Finding Joy At The Bench Again: Episode 156

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 skillmodeling, as well as to news and
events around the hobby.
Join Mike in Kentucky Days asthey strive to be informative,
entertaining, and help you tokeep your modeling mojo alive.

Kentucky Dave (00:52):
Amen, man.

Mike (00:53):
I'm telling you what.
It's nice to be warm.
I hope our guest is warmtonight out on the West Coast,
Mr.
Jim Bates.
Jim, long time.
How's it going?

Jim Bates (01:01):
It's going great because I moved somewhere that
rarely has snow.

Mike (01:08):
Well, good.
I'm glad somebody's warm-ish.
I don't know if it's warmthere, but it's probably not
like it is here.

Jim Bates (01:15):
It's cold for us.
It's not as cold as you guyshave.

Mike (01:19):
Well, I talked to Mr.
Wallace today up in Ottawa andhe told me to shut up.
In fact, he said it wouldprobably be balmy when we get to
HeritageCon.
We'd all step outside and go,What are you complaining about?
This isn't so bad.
I'm taking that as a promise,man.
I hope it's balmy.

(01:39):
Me too.
Well, Jim, we're gonna startwith you, man.
What is up in your modelsphere?

Jim Bates (01:45):
You know, it's amazing.
I'm actually working on modelsagain, which is kind of nice,
but I think we'll talk aboutthat later.
Okay.
Working on planning theFebruary show in Seattle and
getting excited for HeritageConbecause I'm there and I am
really hoping we don't have amassive snowstorm that weekend
because I don't want to bestranded in Detroit for three
days.

Mike (02:06):
Or anyone else.
Nobody does, Jim.
Nobody does.
Not even the Lions.
True.

Jim Bates (02:14):
I I have this un this ridiculous fear that if I spend
too much time in Detroit, I'llget turned into Robocop, and I
don't want that.

Mike (02:21):
Well, glad things are on the up and up, and we will talk
about some of those things alittle later.
Dave, what about you?

You know, my model sphere is kind of meh.
I'm having trouble getting tothe bench.
Part of that is life, but partof it's also motivation, plus a
few other things.
But uh, you know, I'm tryingI'm trying to struggle to really
get off to a good start here inin 2026.

(02:48):
So we'll see if recording withJim tonight can make that a
little better.

Mike (02:53):
Maybe it'll inspire us all, Dave.
Maybe.
That's right.
There you go, Jim.
How about how about you, Mike?
Trying to get this shiprighted, not that it was off
course, but I think the holidayskind of kept us busy with other
things.
And I guess I didn't realizejust how much forward planning I
was doing.
So when we took kind of a monthand change off, it's kind of
made us have to scramble to getthings populated out a little

(03:17):
further.
And we still got some work todo there.
But we're getting there.
I don't know.
There's a lot going on in mymodel sphere.
Unfortunately, I can't talkabout much of it tonight.
But uh yeah, pretty much tryingto get things planned out for
the next few months, you know,especially with the the model
show spotlights and then ourfuture episodes.
So it's filling up, it'sfilling up pretty good now.

(03:38):
So I'm feeling a little betterabout it.
We got to get our cadence back.
We talked about that offline.
We just kind of same thing,same reasons.
We just kind of stammered alittle bit, and now the holidays
are over and we're trying totrying to get our stride back in
lockstep.

We'll do it.
Well, since we're recordingwith Jim tonight, I assume
everybody has a modeling fluidin hand.
Jim, do you have a modelingfluid in hand?

Jim Bates (04:02):
I don't know, Dave.
Let's listen.
I want to edge, I want to belike you.

There you go.

Jim Bates (04:08):
Yes, I I'm slumming it today.
I am having a, you know, I'mnot high-end like you guys, so
I've got a raspberry twistedtea.

Okay.
Whatever floats your boat asfar as modeling fluid goes.
We're not we're not enforcingany any orthodoxy here.
So raspberry twisted tea.

Mike (04:30):
Mike?
Well, I think uh we're high-endif if you kind of think the bow
of the Titanic was high endthere for a few minutes.

There you go.

Mike (04:38):
So I don't think we're high end, Jim.
We fake it.
Fake it till you make it.
Uh beer for me.
Pilsner Raquel.
I've got some.
We made one last run to thegrocery store before uh the
white stuff started falling outof the sky, and I picked up some
beer and uh gonna finish offthe six-pack tonight.
Smart move, smart move.
Now, not all of it during thisepisode.

(04:59):
I've been working on it fortwo, two and a half days now.
We understood what you meant.
Well, not everybody might.
I think I'm going for a newrecord on the podcast.

Jim Bates (05:09):
Come on, Mike.
Knock back the whole six-pack.

Mike (05:13):
What's Dave got?

I've got, and this may be a repeat for me.
I've got Voodoo Ranger JuiceForce IPA.
I don't know.
I'm not sure if I've had, Imean, I know I've had this one
before.
I'm not sure it's been onpodcasts before.
So I already know what toexpect, but we'll get to that at
the end of the episode.

Mike (05:33):
Well, I think we're all well within our comfort zone
tonight.
Yes, we are.
Well, let's get some morecomfort and take on some
listener mail.
Sounds good.
Well, first up tonight is uhLarry Donovan from New Brighton,
Minnesota.
So he's up in Minnesota Twinscountry.
Yep.
And he wants to feel the painabout moving.
So I guess we talked to PaulGlosser there back before

(05:56):
Christmas.
And uh Larry moved right beforeChristmas.
Ooh.
He's been shuttling back andforth between the new digs and
the old digs since just the last10 days or so.
He's the winner's just stalledhim, and his wife's been sick,
and he just has a couple moreboxes he needs to bring over to
the new place where he canfinally start working on a

(06:17):
temporary bench location, kindof like Mr.
Gloucester was doing.
So he can empathize with that.
So he followed up again with asecond email and uh wanted us to
know that uh, like you, Dave,the only way he will ever move
again is when they pry his uhrigor mortis hands off his Swann
and Morton scalpel and hisgallery airbrush.

I I I'm I'm there with you.
I am not moving again.

Jim Bates (06:45):
Jim, you stay in put for a while.
You know, that's a goodquestion.
I I might be moving this year,I might not be moving this year.
I don't know what's going on.

Mike (06:53):
Get a bigger place.

Jim Bates (06:55):
Yeah, that's you know, this is probably jumping
ahead, but I'd like to addanother hobby to the list that I
don't do, which is called 3Dprinting, and I cannot do that
in the location I'm in.
So I'm trying to find a littlebit more space.

Mike (07:10):
All right.
Well, we'll look forward tothat.
Damn.
Well, our next email is from uhyour neck of the woods, Jim.

Jim Bates (07:19):
All right, who's that?

Mike (07:20):
Do you know this Mark Dramus guy?

Jim Bates (07:21):
I I think I've heard this guy once or twice.
Yeah, I think I've met thisguy.
He writes in all right.

Mike (07:26):
I wonder if we're a stalker.
Maybe we need to get theauthorities involved.
I don't know.

Jim Bates (07:30):
No, Mark is a great guy.
That's all I can say.

Mike (07:32):
Well, that's what I gather from his from his emails.
And uh he was loving our 150 to153 stretch.
Yeah, those are those areinteresting.
I'm glad folks like those.
Even old hats like Mark.
So uh he's got some comments oninspiration, and he got there
by Spotify making him go all theway back to episode one, two,

(07:52):
and three.
And he does say that we'vegrown into the job since we
started this thing.
I don't disagree with that.
I assume you mean we've gottenbetter at this.

Yeah, I kind of hesitate to go back to listen to
those early episodes.
Yeah.

Mike (08:06):
Gotta start somewhere, man.
I know.
Well, I guess part of thoseepisodes was, you know, stash
reduction, focusing on buildingwhat you really want to build
and maybe getting rid of some ofthe rest.
Well, he had his entire stashand scalemates.
And not only was his stash andscalemates, he had done the pull
downs or checkboxes to saysomething's in the stash that's

(08:27):
completed or started orwhatever.

Right.

Mike (08:30):
And when he merged all the files to download them to Excel
to take stock of what he had onlooking at it all in one place,
he had an embarrassing numberof kits in the started category.

I I feel your pain, Mark.

Mike (08:44):
He says to be fair, he's got a lot of secondhand kits,
and if there's any damage ormissing parts, he'll mark them
on the box.
So that said, though, he's gotlike 80 out of 600 that are
started.
That's that's Vidkus territory.
Yeah, I know.
And his plan for the New Year'sto pull one from the started
pile whenever he puts a new oneon his desk to start or to work
on.
He says at least that's uh morehonest than not pull uh than

(09:08):
pulling a new one until all thestarted ones are done.
I'd have misread that, didn'tI?
Hang on.
He says his plan for the newyear is to pull one from the
started pile whenever he pulls anew one onto the desk as well.
So he's gonna pull them two ata time.
And he thinks that's morehonest than just pulling and not
pulling a new one to all thestarted ones are done.
Because you know, the thesecond hand ones that were

(09:28):
started before you get them arethat those don't count.
We won't count those.
I'm gonna ask why you boughtone that way, because I could
never do that personally unlessI needed all the other parts for
something else.

That said, Well, it's funny he mentions that
because our Ottawa modelingfriend Ian McCauley over the
last like year and a half did anintentional thing where he
cleared his entire back stash ofin-progress kits.
And I think he found that veryrewarding.

Mike (10:02):
I guess what I was gonna say before I forgot was that
things were started and stoppedfor a reason.
And I guess some of those, if Ihad those, I would not feel
completely obligated to finishall of them.
Some of them might go somewhereelse.
We've talked about that before,too.
Sure.
Jim, what's your started pilelook like?

Jim Bates (10:21):
My started pile is ridiculous, and and this fits
into what we were going to talk,which we'll talk about of
finding my way back to modeling.
I I have two problems.
Problem number one is thestarted pile then becomes the
parts lost pile.
So I'm trying to finish thingsoff before I lose parts on them,
but I also had some thatdisappear down the trash recycle

(10:44):
chute that I finally realizedthe reason they never got
forward is I was never going tofinish them.
So some are back in the queueand some have disappeared into
the ether.

Mike (10:53):
Well, that's probably being honest with yourself.
So uh that's okay.

I I I think it's perfectly acceptable if you're
in a project and you realizethis kit just isn't very good,
and I don't want to put the timein to make it even acceptable.
There is no there is no shamein saying I want to move on with

(11:21):
my life.
This thing's going to the trashpile, and I'm gonna go build
something that I really actuallywill enjoy.

Mike (11:30):
I've done it.
I think we all have.

Jim Bates (11:33):
Yep.
Life is too short for crappykits, and life is too short for
poorly started part startedmodels.

Yep.

Mike (11:41):
Well, I'm outnumbered now.
You both live by that mantra.

I try to.
I'm trying to get better atdoing that.

Jim Bates (11:50):
I can't believe you just got uh accused the guy who
owns half the matchbox aircraftcatalog of not building crappy
kits.

Mike (12:00):
Oh, there's crappy and there's nostalgia crappy.
Maybe those aren't the same.
Maybe they are, I don't know.
All in perspective.
Well, moving on.
Up next, Rock Rozak.
Detail and Scale has a newbook.

Yes, they do.

Mike (12:14):
They have released part three of the P51 Mustang in
Detail and Scale.
This one's gonna cover theP51Ds and all the subsequent
variants, developmental history,all the later Merlin engine
birds, all the experimentalbirds, widespread use of color
photos.
Detailed chapters cover allaspects of the aircraft with 215
photos in total, 205 in color,so it's gonna be a lot of color

(12:36):
in this one.
Extensive scale modelingsection also with a lot of color
photos, and seven colorprofiles, courtesy of Rock
Rozak, and nine scale drawingsand illustrations.
The digital edition can be hadfor Amazon, Apple, Kindle, and
Kobo for $14.99 and the printedition for $21.99.
I guess this one's gonna roundout the P51 series, Dave.

Yeah, well, we've gotten a lot of good P51 kits
in 72nd scale recently.
So this is gonna be a welcomeaddition to go along with all
those.

Mike (13:07):
Well, this is book number 23 in the Detail and Scale
series, and it's their 38th booksince rebooting the brand in
2014.
So good on you guys.
Glad it's working out.

Yep, absolutely.

Mike (13:19):
Well, finally, from the email side of things, Dave, Don
Gilman from he's down nearCollege Station, Texas.

Yep.

Mike (13:26):
And he sent an email with a bunch of ideas.
So, you know, I didn't make itto Louisville as I had planned,
at least under the circumstancesI had planned this weekend.
So uh we still got a planningmeeting to get off, buddy.
And yeah, Don sent someinteresting things that actually
they weren't exactly the lot ofstuff we've been doing or
thinking about doing, but a lotof them are kind of adjacent.

(13:48):
So I thought it was reallycool.
So uh I've talked to Don alittle bit.
And Don, we appreciate all thisstuff.
We appreciate folks sendingsuggestions like this.
So keep it coming, folks.
We do appreciate it.

Yes, we do very much so.

Mike (14:01):
Well, Dave, that's the end of the email side of things.
What's going on on the directmessage side?

Well, I've got a few on the Facebook side, the
direct message side.
First, we got a ton of peoplereaching out, checking on us
regarding the recentsnowmageddon, people from as far
away as our friend thePodfather, Dave Goldfinch, out
in in Australia, and people justall over.

(14:29):
So thank all of you who werethinking of us and reached out
to to check on us.
That was very, very kind.
Warren Dickinson reached out tothank us for mentioning him and
his recent difficulties withhaving lost his wife to sudden

(14:50):
and unexpected illness.
He was very appreciative of ourour thinking of him and and
wanted to say thank you not onlyto us, but to all the other
modelers who have reached outand said something.
So that, you know, it's nice tohave that support group in time

(15:10):
of need.
Dr.
David Geldmacher also reachedout.
Dr.
Geldmacher had a scheduledsurgery come up, and we were all
waiting with bated breath, andhe came through it great and was
in the recovery room doingreading reference, modeling
reference material as soon asthey moved him out of ICU.

(15:34):
So it's good to hear that he'son the road to recovery.
And although he's not going tomake it to HeritageCon this
year, we're hoping we'll get tosee him at HeritageCon next
year.

Mike (15:46):
Well, we'll see him before HeritageCon next year, I hope.

Well, we'll see him at the Nats, but uh, yeah,
he wants to go to HeritageCon,and he would have this year were
it not for the surgery andrecovery.

Mike (15:59):
Well, maybe he'll be the modeling tornado now.
He's gonna have all thisrediscovered energy, his
condition slowly robbed him ofthat he didn't realize.

That's possible.

Mike (16:09):
I hope so.

Um next, listener Carl Barrow, our Yorkshireman
who's out in California, justreached out to to thank us for
mentioning the previousinteraction.
And we got to have a furtherinteraction with uh discussing
those Karia kits, particularlyones in his collection that are

(16:33):
related to Blackburn AircraftCompany.
And it was uh just a reallynice exchange, and one of those
things, like I said, that'sthat's one of those pleasures
that uh that that has come fromthis community.
Finally, on the Facebook side,our good friend Bob Bear, who is

(16:57):
Agent O four.

Mike (17:00):
I think so.

I think he's number four.
Agent O.
Well, I have to go back andlisten.
We need to write this crap.
I did.
Keep going.
Okay, good.
That Bob reached out to justsimply let us know that he was
available to help us.
He has been a great help to thepodcast in the in the past,

(17:20):
recording intros and stuff likethat and ads.
And he just wanted us to knowthat he was available to do that
for anything we had.
And I told him that you and Iwere gonna, we've been thinking
along those lines and that we'regonna take advantage of his
generous offer here in 2026 todo some changes and refreshes.

Mike (17:45):
You got any more, Dave?
That's it.
Well, folks, if you'd like towrite into the show, you can do
so by sending us an email atplasticmodelmojo at gmail.com,
or you can use the Facebookdirect message system to uh send
us a direct message viaFacebook Messenger.
And there's also a feedbacklink on the web page and in the
show notes of each and everyepisode.
So we got lots of avenues forfolks to write into the show.

(18:09):
Let's see some more.
Let's see some new folks.
We need to have a question,Dave.
We need to have a question.
We'll have to do that next timeto spark some interest in
getting some new folks to writeinto the show.
We appreciate them all, butreally like to hear from the new
folks.
We're gonna stick to thisformat, which means we're gonna

(18:47):
get to the main segment at thefront end of the episode.
And we got a few things to talkabout here.
And Jim, one of these was wasyour suggestion because you're
you're getting back intomodeling after a situation I
guess you're gonna tell us abouthow you got out of modeling.

Jim Bates (19:03):
Absolutely.
I don't know.
A couple years ago, I realizedI spend more time talking about
modeling or reading aboutmodeling than actually modeling.
And it kind of sent me downthis rabbit hole of do I even
like to do this?
Do I want to do it?
And then 2025 hit, and 2025 hada lot of outside issues that

(19:29):
that really took a bite out ofmy life.
I decided to merge my law firmwith another, we bought a
building, it's it's just been alot of work and a lot of time at
the office.
And I found myself really justnot sitting at the bench,
combined with this realizationthat I do love airplanes, but

(19:50):
I'm not sure I really lovemodeling airplanes.
And and that was something II've kind of stepped away for a
while, and I was doing morephotography, and I got Got in
more to visit aviation museumsand do aviation events and go to
air shows.
And I was doing that more thanmodeling contests.
And I just stepped away for awhile.
And it took me, you know, Ikind of spent some time late

(20:14):
last year thinking, do I justwant to be done?
Like, should I just get rid ofall the kits and move on and
find something else to do?
Is this fun?
Is this joyful?
And I think there were a lot ofissues that play into that.
One being it's taken me a longtime to realize that probably
during the week, there's notmuch modeling going on in my

(20:36):
life.
I tend to work a lot of hours.
And when I get home, I'mexhausted and I just don't want
to sit at the bench.
So the first thing I had tobecome comfortable with is
modeling time might be Friday,Saturday, Sunday, and that might
all be it, all that it is.
And then the other thing wasjust this general thing of,
yeah, I do love planes, but Idon't really like building them.

(20:56):
They I don't finish them.
Like I get to a certain pointon every plane and give up.
And why is that?
And is it just it isn't fun forme?
I think I progress a little bitbetter with tanks, and that
made me realize maybe theproblem is I know too much about
the airplanes I love, so itbecomes analysis paralysis.
This model won't be perfect.

(21:18):
And I think the last thing isyou take a couple years off of
this stuff and your skillsdeteriorate.
So here I am with diminishingskills, and everything is going
wrong all the time.
So it took me a long time torealize how can we fix that?
Like I've still been listeningto you guys.
I've still, you know, I'm stilllooking at the modeling news,

(21:39):
but I'm just not sitting at thebench.
So is it time to walk away anddo something else, or is it time
to figure out what the problemsare and solve those problems?
So that's a lot of what I'vebeen thinking about over the
last four or five months asthings have slowed down.

You mentioned moving to armor kits.
Have you found that buildingarmor is more relaxing?

Jim Bates (22:02):
Yes and no.
I love building the armor.
And then when I hit weathering,I don't my models don't turn
out with night shift.
So if at first you don'tsucceed, quit.
Um, so I have a lot of armorthat's painted that just stops.
I think the reality of what theproblem was is I've just

(22:25):
allowed myself in my own head,because nobody's ever said this,
that I think my models reallysuck and they're not worth
showing anybody, and they're notworth doing.
And combine that with atemption deficit disorder and
this weird feedback loop in myhead of, well, if I start
something new, this one will beperfect, which of course isn't

(22:45):
the case.
So I ended up with a whole lotof unfinished projects.
And one of the things I kind ofdecide to do this year was to
just sit down and say, okay,I've all these 172 armor kits,
mostly Sherman's and Shermanvariants.
Maybe I should just build thembecause they're gonna be better
sitting on the, you know, in thedisplay cabin that they're

(23:08):
gonna look better there thansitting at my desk waiting for
me to become, you know, the bestweatherer ever without doing
it.
And, you know, I know Mr.
Nelson likes to say, what areyour plans for getting better?
And I don't have any, andthat's kind of the problem.
And then the other person thatis kind of inspirational to me
is is I I follow Rick Lawler,and it amazes me that Lawler

(23:30):
will just do this stuff, he'lljust build it because he has to,
because it's part of his job,but he'll just put something
out, and if it isn't perfect,well, you move on to the next
one.
And his stuff always isperfect.
So it made me maybe re-evaluatewhat I'm doing and why am I
doing it.
And and the question Isometimes ask, and this is kind

(23:51):
of a scary question to ask onthis podcast, is what do you do
when something that used to beyour identity becomes just
something you do?
And that's what I've beenthinking about is is I just
build models sometimes when Ifeel like it.
It's not my sole focus.
And for a long time it was, andit feels a little bit empty
sometimes that that it isn't theway it used to be, and change

(24:13):
is okay.

One of the things I think to to uh focus on in
all this is it's a hobby.
Hobbies are supposed to beenjoyable, and if making a
change and you know, moving fromaircraft to armor, building

(24:35):
armor kits with the acceptanceof I'm just gonna build it and
put it together and paint it andand weather it as best I can.
And you know what?
I know it's not gonna be nightshift, I know it's not going to
be, but if I end up enjoying itwhile I'm doing it, that's

(24:58):
that's the reason you have ahobby.
Otherwise, it's a job.

Jim Bates (25:03):
I I agree.
And you said an interestingphrase that has inspired me as
I've contemplated this wasyou're putting it together.
Doesn't that sound simple?
Like I got the new Tamiya kit,I'm putting it together.
As opposed to what happens inmy head is this needs to be
perfect, this needs to be thegreatest model, it it you know,
it's gotta be better than NightShift or Plasmo or whoever, you

(25:26):
know, Joe Youngerman, whoeverthe great aircraft modelers are.
And instead of just putting ittogether and having a good time,
and I think I just got allwound around the axle of
perfection.
And I am gonna misremember thequote, but you know, perfection
is the enemy of the good.
And I think what it took me along time to do is this this

(25:47):
isn't a my job.
This isn't the most importantthing in the world.
It's just putting a kittogether for fun on a Friday or
Saturday night or something topaint.
And I think the one thing I'velooked at this a little bit is I
think one of the problems thatwe have, and and I see this in

(26:08):
my profession especially, is wedon't have time, and I'm using
this very loosely, but we don'thave time for art in today's
society.
Everything is about almightydollar, and you know, if if I
build the greatest modelairplane ever, I'm not gonna
magically become a millionaire.
So why am I putting so muchpressure on myself?

(26:28):
You know, winning best to showat at NATS or AMPS or Scale
Model World or SMC or whateveryou want.
It doesn't come with a cashprize.
Like, why are you putting somuch emotional focus into
something that, and and I hateto go down the road as something
you guys have talked about inthe past, but something that

(26:50):
when I am gone will go in thetrash, you know?
None of this stuff reallymatters.
And in some ways, that was alittle bit freeing, if it will
allow me to say, like one of thethings I've got a couple model
cases in my living room.
I'm sort of looking at themnow.
I don't really look at mymodels once they're done.
So why do I get so torqued offif they're not perfect?
And then the corollary to thatis two years later, when I go

(27:13):
look at the one I hated when itwent in the case, now I kind of
look at it.
I'm like, that looks prettygood.
Like, why am I why was I sonegative when I finished it?
I think a little bit combinedwith one of the negatives was
building models for the museumfor the display case.
And I think that a little bitburned me out.
I know some people take it asan inspiration, but to me it
felt like another job.

(27:33):
And realizing none of this is ajob, none of this matters, I
got a job, I got the place, Ihave to focus on all that, and
maybe I can just find some funor find some joy instead of it
being here's all the thingsthat's wrong with it.
Hey, I finished this.
Or I finished this and I'm nothappy, but the next one will be
better, or I finished this oneand it looks pretty good.

(27:54):
Like I think it was justrebooting how I evaluated what
I'm doing, combined with, youknow, none of us are getting any
younger.
And, you know, I've got, youknow, I'm gonna say 40,000 kits,
which is a completeexaggeration.
And at 53, I think I am, 52 or53, you can't save it till you

(28:15):
get better because those daysare gone.
You know, I'm not 21 anymore.
So why not just build the stuffI love?
I I also, you know, as much asI just said, I don't really look
at my cases.
It's amazing to me.
The other day I was I waslooking at things like I my
favorite planes are you know,the Hurricane, the Avenger.
I don't have any of those in mycase, but I sure have a lot of

(28:37):
P40s because I like P40s, butI'm not as obsessed with P40s as
I am hurricanes.
So apparently I can build P40s.
And I was actually uh talkingwith Steve Sove one day and
realized I've built most of the70-second scale P-40s, but I
haven't built very many of thehurricanes, and I've sure got a
lot of armor hurricanes, andnone of those ever got finished.

(29:00):
So once I put something intoit's it's an aircraft I love, it
just seems to disappear.
And kind of the last draw,Dave, was when you and I were
doing that Hellcat, and I justit wasn't fun.
Like I know the EdwardHellcat's a good kit, there's
nothing wrong with it.
I should love it.
I like the Hellcat, and I justdidn't really want to sit down

(29:20):
at the bench and build thatanymore.
Um, so it went in the box, andthat was kind of the the the
deal breaker, for lack of abetter word, the of why am I not
enjoying this?
What is the problem here?
I realized just becausesomebody asked me this, I didn't
use my airbrush in 2025 at all.

(29:42):
Like just never did it, nevergot anywhere close.
I glued some stuff together,but that was kind of the end of
it.
Oh man.

One of the things you've you mentioned that that
I'll be honest with you, I'mcoming to experience or realize
that I have been experiencing isthe bench time thing, accepting
that during the week because ofthe fact that uh work and have
a family, and when I get home,it's tough to go down to the

(30:14):
bench sometimes.
Just not because I don't enjoymodeling, but I'm tired.
I'm 64, I'm tired.
And the that makes it a littletougher.
And then you can find yourselfbeating yourself up because you
didn't go down to the bench, andthat just makes it worse.

(30:34):
And and again, it starts notbeing a hobby and it starts
becoming a chore.
And when you find thathappening, you've got to figure
out okay, what what's gonewrong?
Because something has gonewrong when your hobby feels like
a chore.

Mike (30:54):
Well, let me jump in here for my list.
Go for it.
In reverse order.
Jim, you mentioned that whenyou put it in the the the new
thing in the case, you think itdoesn't look so great, and you
come back to it later, and hey,that looks pretty good.
I I think you're on tosomething there.
We're we're our own worstcritics.

(31:14):
And I think when you step backand come back later, when you're
walking back up to it, you'reseeing the forest first, not the
trees.
You're seeing the the completepicture and not the flaws.
And I think that's a realimportant thing to realize.
Now, how do you get there toget be able to experience that
immediately when you're doneinstead of you know four months
later when you finally wanderover to your display case and

(31:37):
look at it?
I don't have a a good answerfor that.
That's something we're allworking on, I think.
And then another thing I wantto touch on before we get too
much further is Tim Nelson'swhat's your plan for for getting
better.
I think there were twoconversations on in the model
sphere fairly recently aboutchallenging the idea that

(31:57):
striving to get better shouldeven be a priority.
And uh I always come back tothinking that maybe that's
rooted in in our phrase, becauseDave and I used to utter it
quite a bit, what's your planfor getting better?
And and I don't I I thinkthat's being misunderstood a
little bit.
I see it as a it's a it's ait's a smart ass answer, really,
in a way, to folks who areprocrastinating because they

(32:20):
think they lack something theyneed to finish a project, but
the paradox is if they don'tfinish projects, they're never
gonna get anywhere.
Right.
So you just need to do it,whether you are trying to get
better or not.
The point is you're not doinganything, or you're not building
those things you want to build,or you're not enjoying the
hobby at all.
And then thirdly, you mentionedthis emptiness about the

(32:42):
modeling just being somethingyou do now when it used to be
this bigger part of youridentity.
And I think honestly, it's aninteresting place to be.
I've been there, but you you'reon the right track because I
think you're turning a cornerwhen you dip down in that hole
for a little while, because whenit when it was clearly part of

(33:02):
my identity, it was part of thethe whole contest thing and the
competition and uh climbing upthrough the amps ladder and uh
winning goals there and best ofnational categories or or
whatever.
And then, you know, there was awhole shift in the hobby kind
of philosophy of weathering andall that, and I and I just

(33:24):
didn't adapt and I just realizedthis wasn't any fun anymore.
And I didn't model for a longtime, much as you are.
I'm reading modeling books, I'mI'm I'm still buying stuff,
thumbing around every now andthen, but I just had too much
wrapped into what I thought Iwas getting out of that.
And then if you can't if youcan't attain the thing, or even
feel like you can't attain thething that you want at the end,

(33:47):
then it makes it even trying todo it at all seem not not any
fun anymore.
So I think you're on the righttrack that if if this just
becomes something you do andit's for you and it's for your
own entertainment, I thinkyou're gonna you're gonna get
some of this back, Jim.
I think it's uh I think that'sa natural progression through
maybe overthinking the hobby oror having it like you say, it's

(34:09):
too much of your identity.
Yeah, you can be this guy who'san attorney who also builds
models, or do you want to beknown out in the community this
like this super duper model guy?
And I think me coming back downand realizing that you know, if
I was gonna enjoy this, it'sgonna have to be for myself and
and chasing these aspirationsthat really in the end aren't
worth much.

(34:29):
Like you said, you're not gonnabecome a millionaire because uh
you cranked out this greatmodel.
So maybe maybe you need tochill like you're chilling and
just uh figure out what you dolike about the hobby and and and
do it for those reasons.
Does that make any sense?

Jim Bates (34:44):
Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense, and I
think that's kind of where I'vebeen is you know, I used to do
my scale Canadian TV.
I used to well, I used to blog,but that's we'll talk about
that later.
You know, I always used to bethinking, well, can I turn this
into an article?
Can I do this?
And I think it just puts me ina place that it became.

(35:07):
I think Dave's got a goodpoint.
It became a chore.
It became something that Ididn't love.
And I think that's what I'mtrying to get back to is I think
joy is a good word.
Is there's a Lucinda Williamssong, I don't want you anymore,
you stole my joy.
And that kind of felt where Iwas.
I, you know, you stole my joy,I want it back.

(35:28):
And it, but it wasn't, youknow, her song is directed to a
third party, but it was me.
I stole my own joy.
And how sad is that, you know?
So I'm trying to work my wayback of finding what do I really
love.
And what I kind of keep goingback to is there is a nostalgia
component to this, but it'sprobably not the way people

(35:48):
think.
I don't realistically want togo back and build those match,
excuse me, those matchbox kits Iloved as a kid.
But I do kind of want to havethat feeling of just sitting
down and making something andbeing excited about it.
And that was gone for a longtime.
There was no excitement.
I'm like, I'm like, oh man, Ihad this deadline, I gotta do
this, I gotta do this.

(36:09):
And and you know, standing outon airfields watching airplanes
fly and thinking, oh, I want tomodel that.
And I'm like, well, I don'treally want to model that, do I?
I want to think about modelingthat, but I really just want to
enjoy watching the P47 or themosquitoes fly.
And, you know, it's it's reallyweird to me how little of my
favorite airplanes are in mydisplay case, but they're sure

(36:30):
in my stash, and I need tochange some of that.
And switching over to tanks iseasy because I'm never gonna be
night shift.
I'm you know, I'm never gonnabuild these great armor models,
but I can build some greenthings that sit in my display
case and they look okay.

Mike (36:45):
Well, maybe they'll teach you to take the same approach
with your aircraft.

Jim Bates (36:48):
Maybe.
And you know, I I evenlistening to you guys, Mike, you
have all these great, you know,you are very detail oriented.
You approach this as anengineer.
That's not me.
I, you know, I don't want toworry about that my you know,
Sherman tank is really it's anM4A3, but it's pretending to be
an M4A2.
Who cares?
Like just build a Sherman andslap some decals on it that I

(37:10):
want to represent.
And I think it took me a longtime to be okay with that, to
just accept accept mylimitations.
Because there's sure a lot ofkits kicking around here, and
there's been a lot of kitskicking around here.
And as I said, you've eithergot a fish or cut bait.
It's either time to just walkaway or just have some fun.
And I've decided 2026 will belook for the fun and figure out

(37:31):
what I like.
And and so far this year, I'vebeen at the bench more in the
last couple weekends than I didall the last year or so.
It seems to be working.

Hey, 2026, look for the fun.
That's a great motto.
There we go.

Jim Bates (37:43):
There we go.
And and you know, I agree, Iagree with what you said that
that Tim is being Tim is being alittle bit saying, you know, if
if I sit here and say, and as Isaid, I'm 52 or 53, I never
know how old I am, if I'm gonnawait till I get better, is that
gonna be when I'm 96?
Because I'm probably not gonnabe here, you know, there's a

(38:03):
finite period of time.
And we could all joke thatwe're gonna be alive till we're
260 to finish our stash, butrealistically, how many years do
we have?
And, you know, are we at apoint where skills are gonna
start to disminish?
So instead of worrying aboutit, instead of worrying about
what the contest thinks, justbuild something because my stuff
doesn't go to contests, mystuff just sits here and nobody

(38:26):
really looks at it.
And anybody who looks at itprobably thinks they're amazing
because they don't know anybetter.
So I think just build what Iwant to build, build how I want
to build it.
It's easy to say that, it'sharder to do it.

Mike (38:43):
I pulled this next one because I think it gets into at
least part of what you're goingthrough, and it's fear targets
and distractions.
Now, I don't know who coinedthis word fear targets.
It came up.
I I think I used the AI optionwith Google.
Actually, I heard it somewhere.
But anyway, it's it's all thesethings that keep us from

(39:05):
getting stuff done because we'reuh on some level we're scared
about it.

Well, I think what what Jim mentioned in the
last segment applies here.
You don't build your favoriteaircraft because you're really
so much more invested in themthat you are putting a whole lot
more pressure on yourself to ifyou're gonna build one of

(39:30):
those, it's gotta be perfect orgreat, and therefore you never
build it, and you never haveyour favorite aircraft in your
collection.
And that's kind of sad.
They're your favorite aircraft.
There you there's a fear therethat you have to overcome.

Mike (39:50):
Well, I closed the window this first came up.
That's kind of funny sometimes.
Fear targets.
It says it's not a standardtechnical term, however, the
concept typically refers tohigher.
Areas of difficult assemblysteps that cause modelers block
or anxiety due to high potentialof ruining your your kit.
So there you go.
So it gets kind of into thatyou can't do it perfect.

(40:12):
You don't want to do it.
And you know, I that remindsme, you know, you mentioned Ian
McAuley earlier.
Um I don't know if, but he wasworking in the local hobby shop
up there after he retired fromhis primary job.
And we talk about thosecustomers that come in and buy
like $250 worth of all theseproducts they've seen all the

(40:34):
scale model rock stars use onYouTube and then thinking that
their models are just gonna looklike that out of the chute.
Right.
I guess you just ring up theregister and smile and say thank
you.
Because it's probably not gonnaend that way.
Right.
Jim, is there typicallysomething that would stall out
these projects years?
In the build sequence, or wherewhere was it?

(40:56):
Did it is there a theme therewhere they all kind of run off
the rails at the same place?

Jim Bates (41:01):
No, but I can identify very easily one that's
happening right now is I have aChurchill on my bench.
No, sorry, Cromwell on mybench, the air fix kit in 135th.
And I don't know what the termis.
I'm kind of I'm kind of aheathen when it comes to armor.
The the things on the front,you see them on Russian and
British tanks, they're likestrips on the on the glaciers.

(41:22):
I think that's the right term.
I don't know what they're therefor.
I assume they have something todo with the armor.
And in this kit, they're twopieces of photo etch.
And I've now beenprocrastinating two or three
weeks because I'm gonna have tocut out and glue some photo
etch.
And that is a perfect exampleto me of a fear target is if I
see photo etch and it's not justa flat thing that I gotta put

(41:43):
you know on a cockpit combing orsomething, I I just
procrastinate away.
At times I'll do it with myairbrush.
I have I kind of have mixedfeelings when it comes to
airbrushing.
One, it's it's kind of a painin the butt.
This kind of relates all backto what uh you started out with
is I'd like a little bit morespace that I could not be

(42:04):
airbrushing in my bedroom,because that's where my model
desk is set up.
That nothing sounds more funthan airbrushing and then going
to bed and you know, inhalingall those chemicals all night,
even with the spray booth andthe mast and stuff.
So it would be nice to have alittle bit more space, but even
just like you know, the leftoverjunk that goes in the trash

(42:24):
smells the place up.
So I love my lacquers, but itsometimes I hate them, and I
think that's why I don'tairbrush.
I don't find that a feartarget, but that's one that I
will just disappear.
I just won't airbrush for fouror five or six months, and that
is not a way to get betterbecause then you're kind of
relearning it.
I had an interesting experiencethe other day.

(42:46):
I'm building this tiny Sherman,and it's a crappy $10 Sherman
kit.
And I go to paint it, and Ifind this little vial of you
know, some sort of S SCC 15olive drab green sitting on my
desk.
I have no idea what paint itis.
I have no idea what color itis.
Like it's just sitting there.
I didn't label it, I didn'ttake any notes.

(43:06):
So I just threw it on the onthe uh Sherman and it looks
okay, but still to this day,everybody said, What color did
you paint it?
And I'm like, I got no clue.
It was just a random filesitting on my desk.
So I think the one thing Davelikes to talk about, I think
organization and note-taking issomething I've kind of been
doing this year.
You know, I used to write alot, and I think a combination

(43:27):
of factors, one being my job,have really made me lose
interest in writing because Iwrite all day long sometimes.
Uh and and and as Dave Davidknows well, legal writing and
real life writing are twodifferent things.
Um and if all you do is legalwrite all day long, you're not

(43:48):
the best writer for non-legalthings.
You might be a really goodlegal writer.
So that's why I I kind of havethought I want to, you know, sit
down.
Like one of the things Idecided last year to do a little
bit was just sit down, and Iguess journaling is the word,
but sit down and start writingwith my fountain pen and
notebooks instead of doingeverything on the computer and

(44:09):
find that thing.
Because I used to love doingthat, and and it got to a point
then you did everything on thecomputer, and that just doesn't
seem as much fun as you know,pen and paper and and do that.
So I've kind of put that in myjourney as well.
I did buy that scale modelingjournal.
It's interesting, it's notquite what I was hoping for in

(44:32):
some ways, and in some ways it'sgot a lot of interesting
questions.
I'm still trying to figure outthe best way to do my
note-taking for scale modeling,and I haven't got the answer
yet.
And and it's hard, it's hard,you know, to work all these
things in together.
I notice in in non-scalemodeling, I'm much it's much
easier to sit down and write apage or two or three than it was

(44:55):
six months ago when I startedthis project.

Mike (44:57):
That's interesting about the writing, because it's a it's
a known thing that writing onthe computer, even for
journaling, does not carry thesame cathartic weight that
actually putting pen to paperdoes.

So I agree completely.

Mike (45:12):
So what you need to do, Jim, is you need to print.
I don't know if you write incursive or if you print, but if
you print, you can get you aprogram to scan all that crap in
and put it in the computer foryou.
Then you can edit it easy, andyou'll you'll have it written by
hand and edit it on thecomputer and uh go from there,
maybe.
I don't know.
I'm putting ideas in your head.

Jim Bates (45:30):
Well, usually like I and I know we're gonna talk
about this in a little bit.
I've started doing moreblogging again just because I
can give myself, and I'm doing alittle bit like an assignment.
I can give myself an assignmentto say, okay, an example I did
recently is I I got a little jarof what I think Spencer Pollard

(45:50):
said was Chrome.
Okay, write some words aboutthis.
It's an assignment.
How can you make thisinteresting?
How can you, you know, hey,this is Chrome, Chrome is fun,
paint Chrome, you know, and notjust do that.
And and that was one of myrecent blogs was just to try to
be more creative in how Ipresent my ideas.

(46:11):
I you know, I've long said, andand I don't have the answers
for this, but I do find a lot ofthe modeling journalism
exceedingly rote, and I thinkthere is a way to make it more
creative, but I don't see it inmany magazines or many even
blogs.
Like I think blogs are a littlebit better.
But if you pick up mostmodeling magazines, be it tanks,

(46:35):
airplanes, everything, you canpretty much guess what the
article's gonna say in manyways.
Like you can kind of plot itout in your head, and is there a
more creative way to do this?
And kind of my thought processis make it a little bit more
personal of what are yourthoughts and experiences while
you're doing this, rather than Iglued, you know, part 23 and

(46:56):
part 26 together according tothe instructions, and the first
thing I did was assemble thecockpit.
And and that's what I'm kind ofgo for is is there a way to
make this writing, and and Idon't think this is the exact
correct term, but lessjournalistic and more creative?
Because I think it's very rotehow people write about what
we're doing.

I I agree with you.
I understand what you'resaying.

Jim Bates (47:16):
And and it was a little bit what I was trying to
do with the Scale Canadian TVback when I did that is how how
can you talk about this in adifferent way than everybody
else is talking about it?
And that was completelyunsuccessful, but that's okay.
I had fun doing it for a while,and then I decided to do
something else.
So I'm trying to figure outwith words, and what's great

(47:37):
about it is nobody wants to readmore than eight words, you
know?
So again, I'm bucking againstwhat's kind of what the trends
are.
But like one of the things thata little bit drives me crazy
since like maybe the 2000s, butyou get you get modeling books
or you get modeling articles,and there's a lot of pretty
pictures, and there's not awhole lot of words.
And with a video, that might bea great thing because with a

(48:00):
video you can watch how NightShift does something, but just a
picture of a model and apaintbrush doesn't tell me all
that much.
Like, I do not believe apicture paints a thousand words,
but sure a lot of editors thinkthat.
Um, and I'm not I'm not here toto to you know I'm not trying
to be negative, I'm just saying,is there a different way to
look at this?
Is there a more creative way towrite about the pursuit we all

(48:25):
enjoy instead of being wrote andpredictable?

Mike (48:28):
Well, I would agree there's within certain limits,
there seems to be kind of aboilerplate format to a lot of
the published articles.
Right.
And it's I think it probablyjust builds on itself, right?
Those I kind of think back, youknow, for instance the a lot of
the articles in uh the old MMMMIR magazine, the the uh

(48:49):
military models in review, kindof started the whole heavily
captioned photos with the with,like you said, a picture of a
model and a paintbrush, but it'dbe this model, the paintbrush
and you know the nine jars ofpaint they used in this step.
And uh not to say a ways rightor wrong, but that kind of
format seems to be prettypervasive through a lot of the
hobby journalism at this point.

(49:10):
And you know, sometimes itworks, sometimes it doesn't.
And uh I don't know, I'd bereally interested what you're
gonna what you're gonna attemptbecause I think you're I think
you're kind of right on thatone.

Jim Bates (49:18):
Well, and I think in today, I don't think anybody
wants to see words, but all allof the model journalism of my
youth was amazing because it'sall we had.
And today it feels like, but wehave video and we have YouTube,
and I I will tell you, I learna lot more from a well-done
YouTube video than I do a verywell-done article.

(49:41):
So what I'm looking for more ismaybe inspiration or or a
different way to expressyourself.
Because if I really want tolearn, I'm gonna turn on the
YouTube or turn on a video,because that's really where you
figure out.
Like you say, oh, he's doingthat with his brush.
I never would have thoughtthat.
Or, you know, one that that Ilearned a long time ago.
But an example of this is withvideo, you can see how guys, how

(50:04):
close these guys have theirairbrushed to their models.
For the longest time, I youknow, I was airbrushing from six
feet away because I thoughtthat's how you did it.
And and and that's just areally easy example to look at.
But I think we're in aninteresting world.
And and I really love, youknow, one of my favorite things
used to be modeling magazines.
It's really weird to me.
You know, back in the day whenthe scale aircraft modeling,

(50:25):
when that brown envelope showedup in my, you know, my uh
mailbox, it's like, okay, day'sdone, I'm doing this.
And now I don't subscribe toany of these.
And I don't think they'vechanged.
I think that's more me.
I just use my contentdifferently than I used to, and
I don't find it the sameinspiration.
And maybe what I'm just tryingto do is find a way to express

(50:48):
my creativity, to express myselfand inspire myself.
Like I at this point, I don't Ithink what I'm learning is the
older I get is I don't reallycare what anybody thinks.
Combined with, you know, Ialways think my models suck, but
nobody's ever flat out said,hey, Bates, your models suck.
You should quit this hobby.

Mike (51:06):
Hey Dave, remind me at the HeritageCon.

Jim Bates (51:10):
Okay.
Yeah, please do.
Your models suck.
Why do you even do this?
Like, go home.

Um, Jim, that means you gotta finish a model
by HeritageCon and bring it.

Jim Bates (51:20):
Man, we're it's not the finish, it's can I bring it?
But I think the community is isis very positive, mostly
positive, but it doesn't meanthat your internal voice is as
positive as everybody else wouldbe.
And I think what I'm trying todo is write my internal voice so
that I'm not, for lack of abetter word, psyching myself out

(51:43):
before I start.
Because, you know, I I've gotthe new uh to me a F-14, and and
going in, my F-14's not gonnalook like Lufty's F-14, you
know.
Yeah.
But on the other hand, it'd benice to have an F-14 sitting on
my shelf.
Neither do the navies.
You know, I only quote Top Gunevery day, so you know, I should

(52:03):
have that there.
And I think it's bad standardsof comparing yourself to others.
And I I don't know if this hasbecome more inward focused or
just writing letting letting mybrain, letting the negative
voices tell me I'm not goodenough when there's no evidence

(52:23):
to support that.

Mike (52:24):
Yeah, I think that's uh that's where you gotta get to,
man.
And I think you will, you justgotta stick it out.

Yep.
That's a big big part of it isnot when when you have those
times where you're not feelingit or feeling down is getting
through those and workingthrough those.

Jim Bates (52:45):
Well, an example on the little Sherman I just did.
So I was all excited Fridaynight.
What does Friday night mean?
Hey, it's time to throw someMr.
Surfacer on a model.
You know, that's what Fridaynights are for.
Um, and so I woke up and youknow, I get up pretty early.
I take the dog for a walk.
I realize, well, there's abouteight feet of dust on this

(53:05):
little Sherman kit, so I betterwash it off.
So I threw it under the tap andput it out on a paper towel,
and I'm gone for 12, 14 hours atthe office.
I get home at, you know, seven,eight o'clock at night.
I'm like, this is awesome.
I'm gonna, you know, startspraying the Mr.
Surfacer, mix up, sorry, Mr.
Surfacer.
I, you know, I mix up my Mr.

(53:26):
Surfacer.
I am all excited, throw it inthe airbrush, start spraying,
and then I'm like, why is therewater all over this model?
And then I realize, oh man,Doofus, you didn't make sure
there's no water inside themodel.
So clearly, some water had gottrapped inside the model.
It's now, as soon as I'mputting on the paint, leaching
its way out, ruining my paintjob.

(53:48):
And in the past, that wouldprobably make me quit, throw it
away, and move on to somethingelse.
And I just put it aside, let itdry, realized, well, I can
strip this paint and start overagain, which I did.
And now I have a green tinytank.
So instead of just lettingmyself get psyched out, I just
moved on.
And this tank isn't going towin any awards, but it'll be in

(54:09):
my display case and it'll bebetter than sitting on my bench
in bare plastic.

Mike (54:13):
And you're not building it to win any awards.

Jim Bates (54:15):
Right.
Yeah, that's not the goal.
This was just a $10 littlething that I bought for fun
that, you know.

Mike (54:22):
I also don't don't gloss over that because it's
important.
It's you're not building it towin an award.
Right, right.
Because if you were, you wouldhave quit, right?

Jim Bates (54:29):
Right.
I would have quit.
And is this going to beperfect?
No.
Can you see where I screwed itup?
Not really.
I'm sure if you really lookreal hard.
But I also, one of the things Ilike about approaching armor is
I don't know about as muchabout armor.
So I I kind of approach it alittle bit like science fiction
is oh, I got three pictures ofCanadian Shermans that have
this, this, and this.
Well, I can put that into mymodel.

(54:51):
I don't have to slavishlyrecreate a certain photo.
I can if I want, but I don'thave to.
And that's been really freeingfor me because in aircraft, I
slavishly need to create a photoand then I spin out of control.
Well, I've only got the leftside of the airplane.
How am I going to model thisnow?
I don't have the right side.
Instead of just guessing, thenI just spin out of control and

(55:14):
give up.
So that's a lot of what I'mtrying to do is find that
centered place.
Try to, you know, Zen and theart of scale modeling.
I want to write that booksomeday.
How do you just learn to dothis, have a good time, have
fun, and find your happy placeas opposed to making it another
job or chore.

(55:34):
Actually, Dave, chore is areally good word.
I never thought about it thatway.
That's a really good way tolook at it.

Mike (55:44):
Well, we kind of went from fear targets back into Jim's
blogging.
Jim, once you say anything elseyou would like to say about
your blog, I know you've firedit back up again and you're
trying there, but folks aregonna know where to find it and
then kind of segue into thisshow you do have coming up.

Jim Bates (56:00):
All right.
Well, the blog iswww.ascalecanadian.com.
There's no TV in that.
What kind of happened is for along time I did this blog.
I started out way back when.
And then I started doing thevideo and I just lost interest
in blogging.
And then I decided, you know,the video actually was done for
a specific reason.

(56:20):
I did it because I wanted toprove my skills professionally,
which is weird to say becausenothing I did was overly
professional, but it was a wayto get better about talking to a
camera, get better abouttalking to people.
And I figured out that I'daccomplished my goals, and then
I just disappeared for a while.
And nowadays, I just realizedthat I like words more than

(56:42):
video.
I'm never going to be a guy whocan do like Kovach or Plasma
and make these amazing, youknow, hands-on videos.
More power to anybody who cando that, even our buddy Panzer,
Panzer Evan.
You know, that I think that's askill set I don't have.
And I always wanted to do that,but it was hard work.
And, you know, I'm basicallylazy.
So I like my words.
So I kicked the blog off again,the first of the year.

(57:05):
I think they've got three postsup.
Nothing earth-shattering, butI'm just trying to work through
my creativity and and how to dothat.
And I'm not gonna be, you know,I'm not gonna be inch and say,
I'm gonna blog every day.
Uh you'll probably see itaround weekends.
I've been thinking a lot aboutwhat Stephen Lee used to do with
with more in-depth stuff, andI'm thinking about that a lot.
Of is there stuff there I can,is there anything I can

(57:27):
contribute?
I also understand one of theother reasons I stopped doing
the the scale Canadian TV isthere's a lot of people out
there doing a lot of contentcreation about scale modeling,
and then I realized does anybodycare what Jim Bates has to say?
And I'm not really doing thisfor anybody else.
Again, I'm doing it for me totry to create a more creative

(57:48):
approach to writing.
So that's that's the blog.
As opposed to the other thingwe want to talk about.
So if you're free onValentine's Day and you got
nothing to do, we're having ashow the 14th and 15th of
February at the Museum ofFlight.
I've been on here many timesbefore talking about it.
It's Model Mania.
We do things a little bitdifferent here.

(58:09):
We take over the Great Gallery,the Museum of Flight, and try
to get a thousand or twothousand models on the table.
This is a display-only show.
We've got a couple of awards,both picked by the curator,
which I think sometimes drivespeople crazy because the curator
picks things he likes.
It's not necessarily sayingthis is the best built model.

(58:29):
This fits the ethos of whathe's looking for or the shows.
So that's that's the firstthing.
This year we've got a coupleinteresting things doing.
We're really lucky.
I'd mentioned it before, RickLawler's gonna do his AK lab.
I know for sure on Saturday, Ithink Saturday and Sunday, where
he's just gonna be sitting at atable and trying to show
everybody how AK products work.
I will absolutely be therelooking for instruction on

(58:52):
gouaches.
We've got a full slate ofseminars on everything from
Gundams to some research stuffto why volunteer at the Museum
of Flight.
And I guess this year we'regonna have Aoshima with a small
table.
I guess they've got some 130second scale cars that they're
looking for some feedback on.
So you can come look at thoseand give them their, give them

(59:14):
some feedback of if these thingswould be popular with car
modelers.
I don't know much about cars.
I did notice they have aLamborghini Kountash, and I
remember that as from a kid.
I don't know if that wasCannonball Run or what movie
that was in, but I remember thatin a movie.
So we just get together,there's modelers working, we're
gonna have some club tables, nocontest.
Basically, it's just two daysof introducing the hobby to the

(59:38):
people, the civilians who comethrough the museum of flight,
maybe expose a few people andjust celebrate the joy of our
hobby and have a good time, andnot have to worry about judging
and not have to worry about allthese other things.
And sometimes we've one yearthey almost had they had over
3,000 models on display.
We will never do that again.

(59:58):
But usually we hover.
Between one and two thousandmodels.
And it's just seeing you'll seepeople have tables of the first
thing they built to the lastthing they built.
And it's kind of fun to watchtheir journey.
And it's all genres, it's alleverything.
Our special displays areproject canceled, which is
aircraft that didn't quite makeit.
And we always have the Gundamclubs that come out and do a

(01:00:20):
good display of their Gundammodels.
And that really seems toinspire the public.

Kentucky Dave (01:00:24):
Well, you know, Jim, I can't tell you the number
of times I've heard women say,what I really want for
Valentine's Day is for mysignificant other to take me to
an aviation museum and see amodel display.
So you all are doing a valuableservice.

Jim Bates (01:00:45):
You know, I would say, Dave, that's probably why
I'm single, because I think thatsounds like a good idea.
But uh we won't go down thatroad.

Well, I'll tell you what, uh I I'm not making it
this year, but one year I amgoing to make it out to that
show.
You and I are gonna go hangout, maybe catch a Kraken game
and go to that show because itsounds fantastic.

Jim Bates (01:01:10):
Well, and I know, Dave, your big complaint is we
don't have vendors, but I wouldlike to point out that Skyway
model shop in Renton is about 10minutes away and they'll be
having a 20% off sale allweekend.

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Mike (01:02:27):
Well, folks, it's the bench top halftime report.
Jim, you've given us bits andpieces what you got going on,
trying to get going on.
Why don't you tie that backback together for us and uh let
us know what is happening onyour bench and what you're
trying to what you're whereyou're going with it.

Jim Bates (01:02:42):
Right now I've got a Airfix 70 second scale Sherman
Firefly on my bench that needs aflat coat, put the log armor
on, paint up the stowage, andget it off my desk.
I'm probably not gonna try toweather this one.
I've got a little the the thetiny tank, the cheap uh M4A1
that I do wanna it it's servedin Italy, so I kind of want to

(01:03:05):
dust that one up.
We'll see how that goes.
And then I've got a larger135th scale Cromwell that if I
can get over my phobia photoetch is pretty much ready for
paint.
And unfortunately, I've got tobuild an Ordoon Norseman for the
Museum of Flight Next displaycase on celebrity aircraft.

(01:03:26):
Some guy, some of you guysmight have heard of this guy
named Glenn Miller, so I'mbuilding the Norseman that he
was lost in over the channel.
So those are the four things,which is about three too many,
but hopefully I'll get thatSherman off the bench or the
Firefly off the bench thismonth.
It's kind of my goal.

Mike (01:03:42):
Now that that's a newer air fix one, isn't it?
That's not from their vintageclassic one.
That's a new newer kit.

Jim Bates (01:03:50):
It's probably five, ten years old.
They did it as a real kit,which I know some people claim
it's a it's a little probably alittle lacking in detail
compared to a dragon kit, butand certainly compared to like a
Vespid or who's the who makesthe other amazing 76 on scale
armor?
Vespid and Flyhawk.
Flyhawk.
It's nothing compared to those,but it's a nice kit.

(01:04:12):
And the tiny, the the M408 oneis some company like called
Forces of Valor.
I don't even know who these arefor, but I picked it up from
one of your sponsors, Squadronfor like 10 bucks, and it's not
terrible, other thanunfortunately the uh rubber band
track snapped when I was tryingto clean them up, so gotta find

(01:04:33):
some new tracks for it.
But I had a Heller kit handyand I think it'll solve that
problem.
Anything else?
No, that's about it.
That's more than enough, eh?

Mike (01:04:42):
Yeah, I think so.
Dave, what about you?

Well, like I said, I I have not been to the
bench as much as I had wantedto.
I am trying to push thisHellcat over the finish line.
Unfortunately, the those it'sit's been nearly a month
decaling this aircraft.
And that's ridiculous.

(01:05:06):
It is, but it is, I mean, giventhe combo of the amount of time
I have to model in a givenweek, and given certain
limitations that I face thatmake decaling a little harder
than it might be for somepeople, you know, it is what it

(01:05:28):
is.
And I I like it.
I like what it looks like.
I like it.
I'm happy with the results sofar.
Now, what I don't want to do iswhat Jim mentioned is I don't
want to hit one of those pointswhere I hit it and there's let's
say weathering, because Jimmentioned weathering with his

(01:05:51):
armor models.
That I don't want to get allthe decals on and then just stop
because I'm too afraid to moveforward with weathering.
The Hellcat isn't one of myfavorite aircraft.
And so one of the things that'sbeen a little freeing here is I
don't care quite as much, andthat may actually help me get

(01:06:14):
this thing finished.
We'll see.
But that's that's pretty muchall I've been working on.
And then I have dragged one offthe shelf of Doom, the Plattz
T33, which I had, and I Ithought back, I think this this
project is pre-PML.

Mike (01:06:35):
I think it is too, because I don't ever remember you
talking about that plane.

It is at least six years old, probably eight
years.

Jim Bates (01:06:45):
Hey, hey Dave, that project was in the state I last
saw it, and the last time Ivisited your house.
When was that?
1986?

Yeah, no, not that old, but it was it's about
eight years ago, I think.
It's and I got this thing.
It's a the Platz kit is areally good kit.
I got it all the way to primerand then stopped.
Well, now I have a use for it,and so I dragged it off the

(01:07:14):
shelf of Doom, and I am hopefulthat I'm gonna be able to get
this thing finished and finallyget a get it done and get it
displayed.
And I'm happy to have a reasonto pull one off the shelf of
Doom.

Mike (01:07:33):
What's the reason?

It it fits into the Septemberist group build for
the Nationals up in Fort Wayne.
I have a really great picture,uh actually, thanks to Dr.
Geldmacher, several reallygreat pictures of an Indiana Air
National Guard T-33 in baremetal, no less.

(01:07:57):
Okay.

Mike (01:07:58):
So uh we'll see.
Okay.
It makes sense all of a sudden.

Yes.

Mike (01:08:05):
How about you?
Uh KV 85 is still kind of in aholding pattern.
Do I get a little more workdone on this Musaru thing?
I did order some brass barrelsthat I need for the turret MG.
I decided not to rob that JS2 Ibought because I started
cleaning up the resin copies ofthose parts that are in this

(01:08:27):
aftermarket turret I got, andthey're, you know, they're
equivalent, so no need to gothere and and just completely
waste a kit.
Because I was just trying tobuy the turret sprue for the
longest time.
And to me, I didn't have itwhen I wanted to order it, and
they didn't know when they'dhave it.
So now we're where we're at.
So that stuff's coming from uhBurbank House of Hobby, along

(01:08:48):
with some paints I ordered.
So next break our walletsegment, we can talk about that
again.
But uh that's that's kind ofholding fast.
Haven't done any work on that.
Tell you, during the snow tosnowden weekend, man, I've been
going like gangbusters trying toget this Musaru Cup
subassemblies finished up so Ican pull it together as quickly
as possible when it's done.

(01:09:09):
Well, when the decals arrive,which are in transit, by the
way.
So looking forward to thecustom decals arriving from
India.
Company come came underrecommendation, so the whole
proofing process was kind ofwhat I would expect.
So that all went well and uhlooking forward to getting these
in and give them give them ashot.

So uh yeah, you know, when this whole thing is
done and finished, assumingeverything works out, I think
you're gonna be able to have astory to tell to modelers that
really may open up an avenue forthem that up to now really
hasn't been available.

Mike (01:09:47):
No, I think you're right.
That's not been available.
Used to the the custom decaloptions, at least in North
America, were you know 50hundred set minimums, even you
know.
I I was having some railroadones printed back in my model
railroad days, and yeah, you hadto order a lot.

Yep, this is this is a a really interesting
development, and if it pans out,I think it's gonna, it's going
to represent a real a realchange that many modelers will
be able to take advantage of.

Mike (01:10:22):
Well, that's it for my benchtop halftime report.
Has anybody got anything theywant to add?

Nope.

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It's the first of the year.
We're starting to get kitannouncements.
Jim, I'll go to you first.
Do you have some faves oryawns?

Jim Bates (01:10:57):
Well, you know this.
This isn't exactly brand new,but Fine Molds has started to
issue a F-104 J series, and theF-104J is an analog for the C
F-104 Starfighter, and I wantone of those kits so bad.

And man, do they look good?

Jim Bates (01:11:15):
Yeah, they they look pretty.

Yes.
I that was on my list too, Jim.
I I I'm right there with you.
And and I I could see myselfdoing a Japanese 104 too,
because they have some reallygreat color schemes for them.
So, Mike, how about you?

Mike (01:11:34):
You know, I had a hard time with this one this month.
I don't know why.
Oh, really?
You know, it seems like a hugepercentage of stuff is falls
into two buckets.
It's either 3D print stuff.

Oh god, there's so much 3D printing.
Which is so good.

Mike (01:11:52):
We beat that to death, so I don't want to go down that
road.
But and I beat this one todeath too.
Or the stuff's really great,but it's from Russia.

Yeah.

Mike (01:11:59):
So what are we gonna do?

Well, we'll wait, wait out.

Mike (01:12:03):
Wait it out, I guess, and it won't be available, or maybe
some more cool stuff will come,or who knows what.
But uh or both.
So outside of those twobuckets, this dynamo models out
of France has got some morefigures.
You know, they I still need toorder that anti-tank gun that we
talked about a couple episodesback, but they've got a figure
set.
It's it's a French tankerextricating one of his crew

(01:12:26):
members through the back turrethatch on a you know, the APX
turret that's on a lot of thoseFrench tanks through that big
door on the back.
And uh looks really good.
All their stuff looks really,really good.
So I'm trying to get someinformation on it as far as true
quality.
And you know, they've gotthey've got three anti-tank
guns.

(01:12:47):
You know, they've done the thelittle pop gun that Heller did
years ago.
Then they've got a 45millimeter and I think it's 75
millimeter gun.

Yeah.

Mike (01:12:56):
Some you know, some of those are kind of obscure just
because the modelers mostly atlarge only knew about the the 20
or 25 millimeter one, thelittle gun that Heller had done.
Yep.
Simply because Heller hadkitted it before.
So that's my first one.
You got you got one?

Oh, yes, I do.
Our friends at Airfix surprisedus by announcing a new tool, JU
52.
And this was, I think Jim wouldagree, this was a kit that was
needed.
The JU 52 kits that areavailable are all long in the

(01:13:35):
tooth.

Mike (01:13:35):
I'd imagine.

And and I mean, again, you're just going by
renders and things like that,but what AirFix has shown us has
some real promise, and a modernnew tool, 72nd scale JU-52,

(01:13:58):
just has a world ofpossibilities.
Everything from you know GermanWorld War II Luftwaffe stuff to
the Manchuco Air Force or SouthAfrican JU-52s.
I mean, there's just a world ofpossibilities for that
aircraft.

Mike (01:14:17):
Did they sell any to nationalist China?

No, they did sell uh there might have been some
civil ones in the Chineseairlines.
The Nationalist ChineseAirlines.
But I know they so sold one tothe Japanese puppet state of
Manchukuo.

Mike (01:14:35):
I know it's gonna be better than the original airfix
one from the 60s.
Oh, god, yes.
That wouldn't be hard at all.
And then I built a Heller oneas a kid in 70 second scale.
Yeah, we did much better.

And is still out there.

Mike (01:14:49):
I'm sure.
It is there another one?

Revell Germany has one in their catalog.

Mike (01:14:55):
And it's not a Heller, it's not the Heller kit.

I can't remember whose molds it is.

Mike (01:15:00):
I have to look on scalemates.

It's Hellieri, maybe it could be the Eatelary
kit.

Mike (01:15:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, this is a this thisshould be a popular one, that's
for sure.

Mm-hmm.
Jim, you got another one?

Jim Bates (01:15:13):
Well, first I'm gonna disagree with you, and I'm
gonna go off on a tangent for aminute or two.
You know, we don't really needa new JU-52.
Okay, maybe you're right, but Iwould have preferred a Ford
Tri-Motor or a privateer.
But that being said, agreed.

I wouldn't argue with either of those.

Jim Bates (01:15:31):
That being said, now I uh please write in in a
postcard, and I know the kit'snot out yet, but one of my
longtime goals is to build thesingle-aid engine JU 52 that
flew in Canada in the bush, andit didn't have a radial, it had
some Jumo, it had some inlineengine on the front.
But what's always put me back,talk about fear, is how to take

(01:15:54):
the engines off the wing andreskin them so they look okay.
I still fear this kit will comeout, and I still will not buy
one, and I will not do theYunkers JU 52 I've wanted to do
forever.
My second one is again airfix.
Forget that JU 52, they'redoing a new tool, 70 second
scale Canberra Bomber.

(01:16:15):
Yes.
Which I don't know how theyhaven't done a new tool of that
since the 70s.
Like it that just to be screamsair fix.
So I'm very excited about thatone.

That was another one that was on my list, Jim.

Jim Bates (01:16:30):
I'm sorry.
Uh that's okay.

Mike (01:16:32):
No, I'm you blocked your JE-52 and stole one of your
others.
I'm I'm man.

I am I am happy that uh there's people other
than me that are excited forthese kits.

Jim Bates (01:16:44):
I don't know if you'll swing back to me, but I'm
I I live in utter hope thatsomeday somebody will do a 135th
scale Canadian-built GrizzlySherman.
Come on, Tacom.
You know you want to, you'redamn close.
Do a real grizzly in in 135th.
Heck, I'll even take a bordergrizzly.

Mike (01:17:03):
Mike?
Well, before I put out anotherone, you um I don't know if you
guys will mention it becauseit's the wrong scale, but
they're kicking out Earthie'skicking out a another 48 skill
phantom.

Yes.

Mike (01:17:15):
That's a British phantom.
That's a big kit for them.
It is.
But many arts also are kickingout an opal maltier.
Yes, they are.
Which is interesting becausethe dragon one wasn't too
terrible.
And I'm curious what they'regonna do here with this one
because it seems like theyalways do something they can get
a lot of mileage out of.
Right.

(01:17:36):
And you know, after I put outthe kits on my list of hopeful
projects for the coming year,that uh Panzerworth for 42 on
the Opal Maltier.
Dragon put out some line artthat I was hoping was a joke
until last week, and then RonVolstad published something on
Facebook about uh tightening upthe line drawing a little bit

(01:17:58):
before he starts painting it.
So looks like that's a realdeal.
At least uh the box art's inthe works.
I wonder if MiniArt's gonna gothat route, or they could do
workshops, ambulances, flakbedded mall tears.

Yeah, or all of the above.

Mike (01:18:15):
Or all of the above.
And it it could be interestingbecause they have probably 80%
of the running gear from auniversal carrier if they do the
Opal Maltier.
Because that's where all thatmess came from.

Yep.

Mike (01:18:32):
Those were Dunkirk captured vehicles that were
repurposed.
So I don't know, that'd becool.
It would.
Or they could do a Panzerworthfor 42 that's got 9,000 parts.
How about that?

And you'd like that.

Mike (01:18:46):
I don't know if I would or not.
You got another one, Dave?

Yes.
Hobby Boss has announced aPLAN, which is the Chinese
Communist Navy, Type 93 Shangclass SSN.
I like 700 scale submarines,particularly modern 700-scale

(01:19:12):
submarines, and the communistChinese Navy is an underserved
area in that regard.
So I'm happy to see this now.
It's hobby boss, so it willprobably be way more expensive
than it should be.
I don't care.
And yeah, I'll pick one up.

Mike (01:19:33):
The road to completion on those things is short.

That's the night one of the nice things I like
about them.

Mike (01:19:40):
All right, Jim, you got another one?
I am all tapped out, eh?

All right, Mike, you got another one?

Mike (01:19:45):
Yeah, I'm gonna jump on the air fix train here.
All right, chuggy chuggy, choochoo.
Yeah, 35th scale uh F V six ohthree Saracen armored car.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:19:56):
Interesting.
Those were on the news a lotgrowing up.
Up as a kid with all the messgoing on in Northern Ireland
during uh during my childhood.
So it's probably gonna be apopular subject amongst the uh
the UK crowd, and it'sinteresting vehicle.
It's not very pretty, butinteresting nonetheless.

Jim Bates (01:20:17):
It certainly has character.
It does.

Mike (01:20:20):
It looks like a hog.

It looks British.

Mike (01:20:25):
They did a lot with they did a lot of armored cars.
Yes, they did.
Um and they're all they're allreally interesting.
This one's interesting.
I I assume this is probably umyou know, a lot of their armor,
their unique armor kits, they'renot their acquired kits are
academy tools.

Right.

Mike (01:20:41):
So we'll see.
Like their, what is it, theirCromwell?

Yeah.

Mike (01:20:45):
Yeah.
So I assume this one probablyis too, but uh really looking
forward to seeing what thisone's all about when it when it
finally hits the shelves.

Well, I've got one more.
Okay, and that is the S modelout of China in 70 seconds
scale, is going to release aMatilda 2.
I I just like the Matildas.

Mike (01:21:08):
I'm I'm it's not gonna be very big in that scale.
No, it is not, but how manycome in a box?

Apparently just one.
No, just one.
But you know, I like theMatildas.
I'm I was happy to see theMatildas get in the love, and
and I'm I'll I'll get it.
I'll get it when it comes out.

Mike (01:21:34):
While it's the Matilda.

Exactly.

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Folks, you know the drill.
When you're done listening tothis episode, if you would
please rate us on whateverpodcasting app you're listening
on.
Give us the highest rating.
It helps drive the visibilityof the show.
Also, if you've got a modelingfriend who isn't listening to
this podcast, please recommendus.

(01:22:24):
It's the best way for us tofind new listeners.
And we continue to find newlisteners, and we'd like to
continue that into the future.
So recommend us to yourmodeling friends.

Mike (01:22:36):
And check out all the podcasts out in the model sphere
by going towww.modelpodcast.com.
That's model podcastplural.
It's a consortium website setup with the help of our friend
Stuart Clark from the SkillModel Podcast up in Canada.
You know, I reached out to himtoday to see what's up with him
right now, and uh I'll leteverybody know what I hear back
when he gets back with me.
But you can go to his websitethere that he's created and find

(01:22:59):
the banner links to all theother podcasts and uh pick and
choose.
Or it's a good place to go findthem all in one in one view.
So check it out.
In addition, we got a lot offriends out in the model sphere
doing blogs and YouTube stuffand some of those.
Well, one's our guest tonight,Jim Bates, a scale Canadian.
You can check out his blogthat's recently reconstituted,

(01:23:21):
just to add water.
Thank you very much.
Good luck with that.
We hope you have some longevitythere.

Jim Bates (01:23:27):
Yep.
I'm getting tens of hits.

Mike (01:23:29):
All right.
Check out Panzermeister 36, Mr.
Evan McCallum, on YouTube.
He's got a great YouTubechannel.
Armor modeling and somerailroad modeling is gonna help
you help you get your modelsweathered.
So, Jim, you can go check thoseout when you can go dust up the
Italian uh Sherman you got,Italian campaign.
Uh, what else we got, Dave?

(01:23:49):
We got Stephen Lee, Sprue Piewith Frets.
Great long and short form blog.
He's been cranking out somerailroad stuff lately.
But he's got uh proclivitiestowards 70 second scale.
So if you like the small scalestuff, you're gonna want to
check out his Sprue Pie withFrets.
And you can really double downon 70 second scale because
you're gonna want to check outour friend Jeff Groves, the inch
eye guy.
He's always cranking out thecontent.

(01:24:10):
70 second scale centric uhmodeler, our friend up in
Indiana.
So check out all those.
And finally, Dr.
Paul Budzik, scale modelworkshop.
Just put out one on uh usingmachinist rules at the
workbench.
And I really like that one.
So I let him let him know.

In fact, I mentioned that to you how much I
I mean, it's not a very longvideo, but it makes some really
interesting and important pointsand has some recommendations
for different manufacturers, andI think that's really
important.
You know, you're getting justan honest take on the products

(01:24:49):
based on somebody who actuallyuses them.

Mike (01:24:52):
And we almost forgot Chris Wallace, model airplane maker.

Yeah, you can't forget him.
We wouldn't have any place tostay in Hamilton if it wasn't
for him.

Mike (01:25:01):
That's right.
So check out his blog andYouTube channels, Model Airplane
Maker, on YouTube and his blog.
So check out all these folks.
A lot of great content.

If you are not a member of IPMesh USA, please
consider joining the nationalorganization.
It's a great group of modelerswho volunteer their time to
serve their fellow modeler andhelp keep clubs and contests and
displays all running andrunning smoothly.

(01:25:35):
In addition, if you are anarmor modeler or post-1900
figures modeler, the armormodeling and preservation
society, AMPS, a goodorganization of guys who are
dedicated to advancing the artof armor modeling.
And I know Mike and I arelooking forward to going to the

(01:25:58):
nationals for AMPS up in SouthBend this year.
It's funny that both AMPS andIPMS are having their national
shows in Indiana this year.
So I'm not sure that's everhappened before, and I don't
know when it'll ever happenagain, but uh it's interesting
that both are having them in thegreat state of Indiana this

(01:26:21):
year.
Hey Jim, we're at the end ofthe episode.
How's that Raspberry Twisted Tdoing?

Jim Bates (01:26:31):
It's doing great.
I would say it's amazing, otherthan I was at a Mariners game
this summer, because that's oneof the things I filled my space
with is I got back into baseballand they had it on tap.
And much like beer, man,everything on tap is better.
But this is pretty damn good.

It it just is.

Jim Bates (01:26:50):
It just is.

What is that?
Is that about five percentalcohol by volume?

Jim Bates (01:26:55):
It is five, exactly five percent alcohol by volume.

Yeah, I thought it was.
I thought it was.
So, Mike, uh, how's your well II know your pilsner or kel is
gonna be good.

Mike (01:27:05):
The six pack is gone.
The beer was good, easy on thepalate.
It won't mess you over.
It's pretty, it's pretty mildtoo.

The voodoo ranger, I've got just, or I'm
sorry, the juice force IPA,voodoo ranger juice force IPA.
I've got a little bit left.
It's great, particularly if youlike a beer with a little bit
of a citrus forward element.
This is very citrus forward.
I will tell you that my wifereally enjoys this particular

(01:27:35):
beer because of that.
Now it's it's 9.5% alcohol, soyou have to watch out because
it'll sneak up and hit you inthe back of the head.
But other than that, greatbeer, no complaints.
We are at the end of theepisode now, and uh, so all

(01:27:58):
that's left are the shout-outs.
Mike, you want to do a shoutout?

Mike (01:28:02):
Yeah, I want to shout out all the folks who have chosen to
contribute to Plastic ModelMojo through their generosity.
Folks like Rob Willis, our mostrecent donor.
We really appreciate this.
We've set up several avenues todo this, and all those avenues
can be found on the websiteunder support the show tab at
www.plasticmodelmojo.com.
Uh, we got a lot of plans thisyear, and all this helps.

(01:28:23):
So check into it.
If it's something you think youwant to might want to do, we'd
sure appreciate it.
And of course, we're notcharging anybody for anything
here and we don't expect it, butuh it is truly appreciated, and
it's really helping us get thisout to you folks.
So thank you very much.

It is.

Jim Bates (01:28:36):
Uh Jim, do you have a shout out?
You know, I'm I'm gonna go offthe reservation here.
I'm gonna shout out theMontreal Canadians so they beat
the Las Vegas Golden Knightstomorrow night and make Dave
sad.

Well, we'll see.
The Golden Knights did lose tothe Ottawa Senators, and I know
that made Ian McAuley veryhappy.

Jim Bates (01:28:59):
So uh Yeah, so there's no chance they're gonna
lose to Montreal too the sameweek.
Just not gonna happen.
But I can live in my delusionland.

I I hey you don't care, you're a Kraken fan.

Jim Bates (01:29:09):
You could say that all you want.
It doesn't make it true.

I know.
Well, my shout out this month isto someone we've already
mentioned, our friend ChrisWallace.
Chris is a great guy, a greatmodeler, who has a great YouTube
channel.
But for us, he's more thanthat.
He's a friend, and he also doesyeoman-like work every year

(01:29:38):
obtaining lodging for us inHamilton, Ontario, Canada, so
that we can go to HeritageCon,confident that we will have a
good place to stay.
And it looks like he may havetopped himself this year.
And I am really looking forwardto the dojo experience at

(01:30:01):
Hamilton this year.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you for putting in thework.

Mike (01:30:06):
Well, I'll pile on that one just a little bit before we
close out here.
You gotta throw Mark Copelandin there too from Minnesota.
Yes.
Our little entourage has pickedup a few new folks, and it's
getting hard to find a singlelocation via via Verbo or Airbnb
that's gonna house us all thatdoesn't want like a full week's
rental, which is understandable,but unfortunate for us.

(01:30:26):
But, you know, so we kind ofhad to split up a little bit,
and these guys work togetherbehind the scenes and have found
two two places in closeproximity together, so it's just
really not gonna be a problem.
It's gonna be a lot of fun.
So thanks to Mark and thanks toChris for uh taking care of
that again this year.

Yeah, and finally, I'd like to on that
same theme, shout out Jim Bates,who is actually gonna make the
the journey from the PacificNorthwest to Detroit, where we
are going to pick him up anddrag him to Hamilton with us.
Because Jim, how many years hasit been since you've been to

(01:31:09):
HeritageCon?

Jim Bates (01:31:11):
Last time I was at HeritageCon was 2014 before you
guys even knew what it was.
So that's 12 years, isn't it?
Wow, it's been a long time,yeah.
Um, I think as I've said onhere, you know, Hamilton, Mount
Hope Airport is my ancestralaviation home.
Um, I think my love of aviationhappened there.

(01:31:31):
Um, so I'm really excited to goback.
It's been a long time sinceI've been to Canadian Warplane
Heritage and a long time uhsince I've been to HeritageCon.

I think you will be very impressed by what
they've done with the museum inthe last 12 years.

Jim Bates (01:31:44):
Looking forward to it.

Um looking forward, looking forward to
seeing you, man.
Yep, I haven't seen each otherin person.

Jim Bates (01:31:50):
Yeah, it's been it's been what a n it's been since
the nationals.
Um I I want to add two moreshout-outs.
One is you've already mentionedthem, but I just want to say
get well, Dr.
Geldmacher.
Looking forward to seeing yousoon.
And of course, I want to shoutout you guys, thanks for having
me on.
It's been a while.

Mike (01:32:06):
All right, we better wrap it up, guys.
You got it.
As we always say, Dave, so manykits, so little time.
Jim, thanks for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
No problem, Dave.
I'll see you soon.

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