Mighty Eighth Educational Travel with Mark Copeland: Episode 135

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
The Voice of Bob (Bair) (00:12):
Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a
podcast dedicated to scalemodeling, as well as the news
and events around the hobby.
Let's join Mike and KentuckyDave as they strive to be
informative, entertaining andhelp you keep your modeling mojo
alive.

Mike (00:41):
All right folks, kentucky.
Dave, it's episode 135 ofPlastic Model Mojo.
How are you doing tonight, myfriend?

Kentucky Dave (00:48):
I'm not doing too bad if the weather around here
would not stop trying to kill us.
I'm telling you, I'm ready tosee some green man.
Yeah, green and the sun I takebrown at this point.
Yeah well, true enough.
I take Brown at this point.
Yeah, well, true enough.
The weather in Kentucky thisyear has been nothing short of

(01:11):
horrid For Kentucky.
For Kentucky, yes, no, foranywhere else up north this
would be a pretty mild winter,Although I understand we have
had like four more inches ofsnow than Minneapolis has had
this year, which is just crazy.

Mike (01:28):
That is crazy.
It's probably been warmer downhere, though.

Yes, when it's not been snowing, it's been
single-digit cold, and then,when it finally does get warm,
it pours huge amounts of rain,and I am just ready for it to be
over.

Mike (01:47):
So we have some escapism, yes.
Known as our hobbies, andfortunately they're indoors.

Yes, so my model sphere has benefited, but not as
much as you would think.
Simply because of having todeal with all of the
weather-related stuff, thatdriveway isn't going to shovel
itself.
Simply because of having todeal with all of the
weather-related stuff, thatdriveway isn't going to shovel
itself.
Those cars aren't going todefrost themselves.
But I have made it to the benchand have been making progress

(02:16):
on projects and the showseason's coming up, so I'm
getting prepared for show season.
In fact, when we're donerecording this, I'll be packing
the vehicle up for tomorrow'strip to Columbus.
I'm looking forward to what'scoming up.
Man, I am thrilled, I'm jazzed,a little bit panicked about the

(02:37):
Moosaroo, but we'll get herdone, and so that's my model
sphere.
How about yours?

Mike (02:44):
We're running down a dream man.
This is all great.
I'm trying to find a cadencefor this year.
Man.
Here we're the latter part offirst quarter and you know we
got some stuff we're doingchanging a few things around and
trying some new stuff and justtrying to keep it fresh and all
that for everybody.
But you know we launched thewebsite and just today I had the

(03:06):
scope meeting with our web guysfor the phase two, so hopefully
we'll get a quote back fromthat in a week or so and figure
out what we're going to do.
That's it, my model sphereother than bench time.
We'll get to that.
I've been doing pretty good.

Good Well, I assume you have a modeling fluid
.
I do.

Mike (03:25):
What do we have?
I have Pilsner Urkel from theCzech Republic.

Oh, good choice.
God, you never go wrong withthat one.

Mike (03:33):
Well, I went wrong because I started drinking it too early
.
I'm going to have to pause atsome point and go retrieve
another one.

That's perfectly acceptable.
What about you?
Well, I've got one.
It's a repeat, it's Ace PearCider.
Oh, your favorite, one of mytwo favorite beers slash ciders,
along with Gumball Head, and Inthe Mood for One had to happen
to have it available, so that Iknow is going to get me through

(04:03):
the episode and we'll talk aboutit again at the end.

Mike (04:08):
All right, Well, the mailbag's always got something
in it and we might as well getinto that.
You got it.
Well, I missed one last week.
It came in, should have come in.
I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say it came in underthe wire, but it was one of the
last emails we got ahead of thelast episode and for some
reason I missed it and it wasfrom Rock Roszak at Detail and

(04:29):
Scale, and I've already talkedto him about that and told him
I'd lead off with this one thisepisode, and he and Bert are
about to rip through the P-51series.

Yes, and just in time with Arma's P-51 series and
Edward's P-51 series, it's agood time to be a Mustang
modeler.

Mike (04:50):
Well, part one of a four-part anthology I guess has
just been released and it'sgoing to be the early Allison
engine P-51s and variants.
So I guess all theexperimentals and prototypes
NA-73X, xp-51, p-51, a-36a,p-51a and the Mustangs Mark I,

(05:11):
ia and II Are those the Britishones, yep, and then an F-6A,
which I don't know what it is,and an F-6P.
That's.
The F-6 is the reconnaissanceweapon.

Ah okay, as you know, they digitally publish as
well as publish books.
And Rock is the guy who reallyconvinced me that getting a
tablet and going digital was theway to go for a lot of this
stuff, and he was 100% right.

(05:52):
He reached out because Googlehas its own book format and they
had not published in thatformat up to now volume one book
to kind of beta test to makesure everything looked right and
to see if there were anyglitches and if the conversion
to that specific format worked.

(06:13):
And it did.
And so I got to read that P-51book and wow, okay, I would like
to flatter myself that I knew afair amount about the P-51.
It is amazing how muchinformation was in there, stuff
that I had no idea.

(06:34):
I learned a ton, and thepictures are fantastic and the
ability to blow them up to getin as close on the detail as you
could want it's absolutelywonderful.
So now you will have Kindleversions, you'll have the Google

(06:55):
Book versions, the Appleversions, so no matter what book
reader you use, you'll be ableto access the detail and scale
library.
And I'm telling you, if you'rea P-51 fan, this series is going
to be great.

Mike (07:13):
Well, the detail chapter covers all aspects of the
aircraft with more than 125detail photographs.
They've used an extensive useof period color photographs.
There's a modeler section, likein all the detail scale books,
and in total 245 photographs, intotal, 126 in color, seven
color profiles and 10 scaledrawings.

(07:33):
And, like you said, amazon,apple, google and Kobo, which
I'm not familiar with.
Yeah $14.99 via electronicversion and $21.99 for print
edition.
Check it out atwwwdetailandscalecom.
So Rock, there you go.
Man Can't wait for Volume 2.
Highly recommended man.

(07:54):
Well, speaking of new products,how about new old products?
Okay, Highly desirable new oldproducts.
All right, the Dixie Flyer,Warren Dickinson, is hitting us
up again with some information.
Yes, he did us a solid.
All right, the Dixie Flyer,Warren Dickinson is hitting us
up again with some information.

Yes, he did us a solid.

Mike (08:09):
He did.
He reached out to Aviology andsaid what's up with these no
decal availabilities on theseJapanese tailcoats, and they
informed him that they wereindeed going to redo them and
reissue them.
So currently there are foursets.
Each One of you know yellow,red, black and white tail codes

(08:29):
in both 72nd and 48th scale.
So, folks, if you want thosetail codes, you better grab them
.

And I can tell you that Mike and I's order has
been placed.

Mike (08:41):
Aviology Publishing.
Now they're up in Canada, ifI'm not mistaken.
Yes, they are Aviologycom, I'mthinking is the correct web
address.

I believe it is.

Mike (08:51):
Now we'll put it in the show notes, because it's a
complex spelling.
Yes, well, our Texan friend,jake McKee, and past guest of a
couple times, has written inregarding throwing stuff away
and the inability to do so, orat least muster up the courage
to do it.

I've got that problem man.

Mike (09:10):
He said for years his mother would send him small and
sometimes large boxes of stuffshe couldn't stand to throw away
.
He says he didn't know thestuff still existed, which ended
up leading to the don't want tothrow it away problem just
being shifted to him.

Yeah, I was going to say that that was a mom's
revenge.

Mike (09:28):
I think so.
So you know.
He opens these boxes and findshis Boy Scout uniform and his
fourth grade glasses and hiskindergarten artwork.
He's found that help toss stuffis just to take a picture of it
, because that's going to lastforever.

That's not a bad idea.

Mike (09:42):
And just get rid of it after that.
That's not a bad idea.
And just get rid of it afterthat.

That is not a bad idea.

Mike (09:48):
So there you go, Dave.

I like that.

Mike (09:51):
You start taking pictures and get one of them 30 cubic
yard dumpsters out in yourdriveway and start chucking it.

Well, I've been chucking it a little bit at a
time.
So you know, I'm trying to makesure that every time the
garbage goes out on Sunday nightthat it's full.
So I'm making slow progress.

Mike (10:12):
We're kind of always doing that around here.
I tell you, one time I made agame out of it.
I don't know where I got thistip, but I made this grid with
100 squares on it and it was getrid of 100 things.
Now they don't have to besignificant, Right?
I mean they could be crap outof your junk drawer in your
kitchen or whatever, but that'ssomething Right.

(10:33):
Broken wooden spoon ExactlyBallpoint pens with the clips
broken off, the pocket clip andall that jazz.
But anyway, you fill that outas you go and you can see the
progress and when you're alldone, you've thrown out a
hundred things you didn't need.

That's a great idea.

Mike (10:54):
Well, from Finland is next Dave.
All right, our listener, philaeYervanen has written in and he
appreciated the story about theuh, the air cap not being tight
with Dr Miller.

Yeah.

Mike (11:10):
And he's wondering if we have any other.
Oh, crap stories.

Oh, we got tons of oh crap stories.

Mike (11:15):
We've done one, maybe two.
I have to go back to the backcatalog.
I know we, early on our firstyear we did a goose, gaffes and
blunders episode.

Yes.
So if you haven't gone back andlistened to the early catalog,
that would be a reason to goback and actually listen to
those early episodes, becauseMike and I tell some stories of
some serious modeling mistakesin Goose and some of them are a

(11:45):
little bit funny.

Mike (11:47):
And we got some from listeners too.

And some of them are only funny in retrospect,
that's right?

Mike (11:53):
Well, he's taking his task here a little bit, dave.
Okay, His plan for gettingbetter this year is to learn to
spray shiny 2k clear coats oncar bodies.

Good, that is a wonderful, wonderful plan for
getting better.

Mike (12:07):
And, of course, yes, what's ours?
Okay, which I think, if I'm notmistaken.
I wish I hadn't deleted thattext stream, but I think that is
one of our topics for the next.
It is the next Shop Talk.
Yes it is.
So, philae, we're going'regonna take that to heart and
it's something we've talkedabout offline we've well, on on

(12:28):
the show too we've.
Yeah, that had been a mantrafor a long time.
We've kind of gotten away fromit with all the changes in the
podcast and stuff and it's timeto get back to that.
Yep, I completely agree.
Well, he's.
He reminded me that I'dmentioned shiny paint jobs was
not an interest of mine aboutmodeling cars and suggested
making an old, rotten car modeland using military weathering

(12:50):
techniques.
Yeah, that's an idea.
Maybe, I don't know.
Yeah, I've kind of got aprejudice against derelicts,
though we won't get into thattonight.

We won't get into that tonight.
You could do one of the numberof military cars, either German
or American, and you don't haveto make it derelict.
But those were all flat-coated.

Mike (13:16):
Wouldn't that kind of be a genre change?
Yeah, that would be.
I mean it's still 35th.
Well, I've got an AirfixMonty's Humber in the stash.

Oh, there you go.

Mike (13:27):
I should probably build that.

That checks several boxes.
It does.

Mike (13:34):
Well, this one, I think, is going to segue eventually
into some of our other comments,either maybe in the shout outs
or possibly in your Facebookmessengers.
But Andrew Armstrong fromCenterpoint New York has written
in and he recently renovatedhis workshops in a couple
pictures.
Yeah, thank you, and he saidit's worth doing.

(13:54):
Yes, he actually says his wifepushed him to spend a little
money to make things betterbecause he spent so much time
down there.
It should be nicer, she says.

Yep, and she was right.

Mike (14:04):
My wife has done the same thing.
Well, mine emphatically agreedyes when I asked her if I should
get a spray booth.

Yeah Well, given your wife's degree, that's
completely understandable.

Mike (14:19):
And he went out for new skills outside his comfort zone
and he's been working on an oldAMT International Scout kit and
he was the new thing.
There was the wood planks inthe trunk bed of that vehicle.
Nice, and to do it, and just dosomething better than just one
color.

There you go.

Mike (14:36):
So there you go, man Learn something.

It doesn't have to be something big, it can be
something little like that, it'sstill.
That's something that if youpull it off, you learn something
new, you can be proud of whatyou accomplished, I mean, and
you put another skill in yourholster.

Mike (14:56):
Well, finally for me, dave , on the email side of things,
is from Duncan Young, on behalfof the Hamilton Club, the host
of HeritageCon.
Now, we just had those folks on, those fine folks on, yes.
For our model show Spotlight,which was HeritageCon, and he

(15:17):
wanted to thank us for promotingthem over the years and even
not just for the Spotlights fromthe shows coming up, but all
the commentary we make aboutHeritageCon Hither and yon all
throughout the modeling year.
So I guess we bring it up quitea bit because it's such a great
thing.

Yeah, it is.
I mean, I've been to a lot ofreally great model shows IPMS
Nationals, amps Nationals, etcetera, mmsi so I would like to
think that I'm a little hard toimpress.
I have been absolutely blownaway by HeritageCon.

(15:52):
Those guys have not only dothey do it great, it seems to
get better every year and that'shard to pull off.

Mike (16:02):
It is Well.
That's all for the email.
What's Facebook Messengerlooking like, well?

Facebook Messenger has been very busy.
First there were a bunch ofpeople, when they saw on the
news that Kentucky was basicallybecoming one giant swimming
pool, dm'd us to check and makesure we were alive and we were.
Luckily the worst rain was tothe south of the

(16:31):
Louisville-Lexington line, sothe folks in southern and
eastern Kentucky got hit worse,unluckily for them.
But Mike and I both survivedand we appreciate every one of
the listeners who, when they sawthat on the news, thought of us
and thought to ask.

Mike (16:52):
Well, you go south and west of here and it just gets
flatter.
Yes, floodplains get wider andit's a real mess.

And then when you get into eastern Kentucky and
Appalachia, it's hills andvalleys and all that rain runs
into the valleys.

Mike (17:10):
So they got it a couple months ago.

Yeah, our friend Paul Budzig DM'd in with a link
to.
First, I want to thankeverybody who heeded the call to
post photos of their hobby roomor hobby bench or hobby
workspace.
First of all, I am envious ofquite a number of your all's

(17:33):
spaces.
I thought I had it good.
But man, some of you all havesome palatial workspaces.
Almost all of you all keep itcleaner than mine, which is
clearly a problem that I need toaddress and I'm working on it.
But Paul Budzig, our friend, hesent in a link that I'll post

(17:58):
on the dojo to a hobbyistmachinist's room video about
their setup.
And you know it's a nice pointthat you can look not just at
modelers' rooms but at otherhobbyist's rooms woodworkers,

(18:18):
machinists, watchmakers, etc.
By the way, I was impressed asheck that Paul Budzig's model
room has two actual Gershnerboxes.
That's some quality, not thecheap Harbor Freight ripoff that
I have, but I'll post that linkon the dojo.

(18:44):
Next is Ken Schaefer, and Ken,knowing my interests in World
War II, the Dutch East Indies,et cetera, he wants to build one
of the KLM DC-3s that was shotup fleeing the Dutch East Indies
, and so he wrote in and askedfor recommendations, for

(19:07):
information, and I've got acouple.
I'll send him some more, butI've got a couple that I told
him I would mention.
On the air One, there is a bookon the air battle over Broome
Australia, on the air battleover Broome Australia

(19:31):
B-R-O-O-M-E, which has somegreat information about not only
that DC-3, but a bunch of otheraircraft that were fleeing the
Dutch East Indies.
There is a two-volume setcalled Bloody Shambles by Shores
and Cull, which has a lot ofinformation.
I know for a fact that thosemarkings are available in 72nd

(19:53):
scale from a company called, ofall things, dutch Decal, and I
think they may actually beavailable from some other
companies as well.
But, ken, I will send you someadditional information because,
yeah, that is an area ofinterest for both myself and
Scott Skippy King.

(20:14):
So we have a lot of the infoavailable.

Mike (20:17):
Well, is there some I wouldn't say popular photography
?
Is there some well-knownphotography of this aircraft
that spawned the episode.

On the episode listener Eddie Turner and I
don't know your geography, Iapologize he asked an
interesting question, which Ithink has been a wheel question
before, which was if you weregoing to introduce somebody into
the hobby for the first time,what kit would you give them to
build?
And of course, my answer is theAirfix, the Tamiya Zero, the

(21:30):
Tamiya 72nd, scale Zero.
Even though it's not a beginnerkit or a snap kit, it is one
that I think any beginner couldbuild and get a really, really
nice result out of.
So what one kit would yourecommend to a brand new into

(21:53):
the hobby person?

Mike (21:55):
Well, since you're taking the 72nd scale aircraft, I guess
I'll take the 35th scale armorline, and I think it probably
changes as the years roll out.
And I think it probably changesas the years roll out.
I think today it would probablybe one of the new Tamiya KVs.
I think that's probably a goodplace to go.

Yeah, yep, one color really a beast looking of
a tank.
So you get something that lookslike a tank.

Mike (22:23):
And the parts count's reasonable.

Yeah, yeah.
Unfortunately, the rising partcount part of this hobby
sometimes can be a bit much,that's for sure, yeah, listener,
scott Daniel wrote in.
We had talked about what areyour plans for 2025.
So he wrote in and told us thattwo of the things he planned to

(22:47):
do, number one was build theAirfix B Mark II bomber kit in
72nd scale.
And then he also planned tobuild the ARMA aircraft carrier
deck.
And ARMA, on its blog, actuallyhas where you can take their

(23:10):
aircraft carrier deck and theysuggest a way to cut it and
build it to kind of make amulti-level effect like an
elevator going down or part ofan elevator, and so he said he
wanted to attempt that and Ithought those were both great
projects.
From what I hear, the AirfixLank builds up really well.

(23:31):
I recommended he take a look atthe Bases by Bill carrier decks
if he just wants a carrier deck, but he wants to do that
particular project and you knowwhat?
That is a really good thing formodelers.
If you draw inspiration, if yousee some project that somebody

(23:55):
does that you find veryinspiring and say, hey, I want
to try that, don't be afraid togo, do that.
You're not only as imitationthe sincerest form of flattery.
But there's nothing wrong withdoing a project that somebody
else did and using theirlearning to assist in your

(24:19):
learning.
Let's see, you mentionedalready, but I also want to
extend my thanks to WarrenDickinson for his heads up on
those aviology decals, becausewe've kind of been waiting for a
number of years for those toget reissued.
So thanks, warren, I appreciateit.
That's all I've got from the DMside.

(24:40):
Well, folks.

Mike (24:41):
We appreciate all the emails and all the direct
messages, so keep it coming.
We love this segment.
If you want to send an email,you can do it by sending it to
plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, oryou can send us a direct
message via the Facebookmessenger system and look
forward to hearing from youfolks.
And again, if you do, we'dappreciate if you give us your
geography, city and state, oryour country and the city you're

(25:05):
in Not too much information,but just enough to know what
kind of reach we're getting andwhere folks are from.
We like to add that littledetail to the commentary of this
segment, so please, if you canremember that, we appreciate it.

Thank you If you would, when you're done
listening to this episode, ifyou would rate the podcast on
whatever podcast listening appyou are using.
We would appreciate it.
Also, if you would tell amodeling friend who doesn't
listen to the podcast about thepodcast, help them, on their

(25:59):
phone or other device, downloadan app for listening to podcasts
and help them subscribe.
The best way for us to continueto grow and we do continue to
grow is people who are currentlisteners recommending us to
their friends.
So please do so.

Mike (26:19):
Well, I'll also add that it's a lot easier now with the
website for folks to listen offthe website.
So, wwwplasticmodelmojocom youcan find every episode we've
ever dropped on the website.

Yep, if you've got a computer in your model
room, all you got to do is youdon't even have to pull out your
phone or anything.
You can listen directly on yourcomputer.
Just go to the website.

Mike (26:42):
That's right.
Or you got a smart TV with abrowser.
You can do it there too, thattoo.
Once you've done all that andyou want some more podcast
action, you can go tomodelpodcastcom.
That's modelpodcastpluralcom.
It's a consortium website setup with the help of Stuart Clark
from the Scale Model Podcast upin Canada, and Stu has done a
great job just keeping all thebanner links for all the other

(27:03):
podcasts in the model sphereaggregated, so it's a one-stop
shop.
You can go there and see whatelse is available, subscribe to
all of them, listen to all ofthem, and we really encourage
that.
In addition, we've also got alot of friends who are creators
out in the model sphere blogsand youtube friends.
We've got mr jeff groves.
The inside guy's got a great72nd scale blog and he just
started some huge batch build.

Yes, what was it?
The Oscars, the ARMA Oscars.

Mike (27:28):
Oh yeah, he's got a bunch of ARMA Oscars.
Yes, stephen Lee, spru Pie withFretz, great long and short
form blog.
Also a lot of 72nd scalecontent.
Who are we going to actuallyget to see on our own turf next
month?
Yes, next month?

Yes, we are.
He's coming to Louisville andwe are going to show him
Kentucky hospitality.

Mike (27:48):
All right, evan McCallum, panzermeister, 36.
He just finished a nice littleBT-2.
I'm really excited to see avideo on his dust effects,
because that is something that'salways eluded me and I think he
did a bang-up job on that model, did he he?

He did a bang-up job on that model, did he?
He knocked that one out as aquickie and just did an amazing
job on it.

Mike (28:08):
So looking forward to that .
Chris Wallace model airplanemaker.
He's got a fun YouTube channeland blog and some cool keychains
Mine broke, chris.

I'm going to get another one man.

Mike (28:21):
I don't know what happened there.

Mine's fine Chris .

Mike (28:23):
I must have got guy defective one.
Not your fault, chris.

I'm sure I can probably tell where those were
made yeah, but uh, I'll have youknow that I use mine every day,
chris, and it's holding upbeautifully.

Mike (28:35):
So maybe that might be operator error might be operator
error for keychain.
That's pretty sad.
Yes, hopefully not.
And finally, we've mentionedhim already, paul Budzik Scale
Model Workshop over on Patreonand he's dropped a couple pretty
recently, one on primerpainting with spray guns and one
on his A20.

Yep.

Mike (28:56):
Glad to see that one moving forward.
Just some great stuff andalways learn something from
Paul's videos.
Oh, absolutely, you will toolearn something from Paul's
videos?

Oh, absolutely, you will too.
Yes, if you are a listener andyou are not a member of IPMS USA
, ipms Canada or your nationalIPMS chapter, whatever country
you're in, please considerjoining your national IPMS
chapter.
It's a modeling organizationrun by a group of volunteers who
give up some of their time tomake your modeling experience

(29:30):
better.
Amps is a great group of guyswho are super talented and
devoted to the art of modelingarmor-related subjects, so go

(29:52):
take a look at them as well.

Mike (29:54):
All right, dave, let's hear from Model Paint Solutions.

It sounds like a good idea.

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by
Model Paint Solutions, yoursource for harder and steam back
airbrushes.
David, union power tools andlaboratory grade mixing,
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Check them out atwwwmodelpaintsolutionscom.

Mike (30:21):
Dave our special segment tonight is a little different,
Something kind of in the vein ofsay oh, the high school teacher
Chris Collins, yes, that we didback in episode one, oh five.
And Tonight we got our friendMark Copeland, who we know

(30:42):
through our modeling travels andshow attendance and through
Steve Hustad no, Steve, throughMark.
Actually.
Mark is the Director ofEducational Travel for the
National Museum of the MightyEighth Air Force, which is a
really cool job he's foundhimself in in the last 18 months
, couple of years, I think.

He did something right for karma to come back
that hard on him.

Mike (31:07):
Well, as folks will hear in this conversation, he's lived
the Air Force historian lifefor a long time and all that
hobby interest and personalinterest has really paid off for
him.
It was adjacent to his othercareer, sort of yeah, he was in
the airline industry, but anyway, I think folks are going to
find this interesting and maybesome folks will be inspired to

(31:29):
take one of these trips throughthe 8th Air Force Museum.
So let's have a listen.
Well, dave, tonight we've got agreat friend of the podcast
over the last few years, mr MarkCopeland.
How are you doing tonight, mark?

Mark Copeland (31:48):
I'm terrific.
Thanks for having me on hereand hello to everybody from
chilly Minnesota.

Mike (31:55):
Well, Mark is from chilly Minnesota and I guess the first
thing you did for the podcast,Mark, was get us introduced to
Steve Hustad.

Oh, I'm really sorry.
I'm really sorry.

Please forgive me .

No no.

The biggest favor you could possibly have done
Well.

I couldn't agree more Seriously.

Mike (32:12):
I didn't know him at all and Dave was too too deep down
the idol worship to evenapproach him about coming on the
show.

So hey, I talked to him.
I said like five words to himin 2006.

Mike (32:23):
Yeah, nice model.
How'd you do?

that no.
I really like your model.

Mike (32:28):
Well, we're not here to talk about Steve.
We'll have him on, I'm sureagain.

I got to say that he was the one who introduced
me to the podcast and I can sayfrom both of us and probably the
whole Plastic Model Mojocommunity what a great job you
guys do and what you've done tokind of unite the scale modeling
community throughout the world.
And you've really just made it.
Plastic Model Mojo is kind oflike a really dependable friend

(32:54):
that I see every two weeks andit's always a joy to listen to
you guys.

Mike (32:58):
We'll wrap it up right there.
Thanks for being here.

The check is in the mail.

Oh no, steve.
Like I said, steve introducedme to you guys and I've been a
faithful listener pretty muchever since you started the thing
up.

Mike (33:15):
Well great Cool.
We want to start this off kindof.
You mentioned the scalemodeling community.
You're in the club up there inthe Twin City areas.
Tell us a little bit about yourmodel clubbing.

Sure, well, I joined the Twin City
Aerohistorians, a IPMS club thatwas formed in December of 1966.
I joined it in 1977.
My first meeting.
My dad had to drive me to themeeting because I didn't have my
driver's license and that was along time ago.
But it's a group of gentlemen.

(33:49):
We not only do modeling but wealso are aviation history
enthusiasts.
There's several authors,published authors, writers,
photographers, anybody that hasa love of historic aviation, and
we've expanded it.
Really we weren't a snobbyairplane club.
We allow everything into ourinto it as an IPMS organization.

(34:10):
But there's a, there's a groupof probably I think we were
around 75 members, I thinksomeplace in there.
We meet every second Saturdayof the month at a place called
South St Paul airport Flemingfield is probably better known
and we meet there one o'clock onthe second Saturday, like I
mentioned, and it's just a greatbunch of guys.
I think you had mentionedsomething, dave.

(34:32):
I kind of went yeah, Iunderstand that these gentlemen
there's a lot of them that aretruly my best friends in the
world.
If I had to really depend onsomeone or trust someone, it's
going to be one of my modelingbuddies and it's just a great
club.
And Steve Husted, as youmentioned, is the vice president

(34:53):
.
And then they were hard up andI've been the president for the
last four years and very proudto serve.

So in other words , the meeting where they held
the election.
You missed that meeting.

Yeah, exactly.

Because that's how it works at almost every
club.

That's right.
I was on tour at the time overin England and, yeah, I came
back and they elected me again.

Now you're a man after my own heart in that you
build 72nd scale aircraft models.
You're correct.
Yeah yeah, mostly World War II.

Predominantly Dave.
Yeah, I guess I'd really kindof classify myself from 1914 to
1945.
And I kind of draw the linethere.
They stopped making airplanes,as far as I'm concerned, after
1945.
So no, I'm teasing.

Once those jet things started flying.
Yeah, yeah, if it doesn't sprayoil and have a prop out the
front, it's not an airplane,right?

Well, aren't we living in just an incredible
time in modeling?
Right now, it's just rainingnew releases.
It's just incredible.

It is.
It is especially for those ofus in 70.
It's true in all scales, butfor those of us in 72nd scale,
right now, this is the goldentime.
You can't keep up, yeah, whichmeans we have to build faster,
and Steve wanted me to remindyou that you need to build
faster.

Oh, don't we all.

He tells me that every day too Right faster.

Oh don't we all?

Mike (36:23):
He tells me that every day too Well, if you started in the
club in 66.

Oh yeah, the club started in 66 and I I came
along 10 years after I would.
I was only.
I was only six years old in1966.
However, the following year, atseven, is when I began modeling
.

Mike (36:44):
Okay, that's about when I started getting introduced to it
.
Yeah, it was about seven aswell.

That's yeah, my uh.
My dad took me to hardware Hankon 98th and Nicollet in
Bloomington, minnesota and Ipicked up a powder blue box,
four star monogram, one 48 scale, a six M five zero and we sat
down and we built it togetherand I always tease him that when
he comes over and sees my, mycollection and my models and

(37:09):
this and that I always tease him, it's all your fault.

You're the one who started it now let me ask
you steve and I were actuallydiscussing this uh, we both have
the first model we rememberbuilding.
We've gone out and located itand bought it again so that you
have it for nostalgia purposes.
Have you gone out and locatedthat first model?

(37:33):
And you've got it, of course,of course.
Okay, do me a favor when we'redone recording, go on the Dojo.
Oh, that's true, that's right,it's probably packed up.
Yeah, in dojo.

Oh that's true, that's right, it's probably
packed up, yeah, in the middleof a move right now.

Yes, Okay, well, when you get access to it,
please post a picture of it onthe dojo.

I sure will.
I sure will.
I've got some other you knowkind of models that had
something to do in your life.
Yeah, that had something to doin your life the Revell 172nd
scale B17, peggy D43, and theLindbergh B17 that had the clear
globe stand that used to sit onmy dresser.

(38:13):
And then I think I was kind of,you know, in that time period,
build a model and then get somewhite thumbtacks and some
monofilament fish line and thenmy ceiling was covered with all
my uh, with all my models and uh, I would stare every night and
just look up and and you know,my favorite one was right above
my bed and that was the, theRevell 172nd scale B-17.

(38:37):
And I know that we'll talkabout that a little bit later,
but I used to sit there anddream about what it would be
like to be on one of those andbe involved with 8th Air Force.
And now I work as the directorof educational travel for the
National Museum at the mighty8th Air Force in Savannah.
So dreams do come true.

Mike (38:55):
Yeah, we wanted to establish the modeling
connection up front, just soeverybody out there listening
would know you were in fact oneof us.

But your current employment is why we wanted to
have you on to talk about.

Yeah well, thanks , guys.
That's nice of you.
Now you're in minnesota, butthe museum itself is located in
savannah, georgia yeah actuallyuh, pooler.
How did you get hooked up withthem?
How did you end up doing workfor them?

It's a really good question.
Well, my interest in the 8thAir Force started way, way, way,
way, way, way back and I spentabout 32 and a half years in the
airline industry working forvarious regional partners with
Northwest and Delta Airlines.
So I had the opportunity at myfeet like you, dave to travel,
and I really took advantage ofthat and I started going to

(39:47):
England back when I first becamean airline employee.
In fact, the next tour that Itake out in May that's going to
be number 56.
Oh, wow, that's my 56th time toEngland.
Yeah, so I went up and aroundin East Anglia and made a lot of
great friends, and the personthat really really influenced my

(40:07):
interest in the 8th Air Forcecame actually not from meeting
him in person, it was throughhis book, and I'm sure all the
listeners will be very familiarwith the author, roger Freeman,
and the book the Mighty Eight,and then countless books after
that.
I think Roger wrote roughly 60titles on the Eighth Air Force
and World War II aviationhistory and I became active in

(40:31):
the Eighth Air Force HistoricalSociety here in Minnesota and
then I went to the nationalreunions and I became really
involved with it then and then I, like I said, I had the
opportunity to travel.
So I not only went to Englandbut I started going to several
bomb group and fighter groupreunions and getting to know
these gentlemen and reallymaking some great connections

(40:52):
and really, you know, touchinghistory.
So, in anticipation of, you know, what they felt was going to be
a rise probably meteoric risein the interest in the 8th Air
Force history, the museumreached out to me back in about
2021.
And they said we would reallylike to do something in regards
to bringing educational traveltours to England and giving

(41:16):
people the opportunity toexperience this thing.
And the reason why is thatwe're going to be hopefully a
historical tsunami is going tobe kind of hitting the museum
because of the Apple TVminiseries Masters of the Air.
So they reached out and theysaid can you help us build a
dream trip?
And I kind of said, okay, whatdo you want to do?

(41:39):
And they said that's up to you.
So I sat down and I kind of madetwo lists.
I made a list of well, this isjust a phone call, this is an
email, this is you got to dothis, you have to do this.
And then I made another list ofthe things that I'd really like
to do.
I really gave it a lot ofthought in terms of the things
that really would immerse a tourparticipant into the history of

(42:02):
the 8th Air Force, and I made alist and I called it.
These are the things I'd reallylike to do, but there's
probably no way that we're goingto get a chance to do them, but
I'm going to try anyway list,and so I kind of went to work on
that.
So I put this whole thingtogether.
I did research ontransportation, hotel properties
, restaurants, a tour itineraryand you know kind of the logics

(42:25):
of that, and then reached out toseveral friends that I had over
in England.
I took a 68 page prospectusdown to the museum and I gave it
to the folks that were involvedon the project and said this is
what I would do.
And so I was asked to run atour, kind of a kind of a
preseason game, if you will, ora test tour, and that was in the

(42:47):
fall of 2022.
And I took about 25 people overand we we did the tour and it
was designed not to be perfectbut we got got a lot of great
feedback, mostly positive, oryou know things in terms of, you
know, did we stay too long inthis place?
Or how was the food here?
Did you like the hotels?
And blah, blah, blah, blah blah.

(43:07):
And we took all that and reallyhoned it in and we made the
tour, and so at that time, theygave me the opportunity to join
the team in Savannah.
At the time, I had a full-timejob and working as a OCC flight
duty director in the airlineindustry and they threw that in

(43:30):
front of me and I just said I'dlike to stay in Minnesota if I
could, and they allowed me to dothat and, yeah, they hired me
in February of 2023.

Was your first tour limited to England only.

Yes, correct.

Yes.

Uh-huh.
Last year we expanded it and wetook a trip over to Normandy
and once again we did somethings that were really kind of
off the beaten path and got achance to really explore, you
know, that beautiful portion ofFrance and of the rich history
that's there.

Mike (44:04):
Well, what are some of the highlights for the England
tours?

I can get you to Hannitz in London really easy.

Yeah, we may have to do that sometime, Mark.

Well, we fly our folks into Heathrow, you have a
private car that meets you, Imeet you at Heathrow and then a
private car takes you out to thehotel and then really to start
off the tour.
This is one of the things thatI never thought we would be able
to do, but I got us into aplace called Wickham Abbey, and
Wickham Abbey during World WarII was the headquarters for 8th

(44:39):
Air Force and also RAF BomberCommand.
They were co-located at thisproperty west of London and this
is where everything happenedwith the 8th Air Force All the
target planning, all the bombassessments, everything was done
, or you know in terms of, youknow, everything was signed off,
you know, and put into place atthat very historic place.

(45:01):
Well, now it's a very, veryexclusive, very expensive
private girls' school, but I gotus into the Abbey and you
actually get a chance to walkinto the very office where Ira
Aker and Jimmy Doodle ran the8th Air Force.
It's an incredible feeling andthen one of the stops that we do

(45:21):
along the way.
It's kind of where 8th AirForce Fighter Command started.
Right now it's a Britishmilitary base that also is very
hard to get onto and we take ourfolks to Debden and I think our
listeners will recognize thatit was the home of the 4th
Fighter Group and we actuallyget a chance to go on the base.
We get a chance to, you know,do a short tour.

(45:43):
It's, like I said, an activearmy base, but they allow us to
actually go out onto the wartimerunways and our motor coach
literally drives down therunways where one spitfires,
p-47s and P-51s of the famousfourth fighter group flew, and
you're there, and then I'll takeyou to, you know, various spots

(46:09):
along the way where you knowthis is where this pilot's
aircraft was, or this is wherethis happened, and so forth and
so on.
Throughout the tour we do fiveB-17 bases.
We do Framlingham, which is thehome of the 390th, the 100th at
Thorpe Abbots, we do the 389that Heffel at Thorpe Abbots.
We do the 389th at Heffel, andwe also do the 453rd at Old
Buckingham where Jimmy Stewartflew.

(46:32):
And then we take you over toBodisham, where the 361st
Fighter Group was at, and thenwe go into Cambridge.
We have a special wreath layingceremony just for our group at
Mattingly Cemetery, where thegraves of 3,811 servicemen and
women rest today, and then we goto Basingbourne, which is also
a tough place to get onto.
That was for the 91st BombGroup, the Memphis Bell and the

(46:53):
first group to make it over, andalso a group where the highest
number of losses were obtainedin the 8th.
We go to Duxford and then we gointo London.
We stay at a very posh hotel incentral London and we do things
along the lines of we go to theChurchill War Room, so that's
fine, we can go down and takethe 28-pound tour.

(47:15):
But we actually make it specialfor our guests and we, through
some connections and a dearfriend that works or is now
retired there, we're allowed togo in and they do a behind the
glass tour.
So we actually go inside thecabinet room and you literally
stand right at WinstonChurchill's very chair that he
sat in during World War II.

(47:37):
It's an incredible experience.
And then, to finish it off, wego to St Paul's Cathedral and
most of the time it works out,but we make great friends there.
And in St Paul's Cathedral,behind the high altar is the
American Chapel.
It was dedicated by then-sittingVice President Nixon and Queen

(47:58):
Elizabeth II in 1958, but evenmore so that's where the
American Roll of Honor is kept,and the American Roll of Honor.
For those who don't know isthis enormous book that was
commissioned and was presentedto the cathedral by General
Dwight D Eisenhower in 1946.
It contains all the names ofthe American war dead that were

(48:21):
killed in action in defense ofBritain.
So it's contained in this bigcase with a glass top and we've
made very good friends with thevergers and the vicars there and
they understand what it reallymeans to our tour participants
and the significance of it.
Every day since it wascommissioned and put out in 1958

(48:42):
, one of the vergers comes out,unlocks the glass top and they
turn a page and what they do isthey wait for our group to show
up.
And this last tour they gave usthe true honor of.
Each of our tour participantsgot a chance to turn the page in
the American Roll of Honor andit kind of almost chokes me up

(49:05):
now just thinking about it,because it was such a remarkable
experience and you just have toleave people with that feeling
like they've walked theairfields and the museums and
seen all this stuff.
But looking at that book andall those names, it really
brings it home to what the costwas for our freedom and in honor

(49:26):
of the 26,000 8th Air Forceveterans and the 28,000
prisoners of war.
The 26,000 never came home andit's quite a remarkable feeling.
So that's a long answer.

That's all right.
That's all right Now.
I assume that most of thesefolks who go on the tour are
either very, very elderly,actual previous members of the
8th Air Force or the US militaryduring World War II, or their
children.
I would assume that that's thecore group of people who would

(50:03):
be interested in those types ofthings.

All our participants are interested in
history and also having a goodtime.
We live very, very well in fourand five-star hotels.
We eat and drink very well.
You are definitely pampered,but, you're right, most of the
folks are—not most of the folks,but a good majority of the
people had a father, maybe agrandfather, in some cases a

(50:31):
great-grandfather, an uncle, acousin, etc.
Or they knew their old bandteacher in school was a B-17
ball turret gunner, or this guyin the church choir that he knew
was a P-51 pilot.
You know, we have all kinds ofdifferent stories and what I can
say is we really try our very,very best and so far we've

(50:55):
succeeded on every occasion.
At the peak of the 8th Air Forcein its full strength, there
were 40 heavy bombardment groupsin the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Air
Division, 40 of them, 15 fightergroups, two reconnaissance
groups and each of them hadtheir own individual airfield.
Well, even though the tour is,you know, very extensive, you

(51:17):
know we cover a lot of groundand see a lot of things.
It's impossible we can't get toevery airbase, but on our last
tour I had a woman whose fatherwas a pilot at Sudbury in the
486th Bomb Group.
Another woman whose father was aco-pilot in the 452nd Bomb
Group at Diefen Green and alsowas a POW, and a gentleman whose

(51:39):
father was a tail gunner in the44th Bomb Group at Shipton.
And those are not stops on ourregular tour, but we have
latitude and some time to givesome free time and so forth, and
I've got a lot of very dear,close friends and I managed to
make it work out to where eachone of those aforementioned

(52:01):
folks I had a friend or I'veeven rented a car myself and
driven folks out so they can goout and see where their dad
served.
I mean, that's such a neatexperience for them and for me,
frankly, that you can make thathappen.
So that's one of the things Ireally am very proud of is that

(52:22):
we'll try and personalize it forone of our tour participants
who had a relative and have adesire to go see that former air
base.

I know some former US World War II bases are
now currently either US basesor they're British bases.
Yeah, but aren't the vastmajority of them decommissioned?
Yes, they are.

Every air base has something.
I've gone to.
I just spoke to a gentleman theday before yesterday whose
father flew at a place calledKim Bolton in the 379th Bomb
Group, first Air Division, very,very famous group.
And I've been out to the airbase a number of times and
virtually there's virtuallynothing there.

(53:09):
But there's a memorial and it'sa beautiful memorial and you
know what, sometimes you don'tneed to see something but you
can just feel the history whenyou're standing on that hallowed
ground.
And it was you know, it was youknow.

(53:31):
But we kind of take folks toplaces where there is something
to see, where you know,aforementioned Masters of the
Air featured the 100th BombGroup.
Well, the 100th Bomb Group hasthe 100th Memorial Museum at the
base and it's housed in theformer control tower, restored
and it's a fantastic museum.
And all those aforementionedbases, all of them have some
sort of a museum.

(53:51):
But yeah, most of them there'seither something along that line
they have a physical museumthere or there might not be a
thing, but usually there's apiece of granite to commemorate
what happened during that timeand a lot of them are occupied.
I can say Debden, basingbourne,molesworth, there's a few other

(54:15):
over and more towards Norwich.
That are active military basesand yeah, they're tough to get
on, but where there's a willthere's a way.

Mike (54:24):
Well, spring and summer are coming.
I imagine that's your peakseason.

Yeah, we've got an op.
We've got a tour in may,actually a special tour too,
because, um, we've made verygood friends at the Cambridge
American cemetery at Mattinglyand I've I've jigged the
itinerary around and we aregoing to have VIP seating on
Memorial Day for their annualMemorial Day commemoration and,
believe me, the CambridgeAmerican Cemetery does it right.

(54:51):
It's a very emotional ceremonyand I know our tour participants
are going to really enjoy that.
And then we've got a couple ofother tours coming up in October
.
One that's a shorter tour ofthe 8th Air Force.
You basically get a chance todo everything, but we combine it
back to back with anotheroffering going over to Normandy,

(55:11):
and we call this one the Easy 8.
That's the 9th through the 16thof October, and then we take a
break in the middle of it.
And if you wanted to do theentire tour and really really do
it right, and if you wanted todo the entire tour and really,
really do it right, you'd have aday to yourself.
And then the following day webegin a tour to go to Normandy.
But we actually started inEngland and what we got a chance

(55:33):
to do is we take the folks downto Southwick House in
Portsmouth and that is the placewhere Eisenhower did the final
planning stages of the Normandyinvasion.
And we go into the actual manorhouse where they have the map
room and they have the originalfloor to ceiling map that was
used in 1944 to plan theinvasion and we have a great,

(55:55):
great lecture.
That's one thing we do on ourtours is I bring in a lot of
really good guest lecturers orguest historians you know, very,
very knowledgeable about thesubject, and then, following
that, we go into this place.
That was the room where thefinal decisions were made in
regards to the invasion Wing.
Commander Stagg, the chiefmeteorologist, gave the weather

(56:18):
report to Eisenhower and hisstaff and said you know it's not
perfect, the seas are going tobe rough, but this is about your
best opportunity that you'regoing to have until the latter
portion of June.
And it was said that Eisenhowercleared the room.
He just had his immediate staffin this area.
He got up, he looked out of theback window of Southwick House,

(56:41):
he stood there for a minute andhe turned around and he said
gentlemen, let's go.
And that's the room where thedecision was made.
And we have a champagnereception to start off our tour
and then we head over and weactually do the channel, which
is quite, really remarkable, andwe put our bus on a train and

(57:03):
we start moving and about 20minutes later we're in France
and we go to all five beaches.
Once again, we like champagne,for some reason.
We have a champagne receptionat Braycore Manor.
And for those who know 506, easyand Band of Brothers if I could
refer to the miniseries thesecond episode, day of Days we

(57:24):
parachute into Normandy withDick Winters and later in the
episode he's assigned to takeout these German guns that are
pounding Utah Beach and hebasically did this ad hoc.
You know, make it up as you goassault.
And we actually go and meetCharles Duvalier, the owner of
Braycore Manor, and he invitesus into his Chateau area and

(57:46):
then he explains, you know kindof what happened there.
We go to all the beaches, likeI said, and do some things that
we've got a really good Frenchtour guide that grew up in
Normandy by the name ofDominique Francois.
He's written about seven oreight titles on the Normandy
campaign.

And he's our guide and also an excellent
translator because my Frenchisn't so much.

So now, how many people are on a normal tour?
We, you know we'll go smallabout anywhere from around eight
to 12.
Up to last year, I took 32 toFrance.

Gotcha.

For the modeling community that I also should add
.
We have a mighty eighth tourthat starts on the 27th of
October, goes for 11 days and itends on Thursday, november the
6th, and, funny enough I don'tknow how this happened it's such
a coincidence the following dayI will show you how to get up

(58:42):
to Telford, and the next twodays is modeling heaven at the
largest scale model show in theworld, and I'll, I'll, I'll,
help you, help you out and helpyou get up there, because that's
where I'm going and, uh,telford's the, uh, the, the
greatest thing in the world.
I mean, it's once you go overthere, short of swimming, I'll

(59:05):
never miss one.

Mike (59:06):
It's incredible.
Well, this new job of yours andthese tours is kind of the
pinnacle of a long history thatyou've had with the 8th Air
Force.
I know you've sent a littleresume.
We knew what you were up tobefore we started.
We've talked to you a lot aboutthis on our joint traveling,
modeling adventures.
But I'm looking at this thing,mark, and since about 1996 you

(59:30):
seem to have been the lowly pxmanager for the eighth air force
, historical society all the wayup to national president yeah,
yeah, I've had a really greatlife so you've?
you've been doing that for 20years, looks like.

Oh, easy yeah.

Mike (59:46):
Well, on the record, with the historical side, I'm sure
you've been doing it longer thanthat on your own.
What honed you in and got youinterested in the 8th Air Force
in particular?

They gave us everything.
They gave us our freedom andwhat their courage and endeavor.
To me they saved the world, andyou know the gentleman that
I've had the pleasure of knowingin the past.
They've taught me a lot ofthings about love of country,
about integrity, about respectand kindness and also about, you

(01:00:18):
know, the self-fortitude thatit took to do what they did.
And I guess what really, like Isaid earlier, really spawned on
was my great friendship withRoger Freeman and we were close
enough to where, in 2005, inOctober of 2005, he passed away
of cancer and I was given theprivilege to come across by the

(01:00:44):
request of his family and I gavehis eulogy.
And that was a pretty importantthing in my life and I think
about him every day and I guessto me just the fact that when
you can go out and, like I said,you had the luxury of travel
and you got a chance to meetthese extraordinary gentlemen
and that just really really keptthe whole thing going and I

(01:01:05):
just wanted more and I guess itwas just a way that I could give
back for what they gave me andall the people in the free world
.
They gave us, like I said, ourliberty and our freedom and
whatever I could do tocontribute back, will never ever
pay the debt that we all owethem for what they did some 80

(01:01:26):
years ago.

Kentucky Dave (01:01:27):
Now, given your long association with the
society and with the 8th AirForce and with the museum, I'm
sure you've met many, manyveterans.

Mark Copeland (01:01:41):
Oh yeah.

Yeah, I know we could spend hours and hours
talking, but pick out a coupleof memorable individuals, tell a
couple stories about a coupleof these amazing men.

Oh boy, yeah, you're right, we could go for
hours.
Like I said, I've had anincredibly blessed life on
getting a chance to meet some ofthese guys.
I know that we have a sharedlove of August 1st 1943 and the
tidal wave mission at Ploiesteand I got a chance to meet
several veterans from thatcampaign.

(01:02:20):
I know that you had met PhilArdrey down near Neck of the
Woods.
I knew old Phil and then Iwould do.
Let me think relating toPloesti, where do I start?
Oh, I know, yeah, just becauseyou could do it, I'd make
arrangements with his secretaryand General.
Ramsey Potts, who led or waspart of the contingent of

(01:02:40):
leading the 93rd Bomb Group onAugust 1st, was part of the
contingent of leading the 93rdBomb Group on August 1st.
He went on excuse me to go intothe 389th Bomb Group, the 453rd
, and he was great friends withJimmy Stewart and he went all
the way up into 2nd Air Divisionand into command.
Very, very, really reallybrilliant, brilliant pilot and
also a great leader.

(01:03:01):
Well, after the war he studiedlaw and actually had a law
practice in Washington DC and Iwould jump on an early flight to
Reagan and make arrangementswith the secretary and I did
this probably about four or fivetimes through the years and I
would just jump on a jet and flyto Reagan and of course as an

(01:03:22):
airline employee you know what Ipaid and then got out to grab
the Metro and head uptown andI'd go to his office and I'd
meet General Potts and we wouldjust have lunch and talk for
about an hour and a half or soand I'd say thank you very much
and I'd take the Metro back,jump on a flight and fly back
home and the whole day probablycosts 25, 30 bucks but I got.

(01:03:46):
But I but I got a chance tomeet.
You know one of those guys fromfrom Ploesti.
And then there's a dear friendof mine out in South Dakota by
the name of Blaine Duxbury.
That's he.
If there's anybody that really,really knows the aircraft of
Ploesti, it's Blaine.
And we we just decided, sincenobody was going to recognize it

(01:04:07):
or do anything.
You have to remember what isthe single one-day military
action, the most decoratedmilitary action in our country's
history.
No, it wasn't at Valley Forgeor Gettysburg or anything like
that.
It was August 1st 1943.
There were five Medal of Honorwinners, as you know, that were

(01:04:29):
that participated in that raid,three that were awarded
posthumously.
So we just decided thatsomebody had to do something and
I knew.
I knew I had connections andBlaine had connections, and just
the two of us.
We organized a 70th anniversarycommemoration of the Ploesti
raid and we did it in DaytonOhio and of course we went to

(01:04:51):
the National Museum of theMighty Air Force, of the US Air
Force, where they have the onlyreal surviving B-24D B-24D.
We thought it would be worthyif we could maybe get like four
or five guys, because they're intheir late 80s or just creeping
into their 90s, and we actuallymanaged to get 12.
We had 12 Ploesti vets,including Mary Gerstead Jacobs,

(01:05:17):
who was the only sibling of JohnGerstead of the 93rd Bomb Group
, who was one of the Medal ofHonor winners that was awarded
posthumously and that was thefirst time that she ever came to
honor her brother.
And that weekend was justunbelievable, just the history.
And we conducted a lot ofsymposiums and things along that

(01:05:40):
line and really kind ofimmersed in it, of course
commemorated August 1st, the70th anniversary of that raid,
another one I do a lot of.
I still do a lot of consultingwork for the Military Gallery
over in England who publishesall the late Robert Taylor,
richard Taylor, the late GeraldCoulson, anthony Saunders and a

(01:06:04):
host of other artists and I usedto consult in regards to being
their chief kind of history guy,if you will.
So, as an example, robertTaylor was going to do an 8th
Air Force piece and he wanted todo a particular subject in
particular of a certain mission,or he wanted to feature a
certain aircraft.

(01:06:24):
So I would give him informationand as a modeler, you kind of
knew what this airplane lookedlike at this particular time and
you made sure that the accuracywas, you know, very pertinent.
And then in turn, what I wouldget a chance to do is they
didn't remit me or pay mebasically in money, but I got a

(01:06:46):
very nice aviation artcollection and then what.
I also did was I went overseveral times to England for
these gallery events and my jobwould be to stay at the hotel
with the veterans.
And all of a sudden, I wassitting there with five the
surviving dam buster crewmen andsix battle of Britain pilots

(01:07:09):
and making sure that they wereon time and that they were
driven, and I got a chance tomeet these incredible men you
know not only the REF guys,luftwaffe veterans, et cetera,
et cetera, through theconnections, and then I also got
a chance to bring over someAmericans to these different
events and that was some greatmemories.

(01:07:30):
So, yeah, and then, probably ofany vet that I was probably the
closest to, was Colonel DonBlakeslee.
Colonel Blakeslee and I werevery close until he passed in
around I think 2008 is when heleft us but we were great
friends and I spent many, many,many a time down at his place

(01:07:52):
near Homestead Air Force Basesouth of Miami.
And for those who don't knowColonel Blakeslee was, he was
the commander of the 4th FighterGroup and started flying with
the Royal Canadian Air Force,then went to the Eagle Squadron
and then flew of the 4th FighterGroup and started flying with
the Royal Canadian Air Force,then went to the Eagle Squadron
and then flew with the 4th andin all I think he flew just what
I can figure out just over1,300 hours of combat time,

(01:08:15):
which has never been done byanother American pilot.
And Colonel Dion and I, we weregood buds.

Well, they didn't call it the Blake's to WAFA for
nothing, that's right.

Yeah.

Well, that's got to be wonderful, of course, and
now you know there are fewer andfewer of them remaining, given
that most of these guys who arestill around are pretty
100-year-old or pretty darnclose.

On one of our tours in 2023, we did an 80th
anniversary of the Black Weekperiod of the 8th Air Force
October 8th through the 14th of1943, when the 8th Air Force
lost 138 heavy bombers in thatsix-day period.
And I had the chance.
I got a call many of yourlisteners might know the name of

(01:09:08):
John Lucky Luckadoo from the100th Bomb Group and John was
101, and he called me up andsaid I want you to save a spot
for me, for my daughter and myson-in-law, and we want to go on
your Black Week tour in Octoberfor my daughter and my
son-in-law and we want to go onyour Black Week tour in October.
And I kind of sat there for asecond and I said what could go
wrong with that?

(01:09:28):
But by golly we did it and for12 days I took a 101-year-old
gentleman and he got a chance togo back to Thorpe Abbots and
fulfill a lifelong dream to showhis daughter where he served
during World War II and fulfilla lifelong dream to show his
daughter where he served duringWorld War II.
And that was just a remarkableexperience and lucky.
You'll be 103 on March 16th.

Wow, that has to be for having lived through that
awful week, no-transcript, 80,you know, 70, 80 years later,
whatever it was, and to visitthose places, I mean.

I can't imagine.
Yeah, it was really somethingand we really kept his visit
kind of private, we didn'tadvertise it on social media and
I got to recommend in thatregards to John Luckadoo, if
your listeners really want totake a really good historical
ride in 2000, no 2020 during thelockdown pandemic, lockdown,

(01:10:36):
john and an excellent writer bythe name of Kevin Maurer wrote
the story of his World War IIexploits and it's a book called
Damn Lucky.

And it's just unbelievable.

And he tells a story about his time in the
100th bomb group and he's verytruthful.
And I remember John and I wereon, we went up on top of the
tower and I mean he scampered upthe stairs like like he was on
fire and we were coming down andI said let's just do this right
.
And I had one of the docentskind of on the front in case he

(01:11:11):
went forward and I was in backof him in case he went backwards
.
And we walked down and and allof a sudden he, uh, he stood on
the tower and he stood at the,at the corner, just just staring
out at the field and I knewexactly what was going on and

(01:11:33):
all of a sudden he, he was backin 1943 and he just stood there
and stood there and I didn't, Ididn't say anything, but I
managed to take my phone and Itook some pictures and I'll I'll
post that on the dojo of thelast 100th bomb group veterans
standing on the control tower atThorpe Abbots, because there's
only four of them left.
That's it.
There's only four 100th BombGroup veterans left living right

(01:11:54):
now.
And I was there, you know, tosee it.
And that was just something.
And you know, I didn't sayanything to him or whatever, and
he just kind of turned aroundand I said you're right, john,
and he goes, yep, and just wewalked off and that was it.
But yeah, that was.
That was a remarkable honor.

Yeah, that's gotta be amazing.
So how many tours do you havecoming up this year?

We've got one planned in May and then we have,
uh, uh, as I mentioned, thelong tour, which is 16 days,
going to England and to Normandy, and then we split that.
We can split it in half and youcan.
You can do the front portion ofuh, which is a shortened date,
the Air Force tour, and then theD-Day tour is after that.
The whole, the whole tour is 16days in total, and then we have

(01:12:44):
a complete separate day tourwhich is starting on the 11th.
I'm sorry, try to do that again.
It starts on October 27th andthen goes to November 6th.
That's an 11-day tour, and thenafter that I'm going to Telford
.
And anybody that wants to comealong, please, please do.
And then I'm also developingkind of interestingly enough,

(01:13:05):
I'm developing a tour thatnobody's ever done
Aforementioned there were 28,0008th Air Force prisoners of war
during World War II.
What I'm developing right nowis a trip to go to Berlin.
Then the group would go fromBerlin up to Rostock and we
would visit the site whereStalag Luft 1 was.
At the following day we wouldgo out to Peenemunde where the

(01:13:28):
vengeance weapons were developedby the Germans, and then we'll
go back to Berlin and kind of doall the sites in and around
Berlin, not only World War IIbut also Cold War, you know, the
wall, checkpoint Charlie, etcetera.
And then we'll take a drive offand we're going to go out to
Kolditz Castle and then also thefollowing day we're going to

(01:13:50):
drive over to Zagin in Polandand visit Stalingrad 3.
Of course that's the placewhere the Great Escape happened.
And then from there we're goingto go down to Dresden and spend
a couple of days in Dresden andthen finish off the tour in
Nuremberg and we'll see thesights of Nuremberg.
And the final thing that I wantto put together is visiting the

(01:14:11):
Hall of Justice where theNuremberg war trials were held.
So that'll be a reallyremarkable trip that's going to
be in the spring.
And then I have another Germantrip that's going to be in the
fall of 2026.

Okay.
So you've already started.
You've got all of 2025 plannedand you're actually starting
working on 2026.

And 27,.
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely yeah,and all this information can be
found on our website.
If you don't mind me doing ashameless plug, no, I was just
about to ask, actually.

Just about to ask , so I will.

Mike (01:14:44):
So if our listeners would like to know just how to get on
one of these tours.

Well, I can tell you just how to do that.
No, now I have to send you guysa check in the mail.
No, it's actually on ourwebsite, it's on wwwmighty8thorg
.
And then you just go to theeducational travel tab.
It tells you all the details, amore detailed itinerary, the

(01:15:08):
hotel properties that we have,what we kind of do loosely on a
day-by-day basis, and you know,we understand that.
You know, you and I or anybodyas far as that might be
interested in this.
It'd be fun to take your spouseand I can say that we do give a
lot of free time.
We give you a free day inLondon.
We give you a free day inLondon.

(01:15:33):
So if your wife has to go toHarrods and go look at $1,200
pairs of shoes, we'll give youthat opportunity and the hotel
in central London.
We're really close to thetheater district, so if you want
to go catch a show, it's just acouple minutes away and you're
right in the heart of centralLondon and, like I said, it's a
nice place to live right in theheart of central London.

And, like I said, it's a nice place to live.
Well, for those of us who mayhave a little tough time getting
to Europe anytime soon, tell usabout the museum itself in
Georgia.

Oh, certainly.
Well, the museum has been opensince 1996, and thanks for
asking about that, dave.
The museum is called theNational Museum of the Mighty
Eighth Air Force.
It's actually located in Pooler, georgia.
It's open six out of seven daysof the week, and so forth, and
we have a beautiful, beautifulmuseum that tells the story of

(01:16:19):
the buildup of World War II,where you actually kind of go in
and it's kind of a well, Idon't want to allay it to like a
Disneyland, you know, type of ashow or something along that
line.

An interactive experience.

Exactly, and then you walk out into the combat
gallery and that is where thecity of Savannah is and that is
our B-17.
It is probably in the world, Iwould have to say, as a
non-flyable example of a B-17,it is probably in the world, I
would have to say, as anon-flyable example of a B-17,
it certainly has.
It's probably close to the mostcomplete aircraft, not only

(01:16:59):
internally but externally.
All the turrets work ballturret, top turret, the chin
turret, all of them operate andit's a remarkable, you know,
aircraft that you can get rightup very, very close to and for
for anybody that wants to go ona tour or visit the museum.
You can reach out to me and Ican.
I know.
I know some folks and Irecently folks that you that

(01:17:23):
you've had on the show, like BobBob Bear and Harvey Lowe.
They were down in Savannah andI got a chance to give them,
make arrangements to make a VIPtour and both of them got a
chance to get inside the fort,which was really nice.

So the museum is, is the museum itself expanding.

Yeah, thanks for asking.
Yeah, we just went on a majorcapital campaign project and
we're actually putting on a very, very large extension and kind
of doing a complete facelift ofthe museum, which will take
actually a couple of years to do.
I've seen all the architecturalplans and the drawings and what
they're going to do and youknow, the museum is good right

(01:18:05):
now but it's going to be so, somuch better in the next couple
of years.
So, yeah, we're really excitedabout that, but it's going to be
so, so much better in the nextcouple of years.
So, yeah, we're really excitedabout that.

Well, looking forward to it, I've got to.
Maybe I can convince the wifeto make a vacation trip to
Savannah.

Savannah's a beautiful city.

And we've never been, and you know, as long as I
don't tell her we're goingthere to see a museum.
Oh honey, while we're down here, why don't we do?

Mike (01:18:31):
it like your Niagara Falls trip, dave, where you didn't
even go to the falls, you wentto Buffalo.

I went to the Buffalo Naval History Museum
while she went to the fall.

That's awesome.

Mike (01:18:42):
Mark, let's bring this home now and all this aviation
history or your new career trackwith as the director of
Educational Travel with theNational Museum of the 98th, how
does all this job and yourinterest in World War II
aviation influence your modelingtopics?

Oh yeah, that's a great question.
I think I could answer it inthis regard, mike, I think
anybody that builds, especiallymilitary or historic things, or
shall we say real life things,we all strive to take something
and create a 3D miniature of anaircraft in my particular

(01:19:23):
interest, and so forth.
All of us, I think, want toobviously strive for accuracy
and to achieve, you know, a reallife, you know, miniature,
reproduction of something thatwas real, a real aircraft In my
regard.
I guess I purchased many, as anexample, the new Edward P-51s.

I was going to mention that.

I think now I think I'm pretty much to the
point where I have just as manyP-51s as Doolittle had in 1944.
It's a remarkable kit and Ihave a list, a short list, of
aircraft that I want to build.
Not only are they beautiful,beautiful airplanes.
But let's go back to DonBlakeslee.
That's the first one I'm goingto do is WDC P-51D5 that Colonel

(01:20:14):
Don flew and just in tribute tomy friend and I guess you know.
The other thing is is when, whenyou can go and you can, you can
literally, as, like ColonelBlakeslee on our visit to Debton
, I will take, take our tourparticipants to the exact spot
where his hard stand was, andyou can, and you can stand there

(01:20:35):
, or I'll take you to the hardstand where the Memphis bell was
parked, or you know this andthat and when, when you actually
stand there at that place wherethat airplane was and and the
where that was and where thatpilot flew, it's a whole
different experience in terms ofhistory.
But then when you sit down withthe model bench and you sit

(01:20:57):
back and you say I'm going tobuild a P-51 of Colonel Don
Blakeslee and not only was he agreat friend of mine personally,
but just to stand at that veryplace where that aircraft was at
.
That's, that's to me such itmakes.
It makes the build.
It just means so much more, Iguess.
Does that make sense?

Yeah, it gives you an extra connection, oh,
completely yeah, completely.

And when that model's done and you put it on
your shelf or bring it to yourlocal club or what may have you
Maybe people won't totallyunderstand you know what it was,
but you know to say that Istood at that very place where
this airplane you know wasparked or where it was serviced
and things along that line.

(01:21:42):
Or we take our motor coach andour bus driver kind of knows the
deal.
When we're driving, when we'reat Debton and we go down the
main east-west runway, he triesto get the bus up to about maybe
80 or 85 miles an hour.
We try and get it off theground.
But you're rolling down thisrunway where you know the 4th

(01:22:03):
Fighter Group flew and the EagleSquadrons and before that it
was a Principal Bas and 12 groupin the battle of Britain, and
it's just like this is unrealand you get that sensation.
And, like I said, when youbring that back to the model
table it just makes the wholeexperience so much more, you
know, interesting and it to meit just makes the hobby, you

(01:22:23):
know, that much more enjoyable.

I can relate completely.

Mike (01:22:26):
Well, Mark, we want to thank you for agreeing to come
on the show and talk to us aboutthe tours and your historical
endeavors.
It's all been great.
It's been great getting to knowyou and Steve over the last
couple of years.

Well, that has been not only, like I said
earlier in the program.
At the beginning, you know,like I said, you guys just kill
it every two weeks and I lookforward to it.
But I never, ever in a millionyears, thought that an email to
you guys about my friend steve,my best friend steve houstead
and then now, where it would,where it would turn out to be
that I've really gained tworeally good friends out of it,
so that's, that's what thishobby does, doesn't it?

yes, it does.
That is what this podcast hasdone for Mike and I Do me a
favor.
When you have tours upcoming,please post those on the dojo.
Let the listeners have theopportunity.
I'm sure that most of ourlisteners this is their first

(01:23:25):
time hearing about any of this,first time hearing about any of
this.
If they would like theopportunity to actually
experience it, please post theinformation on the dojo about
upcoming tours so that people,if they're interested, can go
ahead and contact you, contactthe museum and arrange to get on

(01:23:47):
the tour.

I think that's a terrific idea, dave, and I
certainly will.
Thanks for suggesting it.
And yeah, and if anybody isinterested in participating in
one of these things, maybe toclose, I guess it's something
that I think we all know in theback of our mind, and it's not
to get all philosophical orsappy or what may have you, but

(01:24:09):
it's really true.
We only have so much time onthis earth and the time that we
have is finite, and all of ushave the bucket list and the
list of boy.
One of these days I'd reallylike to do this, and it's up to
us, as human beings, toeliminate as many of those
things as we can before the end.

(01:24:29):
And, as I say, there's no ATMsin heaven.
And you know what, enjoy lifeand experience something, and
most of our tour participantsthey come back and it really is,
especially for people that hadrelatives in the 8th Air Force.
It's really a life-changingexperience and if anybody wants

(01:24:51):
any further information on theeducational travel page, there's
my contact information, myemail and my telephone number
and either call me or email meanytime and I'd be happy to
provide any information that Ican for you.

And Mike and I can both testify that Mark is a
boon traveling companion, that'sright.

Mike (01:25:13):
Look forward to the next time we're on the same trip.

Yes, exactly Amen to that, Sooner than later as
far as I'm concerned.

Amen.

That's it, Guys.
Thank you so much.

Mike (01:25:25):
Thank you, mark, and we look forward to the next time we
see you.

Absolutely All right.

Mike (01:25:29):
right, you guys take care take it easy, all right, thank
you man, that sounds like somuch fun, oh it, it does, I've
got.

If I can't get to europe, and right now that
clearly that's gonna be tough,tough haul for me.
I at least want to go down tothe museum of the 8th Air Mighty
8th down in Georgia.
That just sounds like so muchfun and can't wait to do that.
And Mark always love talkingwith Mark.

(01:26:02):
He's just such a fun person.
He has such a bright outlook onlife.

Mike (01:26:08):
Well, and he's certainly enthusiastic about the 8th Air
Force.

Yes, he is.
That was a lot of fun.
Yeah, get building those P-51s,mark and the.

Mike (01:26:17):
B-17s.

Yes.

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Mike (01:27:10):
Well, I got a box from Bases by Bill.
It's got the fruits of ourexperimentation in it.

Oh, great, great.
I can't wait.
When we get done with this,you'll have to take a couple of
photographs and send them to me,yeah, so folks will get
enlightened about that a littlelater down the road.

Mike (01:27:28):
We're not quite there yet on either of the projects that
are represented in that package,but Christian thanks for
sending that out and Bill andcompany thanks for working on it
for us.
We appreciate it.

Yes, absolutely.

Mike (01:27:42):
Well, dave, it's the Benchtop Halftime Reports and I
hope you've got something toreport, man, I do.
It's you can't go over to onthe Moose through.

No, I, I, I.
I can't post pictures of itcause it's top secret, but I am
making progress on the Moosethrough the.
The model, by Sunday nightshould be in in its final paint.
Then all right.
Then it's weathering and thenI've got to knock out that, that

(01:28:15):
base real quick because thediorama or vignette component is
the one I don't want to.
Don't want to.
It's going to be very simple,so I think I can knock it out
pretty quick.
But yeah, I'm enjoying it.
It's a fun kit.
I appreciate the guys inHamilton doing this and I'm not

(01:28:37):
going to go 0 for 2, I promise.

Mike (01:28:40):
Anything else In the hobby room I have been moving.

I put up shelving , as I mentioned last time.
I've been moving kits and stufflike that, and then I've been
moving out some of my libraryinto my pool room.
By pool room I mean table pool,not outside the billiard room.
Yeah, the billiard room, thankyou.
And I found the only problemwith moving books is you look at

(01:29:10):
them and it's like oh, I didn'tremember I had that, or ooh,
that's a cool.
And next thing you know you'restanding there.
Instead of moving books, you'restanding there leafing through
something.

Mike (01:29:25):
Yes, guilty.

Yeah, not good, that's not good.
So it slows me down.
It robs yeah, not good, that'snot good.
So it slows me down.
It robs me of hobby time.
So I've got to get better aboutthat, but I am making some
progress.

Mike (01:29:41):
How about you?
Kv85 is moving along.
Yes, it is.
It's about to pick up pace alittle bit.
It's about to pick up pace alittle bit.
The hurdle of the last few dayshas been the last of the
primary hull welds on it whichI've done in the epoxy putty,
and there were six, yeah, six intotal, and I tell you I can say

(01:30:04):
we talked about this in arecent past episode.
I don't know if it was the lastone or not, but it was
certainly recent couple.
Was there anything from the E16project that was actually going
to carry over into armor?
And, yes, I can say somethinghas.
I got to point where I washandling that E16 float plane

(01:30:26):
pretty gingerly and then ifthere was work I'd just done and
I knew I was at risk of foulingthat by working on some other
area of the plane before thatwas set up or cooked off or
whatever I would just not do it.
I would wait.
And I saw with these welds thatthat was going to happen If I

(01:30:48):
just handled this thing.
I was going to happen.
If I just handled this thing, Iwas going to keep getting my
fingers in the ones I'd alreadydone because they were the, they
were exposed, and so it took methree sessions to march through
this thing.
Yeah, I'd do these two, thenwait, then do these two and wait
, and then do the last two, andwait, and they're all done.

So I'm moving on to the fenders next well, or let
me ask you are you like?
Are you like uncle, night shiftand doing weld seams is now
your favorite part of building amodel tank no, I wouldn't say
that.

Mike (01:31:20):
I would say four of the six weren't bad.
Yeah, no, there was eight.
Actually there's two near thenose, two in the the middle and
two on the rear Four in themiddle and two on the rear.
The four in the middle aroundthose turret bulges gave me a
lot of trouble.
That was not my favorite.
I was glad when those were done.
It was just a matter of youdidn't have a corner to pack the

(01:31:42):
putty into, because that bulgeis round, because the that bulge
is round.
So you had a a round surfacecoming down and stubbing into a
flat surface, so that that anglewas really shallow down where
the weld seam was.
So I did his trick, though.
I went back and I ended upscribing a a groove to pack the

(01:32:03):
putty into so I get a littlemore tooth for it to hold onto.
It just kept.
It kept going away on me, yeah.
But I got there in the end andI think they look pretty good.
Good, and the fenders are provenproblematic.
What's exactly wrong with them?
They're fine.
They're nice and thin forinjection molded tank fenders,

(01:32:24):
so there's really no need toreplace them.
I've thinned the fronts andrear exposed ends a little bit.
But they've got a detail.
That kind of friction fits upinto the underside of those
turret blisters on the hullsides and when you get those in
there it forces a twist into thefenders, hmm, and I'm not sure

(01:32:45):
where it's binding up.
So I got to figure out what'scausing that, to do that, and
it's just going to be a lot offile.
Fit sand, fit sand, fit sand.
Oh there it is.
Now glue it on.
So that's going to be hopefullythis weekend I'll have those on
.
One of them's not bad, theother one's kind of terrible, so
I'm a little worried about it.

(01:33:06):
I think I'll get it, but notfun.

Yeah, well, you know, that can actually be a lot
of modeling zen when you'reworking on something like that.
You sand a little off, you testfit, you go okay, and then you
take it off and you sand alittle bit and you can kind of
get in a groove doing that, andyou can kind of get in a groove

(01:33:30):
doing that.

Mike (01:33:38):
And I'll be honest with you in some respects, I find
that very relaxing, as long asyou can get it eventually to
actually fit.
Well, once you get the Moosaroothing done, you got to tear
into those.

The SAM has to finish up.
And then I've got to tear intothose F8Fs, which shouldn't be
bad.
Those are simple.
Those are the Hobby Bossreduced parts kits, so they
should not be very hard.
And these things are going tobe basically markings mules
anyway.
So I'm not, I'm not.

(01:34:04):
There's going to be no superdetailing or anything like that.

Mike (01:34:08):
You know I had an idea, oh Lord you know, on your Moose
Roo obligations years.
You also have this September'scollection or group build for
the Nationals.
Yes, you keep beating your headagainst.
Yeah, I propose for 2026 thatthe September's group bill for

(01:34:32):
the nationals be whatever.
The Moose through is nocommunity within a community and
it's just stuff you guys havebeen building for the prior year
and don't make it somethingdifferent.

Something different.
Well, we, you know that wouldbe nice.
I'll talk to to the doctor, dr.
You know that would be nice.
I'll talk to the doctor, drGelbacher, who's in charge of
those things, and see if forthat year we can fit in
something that I've already gotsomething built that fits in the
collection, in fact the onecoming up.
I've already got one item thatfits in the collection.

Mike (01:35:06):
I mean because these things are going to burn up your
.

Yeah, I know.

Mike (01:35:09):
Spring and summer.

I know, yeah, well, that's the other thing.
I didn't get the dark time.

Mike (01:35:14):
You, you, you've got like three months to build something
you want to build.

Right, I've got to build faster.
I have to build faster there isno just trying to help you out.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) (01:35:43):
Well, that's all I've got app for your
Apple or Android device foreasy shopping from just about
anywhere.
Squadron adding to the stashsince 1968.

Mike, new stuff is coming out at a rapid pace.
In fact, I'm finding it hard tokeep up with it all.
So do you have some faves andyawns for what's coming out?

Mike (01:36:10):
You know, I don't know if that's universal across all
scales and genres, but I got afew things All right, honestly
they're faves.
But there's like thisoverarching theme that kind of
bums me out a little bit.

Okay.

Mike (01:36:26):
Yeah, 3D print seems to be propagating faster than maybe I
would care for.
I'm kind of developing alove-hate with it.

Yeah.

Mike (01:36:35):
And you know I've got three faves here tonight and two
of them are 3D print things.

Yeah.

Mike (01:36:42):
But they're cool.
Yeah, b&l Models, a company outof Vietnam, has got a Type 65
twin anti-aircraft gun.

Okay.

Mike (01:36:56):
Vietnam War era gun.
They've got the ground version.
They've also got that one ortwo off.
They built on T-34 chassisRight A conversion for that.
So interesting subjects.
I know they're my cup of tea soI don't have to worry about too
much 3D print encroaching on mymodeling enjoyment, but look

(01:37:16):
pretty cool.
Yeah, what's your first one?

My first one is a fave.
It's our friend ClearProp, outof the Ukraine.
They have announced a new tool,mig-19.
Announced a new tool, mig-19.
And for anybody who is a fan ofRussian-slash-Soviet aircraft,
particularly from 1945 to thefall of the Soviet Union, the

(01:37:42):
MiG-19 was a big hole.
It was a major aircraft, theequivalent of our F-100, super
Sabre about the same time period, etc.
And there have been a couple ofkits over the years, but no
good kits.
And, given Clear Prop's talentsand the kits they currently

(01:38:13):
produce, I have zero doubt thatthis is going to be a fantastic
kit and, like I said, it's goingto fill a big hole.
And it looks like they're doinga couple of different versions
the classic day fighter version.
They're going to do the nightfighter version.
I'm happy to see it.

Mike (01:38:28):
It's right up your alley man yep, it is go ahead ss
models.

Okay, yeah, they're god.

Mike (01:38:35):
They are releasing everything in its brother I and
it started out not so great, butsome of the stuff folks have
been I've been seeing online.
I've gotten some nice stuff.
I know ian up in canada right acouple and he's had fun with
them yeah but this is one that'sa 3d print.
It's all 3d print, but thisone's a 3d print and it's one

(01:38:58):
where the overall quality wouldreally make it or break it.
It's the aft deck, catapult andgantry for the japanese ship
fusso.
Oh yes, I saw In 172nd scale.
Yep you got to order that man.
But man, that's a lot of cointo throw down on something that
might show up and be just ascreaming turd man.

Yes, not just a turd, a screaming turd, that's
right.
Yeah, yeah, well, hopefully,okay, yeah well, hopefully, okay
.
If there's some listener outthere who has seen this thing in
the flesh, tell us.

Mike (01:39:35):
Or any of the other catapults.
They've got two or three others.

Yes, please tell us, because if it's halfway
decent, mike is going to go sellhis blood or do something like
that to raise the money to buyprobably all of these.
So please, any listener outthere, let us know.

Mike (01:40:04):
I mean, I've been at this long enough to have cut my teeth
on some really crappy resindisappointments.

You don't want to spend money on bad models.

Mike (01:40:13):
I'm easy to have pause on stuff like this.
Exactly, exactly you gotanother one, my friend.

Yes, I do, and you and I are both going to like
this.
There's a company called YahooModels, yeah, y-a-h-u.
There's a company called YahooModels, y-a-h-u, and they make
instrument panels that areabsolutely gorgeous, pre-danned,
pre-colored dial faces andeverything, complete instrument

(01:40:42):
panels that you can just dropinto a kit and they are
fantastic.
They are unbelievablyinexpensive, in fact, to the
point where whenever I place anorder with like Hannitz and I
want to fill out an order, I'lljust buy a bunch of those things
because they're ridiculouslycheap, they don't add to the

(01:41:03):
postage, et cetera, etc.
But they have announced ainstrument panel and interior
for the iar 80 81 oh, now Igotta get one yes, that's my
point I'll.
When I find one, I'll be buyingtwo.
Actually, I'll probably bebuying three or four, because

(01:41:25):
there are more iar 80 kitscoming, that kit might have a
nice one already in it.
Oh, I suspect it does, butthese things are just so,
they're photorealistic.
I mean, they are trulyfantastic.
So if any kit, if I'm buildingany kit and Yahoo makes a panel
for it, I will use it, justsimply because it saves you time

(01:41:50):
and effort.
Well, cool you got another one.

Mike (01:41:55):
I do.
I was talking about this oneearlier man to you.
Okay, while we were supposed tobe at work, mike MiniArt has
added the final version of theStug-Off G from the Alcat
factory in their 72nd scale Stugline and probably going to get
one of these the pig snout, yeah, but it's also got the remote
MG on top and the close defenseweapon.

(01:42:16):
It's like the Sturmgeschützreached its pinnacle at the end
of the war.
Well, while they were startingto shortcut some of their other
mainstays in their armorconstruction, and that's it's my
favorite long-barreled versionof the Sturmgeschütz and I don't
know.
The images on the modeling newslook pretty good.

(01:42:37):
I think those kits are prettynice and it's a little bitty
thing, but I don't know Warmingup to that scale and some of the
armor subjects a little bit andI think I'm going to get this
one.

Well, good, I've got one last, which is a yawn,
and it's not one that I've seen,it's one I've been told about.
Our friend of the show, jimBates, tells me that he has seen
an actual kit of this, and Iforget who the manufacturer is,
but it is a 48 scale vacuformand 3D print Russian TU-95 Bear.

(01:43:19):
What scale?
48.

Mike (01:43:23):
That's got some long droopy wings on it.

Yeah, that's just .
I mean, a TU-95 in 72nd scaleis a big airplane, Every bit as
big as a B-52.
I just cannot imagine doing avacuform and 3D print 48 scale

(01:43:47):
TU-95.

Mike (01:43:49):
That's the only way you're going to get it.
Yeah, that is the only wayyou're going to get it.

Yeah, that is the only way you're going to get it
, and I'm sure there are 48scale guys out there who are
probably like yay, that's good,I'm glad for you, but that's
going to be a yawn for me.

Mike (01:44:04):
Well, that's all I got.
I don't have any yawns.
I could but I've beat the drumsthat they would fall under to
death, so we're not going to dothat.

All right, I almost feel silly asking but how
was your Pilsner or Cal?

Mike (01:44:24):
It's good.

Yeah, of course it is.

Mike (01:44:27):
It's a mass market Czech beer.
I really would like to knowwhat they think about this beer
in the Czech Republic.

Yes, if we got a listener in the Czech Republic.
Tell us what do you all thinkof Pilsner or Kel, because we
really love it over here in theStates.

Mike (01:44:43):
I think it's good.
I always feel a little slightedwith the 330 milliliter bottles
, which works out to about 11.2ounces versus 12.

Well, that's why you have two of them.

Mike (01:44:56):
Well, you're losing a couple of swigs per bottle.

Yeah, I know.

Mike (01:45:00):
That's one way to get a light beer, I guess.
There you go, there you go.
Same to you, man.
I'm sure you're enjoying thepear cider, having flashback
memories to the IPMS Nationalsin Oklahoma City.

Yes, I am, it's good.
In fact, that's one of thethings.
That's pretty unusual is, whenI first experienced this at the
2003 Oklahoma City Nationals, itwas on tap and I can say, out
of a can it is every bit as goodas on tap.

(01:45:34):
There's no real noticeabledegradation.
It's a fantastic light drinkand it's only basically 5%
alcohol by volume, and so it'svery drinkable, very light.
Nothing bad to say about it.

(01:45:54):
It's one of my two go-torefreshments.
We now truly are at the end ofthe episode.
Do you have any shout out?
I've just got one, so go firstI've got two.

Mike (01:46:09):
So if you got more than one uh, we can alternate.
I'll go first and you can doyours and I'll finish up uh one
last time.
The hamilton crew for beingsuch pros.
When we had them on for theshow spotlight they were really
well prepared and you know it'snot their first rodeo, obviously
, with heritage com.
It's not their first rodeo withuh coming on and pitching the
show with us.

(01:46:30):
It's at least their third time,maybe their fourth, and they
just showed up ready to go andhad all their information and it
was a really smoothconversation and easy at it and
I really appreciate that becausethe show Spotlights we like
doing them.
So don't think this is acomplaint, folks, but it's an
interesting one for us to dobecause we never know what we're

(01:46:50):
going to get coming from theother side.
Right, and sometimes it's beena challenge.
We've always managed to getthrough it.
You just never know.
Are they going to be prepared,are they going to have any kind
of good equipment or not?
Or you just don't know how goodis their internet connection
going to be.

Right, or are they going to be nervous?
I mean the guys at.
Hamilton because they've donethis so many times now, really
kind of have it down.
They come across veryprofessionally and that's just
something that really comes withdoing it multiple years,
multiple places, etc.

Mike (01:47:27):
So that was an easy one yes, and yours.

Well, I've got to shout out that Arma Hobby has a
blog and they had a recent postby a female aviation historian
by the name of Dr VictoriaTaylor, who is semi-well-known

(01:47:51):
on Twitter, slash X under thehandle Spitfire Philly.
She is a recent doctoralgraduate in oh gosh, was it Hull
?
I cannot remember the name ofthe school in England that she
got her doctorate from, butshe's a young, attractive World

(01:48:14):
War II aviation historian.
She's been on a number of TVshows, youtube series, she's
done some excellent written workand she apparently and I'd love
to know how this collaborationcame about ARMA has a really
nice blog where a special set ofmarkings for some hurricanes,

(01:49:00):
one of which Arma boxes withthose decals, and these were
presentation aircraft paid forby a Scottish lady a Scottish
lady and by lady I mean thetitle lady who had three sons
who had all died in air crashes,the last of the three actually
in World War II combat and shedonated at first a short

(01:49:25):
Sterling bomber and then shedonated four hurricane fighters,
paid for them out of herpersonal fortune, and they were
dedicated to her three sons andthe fourth one to their Soviet
allies.
This is back when the Sovietsand Britain were fighting
together against Hitler and werefighting together against

(01:49:48):
Hitler, and at least one ofthose aircraft armored in their
Hurricane II-B kit actually hasthat set of markings.
And so she did a really greatarticle that not only discussed
the markings but also discussedthe history behind it and who

(01:50:08):
this person was, and you reallygot a sense of what this poor
woman experienced losing allthree of her sons.
It was a really great article.
So congratulations to Dr Taylor, congratulations to ARMA.
That was a very good tietogether and hopefully they'll

(01:50:30):
do more in the future.
So you got one more.

Mike (01:50:33):
I do.
We'd be remiss not to shout outour contributors to Plastic
Model Mojo.
I was going to say Folks likeLynn Young, Don Gilman and Uni
Korte from Finland, so we gotanother one from Finland.

All right, you love the Finns Folks.

Mike (01:50:49):
We really appreciate this.
It's really flattering to knowthat you're getting enough out
of this podcast and our adjacentcontent over on Facebook to
want to help us out along theroad.
So much appreciated.
If you'd like to be like thesefine folks, you can go to
wwwplasticmodelmojocom andthere's a support tab at the end
of the menu bar or in the shownotes of this episode to get to

(01:51:12):
all the avenues that you cansupport the show if you so
desire.
We don't want to charge anybodyfor anything, but we appreciate
the support we're gettinganyway.
It's very, very flattering.
So thank you very much.

Amen, mike.
That brings us to the end.
I need to get off of here andget packed up and ready to go to
Columbus.
So, as we say, so many kits,dave.

Mike (01:51:35):
So little time, mike.
Well, you have fun in Columbusbuddy, all right, all right.

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Mighty Eighth Educational Travel with Mark Copeland: Episode 135

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