Housekeeping at Plastic Model Mojo: Episode 162

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
The Voice of Bob (Bair) (00:11):
Welcome to the plastic model module, a
podcast dedicated to skillmodeling as well as to news and
events around the hobby.
Join Mike in Kentucky Dave asthey try to be informative,
entertaining, and help you tokeep your modeling module alive.

Mike (00:43):
All right, Kentucky Dave, it's episode 162.
It is indeed.
And the theme tonight ishousekeeping.

Kentucky Dave (00:53):
The theme tonight is I'm tired.

Mike (00:56):
Yeah, not so much because we're tired, though.
That's probably a secondaryexcuse.
But uh we got a lot of contentfrom the two shows we've been to
of late.

Yeah.

Mike (01:06):
And just haven't had time because we've been gone to put
together the episode I wastrying to put together for 162.
So uh hopefully we'll revisitthat in the future.
But we're gonna just doubledown on some of the folks we've
talked to at these last twoshows and get the get the plu
get the palette clean again,man, get the slate clean because
uh we've recorded quite a bitand we haven't used any of it

(01:29):
yet.

Yep, that's true.
Well, I mean, we've been to twobig shows inside of three
weeks.

Mike (01:36):
I mean Well, that's true, we have.
And on that on that line ofthought, what's up in your model
sphere?

Well, as I said, whew, I'm tired.
Uh two multi-day travels forfor us within three weeks.
Yeah.
I'm not getting any younger.
Absolutely.
It it jars you up.
You see great work, had achance to pick up a few things,

(02:05):
uh, supplies and and some kits.
So I'm uh I'm I'm feeling good.
The problem is the last 10 or12 days I've had a lot of tax
and other stuff to do, and andit's kept me away from the bench
between that and yard work andand some other stuff.

(02:28):
But I'm I'm fired up.
I'm fired up to build.
I've just got to get it.

Mike (02:36):
Work on my models.

Or I need to get that stuff done and then get get
and go work on my models.
Because that stuff, you know,the family counts on that stuff
getting done.
And if I don't get it done.
Looks bad on you, man.
It looks bad.
So my model sphere is fullymojoed, anxious to go.

(02:59):
I did get a little modeling inin the last two weeks, not a
ton, but uh uh I'm ready to go.
How about you?
You're born ready.
I'm born ready, that's right.

Mike (03:12):
Uh yeah, we're just uh trying to well, I'm trying to
decide I need to get in somebetter shape for me doing these
rapid succession multi-daydeals.
Yeah.
Oh, we were pretty good in atAMPS.
We didn't get too crazy.

Nope, nope, we did we did fine.
We had a really nice time atAMS.
The the social aspect of AMPSwas really fun.

Mike (03:35):
Other than that, I guess while we were at AMPS, well,
between these two shows, I'dspoken to someone who was giving
me some mentorship and had somethings I wanted to execute on
while we were at AMPS, and I andI've I've done that to good
effect.
So it's not anything thelistenership's gonna be aware
of, but just to keep moving thekeep moving the chain, man.

(03:58):
That's it.
That's it.
So we got that going on.
Um I'm ready to not go to showsfor a little while.
No says uh strange thing tosay, but we're probably good.
We're probably good to anational convention, at least I
well no, we got Wonderfestcoming up.
Well, I can do that on anafternoon.
That's a one-day thing.
That's a day thing, but yes.
We may go as pedestrians thisyear.

Yeah.
Well, that's my model sphere.
Since we're back recording aregular episode, I'm assuming
you have a modeling fluid infront of you.

Mike (04:30):
Well, since we're housekeeping and we're behind on
a lot of things, modeling fluidincluded, I had a warm-up and
then I've got my current.
Okay.
The warm-up is from WaywardLane Brewery in New York,
courtesy of listener SeanPicard.
This is this will rhyme becauseI'm gonna use the German
pronunciation.

(04:50):
Well, it's a Berliner Weissa,which is a style.
It's called Merlin and Berlin.
Merlin and Berlin.
And it's Berliner Weiss.
And I'll talk more about whatBerliner Weissa is in the
wrap-up.
And currently, because that wasreally good, working on the
Uncle Nearest I got from uh BillMoore.

Yeah.

Mike (05:09):
A little bit of that.
So we'll we've had that on herebefore, but I'll I'll recap it
again at the end.
What about you?

Well, I'm glad to see you dedicating yourself to
catching up on your modelingfluid.

Mike (05:20):
I'm not gonna do it all in one night.

Well, let's hope not.
I also have a beer.

Mike (05:29):
That's Bill Moore's favorite part of the show, right
there.

I know.
Uh there we go.
That's also courtesy of Sean.
It's called Boondiga hazy IPA.
Yeah, yep.
That's uh it's a hazy IPA.
This is again Wayward LaneBrewing out of Shoari, New York.

(05:53):
So at the end of the episode,uh, you can tell me what a
Berliner Vice is, and I can tellyou how the how the boondiggo
was.

Mike (06:03):
I'll do that.
And in the meanwhile, we got abig pile of listener mail to get
through because that didn'twait while we were away.
No, it did not.
Most of this falls into two twopiles.
One being getting a sensitivityto cyanoacrylate glues.

Yes.

Mike (06:21):
And then a few of them fall into the note-taking and
documentation bucket.
So I think we need to get intothis.
All right, let's do it.
Well, the first one from KyleWilliams is in neither bucket.
He has gone through andprovided a lot more prompts for
uh chat DP.

(06:41):
Sorry, chat GPT.
Okay.
And really takes it kind of tothe next level that versus what
I was trying to do.
Now I don't want to go throughall these because there's a lot
to it, but I'm gonna bank thisemail and then it's probably
gonna show up somewhere else inthe future.
Good.

(07:01):
As uh general availableinformation.
So, Kyle, thanks for this.
This does look a lot betterthan what I was trying to do,
and it answers a couple ofquestions I had as far as
workflow and doing this.
So appreciate it.
And uh thanks for the detail.
He's put a lot into this email.

Well, and you know what?
That's amazing.
That that episode was what,like three episodes ago.

Mike (07:24):
Yeah, it just keeps coming.

It still keeps coming.
This area really seems to be anarea of rapid development in in
this technology.
So thrilled with what we'reseeing, and I'm anxious to see
what we will see.

Mike (07:41):
Well, you probably have this one in your list too, but
he sent it multiple avenues.
So I'm gonna go ahead and takeit.
And hopefully you've thoughtabout it.
You can talk about it a littlebit.
It's from David Poles inIthaca, New York.
Yeah.
New York, Dave, as he callshimself.
He is well welcome to thatmoniker.
He says that CA sensitivity tosinuses, and I'll let maybe back

(08:02):
up.
This gets back to uh listenerFrank Blanton in Richmond,
Virginia's email about gettingpretty severe sinus sensitivity,
the CA adhesives.
He says uh Dave Poles says thisis a known thing in the RC
playing community where CA gluesare heavily used because you
got a lot of foam and bossconstruction there.

Right.

Mike (08:22):
There'll be another use for CA in the RC community.
They'll come up in a in asubsequent email, but we'll get
to that one in a minute.
He says there is an odorless CAavailable.
It makes a huge difference forhim.
It's not as aggressive as thetraditional CA, but but it's
close and the kicker can stillbe used.
And he says, see any uh radiocontrol supplier on Amazon.
There's a Bob Smith brand ofthis particular type of CA.

(08:44):
In addition, touching on whatI'd said earlier, he says if he
finds a gentle breeze across thework area does wonders.
It stops fumes from going rightup your schnazz as you lean
over your work.
And he uses a low-speed fanthat's made to push solder fumes
off your bench.

Got true.

Mike (09:00):
Which is interesting because we've got some of these
at work.
And that's just what they are.
They blow right across yourcircuit board you're working on
so you don't get all that up inyour face.

Right.

Mike (09:09):
So that's a good idea.
But said any fan across theworkbench is gonna do good.
Doesn't have to be a gale forcebreeze.
It just uh has to be somethingto move that immediate air
somewhere else besides straightup in your face, because that's
where it's gonna go otherwise.

Yeah, and I was surprised the responses when we
got a number of them regardingthis issue.
Jim Bates reached out and toldme that there was a guy in their
club who developed such asensitivity.
So it apparent and then as theas our our writer mentions, it's

(09:45):
well known in the RC community.
So apparently this is notuncommon, though I had never
heard of it before it came upfrom Frank Blanton's email.
I'm the same way.

Mike (09:58):
I you know, it doesn't surprise me.
No, it doesn't.
But I I guess for the RC crowd,it's probably their principal
adhesive.

Right.

Mike (10:06):
And they're using it a lot more often.
We're we're kind of using smallquantities less frequently.
At least most of us are.

Yeah, I use when I use CA, I use a drop at a
time.

Mike (10:18):
And I've been pretty vocal, you know.
I might mumble some bad words,but every time I got to break
mine out because it's just it'snot my friend, usually.
But uh we've gotten some adviceon that front too from
listeners.
So maybe I'll uh mend thatrelationship.

There you go.

Mike (10:35):
And another one on CA, Jonathan Bryan from the UK.
He's using a CA alternative.
Okay.
And let me see, where is this?
He says one option is analiphatic resin type glue, and
this was recommended to him byJohn Spud Murphy for glueing PE,
which is interesting because Ithought we were kind of stuck
with uh soldering and CA withPE.

So now you're gonna have okay.
I'm an attorney, so you'regonna speak slowly.
What is this glue again?

Mike (11:04):
Aliphatic resin type glue, and I'm gonna have to look that
up myself because uh I'm Imight be familiar with the brand
of this and not know thatthat's what it is.
Okay, but he sent us a link, uhDeluxe Materials, who's Yes,
and it's called uh Superphatic.
Ooh, man, one more letter, andthat'd be something completely

(11:25):
different.
Deluxe materials, and he sent alink.
We'll put that in the shownotes.
He says the glue lookssuperficially like a PVA, and
but it's much runnier, but itforms a really strong bond.
And you let it go off a littlebit before putting the uh parts
together and get it get it to gotacky.

Gotcha.

Mike (11:43):
Improve the initial grab, and it's an excellent bond for
of dissimilar materials, andbefore it sets, it's gonna be
cleaned up with water.
This sounds like a miraclematerial.

Yeah.

Mike (11:52):
I don't know, man.
I may have to give this one ashot.

Yeah, we may both may have to give this a shot.

Mike (11:58):
And we may just find out that uh gator grip and uh
eileen's craft glue are thisexact same thing.
I don't know.
I'm just specul I'm speculatingI'm probably wrong.
But Jonathan, thank you, John.
Appreciate the tip because Iwas completely ignorant of
another good source.
Now I mentioned those glues,the the the eileenes I I
mentioned, I guess when we weretalking about this, but it's

(12:20):
it's never one I've used to putP E to P E together.

Yeah.

Mike (12:24):
But this may be something entirely different, so I gotta
go digging, man.
You know, if I just had moretime, Dave.
I hear you.
I hear you.
But we'll find it.
Now this one's interesting.
It's from David Pye, also fromthe UK.
And interesting take, Dave.
You know, you you you listen tofolks, you watch all these

(12:46):
videos, you do all this stuff,and and you do all these things
and you learn more and more andmore.
But when he learns these allthis additional stuff, he's got
to apply it to the next thinghe's doing.

Yeah.

Mike (12:57):
Well, it's slowing him down.
Yeah.
Because he doesn't want thelast model or the current model
to be less than the one before,at least not intentionally.
Sometimes that happens.
Sometimes that happens.
That's right.
Uh, so this has really slowedhim down, but hopefully his
modeling's improving.
Anyway, one benefit though he'sseen from this is increasing

(13:21):
the satisfaction fromconversations with fellow
modelers along the way, becauseI guess now he's got a project
he's spent a lot more time onand can talk in in-depth to
other people about you know asingle project.
And he and he's he says atTelford 23, which is a few years
ago, he he was happy to havespent quite a bit of time
talking to folks just about acouple of models he had on the
table instead of maybe more thanthat.

(13:43):
But he's improving, he'slearning more skills, and uh he
hasn't put out the output hehad.
He says he went from he's gonefrom like nine to four over the
years, but he's doing a lot morestuff to him.
But he's but he's having a lotmore conversations about the the
reduced number that he doeshave, so he's calling that a
success.

Well, as long as you're enjoying it and as long
as you're learning stuff alongthe way, I don't I don't think
you can ask for for much betterthan that out of the hobby.

Mike (14:11):
And he actually sent a second email, and it gets back
to our question about uh, youknow, we'd mentioned folks maybe
start a blog or if you had aweb page you were posting your
stuff to to make it public.
Uh he's got one for their club,members models at the IPMS
North Somerset in the UK, there.
And uh we can put that link inthe show notes and see what his
club's up to.
So appreciate it, David.

(14:33):
That's uh good on you.
We'll uh we'll put that in theshow notes, and it's just
another example of folks sharingtheir work.
So that's one way to do it.
Up next, Dave, is Joel Munson.
It's this one is in thedocumentation bucket.
Okay.
He wanted to offer a tool forall your hobby tracking needs

(14:53):
needs.
It's called Brush Rage.
And I guess this one is kind ofgeared toward quote unquote
fine artists, I guess.
Mostly painters.
But this thing lets you trackthe paints used.
There's a huge library ofpaints from the big
manufacturers already there, soI don't know, maybe I'm wrong
about that.
Maybe it includes the hobbystuff as well.

(15:14):
In addition to that, you cantrack your time spent, you can
put in photos and comments, etc.
He thinks it's free, but it'sbeen a while since he downloaded
it.
Again, it's brush rage, oneword.
Makes it super easy to pick upwhere you left off from session
to session, even if they'reweeks and months apart.
You can even hide projectsinstead of deleting them.
So if you start getting alittle bit of guilt, you can uh

(15:34):
you can hide that away and andnot I have to write that down.
Brush rage.

Gotcha.

Mike (15:41):
And uh I'll dig in that a little bit.
If it's a link I can put inthere, I'll put it in the show
notes, but it might be uhprobably Google Play or Apple
App Store kind of thing.
Brush Rage.
So check it out.
You can uh create a project andgo subassembly steps if you
want, and uh session by sessionphotos and comments, do all the

(16:01):
list tracking, palette trackingwith specific paint numbers,
etc.
You can just you can apparentlydo a lot in this application,
so very interesting.
I guess again, I'm notsurprised.
I just didn't know about it.
We'll take a look at it.
Another one in thedocumentation bucket.
It's from our friend DerekPost.
Okay.
Derek, when are we gonna seeyou again, man?

(16:22):
I was thinking maybe we've seenyou at HeritageCon once, and I
don't know if I've seen you atAmps.
I don't know if I've been atAMPS, seen you at Amps before or
not, but uh it's been a minute.
Yes, it has.

Was he at Hampton?
I can't remember.
Hampton is such a blur, man.
It's amazing to me.

Mike (16:40):
Well, Derek's using a composition notebook and he's
done this for years, superhandy.
Uh, he starts adding progressnotes.
Well, he's just started addingprogress notes prior
recommendation, just in case aproject stalls.
So that's kind of what startedour conversation.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (16:55):
He adds the start and finish dates, any accessories,
paint colors, and locations onthe model.
He says it's super handy whenyou want to uh repeat your
efforts again for another model.
Scalemates is handy too for thesame stuff, but there's a lot
of stuff I think in a notebook,it's a lot easier just to jot
down real quick instead ofpumping it into scalemates.
But uh you can certainly dothat.
And he included some photos forus of of why you need notes.

(17:20):
And uh every time I get one ofthese broken model by a pet,
yeah, photo montages.
Yep, it's invariably a cat.

Hey, hey, hey.
Well, that's let's face it,most dogs don't get up on
counters and such.

Mike (17:40):
That's a pup, that's a plus in my opinion.

I hear you.

Mike (17:43):
Uh we should all be thankful dogs don't have
opposable thumbs, though,because then good good lord,
we'd all be in trouble.

Yes, we would.
So would the where's the car?
So would the dogs.

Mike (17:57):
Well, he's got some notes that are gonna be able to let
him repair and repaint his BettyBomber in the original colors
because it looks like the uh thetail blister got broken on it.

Oh.

Mike (18:08):
Not just broken off.
Yeah.
Broken.

Broken.
I hear you.

Mike (18:13):
Well, sorry about that, Derek, but thanks for the uh
comment on how you take notesand the the affirmation that
it's it's working for you andit's worthwhile.
Well, Dave, here's one from thelast model show Spotlight.
Okay James Morondino's writtenback after the show, like we
asked him to.
Yeah.
I don't know if you follow thesocial media stuff on that show.

(18:35):
Now, which show was it?

This was the Wine Country Model Xbox.
Gotcha.
I I actually got uh DMs withtwo separate videos from that
show.
Okay.

Mike (18:45):
Well, this thing was a huge success.

Yep.

Mike (18:48):
It looked like you know what they saw throughout the day
was exactly what they hopedfor.
People actively seeking outeach other, stopping to talk,
asking questions, sharingtechniques, forming new
connections.
And he said grouping eastmodelers work worked well with
their name right in front of it,and everybody's wearing name
tags, so it made it easy to findpeople.
None of this the super secretprobation fold the fold the tab

(19:11):
over stuff.
Right.
So good on that.
Different kind of energy in theroom.
Conversations were happeningeverywhere.
I tell you, I'll I'm not gonnago through all his uh his bullet
points here of why it was asuccess, but I tell you, this uh
this echoes a lot of stuff thatlike uh Jake McKee was talking

(19:32):
about with us uh offline for uhScott Gentry's uh Rocky Mountain
Model Expo.

Yeah.

Mike (19:37):
Which we're gonna feature in the next model show
Spotlight.
So there's gonna be anotheropportunity to attend a show
like this, folks.
But so but for this show, weare really glad this worked out.
Among all the great peoplethere, he had Martin Drayton,
who we know pretty well.
Uh Brett Prusso and GrantMayberry, and their presence
definitely contributed to theoverall feel of the day.
There's a bunch of great peoplethere.

(19:58):
James, that Grant Mayberry guy,I don't know.
Did you check his pockets whenhe left out of there?
I don't know about him.
No, Grant's a good guy.
I know.
Well, good.
I'm glad uh it was a success.
And and James, thank you forfor honoring our request to uh
bounce it back to us once allthings were said, all things

(20:18):
were said and done, because wecertainly want to hear about
when things go right.
Yes, yes, even wrong.
There's value in that too.
Yep.
No, that's true.
Which is coming up in oneanother listener mail.
We got some good stuff.
Up next, Dr.
Paul Budget retired.
Yes.
CAs, again, contact dermatizeris not an issue.

(20:39):
In fact, it's biocompatible andyou know, right.

Right, because it was made as liquid suture for
Yeah, that's what he says.

Mike (20:45):
Using surgery, sealing bone graft sites and oral
surgeries, et cetera.
I guess my comment wastypically when folks develop a
sensitivity to X, whatever X is,quite often it's a contact
dermatitis kind of thing.
Right.
In this case, it's not, and forthe reasons he says, he's
right.
He says every RC modeler keepsa bottle of CA in their toolbox

(21:08):
to patch up their fingers fromuh propeller wounds.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (21:11):
There you go.
That's the other one I wastalking about.
As far as respiratoryirritation, it can vary from
product to product.
And he would suggest to uhFrank Blatton that he try
several brands and types.
That is why he mentioned in oneof his pro prior emails that
not all CAs are the same.
And uh that's why he uses PACERproducts.
I don't know if it's for therespiratory inflammation issue

(21:32):
or irritation issue, or if it'sjust because he likes
performance better and thelongevity better.
But even with the PACER line,the formulation for whatever
property you're using, you know,you got the gap filling, the
black rubbery stuff, the thesuper thin, the slow dry,
whatever.
They all have differentproperties and they're all going
to behave differently.
You know, even an anti foggingone, right?
There's a there's one that uhallegedly doesn't fog canopies.

Right.

Mike (21:56):
I wouldn't bet the farm on that.
Neither would I.
It doesn't It does exist.

Right.

Mike (22:03):
And also, how is he handling material?
If he has a sensitive fumes, hewould not dispense large
puddles of cement to work from.
I'm guilty of that.
I wouldn't say large becausethe stuff's a I don't like using
all up like that.
But uh I'll typically put adrop or two on a on a I don't
know, like a polyethylene orpolypropylene, I don't know,
margarine tub lid or somethinglike that.

(22:24):
That's what I use a lot.
But uh less material is gonnaoffer less fumes.
So a good piece of advice therefrom Paul.

Yep.

Mike (22:32):
Larry Donovan from uh New Brighton, Minnesota.
His ears perked up when hetalked when we talked about the
listener's CA fume issue, and hesays he too suffered in
silence.
He was RAC and a pulmonologistfor another issue, and he
brought this up.
And he says the fumes areactually, you know, it's just CA

(22:52):
and minute amounts that arefloating through the air, right?
It's vaporized essentially.
The volatiles are coming off.
It's not good for anybody'slungs or your, you know, your
nasal membranes because they ttend to be a little bit
sensitive.
Right.
His doctor told him, and comingfrom the the doc, uh you would
expect this wants a fullycertified VOC respirator mask.

Yep.

Mike (23:13):
And not to go cheap on this particular piece of
equipment.
Get the best you can afford.
Yep.
And he also uses his CA in hisspray booth with the extraction
fan on high.
Well, mine doesn't have anadjustment, but uh I did I did
mention taking the filter out.

Yeah.

Mike (23:29):
Uh because the filter is not gonna stop the fumes anyway.

Right.

Mike (23:32):
Uh they're gonna go right on through that.
So he also limits the occasionto need CA.
Again, that's kind of what Itry to do.
Again, less less is more ifyou're trying to not not breathe
a bunch of this stuff.
For for non-load-bearing stuff,such as instrument panels, he
uses a white glue or you know,some of the brands we've already
mentioned, the PVA stuff, theeye lanes, or the or the gator's

(23:54):
grip kind of stuff.
Even future or clear works wellfor cementing parts like that.
I think you've done thatbefore.
Rocket brand has a photo edgeglue that works pretty well many
applications.
I'm not familiar with RocketBrand.
Are you?
Nope.
But he also says that if it'sphotoed to photo edge, he's more
likely to reach for afive-minute epoxy, which uh

(24:15):
gives more working time than aCA and less need to fumble
around with debonder for gluinghis fingers together.
We've all been there.
So he says, yes, there aretimes you're gonna have to gear
up and fire up the spray booth,but there are all our
alternatives out there, andwe've we've mentioned a few.
So I hope this all works outfor Frank.

(24:35):
I mentioned to him at AMPS, wedid see him there, that uh we
got a lot of feedback on thisissue, and we have.
This is pretty heavy for asingle topic, and hopefully he's
gonna get something out of it.
Yep.
Well, speaking of wine countrymodel expo, Dave, Bruce Binkson
has written in again.
He's from San Fran area, sohe's he's gone to this show, and

(24:55):
he just wants to reiterateeverything that we've already
said about it.
Just a really good show, so uhgood stuff.
He also appreciated theseminars.
P40 historian uh CarlMolesworth was there.
Grant Maybray from the PlasticPosse did a seminar.
Uh Brett Prusso was, wementioned earlier, was from
Hammerhead Model Making.
And uh he uh almost missed uhMartin Draden's presentation,

(25:18):
but he at least got to see himat the show and talk to him a
little bit there.
So good.
That's a lot of good feedbackfrom that show.
So hopefully the powers that bein show planning out there in
the future may consider one ofthese things because it sure
sounds like a good time.
We need to hop an airplane,man.
Oh, and I failed to mention thethe wine social after the

(25:40):
thing.

Yes.

Mike (25:41):
Was a success as well.

Oh, how could it be a failure?
We could have some crappy wine,everybody like something tells
me in Northern California you'renot gonna have a have that
problem.

Mike (25:54):
True.
I don't think any generalities,but uh yes, I I would think uh
things probably went all rightout there.

Yeah.

Mike (26:01):
Up next, Don Gilman from Texas.

Our master brewer.

Mike (26:05):
Well, he mentions that.
He asks his request to you,Dave.
Okay.
Man, this is the second one intwo weeks.
Could you please kick theappropriate e-board member to
send out a mailing list to theIPMS members in Central Texas?

A mailing list of what?

Mike (26:24):
I guess somebody who they want to know the folks in their
area who might be willing tohelp support a new chapter.

This this is something we can do, but we
can't send a mailing listbecause of the fact that we
can't give out people'sinformation that they've
supplied to us.
But what we do do, do do.
I like that.
Oh, what we do is if you willsend in your information either

(26:52):
to me or to President John Nowakor the director of local
chapters, and you give them anarea and your contact
information, we IPMS can sendout an internal IPMS email to

(27:13):
all of the people in thatdesignated area, giving them
your information to let themreach out to you.

Mike (27:23):
Okay.
I understand that.
Yep.
I'm a little bit surprised thatwhen you signed up for your
IPMS and membership, you didn'twaive the ability to have your
information sent to like-mindedfolks within the organization.

Believe it or not, there's a significant
minority of people who object tothat.

Mike (27:42):
Well, I'm not surprised by that, but a little bit, uh
maybe I am.

Yeah.
But but we we figured out aworkaround.
Okay.
So if Don will reach out to meor John Nowak or Scott Hackney,
give him give them his contactinformation and give them, give
him, give us the geographic areahe's interested in, we can send

(28:08):
out the email to all themembers that meet that criteria.

Mike (28:13):
Well, his statement is a little bit ambiguous.
He sent a zip code list once ortwice to the local regional rep
and been asking him to send outa mailing to IPMS members in
Central Texas.
So it sounds like he's tryingto do what you're suggesting.
And it's not and it's nothappening.

And our RCs vary in quality.
So that's why I recommended hecontact me or these other eboard
members because we can get itdone rather than relying on an
RC to tell us they need it done.
So it happens.
So if you'll reach out, we'llget we'll get that done.

Mike (28:55):
And the other part of his email is uh it's kind of a topic
thing.
It's another one I'm gonna bankbecause there's a lot of good
information here, and it mightmake a good segment in the
future, but we're not gonna upnext is from Paul Palazzazzolo,
Dr.
Paul Palazzolo.
Yeah, and he was listeninglistening to episode 160 and

(29:16):
heard a comment about howfailure influences design.
And the comment brought him toa memory of a book he used to
ask his civil engineeringstudents to read years ago.
To Engineer is Human, The Roleof Failure in Successful Design
by Henry Petrovsky.
And uh he took his class downto Ole Miss to hear him speak

(29:37):
once.
He was a much better writerthan a speaker.
Yeah.

True of a lot of people.

Mike (29:45):
That's true, but the premise is true.
Success is built on a mountainof failure.
And it gets kind of gets backto maybe we're what we're
talking about 160.
I don't remember.
Probably these folks who thinkthey're gonna build the uh
Martin Kovac model after theybuy $400 worth of Megan A.K.

(30:06):
stuff and built their s buildtheir second model, right?

Yep.

Mike (30:10):
So interesting.
Somebody might want to checkthat book out.
To Engineer is Human, the roleof failure in successful design
by Henry Petrosky.
And then he's got a questionfor you, Dave.

Okay.

Mike (30:21):
People are calling you out.
All right, that's it.
Kentucky Dave, I was wonderingif you went to the law school at
the University of Louisville.

Yes, I did.
If you did, did you ever have alaw professor named Ron Eades?
Oh, God, yes, I had ProfessorEades for evidence.
Professor Eades was famous forin his exams having a duck
question, a question featuringducks in every exam.

(30:49):
In fact, I have I have severalbooks written by Ronald Eads.

Mike (30:55):
Well, he grew up in the same neighborhood in south of
Memphis and ran with the samepeople and uh says uh Dr.
Eads is a really smart guy.
He is indeed.
And just thought he'd mentionthat.
So there's a small world.

Well, that's cool.
That is cool because yes, I hadhim.

Mike (31:13):
And finally, the voice of Bob, Bob Bear, is back from his
boondoggle to France.
Poor Bob living such a toughlife.
He had a crappy flight over,man.
I don't know if you were copiedthat on email or not.
It was yeah.
Apparently, uh, climateconditions have made that run
across the uh mid-Atlanticbumpier and bumpier over the

(31:33):
years, and eventually it's gonnacause some uh redirection,
probably, if it continues inthat path.
But he rode the Bob's Bob Sledcourse to uh France from uh the
United States.
Didn't enjoy the flight.
This falls into the bucket ofdocumentation.
He's using a rocket book, 12year 12-year-old rocket book,

(31:55):
and you can still get them.
So they're hanging in there,man.
A rocket book is a reusablenotebook.
So it's a notebook and an app,and you can write in this thing,
and then you can use the app todigitize it.

Right.

Mike (32:11):
Then you can take a wet rag and wipe it all out of the
notebook.

Yep.

Mike (32:15):
And then it can go to whatever you want it to go to
for digital storage, Dropbox,OneDrive, Google Drive, Slack,
whatever.
I I didn't know Bob was thishigh tech.
Yeah, that is.
Well, it's 12-year-old.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Well, Bob, bring it to Nats andshow us, man.
Bring us your show us yourrocket book, book, emphasis on

(32:36):
book.
Yes, thank you.
And he got another question foryou, man.
You're getting all thesesidebars, dude.
All right.
When you go sifting throughdecal sheets to purchase, do you
have a plan?
Like, are you looking forcertain sheets or do you stumble
upon others and you you mightlike and just so ooh pretty and
buy it?
I'm in the ooh pretty category.
Well, you know what?

(32:56):
You're also you're also in thehonest category.

Yeah, well.
Um now there's sometimes youknow, I see a sheet.
In fact, our friend StephenRuey is picking up a decal sheet
at Hannett's for me to go alongwith the new Edward 109K.
There's a new Ames decal sheetout for it.

Mike (33:18):
And uh God knows how you need that.

Yeah, he he offered to pick it up for me,
very kind.
But most of my decal purchasesare in the ooh that's pretty
category or ooh that's neat.
Yeah.
Uh like up at uh HeritageCon,ran across that Hassar sheet of
B-24 assembly ships.
And I had seen that sheetbefore, but you know, I'd seen

(33:44):
it advertised and I I wasn'tpretty enough then, huh?
But then, you know, I cameacross the show at a great
price, and I was like, Yeah, I'min.
So yeah, most of them are ooh,that's pretty.

Mike (34:00):
Could get expensive, man.
At least they're not thatexpensive.

It it I hate to think about the amount of money
I have spent on decal sheets.

Mike (34:09):
You gotta count them up and just throw a four-dollar
number on all the sheets.
That'd be about right.
Yeah, yeah.
On average, dollar costaveraging.
Yes.
Might be more like six.
I don't know.
I think it probably is closerto six.
They're getting a littleexpensive.

Oh, they're getting real expensive now.

Mike (34:26):
Well, I'll tell you what else is now is we're out of
listener mail from the emailside of things.
So you got any DMs other thanone I stole from you?

Yeah, well, that uh I I I didn't even put that
one down because I knew you weregonna take it.
All right.
Uh first listener Martin Pietauh was he sent a DM.
He had only recently heardabout glass files and had just

(34:54):
has just picked them up andstarted to use it, use them.
And he was wondering if anybodyelse out there is using these
things and what their experienceis.
I told him I do have some, Ihave used them a little bit.
To be honest, though, I'm Itend to stick with the more

(35:15):
traditional padded sandingstick, but you know, there are
plenty of people who use themand and really like them.
In fact, I think WarrenDickinson may have given me
mine.
And I I've I have used them,but I don't use them
extensively.
I do not have any.

Mike (35:34):
There's a time to use a file or something else that's
rigid versus a pad.

Right.

Mike (35:40):
And typically I just use the various needle files or some
kind of acrylic sanding block,like the Goodman blocks we've
got.
I've made a bunch of my own.

Yeah.

Mike (35:50):
Anytime something's cut on the laser at work and a scrap
piece comes out that's a littlerectangle.

Yep.

Mike (35:56):
Yeah, it goes in my backpack.
Because it's too it's too smallto make anything else out of
except a nice sanding stick.

Next, Agent 003, Brandon Jacobs, who we saw at
Amps, reached out post-AMPS totell me that he he he had gone
fully intending not to buy anykits, because as you know,
Brandon Brandon is in thesecondhand kit business.

(36:24):
Yeah, and he sees all thesecollections that he buys where
the kits aren't even ever openedout of the shrink wrap.

Mike (36:33):
That's like going to a model show and saying for a
multi-day thing and saying, I'mnot gonna eat any meals while
I'm there.

Yeah.
True.
But Brandon did break down andhe acquired at least one kit.
I don't think he told me whatit was.
Uh, he also got his modelphotographed by fine scale
modeler.

Mike (36:52):
Was pretty much uh Tamia M3 Stewart, he's been putting on
the dojo.

Yes.
He actually the the fine scaletable photography table was next
to our table at Amps, and so hehad mentioned that they had
asked him and he had gotten hismodel photographed, which he was
he was quite thrilled.

Mike (37:14):
As an aside, that that was kind of nice.
We've not talked that much touh those folks, and it wasn't
the regular folks, it was AaronSkinner, actually, there pinch
hitting.
And we got a segment from himcoming up a little later, but it
was nice to to be in that closeproximity to him and uh to have
those conversations.
We had we had fun talking tohim the during the nice.

While we were at Amps, listener Neil Gilborne was
attending the ScottishNationals and pointed out that
Amps might be nice, but nowhereat Amps did you have a bagpiper
come in and play to open theshow.
And he sent me a video of this.

(37:54):
Yeah, I gotta admit, that's anice touch.

Mike (37:59):
It is.
We have to mention that to NeilStokes and the Amps.

Yeah, there you go.

Mike (38:03):
Get him a bagpiper.

Yeah.
Now we had a while we were upat Amps, we had a lot of
listeners reach out and DM usabout, you know, where are you,
where you go be, etc.
And there were a bunch ofthose, and I don't want to go
through all of them, but uh Iwill mention Greg Williams.
Yeah, we spent some time withGreg.
Right.
So who we saw at the show, andbecause of DMs, we were able to

(38:27):
hook up at the at the bar in theDouble Tree and had a really
nice time.
And so when we're at shows, ifyou're at that show and you
can't find us or don't see us,you can always send a DM and
we'll we'll we'll see if we canwe can hook up.
Where we we're usually nothiding.

(38:47):
No, no, that's right.
Uh yeah, especially with thatshirt I'm wearing.
Next is Paul Pendleton Brownfrom Beyond the Box Art.
And this is related to the CAsensitivity.
One of the things he recommendsas alternative is the ammo
ultra glue, which is a verythick PVA glue.

Mike (39:12):
Yeah, and Eye Lane's craft glue.

Yeah, except it's even thicker than that.
It's almost almost a gel.
And because of that, because ofthe the nature of it, you can
put it on and then place apart,and because it's so thick, it
will much like a CA bond, itwill hold it immediately as it

(39:41):
dries.
Now it's not drying immediatelylike thin CA, but he recommends
that as a good alternative.

Mike (39:49):
Well, Frank's got a lot of stuff to try now.

He does.
Next is listener Eric Caprady.
And he reached out because I'dbeen talking about how one of
the limitations I have onmodeling right now is with my
tremor, especially if I'm doingdetail work, I can only get in

(40:12):
so much modeling before I haveto stop.
Just it it's exhausting and thetremor starts to really take
effect.
He's got the same problem.
And the two areas he noticed ituh most was in decaling,
particularly if you're puttingon a lot of small stencil type
decals, and in, of course, photoetch.

(40:36):
I talk about that from time totime.
I'm amazed at the number ofmodelers out there who are
dealing with that.
And I guess I shouldn't bebecause one of the things, uh,
features of the essential tremoris as you get older, it gets
worse.
So there are apparently a fairnumber of modelers out there who

(40:57):
are dealing with this and andlooking for ways to to militate
the effects of it.
So I'm happy to to have peoplereach out and tell me their
experiences and what works forthem.
And it was nice to hear fromfrom Eric.

Mike (41:13):
Well, that's good.
Hopefully you can keep a handleon yours, man.

Yeah, I'm trying.
Now, you mentioned our friendMartin Drayton.
Yep.
And Mr.
Drayton reached out because heheard us and the pod father,
that's awesome.
All complaining about longflights.

Mike (41:32):
Yeah.

Martin wants to point out it's even more
difficult when you're working.
Martin, of course, is a flightattendant and deals with the
these long flights where notonly are you on the long flight,
but you're actually workingthat flight.
And he points out that we needto stop complaining.

Mike (42:00):
Yes, we'll stop complaining.
Though my initial thought wouldbe that having something to do
besides sit there might pass thetime, but then you're the
downside is dealing with muckslike the rest of us.
Well, not like us, but peoplewho aren't like us on the flight
that are finding things to beuh disagreeable about.

Yep, absolutely.

Mike (42:21):
It's just so much easier just to sit there and suck it
up, man.

And post-COVID, man, more and more.
That's the reason my wiferetired.
Finally, Kyle Allrit.
He mentioned that again, goingback to the AI and 3D printing,
he's another person who isexperimenting with it, along

(42:46):
with apparently both he and hiswife.
And he's managed, he wasmentioning a photograph of, I
think it was a troll, that hewas able to successfully produce
using just AI, a a STL filethat did a pretty darn good

(43:09):
reproduction of the sourcesubject matter.
So people really seem to bewith the price of 3D print
printers coming down, and withthe the availability of this AI,
people really seem to beexperimenting in this area a

(43:31):
whole lot.
And I I'm here for it.
I can't wait to see whatdevelops next.

Mike (43:38):
Man, I guess I thought I was engaged with this kind of
stuff to some degree, but thereapparently there are a lot more
people out there than I realizeare in the modeling community,
even that are way more down thepipe than I am.
So it's been interesting lhearing from all these folks.
So it really has.
We'll see what comes up next.
Yep.
Is that all you got, man?
That's all I got.

(43:59):
Well, folks, we love thissegment.
And this is a thick onetonight, which is always great.
And especially when it's in theorbit of other subjects we've
talked about prior, like the uhCA sensitivity and then the
documentation, even for your foryour modeling project.
So we had a lot of that thistime.
Really appreciate it.
If you'd like to email theshow, you can do so by sending

(44:20):
us an email at plasticmodelmojoat gmail.com, or you can use the
Facebook Messenger system tosend us a direct message.
And I usually handle theemails, and Dave usually handles
the Facebook stuff.
There's also a uh feedback weblink in the uh show notes of
each and every episode.
You can uh get on there and uhsend us an email that way as

(44:40):
well.
So much appreciated.
Keep it coming, folks.
Well, Kentucky Dave, we calledthis housekeeping because we got

(45:08):
a bunch of segments we'verecorded during our time at
HeritageCon and then just lastweekend at Amps.
And uh, we need to clear thisstuff out and get on get on down
the road with some othercontent.
So we're gonna go through someof these segments.
Again, our first stop wasHeritageCon.
We've talked about it before onthe show already since we've
gotten back.
But while we were there, weconducted a live version of the

(45:33):
Wheel of Accidental Wisdom.
It ran about an hour, give ortake.
And I've pulled a few segments,three in fact, from that that
were two things.
They were the the moreinteresting ones, the questions
that were provided, and theygive our listeners a chance to
hear from three different peoplewho were involved in that with

(45:54):
us as a third third microphone.
Yeah.
You ready to get into that alittle bit?
I'm ready.
Who are we gonna hear fromfirst?
Uh, it's gonna be EvanMcCallum, Panzermeister 36.

All right.

Mike (46:11):
On the third chair is Evan McCallum, Panzermeister 36,
because an armor question cameup.
Uh yeah, all right.
Evan's been a long time friendof the show, and we enjoy to get
to see you when you when wecome up here, man.
So the question is tracks,rubber band, link in length,
individual links, and then 3Dprint, metal, or whatever.
You go first.
What's your favorite?

Evan McCallum (46:31):
My favorite, it's a tough choice between metal
and 3D print.
Now, I don't mind individuallink tracks, I kind of prefer
them to rubber band or link inlength because I just think the
detail is so much more crisp andthey actually work like the
real thing.
So because I build the tracksseparately and I put them on the

(46:51):
model at the very end, it'smuch easier to actually put them
on the model if they're fullyworkable and I can just
basically drag them on like youwould in real life versus a big
like plastic blob I gotta kindof slot on as one big piece as
Lincoln Length would end upbeing.
Also, a lot of plastic trackslike Lincoln Length and
individual link plastic tracks,they always just have ejector
pin marks on them from themolding process somehow, and

(47:12):
it's really hard to clean themup.
But I really like a lot of themodern 3D printed tracks because
they're done from 3D scans, sothey are like 100% scale
accurate and they just looksuper nice.
And a lot of them now are areuh very well printed, they're
already cleaned up in the in thein the box, so there's really
nothing to do, no drilling outof the holes like you do with
metal tracks a lot of the time.

(47:34):
So my favorite was definitelylike T-Rex and Panzerwork Design
do excellent 3D printed tracks.
Now, metal tracks, the benefitis they are metal, so you can
actually chemically blacken themand weather them and then sand
off the high points, and itlooks just like the real thing
because it kind of is the realthing.
But a lot of them are actuallykind of chunky and overscale,

(47:54):
and they very often have to haveall the pinholes drilled out
because the molds are freelmolds from like the 90s and
they're just super old.

Mike (48:02):
And they're both right-handed or left-handed.

Yeah, exactly.
They're all the there's a holeon one side all the way through.
So because I'm a masochist, Ilike to go with the crazy 3D
printed tracks all the time.
But some people don't like thatand they go rubber band, and
that's perfectly fine for them.

And if you know Evan's channel on YouTube, he
has done a series where he hasexamined 3D printed tracks from
how many manufacturers?
Probably at least 20.
And at that point, they weremore being produced, more
different companies were beingproduced than he could keep up

(48:37):
with doing them.

And a lot of them honestly weren't that good.
A lot of them are very cheapand poorly printed, but there's
a few good brands out there thatare fashion projects, the guys
who make them, and they'rethey're keen on doing like, like
I said, like 100% scaleaccurate tracks.
That would be PanzerworkDesign, T-Rex Studio, and I
think ET model would be my topthree for 3D printed tracks.

As an aircraft modeler, I say, what are tracks?

You did the flyhawk and BT7 with the Lincoln
Length tracks.

Yes, that's the the first.
I don't ever deal with tracksand all, but I did, I am in the
process of building the FlyhawkBT7, and it has length and
length track.
And I was surprised at how wellthat worked.

I think in 70 second scale, that's probably
the way to go.

Yeah, uh I will be honest with you.
When I looked at them, I waslike, there is no way this is
gonna work.
And I put them on, and one sidewent perfect.
The other side, I had one smallarea where I had to do a little
fiddling and adjusting, but Iwas shocked at how well they
did.

And for people who don't know, link and length
track is where you have most ofthe straight sections are molded
as a big run, and then you'vegot individual links for the few
corners and stuff, so it'sprobably 20 pieces of track
instead of a hundred.

Mike (50:01):
Well, since any individual tracks came out, I've never
looked back.
I've not used rubber bandtracks since like fruit model
first, or model casting evenfirst came on the scene, just
because they're they're so muchbetter.
But I built the heavy infantrygun on the Panzer 3.
Oh, the Sturm Infantry Gush 33?
Yeah, and it I used model castand Panzer III tracks on that,
which you have to put everyguide horn on.

(50:23):
So it was a plate, a guidehorn, and two pins.
Yeah, I would never do thatagain.
I've used frull tracks, eventhe old lobster claw ones where
you had to crimp them together.
I've got a model with those onit.
I've got frull tracks on the myPT-76, my little Russian big
Russian amphibious tank.
But I'd originally tried to usethe trumpeter individual

(50:47):
plastic tracks for that kit.
Don't recommend those either.
Those are terrible.
Again, they're multi-part.
The guide horns are separate.
And if I'm not mistaken,there's two on the PT track.
There's two of them.
And it's hard to get them alllined up straight.
And the mountings are terribleand they don't stay together.
The pins are too short.
And I like the new frulls,except you usually get the

(51:09):
same-handed track for both runs,so the pins are exposed on one
side, and you gotta do somethingto it.
These 3D tracks, I've I've got3D tracks I'm using on my my
current project.
They're all together.
I really like them, but I thinkwhat is gonna be hard is like
Evan was saying, you can use theburnishing fluid to blacken the
metal tracks ahead of time,which is a big help.

(51:32):
So what I want to try on theseis to paint the tracks in a
tamiya LP with LP11, the silverlacquer paint first, and then
use an acrylic or a tamiyalacquer acrylic hybrid on top of
that.
And then you can take like uh99% alcohol or or something like

(51:56):
that.
That won't take the lacqueroff, but we'll take the hybrid
paint off.
Well, I'm getting ready to dothe tracks on my KV-85.
I've got them together, but I'mgonna try that paint trick I
mentioned in the segment, man,and see how that works out.

Now, these are 3D printed tracks?

Mike (52:15):
They are 3D printed tracks.
I'm gonna use one of the LPpaints.
I don't can't decide if I'mgonna use the silver or the or
the more of the gunmetal color.
I'm not gonna paint thementirely with that first, and
then I'm gonna hit them withsome different colors of
straight-up tamiya mixes, andthen do my weathering and then
come back with uh the highconcentration of IPA and uh wipe

(52:37):
that Tamiya paint right off thehigh points and get it right
down to the lacquer paintbecause the the alcohol
shouldn't touch it.

Yep.
Yep.
I'll be interested to see howyou'll have to put that on the
dojo as you do it in steps.
I will.

Mike (52:51):
And you know, we mentioned Spud Murphy earlier.
Some some one of our listenershad mentioned him, and I think
he did something similar to thison one of his big 16th scale
projects.
So I think it will work.
Whether I can pull it off ornot, that's entirely to be
determined.
Well, you can't do know thatuntil you try.
That's right.
Well, up next, we're gonna hearfrom our friend Jim Bates.

(53:15):
And the the topic for this nextuh segment was our best model
show find.
What's the coolest random thingyou found at a show?
I know the answer.

For you, for me.
And friends I didn't know Ihad.
I'm deadly serious about this.
It sounds cute.
Mike and I are big proponentsof shows.
And I'm here to tell you theleast important thing about a
show is the contest that's goingon right now.

(53:52):
The most important thing at ashow is this people getting
together and meeting, havecommon interests, you start
talking.
You know, you're alreadymodelers, so you already have a
common interest to begin with,but then there's some subject or
whatever.
Invariably at shows, I run intopeople, most of whom I've never

(54:17):
interacted with before, andprobably never would have,
because they live in Ottawa,Ontario, Canada.
But we meet and we starttalking, or better yet, you you
go into the contest area, andthe best part about the contest
is seeing a model that's great,or seeing a model where you're

(54:40):
like, how the heck did he dothat?
And flipping the thing up,seeing the person's name, and
trying to go find them to askhim.
And we were having thisdiscussion last night at dinner.
I maintain that there areunpleasant people in modeling,

(55:00):
but as a rule, it's a real smallamount.
I don't think I've everencountered a modeler that I've
walked up to and said, How didyou do that?
And they didn't spend 20minutes telling me every every
detail of it and answering everyquestion that I and seriously,

(55:24):
it's the best thing I run intoat shows.
It's it's the best thing aboutshows.
If there wasn't a socialinteraction, I don't think I
would come to shows, even thoughI love the vendors area.
Mike?
Let me get this back to whereit was probably intended.
Yes.

Mike (55:39):
Okay.
You take it back.
Cool as random thing I found ata show.
Everybody familiar with theSquadron Signal publications,
the in-action series?
Do you know who Uve Feist is?
Yes.
He was one of the earlyillustrators for the the first
of those books back in the 70s.
The Squadron has beenreconstituted under new

(56:01):
ownership, all that.
But all that stuff wasdispositioned several years ago.
And if you come down to theshows in the U.S.
of late last few years, thefolks that ended up with all the
original watercolors has beenselling those.
So I picked up it's a reallyearly one.
It's dated 1971.

(56:22):
It's a it's a T-34, and it wasthe cover art for Soviet Panzers
in Action.
When they had the old whitecover, white background, it's
just a big T-34, but it's theoriginal watercolor over pencil
sketch from Uve Feist.
He just passed away last week,so I don't wish death on
anybody, but it got to be a moresignificant purchase for me.
I was glad I picked it upbecause I bought that book at a

(56:43):
hobby shop in Columbia, SouthCarolina when I was about 13.
And it was old then.
It was already been out ofprint forever.
Early 80s is when I bought it.
So the book was already 10years old.
So I've got the I've got a copyof the book and I've got the
original watercolor.
So and it wasn't that much, soI was glad I got it.
Because uh now he's now he'spassed on, and it's the only

(57:04):
one, so that's kind of cool.
Nothing, Jim.
Okay.

Jim Bates (57:08):
I don't I don't have a show thing.
The best I would come up withis I bought a book I'd been
looking for forever on eBay, andI get it, and it is the it's
about P40s, and it was signed byone RCAF pilot, and clearly
he'd bought it for a differentRCAF pilot.
So there's an inscription inthe book to So and So by Stocky

(57:31):
Edwards, and I just thought thatwas the coolest thing ever.

Mike (57:39):
Well, your comment was friends you didn't know you had.
Which is a great answer, by theway.
Yep.
And it continues to build.

Yep.
Well, speaking of friends, itwas great to see Jim.
I mean, yeah, because Jim livesout on the on the left coast,
you know, we don't get to seehim as often and we don't run
him to him in shows in theregion like we do with Inch or
some of our other friends.
And so it was really nice to tonot only see Jim at the show,

(58:12):
but to spend a couple of dayswith him.
And I gotta say, it was a greattime.

Mike (58:18):
Our next segment is the best model building or model
hobby in general.
The the best, our best memoryfrom participating in this
hobby, regardless of whether itwas a show or just growing up
doing it or whatever.
And it's from one of those newfriends you didn't know you had.

Exactly.
That's what I was gonnamention.

Mike (58:38):
Mr.
Robbie Knuff.
So uh let's get into that one.
Fondest memory associated withbuilding models.

That's a good question.

Mike (58:51):
Let's get somebody new up here.

Yeah, yeah, come on.
Introduce yourself.

Robbie Nauffs (58:58):
All right.
Uh hi everybody.
Uh my name is Robbie Knoffs.
You might also know me from mysocials on Facebook and YouTube
as The Model Guy.
I've come all the way todayfrom just outside Calgary,
Alberta, to hang out to theshow.
So really appreciate the show.
This has been great to be toand met a lot of people to talk
to and been having a blast sofar.

What's your fondest memory associated with
modeling?

Robbie Nauffs (59:18):
So my fondest memory of modeling so far has
been a couple years ago, I wascontacted by a gentleman down in
the States, and he asked me ifI could do a build in honor of
his great uncle who had flownwhat he thought was hurricanes
in North Africa.
So I got talking to him, I gothis father's, or sorry, his
uncle's name, his serial number,his service number for the RAF.

(59:38):
And I did a bit of research andwas able to get into the
Imperial War Museum archives andfind out where his where the
uncle actually flew, thesquadron he was with and the
aircraft he was flying.
So it turns out he was actuallyflying P-40s.
So I actually did a build fortheir family of that aircraft
and shipped it down to them, andthey were really grateful to do
it.
And for me, it was greatbecause it kind of elevated the

(59:58):
hobby.
It wasn't just somethingplastic, it was something that
was going to be a memory forthat family.
So for me, it was reallyenjoyable because I love doing
research and just be able to tieit all together was a blast for
me.

Mike (01:00:09):
Mike?
Well, I go way back when I wasa young kid at grade school.
We used to I'd go to myfriend's house and we'd we'd put
together models, a lot ofCorsairs and zeros and stuff,
and just lighting the candle andunfolding the paper clip and
heating it up and battle damage.
Putting bullet holes all up anddown the sides of it and stuff
like that.
From from childhood, thatthat's a good memory.

(01:00:31):
It's a fond memory or not, justthings that stick in your head.
When I was a teenager, I'dbuilt both the ESCI horse-drawn,
the German ambulance and theGerman supply wagon.
I'd built to me as a fieldkitchen.
And I was gonna do this bigthing, you know, when I was 14
and stupid.
I had it on this long plankthat was really narrow and about

(01:00:52):
three feet long, and I'mcarrying it.
And it just tips a little bit,and it's like not a fond memory,
but something it's definitely avivid memory that all of them
just like just went straight inthe trash.
Like just destroyed.
I hadn't they weren't evenpainted yet, really.
I dad got them all together andhad all the reins on
everything, and and i ifanybody's ever built that to mea

(01:01:15):
field kitchen, the horsesweren't tacked, they weren't
molded with the tack on them.
They gave you this little sheetof 10,000 styrene, and you had
to cut the tack from the styreneand glue it onto the horses,
which was really interesting forTomia, but uh that's that's
another crazy memory, Dave.

Kentucky Dave (01:01:33):
There are tons of them.
I would say my youngestdaughter is about to go off to
college, and when she was ohsix, seven, uh, she's very
artistic and has a real talentfor art and all.

(01:01:53):
And she uh she saw me modelingand asked to participate, and so
we got starting with SnapTogether Kit and all that, maybe
a year and a half, two years,where I got to model with her
before she lost interest andwent on to other things.

(01:02:14):
And those are really fondmemories of just sitting there
watching her, really.
I didn't help her that muchbecause she really was good at
it.
But those are really fondmemories that you'll remember, I
think, forever.

Mike (01:02:35):
Now we knew of Robbie from his YouTube channel and his uh
pretty prolific social mediapresence, but I don't we had
never met him in person.

No, we had not.
And I've got to tell you, itwas really quite quite an
enjoyable experience to meet himin person and to spend time
with him, to break bread, toconsume modeling fluid.
And it just was a it was a afun time to again friend you
didn't know you had.

Mike (01:03:05):
Well, I I second all of that, and then he ended up
joining us for breakfast uh onthe last day on our day on our
way out, and his way out.
So uh Robbie, is it great tomeet you face to face?
Thanks for hanging out at thedojo with us, and thanks for
joining us for the meals.
You're gonna want to check outRobbie's YouTube page, it's the
model guy, and it's a goodchannel.
He does a lot of variety ofsubjects out there, so you're

(01:03:27):
gonna learn a lot of things, getto see a lot of things, and go
subscribe and check out whatRobbie's got going on.
Well, Dave, that's it fromHeritageCon.
It was a fun time as always.
So it was good to see Evan.
It was good to see Jim.
It was great to see and meetRobbie.
And folks, if you're up thatway or can be up that way next
year in 2027, you're gonna wantto check that show out.

(01:03:49):
It's it's a good one.

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Mike (01:04:53):
Well, Kentucky Dave, it's time for the bench top halftime
report.
And given our travel scheduleof the last three weeks, I
suspect I suspect, I don't know.
I suspect that it might be alittle light.

It is a little light on my end, but I did get
some modeling done.
It was on the T33 that that Ipulled off the shelf of Doom.
And because this is gonna havea natural metal finish, you
know, I really have toconcentrate on the seams and I
have to concentrate on makingsure the the primer is polished

(01:05:32):
very well.
And I spent time doing that,also doing some re-engraving of
panel lines that I manage topartly disappear.
But it's all going good to thepoint where I've got just a very
minor amount of additionaltouch up, and then I think at

(01:05:53):
that point I can probablyproceed to start putting bare
metal, the bare metal finish onit.

Mike (01:06:00):
I hope you don't find any surprises when you prime it
again.

Oh god, you you know how prime primer paint
crack seams, you know that.

Mike (01:06:09):
That bare metal, man.
I'm I'm watching close 'causeuh at least one in my future,
probably two.
And in a on the obvious timehorizon.
So yeah.

Well, I've got a couple of tricks I want to try.

Mike (01:06:22):
You try 'em and let everybody know.
I will.
For me, it hadn't meant a lot.
It's the KV-85.
It's getting primed.
I've got what have we got toprime?
I prime the turret, I prime thereturn rollers, and I almost
ran out of primer.
So I didn't want to start thehull with uh the uh the tailings
of my my current bottle.

(01:06:43):
So you you help me out there.

That's what I am, a hobby supply store.
That brings up the subject,though.
You gotta mention what you'retalking about.
For some reason, Mr.
Surfacer in the Jar hassuddenly become scarce.

Mike (01:06:59):
I suspect they batch produce stuff.

That would make sense.

Mike (01:07:04):
And and when you do that, and then it's getting shipped in
a container across the oceanand all the other shenanigans
going on with internationalcommerce right now.
Yeah, particularly with ourcountry, it's probably not as
easy as it was, and it's justgonna have to figure out its new
path to get here, and hopefullyit gets here soon.
And when it does, I'm gonna buylike three jars.

Yep, exactly.

Mike (01:07:25):
Well, I appreciate it though.
I I need it, but I did finishout and do all the the drive
sprockets, the idlers, and allthe road wheels with what was
left of my bottle.
And man, I got just abouteverything out of that bottle I
could get.
You can see through the sidesof the bottle now.
Yeah, that's how clean I gotit.
That's how much of that primerI use.
So I I didn't want to start thehole with not enough primer to

(01:07:49):
finish it, which was kind of onthe hair scary edge when I
started these road wheels andstuff.
It might have been okay, but itjust seemed like a bad idea.

Right.

Mike (01:07:59):
I guess because if you were painting a model, the f the
you know, the base color, youprobably wouldn't want to do
that.
But this was primer, itprobably shouldn't have
mattered.
But anyway, I chose that path.
I did not prime it.
But you got me some new primer.
I'm gonna crack into that.
I don't know if I'll get to itfor the weekend or not, but I'm
gonna prime the hull and all thelittle bobbles I gotta get that
have to get attached to it as Ias I paint and build the thing.

(01:08:21):
So And then you're on to 4BO.
Then I'm on to 4BO.
In addition to the KV85, sortakinda started a secret project.
Uh-oh.
I'm not gonna say what it is.
I will say that it is a vintagekit, and I took out the hardest

(01:08:42):
parts to clean up from the kit,and if I can get those cleaned
up in due order, I will proceedwith this project.

All right.

Mike (01:08:51):
That's all I'm all I'm saying about it.

Well, I think I know what you're talking about,
and I'm waiting for the bigreveal.

Mike (01:08:59):
I think I think you think you know, but I think you're
wrong.

Okay.
All right.
Well, that's good.

Mike (01:09:06):
Uh because what you're thinking about won't be so
secret because I'm gonna go I'mgonna go for it.
But anyway, we'll see how thatgoes.
I'm documenting as I go, too,so it can be used later.
So that's what we got going on.
So that is my bench tophalftime report.
I assume you're done as well.

I am done.

Let's get on.
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Mike (01:10:06):
Well, folks, now we're going to move on to part two of
Plastic Model Mojo's uhhousekeeping episode.
We've mentioned it already,Dave, but we just got back from
the 2026 uh Armor Modeling andPreservation Society's
International Convention.
Yep.
And it was great.
It was great.

(01:10:27):
We had a good time.
It was truncated a little bit.
Kind of reminded me of that uhChicago trip we always talk
about.
We had to quit before we had torace home to get uh our first
dates with our future wives.

Yeah.

Mike (01:10:41):
Um the stakes were not so high this time.
But uh I did have to get backfor uh a dinner engagement with
some old friends who were backin Lexington who had moved off
about the geez, three years agoat this point.
They were in town.
So uh we had to leave earlySaturday, but uh I think we got
everything done we hoped to getdone at the show, yep, and had a

(01:11:03):
great time.

The social aspect was really good.
Oh yeah.
The only downside of the wholething was well, two one one
elevator for the entire hotel,one functioning elevator.

Mike (01:11:17):
Yeah, that was kind of bad.

Made it a little fun, and then driving home, it
was raining the whole way back.

Mike (01:11:25):
So it wasn't terrible.
I think the elevator was worsethan the rain.
Honestly.
Yeah, it was.
If I had to pick the worst, itwas the elevator.

Yep.

Mike (01:11:33):
Yeah, by the time I got to your house and got my car and
went on to Lexington, the rainhad pretty much stopped.
So fun times.
Just a great trip.
Our our first segment here iswe mentioned him already, is
Brandon Jacob from Winter Blitz.
And we saw him at the show, andwe got a recap from him about
uh how Winter Blitz went downback in January.

(01:11:54):
Well, Dave, no surprise.
We got Brandon Jacob here fromTexas, Agent 003, back at Amps.
How you doing, man?
I'm doing good.

Brandon Jacob (01:12:07):
Good to be uh good to be back here.
I missed out on uh the big showlast year.

Mike (01:12:11):
Well, you just handed us a promo card for Winter Blitz
2027.
No, we we had you on talkingabout 2026 back before the first
of the year, and sounds like itwas a big deal.

I believe when I was on I made a a weather
prediction, didn't I?
Yes, you did.

Mike (01:12:25):
Yes, you did.
Yeah, you had to eat a littlecrow.

Yeah, we had a reschedule because of the the
Texas freeze, which certainlywas a freeze, a real deal, and
we held it on February 28th as aremake, and it was extremely it
just it just went off without ahitch.

So, how how many people, how many models?

We were excited this year.
We went up in participants andin models.
Good.
We had 89 participants, so 89people who registered models,
obviously, heck of a lot morepeople at the show.
Right.
And then we had 451 modelsentered into the contest, which
was a hundred over the previousyear.

That's great growth.
That's great growth, man.
And I know I've talked to anumber of people, John Bonani,
some others who attended theshow, and absolutely everybody
was just super impressed by theshow this year.

That's good to hear.
We we felt, you know, that wasa fifth year, and it just seemed
like a lot of the kinks, if youwill, yeah, were ironed out.
Except the weather.

Mike (01:13:31):
Well, and we can't control the one you can't control.

I tell you what, can you believe that you just
started this thing out of theblue five years ago?
It's hard to believe.

Mike (01:13:40):
You know, it was that's that's a good uh line to talk
about a little bit.
What how does that make youfeel now, five years in, that
this thing is is kind of a bigdeal now?

You know, it it it makes me feel good because
you I do put time into it and Iput a lot of a lot of create
creativity into it, notsupported by any one amps or
IPMS, so it it's a lot of me,right?
And it makes me feel goodbecause you know, you you see
people having having fun andhaving a good time, and it it

(01:14:10):
certainly it's the it's thepayoff.

Well, and yeah, you're putting something on that
people come and get so muchenjoyment out of.
I mean, you know, that'sputting good into the modeling
world.

Yeah, and and it was funny because after the
first year, you know, of courseit it was raw and there were
hiccups and not everything wasyou know the way it is now.
And you know, it was even like,do we go through this again the
second year?
And and and you know, it'sfunny.
A friend in Houston pulled measide and said, You made so many
people happy up at that museum,you have to continue this.

(01:14:41):
So here, so here we are.
Well, that's good.
And you added helicopters now,and well, we we uh, you know,
it's it the joke is everybody, alot of people say, Well, don't
you do tank busters,helicopters, which is more of an
amps thing.
Right.
I I kind of you know, we didVietnam helicopters the year
before, so this year we did tankbusters finally, yeah, and we

(01:15:03):
had one entry.
Oh well, but then again, nobodyknows, you got to give it a
couple of years.
And what we just decided to dofor next year, military
helicopters.
Yeah, you bring a militaryhelicopter and well, and they're
flying tanks.
I mean, they really are.
We are going to stick witharmor or museum-related themes,

(01:15:24):
and we do have a cobra flyingabove in the museum.

Mike (01:15:28):
Well, you kind of have to because you're gonna hit a space
limit there at some point, Iimagine.

And and I think we got pretty close to it.
This year, their new buildingis gonna be done.
Oh, I didn't know they werebuilding a new building.
And and and in fact, we evenuse the new building this year
for the judges' meeting becausethey have a meeting room in a
new building.

And and the judge it, I think it helped the
judging that we were able to getin a better, better spot that
that's exciting to indicate thatthe not only are your is your
show succeeding, but the museumis obviously really succeeding.

Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
So it's all good news.
There's some logistics in inthe new building, it's not
connected to the old building,so we're not really sure how to
you work it out.
Yeah, we'll work it out, butthere's gonna be more room.

Mike (01:16:11):
Well, cool.
Well, you've given us this infocard, January 23rd, 2027.
And you got a URL on here and aQR code.
Again, it's winterhyphenblitz.com.
And I'm sure we're gonna talkto you again when we get a
little closer to this show, man.
But uh we look forward to it,man.
I I want to come, man.
I was after this last one, Iwas actually looking for
flights.
What'd it take for me to getdown there on Southwest?

(01:16:32):
Yeah.
Southwest goes into Austin orHouston.
Brandon, we'll let you get backto the show floor, but thanks
for the information.
I'm glad it was a success, man.
And thanks for letting us be apart of your show and the way we
kept promoting.
Thank you guys, man.
Thank you guys.
Always good to see the 003.

It was, and it was great to be able to give him
a little bit of heck aboutabout the the weather.

Mike (01:16:59):
It was, you know, the one thing you can't control.

Yeah.

Mike (01:17:07):
Cranking on the weather all the time.

Yeah.

Mike (01:17:10):
Uh good to see Brandon.
You know, he's gearing up forWinter Blitz 2027.
I'm I'm sure we'll have himback on the show to talk about
that.

But man, feeling gravity's pull to get to that
thing, man.
Yes.
I'm the same way.
I need to get to I want to getto Winter Blitz and I want to go
out to wine country.

Mike (01:17:32):
Well, for us, the winter blitz is the easier of the two
for sure.
Uh given the Louisvillesouthwest connection.

Well, not only that, we could drive it.
We've done it before.

Mike (01:17:44):
We could, but if we if we flew it, we would be back in
plenty of time and we couldminimize the collateral damage
from being gone for three days.

Exactly.

Mike (01:17:54):
So we're not committing to coming in 2027, but uh
certainly on the on thepossibilities of things to
explore, and uh we'll get caughtup with Brandon a little later
in the year.
We'll probably see him at theNational Convention in addition.
But uh probably come Decemberwe're gonna be hearing from him
about 2027 uh winter blitz.
We also saw another familiarface at AMS.

(01:18:17):
We saw the inch eye guy, JeffGroves, was uh who was attending
his first AMPS.
He was, and he doesn't live toofar away.
No, so it was good to get histake on seeing that for the
first time because not only hadnot been to AMPS, he had not
seen a show run.
Gold, silver, bronze is alittle different than the ones

(01:18:37):
that are out there that some ofthe IPMS chapters are are are
running, but he had not evenseen that.

So no, he had not seen an open system at all.
He was all he was completelyused to the one, two, three.
Let's get to inch and see whathe had to say about amps.

Mike (01:18:58):
Well, Dave, we got one of our regulars here from our
region, Mr.
Jeff Groves, the inside guy.

Jeff "Inch High" Groves (01:19:02):
What's happening, man?
Hi guys, glad to be here.
You're in my own backyard now,the great seafaring state of
Indiana.

That's right.
This is your first time at anAmps National, man.

Yes, this is my first Amps ever.

So, what what's your impression of the Amps
National?
You go, you've been to a fairnumber of contests over the
years.

Yeah, I've been to to just about every
IPMS show in Region 4, at leastin driving distance.
Um, I'm impressed.
I like I like the the layout,the facility here in in South
Bend is just beautiful.
It is a beautiful facility.
Uh a lot of good vendors here.
Yeah, I I like the way thejudging is going with the gold

(01:19:42):
silver bronze.
This is the first time I'veactually encountered that in
person.
Now I didn't enter any anymodels myself, but it seems like
a pretty straightforward way todo a show.

Mike (01:19:51):
Yep.
Even the other the gold silverbronzes that exist at you know
some of the IPMS shows isn't runlike this one.

No, this is completely different.
So I'm surprised.
Is nobody in region forwarddoing GSB?
No, uh uh uh Pittsburgh doesGSB.
Okay, and they have for years,I mean for ages.

And I've never been out quite that
far east, so that's that's onthe edge of Region 4.
Yeah, that's my failing there.
But I'm I'm impressed withthis.
A lot of good vendors, uh a lotof name brand vendors.
I met Brandon from fromSquadron for the first time.
David Doyle Books is here.
Yep, yep.
Um Mike, I understand you havepurchased several original

(01:20:33):
artworks from the old Squadronsignal book.

Mike (01:20:35):
One of them in particular that keeps popping up.

I'm telling you what, and downtown South Bend is
really nice.
We'll we'll go down to dinnerlater.
There are just tons of placesto eat, really high quality uh
food choices right close to thehotel and the convention center.

This is an ideal place to me.
And another serendipitous thingthat we were all discussing
earlier is there is an esportstournament.
There's an esports tournamentgoing on right now.

One of the other halls has a war game display
going on, miniature figurehistorical war gaming.

Very synergistic.
I mean, it's a perfect fit witha model show.
There's a lot of crossoverthere.
I wish we could see more ofthat, and I think it would draw
people into all the hobbies.

Yeah, I do too.
I I mean it was utterlyserendipity.
The Amps guys didn't know theseother things would be going on,
but they've all been welcoming.
You can walk through theirstuff and get to watch the guys
playing the tabletop war gamingor duck into the to the
amphitheater and watch theeSports being done up on the big

(01:21:48):
screens.

It's really cool.
Yeah, we spoke to those wargame guys and they are very
welcoming.
They're they're modelers.
They're just exactly what you'dexpect of as modelers.

Mike (01:21:57):
Yep, they absolutely are.
Well, have you taken any of thesmall-scale entries on the
table yet?

I I have looked at them.
There are there's a lot offascinating work here.
This the the stuff is highquality.
The the the volume of stuff onthe tables versus the judging
queue is still out of balance,but uh uh hopefully there'll be
more stuff out on the table alittle later today.
Now you said they normallydon't get everything on the
table until tomorrow.
Is that right?
That's true.

Because judging goes through midday tomorrow.

I think so.

Yeah.

So we're looking at half of the
entries?

Yeah.
Well, less than half on thetables, probably less than half.

I don't know how many is back there
now.

Well, I took a picture earlier.
I went in and took a picture.
It the the room was packed asfar as uh entries yet to be
judged.

What's on the table is all top drawer
stuff.

It is great, it is absolutely high quality.

Well, we're glad to see you, man.
I saw you buy some books.
Good seeing you.
Yeah, I managed to to finagleuh uh a good deal with one of
the book vendors.
I was able to trade some of thestock I'd been selling for some
of the stock he was selling,and uh we were able to shake
hands at the end and walk out.
Uh David sent me a pictureyesterday saying, Here's here's
some of the books you're lookingfor, and I thought, man, I'm

(01:23:09):
see if I can get a deal withthis guy.
And it worked out.
Good.
It did.
Well, let's get back to theshow, man.
Well, thanks, and good to seeyou guys.

Well, I think he had a good time.
I think he did.
It's always good to see Inch.
Not only I'm glad we got to seehim at a show at the show, we
got to go to dinner with him andjust had a really fine meal.

Mike (01:23:38):
We did, which was great because Brandon from Squadron
had gone over there the nightbefore, and I I think the beer
system, now the Guinness wasfine, it's on its own, right?
It's on a nitrogen tap.
But the the system that runsall their other taps was down.
And then something else wasgoing on.
So we had the experience we hadwhen we were there two years

(01:23:59):
ago, which is great, because Iwas worried we were gonna it was
gonna crap out on us, but uh weeach had something different
off the menu, and and like Isaid on the Facebook post, I
think we walked out of there atleast one belt notch further up
on the belt.
At least.
And oh man.
At least that was pretty good.
And the waitress was reallyIrish.

(01:24:20):
It was great.
So that was uh that was abonus.
We had a good time.
It was great to see Hinch, andI guess the next time it's in
South Bend, he's probably gonnabe inclined to go.
May maybe with entries and staymore than a few hours.
Or anywhere else in region fourwe might happen to get to
before then, which we'll see.
Well, finally, we'd mentionedbefore our table was right next

(01:24:46):
to the Finescale photo booth,and at that booth was none other
than uh former Finescaleemployee, editor, in fact, Aaron
Skinner, who was supposed tomeet some of his former
colleagues there to hang out andrun the booth, and they had
obligations arise, and he tookit upon himself to do it

(01:25:07):
himself, and did a fine job.
But uh we we got a chance totalk to him a a lot of about a
lot of stuff, but we did get himin the seat for an interview, a
short interview, a shortsegment, not about Finescale and
what he was doing there, butabout his transition over to his

(01:25:27):
current position with roundtwo, which is a model company
right there in South Bend,Indiana, who's got a lot of
legacy brands.
They've got some prettypowerful licenses that they're
leveraging to make some newstuff, and it's fun talking to
him.
Well, David, we got a surprisehere.

Yes.

Mike (01:25:49):
Uh maybe not too much.
Aaron Skinner's here on behalfof Fine Skill Modeler, but uh
pinch hitting for his formercolleagues.
But you're a quasi-resident ofthis city now, working for round
two.
That's that correct?

Aaron Skinner (Round 2) (01:26:03):
Yes, I'm I'm the head of model kit
development for round two.

Mike (01:26:05):
Well, how's that been going for you?
How's that transition gone?

It's great.
Uh it's a different challenge.
I'm still in the model world,so that makes me happy.
You know, I'm a lifelongmodeler, so working for
Finescale was a dream, and thisis just an extension of that.
Um little bit different uhchallenge, but it's fun to be.
I was a consumer for so long,and now it's seeing the and in

(01:26:28):
the consumer world for so long,now I'm seeing it from the other
side of the coin, doingproduction and development.

It's gotta be amazing to see the industrial
side of the of the business, thethe what goes into produ
deciding and then producing akit.

You always have an idea of what goes
into a model kit when you openit up and look at all the parts,
but seeing it from conceptionall the way through till the
final product and being able tohold that the first test shots
when you get them and you lookyou're looking at it going, wow,
this is something we've beenable to do.

Well, what surprised you most about the
transition?
What surprised you getting intothe production side that you
never would have thought of onthe consumer side?

I guess being at Finescale for so long,
I had enough of an idea of howthat developed that I didn't
nothing super surprised me.
Gotcha.
The amount of work involved isalways going to be a thing
because it is, you know, if youwant to get it right, you have
to you have to do the frontwork.
Right.
Just like with modeling, youhave to do all the front work
and preparation to get the bestlooking model.
You have to do all that prepwork and research to get the

(01:27:37):
best looking kits.

Mike (01:27:38):
Are you involved uh, I guess from the from from the
very front end of a new a newidea, all the way through
getting the molds made and thetest shots and and all that?
Yeah.
Um I've got an engineeringbackground myself, so I'm kind
of familiar with the injectionmold process.
Sure.
And all that.
But uh is round two doing mostof their development in-house or
or how's that working for you?

It's a little bit of a uh Split thing
we do like conception's all donein-house, and a lot of the
pre-design work and research isdone in-house.
We work with outside vendorsfor 3D development and that sort
of thing, and and all of ourproduction's done outside.
Yes.
Okay.
So we we work with uh severaldifferent vendors for those kind

(01:28:18):
of things and uh resources,particularly the production part
of it, doing the tooling andall that stuff.
Any particular lines that areyour favorites?
I'm a I'm a sci-fi geek atheart.
Um, so we've we've announcedthese, but we have the 48-scale
Tide Bomber coming out and uh asa kid seeing Empire Strikes
Back for the first time, andthat that ship is really on

(01:28:42):
screen for maybe 30 seconds inthe entire film.
But I've wanted to build onesince that um since that time,
and now we're bringing the firstall plastic injection model kid
of that to market.
So that's really exciting.

Mike (01:28:56):
Now, was that one in the pipe before you got there?
Or is that one you've hadhand-in systems?

It was the they had done a lot of the
pre-work, but they had neverthey had not gotten to the point
of moving it into moving itforward.
So we made a point of doingthat.
And the Land Speeder, we have a12-scale Landspeeder coming
out.
Those things are like uh thoseare kind of close to my heart as
a Star Wars fan from theget-go, so being able to do

(01:29:21):
those things is fun.
I wouldn't call myself agearhead, right?
I don't I don't work on cars, Ican appreciate a good car, so
it's been fun to kind of look atthe car side of things and get
to know more about the car endof the world and uh and have a
hand in some of thatdevelopment.
Really nice.

Something you said raised a question with me.
So when you're developingsomething like a Star Wars kit,
obviously you can go and watchthe movie to see the item.
But do you all have access tothe original filming models,
studio models?

How I mean we can only dream of having
access to the original but wehave access to a lot of photo
material um so we can see allthat stuff.

A lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Yeah, and and I mean, there's a lot of
ILM stuff out there, Lucasfilmstuff out there that you can you
we can get access to.
And then there are people outthere who spend a lot of time
doing the research as to exactlywhat went into those kits or to
those studio models, um,filming miniatures, and then you
we can figure out a lot of thestuff based on what they've done

(01:30:27):
and that sort of thing.
So we it it comes from amultiple of sources, just like
anything we do.
Um sometimes we can get accessto original 3D if it's new
enough for certain projects.
Um, even some of the automobilemanufacturers, you know, we can
get access to full 3D ones.

That's amazing.

Mike (01:30:44):
Are we gonna see you at Harry or not Heritage Comedy?
We're just there.
Are we gonna see you atWonderfest?

Of course.
Okay.
Again, as a sci-fi fan for along time, uh I had pushed for
Finescale to get to when I wasstill working there to start
kind of being at that show everyyear.
We became a regular thing.
I mean uh they'll they're stillthere.
Uh I'm now representing roundtwo.
We always have a booth there,so we'll have stuff there.

(01:31:10):
We've got some cool new thingsthat we should hopefully be able
to talk about when we getthere.

Let's see, last year at Wonderfest, you all
announced what was it?

Oh gosh, I'm trying to remember
what it was.
We had we had mock-ups lastyear for the TIE Bomber and the
Land Speeder, and also we alsohad the Shadow Mobile from UFO,
the other Jerry Anderson liveaction thing.
That is we're in the test shotprocess of that right now.
Um, so we're we're refining thetest shots and you know doing

(01:31:44):
the having the factories do allthat work.
Uh that still do out in thesummer.

So I cannot wait to see your booth at Wonderfest
this year.
It's always up in place thisyear.

Yeah, and like I said, hopefully we'll
have some even more excitingthings that I wish I could tell
you about.

Mike (01:32:00):
We we understand.
I've worked in that environmenttoo, no skill models, but stuff
you can't tell people about.
I'm kind of working in nowsometimes.

I mean the same thing.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But uh, there's only you know,only so much we can tell you
ahead of time.
Understand this.

Well, it will we'll be at Wonderfest, and we
will be sure to cover what'sannounced at Wonderfest.

Yep.
I think everyone's excited fornext year because it's the 50th
anniversary of Star Wars.
So you can expect us to havesome exciting stuff to come for
that.

Mike (01:32:29):
Oh, fantastic.
Yep.
All right.
Well, we'll let you get back toyour photography and uh thanks
for talking to us, Aaron, andbest of luck with the new job,
new new career track.

Thanks, guys.
Oh, you're welcome.
Stay tuned.
We'll give more as time allowsyou.

Mike (01:32:45):
Well, that interview was interesting, and especially the
part about uh it wasn't on air,but I made a suggestion to him.
And he said I wasn't the firstperson to say it.
Yes.

Although I wonder wonder if he's thinking about
the email he got from you.

Mike (01:33:01):
Because I think it's a I think it's a great idea.
So I do too, man.
We'll see, and we'll catch upwith him and the rest of the
round two team, hopefully, atWonderfest here in at the end of
May, and uh see what see whatthese things are he was alluding
to that might be announced atthat time.

Yep, I'm looking forward to it.

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by
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Check them out atwww.modelpaint solutions.com.

When you're done listening to this episode, would
you please do us a favor andrate us on whatever podcast
listening application you youuse?
Please give us the highestrating.
It helps drive visibility forthe show and helps new people
discover us.
Also, if you know a modeler outthere that isn't listening to

(01:34:12):
Plastic Model Mojo, would youplease recommend us to them?
Uh, if they need help, showthem how to download the podcast
and listen.
The best way for us to continueto grow is to have current
listeners recommend us topotential new listeners.
And we appreciate that if youdo that for us.

Mike (01:34:36):
And I'll mention there's also a rate the podcast link in
the show notes.
You can do it that way as well.
If you don't have one in yourparticular podcast app, you can
do it from the website.
Yep.
In addition, once you've donethat, please check out all the
other podcasts out in the modelsphere.
You can do that by going towww.modelpodcast.com.
That's model podcasts pluralwith an S.

(01:34:57):
It's a consortium website setup with our friend Stuart Clark
from the Scale Model Podcast upin up in Canada.
And there you're going to findall the banner links to all the
podcasts currently active in themodel sphere, and you can uh go
check those out at yourleisure.
Subscribe to them, pick theones you like the best,
subscribe, subscribe to those,subscribe to all of them.
Check them out.

(01:35:18):
You need to get in there andfigure out what you like and
what you don't like and uh gofrom there.
In addition to the podcast, wegot a lot of uh blog and YouTube
friends out in the modelsphere.
We got folks like ChrisWallace, model airplane maker.
Been talking to him a littlebit offline here of late.
And uh he's got a great YouTubechannel and a great blog,
mostly 48-scale aircraft.
Just released a new video.
It's a really good video aboutdoing uh wingtip lights, man.

(01:35:41):
Wingtip lights.
Good stuff, check that out.
In addition to Chris, we've gotuh Panzermeister 36, who we
mentioned in one of the earliersegments.
He's got a YouTube channel, alot of armor weathering stuff,
and a lot of HO scale railroadweathering kind of stuff, and
he's just got a really good wayof delivering his information,
and you're gonna really like hischannel.

Yep, he's a natural teacher.

Mike (01:36:02):
Stephen Lee, Sprue Pie with Fritz, 70 second scale
blog, long and short form stuffthere, both uh scale modeling
and model railroading.
Steve's always got somethinginteresting to say on some of
the current hot takes in thehobby, so you want to check that
out.
Along the 70-second scale vein,we just mentioned him, Inch
IGuy, Inch IGuy blog, JeffGroves.

(01:36:22):
Great blog, 70 second scalecontent, aircraft, armor, with a
little history thrown in toboot.
You never know what you'regonna get from Jeff, but it's
gonna be really heavy on 70second scale.
So if that's your scale, you'regonna like it.
And finally, we got Dr.
Paul Budzik Scale ModelWorkshop.
You're gonna find that onPatreon, you're gonna find that
on YouTube.
Check out what Paul's got goingon.

(01:36:44):
He's always got a lot of wisdombehind what he put it puts out
there and uh just a lot of greatinformation.

A lot of modeling knowledge stored up there.
If you are not a member of IPMSUSA, please consider joining
the national organization.
Same goes with if you're not inthe United States, joining your
national IPMS organizationwherever you happen to be.
Great group of volunteers whoare giving up some of their

(01:37:12):
modeling time to give everybodythe a better modeling
experience.
In addition, the Armor Modelingand Preservation Society, AMPS,
we just attended theirnationals, a really good
organization dedicated to armorand post-1900 figure modeling.

(01:37:33):
Great group of guys.
It was really nice to see a lotof them up there and to you
know talk talk modeling and talkabout a lot of other stuff
besides modeling.
So consider joining AMPS aswell.
Finally, IPMS USA Nationals arebeing held in Fort Wayne this

(01:37:55):
year, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
And trophy packages areavailable for sponsorship, and
they can be sponsored byindividuals, they can be
sponsored by local clubs,organizations, loose association
of friends.
The national contest relies onselling trophy package

(01:38:19):
sponsorships to help defray thecost of the awards, and the
awards at the nationals arealways really something special.
Please consider uh sponsoring atrophy package at the Nationals
this year.
There will be a link in theshow notes for that will take

(01:38:40):
you to the website where you cansign up for a very reasonable
cost to sponsor a trophy packagefor a category.
Mike, we are almost at the endof the episode, and I'm almost
at the end of the modelingfluid.

(01:39:01):
How about you?

Mike (01:39:02):
Again, I've got two.
I've we took a break and Itapped off my other ones, got a
little watery, my my currentone.
But uh I had a warm-up.
The Berliner Weissa fromWayward Lane Brewing, courtesy
of Sean Picard.
A Berliner Weissa is a veryrefreshing kind of light drink.
Typically they're they'rethey're built on a sour, but

(01:39:28):
they have an infusion of reallysweet fruit or something else on
top of it.
Uh when I was in Germany inhigh school, the the local
Berlin brewer had one as aBerliner Kindle, Berliner Kindle
visa.
When you bought those, it wasbasically a a quote unquote
white brew uh with this littlepacket of Kool-Aid, essentially,

(01:39:52):
that you poured into the beer.
So what this is, typically thethe ABV is really low, like two
to three and a half orsomething.
Because they're they're made todrink and enjoy.
And not get just gob justclobbered by, right?
Right.
This one from Sean is a littlehigher ABV, it's four, so it's

(01:40:17):
kind of on the high end of whatuh you know a German purchased
Berliner Visa is gonna be.
Not not outrageous, but it's alittle on the high side.
But it's got passion fruit andand I think blackberries.
Let me double check here.
Oh wow.
This one's infused with uhblackberry and dragon fruit, so
it's sweet, but it's notterribly sweet, it's really

(01:40:37):
tart, it's really, really good.
This thing was really, reallygood.
I would like to have a bunch ofthese, honestly.
This was really, reallyenjoyable.
So, Sean, I appreciate thatone.
The Berliner Visa.
We're gonna get the others indue order, but that one was for
what it was brewed in NorthAmerica, an exceptional

(01:40:59):
rendition of a Berliner Visa.
Enjoyed the crap out of that.
That was just super.
The other one I'm working ontonight that I'm almost done
with is uh it's a Tennesseewhiskey from Uncle Nearest.
That was given to us by BillMoore, the principal creator
over at the World of Armor onFacebook.
And he also sponsors our modelshow Spotlights, so you'll see

(01:41:22):
that from time to time.
Um and we got to have dinnerwith dinner with Bill and hung
out with him a couple timesafter that.
So uh always good to see Bill.
Hopefully made it back toTennessee.
Okay.
The uncle nearest is aTennessee whiskey, which means
it's got a process that bourbondoes not have.
Once it's well, once it'salmost ready to be bottled, it

(01:41:45):
goes through a maple charcoalfilter that typical Kentucky
bourbon does not do.
It imparts different things onit.
I won't get into the thedetails, but really smooth,
really light flavor for the ABV.
It's really good.
Compared to the more pedestrianTennessee whiskeys like Jack

(01:42:06):
Daniels, it's it's it's a stepchange better.
Uh it's just really, reallygood.
It's it doesn't taste like abourbon to someone who's enjoyed
a lot of bourbons, but it'sgood nonetheless, and I really
appreciate him giving me thatand look forward to sipping on
that for the next few weeks,hopefully.
Not this week, but the next fewweeks.

Gotcha.

Mike (01:42:30):
What do you what about you, man?

Again, Sean, again, Wayward Lane Brewing,
Boondiga, hazy India Pale Alewith New Zealand hops, six point
six point oh on the ABV.
Your classic fruity, hazy IPA.
The fruity flavors are notoverpowering.

(01:42:52):
I mean, it still tastes like abeer, but the hops are muted
somewhat.
It just it's a really greatbeer.
This I'll tell you what, thisbrewery, Wayward Lane.
They're doing some good stuffbecause this is eminently
enjoyable.

(01:43:13):
Uh, get me through the episodewith no problem whatsoever.
I'm sure I'll be glad to hearthat.
Thank you, Sean.
Well, we're now at the true endof the show, Mike.
And do you have someshout-outs?

Mike (01:43:31):
Well, as customary, I always want to shout out the
folks who have chosen tocontribute to Plastic Model Mojo
via their generosity.
Much appreciated.
We we appreciate the support,and if folks would like to do
that, we've set up severalavenues to do that via Patreon,
via PayPal, via Buy Me a Coffee.
All those links are on thewebsite at www.plastic model

(01:43:54):
mojo.com.
I it's it's really humbling toto put this show out there and
to do it well enough that folksare inclined to to help us out
along the way, that they theyvalue it enough that uh they
feel inclined to do that.
So we really appreciate it andthank you, thank you very much
for that.

You got another one?
I do not.
Okay, well, I have two.
All right, lay them on me.
One is Kevin Kelly and BillMoore, who both answered my call
because I I didn't obtain anAMPS 2026 pin from from the
nationals.
And some people will rememberI've actually got a collection

(01:44:39):
of pins from the IPMS Nationalsand the AMS Nationals that I
keep uh displayed over in mypool room.
And I I wanted that pin, andboth Kevin and Bill volunteered
to send me the pin.
So I want to thank them.
Additionally, I do want tothank Jeff Inchai Groves, who

(01:45:04):
not only came to Amps for thefirst time, but he brought you
and I both some really amazingthings.
He brought me a book that israre and out of print, and if
you could find it, it would costyou an arm and a leg.
And he picked up, he saw it,picked it up for a very, very

(01:45:27):
good uh price, and uh got it tome, and I really, really
appreciate it.
Anything else?
That's it, man.

Mike (01:45:36):
Well, Dave, we're gonna take a rest and not do a show
for a little while.

Yep.
Maybe get some modeling done.

Mike (01:45:43):
I'm getting some done.
I need to get you going, man.
You got a you're off to a badstart this year, man.

Uh yes, I am.
I will admit that.

Mike (01:45:51):
Well, Dave, as we always say, so many kids.
So little time.
Let's uh get on out of here.
You got it.

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