From Bench Zen To Stash Reality: Episode 151

Episode Transcript
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"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 public.
Join Mike in Kentucky Davis tosubscribe to be informative,
entertaining, and help you tokeep your modeling module alive.

Mike (00:43):
All right, Kentucky Dave, we are on the backside of our
second hundred.

Kentucky Dave (00:48):
Yep.

Mike (00:49):
We're heading into our second hundred.

Well, wait a minute.
That would imply this is 101.
This is 151.

Mike (00:58):
The back side.
Oh, the back side.
Since 100.
Since 100.

Yeah.

Mike (01:02):
Gotcha.
Of our second hundred.

Uh-huh.
So, in other words, it'sepisode 151.

Mike (01:08):
It's it's episode 151 once we get the semantics squared
away, yes.
And that's a lot, man.
It is.
It is, but it does God, it itseems like it was just
yesterday.
Yeah, we've been busy.
We get a little late gettingthis one to print.

Yeah, well, that uh life life intervenes, and
we'll talk about that.

Mike (01:29):
Well, what's up in your model sphere, my friend?

My model sphere has been fantastic.
Well, good.
Went to the Cincinnati show,had a great time there.
Yesterday, you and I got to doSquadron TV, and that was a new
experience for both of us.
And I'm here to tell you, I hada great time.

(01:52):
Having a little trouble gettingback to the bench.
Some life stuff and dad stuffand you know, family stuff has
intervened, but I am gettingback, and I'm also already
starting to look forward to2026.
So my model sphere is high.
My mojo is I've got a ragingmojo, man.

(02:13):
My mojo is raging.
How about you?

Mike (02:17):
I'm not too bad.
I've I really enjoyed uhjoining Brandon and Jeff for
Squadron TV last night, maybeWednesday the 12th, that
episode.
Folks want to go check that outif you haven't already.
That was that was a lot of fun.
I think I was on a long oh,quite a ways back.
Yeah.

(02:38):
It was right, it was before thethe national convention because
Jeff hadn't joined Squadronyet, and he was on there
pitching the pitching thenational convention.
So it was sometime sometimelast year.
I can't remember exactly when,but uh it's it's it's a fun
thing.
It was a good time.

I have to make a note my calendar for two weeks
from Wednesday from yesterday,because Brandon's gonna have
Dana Bell on, and I'll watch theheck out of that one.

Mike (03:07):
Ellie's had better luck than us for getting it.

Yes, I know.
Well, in time we're we're gonnatalk to Brandon about that.

Mike (03:16):
Yeah, that'll be a good one.
I knew when he said that, youreyes probably lit up and uh Oh,
they did.
You're pretty excited aboutthat.
So yes.
Yeah.
I I guess in the model sphere,that's been the big thing.
Um other than that, it's beenwork, work, work.
And uh I'm actually thinkingabout taking the E16 into work
with me tomorrow.
Oh, good.
Well, that would be cool.
And because I've been doing alot of tedious stuff at work

(03:39):
that's not unlike work I did atmy own bench, like I I told
Brandon before we startedrecording, maybe even before you
joined, we were talking therebefore we started the thing.
And I don't know.
They'd when they were outliningthe tasks for what we're doing
right now, uh they picked two orthree unbeknownst to me that
they knew I might be the onlyperson that had the precision
and patience to to do.

So well, what you need to do is you need to get a
Lexan case.
You need to put that paw inthat Lexan case and take it to
work and put it on your desk.
I could do that.
Yeah.

Mike (04:12):
Or I could just take it in the box tomorrow and put it in
the uh Laminar flow hood andturn the overhead light on, just
let it sit in there.
Speaking of there you go.

Speaking of speaking of your work and space
stuff, you saw Blue Origin had asuccessful launch today.

Mike (04:28):
I don't think you I didn't get I didn't get to see it.
I was traveling out to amachine shop to pick up some
parts.

Yeah.
I didn't think you all hadanything on that because it was
a satellite launch.

Mike (04:39):
No, it was we weren't there.

So, Mike, since we're doing episode 151, I
assume you have a modeling fluidin front of you.
I do.
What do you have?

Mike (04:50):
I have some basil Haydns.
I hadn't had that in a littlewhile.
Oh, you lucky dog.
And I got a little of that.
It's uh it's a little lighterthan some of the others.
Yeah, it is.
It's not pairing well with thewhite cheddar popcorn I had it a
minute ago.
Well, yeah, I don't thinkthat's a recommended bourbon
pairing.

We got to get that out of my mouth.
Okay, well, another couple ofswigs of basil Hayden, and
that'll all be gone.
Well, what about you?
I got another beer tonight.
This one is Wizards Order JuiceBox Wizard Juicy IPA from
Tailgate Brewing in Nashville,Tennessee, courtesy of our good

(05:34):
friend Bill Moore, who I'm gonnasee on Saturday.
So I'm drinking this one in hishonor.

Mike (05:42):
Yeah, I talked to Bill about you coming down there, so
you better keep your guard up,Dave.

I I am, man.
I am.
Well, listen, believe me, we'regonna we're we're gonna make
the point that you weren'tdidn't didn't make it.
And so uh you you are gonnacome in for some righteous
scorn.

Mike (05:59):
I guess.

Well, I can promise it.

Mike (06:03):
When you all break off conversation, you might want to
back up facing them five or sixsteps before you turn around.
That's all I'm saying.
Okay.
Well, the modeling fluid's allin good fun, and the listener
mail's all in good fun.
All right.
And what do we got?
Well, the drought's over,that's for sure.
Well, that's good.
We got a lot.
All right, let's get into them.

(06:24):
Well, Dave, first up, WillEdwards from Down Under and the
70 Second Scale guys you createdthe international incident
with.

Yes.

Mike (06:33):
Hey, they sent me the missing comma.

Oh, they sent you just a comma?

Mike (06:38):
Just a comma.
Yep.
I got an email, and that is theonly thing in it is a comma.

So you know what?
Aussies truly do have the bestsense of humor, man.

Mike (06:50):
Well, so that's all done and dusted, wrapped in bowed.
So hopefully uh you learnedyour lesson, Dave.

Yes, there there is peace among 72nd scale World
War I modelers.

Mike (07:01):
Well, one of our favorite Chicagoans is is written in
again, Hector Cologne.
Oh, yes.
Who brought us some really nicebeer at the Nationals.
And he says it's medallion, notmedallia.
Okay.
It's Spanish.
Gotcha.
Okay, so there you go.
Thank you, Hector.
You've got Dave corrected now,Hector, and he appreciated us

(07:22):
running into us at Hampton.

Yep.
I was thrilled with all thepeople we saw at Hampton this
year.
It it every year it seems likemore and more listeners stop by
our table, and that's justgreat.

Mike (07:37):
If I'm not mistaken, he was there with his son.
He was.
That's right.
And he says he's on yourbandwagon now, and he believes
the National Convention is thebest four days in his modeling
year, too.
There you go.
And like hoping to see us, wehope to see him in Fort Wayne in
26.

Absolutely.
And he's got no excuse givenwhere he's located.

Mike (07:58):
That's a lot shorter trip than uh Hampton.
Yeah, for him for sure.
Unless he flew, then itprobably wouldn't wasn't too
bad.
Yeah.
Just hop a jet in Chicago andgo straight there.
I suspect he drove.

I suspect he did too.

Mike (08:13):
Well, the boys at Detail and Scale have been cranking out
the stuff again.

Yes, they have.

Mike (08:19):
Rock Rozak informs us they have a new one.

Yes.

Mike (08:23):
Uh A7 Color and Markings book has been published now.

Yep.

Mike (08:28):
And it's gonna be part one of an ongoing series on A7.
It's U.S.
Navy Atlantic Fleet Squadronsand Test and Evaluation
Facilities aircraft.

So uh you just you just have to love the U.S.
Navy in the 60s and 70s whenthe when the aircraft were just
all sorts of colorful.

Mike (08:47):
Some crazy stuff in here, and this is just getting
started, part one.
So I'm sure there's a PacificFleet and other stuff coming.
So Oh, I'm sure.
And it's volume nine in thecolors and marking series, so
there you go.
Support them, folks.
They got some good referencebooks, and uh, we appreciate all
Rock does for us.
And uh Absolutely.
Please patronize uh detail andscale.

(09:08):
This is an interesting one,Dave.
It's from Michael Pye in NorthSomerset in the UK.
Okay.
Something he's been playingaround with.
At his place of employment,they've uh signed up for
Copilot, which is an AIfunction.

I know, believe me, I know what co-pilot is.

Mike (09:25):
And he often often builds small-scale dioramas around his
aircraft.
And he's been finding it reallyhelpful to lean on AI a little
bit for the initial base design.
Really?
Yeah, this is interesting.
He he likes this ability tocall on real history and and uh
it can allow for access toknowledge that he hasn't simply
built up yet.

(09:46):
And then he says he knows youknow what it kicks out is not a
hundred percent accurateaccurate, but it's he thinks
it's a helpful tool to at leastget, you know, if you got a
little brain freeze going on toget a starting point.
Hmm.
So Mike, I I'm really curious,and and other listeners too, if
you've you've tried this, butfor for Mike specifically, I'd

(10:06):
like to know kind of what kindof prompts he's using to get get
what he wants, because that'skind of that's that's the secret
sauce is getting getting itright on the front end.

And you can you can curate it as you go along
and make it more and more, youknow, when it's yeah, and the
more you the more you do it, themore the the better you get at
writing the prompts that'll getyou what you're looking for.

Mike (10:24):
So it's interesting.
I'm I'm gonna give it a shot.
Uh we don't have copilot, butI'll use something else and uh
see what happens.
Could be fun.

Yes.
Keep us updated.

Mike (10:37):
Andrew Armstrong from Center Point, New York, Dave, is
uh feeling your pain.
Uh-oh.

What about?

Mike (10:45):
Well, he recently kicked out Edward's 72nd scale MiG-15.

Yeah, beautiful kit.

Mike (10:52):
And he tried a bare metal finish and he he struggled a
bit, but expected that.
That's not what got him.
Right.
Uh you know, he he knew howdifficult it could be and what
to expect.
And what he did not expect waswas after he got through that
part of it, just the ability toglue on the simple bits at the
end of the build and droppingparts and marring this paint and
uh just making a general messof things and jacking up the

(11:15):
panel line wash and finally justpulled the plug and said,
that's good enough.
On to on to the next one.

It's a learning experience.
And listen, that is I feel hispain because the closer you get
to the completion of the model,the more that you worry that
those last few things are goingto be what causes you a problem.
And it's so disheartening to beadding an antenna or a pedotube

(11:47):
or or you know a missile or orsomething like that, and jack it
up to the point where not onlydo you not get that right, but
you experience what we hear inthe do in the mojo dojo call
negative modeling.
And there is nothing moredisheartening than negative

(12:11):
modeling.
To the point where, with thatuh recent F-8F kit, I negative
modeled it right into the trashcan.

Mike (12:21):
It's I'm curious, and you can comment on this after I
explain it, but I had a minorepiphany, it was at work this
week, doing some of thisdelicate work, and it's it's
something I'd never reallythought about, but it's
something I've noticedhappening, oh gosh, I think
probably since I've been anadult modeler, to kind of tie

(12:42):
this into where he was with thisproject.
He already had the bare metalfinish on.
So anything after that thatyou're gluing on, you know, it's
it's the risk is a littlehigher versus some other kind of
finish, right?

Right.

Mike (12:54):
So when I'm doing really delicate work, I tend to hold
the work and the tool kind ofgingerly.

Yep.

Mike (13:02):
And I tend to drop things with a higher frequency because
of that.
You know, I did it on the E16,I did it on some of the silly
things I was doing at work thisweek.
It's just something I catchmyself doing, and and I wonder
if if your mistake frequencykind of goes up because maybe
you almost drop the model or youdo drop it or it slips out of

(13:23):
your hand in a position thatbreaks something and all that
kind of thing.

It's a natural tendency when you're doing
delicate stuff to try and do itdelicately.
But you're right, if you'reholding the tool or holding the
model, the one thing you don'twant to be doing is holding both
of the darn things.
You don't want both of them,especially if you got the shakes

(13:48):
that I do.
You do not want both of themmoving in three axes when you're
trying to put them together.
So put one of them down and useattach with it already resting
on like a build cradle orsomething like that.
But uh yeah, no, I can see thatwhole a tendency to underhold.

(14:13):
I will tell you that finding agood pair of tweezers is really,
really, really important.
I mean, you and I've had thisdiscussion many episodes back,
that cheap tweezers where thejaws don't meet, or there's a

(14:34):
bow at the end, or or somethinglike that, it it just leads to
parts dropping or pinging offinto space.
And it is worth, you know, 12,15, 20 dollars for a really
finely machined pair oftweezers.

Mike (14:55):
And you could get good ones for in that kind of price
range.
Exactly.
Now, it used to not used to bekind of tough.
Usually you're 35, 40, 50bucks.
And you know, some of the onesI buy for the lab at work are
are that expensive.
So I gotta remind people not touse them for pry bars and
stuff.

Yes, that's right.
If you get a really good pairof tweezers, do not use it for
anything but really fine partshandling or or whatever.

Mike (15:24):
So we've digressed a little, but I was just wondering
if if if this was the use oflight hands, and especially for
me, if if I'm wearing likenitrile gloves at work, yeah.
Maybe the work dictates it justfor fingerprints or keeping
skin oil off something.
Yeah, just that just that kindof magnifies the problem.

Speaking of nitrile gloves, not to digress
yet again, I've switched from 5mil to 3 mil, and it makes a
world of difference regardingthe sensation that you get
through the gloves.
And I'm to the point now, I amso sold on the three mil that I

(16:03):
don't think I'll ever useanything else.

Mike (16:06):
There's a tip.
There you go.
Next is uh Tom Carron fromCairns, Utah.
Okay, and he just finished ourlast episode with Dr.
Paul Budzik.
And first off, he'd like towish the good doctor a happy
retirement.
As we all do.
And he says this episode wasmost helpful for him because he

(16:29):
has one hell of a shelf of doom.
He says it's more of a storagerack full of kids he screwed up
or lost interest in, and he'sjust tired of looking at them.
So he threw them in the trashwhile he was listening to the
podcast.

Good.
And you know what?
Hopefully, Paul is listening tothis, and I know that Paul
would be greatly pleased thatthat that that he had that
effect to help help it help themodeler unburden themselves from
the shelf of doom.
And we all have shelves ofdoom, but when it builds up too

(17:08):
much and you look at stuffthat's been there for years and
you know you're not gonna finishit, throw it away.
Unburden yourself.
Great advice from Dr.
Budzig.

Mike (17:18):
Well, he's on the threshold of retirement himself,
and he's been thinning thingsdown, and he may actually move
to Costa Rica in retirement, sohe's gotta keep things in check.
Uh he's got to ship it all downthere.
And uh sounds good, man.
I'm glad uh glad you enjoyedthe episode and got something
out of it.

And retiring to Costa Rica sounds like an
awfully fine, uh fine way to gointo retirement.

Mike (17:44):
Well, from Richmond, Virginia, Dave, it's Frank
Blanton.

Good.

Mike (17:48):
Who we saw modeling with Ben Pluth at the uh national
convention.

Yes.

Mike (17:52):
And uh he's uh been a long time listener, and we
appreciate that.
He also enjoyed episode 150,and it says it spoke exactly to
his situation.
He retired early at age 59,along with his wife.
He doesn't he doesn't model thedeadlines and he doesn't model
the obligations, and he thoughtit was all just brilliant.

Well, good.
Again, I he really does havesome great insights, in addition
to picking up all sorts of tipsand and and modeling techniques
and stuff like that, but he hassome deeper insight into the
hobby.
He's actually thought about thehobby and what he wants out of

(18:32):
it and what he wants to put intoit.
And not everybody thinks thatdeeply on the subject, and I do
think it helps to do so.

Mike (18:41):
Well, Frank, they went they downsized their their home
to a one-bedroom condominium indowntown Richmond.
That that might be a fun way tolive, too.

Yep.

Mike (18:50):
Down the thick of it.
And he had to downsize hiscollection of built and unbuilt
model kits, and like uh Pauldid, he gave a lot of stuff away
to fellow modelers, donatedkits to shows and raffles, sold
books he didn't have room for,all the same stuff.
And he keeps keeps a smallerstash now.
Another thing he does is he hehe doesn't do many long build

(19:13):
kits or difficult things thesedays.
Troubles troublesome kits,we'll call them that.

Gotcha.
Life's too short to buildcrappy kits.

Mike (19:22):
Unless you like doing it.

Yeah, unless you liked it.
Unless you're doing a nostalgiabuild of an old air fix kit
that you remember doing as akid.

Mike (19:31):
Man, the the email for episode 150 just keeps coming.
Oh, from Paul's home state,too, is uh Ed Bareth.
Yes.
And uh Ed just wanted to sayhow much he enjoyed the episode
with Paul and his thoughts onretirement, including stash and
motivation and what to do nextand simple happiness, just
amazingly echoed his ownthoughts after six months of

(19:53):
chemotherapy.

Yeah.

Mike (19:55):
And just as simple as that.
And he's too warning about hisstash and stuff he'll never get
to.
Ed's got a good prognosis, butthat kind of thing makes you
look at life differently, and uhit does.
Especially in terms of what todo with one's time.
So he really appreciated theinsight in that episode.

Well, and I want Ed to know that uh everybody in
the plastic model mojo family isthinking of him, and we're
happy that he's got such a goodprognosis, and we look forward
to seeing Ed at many, manyfuture nationals.

Mike (20:29):
I hope so.
He's planned on setting up avendor table with some of his
next shows and asked if weneeded any kids, he'll send us a
list.

Great.

Mike (20:38):
Well, from Cleveland, Ohio, is Jeff Adanich.
He started out modeling in highschool and junior high and left
the hobby for about three daysand picked it up again during
the pandemic.
Well, that's we haven't heardthat story in a little while,
but we sure heard it a lotduring the pandemic and
immediately after.
Yep.
And he thinks it's a fantasticway to detach from all the other

(21:00):
stuff going on in his job inhealthcare.
It's really true for anything.

Yep, I agree.

Mike (21:04):
So we may we may touch on stuff like that in our special
segments.
Yes.

For our shop talk.

Mike (21:10):
And he's gone back through the archives and looking to get
to some shows, plan on going toFort Wayne.
He just kind of buildseverything, and he's he's just
picked up Steve Anderson's guideto uh the modeling journal.
Good.
So he's uh he's really got onboard.
So Jeff glad to hear it.

Welcome back to post some pictures on the dojo
of your work, Jeff.

Mike (21:31):
Well, he's got an Academy B 17 he's working on and hopes
to do that.
Hopes to do that.
He mentioned that as well.
Good.
Thanks, Jeff.
I'm glad to have you as alistener.
Well, if you're following theadvice in episode 150, Michael
Aluzi from the Jack WiseligPolis Kochwashers in Peoria,
Illinois has a suggestion foryou.

(21:51):
Every well, how often do theydo this?
I guess at all their clubmeetings, they have a
supermodelers quiz.
Uh-huh.
And everybody brings stuff theydon't want or can no longer
use, and they have a big prizebin.
And they make up this10-questioned quiz that all the
attendees take, and whoever getsthe most right gets their first

(22:16):
pick of the prize bin, and soon and so forth down the line.
So uh that's cool.
Kind of put a fun twist ongetting rid of stuff by making a
making a game out of it.

And you know what?
That brings up something thatyou and I need to think about
for future episodes.
You know, we do all of theseshow spotlights and we ask
people what they do, you what'sunique about your show and
what's different, and what areyou all proud of, et cetera, et
cetera.
We need to do the same thingfor club meetings.

(22:48):
We need to get people to sendin information on their local
club, how many people attend,you know, what's the frequency,
et cetera, and what you do, whatgoes on at the meeting, and
what unique things you all do,like that price box thing.

(23:09):
That would be a really goodidea.
So, listeners, I want you tostart thinking about that and
start flooding Mike with emailson that subject.

Mike (23:19):
Well, Charles Rice from South Carolina, who attended the
uh the regional show inRaleigh, has written in with
some some stats from the show.
And remember there's someconcern about the uh the after
five models entry fee.
Right.
I'm gonna call on Bob Bear toreach back out to us because I
want to make sure these numbersare are right and then see what

(23:39):
he's got to say about it,because uh it seemed to impact
things.
Okay.
And if these numbers are right,it was kind of severe.
Be really curious.

Yeah.

Mike (23:49):
Like on the order of 50% versus the region they put on in
23.

Yeah.
So of course now regionals areare always outsized shows.

Mike (24:00):
No, you missed what I said.

Oh, I'm sorry.
I thought you said the regionalin 23.

Mike (24:05):
Right.
This show they just had was aregional.

Oh, okay.
I'm sorry.

Mike (24:11):
And based on the numbers given, it's it it looked
significantly smaller.
Gotcha.
So Bob, reach out to Mike.
That's right.
I'm curious.
Curious about that one.
Sounds like it's a good show,though.
Great vendors and saw plenty offriends, and he sent me a
picture of the ruffian he raninto there, which is none other
than Bob Bear, Voice of Bob.

Yes.

Mike (24:32):
So real curious how that went down.
And another one for episode150.
And my and my final email.
Okay.
Bruce Binkson from I think he'sfrom Sandy or San Francisco,
yes.
Greetings from San Francisco.
And he also he also wants toadd his voice to the course of

(24:53):
appreciation for Paul Budzik'sappearance in episode 150.
He says this guy's got a lot ofinsight, and it's always
deserves an attentive listen.
So uh he's glad he finallyretired.
So congrats to Dr.
Paul again for that.
Wants to say that his wife andI are experiencing some of their
best moments having bothretired, and it's largely

(25:13):
through their hobbies.

So good.

Mike (25:15):
There's hope, Dave.

Yep.
There's hope.
Well, I'm not sure.
As I've told you many times,I'm not sure I'll ever retire.
We'll see.

Mike (25:25):
Well, I hope you do, man.
Yep.
Well, again, that's all I'vegot from the email side of
things.
What have the direct messagesbeen looking like?

Well, we've gotten a few of them.
First one, our friend out ofEngland, Neil Gilborne, reached
out, a friend of his, recentlyentered Car Model at Telford,
won a first place award.
He sent me some pictures, andhe suggested this friend as a
possible future guest orsomebody we might want to talk

(25:56):
to.
Okay.
So I made a note that I'm goingto talk to you about that, and
then you and I can talk to Neiland we'll we'll go from there.
But I just wanted to mentionthat.
And by the way, that is thereason I wanted to mention that
is that any listeners out there,if there's some modeler that
you know that you think there'suh would would be a particularly

(26:21):
good interview subject, we'realways looking for people,
particularly people who may notbe well known in the hobby, but
have particular insights.
We're always looking forinterview subjects.
So please don't hesitate toreach out and say, hey, I know
this guy.
He does X, Y, and Z, and hemight really be somebody you'd

(26:45):
want to talk to.
We appreciate that.
Next DM is Bill Moore in regardto the Murphesboro show.
Bill did us a solid in gettingus a last minute table down at
Murphysboro, and I'm lookingforward to seeing Bill on
Saturday.
The next one just goes to showhow unusual life is now.

(27:09):
Saturday morning, I'm laying onmy couch watching, getting
ready to watch college football,and I get a Facebook call
through the DM feature, but aphone call.
And it's Paul Gloster on his12-hour drive up the east coast
of Australia to go to scale ACT,I think is the show that they

(27:35):
were headed to.
And it's just really weird tobe on your couch on a Saturday
morning and get a phone callfrom literally half a world away
from a fellow modeler driving12 hours to a show.
And and it was just it was justreally fun to hear from Paul.

(27:56):
He also sent me a picture of ahuntsman spider in a toilet,
which convinces me I'm nevergoing to the bathroom in
Australia.
And then as I shared with you,once he got to scale ACT, a
rather rude photo.
Yeah, he found Dr.
He found the Podfather, and wegot a rather interesting photo,

(28:18):
or I got, and I shared it withyou and Steve.
And and again, I I love it.
It was it was fantastic.
So thank you, Paul.
You really did make my daydoing that.
You've mentioned Mike Aluzi,and Mr.
Aluzi sent me a DM because atthe model show he recently went

(28:42):
to, he found a whole bunch ofTommy Azeros, and he purchased
the same.
And so he sent me a pat apicture with a stack of four
Tamiya Zeros that he hadpurchased at the show.
So good for him.
Glad somebody else is buyingthem too.
Our friend, Agent 003, BrandonJacobs, reached out.

(29:07):
As you know, or as we'vediscussed, Brandon and a friend
of his are buying up collectionsof deceased modelers or
modelers who are thinning downtheir stash and whatever, and
are just kind of as a sidehobby, doing buying them up and
then liquidating them out backout.

(29:28):
And he re while he was out deerhunting in a deer stand that he
painted in Mickey Mousecamouflage, World War II German
camouflage.
British camouflage.
Is that British?
Okay, I'm sorry.
It's armor.
I don't know.
Okay, thank you.
But it's really cool looking.

(29:50):
But while he was out deerhunting, his partner in crime
came across a stash of adeceased modeler that Nobody
knew about the guy was neverassociated with any clubs.
Nobody knew him in Brandon'sand his friend's modeling

(30:11):
universe.
And the guy had like 350models, including 45 Wingnuts
wings kits.
So any listener out there who'sinto wingnut wings, reach out
to Brandon Jacobs, Agent 003.
And if you're looking for aparticular wings nut wingnuts

(30:34):
kit, he may be able to make youa good deal.
He was amazed by coming acrossthis stash from a modeler nobody
was even aware of.
And I suspect there are moremodelers out there like that
than any of us know.
And finally, one of ourFacebook users, who's actually,

(30:56):
I can't put a name to it becauseit was it was not an identified
individual, but they reachedout to let us know that the
Plastic Model Mojo merch store,the website was down.
And we're gonna we aretransitioning to another vendor
for merchandise.

(31:17):
So right now that site's down,and we're going to bring it up
with another vendor withhopefully higher quality.

Mike (31:29):
Yeah, that's the big thing.
Now the fact that it's down isjust one more thing to make us
do that.
It's it's not down becausewe've already turned it off.

Right.

Mike (31:37):
Uh it's down because something's broken about it on
their end.
So we've had a couple ofservice level issues with them
with with listeners, and then acouple of folks have have uh had
some dodgy quality on somet-shirts.
So yeah, we're gonna replacethat.
So if it's something you want,just just hold off and let us

(32:00):
make an announcement that we'vegot a new improv new and
improved option for you becausewe certainly don't don't want
folks uh getting somethingsubstandard in their efforts to
support the show.
That's that's not cool.

Yep.
So just wanted to let you allknow.
Hold off a little bit.
We'll have new and better upsoon.
Mike, that's all the DMs I'vegot.

Mike (32:22):
Well, we had a lot this time, but that's okay because we
like listener mail.
We do.
So if you want to write intothe show, you can do so by
writing into plasticmodelmojo atgmail.com.
That's the primary email.
You can use the Facebook directmessage to send a DM to us.
Dave's been handling that.
And there's also uh a way inthe show notes.

(32:43):
There's a contact link in theshow notes that you can use to
also send uh it's kind of anemail thing too, but uh you can
use the link in the show notes,and it's just a different,
different avenue to get to us.
But uh we appreciate it nomatter how you send it to us,
and keep it coming, folks.
Dave, the listener mail is notthe only thing that was full of

(33:20):
comments from episode 150.

Yeah.

Mike (33:24):
It's been a lot going on by between my ears as well since
that.
And just uh I don't know.
I thought for this shop talk wemight touch on a couple of
those.
Sounds like a plan.
And I don't know, just explorethat a little bit, see what uh
what we've gotten out ofmodeling in the last year or or
whatever.
Well, the first one is is forus both to answer, and you get

(33:51):
to go first because I asked thequestion.
That's fine.
You know, it's it's a hobbythat's a lot of time solitary.
We we've talked about thatbefore.
The the m usually the act ofactually doing the work for most
people most of the time.
Now, we have a club workshop,but there's a lot of people on
Saturdays, and we have our buildnights, and people do the you

(34:12):
know the online stuff, but butprimarily most folks do their
modeling in solitude.
And to you know, an outsider,it might look like a silly thing
for grown men to be doing orgrown women to be doing or
whoever.
But it's it's certainly likeany hobby has certain benefits,
but what do you get out of itprimarily?

(34:33):
What do you get out ofmodeling?
And what will and what wouldyou like, what more would you
like to get out of it?

What I get out of modeling is multifaceted.
Number one, my my job as anattorney is kind of fast-paced,
it's high pressure, it's verymentally draining.
And so one of the things that Iget out of my hobby is to be

(35:06):
able to come down, sit down atthe bench, and kind of, I don't
want to say turn my brain offbecause that's not what you do,
but instead of doing a lot ofhigh-level analysis and the
legal type work in the brain, Ican sit down with a kid and sand

(35:32):
or paint or mask and kind ofturn my brain off from all of
the pressures of the rest of mylife.
I can come down, it's quiet,I'm I'm alone, I can turn on
some music or a video orwhatever, and I can model, and

(35:59):
there's almost a zen-likequality to it, and it's
relaxation.
So probably the biggest singlething I get from it is
relaxation, an ability todistance myself from the rest of
life and just come and enjoybeing alone and not having to

(36:26):
think about all of the thingsthat have to be done around the
house or at work or whatever.
In addition, it helps it allowsme to combine my interest in
history and particularlymilitary history, and take it
from simply an interest ineither reading or watching

(36:49):
movies or videos ordocumentaries, and translate
that in some way into 3D art andhave a concrete representation
of something that I wasinterested in from history.
What I'd like to get more ofit, more from it, what more

(37:13):
would I like to get from it isjust more of everything.
We've talked about time andorganization and stuff like
that, but my life is constantlyballs in the air, juggling balls
in the air.
And I would like to be able tofind more time to come down to

(37:34):
the place that's quiet where allthe noise goes away, and I can
simply sit and be with myselfand get the enjoyment of
modeling out of it.
And what keeps me from gettingthat is two things.
One, internally, I am way toodisorganized.

(37:56):
I I have terrible timemanagement skills, which by the
way is something almost alllawyers have.
They are terrible at timemanagement.
And in addition, externally,just life.
I mean, two teenage daughters,a wife, a house, a yard, pets,

(38:17):
etc.
And it just those things aren'tgoing away, nor should I put
them at a lower priority than myhobby.
But if I get better at gettingall that stuff done, that should
benefit me by giving me moretime in my hobby.

Mike (38:35):
Yeah.
So how about you?
Uh I think it's a lot ofsimilar things.
I think it's different aspectsof it have come to light
depending on life circumstancesand and where I'm at.
So generally it it's it's likeyou allude to there, it it's

(38:56):
relaxation because it it it goesinto a bucket I call escapism.
Yes.
And you know, there was abefore my current position I'm
in, I was in a a period of a lowjob satisfaction, to put it
nicely.
It was nice then to come homefrom all the things I didn't

(39:17):
like about that and do somethingI liked doing.
Again, once all the otherhousehold stuff was managed and
taken care of.
And it's just a a great way tokeep your brain moving and your
hands.

Yep.

Mike (39:35):
And I just uh it's it's a it it's again, it's you said it,
it's the it's the zen of it.
You can just focus on somethingright in front of you.
If there's any externalstimulation coming in, it's
maybe you've got music on orsomething like that.
It's you know, you that'sintentional as well.
It's not something you don'twant coming into your head.

Right.

Mike (39:56):
You've you've purposely done it for relaxation.
Another thing is it it no, Ihad it on the tip of my tongue.
It it uh well it gets back tothe just the the problem solving
and and the and the brainstimulation.
And I think at the end of allthat, there's a a sense of
accomplishment, even in thesmallest thing you've managed to

(40:17):
get done.
Yeah.
Especially if there was, youknow, uh a a higher degree of
difficulty to it, and you kindof weren't sure how it was gonna
go, so it I don't know how youdo it, but yeah, I may think
about it for quite a while.

Right.

Mike (40:31):
Uh formulate a plan, a path through, and then execute
on that.
And when when you get there,and most of the time it works
out, sometimes it doesn't, butuh as you get more modeling
skills and you you get better atthings, and you get the skill
of actually thinking thingsthrough instead of trying to do
it on the fly, success is higherthan failure by a pretty wide

(40:56):
margin, I think.
And and with that though, it'sjust a sense of satisfaction.
And you know, you get thatcertainly when you get something
done.
But you know, I don't I don'tget that very often, but I get
the incremental problem-solvingsatisfaction, get those
accomplishments done uh all thetime.
It's especially when you'veyou've thought really hard about
something and and uh you can uhyou actually pull it off.

(41:19):
Sometimes you surpriseyourself.

And that is one of the things you do when you
model is as you're doing a bigproject, you tend to treat many
parts of it as little miniprojects in and among
themselves.
How am I going to do thisparticular feature on the model?

(41:42):
Or, you know, how am I going torepresent the fuel drum holders
or whatever it is?
And and so you do get, whileyou might not finish a model
every week or month, or year, oryou well, I wasn't gonna go
with that.

Mike (42:02):
We might as well be honest, Dave.

Uh but you do you do get those mini completions,
completions inside a yetcompleted model.

Mike (42:15):
And I'm always looking to get more of that.
Yep.
And I think uh, you know,modeling more certainly gets
more of that.

I think it's just the sheer sheer amount of
modeling will get you more ofthose, just definitionally.

Mike (42:32):
Now what more would I like to get from it and what keeps
me from getting what I wouldlike to get out of it or kind of
hand in glove, I think.
Some of it is skills I don'thave yet.
Certainly the time at thebench, you know, time in the
game, right?
Right.
That certainly gets you there.
But I I think one thing I'vehad to learn, I still strive to

(42:56):
get better, and I want to do thethe best I can.
And but I I've kind of removedsome of the stakes, made the
stakes lower.
I've kind of removed some ofthe the obligations I put on
myself for like contest modelingand those kind of things.

Right.

Mike (43:10):
And I think contentment to some degree can or lack of
contentment can keep you fromgetting what you like out of it.

I agree.

Mike (43:20):
If you're completely satisfied with where you are,
you're probably not gonna getbetter.
So I I I don't think that's aplace I I personally would ever
want to be.
Right.
But this not doing thingsbecause you don't know how, or
not well, never doing thembecause you don't know how.
Right.
I think is that's gonna keepyou from getting where you're

(43:42):
getting stuff out of it you wantbecause uh ultimately those are
just problems you gotta solvetoo.
Yeah, some of them are harderthan others, you know.
I've like figure painting forme, I just don't put the time
in, but it's kept me from doinga lot of things.
So that's maybe we'll come upagain later here, but just being
content and where you're at andjust being happy in the hobby.

(44:04):
I think it's a lot of fun forme.
I just would like more timedoing it.
And I just uh I gotta avoid thetemptation to to s slip back
into those old ways I used to doit because that's certainly
gonna make me not get what Iwant out of it for sure.
Sure.
Keeping the obligations at bayand and uh doing what I want to

(44:25):
do on my own time and not worryabout what other people think
about it or or you know thinkingI've got to get to point A to
point B in an X amount of time.
So just gonna get there.

Yep.

Mike (44:43):
Well, my next one, Dave, is in the last year in 2025,
what have you given the mostthought to in the hobby?
And I'm not looking for a yearin review, we'll save all that
stuff for December, right?
Uh, but is there some kind oftechnique or subject or anything
you've been moved to consideras a as a project or a I don't

(45:05):
know, even a philosophical bentchange or something like that?
I don't know.

Absolutely, and we've talked about it repeatedly
since March.
Going up with Inch to thatwidow's house and seeing that
fantastic collection of booksthat this person had collected
over their life, and that hadbecome such a burden to his

(45:37):
widow really, really hit mehard.
I don't want to leave my familywith any of that type of
burden.
It made me reevaluateorganization, it made me
reevaluate the size of my stash,the size of my library, the way

(46:01):
it's organized, whatarrangements that I can make now
for the future, so that, amongother things, that when that
time comes, whenever it maycome, that there is already a

(46:23):
system in place where my wifedoes not have to give the first
thought to any of the stuff inmy hobby room or library.
That I will have a group ofpeople, modelers, friends who
are modelers, who will come in,will have instructions already

(46:49):
as to what to do, how to do it,what to do, so that literally my
wife will not have to thinkabout any of it.
That whatever she'll be goingthrough and my children will be
going through, it will not be aburden to them.
And I would urge everybody totake a good hard look and to

(47:17):
have a plan.
And not just a plan in yourhead, but one that is written
out and that the people you arecounting on know the plan and
are prepared to execute it on amoment's notice.
Because we never know when it'sgoing to be our time.

(47:37):
I hope I've got 20 more goodyears of modeling in me, if not
more.
But I can't count on that.
And that was really a wake-upcall in my hobby in a way that I
had not.
I mean, I mean, I knew vaguelythat there was some issue there,

(47:59):
but it's not something you wantto think about, therefore it's
not something you do thinkabout.
And so it it really hasaffected it it's affected me
greatly this year, probably morethan anything else in anything

(48:20):
else in the hobby in the pastyear.

Mike (48:24):
Hmm.
That's a good one.
How about you?
I think for me so far thisyear, it's been it's related.
I've I've been back in my stashquite a bit.
I've got to put some moreshelving up at some point and
move some things around.
I've got to do that too.
I I see these projects thateither I've accumulated lots of
stuff for them, I have thisgrandiose plan.

(48:47):
Yet, you know, it'd be a kit Ibought when it just came out,
and I look at the look at therelease date on the side of the
box, and it's like 1994 orsomething like that, and I'm
like, why?
Why have I not built that one?
We've all got stuff in ourstashes like, yeah, that's a
cool subject.
I might want to build thatsometime.

(49:08):
And we go ahead and buy it,right?
Yeah, you could justify it amillion different ways.
But the point is we all we andI've said it before, the all but
the most disciplined among uskeep this stash thing at bay, or
manage to keep it at bay.
They're the ones who keep it atbay.
We smear mortals do not.

(49:29):
Yeah.
And it's kind of been part ofthe hobby, but at least this
problem that you're talkingabout.
But it's we're coming up on theend of the year and we we do
the list thing all the time.
We're gonna do it again.
And I don't know, I thinklooking at those projects and
and just piddling around and theyears roll off and it doesn't

(49:49):
go anywhere.
Yet there's still things I I'mreally pretty feeling passionate
that I I want to get to.

Oh, I am too.
I agree.
In fact, you talk about thelist thing.
Steve and I were texting backand forth, I think like Sunday
while we were watching football,and talking about what would
you like to do, what kits do youwant to build in the next year?

(50:18):
And that's always you and Ihave done that every year at the
end of the year, and that'salways a great mental exercise.
And it really does.
When you make the list, A, yourealize how unrealistic you're
being.
But it does, but at the sametime, it also is motivating.

(50:38):
It's like, heck yeah, I want toget these things done.

Mike (50:41):
Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because I was
actually going to mention it aswell.
Uh, and think maybe we shouldchange it the way we do it this
year.
Okay.
I'm open to that.
How many have we put on thelist before?
I think we used to do 10.
Okay, that's way too many.
Of course it is.
Let's pick a top three thisyear.
Okay.

(51:02):
And the next thing we startafter our next finish has to be
one of those three things.
I I'm all for that.
All right.
That's what we're going to do,folks.
Okay.
That's how we're going to lookfor that in an upcoming episode.
That's right.
Probably next month sometime.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (51:25):
Well, Dave, this final topic for Shop Talk comes from
Steve Anderson's A GuidedJournal for Modelers.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (51:32):
And it's gonna be the next to the last one of these we do.
We're gonna we're gonna finishthis up in December.
We will have done it everymonth since I think January.
Yep.
We've done a lot of these.
Yes, we have.
Well, the subject is, or thequestion is, do you prefer short
bursts at the bench or longersessions?
And what are the pros and consof your way?

And and this has changed for me.
Okay, when I was a youngermodeler, I I would do four and
five six-hour sessions at thebench.
And in fact, when I built theMiG-17 that I took to the
Indianapolis Nationals in 1985,when I was in law school, I

(52:16):
built that kit in seven daysfrom beginning to end, from
starting the kit to finishingit.
And I I think I I modeled, Ithink in the seven days I got
like nine hours of sleep inthose seven days.

(52:37):
And I'm not exaggerating.
You don't need much still tothis day.
Well, but I mean, that was itwas unhealthy, but that's
neither here nor there.
But I could model for five andsix hours at a at a go sitting
in a bench.
I can't do that anymore.
Combination of eyesightweakening and my, you know, uh

(53:04):
aches and pains.
I'm my ideal modeling sessionnow is about an hour and a half.
And after that, I have to getup and take a break.
And sometimes I can take like a30 or 45 minute break and come
back and do another 45 minutes.

Mike (53:25):
Yeah.

But there is just no way I can sit down at the
bench and model for three orfour hours like I used to be
able to do.
I just can't.
It's a physical limitation forme.
It's getting older.
And you know what?
There's part of me that's sadthat I can't do that.

(53:47):
I can't do a four or five-hoursession.
But to be utterly realistic,the number of chances I get to
do a four or five hour sessionare vanishingly small simply
because I have husbandlyobligations, and those come
first.
I I can't sit in the basementfor six hours and just model.

(54:12):
So that's that's the long andshort of it.
That's the reason for it, and Iaccept it for what it is.
How about you?

Mike (54:24):
I don't know.
I think I don't have an idealsession.
I think uh parse my tasks outto where I'm kind of in both
those lanes.
In the evening, I can be downhere for three or four hours, no
problem.
Now let me let me qualify thata little bit.
If it's a a problem I'm workingthrough, it may not actually be

(54:46):
building anything.
Right.
It may be staring at it andarranging things and thinking,
okay, I do this, what happensthen?
And how do I have to how do Imake the next step work if I do
this now?
And and that sort of thing.
So, you know, that's not thattaxing really on on your
physically.
But physical modeling, if I'mdoing a lot of stuff, typically

(55:09):
the thing that that startsbothering me first is is my hand
strength.
And just if especially ifyou're using a lot of pinching
kind of grips and things likethat, man, after about three
hours of that, I gotta stop andtake a break.
And you know, I'll go wash myhands in cool water and go do
something else for a littlewhile.
And and you know, I I get thatat work this week too.

(55:32):
And that's it's been kind of aproblem because I get my hands
fatigued at work.
You know, I'll do the stuff Ineed to do before lunch, get
fatigued.
Over lunch, I've recovered, andyou know, the the afternoon
work, I can't go quite as longbefore they start feeling tired
again.
I start dropping things or justbreaking stuff.

Right.

Mike (55:50):
And like if I'm at the model bench.
So I don't know.
A three-hour session for me isis is pretty good.
I think I can get a lot done ifI am working in three hours.
But to to to back up and give alittle contrast, if if there's
something small I know that Ican do, sometimes I'll come down
here in the morning afterbreakfast and on a weekday, and

(56:14):
if it's something I can do inlike less than 20 minutes, yeah,
I'll do it.
I'll knock that out, I'll getsomething staged for when I come
back.
It could be trimming somethingoff a sprue, it could be moving
a 3D print from the printer tothe wash tank, yeah, to the to
the cure, post-cure.
It could be just small taskslike that.

(56:36):
Setting my bench up for whatI'm gonna do that evening.
That's something I do a lot inthe morning.
With fair fairly regularly,I'll come down and I'll I'll
clear up any mess I've made thenight before to to get ready for
a next step.
If it's if it's a largelydifferent kind of task, I might
do that in the morning.
So, you know, that's those aretypically you know 15, 20 minute

(56:57):
kind of things I do, but itgets me down here.

Yep.
And I do think there is a valuein being in your modeling room,
even if you're not activelybuilding, painting, whatever.
I think your presence in theroom itself helps motivate.

Mike (57:16):
Well, here's here's a different here's a a twist on
it.
Okay.
How much quote unquote modelingtime?
I think you'd have to broadenthe circle to call it hobby
time.
Do you spend just scrollingthrough reference books and
stuff like that?

Plenty, but not as much as I used to, and
probably not as much as Ishould.
I have I will tell you that ingeneral, I have become more and
more of an out-of-the-boxerwhere, you know, I may I may
pull out my detail and scale onthe F6F and flip through it

(57:55):
quickly to see how the wheelwells are painted and what the
struts are painted like, just tojust to get reference for that.
But I'm not going over it forhours and hours because I'm
going to do a mega project whereI open everything up and I
super detail an engine and allthat.

(58:15):
I'm doing less and less ofthat.
Now, there are some projects Istill have in mind where I want
to do the full-on gonzo, butmore and more I am simply
wanting to assemble what God andEdward have given me and come

(58:37):
out with a completed model.

Mike (58:40):
I understand.
I don't I don't know if I'vegotten there yet, but well, I
don't think that that's not theway you model.

I don't know, I'm not sure you'll ever get that.
Well, because that's notmodeling for you.
Really, I don't think that'sthat's you and I in some ways
don't practice the same hobby.

Mike (59:01):
Ah, yeah, we do.
Or we couldn't do this show,man.

Well, I may exaggerate, but there's a point
there.

Mike (59:10):
Well, Steve, thanks for the thoughtful questions, and
we've enjoyed those, and we'llwe'll get one more in before the
year's out.
But folks, if you got anythingto say on any of these
questions, write into the show.
Use it as a call to action touh let us know how you know what
do you get out of modeling oror what's been what's been in
your ear or your eyes this yearin 2025 as far as how you

(59:33):
approach the hobby or maybesomething you want to build or
whatever, and let us know aboutit.

Yep, please do.

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Mike (01:00:28):
Well, folks, it's time to put up or shut up.
It's the Bench Top HalftimeReport.

Kentucky Dave (01:00:33):
Well luckily, I've got a little little to
report.
Well, good.
Um glad to hear it.
It's the F mostly the F6F.
It's in overall glossy blue.
I've started to mask and dosome panel differential.
Glossy blue, though thoseaircraft, if you look at color

(01:00:58):
pictures of them, there's not alot of variation.
But I'm gonna kind of I'm goingto do some stuff that may not
be completely 100% accurate, butI think will give a good

(01:01:18):
looking model.
And you know what?
You don't care.
I don't care.
I really don't.
I'm going to I'm gonna playwith it.
I'm gonna do some things.
I'm gonna see if I can get in aneat, cool, varied finish to
the thing, and and see where seewhere it comes out, but I'm

(01:01:39):
having fun with it.
I've also got the Sam back onthe model stand and I've got it
upside down and I've started todo the oil detail wash on the
underside, which is reallyfrankly the major thing left to
do before I put the bits andbobs together, like our our

(01:02:02):
correspondent putting togetherthe MiG-15.

Mike (01:02:05):
Well, back up a minute to the uh to the uh Hellcat.
The Hellcat.
Yep.
In the scale U model, f is apersonal preference for for that
that scheme, that glossy blue.
Yep.
I don't really like the onesthat are really reflective.

No, I don't either.

Mike (01:02:27):
That are really shiny.
So I'm just curious what you'redoing.
I think I've asked you thisbefore when you're doing the
start of the group build, whatyou were gonna do.

Right.
Because I did the glossy blueon the on the bear cat.
Now that one has a little moreof a glossy finish because those
were post-World War II birds,usually.
In fact, the one I built was ina reserve unit in Norfolk, and
so those airplane airplanestended to be cleaner, tended to

(01:02:57):
be shinier.
So I didn't do as much.
With this Hellcat, I amdefinitely, it will not be a
high gloss blue, it will be notmatte, but what I guess you
would describe as a satinfinish.

(01:03:17):
Frankly, maybe even some panelsflatten down a little bit.
That'd look cool.
One of the things I may try onthis, because I've got a theory
in the back of my head that I'vehad for like four or five
years, and I've never tried it,that you can get a really

(01:03:40):
interesting and realisticlooking finish by varying not
only panel color, but the glossor flat of particular panels.
And this thing is the perfectmule for that because it's all
one color.
It's you know, that that glossyblue.

(01:04:02):
Don't have to worry aboutcamouflage or anything like
that.
So it's really kind of theperfect bird to experiment with
that on.
And that's what I'm gonna tryand do.
We'll see.
But I'm having fun with it andI'm enjoying it.
I'm getting a lot out of it asa hobby project.
And as we know, that's whatthis is all about.

Mike (01:04:26):
I'm glad to see the stuff moving forward.

Me too.
Now, is anything moving forwardon your bench?

Mike (01:04:33):
Yeah, it is.
The uh the KV-85.
Where'd I leave off?
I was like, I was making them II made the saddles for the fuel
drive.
Right.
And that was kind of a it's oneof these deals where trying to
I it's a tendency I have to usethe medium that I think's gonna
help me get there the easiest.

(01:04:54):
Or each like the whole thing'snot 3D printed.
I've got some STL files forthose fuel drums and the
brackets that are you can 3Dprint, but there's some aspects
about them that I didn't likewhen they printed.
And I went back and I the thesaddles, the the you know, the
semicircular blocks that thething sits in, redid those in in

(01:05:18):
NuCAD, and then I printedthose, I cleaned them up, and
then there's a detail on thosethat was very fine that I've
I've scratched but I had to makeeight of them, these little
cleats, and I actually cut thoseout of styrene, and those have
been glued onto these 3D printedblocks, and then now I'm trying
to figure out the best way todo the actual straps that hold

(01:05:40):
the drums to the saddle, and andwhat these things were was a
metal band.
Just imagine a flat metal bandof just a sheet metal, thin
sheet metal, and that at thevery ends, the last several
inches, it was formed into a a Cchannel.

Gotcha.

Mike (01:05:58):
So it transitions from a C channel to a flat strip, and
then inside that C channel waswelded a piece of uh threaded
rod.

Gotcha.

Mike (01:06:07):
So there were nuts on the threaded rod that went under the
cleats on the saddle, and youjust tightened them up and drew
the you draw the the retainingband down on the drum.
And I wanted to make the thethe straps out of styrene, and
the cleats on the outside of thefenders are styrene, and the
cleats I made for the back sideof the saddles I made from

(01:06:29):
styrene, so I can use styrenecement and have the ability to
have all the properties ofgluing styrene to styrene
instead of using super glue on a3D printed part to make this
thing work.
And I've been working throughthat this week.
I've spent a lot of timewithout much fruit for my for my
labors, trying to make thosestraps and figuring out the best

(01:06:49):
way to do it.
So the biggest part was workingout the dimensions, what I need
to get it in the cleats andthen get it around the drum and
not have it be too long or tooshort.
So I've got that figured out,and I gotta figure out how to do
the C channels on the ends.
Still working on that, man.
It's it's kind of a tough one.
I'm not real sure how to do it,but uh I'll figure something

(01:07:10):
out.

Oh, I'm sure you will.
I got I got all weekend.
There you go.
And now I take it in the KV85.
There were, you know, you saidthere were only a couple hundred
built.
Did they all use the round fueldrums?
None of them ever use therectangular ones.

Mike (01:07:27):
Yeah, it's basically the same ones that are on all the
late KVs.

Gotcha.

Mike (01:07:31):
So it's and I'm I'm doing two of them unpopulated and two
of them with the drums.
So I I gotta figure this outbecause I need I need eight
straps.
Yeah.

Right.

Mike (01:07:41):
So it's gonna be fun.

I'm sure it will be, and I'm sure you'll come up
with a great solution.

Mike (01:07:48):
Well, the Moosuru Cup car kit has been stagnant for a
while, primarily because I hadsome painting to do.
And uh last time I reported myCO2 tank had gone gone empty,
and it it was pretty, prettyclose.
I took it up to the garage andopened the garage door and
vented it, and it boy, it didn'tit didn't blow out for much.
I mean, just a maybe 20 secondscame out of it, and then it was

(01:08:12):
done.
So it was it was empty.
Uh it was wise to not try toget a painting session in on
that.
So I uh I got that refilled, Igot my cylinder back in the
basement, I got the regulatorback on it.
Now just uh maybe this weekendI'll do some painting.

Well, good.
That would be cool.

Mike (01:08:30):
Other than that, always fighting urge to start something
new.
I gotta get something done.

I have promised myself that this uh the Sam and
the F6F will both be done beforeI uh cut on any more plastic.

Mike (01:08:44):
Got anything else?
That's all I've really workedon.

That's it.

"The Voice of Bob" Bair (01:08:49):
Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by
Squadron.
Head on over to Squadron.comfor the latest in kits and
accessories, all at a greatprice and with great service.
Squadron.
Adding to the stash since 1968.

Mike, I'm gonna let you go first on what broke
your wallet, cuz my list is bothlong and distinguished.

Mike (01:09:14):
Yeah, folks, this is where Dave contradicts everything you
said about stash management inthe last segment.

Yeah, I I understand.
I I I I am not unaware of theirony.
So tell me, Mike, did you buyanything recently?
I did.

Mike (01:09:30):
I did buy some stuff, Dave.
Okay, what did you buy?
I bought two things I've beenyammering on about for a long
time and finally just pulled thetrigger and got them.
The first was I picked up aTomia JS2.
Cool kit.
Oh, it's a good kit.
I I thought I was buying it tocabbage some parts out of.
Yeah, honestly, so I needed tofind a really good deal on one.

(01:09:51):
I did.
But after I got into it, Istarted looking and it's like,
you know, the the kits in myaftermarket turret for this
KV-85 aren't as bad as I thoughtthey were.
And I'm not going to use themachine gun barrel anyway.
So I don't think I need tocabbage this kit.
Which means you need to buildit.
So it means I need to build itas a JS2.

Yeah, nice out-of-the-box build.

Mike (01:10:14):
You know, it's not a new kit by any means anymore, but
it's it's a modern kit, though.
But it's it's a really niceone.
And about time I added that oneto the stash, because I
remember when that kit came out,it was like I was kind of
really that was kind of mything, that those Soviet heavy
tank.
Oh, yeah, the big Soviet tank.
And I just never did get it.
That was during my I can get iton eBay whenever I want it,

(01:10:35):
phase.
Right.
And I was selling stuff down,is why I never bought it, I
think.
But the other thing I bought,you talk about a whiplash and
genre change.
I finally bought that 30 secondscale TIE Fighter from AMT.
Oh, you did?
Oh, yeah.
I did.
Oh man.
It's a pretty big model whenit's all said and done.
It is.
It's not that complicated.

(01:10:55):
It doesn't have a lot of parts,but I mean they're big though.
The parts are big.
Right.
Looking forward to that at somepoint.
I don't know when, but uh itled me down the rabbit hole to
how how do I want to finish it?
Because if if if you get intothat, there's uh there's a color
that they were painted by ILM.

(01:11:17):
Right.
And then how that coloractually appeared on screen with
the lighting, and they're veryfar apart.
Right.
Yeah, the the uh the the colorthat the the the folks in that
genre have figured out that theywere painted was an old Pactra
color.
I can't remember the name ofit.

(01:11:39):
It's like st stormy seas, or itwas a is a like a a fairly dark
bluish gray color.
Right.
Well, those things look likelight gray on the screen.

Right.

Mike (01:11:49):
But you know, so there's the people who make that color,
you know, there's there's custompaint and aftermarket part in
every genre.
So the Star Wars crowds gottheir own people making paints
to match some of those old paintlines that don't exist anymore
that the actual studio modelswere painted in.
I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa,hold on.
We don't want to do, we don'twant to go there.

(01:12:13):
So I'm gonna paint it probablylike it appeared on the screen.
Uh gotcha.
Primarily because I want to trysome painting stuff on it that
I've not done before, and andthe lighter color will lend
itself to that more than adarker color.
But a big, big kit.
The thing's like 13 inches tallwhen you get it done.

So wow.

Mike (01:12:30):
It's it's pretty big.
It's a good scale for thatmodel.

Yeah.

Mike (01:12:33):
I think of the stuff I've you know, already talked about
the stuff we got at the MMCLshow.
So I really think that's it,Dave.
Oh my two kits.

Amateur.

Mike (01:12:44):
Lay it on me, brother.

Let me take a deep breath before I start.
Okay.
We'll start with the PacificProfiles, volume 18 on the Dutch
East Indies.
These are series of books done.
The author is MichaelClaringbold, who is a historian

(01:13:07):
who really has studied theJapanese naval air forces and
the Allied Air Forces in theSouthwest Pacific.
And volume 18, fallen in lovewith the whole series, and I'll
eventually end up with all ofthem.

Mike (01:13:26):
You've bought stuff from that theater at many shows we've
been at together.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And this book is on the DutchEast Indies, and so it has a lot
of the Dutch, British, andAmerican aircraft that were in
the Dutch East Indies area andWestern Australia and Burma.
And it's it's a particular uhfascination of mine, so I picked

(01:13:55):
that up and it's awesome.

Mike (01:13:57):
I wouldn't be surprised if you put yellow triangles on
your car doors.

Oh, there you go.

Mike (01:14:02):
Or orange triangles.

Orange triangles.
I placed an order with ASK outof Ukraine.
If you'll remember at the MMCLshow, Warren Dickinson brought
one of these 3D printed enginesfor the Tamiya Zeros.
And oh my god, these things areunbelievable.

(01:14:25):
And so I placed an order forfour of them.
And when I did, I placed theorder for four of those.
I also ordered a set of EdwardZero Stencil Decals, and I
ordered the Great Wall HobbiesMiG-29 SMT, the Hunchback

(01:14:46):
MiG-29.
And I'm here to tell you insidethe box that MiG-29 kit is one
of the most beautiful models Ihave ever seen.
Now, hopefully it goes togetheras good as it looks in the box.
I mean, it could be anengineering nightmare, who

(01:15:07):
knows?
But oh my god, that's abeautiful, beautiful kit.
I mean, uh the urge to justdrop everything and build it is
is near near overwhelming.
But I'm not gonna do it.
I recently purchased the ArmaHawk 75 and the Arma KI43.

(01:15:30):
These are two Arma kits that Iwanted that I just haven't added
to the stash.
And so, yes, I understand whatI just said about stashes and
sizes and getting to what you'rebuilding, but I wanted these
kits, so I bought them.

Mike (01:15:46):
You probably have 20, 20 hawks you could throw away.

I do.
I've got a whole bunch of hawksthat are going out the door.
I Skippy and I went toCincinnati and we met inch
there, and we had vendor tablesside by side, and we vended, and
I managed to find new homes fora lot of those books from that

(01:16:10):
widow's collection, which putsome money in my hand.
And one of the things about theCincinnati show is it has a lot
of second-hand vendors, and theprices are really, really good.
And with a little bit of moneyin my hand and some really,

(01:16:33):
really good prices, I ended upbuying four kits.
I bought an AirFix C47.
I have one, but I needed aspare because that's a project
that I'm gonna be starting in2026.

Mike (01:16:49):
I assume it's the new one.

Yeah, it's the new one, not the old one.

Mike (01:16:53):
Not the golf ball covered one.

Yeah, no, no, no.
I bought an A models SA3.
I have a fascination withanti-aircraft missiles, and so I
picked that kit up, 70 secondscale.
I picked up a for an amazingprice, a fine molds F-14A.

(01:17:16):
And the Fine Molds A is abeautiful, beautiful kit.
It will make a great companionto the Tamilla F-14D.
And then I picked up an EdwardME110 G4 Night Fighter.
That is also a kit that Iactually already have one of,
but again, it was at a pricethat was so dirt cheap that it

(01:17:44):
was almost like they were givingit away.
And so I'm sure I will find ause for that kit as well.
So when I counted up, that'sone, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, eight modelkits, one decal sheet, four

(01:18:05):
aftermarket 3D printed engines,and one book.

Mike (01:18:09):
You've been busy.

Yeah.
And I'm also now officiallybroke.

Mike (01:18:14):
Again, I have to get busy to get some of that done.

That's right.
Uh I listen, if I can completeboth the F6F and the SAM by the
end of the year, that will befour for me this year.
And if I can do four this year,then I'm gonna do a stretch
goal of six for 2026.

Mike (01:18:35):
Well, be good, Murfreesboro.
Don't buy kits.
Buy Bill Moore some lunch orsomething.

That's right.
That's that's right.
This is the point in theepisode where I ask all of the
listeners when you're done withthe episode, please rate the
episode, please rate the podcaston whatever podcasting app
you're listening on.

(01:19:02):
Also, if you have a friend whodoesn't listen to the podcast,
please encourage them to listen.
Show them how to get thepodcast, walk them through that.
Podcast continues to growlisteners.
The best way for us to get newlisteners is to have

(01:19:22):
recommendations from currentlisteners.
So please, please go ahead andrecommend us to your friends who
aren't listening.

Mike (01:19:32):
And don't forget, you can also rate and review the podcast
through the link in the shownotes of each and every episode.
So there's another way you cando that if your podcast app
doesn't support such.
In addition to Plastic ModelMojo, there's a lot of other
podcasts out in the modelsphere, and you can check those
out by going tomodelpodcasts.com.
That's model podcastplural.
It's a consortium website setup by Stuart Clark, our friend

(01:19:54):
up in Canada at Scale ModelPodcasts.
They're on Hiatus right now,but hopefully Stu comes back.
You can go to that site andfind the banner links to all the
current podcasts in the modelsphere.
So it's a one-stop shop.
You can go there, follow thelinks, listen to what you want
to, subscribe to all of them,however you want to do it.
You can do it there.
In addition, we got a lot ofblog and YouTube friends in the
model sphere.

(01:20:15):
You've mentioned Jeff Inch HighGrove's got a great blog on the
internet, primarily about 70seconds scale.
Sprue Pie with Fred, StephenLee, another good blog, another
good 70 second scale.
He sent some photos of somerail cars he's been working on
for uh Rail Model Craftsmanmagazine.
So really looking to uh tocheck that out.

(01:20:35):
Get me to buy another trainmagazine unless somebody wants
to send me their uh manuscriptso I don't have to.
Hint hint.
Hint hint.
Chris Wallace, model airplanemaker, great blog, great YouTube
channel.
Really looking forward toseeing Chris in March at
HeritageCon and hopefully againat the National Convention in in
Fort Wayne.
Yep.
Panzermeister 36, EvanMcCallum, Mr.

(01:20:57):
Married Man.
He's a big shot now.
Yep.
And he just dropped a newvideo.
He did, so you're gonna checkthat out on YouTube at
Panzermeister36.
That's good.
And we've mentioned him allthrough the episode.
Dr.
Paul Buzzick recently retired,but hopefully going to devote a
little more time to his hobbiesand his video production.
And check that out at the ScaleModel Workshop on YouTube and

(01:21:19):
on Patreon.
And if you go to Patreon,please subscribe to his channel.
It's not very much and it'sworth everything.
So check them all out, folks.
That's what we got.

Finally, if you're not a member of IPMS, the
USA chapter for those of us inthe U.S.
or actually people fromoverseas can also join IPMS USA.
Please join.
I'm the current recruitment andretention secretary.
This is the last term I intendto serve in that role.

(01:21:50):
My goal is to get themembership to 6,000 members when
I leave.
IPMS USA has never had thatmany members.
So I'd like to go out with theorganization being at the
highest membership it's everhad.
Please join.
Join your local or yournational branch, wherever you

(01:22:12):
may be located.
And if you're an armor modeleror post-1900 figures modeler,
please consider joining theArmor Modeling and Preservation
Society, AMPS.
Great group of guys who arevery dedicated to advancing the
art of armor modeling.

(01:22:33):
Mike, we're almost at the endof the episode.
I'm at the end of my beer.
I want to thank Bill Moore.
It was a really good beer.
Again, it's Tailgate Brewingout of Nashville, a Wizard's
Order, Juice Box Wizard, uhJuicy IPA.

(01:22:54):
It's 6% alcohol by volume.
It's a classic juicy IPA.
You get the citrus, you get alittle hop, but the hop is not
too, it's not too much.
And it was great beer, and Ireally appreciate uh Bill
bringing it to us.

Mike (01:23:12):
If you're good, it'll give you some more.

I know.
I'm hoping.
How about you?
Tell me you got a bad bottle ofbasil Hayden.

Mike (01:23:21):
No, I can't tell you that.

Yeah, I know you can't.

Mike (01:23:24):
Once I got the uh cheese popcorn out of my mouth, it got
back to being really, really,really nice.
Sure.
You know, basil's a lighterone, it's 80-proof.

Yep.

Mike (01:23:35):
I've said it before, I think, on the podcast.
It's a good if if you've neverbeen a bourbon person.
It's a good start bourbon.
It's a good place to startbecause it's uh it's not too
hot, it's fairly smooth, it'sgot a good flavor.
Um, you'll enjoy it.
I think so.

Yep.
Yep.
It's it's light, very smoothgoing down.
So if you're it's if you needan introduction to bourbon,
that's a good one to that'sthat's where that's where I'd
start.
Well, we now are truly at theend of the episode.

(01:24:12):
I've got a couple ofshout-outs.
Number one is to all of thefolks who've chosen to support
the podcast.
Your financial support reallydoes help.
Mike and I have put a lot intothis, and we've got plans to
grow it even more.

(01:24:32):
And the folks, there's nothingthat is more gratifying to Mike
and I than having people valuethe podcast enough to kick in a
little money to uh support thepodcast.
So if you listen to usregularly and you find value in
it, please, we appreciate it.

(01:24:54):
Thank you for those of you whohave supported us, and we look
forward to your continuedsupport.
Absolutely.
So you got another shout out?

Mike (01:25:03):
Well, that's you stole my normal one.
I'll guess I'll come up withone.
Okay.
Well, I got one more if youwant a minute to think.
No, I'm gonna shout out Brandonand company at Squadron.
That's a great one.
It's just been really funworking with those guys, and it
has.
We're gonna continue to do thatas long as they'll let us, as
long as they'll have us.
It was fun being on SquadronTV.

(01:25:23):
So we we hope to get anotherchance at that.
He continues to grow thatbusiness, keeps adding line and
manufacturing of his own to hisbusiness.
And it's just great to see thatbrand back.

Yes, it is.

Mike (01:25:34):
But what's your other one?

Uh I want to shout out Bill Moore.
Like I said, he was able to geta table for us for the Murphy's
Borough show at the lastminute, and he's really rolled
out the red carpet for us, and Iappreciate that.
Bill, your your efforts do notgo unnoticed.

Mike (01:25:55):
You don't want to think the table's in the men's room or
something?

Yeah, hopefully not.
Well, I'll update you nextepisode.

Mike (01:26:02):
Please do.
Well, Dave, we're at the end ofthis, and it's been fun as
usual, but as we always say.

So many kids.
So little time, Dave.
Have fun in Murfreesboro.
I'm going to.
I'll send pictures.

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