues,but you know what I mean.
Yeah, the support structuresthe support structures, right,
and yes, you can warm them upand you can do this and you can
do that, but it's hard, right,and they break and it's a good

(57:31):
thing that for some of thecompanies I mean I'm looking at
right now I'm in my basement, mydog's looking at me, going what
the hell are?

Mike (57:35):
you talking about?
Who are you talking to?

And I'm looking at Heavy Hobby and I'm looking
at Sherman going.
What the hell are you talkingabout?
Who are you talking to?
And I'm looking at Heavy Hobbyand I'm looking at Sherman
Guards and when you open the boxright, you're like you're going
to lose 50% of these.
You're going to lose them.
Yeah, they're going to break,but we spent a lot of money as a
modeler on this and I don'tcare who you are mean, you know.

(57:57):
Obviously, kentucky dave makeslike a billion dollars a year
wrong type of lawyer, but seethis is.

This is why you need to let your sons buy you a
3d printer.
When you can print all of theguards you need, you don't care
how many of them break.
I don't know about that?

I don't know about that.
I don't know about that.
But it's a good point.
I mean it's a good point.
Dr Dave brought that up Again.
I canvassed a bunch of guys andthat was one of the things.
I agree with that.
It's easier than PhotoWetch,but it's also how much do I want

(58:38):
to spend on this, right?
So that's, I think that's partof the whole 3d print issue, or
where we are right now in thehobby and I, I mean I, I love
the 3d print stuff.
I'm, I'm, I'm looking at andyou guys are coming to amps and
ads, right, yeah, and I, I justI'm, I'm working on a ancient

(59:01):
mime, a mine roller right now,and I'm doing a whole bunch of
aftermarket stuff.
You know, photo edge resin.
I love to put it all together,right, and I've got some of it
is is 3d print, I mean for the,the light guards, right, and I'm
like some of it is 3D print, Imean for the light guards, right
, and I'm like, wow, that'sgreat, but do they match?

(59:24):
That was I got a really goodfeedback from somebody is,
sometimes they don't work.
They just don't work, right.

Mike (59:33):
Sure yeah.

Well, that's the problem you have with any
aftermarket.
If the right, if the designerfailed to properly render the
copy of the prototype, itdoesn't matter how well it's
printed or how inexpensive it is, if it doesn't match what's on
the real item, it's not useful.

(59:57):
Right, because they have alevel of demand for well for

(01:00:20):
want of a better word forauthenticity for the item on the
model matching the item in reallife that they like, the
ability to have that level ofcontrol.

Brad Belsheim (01:00:36):
Yeah, no, that's a good point.
I mean, you look at the new.
Here's a great example the MengKugelwagen with the tracks,
right it's.
If you've seen this kit,actually I don't do German stuff
, if you know me.
I'm like I just I'm Norwegian,so I have a really bad time with

(01:00:58):
the nazis and I actually wentto school in germany and I love
germans, but I have a problemwith the other people.
So, anyways, that's a cool kit,that's a cool.
The 3D print on the Trax,that's awesome.
But I'm like, well, how's thatgoing to work right?

(01:01:22):
Is the mass production 3D printgoing to be better?
Maybe, maybe not.

Kentucky Dave (01:01:28):
Well, as far as Trax go, I know our friend Evan
McCallum Panzermeister36,.
Evan McCallum Panzermeister36,.
He has done several YouTubevideos comparing all of the
different, or at least some ofthe different 3D print companies

(01:01:48):
.
And, just like any other thing,the quality varies widely, the
assembly varies widely, etc.
Assembly varies widely, etc.
But the price point I meanprior to 3d printed tracks you
were either getting the metal,metal fool tracks or you were
getting some aftermarket resinthing.

(01:02:11):
Yeah, um, and the fact thatwith 3d printing the price point
actually drops way below whatthe previous options were, it
does it does.

And I think it's only going to go down.
I got to tell you I mean, likefor Soviet tanks, World War II
Soviet tanks I mean, Fruel islike oh, the weight, it's so
awesome, it's just the best.
I don't care if I'm pokingholes in my fingers putting
those little rods in there, Idon't care, it's the best.

Mike (01:02:48):
Well, you're talking about breaking things, which I talked
about breaking something that'sa little more significant than
a light guard.
I talked about breakingsomething that's a little more
significant than a light guard,but is there anything you do or
have had to learn differently,working through that?
Many different 3D kit brandsand things that are sort of
similar to what you're doingwith an injection molded kit?

Or maybe even a polyurethane cast resin kit that
are kind of unique to a 3Dprinted kit and the materials
they're made out of?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So I, I'm an old school.
I loved accurate armor.
Oh my god, I loved accuratearmor.
I used to buy all theseconversion kits for them,
whatever.
And so you got them and you youbasically put a mask on because
you were going to like, standoff so much crap, right, and or

(01:03:41):
you're going to die.
But I think the thing with 3d,with 3d print, is you just have
to be so careful with they're sobrittle right.

Mike (01:03:53):
I notice it because of my engineering background, but that
sometimes when I cut a supportstructure off, at the very end
where it meets the part, it getswhat is a classic brittle
fracture.
Instead of cutting through, itsnaps.
And when it snaps like you gota round support structure.
So it forms this 45 degreeangle cone where you cut it,

(01:04:16):
where it broke off, and brittlefracture instead of cutting it,
and it leaves a divot in thepart.
That leaves a divot on the side.
You want to keep yep, and it'slike damn it.
So I cut all this off.
I don't know either.
Got a well, it's going to break.
How do you?
Is there anything you can do to?
You mentioned warming things up.

(01:04:36):
Does that?
Does that help on some?

things.
Warming up does help a lot.
I will say that it's also kindof your like tools, right?
So I love what's?
The Japanese company that makeskits and tools?
Fine Molds no Zuki Mori.

Zuki Mori Okay.

Zuki Mori's got some that they're clippers of
the best, right?
So warm up, warm up the thingand use that clipper.
But again, it might work, itmight not.
That's, that's the sad.
That's the sad part of it,right?
We are where we are in thishobby.

What do you use as fill material when you've got
a divot or an imperfection in a3D kit?
What do you use to fill it?

and blend it.
I use perfect.
I use perfect plastic foreverything.
Okay, now, which one's that?
That's the?
Uh, I don't.
I'm looking at it right now.
It's perfect plastic putty.
It's.
It's water based.
It's awesome.
It's user friendly, which isactually it's like know stupid
people like me, you can just useit, rub it on there and let it

(01:05:58):
dry and then go over with aQ-tip and it's awesome.

Well, you have no problem with it adhering to the
3D printed material.

Nope, it'll adhere to anything.

So you don't have to prep the surface of the 3D
printed material to take the no,it'll actually adhere to
basically resin or plastic or 3Dprint or whatever.

I mean, it's not a 172 scale zero, you know, but
whatever.
Yeah, well, I know that's allright.

We forgive.

Mike (01:06:37):
Now on on this flak panzer I've printed myself.
One thing I've noticed as Ibuild it I'm doing some spot
priming with one of the MrSurfacers, probably 1500 thinned
out with MLT.
I don't think it sticks to that3D print resin like it does
plastic at all.
When you sand it it does somethings I don't like sometimes it

(01:06:58):
.

It doesn't.
But.
But on the other hand, if youlet it set, it's okay, and by
okay I mean it's okay wellbefore you before speaking of
which.

that related question to my last one do you
treat your 3d printed kit at allprior to painting?
In other words, you know, witha plastic kit, there's some
people who wash it before youknow, with water, with a little
don, there are people who, youknow, wipe it off with denatured

(01:07:33):
alcohol.
There's all sorts of differentthings For 3D print.
With the current set of resinsthat we have, do you do anything
to it prior to painting it?

I spray it with water, literally just water.
Okay, it should have beenrinsed in alcohol anyway, yeah
just a little bit of water justto make sure it's got nothing on
it, because it might right.
But water is fine.
I mean, if you want to be OCDabout it, just a little bit of,

(01:08:06):
you know, denature water.
But yeah, water, water is good.

And you haven't had any adherence problems at
all to any of the different kitsyou've built.

No, actually, but I do love to be a primer.
I do a lot of stuff of multi,what do they call it?
Photo, etch, plastic resin andmultimedia, and I do that.
I put it all together and Iwill totally put to meamiya
primer on that.
Well, if I lived in England Iwould do Halfords primer, but

(01:08:43):
that's a different story.
But yeah, tamiya primer on topof that is awesome.
You will take care ofeverything you need to take care
of.

Mike (01:08:50):
What are you doing for layer lines, especially places
you can't sand?
Now, this kit I'm working on ithad some in the ribbing on the
front fenders.
Well, the whole front fenderhas some layer lines in it.
I couldn't just sand it becauseof the ribbing in the fenders,
unless I just wanted to gorebuild the whole thing.
One thing I've done there isreally thinning out, Mr Servicer

(01:09:14):
, something like that, to whereit's like as thin as a paint
really, and then just puttingthat on as self-levels, and I've
gotten pretty good results withthat for filling layer lines in
kind of odd places.
But sometimes they're hard toget to.

One of my favorite tools, which I just
bought when I say just bought,it was like months ago.
Is the display that littleelectric sander tool like months
ago?
Is the display that littleelectric sander tool?

Oh yeah, oh yeah, the little display.

Jesus came down and gave me this tool.
It's great.
It's great Get one.
Oh my God.

Do you apply something to the 3D print
material before you try to sandaway the layer lines, or are you
sanding the 3D print materialitself?

Yeah, it's called spit.

Okay, well, so you wet sand?
Yes, for those people who don'tlive in Cleveland, wet sanding
with water.

In Kentucky.
Dave, I do not live inCleveland.
I live far west of Cleveland.

Mike (01:10:27):
But somebody else who uses spit yeah.

Yeah, I have many , many friends from the greater
Cleveland-Akron area, so anytimeI can poke fun at them, I will
do so.

But, yeah, that's an amazing tool.
That's a great tool.
It's a great 3D print layertool.
I recommend that for people wholove 3D prints, as I do.
So, yeah, get one.

Let me ask you another question.
We were talking about thevariation in quality among the
different manufacturers, and wewere talking about how the
technology is progressing veryrapidly.
Now you were talking about yourcurrent favorite manufacturer
with RTM.

(01:11:14):
RTM yes, rtm, and you weretalking about how high quality
it is compared to what you'vebuilt previously.
Yep, do you think that has todo with a progress in the
quality of both the resin andthe printer?
Do you think it has to do withthe skill of the designer?

(01:11:36):
I think it has to do with theskill of the designer obviously
a combination of both.
How much of that do you thinkis just natural progression, and
how much is it that thisparticular manufacturer is
paying very close attention tohis quality?

control.
I think that's a wow.
That's a tough question,because I think JAN is awesome.
I think it's a quality, it's atechnology advances all the time
, right, Like you know, back inthe olden days, we, you know, to

(01:12:13):
me it was the best and theyweren't, and they were and they
weren't, and whatever.
But I think that it's also aquestion of your printers, it's
a question of your designer,it's a question of your software
, the FT models, if I'm quotingthem right.
I was so disappointed by theirquality, especially with the

(01:12:38):
cost.
I was like, wow, I paid thisfor that, Meh.

Mike (01:12:42):
It's like the old resin days.

Well, and that brings up a separate but related
issue.
If you're buying a 3D print kitfrom a new manufacturer, one
you haven't dealt with before,these things aren't cheap.
Nope, talk about your recentdisappointment.
Quality levels vary.

(01:13:06):
Are you willing to buy a pig ina poke?
Do you just take a flyer,sometimes hoping that it turns
out to be a good kit?

Yeah, kentucky Dave, I will totally tell you
that is absolutely true, hopingthat it turns out to be a good
kit.
Yeah, kentucky Dave, I willtotally tell you, that is
absolutely true.
So I am a.
If you look at the stuff I'vebuilt, I love weird.
When I was in California I grewup in California I used to
build a lot of stuff when I wasback in San Diego and they used

(01:13:38):
to call me the odd man out.
So there's a track come tankthat the Kiwis developed in the
war, which was a oh, you meanthe oh God.

What's the name of it?
The one that Vargas does a kitof it.

Nope, not the Vargas kit.

Oh, okay.

No, this is more like the German or actually
Austrian tank come track and itwas a really cool kit and
there's actually a.
Really it looks great oninternet, doesn't everything?
Doesn't everything right?
It's $150, which I don't care.

(01:14:22):
I mean, I'm lucky enough thatthat would be a fine and I have
a.
I have a kiwi good buddies whowho is down there, and I'm like
I don't know.
I mean it looks really cool,but I have no experience with
this 3D printer, right, and soeven at my point, I'm like I'm

(01:14:42):
not.
$150 plus shipping, I don'tknow.

Mike (01:14:47):
I get it.
There's a naval catapult thatS&S makes that man it's calling
my name.
It's like $150.
It's like the catapult and thegantry and the whole half
section of the deck of the shipright, that is exactly what I
was thinking of when I asked himthis question.

It's it's actually.
It's not the dollars, it's,it's.
It's well.
I mean, none of us want tothrow away money, but you know,
is it cool, it great?
I want to see it right.

Show me the actual product right, well, and
if you spend the money and itturns out to be less than top
quality let's be kind then youreally feel the disappointment.
It's not so much that the moneywent away, although that hurts,
it's the fact that what youwere thinking you were getting

(01:15:39):
doesn't turn out to be what youactually got Right.
Or Mike's talking about withthe S&S, this rear battleship
section.
I mean, you have no opportunityunless you can find somebody
who has already taken the leapRight and these things are, and

(01:16:04):
Mike and I talk about this allthe time.
These companies are popping upleft and right.
If you go on ScaleMates, Iwould bet that fully half of the
announcement on ScaleMates noware 3D printed items and they're
not cheap.
They're not cheap.

Mike (01:16:23):
Nope, Absolutely.
Well.
Speaking of vetting, is there asocial media outlet for just 3D
printed model construction?
Yet has anybody got anythinglike that out there?

I wish there would be, because I would jump
on that, and that's the thing,and that's why I was really
privileged, I was honored thatyou guys reached out to me,
because it's like there's somany products out there and so
many vendors and so many thisand so many that, and you know

(01:16:58):
like exactly so inconsistent.

Well, and you see that same thing in injection
molded manufacturers.
Yeah, it's called an academy.
Well, okay, I was not going toname names, but yeah, there's an
example where you can have amanufacturer who turns out
really nice stuff and then youknow stuff and that and that and

(01:17:22):
the thing you can do.
That that you encounter with a,a traditional injection molded
manufacturer.
Same thing you encounter withthese new 3d manufacturers.
If you buy one of their kitsand it turns out and it's really
good, then that becomes yourlevel set for thinking okay,

(01:17:44):
kits from this manufacturer or3D printer are good stuff.
So when you see the next itemon offer, you are much less
hesitant to take the leap.
And then it turns out that thismanufacturer's quality is not
consistent.

Well, and that's the problem.
I mean, I think it's foreveryone, right?
It's like hey look, we all loveTamiya.
If you don't love Tamiya,you're a fascist.
I mean, let's right.
I mean they're just the best,Okay, you know you look at like
trumpeter.
Okay, but sometimes yes andsometimes no, Right, Right, you

(01:18:28):
know you look at Dragon back inthe day.
Well, you're going to mortgageyour house and then get maybe
something.
This is cool, but it's got47,000 pages of really bad
directions.

Mike (01:18:46):
And there's many parts that you don't use on the model.

Well, that's 95,000.

And speaking of that, to take it back to 3D
printing, are most of the kitsyou've gotten?
Do they come with anyinstructions?

Well, that's a good point.
Kentucky, dave, my attorney,yeah.

Hey, I haven't got the retainer yet.
Let's not put the cart beforethe horse.

Let's not put the cart before the horse.
So you know, rtm has greatshort to the point directions.
They are my faves.
They are my faves right now.
They're awesome.
Some others like SS Models.
They're focused on the.

(01:19:33):
You know, here's a decent kitand it should be simple and 3D
print and just go for it.
Why would you want directions?
And this sounds not totallycorrect, but it's just a little

(01:19:54):
Chinese method.
It's like what's the point,right?
So I've got this really greatkit from SS Models of this
American assault tank.
I had to go to Tim, my buddy,at Bovington and he took a bunch

(01:20:18):
of pictures of inside of thetank and the outside of the tank
and all this stuff.
So I was like could figure out.
How does it really work?
Right, and that's the problem,is these 3d print companies.
They have some great stuff butthey also have like no
directions.
It's like old school, 15 yearsago.
Resin kits.

So you say that RTM actually does supply you
with a set of directions in thekits yes, their directions are
actually quite good.

They're simple, they're to the point.
Here it is Do it.

Mike (01:20:54):
I'm excited to learn what their new thing's going to be.
So I'm not asking you to tellme, but if you're excited, I'm
excited because that littleheavy tank really and I love
Soviet armor but I'm pretty muchlike the more operational
production level stuff.

Yeah.
So this is just a little bit ofa.
I'm hoping, I'm really hoping,that they give me the
pre-production one and I get tobuild it, because Riv and I know
this guy, jan, at RTM, and it'sa one-off Soviet tank, because

(01:21:33):
I love Soviet crap.
Well, I'm, you know, 50 shadesof green.
Here I am.

Now I know we've been talking mostly 3D printed
armor kits and we talked aboutthe kits and the number of parts
, breakdown and all, and whetherthey come with any instructions
or good instructions.
Do any of the 3D kits you buycome with decals or are you on
your own for all of those, withall of the kits that you bought?

I have not bought a 3D print kit with decals or
decals, as our northernerfriends would say.

Mike (01:22:13):
Well, the Vargas Matilda comes with them.
Does it really yeah?

Yeah, and they're wrong.

Mike (01:22:19):
Okay, well, there's that.

Well, that's a different question as to whether
or not they come with decaf.

Mike (01:22:28):
It doesn't surprise me to be on your own.
That's a whole differentballgame, which reminds me what
I was going to ask Somemanufacturers.
You just seem to tell that theyhave a vested interest in the
subjects they're actuallykidding versus just pumping crap
out that doesn't exist now thatthey can make a buck on.
We just bought these.

(01:22:49):
I bought two of them and gaveone to Dave because I owed him
money on something else andthat's the way friends work.

It was we all do that.
I owe you money here.
Take this, yes.

Mike (01:23:04):
F&A out of Poland.
It was a little WZ-34 Polisharmored cars.

Oh, I've seen that.

Mike (01:23:11):
That kit is gorgeous, but, man, it is.
Is you're gonna break something?
It's just it's.
It's.
It's like the wheels areseparate and the turret's
separate, and that's pretty muchit.

Yeah, and oh man well, even even at the
aftermarket stuff.
So I'm, I'm sitting here rightnow and I I'm looking at what
I'm, cause you guys will seethis at amps, nats and it's the
to me, a one 48 scale.
Sure, stuart, right, and I'vegot the, the, the GT, I'm moving

(01:23:46):
, it's called the GT resinskeleton tracks right on it and
it's.
It's really cool, it matches,it looks cool, whatever.
But what are we gonna do withthis?
As far as, like you know, is itokay to enter this as a kit by

(01:24:10):
itself, or is the aftermarket orwhatever, right?
Where are we with that?

Mike (01:24:15):
Well, that's.
That's another good question.
I don't think it's been too bigan issue on the armor side, but
do these things need their owncategory?
I guess where this really getsto be.
I don't think it's a problem,but there've been people who
think it's a problem.
This, this category that'scoming around to be called
scratch printed, where themodelers actually doing the 3d

(01:24:38):
design and printing themselves.
And okay, is it scratch built,sort of, but not exactly.
Well, the craft, thecraftsmanship is different, so
so what do you do with it?

Yeah, what I mean , what won the best of ipms this
last year was a, basically a 3dprint kit.

Mike (01:25:00):
right that that, um, all the spaceship from yeah yeah,
yeah right, we, we got to seethat a lot.
That that's yeah.
He's amazing, by the way.

Yes it's amazing?
Yes, it is.
He's a really neat guy with areally interesting story, and it
won also in Europe.

Mike (01:25:17):
Not surprised.
Yeah, he was at.

Wonderfest.
He won at Wonderfest and, yeah,he's taken that thing to a
number of contests and it hasdone well at all of them, simply
because it is such a and he didall of that, other than the
electronics that lighted.
I mean, every bit of that wasdesigned and printed by him,

(01:25:43):
right?

It's, it's, it's effing amazing.

And I agree with Mike, it's not scratch-built in
the way that you think oftraditionally a set of plans and
a stack of styrene but itcertainly is.
It's scratch-designed.
Scratch-designed and printed,which is not just, oh, stick it

(01:26:12):
in the printer and let it comeout.
You have to think about it.
You have to think about thesupport structures and the way
you print it.
I mean, there is a lot to it,it is every bit.
While it's a completelydifferent set of skills, it is
every bit as creative as the guywho sits down and scratch,

(01:26:34):
builds a model using a set ofplans and styrene and brass rod
and all Right right, I mean itabsolutely is.

When I saw that, I was like oh my God.

Mike (01:26:50):
Well, you've kind of answered this in in bits and
pieces along the way here.
But and I think I know whatyou're going to say, but we'll
let you say it in your own wordswhat is the big drive for you
to, to, to go down this wholelane of pursuing these, these
kits for your builds?
What, what, what's theattraction?
Is this just the proliferationof these oddball subjects?

Yeah, I, I've always been the odd man out.
I mean, if you look at, beforeAFV Club came out with their own
bridging Churchill, I boughtthe Resicant one, right yeah,
and spent way too much money,and then you could buy it for

(01:27:33):
way less, right in plastic.

Well, you threw yourself on that project for the
rest of us.

That's exactly right, thank you.
Thank you, kentucky, dave.
Yes, I made it better foreveryone else, I true, yeah, so
it's just.
You know, I love 3D because itgives you stuff that no one's
ever going to make anywhere else.
Right, it's not going to happen.
Yeah, I think that's right.

Well, and with 3D , you do have the hope that
almost anything will be done.
Anything will be done.
In other words, you know, backwhen we were limited to
injection molded, you know youcould have your hope that the
fairy fruit bat was going to bemolded by Airfix.

(01:28:24):
You know it was the one-offthat you particularly wanted,
but you knew that there was noway that was ever going to

(01:28:45):
happen.
Now, with 3D print even morethan resin, with 3D print, the
odds of seeing any singleone-off go up dramatically, just
because you've got to have oneguy who has an interest in that
item and a 3D printer and a CADprogram and time and some talent
.
Well, I was just talking aboutgetting a kit.
I wasn't describing a good kit,but yeah, I mean that's.

(01:29:07):
Ultimately, your hope is thathe's good, he or she are good,
and you get the one item thatyou always wanted.
But you weren't ever going toput that time in.

Well, yeah, matilda 1.
I mean, I love the Matilda 1.
Well, I love all British armor.

Mike (01:29:28):
I love it too.
When I saw that one, I was like, okay, I'm definitely buying
that one.
I hope it doesn't suck.
Let's just say this up frontBrad loves.

I love it too.
When I saw that one, I was like, okay, I'm definitely buying
that one.
I hope it doesn't suck.
Let's just say this up front,Brad loves British armor?

Well, and you can't not love the Matilda one.
It's so ugly, it's so ugly,it's pretty.
Yes, exactly.

But here's the thing.
What are we missing?
What I want is an awesome 3Dprint or whatever of the
Australian Sentinel.

Which there are existing copies of the real
thing around, exactly.
So, please, please, god, giveme the Sentinel.
Well and again, that's notunlike if we were back in the

(01:30:21):
injection molded only era thatwould be a plea that we would
all laugh at, because it's nevergoing to happen.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) (01:30:25):
It's never going to happen, right.

To me it isn't coming out with the Sentinel
Nope, nope, sentinel.
But the odds are, sooner orlater, if you, if you, hang
around long enough, somebody'sgonna do that yeah, it's, it's,
it's moving up the universallist.

Mike (01:30:41):
Exactly what have we covered?

I.
I hope we've covered a lot ofstuff.

Mike (01:30:46):
You guys have been great we've covered a lot of stuff.
You've said it you're gonna beat amps, we're gonna be at amps.
We're looking forward to that.
Anything you bring in a 3D kit,what do you got going on right
now?

I am bringing the MT-25 and I'm bringing an
Amtuner 5 in 48 and 35th scale,because Jan sent me the 48th
scale one and that'll be greatbecause I love that kit.
Also, he's got somethingspecial coming up and I'm really
hoping he's going to send me aprototype and if it does, you

(01:31:22):
guys will be happy.

Mike (01:31:24):
Sure I will.
If it's Russian.
I can't wait to see it.
He's also doing some 16th scalestuff.
Yes, that brings up the pointof you know, we talk about these
oddball and low interest kindof subjects getting done, but
when you get some folks who havea vested interest in particular
subject matter, they'reactually cranking out upgrades
and replacement parts that areway better and way more accurate

(01:31:48):
than what's in a lot of thekits.
So yes, that's that's been cooltoo.

With.
With armor, you're in a lot ofthe kits.
Yes, absolutely, that's beencool too.
With armor, you're seeing a lotof complete kits.
I think where 3D printing inaircraft is right now, you
aren't seeing nearly as manycomplete kits, but what you are
seeing is an absolute explosionof upgrade for existing kits.
Yes, and engines, cockpitinteriors, stuff like that.

So Kentucky, Dave , I love airplanes, I love like
oh my God, I love mosquitoes andI love zeros only when they're
on fire.

I'm sensing a British theme here zeros only
when they're on fire.
I'm sensing a British themehere Mostly mosquitoes.
There you go.
But, in a 3D world is there alot of stuff going on there?
There are relatively few 3Dprinted aircraft kits.

(01:32:54):
It's just not for, I think, anumber of engineering reasons.
I don't think it's as common,although it may come to be that,
but what you are really seeingis just to take the Mosquito as
an example, which is the bestplane ever, by the way.

(01:33:14):
Well, you're wrong, but that'sokay.
Tamiya Hasegawa and Airf.

(01:33:46):
The top mark of the Mosquitowas 3743, some outrageous number
up there, but that is at leastin aircraft right now where I
think you're seeing the vastmajority of 3D materials.

So it's an upgrade conversion kind of thing
.

Although and here's the other place, you're
seeing it, and this is kind ofarmor aircraft crossover is all
of the airfield equipment, oh,which is also very cool and
lends itself to beingmanufactured like a 3D printed

(01:34:30):
armor kit, like any 3D printedarmor kit, like any 3d printed
armor kit.
Yeah, you know you're.
You're seeing everything frombulldozers to to bomb haulers,
to.

Yeah, that's cool , that's totally cool.
I mean, if you're an airplaneguy and you know you're one of
those people.

That's all right, that's okay.

Mike (01:34:51):
Well, brad, if someone was eyeballing a 3d printed kit and
they'd never done it before,what would be?
What would be the advice forsomebody wanting to just have
have their first go?
Where would you start?
Kit wise, would you think, andand that sort of thing.

All right, so 35th scale, I can't not say RTM,
it is just the best.
That jam is awesome If there'sa variety.
I mean, what do you want, right?
World War I, World War II,specialty stuff?

(01:35:29):
That's the whole point of 3Dkits, right?
It's weird stuff.
Well, Brad, thanks for 3D kits,right Is?

Mike (01:35:34):
weird stuff.
Well, brad, thanks for comingon the show and giving us your
experience with these kits andsharing all that with us.
It's a neat world out therewith all these crazy subjects,
and I guess I've just hadreservations on a lot of them
for the reasons we've discussedand, like you, I'm sure if
you've been at this as long as Ihave that we learned a lot of

(01:36:01):
hard lessons back in the earlyresin days.

So yeah, those, those marks, those scars still,
those scars are still there Ican mention, you're still there
mike, I was there when youopened a box from a certain
resin manufacturer way back along time ago well, there's a
lot of those I just appreciateyou guys, you know, reaching out
to me and I mean that that youguys put that little mark on the
mt25.

It meant a lot to me, um well, you're welcome,
you're.

Mike (01:36:26):
You're, it was a.

It's just a really good model, a very nice
model, and the nice thing isyou're seeing something you
don't see every day.

That's the thing I've always been, from when I
was in San Diego, where I grewup, to Texas, to now I'm in Ohio
.
Everyone always says if youwant to see something weird, go
see Brad.

Wait a minute, that could be misconstrued yes.
Never, never mind.
Well, it's good to talk withyou, brad.

Mike (01:36:59):
Thanks, guys, you're welcome and thanks again for
coming on.
We'll look forward to seeingyou in Camp Hill Pennsylvania.

Yeah, absolutely Me and Dr Dave.

Mike (01:37:12):
Well, brad, thanks for coming on, and we look forward
to seeing you and Dr Dave at theAMPS convention here in a
couple of weeks.

Yes, and you know that's funny.
Since we recorded thatinterview, I have had three
separate conversations withthree different modelers, all
revolving around this subject.
All revolving around thissubject not printing 3D printing
, but the construction andassembly of 3D printed kits.

(01:37:41):
So it is a topic that isbecoming more and more relevant
as time goes on.

Mike (01:37:50):
It certainly is, and the quality spectrum is kind of the
big gotcha there.
So interesting stuff.

The Voice of Bob (B (01:37:58):
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Mike (01:38:47):
Well, Dave, it's time for the Benchtop Halftime Reports.
Man, I hope your update'sbetter than mine.

Sadly enough, it's not.
A it's spring yard work, etc.
B my riding lawnmower broke andI have to fix it.
C derby festivities and all theappropriate or all the things
involved in that.
D my younger daughter had someminor surgery which necessitated

(01:39:16):
a couple of days away, and allof it conspired to keep me from
getting much modeling done.
I've gotten a little moreprogress on the Bearcats.
I'm working on the landing gear, which are very simplified.
I'm working on the landing gear, which are very simplified, but
since I'm not adding a lot ofdetail to this kit at all, I am

(01:39:39):
trying to play with paintingtechniques to do what I can to
make details pop out, and so I'mgiving a little more attention
than I might otherwise to theselanding gear and I need my, the

(01:40:00):
SAM is still there.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah, I know.
And I need to finish oiltreating the rest of the
underside, and once I get thatdone, the thing will move very,
very quickly from there.
And once I get that done, thething will move very, very
quickly from there.
I just need to grab anuninterrupted two hours worth of

(01:40:20):
time and unfortunately thathasn't been in the cards.
But the next two weeks lookgood and fingers crossed, when
we talk about this in episode141, I'm going to make a lot of
progress.

Mike (01:40:36):
I'm going to hold you to it.
How about you Not a lot better.
The Flak Panzer and the KV-85have been stagnant since the
last episode because of what Italked about in the front end in
the model sphere segment of theepisode front end in the model
sphere segment of the episodeI've been doing some 3D modeling

(01:40:58):
on the Raboboton chassis andI've been doing some more test
prints and I've been sendingemails to people to try to get
the missing pieces of thispuzzle answered and that's what
I've been doing.
It's close.
I need to finish this.
I need to figure out this onepart at the front end of the
chassis ladder to tie this thingtogether, and after that I
think I can move forward becauseI've got great information on
all the steering and and allwheel drive, transmission and

(01:41:21):
stuff.
So it should it should be ableto progress now.
Whether I get to it or not in atimely manner, I don't know,
but there will be no blockersholding me back from lack of
information, hopefully.

There you go.
Well, I will tell you that I amgoing to send you some STL
files.
I have some things that I'dlike printed and I want to make
sure that your 3D printer athome doesn't gather dust and
like to keep it exercised.
So I'm going to send you someSTL files and see if I can get

(01:41:56):
you to print some for me.

Mike (01:41:58):
We'll give it a shot, man.

All right.

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Mike (01:42:30):
Dave Brandon and I have been playing the email tag for
about two weeks now.
Oh, have you.
Yeah, we got to get him back onhere, man.

Yes, we do, yes, we do.
Well, the model releases havepicked up a little bit.
Yeah, no kidding, and it'sfaves and yawns time, so I've
got a few.
I do too, I got more thannormal.

Mike (01:42:52):
I'll let you start my first.
One has been on in this segmentat least two other times.
It's gecko models yeah, I Iknow what you're gonna refer to.
It's another vietnam war era.
Street vendor figure set andman, they are killing it yes man
, it's becoming a gaping rabbithole, man.

And I think—.

Mike (01:43:14):
If I don't go down it myself, the ground around it is
going to collapse.
I'm going to fall in.

I do think we are due for a Vietnam War
renaissance as far as modelingkits and dioramas there was.
Back in the 80s there was thefirst post-war surge of
Vietnam-related modeling andthen it kind of fell away and I

(01:43:42):
think it's going to come backand come back hard.

Mike (01:43:45):
Well, it's an interesting phenomenon and I wonder if it
has to do with the time elapse.

I think it does, and the generations.

Mike (01:43:54):
Yeah, that's what I was going to say the generational.
What to say?
How far removed the currentfolks are to be able to think
about this more objectively thanemotionally.

Yeah, exactly.
Well, not only that, but you'vegot a lot of 30 and 40-year-old
modelers who are now talkingwith their 80-year-old
grandparents who— their parents,yeah Right, who served?
And?
so either their parents orgrandparents who served, and so

(01:44:25):
you're starting to get a lotmore books on the subject.
You're getting a lot more kits,both the diorama type, like the
Gecko, or good kits.
The 16th scale M113 is aclassic example, as well as the
Australian version of theCenturion that was used in

(01:44:46):
Vietnam.
I mean, you're starting to seemore and more kits that relate
to that period, so I think we'redue for a renaissance in that
area.
Well, I think it's certainlyhappening.

Mike (01:45:00):
I think it's certainly happening.
But another thing to say aboutit is you know it was well a
couple of things.
It was the first time this cameto the American living room on
the television.
Yes, the war in real time.
In addition, there's a lot offolks outraged.
I think it gets into thisperiod, late 80s, maybe even

(01:45:22):
early.
I don't know when all thesemovies came out, but there was a
slug of movies that camethrough Hollywood, kind of all
within five years of each otherYep Platoon, Full Metal Jacket.

Hamburger Hill.

Mike (01:45:35):
Hamburger Hill.
And then there was the TV show.
What was that?
China Beach?
No Well, maybe it was ChinaBeach.
That was the nurse show.

That was the nurse show.

Mike (01:45:45):
No, the other one with the the gay team no, god no.
But there was a rash.
Come on there.
No, not God, no, but there wasa rash.
Come on, there was a rash ofdetective shows going back to
Vietnam.
Oh, magnum PI and all those andall that.
But that's neither here northere.
But I think we're at a pointnow where the emotion of all

(01:46:09):
that period is tempered and it'sbecoming more of an objective
thing.
So really good stuff, becauseit's reflected in what Gecko's
doing Scooters, street vendors,all this stuff.
They're kind of ahead of thecurve.
We're kind of just getting someof that stuff for World War II
fairly recently through many artand the likes of that.

(01:46:31):
They are really putting outsome really cool stuff.

Yes, they are.

Mike (01:46:38):
That lets you replicate just about any vignette of that
era you've ever seen, either ina magazine photograph or a movie
or whatever.

I see a Vietnam vehicle in your future.

Mike (01:46:50):
Maybe We'll see what else you got.
What's your first one?

Well, quinta Studios, who are known for their
3D decals for cockpits,instrument panels etc.
Have announced a series ofmachine guns, 72nd scale.
Well, they're doing them inother scales too.
Machine guns for aircraft theVickers K gun, the Lewis gun, us

(01:47:36):
M250 World War II aircraft withone of those type of guns on it
.
I'm convinced that replacingthat with aftermarket really
good aftermarket is a bigimprovement.

It usually is.

Over what you get in most kits.
So I'm happy to see these and,frankly, I want to see some of
them in person to judge thequality.

Mike (01:47:57):
Next for you TACOM doing a fresh take on the Yacht Tiger.

Yes, I saw that.

Mike (01:48:03):
Big full interior one.

Yeah, You're going to wait for the
non-interior right.

Mike (01:48:08):
Well, I'm probably mistaken, but somebody just did
one, and I don't know if theycame out with a non-interior
first.
I don't know if it was adifferent manufacturer, but no,
I don't know, it's.
This one's a pretty good onefor an interior, though.
No, it's got a full, fullinterior.
Well, I mean, but the it's gotthat the big swing hatches on

(01:48:29):
the back of the fightingcompartment can open up and you
can open the two crew hatches onthe roof to get some light in
there, and then put a littlegrain of wheat well, not grain
of wheat, but now an LED bulb inthere to light the whole
interior, so there's a lot to it.
Yeah, I don't know, it'sprobably not something I'm going
to buy, but seeing a fresh takeon that one looked promising

(01:48:50):
for a lot of people, I'm sure.

Yep, I agree, take on that one.
Look promising for a lot ofpeople, I'm sure.
Yep, I agree.
What's your um?
My next one is our friends atkit masks, kevin and janelle,
the pace at which they arereleasing new mask sets.
It's you know, you, we knowthey're a small cottage
operation yeah, it's him and herright exactly, and to make a

(01:49:17):
musical reference, it's she andhim.
I am just amazed at the quantityof new items that they continue
to put out, and then they'rebranching out into armor stuff.
And you know, every time I goon ScaleMates there are new sets

(01:49:37):
announced and it just it'spretty dang impressive.
It is, it really is, yep.

Mike (01:49:45):
So what's your next?
Now?
You know I bought their quadbofers from our local hobby shop
, scale Reproductions, right Awhile back.
They've come around and theygot something kind of cool now
in addition to that kit, whichis it's an 8-inch, aka
240-millimeter, heavy gun, aheavy howitzer.

(01:50:06):
Oh, I saw that Now they'recalling it the M2A1.
Yeah, and at the risk oftalking out my posterior, I
think that designation isincorrect.
I think the gun is M1.
I think the transport carriagefor the well, the transport for
the gun carriage is the M2.

(01:50:27):
And the transport for thebarrel is the M3.
That's what I think.
Now, this is a big honkingthing.
That's not like the long timewhich had a split trail.
This was a.
You disassembled it, you loadedit up and you transported it
and you put it back togetherwhen you got to wherever you're
going to emplace the thing.
It's a really cool, cool kitHuge gun.

(01:50:49):
It's a big gun?
Probably has.
I just had not enough interestto know it existed.
But I wonder if this thing'sever been kitted in anything
else before.
That's a good question.
I don't know.
Maybe it has.

Maybe our listeners can tell us.

Mike (01:51:04):
Yeah, somebody set me straight.
I don't know if this thing'sever been kitted before or not,
but yeah, there's a lot to this.
There's a lot of big balloontires and a lot of parts, so
really looking to see what thatone looks like in the box once
it's released.

Well, my next one is not a particular kit, it's a
note about what's going on inthe hobby for releases.
In the hobby for releases, thenumber of 3D printed figure
companies is just exploding.
Every time I go on ScaleMatesor I go to Hannitz or whatever,

(01:51:50):
in the new releases there are 3Dfigures from companies I've
never heard from, never heard of.
And of course, the problem, aswe talked about earlier in the
episode in the interview, iswith 3D printing.
Quality is 90% of the game and Iwould love to see somebody out

(01:52:13):
there, some youtuber hint, hintout there, do what evan mccallum
did with all the 3d printedtrack companies, where he got a
bunch of different items from abunch of different companies I
think there's like 15 or 16 bythe time he stopped, just
because there were too many newones continuing to come out

(01:52:35):
where I would love to see someindustrious YouTuber get 3D
figures from all of thesedifferent companies and give us
the good, bad and ugly, because,as we noted earlier in the
episode in the interview, you'rereally kind of hesitant to
order a pig and a puck and soyou know, unless you know

(01:53:00):
somebody who's already got thefigures from a particular
company or if you're luckyenough to have a hobby shop that
stocked them.
You're really firing blind and Idon't really like that feeling.
But I would like more and morequality figures and particularly

(01:53:22):
quality 72nd scale 3D figures.
So some YouTuber out there takeme up on my suggestion and give
us a comparison review of abunch of different 3D figure
company releases.

Mike (01:53:43):
And hopefully you figure out a way to get them for free.

Yeah, well, if you can do that, so much the
better.
So that's it for me.
What do you have?

Mike (01:53:52):
I got one more, my last one.
You know it's funny.
I don't think we do this oneroughly every other episode,
right?
So once every other, once everytwo months.

Right.

Mike (01:54:03):
Faves and yawns and the Tamiya H39, hotchkiss H39 kind
of fell through the cracks.
Yeah, because because of whenit was released.
Yeah, ah, but we hit the M36Jackson this time and I'm sure
there's quite a few folks whoare ecstatic about this one.

Yeah, I'm not one of them.
I like the M10 better than theM36.
I like the.

Mike (01:54:28):
M18 and the M10.
Of the American tank destroyers, this is the least interesting
of all of them.
That's my opinion.
I don't know why.
I think it's the shape of theturret.
It's got something to do withthat, I don't know.
But, like I said, I'm surefolks are going to beat the door
down to get this one.
Yep I agree with you Longoverdue, so good on Tamiya, for

(01:54:50):
a couple of 35th scale armorreleases this year already.

Yes, I'd love to see them increase the pace of
their armor releases.
Mike, we are almost at the endof the episode and I assume you
are almost at the end of yourmodeling fluid.

Mike (01:55:11):
I am.
I'm at the end of my modelingfluid, the glass and the bottle.
Okay, the Walcott Bottled andBond needs a splash of water.

Does it?

Mike (01:55:21):
Yeah, it's 100 proof, gotcha, which is where the heat
kind of starts to pick up.
Yeah, it's going to do it, butI tell you for 100 proof, this
one straight up is really,really hot.
A little bit of water makes ita little sweeter and kind of
takes that burn off the back ofyour throat.
Yeah, I probably wouldn't getthis one again.

Well, you live and learn.
That's how you find out.
You sample these things yeah.

Mike (01:55:46):
I'm kind of 0 for 2 on the Walcotts.
Now, who did you say thisdistiller was again?

Barton 1792 oh, very bad, barton very well, very
old barton, but yes, manypeople call it very bad barton
that explains a lot actuallyit's a, it's a bad sign when
very old barton comes in aplastic jug, that is.
That is never an indication ofbourbon quality, just no, it's

(01:56:13):
not.
In case you listeners out theredidn't already know that if
your bourbon is coming in aplastic bottle, with a screw top
.
It's not good, bourbon, almostassuredly.

Mike (01:56:27):
Well, how's that hop explosion.
You got going on, it's actuallynot bad.

I may have been a little harsh last time in
judging it.
It's 8% alcohol by volume.

Mike (01:56:39):
It's mere twin brewing out of Lexington, just down from
where Space Tango is located,that's right, I can walk down
there after work and I'mprobably going to do that
tomorrow actually.

There you go, there you go Probably not going
to have that and I'm probablygoing to do that tomorrow.
Actually, there you go, thereyou go.
Probably not going to have that.
I was going to say if you wereinclined to, I would say this
while it might not be my firstchoice, because Mirror Twin has
a whole lot of really good beers, so it might not be my first
choice, but it would not be theworst choice.
It's perfectly fine.

Mike (01:57:12):
Glad it worked out the second time.

It did Well.
Now we are truly at the end ofthe episode, and there is
nothing left but the shoutingout.

Mike (01:57:32):
I'm not going to shout.
I'll shout out, though.
Okay, go ahead and shout out.
Well, always going to thank ourcontributors, dave, the folks
who choose to support PlasticModel Mojo through their
generosity, and we've made thatreally easy for folks to do that
.
You can go towwwplasticmodelmojocom, the
official website of our podcast.

(01:57:52):
You can click the supportoption in the menu bar and that
will bring down the selection ofavenues which you can
contribute to the show.
Also, you can grab any of theshow notes from any of the
episodes, and those links are inthere as well.
So, folks, we appreciate it.
It helps cover our expenses andit just gives the incentive to

(01:58:12):
keep plugging along here andbringing you better stuff.

So thank you very much and I second that.
Thank you very much.
I have two shout outs.
The first one is rather obviousJeff Inch High Grows.
Jeff, thank you, thank you forthinking of me.
Thank you, thank you forthinking of me, thank you for
giving me the opportunity tohelp save a whole lot of books

(01:58:37):
and find them new homes, andthank you for thinking of both
Mike and I when you went throughthe collection initially and
grabbed a bunch of stuff thatyou knew that Mike and I would
be interested in.
You're a good guy, and I'm notthe only one who thinks so.
Thank you, jeff and your otherone.

(01:58:59):
My other one is Martin Pietta,who thought about Inch when he
listened to the episode andheard that Inch couldn't
currently drink alcohol andthought enough to mention the
Blue Moon, et cetera that Idescribed earlier.

(01:59:19):
That is an example of thecommunity that we have here.
It wasn't about modeling okay,it was about one modeler
thinking about another modelerand wanting to tell him
something that he found thatthey might find helpful.
That wasn't really related tomodeling, and that's the kind of

(01:59:45):
people we attract.
I don't want to toot our ownhorn or pat ourselves on the
back too hard.
Toot our own horn or patourselves on the back too hard,
but this podcast has attracted acommunity of modelers who are
really great people and verythoughtful in regard to their

(02:00:07):
fellow modeler, not only as amodeler but their fellow modeler
as a fellow man, and I couldnot be more pleased.
So thank you, mark.
All right, dave, that's it.

Mike (02:00:20):
That's it Time to get going, as we always say.
Folks, so many kits, so littletime.
Dave, I better get your bagspacked for amps.
I'm good, I'm doing it, man,all right.

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3D Printed Kits with Brad Belsheim: PMM Episode 140

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