The Japan Journey: Episode 143, Harvey Low, Shizuoka Show, Hobby Shops, and Modeling Culture

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

Mike (00:42):
All right, Kentucky Dave, episode 143.
We're finally going to do this.

Kentucky Dave (00:46):
Yes, that's right , and instead of being the end
of June, it's the beginning ofJuly.

Mike (00:52):
That's right and it's just kind of like we said in the
12-minute model sphere.
It's been a little dodgy thelast couple weeks.

Yeah, that's right, that's right.

Mike (01:03):
Well, hopefully there's something up in your model
sphere given all this busyness.

Well, there is.
There are a couple of things.
One, as people who've watchedon the dojo have found out, I
finally finished my pool project, getting the stairs sanded and
painted and all that sanded andpainted and all that.

(01:30):
So the pool has been filled andjust in time for certain
individuals to show up on July4th for a cookout and pool party
.

Mike (01:36):
All right, looking forward to it.

It's modeling adjacent because my partner in
podcast crime is going to bringhis family and I'm going to once
again try the impossible featof feeding to Phil, two teenage
boys.

Mike (01:55):
One's 21 now, oh God yeah.

I know it's amazing.

Mike (01:58):
And he swims about a million laps a week too.

Well, the pool's there waiting for him, and
decently warm too, Perhaps aweek too.

Mike (02:08):
Well, the pool's there waiting for them, and decently
warm too.
What about on the model front,on the hobby front?

You got much going on On the model front.
Obviously I'm on crunch time ongetting stuff done for the Nats
and we'll talk about that inthe benchtop halftime report.
But in related Nationals news Idid get registered for the
Nationals.
I do believe pre-registrationis now closed, but I did manage

(02:35):
to get pre-registered.
In addition, we finally naileddown our accommodations at the
Nationals.
We're going to do a littlesomething different this year
and I'm I'm looking forward to.
It's only five weeks.
Five weeks away.
It's close.
I know before we know it it isgonna be here before we know it.

(02:58):
And finally, I have spent abunch of time in the last two
weeks interacting with ourlisteners, whether it be on the
dojo or getting DMs from them ortext.
Some of our listeners I textwith or communicate in other

(03:18):
form or fashion.
And work has kind of suckedlately, just between you, me and
the wall.
Don't tell my employers I'vesaid this, but work kind of
sucked lately Just between you,me and the wall.
Don't tell my employers I'vesaid this, but work kind of
sucked lately.
And there is nothing better inthe middle of the day, when I'm
grinding it out and notparticularly happy about the
work at the moment to get a DM,or to stop and go through the

(03:43):
dojo and see a really great post, and I'll tell you what that
has really added to my modelsphere.
So I want to thank everybodywho's interacted with me lately
on that front.
So has your model sphere beenanything but cutting the yard?

Mike (04:04):
Yeah, I've been well, you've been in.
But cutting the yard?
Yeah, I've been well, you'vebeen in on the conversation to
some degree.
We've got a lot of stuff.
We're lining up for the nextcouple months and doing a little
bit better job with our forwardplanning than we've done.
We do pretty good.
No, we've got some good thingson the horizon?

Yes, we do.

Mike (04:23):
Getting everybody lined up to do that is a little bit of a
juggle, but not too bad.

It takes a little time, it takes a little effort,
but we seem to be doing well.
We've got a lot of good stuffcoming up.

Mike (04:36):
We do so, planning and getting those folks lined up.
So that's what I've been doing.
Are you about ready for theNationals?
I hope so.
I just shot an order of oursecret project up to our secret
contractor to get our secretsurprise finished up for the
Nationals.

(04:57):
So we'll just have to stop bythe table and see what we're
talking about.
We're not going to say untilthen, but it's something that's
been requested, yes, with somefrequency, so some folks are
going to be happy.
That said, I also got thevendor table paid out and got
got pre-registered.
So, good, all my ducks are in arow as well.

So All right, I can't wait, man, it's going to
be here.
It's going to be here beforeyou know it.
That's right.
It will so, mike, since we'redoing a full episode.
Finally, do you have a modelingfluid in front of you?
I?

Mike (05:31):
do.
What do you have?
I went out and got it tonightin fact.
Oh wow, well, don Gilmanlistener, he's from Texas, I
believe.
Yeah, posted on the Dojo he wasdoing an old Forester flight
and had a couple of the standardlabels.
Then the whole.
I can't remember it was aWhiskey Rose series or
Prohibition series, I can't youknow the dated bottles.

Harvey Low (05:53):
Right.

Mike (05:54):
I went out and got the favorite of mine out of that
line the 1920?
, the 1920, I guess.

Oh God, that's good stuff.

Mike (06:01):
So it's pretty good.
It's been a while since I'vehad it, so I got to be careful I
might be slurring my wordslater.

Tread lightly that one's on the high end.

Mike (06:10):
Yeah, it's a moderate pour with a big old rock.
Good, we're good.
What about you, man?

Well, I've got kind of a double this evening,
of a double this evening One.
The beer is Krampusnach, whichis a Schwartz beer from
Braumeister Brewing up in Canada.
This is another one of the onesthat Evan McCallum gave to us
at Hamilton and I'm pouring itinto a glass supplied to us by

(06:46):
one of the listeners.
Michael Grispen, who lives inEngland, has the most
German-sounding name in theworld yet, apparently originally
came from the Raleigh, northCarolina area and there is a
brewery called Aviator BrewingCompany in Raleigh, and he sent

(07:10):
a little care package of two oftheir glasses and two T-shirts.
So I have poured theKrampusnacht into the Aviator
Brewing Company glass and I willtell you it is definitely a
Schwartz beer.
Yep, definitely a Schwartz beer.
You can taste the malt and, boyis it, it got some body to it.

(07:34):
This will be interesting as wego through the night.

Mike (07:37):
I bet so.

It's got some real body to it.
Evan really liked that one.
He said Okay, real body to it.
Evan really liked that one.
He said so I'll be interestedto see how it develops as our
night goes on, and when you showup Friday I'll have the glass
and the t-shirt from Michael foryou to pick up.

Mike (08:00):
All right.
Well, that'll give me moreincentive to get there, Dave.

That's right.
Like you need it any more thanmy bright smiling face.
Okay, okay, all right.

Mike (08:14):
Well, the mailbag's in pretty good shape, especially
since we got stuff coming frommultiple channels now.

Yes, really, yes really.

Mike (08:21):
Well, the first one up is in response to well, there was
the best gift ever question wegot, and then also a call to
call out someone in ourcommunity who has done you a
solid.

Yeah.

Mike (08:39):
Well, this is from the good Dr David Gelmacher.
He tells a story that I'm goingto tell.
I'm going to work my waythrough this and you'll probably
remember it, but just hold yourwater until we get to it.
Okay, he says.
When his son was about four orfive he quote unquote gave him a
really nice Revell 72nd scaleF89 Scorpion, I think In the

(09:00):
checkerboard markings on thetail wing pods.

Yep.

Mike (09:03):
And it didn't survive one of his moves.
So in 2016, his local club hada Build a Revelle kit challenge.
His thoughts went prettyquickly to redoing that one.
Well, he found a copy of thekit at a good price, but it was
a different boxing, haddifferent scheme in it, mm-hmm.
So he posted it to the 72ndscale modelers forum with his

(09:26):
use, with his username, and hesaid that you responded he'd met
you through a Jim Bates youcould provide it for for $5.
And then when he sent his realname not his handle for the
forum and his address, he saysoh, I didn't know it was.
You forget the five bucks.
So he's a.

(09:47):
He's reliving that memory.

That is an absolutely 100% true story and
this was back when I knew of DrGelbmacher.
But I didn't really know DrGelbmacher just other than
through Jim, and I remember thatone.
In fact I still have the F89kit, less the decals, in my

(10:14):
stash.

Mike (10:15):
Probably got a sheet of decals in your stash.

Oh, I've got like four sheets of decals, so I'm
covered.

Mike (10:22):
Well, he says that story predates the podcast by about
three and a half years.
It does, but you're stillhelping each other out.

Yes, in fact I got decals from him not too long
ago, so he's paying it forwardor paying it back.

Mike (10:36):
Mojovian Special Agent 003 , brandon Jacob sent us a rather
lengthy email in response toall the goings on about stash
reduction and the big bookcollection.
That's been an interestingtopic.

Yes.

Mike (10:50):
Well, you know, he and his friend Rick Cotton down there
in Texas have been getting intothe stash flipping business,
right Liquidation business, andyou know this is a long email
and I think once we get the nextphase of the website done this
would make a very nice blog postkind of article.
So I'm just going to hit acouple of high points.

(11:12):
Then I'm going to touch basewith Brandon to see if maybe a
little bit could be fleshed outhere and maybe turn us into
something else, because it'sreally good.
A couple of points to consider.
The high points of this is hesays your plans should not only
include with what to do withyour stash, but to also remind
the person or persons who aregoing to have to disperse this

(11:33):
collection that it's okay.

Yeah.

Mike (11:37):
That they don't need to wrestle with not being able to
bear selling off what their latespouse's joy came from.

Right.

Mike (11:47):
But to you know, go ahead and let them know it's okay.
In the end it's plastic in acardboard box.

Yep, good point, that is a very good point.

Mike (11:56):
And the other one is he encourages folks to guard
against the.
Oh, a family member pops oneBay and sees a 30-year-old
Tamiya kit selling for 50 bucksas an asking price and the widow
or family gets sold down thisgolden road of unlimited
fortunes, as he puts it.
They've got this big thingthat's got a thousand kits in it

(12:20):
and they're all worth between40 and 50 bucks.
Yeah, get the dollar signeyeballs yeah dispersing this
kind of a collection and gettinganything close to a a market
price for it is a long tallorder yeah so you know they
don't even sell the stuff onebay.
They they like to do the showprice thing and blow it out, it

(12:43):
right?
And you know they're makingsome on the side, but you know
they're not getting a lot ofmoney for these kits, right?
So they're probably not givinga lot of money for these kits
and that's what it takes to makethese things go away.
Is somebody being realisticabout the secondary market value
of most of this stuff?
Now, there are exceptions, ohyeah.
No, there are the ultra rarekits.

(13:03):
This stuff, yeah.

Now there are exceptions, oh yeah, no, there
are the ultra-rare kits andstuff like that and the highly
desirable ones that may be.

Mike (13:10):
you know they're going to command a price, but by and
large this stuff depreciatesrather precipitously.

It does indeed.

Mike (13:21):
So, brandon, if you're listening, think about what I
said about turning this articleinto something else, because I
think you're onto something.
Well, I was going to say he'sin the kind of broker's
businesses for sale.

Yeah.

Mike (13:32):
So you know, he's kind of got a little knowledge in this
regard.

Yeah.

Mike (13:37):
Eric Kintzer wrote in and he gave us a wheel topic which
I'm going to not reveal, butit's a good one and we thank him
for that.
I mean encourage anybody elsewho has a topic they think would
be good, for either the wheelof accidental wisdom or even our
shop talk episodes could beused either either place.
Really, we need to do it.

We need to do another wheel episode.

Mike (13:59):
It's not been too long.
We got a little ways to gobefore we do another one, but
it's gonna be shop talk aboutevery month, so yeah, we can
certainly populate that list aswell.
Up next, bruce mccray wrote usback, dave, and uh, he's had
quite the adventure on hisspring model show tour of the
united states.
And, bruce, I sent you a replyand get back with me and see

(14:21):
about when we can get you backon the show, because there's a
lot to tell here and I'd like tobe the ones to help you do it.

It's kind of the modeling version of National
Lampoon's Vacation.

Mike (14:33):
In retrospect yes.

Yeah.

Mike (14:37):
But we'll let him tell it and what it means to him.

It's one of those things that, looking back on it
, it's funny.

Mike (14:44):
now I don't know, he may still have trauma from it.

That's true, I need a sip of beer.

Mike (14:54):
Charles Rice has informed us of the Lowcountry Nationals
July 19th, so that one's comingup quick.
It is a model show held in theNorth Charleston area of South
Carolina at the TridentTechnical College and that's
going to be again July 19th 2025.
$5 entry for non-participants.
$10 for the first five models,$1 each additional model after

(15:17):
that.
No charge for display only.
So they're doing display only.
That's great and he saysprevious first place winners can
enter the best of the bestcategory.
Registration is 830 to 1130 am,day of the show, judging noon
to one, awards at two andthere's vendor tables available
for $25 a pop and thesponsorships available for $25

(15:38):
per class.
I'm assuming those are stillavailable.
I really don't know, but youcan get all the information at
wwwcharlestonmodelerscom.
That's one word CharlestonModelers.
So there's a show for summer, arare summer show.
Well, they're not terribly rarebut they're not as common as
the spring and fall for sure.
From Cape Coral, florida,michael Turner's written in and

(16:00):
wants to know about this bottleof 1792 he won.

Oh well, it's terrible.
Send it here, I'll take it offyour hands, there you go.

Mike (16:14):
Yes, I've had this.
Is it exceptional?
I don't remember, it's good.

It's good, I can tell you, it's good.

Mike (16:22):
I think it's one of Barton's higher levels, isn't it
?
Yeah, yeah, enjoy it.
You can answer that questionyourself.

Yeah.

Mike (16:30):
See if you think it's drinkable.

Yeah.

Mike (16:33):
We think so.
Chris Veitch, I'm going to givethe German pronunciation of
that name, although he's fromSunderland, UK.
He sent me, or us.
Actually, in regards to ShopTalk in episode 142, I'd
mentioned, well, we talked aboutplans for getting better and I
mentioned my shop tools, mymachine tools.

Yes.

Mike (16:54):
A lot to go through here, and I'm going to parse through
this and list some of it to thedojo, but he sent me a lot of
resources for getting up tospeed on this kind of stuff and
small starter projects, so a lotof helpful stuff.
He didn't send me any time,though, yeah.

He must be out.
I'm looking for a bottle of MrModeling Time that's right.
It makes you know it's rarerthan unicorn tears.

Mike (17:23):
Well, chris, thanks for that.
I took just a quick look atsome of this stuff, but you sent
me several links here and I'mgoing to take your advice on
starting with a few simplethings and once I get to it,
I'll I'll look into some ofthese, these books and resources
, because that's exactly what Ineeded.
Well, in addition to email,we've got several have come
through our message andvoicemail link.

(17:46):
First up is Arthur Garanazo andhe's from Brazil and I think he
wrote in a long time ago.
I'm not going to try his townname.

Brazil.

Mike (17:59):
It's Brazil but Portuguese has a lot of vowel
modifications that I don'tunderstand.
Yep, well, he enjoyed thesquadron vendor spotlight again
with Brandon and it wasinteresting to see the company
view of the hobby.
And he was really curious aboutthe Eagle Club and the national
contest exclusives, even thoughhe's probably not going to be

(18:20):
able to participate, being inBrazil.
But he just thought those werereally good ideas to spur the
business and get people involvedin the hobby.
So he enjoyed it.
Glad to hear it.
Thank you for the comments,arthur.
Also from the feedback link isAaron Bennett and again, he's a
huge Squadron supporter.
He's been a faithful customerfor more than 30 years and he's

(18:42):
just really excited to see whatbrand has done with the company.
Completely agree and reallylooking forward to that.
So he's he's glad to see hisold friend squadron still
kicking it down the road, thanksto Brandon and company.

It brings a smile to my face Every time I go to
their website, just because ofthe fact that there's that,
there's that nostalgia, thatthat you, just you, get the, you
get the tingles for.

Mike (19:10):
I know it's got this nostalgic brand, but he's
certainly keeping up with thetimes.

Yes, absolutely that website's dynamic.

Mike (19:17):
Finally, from my side of things, the email and the
feedback link is Peter Kwong andhe wanted to comment about
episode 141 shop talk ourdiscussion about organization
and he cleaned up his work benchby getting a lot of these mini
sterilized sliding drawer thingsthat you can stack at least as

(19:38):
high as your ceiling issometimes.
So he got he recommends thoseto use up some vertical space
and free up the horizontal forfor your work and get things a
lot tidier, like his sandingsticks are now in one place
instead of in several containersand soup cans on the workbench.
So it's a good idea.

I've got nine.
I'm sitting here looking at one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight.
One, two, three, four, five,six, seven, eight, nine drawers
of those, Myself in my hobbyroom.

Mike (20:06):
And then one of the other shop talks, I think still
episode 141 or two.
He has been reducing his stashfor quite a number of years and
it really picked up after he hada modeling friend suddenly pass
away and he had to help theirpartner sell the stash of model
kits and model railroad stuff.
And he doesn't buy a whole lotmuch these days except tools and

(20:26):
accessories and tends to buyfewer kits, mostly newer stuff
that he finds interesting.
But yeah, it's somethingdefinitely on his mind and
recommends folks keep that incheck.

And there is nothing that will focus your
mind.
I think, on that subject.
People can talk to you all theywant to about it.

(20:59):
Or you have a modeling friendwho passes on and you have to go
over and help do something withthe collection of both built
and unbuilt kits.
It really does make you comeback home and go look around and
say, okay, I need to dosomething here.
If I croak tomorrow this wouldbe a disaster.

Mike (21:23):
So I've got to do something and I'm slowly doing
it Well, and he gives us acouple of shop talk topics and
one of these is going to bereally fun to talk about with
Bob Bear.
So hopefully we can pull thatoff and get Bob in here for shop
talk in our next episode, andthis will be a good one.

Well, great.

Mike (21:41):
Well, Dave, from the email and feedback link side of
things, that's it for me.

Well, from the DM and text message and that side
of things I've got a number ofthings.
One, our good friend JeffGroves Inch, high Guy Inch, and
I text each other a fair amountduring the week on different
topics and he texted me to thankus for recommending the God

(22:11):
Hand Spru Cutters.
And he was just.
He was sitting there modelingand marveling at how good they
were at flush cutting and, youknow, leaving little or no sprue
attachment gate.
He seconded my idea that it'sone of those tools that's

(22:33):
expensive but it is actuallyworth what the cost is, and so
it's kind of nice to hear fromhim that that recommendation
resonated with him and he gotone and he appreciates it.
Rob Morales reached out.
Rob is a friend of MikeIdekavage's and he's going to a

(22:56):
model show where there is avendor who has a lot of
different airline decals and heremembers me talking about the
Piedmont Friendship F27, theFokker F27.
And he contacted me and offeredto look out at that show to see

(23:20):
if indeed that vendor had 72ndscale Piedmont decals for that
kit.
And if he does, well, you knowme I can't resist a decal sheet.
So hopefully he'll find one andthen I'll have another decal
sheet to deal with, but not abad problem.

(23:42):
Christian Gurney reached out tous.
Bases by Bill.
Christian wanted to let us knowthey're about to release three
new bases two Soviet-style airbases, concrete tarmac-style
bases and then additionallythey're doing a modern US

(24:06):
carrier base and so they'll haveall three of those out.
Next we have a listener who goesby the Facebook name of Wesley
Scale Models who's in SouthAfrica and reached out to tell
us that he was listening inSouth Africa, which was kind of

(24:29):
nice.
Mike and I we can actually goand look at some of the
statistics and tell wherelisteners are by continent and
sometimes even by country, andsometimes granularly even by
city.
But it's kind of nice to hear Idon't think we've ever

(24:54):
interacted with our listenerfrom South Africa before and
it's kind of nice for us to hearfrom folks who listen in the
countries that we don't normallyinteract with.
So it was nice of him to reachout and let us know he's in
South Africa and he's listening,and I want to thank him for
doing that.
And you know anybody else outthere in unusual places.

(25:17):
Please reach out and let usknow that the plastic model mojo
is reaching you, because that'skind of neat to know.

Mike (25:24):
Well, if we could pick up Antarctica, I think we'll have
them all.

Yeah, antarctica is the one.
We don't seem to have anylisteners there yet.
Maybe we can get somebody downto one of those stations down in
the South Pole, it'd be a goodhobby to have down there.
It would be Get your stuff downthere.
That's right.
Yardwork would not be yourexcuse.
You mentioned Bob Bear and Ihad recommended a couple of

(25:51):
podcasts and YouTube channels ona previous episode and one of
them was a podcast called theRest is History and I
recommended the four-part seriesthey did on Hannibal and Bob
listens to a lot of series.
They did on Hannibal and Boblistens to a lot of podcasts

(26:12):
kind of like me and he secondedthat recommendation.
He also said that the Rest isHistory also does like a
four-part series on 1066 and onthe Norman Conquest of England
and he recommended both of thoseseries as well worth listening
to.
So if you're looking for morepodcasts after of course you're

(26:36):
completely caught up on PlasticModel Mojo, the rest is history
and they're 1066, normanConquest and Hannibal's
four-part series.
Joe McCaslin, modeler, reachedout, was interested in doing
some 72nd scale US Pearl Harborsubjects and was looking for

(27:03):
decal manufacturers who hadmodels in that area or with
those markings, and I pointedhim to Starfighter decals.

Mike (27:14):
Yeah, I was about to say somebody makes.

Yep, starfighter makes a sheet with like four or
five different Pearl Harboraircraft US aircraft P-40, p-36,
.
Might even be a Wildcat or aBuffalo on there, I don't
remember, or a buffalo on there,I don't remember.

(27:37):
But I pointed him toStarfighter to check out that
particular sheet.
If any other listeners know ofany other manufacturers who do
72nd scale US Pearl Harborsubjects, please let me know,
post it in the dojo and bring itto Joe McCaslin's attention.
Our listener from across thepond, chris Meddings, took

(28:00):
friendly umbrage with mypronunciation of Suffolk in
England and he wrote to informme that the correct
pronunciation is Suffolk andthat's just like all the people
who mispronounce Louisville, allthe different ways to

(28:21):
mispronounce Louisville.
It irritates the ear of anative, so I understand why
hearing me say Suffolk insteadof Suffolk would bother him.
So thank you for the correctionand that's the last one I have
from the Facebook Messenger side.

Mike (28:42):
Well, I'm sure Chris will forgive you.
I'm sure he will.
Well, if that's it, Dave, wewant to remind folks to write
into the show.
This is our favorite segmentand got a lot of ways to do that
now.

Yes, we do.

Mike (28:54):
Email to plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom is a primary way to
do it, and you can also send usa direct message through the
Facebook messenger app, orthere's a feedback web link
found in the show notes of thisand every episode.
So please take advantage of allthose and send us some.
Send us some email, send ussome listener mail, some
feedback.

(29:14):
We we love it.

Reach out.
We don't really care which wayyou do it, just reach out.
As I said, I love nothingbetter than the interaction I
get with the listeners, with thecommunity, so please do that.
We always love to hear from you.

(29:50):
As I always say, please ratethis podcast on whatever
podcasting app you're listeningto, give it five stars.
You'll help us make the podcastmore visible.
In addition, the best way forus to continue to grow is for
you to recommend our podcast toone of your modeling friends who

(30:12):
isn't currently listening, toone of your modeling friends who
isn't currently listening.
So please recommend us to yourmodeling friends who aren't
currently listening to eitherpodcasts in general or Plastic
Model Mojo in particular.

Mike (30:27):
And don't forget, in addition to a feedback web link,
we also have a ratings web linkin the show notes as well, so
you can rate and comment on thepodcast there too and give it
five stars.
We sure appreciate it.
In addition to the podcast,we've got a lot of blog and
YouTube friends out in the modelsphere.
You can check out all the otherpodcasts by going to
wwwmodelpodcastcom.

(30:48):
That's model podcast plural.
It's a consortium website setup by Stuart Clark at the Scale
Model Podcast up in Canada andhe's aggregated the banner links
to all the current podcasts inthe model sphere and you can go
there for a one-stop shop andcheck out some of the others.
We also got a lot of YouTubefriends out there and blog
friends.
Stephen Lee SpruPi with Fretshas got a great blog that you

(31:09):
can check out.
All his 72nd scale stuff forthe most part and some model
railroad thrown in and then justsome general thinking about the
hobby and what's going onsometimes.
He's always got some prettygood content there If you like
72nd scale.
You've already mentioned JeffGroves, the Inch High guy.
He's always got some batchbuilds going on or some
interesting project, but again,it's always 72nd scale.

(31:30):
If you're into the gentleman'sscale.
Those two ought to get you downthe road pretty far.
Evan McCallum, panzermeister36,great YouTube channel on
weathering armor, some buildreviews and even a model
railroad subject thrown in forinterest there every now and
then too as well.
So we'll cross over there.
And we got Chris Wallace, modelairplane maker.

(31:51):
Chris has got a blog and aYouTube channel and always fun
to see what he's got going on.

And he builds in 48 scale, but we forgive him for
that.
And he does some beautifulstuff in 48 scale, just amazing.

Mike (32:05):
And finally, a scale model workshop from our friend, paul
Budzik.
Lots of great insight andwisdom to be found on his
YouTube channel, so check allthose out.
You're going to get a lot ofgood stuff from him.

Finally, if you're not currently a member of
IPMS USA, ipms Canada orwhatever national organization
in the nation you're listeningto us from, please consider
joining.
The national IPMS organizationsare a way for the volunteers in
the hobby to help the hobbygrow, not only in their country

(32:40):
of origin, but they alsofacilitate communication between
the different branches in thedifferent countries.
If you are a fan of armormodeling or post-1900 figure
modeling, consider joining theArmor Modeling and Preservation
Society, amps.

(33:01):
They're a great group of guys.
They really are dedicated tothe armor modeling hobby and are
dedicated to making it betterand sharing it widely.
I say it almost each time weget to this point If you can get

(33:22):
to their nationals which sadlyMike and I missed this year,
next year's in South Bend If youcan get to the nationals, go to
the Amps Nationals.
I guarantee you'll have a greattime.

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Mike (34:02):
Well, Dave, we ran into our guest again up at
HeritageCon.

Yes, I'm glad we finally were able to get him on.

Mike (34:09):
Harvey Lowe's our guest tonight and he's recently
returned from a lengthy trip tojapan where he took in the
shizuoka hobby show and did someshopping around tokyo and went
to some museums and just had areally fabulous time.
And harvey agreed to come onand give us the ins and outs of
his little trip and somepointers along the way, if you
might like to go to japan andcheck out the hobby scene

(34:32):
sometime.
Well, dave, over the years thatwe've been going to HeritageCon
in particular, we've made onemore Canadian friend that we've
been wanting to get on the showfor a while and we finally got
around to that.
We've got modeler Harvey Lowewith us tonight.
Harvey, how are you doing?
I'm?

Harvey Low (34:51):
great, and greetings from the great white north in
Canada.
Guys, it's a pleasure to behere.

Hopefully it's not white right now.

Harvey Low (35:00):
No, it's not.
It's actually like 40 degreesCelsius, and I just came back
from Blue Jays game.
It is very hot and humid inToronto Canada.

Well, I was going to say this is the two or
three-month stretch where youall in Canada get really nice
weather and taking in a BlueJays game.
That's a great way to spend anevening.

Harvey Low (35:23):
Yeah, well, today it was so hot that they closed the
dome.
They usually leave it open, but, yeah, our winters are very,
very white and very cold.
A lot of snow, a lot of snow.
So I'm enjoying the day.

Mike (35:35):
Good, I wanted to have you on for a while.
Dave did too, and the reasonfor that?
We've there's some modelers outthere in the community that
have been doing a lot of greatthings for a lot, of, a lot of
my time in the hobby.
I mean they were, they'realready established.
You know we've had Paul Budzikon a number of times, folks like
that, and you know Harvey forme anyway, and I assume Dave too

(35:58):
.
We've we've followed yourbuilds and stuff for a long time
.
Oh yeah, and it's all justreally impressive stuff all the
time and it's just a thanks forcoming on the show.

Harvey Low (36:06):
Oh, I feel honored.
Thank you guys.
And there's, I'm in goodcompany.
Let's just keep it at that.

So tell us, when did you start modeling?
How did you get in?
What do you like to build?
How did you get to where youare now?
Just give us the couple ofminute.
Harvey, low, sure.

Harvey Low (36:25):
Yeah Well, like anybody, I started off really
young, right?
So I'm in my early 60s and grewup in the genre of, you know,
1960s battle of britain, battlethe bulge, where a lot of the
war veterans were then becomemovie actors and audie murphy
and all that kind of stuff.
So a lot of our generation justgot into that stuff right.

(36:47):
And I did my first.
It was an airfix bow fighterthat I had to have my neighbor
help me build when I was, Ithink, six or eight.
And then of course, schoolkicks in.
Everything kicks in.
I did a lot of builds as a kidwith my neighbor friend up the
street and we would ride to thelocal hobby shop and buy an air

(37:09):
fix kit.
And in those days air fixprices were based on their
series.
So the series one kit would bea buck, the Series 2 kit that's
how far back I go.
And then you know, you go touniversity, you get your career
off the ground.
Actually, the only time I everstopped is when I went to
university and dating, when Imet my wife.
I didn't build much models andthen I started up again after I

(37:33):
entered my career and Ibasically went.
I started off as a figuremodeler and then I quickly
turned to military and startedwith aircraft tanks.
But now lately, when you followmy work, my focus is primarily
on the bad guys.
I like World War II Italian andin particular I like World War

(37:54):
II Japanese.
So that's my focus now,although I do the odd pieces
here and there and I guess, nowthat I'm got into early
retirement, basically all I donow is build models, do things,
articles for magazines, and Ibuild for clients.
And that's the journey.

(38:15):
And now it's taken me finallyto a relaxed time where I can
kind of do what I want and I'mgratified that I can do models
without any type of pitches.

Well, you kind of undersold yourself there.
You talked about oh I buildItalian or I build Japanese, but
it's not like you're going andgetting a Hasegawa or a Tamiya
kit and putting it together insome of your builds lately, seek

(38:53):
out the weirdest resin,vacuform, I mean things that
were to call them cottageindustry kits undersells cottage
industry a whole lot.

Harvey Low (39:12):
Oh, you caught me.
Well, maybe this is yes.
I love scratch building.
I got inspired by the earlyscratch built models by George
Lee at IPMS National.

Oh yes.

Harvey Low (39:26):
I just remember those and go, wow, that's
different.
It's kind of like getting hitby a big Mack truck and then you
got to say, all right, buildingmodels is fun.
But I kind of get a kick out ofguys going, what kit is that?
Well, it ain't a kit, orwhere'd you get that?
I kind of did it on the sidewith bits of this and that, and

(39:48):
I kind of like doing things thatare different.
So, dave, you're right, I lovescratch building, I love super
detailing.
I love super detailing.
I'm old school, so I do a lotof my own resin casting, I carve
wood molds and I just like todo weird stuff.
Just to put it in perspective,in this year 2025, I think I'm

(40:09):
up to about seven, five, fivecompleted, of which all of them
are pretty well scratch buildsor very mixed bag conversions,
with only one kit recently thatI did which was almost out of
the box, which was that great.
Five mold zero.
But the rest were all you canget into it in a little while.

(40:30):
The rest were all scratchbuilds or conversions.
But yes, I love the weird stuffIf I have to build a kit, like
if it's a little, while the restwere all scratch builds or
conversions.
But yes, I love the weird stuff.
If I have to build a kit, likeif it's a sherman, it's got to
be.
Well, what's different?
I got to do a different angle,so I'm tinkering doing a half
decent sherman from the moviefury.
You're also something different.
But yeah, you're right, I lovedoing weird stuff and oddball

(40:52):
stuff that's probably why I liketo follow your work.

Well, and you do have some things in common with
Mike, where you'll take a kit,to call it a kit, is sometimes
stretching it, and then you'lllook at it and you'll go well, I
can use this and this and this,right, but then, well, the
perfect example is a year or twoago, you did a US World War II

(41:19):
submarine, the S-44.
Oh, yes, right, yes, the basisof which was was it combat
models?

Harvey Low (41:27):
Yes, sir, it was a combat, full combat, vacuform
yeah.
I was going to say was a combatmodels vacuform no-transcript

(42:02):
man, this is gonna be an easyone, uh, and then it doesn't
right, because, oh no, not evenan old vacuum form kit's gonna
hold up.
But yeah, I had to, you know,remold it in wood and all oh.
By the way, that kit I justrecently sold and oh did you
really.
I hope it got a good home.
I it got a very good home andso I'm very happy of the new

(42:25):
owner and I'm very happy withthe factor that's got a great
home.
So, yeah, but yeah, to go backto to these difficult, I like to
resurrect old stuff and if Ican take an old vacuform kit and
do that, then you know that'sthe challenge.
Now I do need palette cleansersand I know that a lot of guys

(42:46):
talk about palette cleansers.
I heard Evan talking about somethat he's working on.
So that's why I did the FineMolds, japanese Zero, good
choice, which is almost rightout of the box and it's working
on.
So that's why I did the finemolds, japanese zero, which is
almost right out of the box andit's it's finally finished.
So that that was a nice.
Now I'm back to.
I'm back to scratch, buildingand modifying stuff.
What are you currently workingon?
Yeah, okay, so I'm trying toget my my mojo back in armor,

(43:10):
cause I've been literally doingaircraft for, oh my God, the
last three, four years, partlybecause a lot of the aircraft I
do are for clients.
And before I answered thatquestion, it just popped in my
mind One of the builds I had todo on a quick timeline was I was
honored to get.
Well, I'll make a long storyshort.
I'm in the military and I getthis email from an aid to camp.

(43:33):
Now, when you're in themilitary and I get this email
from an aide-de-camp.
Now, when you're in themilitary and you get an email
from the aide-de-camp, you'reeither in trouble or something's
good Right.
And so they asked me hey,harvey, we know you build models
.
Can you build a model forGeneral Richard Romer for his
100th birthday?
And I go oh, like what kind ofmodel?

(43:55):
And they said well, he flewMustangs during World War II and
D-Day.
And so I said, yeah, of courseI would.
And so that took about sixmonths because I didn't know
anything about Mustangs.
So I asked, a whole bunch offriends went on the internet and
I had to, because if you buildsomething you want to do it
right if it's for the pilot thatactually flew it.

Right, the one guy who really will know whether
that's the right color.

Harvey Low (44:22):
Oh, and, by the way, now that you mentioned that, um
, I was doing the one I did.
I decided to do a one 32ndbecause he could see it.
No, he flew a one 70.
Uh sorry, he flew a 170.
Uh sorry, he flew a mustang onewith the canadian air force and
it it was a photo recon.
So there were certain changesto, without getting into the

(44:43):
details, and when I looked atbecause they sent me pictures,
the military sent me some, somearchival photos of his aircraft.
It was pretty dirty and I talkedto him.
They they told me it was asecret, don't let on like you're
building a model for hisbirthday.
So so I called him and you'rechatting oh, by the way, you
flew mustangs.
Yeah, yeah, where'd you find?
And so he said they flew themoff front bases in france right

(45:08):
after the d-day landings.
And they were.
They had no runways, basicallya mud field right, and they got
really dirty.
So I really dirtied up thisthing.
And when you say they know, sowe brought it out to him.
The first day we brought it outto him was at a small gathering
, a private gathering atCanadian Forces Base Borden,

(45:29):
which is north of Toronto.
He didn't know what washappening.
I presented the model to him toToronto.
He didn't know what washappening.
I presented the model to him andI tell you guys, he started to
cry and he said this is exactlyhow I remember, and it's like
I'm 20 years old again Now.
How can I do an okay job?
Well, if he's crying, I think Idid.

Yeah, you can't, you can't be, you can't beat a
memory like that.

Harvey Low (45:52):
No, and that guy's got a sharp memory.
So I don't want to belay thepoint.
But I put D-Day stripes on itand I asked him on three
occasions.
He said the D-Day stripes wereover the entire wing.
Yet every with all due respect,every discussion group on the
web said that Canadian Mustangsdid not have D-Day stripes over

(46:13):
the whole wing and he said oh,no, no, no, no, mine did, and
they use brooms and mops to putthem on.
He said that three times to me,so you're hearing it from the
pilot.
That's what I put it on.
But to get back to you know whyI've been doing aircraft?
It's projects like that.
Now, turning to answer yourquestion, what I'm working on on
now, just in a quick nutshell Iam almost finished.

(46:34):
A breida 61.
You guys know what that is test, test, time test time breida 61
, it's, it's, it's a vehicle,it's a military vehicle.
Breida 61, it you give up I, Igive up.

Mike (46:50):
I don't know in a truck.

Harvey Low (46:52):
It's actually half track.
It is the Italian version ofthe German STKFZ7 half track.

Mike (47:00):
Oh, okay.

Harvey Low (47:02):
The front end's completely different new engine.
The drive is on the right sideinstead of the left side, so I'm
cobbling together an old Creolemodels resin bonnet onto a
dragon rear part.
So, uh, I'm working on that.
I'm working on an indianpattern, 135th british armored

(47:24):
car.
Uh, there's nobody that makes akit of this, except a pretty
bad resin one from a defunctmodel company called ima that
has harvey lowe written all over.
Oh it's, it's a tough build.
But who's got an indian pattern?
Well, I at least have one in mycollection.
And and and lastly, believe itor not, I am working on a

(47:48):
matchbox gu188 out of the box ohmy gosh, why it's palate
cleanser you guys did a.
You guys did a a great episodewith the folks kevin and janelle
from mask.
Yeah well, I bumped I would.
The time I met you guys atheritage con, I was sitting

(48:08):
right next to their vendor tablebecause I was vending you're
right, I remember that, in fact.

Fact, I bought some stuff from you.

Harvey Low (48:15):
Yeah, oh, you did.
I hope all the parts were there.

I think so.

Harvey Low (48:20):
So I was talking to Kevin and Janelle and they said,
harvey, what are you working on?
And I said well, what I'd liketo do is do an old vintage kit.
And they said which one?
I said you know what I'vealways liked?
The JU-188.
I did it as a kid.
I'd like to do it again, butthere's no canopy mask, hint,
hint.
Well, guess what?
They had a set made in a monthI don't know how they do it and

(48:42):
they sent me three of them andthey said so I'm doing that and
I'm probably going to turn itinto a very quick article for
perhaps fine scale, on just howto put new life into an old kit.
And that's my palate cleanserwith some of the other stuff I'm
working on.

Mike (48:58):
I'm still stuck at the two sub subpar resin makers you
just rattled off.

Harvey Low (49:05):
Oh, by the way, you talk about cutting it.
Just I'm I hope I'm not, youknow making it longer than
necessary in the show.
But I got to tell you a funnystory.
So I get the.
Sometimes my wife buys me thesekits.
You know for what?
A birthday Christmas.
So she got me an ICM 148, key21, sally, and I thought, well,

(49:25):
you know Sally's great, but Iwant to, I want to keep it.
Seven Topsy.
Yeah, now you guys know thedifference between a key 21 and
a key 57,.
A Topsy is the transport.

Right.

Harvey Low (49:35):
But the wings are dropped lower into lower
position because she's got apassenger compartment for cargo
and passengers.
So what I did was I took theICM kit and I simply cut the
whole fuselage apart and kind ofthrew that out and I just kept
the wings and the tail appendage.
And you know, I'm doing thatsawing and cutting and throwing

(49:58):
out while my wife walks by.
So how do you explain?
You're kind of destroying amodel kit you got as a gift.
Well, you got to look at thelight at the end of the tunnel
and it was useful when I mergedit, when I mated it with the old
Sanger vacuform kit of the Key57 Topsy I just finished that
one, I think last month, yep.

Well see, harvey, that's the difference between
you and me.
I want to do a Topsy, but I'llwait until ICM takes the wings
to their KI-21 and does a newfuselage.

Harvey Low (50:35):
Well, you know, guys , if you're doing this type of
scratch building, you kind ofgot to be quick, because you
have no idea if a majormanufacturer is going to release
something.

So you got to beat them to the line, right
Well or you are doing thesacrifice that gets us all a
Ki-57 topsy from a manufacturer,because that's the way it works
.

Harvey Low (50:57):
That's very true.
Yeah, it gives them a kind ofidea of, hey, this might be not
a bad idea to produce inmainstream.

Mike (51:07):
Well, let's change gears a little bit and then we can go
back to some models, maybe atthe end.
Sure, you just came back from aI'll call it a vacation.
I don't know if it was or not,but you've been to japan to do
some stuff, won't we?
When we talk about that,because I'm really interested,
was this your first trip?

Harvey Low (51:23):
no, I've been to japan about three times before.
I go quite regularly.
I just simply love the country,oh, it's fantastic.

You have, you guys, been or not?
Yet I have been on Japanesesoil for three hours.

Harvey Low (51:39):
Plain changeover.

Mike (51:41):
I was.
I was there in 20, I guess 2018.
Huh, late summer for for workat my prior employer, so uh.

Harvey Low (51:50):
Did you get to go out and see any shop, Mike?

Mike (51:52):
I did when?
Where'd I go?
It was in Yokohama.
Oh, Yokohama yeah it was in ashopping mall up on the third
floor of this big.
What was it?

Harvey Low (52:01):
Lala Port.
Yeah, it's in a, I think, eonMall or Lala Port.

Mike (52:07):
Yes, yeah.

Harvey Low (52:08):
It's B's Hobbies, b's Hobbies, b's Hobbies, that
Beast.

Mike (52:10):
Hobbies.
That's exactly it.
That's it.
That's the one, that's where Iwent.
And it was funny because,having not been over there the
company you know they made sureI had a handler when I was over
there, because when we get lostwe make sure I got to where I
needed to go.

And ahead of time.

Mike (52:22):
I said hey, if there's time, I would like to maybe
check out something like this.
Right, and it blew you away.
Right, right it did, but youknow my, my, uh.
He later came to kentucky andwas working at our, our facility
here, um he picked me up at theairport, and that's the first

(52:43):
place we went.

Harvey Low (52:43):
Oh my god, aren't you, aren't you, a hardcore
steel modeler?

Mike (52:46):
so, uh, that was, that was fun.
Yeah, it blew me away.
I mean just gosh, there was somuch, not, you know, we couldn't
spend a whole lot of time there.
I don't know, I was there aboutan hour.
But yeah, that's my only,that's my only taste.

Harvey Low (52:57):
But ah well, it's a good taste of a good start.
So, yeah, yeah, I was.
I've been a few times now I,when I go back and visit, I do
it in, so you know you go back,you might do this part of japan,
another part, you know anotherpart.
So this time was actually thelongest I've been there.
I did the middle part of Japan.

(53:17):
So if you can kind of pictureJapan as an island, right,
hokkaido is way up in the north,the big island and the big city
.
Up there is Sapporo, and on thesouth is Kyushu Big city, down

(53:40):
there is Kagoshima, and in the,the middle, you kind of have
generally osaka, kyoto, nagoya,shizuoka, and then you, of
course, a little bit up north,you have tokyo, right, and so I
focused this time on theterritory between osaka and
tokyo.
And this the only differencethis time, instead of taking
bullet trains or transit, I Irented a car, and there's a bit
of pros and cons of doing thatin rural Japan, but it was an

(54:00):
experience and that allowed meto not only get around to the
hobby stores, which I'll talkabout in a sec, but a lot of
really, really cool museums,seeing the most rarest
historical subjects, battlefieldsites and, of course, hobby
shops.
But yeah, it was for about amonth.

Mike (54:19):
Wow, yeah, now you went to the show, right.

Harvey Low (54:23):
Yeah, oh yeah, you want to start with that.

Let's start with that.
Oh gosh, yes.

Harvey Low (54:27):
Is this the first time you've been to the show?
I have.
It's the first time.
Now I went over with a smallbunch of guys from Toronto, two
of them who are veteran guysthat go to Shizuoka.
They go every year but theyfocus on the show and they're
both from Toronto, good friendsof mine, and so we all decided
if we're going to go this year,let's go together.

(54:48):
So we kind of went as a group.
Now everyone knows aboutshizuoka, who's probably
listening.
It's a big, big hobby show.
It is not a contest.
It basically is a trade showand it's kind of like telford
where different groups, justclubs, display models.
Now it's a it's the biggestshow in japan.

(55:10):
I've been to a few shows inasia, I I would think it's the
largest.
But again, there's no contestthere and it's broken out into
three base basic stages.
The first day is a trade show.
You know it's just the peoplethat have companies, they work
together, they talk togetherabout products, whatever the
second day is I probably got thename wrong, but it's kind of

(55:32):
like a student day where theyinvite kids from school and I'll
talk about this because theculture of scale modeling in
Japan is very different thanthat of Canada and I can say the
United States.
I don't know about Europe andother countries, but it's a
different culture.
We'll get to that in a minute.
So they have a whole day forkids and students.
And then the last day, last twodays, are club displays like

(55:56):
telford and and what I.
I've heard estimates and it'sprobably true.
Some people put the number ofmodels on those club displays
around 12 to 15 000 wow yeah,it's a lot.
It's a lot if you were to go andit's divided.
The hall is divided into amassive trade show part and then

(56:18):
the, the, the, the clubdisplays.
There is a lot.
Here's a tip if you're going togo to shizuoka, it's not always
just there at that location.
So I found out that there wasanother location literally a
half an hour away that was thevendors, and there was no

(56:38):
signage Like it's like you findout by just asking people, and
so it's kind of in threedifferent sections, but the
vendors are about a half houraway, in a separate building.
I don't know if that's overflow, but let's put it this way If
you were to go there and wantedto see everything meticulously,
it would probably take you threeto four days.

(56:59):
There's no way you can make itthrough every display on one day
.
You can't do it.
There's so many right?
So it's a.
It's a big show and I washonored to to be asked you meet
everybody on the internet, right?
Yeah, so I met this fellow.
He's a master modeler, his hisname is hisao sato and he is one

(57:23):
of the foremost aircraftmodelers in japan.
He does articles for a lot ofthe scale model magazines over
in japan.
So you know we reach out, wetalk through facebook.
His broken english is about asgood as my broken, so you know
we reach out, we talk throughFacebook.
His broken English is about asgood as my broken Japanese, but
you know it's enough to tocommunicate.
And he said Harvey, when youcome over we're going to set you

(57:43):
up with us Cause you have to,kind of like, go with a club.
So if you go to you'll, if youwant to go, you'll see the clubs
there.
If you want to bring your stuff, you have to try to get hooked
up with a local club and I wasfortunate to get hooked up with
the Tokushima model group andTokushima Hisao Saito and his
very talented crew are all fromTokushima, which is south of of

(58:08):
Osaka, and I I brought a scratchbuilt key 55 Aida, 148th, and I
brought that in.
And I brought a scratch-builtKey 55 Ida, and I brought that
in.
And I brought a smallscratch-built Japanese tow truck
.
You know one of those towvehicles, motor tugs, and I was
honored to have it amongst theirclub display.
So it was a different kind ofexperience, sitting with the

(58:29):
Japanese guys looking at theshow and looking at the trade
show.

Well, you talked about the modeling culture being
different than either Canada orthe US, which are somewhat
similar.
Yes, can you describe?
How is the modeling culturedifferent there?

Harvey Low (59:00):
there.
Well, first off, what I saw isthe.
The culture of japanese hobbiesis they start the kids off
young.
They immerse their kids intothe hobby very young.
Give an example I was over on aprevious time visiting a
japanese ground self-defensebase and I was in there talking
to the guys and in the corner ofmy eye I see they got this
little store and I said to themand I said what's that?

(59:20):
They go, well, that's ourlittle gift shop.
Well, what's a gift shop doingon a Japanese army base?
I'm in the Canadian forces.
There's no such thing.
We don't have a gift shop onthe Canadian forces base.
I don't know.
Well, you can tell me.
Are there any gift stores withtoys on a U S army base or naval
base or period outside of thePX and outside of a museum, a

(59:43):
base museum?

I can't think of any.

Harvey Low (59:46):
Well, yeah, well, they have their little.
It's like a little store in inrecruitment areas.
And then they have these familydays.
We have them too, but insteadof just opening up to you know,
teenagers that might be joining,they offer free kits and and
show the kids how to build guesswhat japanese ground

(01:00:07):
self-defense force tanks andairplanes.
It's their subjects and thelittle kids they get.
And in fact, the JapaneseSelf-Defense Force.
They were at the Shizuoka showand they brought an armored
display.
They had weapons displays andthey give little souvenirs to
the kids.
So they're there milking everyopportunity to bring young kids

(01:00:31):
into this hobby, right?
So that's number one to bringyoung kids into this hobby,
right?
So that's number one.
Number two is, I noticed,driving a car, the coolest place
are the japanese highway stops,because they got everything.
It's a middle of nowhere, likeit's nowhere and you're driving,
it's an oasis of restaurantsand one gas stop which was in

(01:00:51):
the middle of nowhere.
I swear it was like two hoursfrom Hamamatsu and like five
hours from the Goya.
It's really far.
And I walk in there and guesswhat's in the shelf?
Tamiya kits and Tamiya shirtsand Tamiya ties Like where do
you see that?
On a highway stop in Canada orthe US?
Nowhere.

Mike (01:01:11):
Right, nowhere.

Harvey Low (01:01:12):
Yeah, right.
And then I was in a subwaystation in Shizuoka and walk
along with my wife and what'sthat?
And it was a bunch of tablesset up with a bunch of people
lined up and they were buildingGundam models on tables in the
middle of the intercourse wheresubway stations connect.

(01:01:35):
And so I walked up and I lookedand I asked and they said it
was free, it's sign up, you haveto wait in line, everybody gets
a turn.
You know you might get.
I don't know.
They had enough chairs so Ipresume everyone gets at least
half an hour an hour.
There were parents there withthe little kids.
They get a free kit.
It was sponsored by a Bondi.

(01:01:55):
Oh wow, big sign there and andit's just like welcome lineup.
And there was an actual lineupand the tables were full and
this was at rush hour in asubway stop.
That's what I mean by thebiggest culture.
I don't.
I've never seen those things inCanada like that and I
certainly I don't think thosethings happen in New York

(01:02:17):
Central, you know station.

Mike (01:02:20):
It's like they've they've prevented other activities from
encroaching on hobby time forfor kids.

Yes, now, I'm not saying Japan doesn't have social
issues, they certainly do.
But certainly on the issues ofhobbies, they really go after
the kids and show them.
Hey, this is really fun and youcan see it.
There's lots of kids at theShizuoka show tons and they're
looking at models and they'rebeing very respectful, they know

(01:02:49):
not to touch them, and sothat's the other thing.
I think the second culturalthing I noticed now this is only
my unscientific observation,but when I was at the shizuoka
show I was utterly shocked bythe number of scratch built and
super detailed models.
Now I haven't been to telford,I'm I'm thinking about maybe

(01:03:10):
going this fall and I heardthey're pretty good, yeah, but
the sheer amount of scratchbuilds and high deed versus
simply no, no offense to peoplewho want to build them on a box,
that's great too.
I do that too the ratio wasoverwhelmingly in super detail
and a particular scratch builtand a particular scratch built
aircraft like, for example, Isaw a a 30-second scale T93, but

(01:03:34):
that's obscene.
I saw a 130-second MERT Likestuff like oh my God.
And I talked to the builders andthey're old-fashioned, like me
Wood, mold, vacuform, not a lotof 3D printing.
They don't do a lot of 3Dprinting and maybe I just didn't
miss it.
Like for that type of work work, they do it by hand and they

(01:03:56):
really go to the lengths.
In fact, I picked up a coupleof kits that are exclusive to
japan.
I think one was called arrowbase.
Have you guys heard of thatcompany?
I I believe so they do they docutaway aircraft right in photo
etch, so picked up a couple.
I picked up canine spruce in 48scale.

(01:04:17):
It's completely just just thestructural detail.
They like that level of detailRight.
So it's kind of like George Leemodels all over the place.

Kentucky Dave (01:04:30):
Right, very detail oriented society.

Very and there and and so I asked them about
contests and and a few of themsaid there's not a lot.
They they enjoy the camaraderie, the talking.
The competition there is notbig.
And that kind of shocked me,because you know I've been to I
think I'm well over a dozen IPMSnationals.

(01:04:55):
You know it is the contest andthe vendors Right, so but there
they just seem to like to buildand do detailed things.
And this is my theory.
Maybe it's because thepressure's off from a high level
competition that they couldjust do a bunch of scratch,

(01:05:15):
building and detailing and notworry about.
Oh, this little rib on this airframe is like half a millimeter
off, which would make you losethat finesse well, and, and my
understanding is, telford issomewhat that way.

Yes, that's my understanding too, that the,
that the competition is a muchsmaller part, whereas the club
displays are.

Mike (01:05:41):
Yeah, the special interest groups and all that Right and
the club tables.

they have the club culture.

That is my understanding too, and that's
exactly what Shizuoka.
So if you do go to Shizuoka,don't expect a show.
It's exactly how you describedit.

Dave, exactly.
Well, let me ask you when youwalked through the
manufacturer's area, did you seeone or two things that were
coming out?
New, that excited you?

Yeah, actually All right, tell us Off the top of my
head.
I not only saw, but I actuallytouched it.
I was touching and feeling thenew Tamiya m36 yeah, yep, so
they had that there and finemolds.
You know they've got the new 48zero, but they've actually got

(01:06:33):
two new 72nd scale a6m50.
Yes, that david wants badly yeahand the cool thing about them
is is dave.
These a6m5s are an earlierversion, right without the
intakes, so they're kind ofhitting on different things.
But I saw that as well, and Isaw the new fujimi 144th scale,

(01:07:00):
yamato, oh my, yeah, they'recoming out with a 144th scale.

Yamato 144th scale.

battleship Yamato yeah so it was there.
How big is that?
Oh my god, it's 6 to 8 feet,something like that.
That's what I've got to say.

It's got to be even a 1144th scale.
That thing has to be between 6and 8 feet long.

It's actually huge.
They had one at the show andthey also had one I don't know
who did it.
They actually had a built oneat the Josson Hobby Shop in
Osaka and they had one there andI saw it there and go what the
heck is this?
Now I humbly did a 1 yamato forfine scale, right, but this,
this thing, it's massive andit's like really detailed.

Well, I've seen the.
I've seen the 200 scale kit andit's massive, it's great I
cannot imagine a 144 scale.
No well, what does somethinglike that cost?
Did you look?
Yes, okay.

You got about $8,000 .

How much?
$8,000.
$8,000?
Yes sir.

Holy $8,000.

Mike (01:08:15):
Yeah, you want two, dave.

Yeah, I'll take two.

Can I get?

a discount.
If I bought two, I'm sure youcould take your passport and get
like a 20% discount.
That would really lower it.
Oh my lord, now, now I Ihonestly don't know what's
involved, but apparently, fromwhat I've learned is it's not
your traditional kit, it is.
It is a kit that comes incomponents that some of it are
pre-built.
I I don't.
It's kind of.

(01:08:41):
It's kind of you guys everheard of the japanese kits from
hashet?
They do these.
You buy them as subscribed tothem.
They're only in, only in japanagain.
So they do a 1 100 uh japanesee400 submarine and it's insane.
It's got light and sounds.
So if you build it you can alsosit there and throw a bunch of

(01:09:03):
switches and like it just yellsdive, dive, dive in japanese.
So you know you get nothingelse to do, right, and lonely
evening.
And and that I think if youthrew it and bought every, every
module because there's about160 sets to that kit, right,
would cost you a yeah, maybe,about maybe, but this one's,
yeah, I heard it's 8,000 bucks.

Oh my Lord, yeah, that's just, that's so you, you
bought one and you're shippingit back right.

Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, I took it on the carry-on.
Yeah, yeah, in the cabin hewrote it home.

I was going to say that's probably a checked
item, Harvey, yeah, must be.

Now what's really odd is the Japanese companies
must know something.
They got the market right.
So what I found Now I don'tknow how that's going to sell,
but their best sellers by far isGundam.
Right, gundam just dwarfseverything else in Japan.
I was over at the Odaiba Gundambase and the stores.

(01:10:00):
You know, with all due respectto military modders, it dwarfs
it.
But if you go to to now we'regetting into the stores, maybe
that's a good segue.

Mike (01:10:09):
That is a good segue Right .

So, mike, you went to B-Hobby right, yokohama yeah.
If the folks that are listening.
Pretty simple If you want to doJapanese hobby shops, if you're
in Tokyo, there's oneneighborhood called Akihabara.
Okay, akihabara has probably 10to 12 hobby shops all within

(01:10:31):
the vicinity of a few blocks andthey're all good.
I don't know how thecompetition works, but if you're
going to Japan, just take thesenotes, if you're listening the
listeners who want to know.
There's a few hobby stores thatare musts, and one of them is
called leonardo.
Now, leonardo has threeseparate stores all within

(01:10:53):
walking distance of each other.
I can't figure it out.
They're like two to threeblocks within each other, but
they have three separatelocations that are all the same.
They're all.
If you're into vintage and newkits, that's where you go, cause
you'll find stuff that you willnever see the pictures you put
on Facebook of that shop.

Yeah, and now are most of the Japanese shops like
the ones you see in China,where you know you walk sideways
.
Yes, they're all very cramped,very cramped very narrow.

Now I've been to hobby stores in Singapore.
I've been in hobby shops inHong Kong.
The only difference, in fact.
I've been to hobby shops inEurope and I'm not knocking any
other country, I've got to putthat preamble there Every
country.
I found some super hobby storesin Parisis, but japan, they
seem to.
Okay, we're their philosophies.
We're going to open up a storeand we're just going to fill it

(01:11:52):
with kits until your senses gowild.
And so the difference is, notonly are the aisles narrow, but
the stock is just blows mind.
And the third thing is theyhave ultra-rare kits or kits
that have been out of productionfor years, and you find them
there.

Yes, there was one in one of your pictures that
, had I been able to get there,I would have grabbed.
Which one was that?
It's the Aki Firebrand.

Yes, there's a few people that asked me about that,
yeah, a few.
That was at a place calledGannett Hobbies, so that's in
Kobe and that's near Osaka.
So I mean I can't rattle offall the stores, but Gannett's a
big hangout for aircraftmodelers in the Osaka area and

(01:12:44):
the other places hobby land inosaka.
But if most people are headingto tokyo, just go to akihabara
because, yeah, you'll find stufflike that fire brand and I.
I picked up a 132nd fishermodels ryan st stm.
They're long gone.

Right Because of the fire.

Yeah right, I picked up a I forget who makes it.
I picked up a one-to-one scalethrottle quadrant made out of
resin for a Mach-E 202.
Where do you get stuff likethat?

Well, and that's what I was going to say, I
noticed from the pictures youposted on Facebook that not only
were these hobby shops crammedfull of models, but you had
everything from new run Hasegawaor Tamiya to some of the most

(01:13:38):
obscure cottage resin, vacuform,yes, and just stuff that you're
like they didn't know existedeither didn't know existed or
had heard rumor of at one time,but have never actually seen the
kit guys, you hit it on thenail mike.

You said that that you thought you.
Look I'm not bragging, but Ithink I kind of know what's
being released, but that'stotally false.

Mike (01:14:07):
When you get there go, oh my god, I've never seen this
before well, I would get in the90s, when the japanese magazines
they're like quasi modeling andthen they'd have features on
real aircraft.
I like model fan, and thenthere's one called Panzer and
there's one.

Those magazines- Koku Fan Right.

Mike (01:14:29):
They would always have like a product area in the back
and there would be all thisreally crazy kits and
conversions for, you know, likeRussian tanks or whatever.

Yeah.

Mike (01:14:39):
But all of it was completely.
Unless you had a very goodrelationship with somebody in
Japan who liked the same stuff,you did Right, it was
unobtainable.

Yes, I'll give you an example.
They had a 135th conversion setto convert a Chi-Ha to a Chi-Ha
recovery vehicle.
Like that's insane.
Where do you get that?
Like, where do you get that?

A Chi-ha recovery vehicle.
Yes.

Oh my gosh, Like really.
And so you know, I did ask acouple of the shop owners for
the rare stuff and a lot of them.
So a lot of hobby stores there.
They don't do a lot of mailorder and I think that's why
Scott picked up at Hobby LinkJapan.
He kind of filled that void,right right.

(01:15:26):
But a lot of local stores,because english over there,
without due respect, a lot,especially in the rural areas.
Nobody speaks english in therural areas, not a lick of it,
and even in the large cities nota lot of english.
So be prepared, a lot of hobbyshop owners don't speak at all.
So but you know, you find it.
So it makes it maybe difficultfor them to do international

(01:15:47):
business.
Of course the written script'sdifferent, right, so maybe it's
that.
But but they did say that theydon't do a lot of international.
But then I said you know whathappens if you have the money
and I just, I just want to buythis, and a lot of them go no,
we, we don't ship out there,it's, they just want to do it
for the local economy, likethese really weird conversions

(01:16:09):
that you only see there.
An example is I saw a series ofdecals that I the name slips me.
I've never seen them before.
They do 172nd german, japanese,italian aircraft.
Um, they do some 48 stuff.
I bought a set but I haven'ttried it yet.
They're apparently vinyl.
I I don't know what that means.

(01:16:30):
When I look at it it's got it.
You kind of like rub it and onand put a pencil.
I'm not sure of it.
I've never seen any of thoseand I'm gonna try it.
But you look at the company, goon the web.
It's all japanese.
I can't get them anywhere.
But there there's a lot ofthings that you can only buy in
Japan.
So that's why I think the trekover there to stores is just a

(01:16:51):
paradise, because you werealways surprised.

And that's what I've heard.
That's always been.
The story that you hear is thatyou know there are a fair
number of models out of Japanthat we get and we can buy and
all.
But the story I've always heardis that there's a ton of models
that they make that they don'texport at all.

(01:17:15):
No, they don't.
It's all local consumption.
Yes, it's for the local market,and even if there is a market
for it overseas, they don't evenbother with it.

They don't bother, absolutely, absolutely, dave.
And what I found interesting iswhen I went over the stores for
the most part they're all there, so obviously they're doing a
business to stay afloat, likethey're in downtown Tokyo.

Right.

It's not cheap.
No, they must be doing well andyeah, they just seem to have so
much in just inventory.
And then they have the weirdstuff and then the new releases.
I find you see new releasesthat wait a minute.
I never even saw this newrelease in North America.
You know Right, it may be abasic, a basic hasagaki, but I

(01:18:07):
never saw that one with thosedecals and this is limited
edition.
So, for example, I bought a uh48, uh zero, a6m2 and it's all
cutaway.
It is 3d parts as well as photoetch, and you, you literally
build it's by mid models, japanand it's it.

(01:18:28):
You build a cutaway zero, like,like, where do you get?

I've never seen that in north america so so I
have to ask yeah, when you'resitting, when you're over there
and you're seeing all of thesethings that you know you can't
get here, how do you keepyourself from just filling a
couple of suitcases?

maybe he did and going and going.
I, I did buy an extra suitcase.
My wife and I bought an extrasuitcase, good for you.
Well, here's, here's thecardinal rule.
If you're going to go over,maybe make it useful for your
listeners.
You, you can go over and get atamiya kit for really cheap, to
give an example.
You know what comes to mind.
You can get like a 172nd p51mustang from tamiya for I don't

(01:19:15):
know, 12 bucks us, right.
But I wouldn't advise you dothat because you can buy it over
here.
Okay, you're gonna pay a littlebecause everything takes space
in your luggage, so I would onlybuy really rare stuff, number
one.
Number two is get rid of anyexcess packaging.

(01:19:36):
This is an art guy, guys, yougot to go to the hotel and, yeah
, you got to put this stuffthrough your mind.
It's a science.
So, guys, when you go to thehotel, you get rid of any excess
packaging.
You put kits into one box.
So that's another thing to savespace.
You can also create your ownmailing labels so that if you
buy a big kit, you go to localpost office.

(01:19:56):
You mail it back to yourself.
That's another way you can doit.
But I only focus on uber rarekits, break them down and I
think I ended up filling maybetwo suitcases.
But yeah, it's hard, you got it, you got it.
And books are.
Books are worse because they'reheavy.

Oh God.

Mike (01:20:14):
Yes, yeah, that'd be Dave's Achilles heel.

Yes, if you, if you guys get to Tokyo and if the
listeners are listening, you goto one bookstore it's in
Akihabara and it's right besidethe big camera store, yobadashi
Camera and go to YobadashiCamera because they got the
hugest hobby selection in thecamera store, like it's all in
there.
Just a block away is SensiroBooks.

(01:20:40):
The whole floor is modeling andmilitary books.
Again, they produce stuff thatyou've never seen here.
I got a whole bunch of stuff onbritish armor in japanese
service.
Like they have the whole lineof j tank, which is a periodic
magazine on japanese world warii tanks, the pura.

(01:21:00):
You can only get them in japanand they had most of the volumes
at the bookstore there.
I went to see a fact maybe, likethe museums, I'm kind of going
back and forth, but one of themuseums at gifu, which is
outside of nagoya, has arestored k61 tony, fully
restored, and they're sellingthe, the very rare technical

(01:21:23):
books on the key 61 at themuseum store for like 20 bucks
and right, you can't even findthem here, no, and if you do
find them here, they're 80 to ahundred.
They're 20 bucks at the giftstore there.
Oh, you're killing me.
Yeah, I bought, I bought thosebooks.
So you gotta be selective.
Don't buy the stuff you can gethere.

(01:21:44):
Just go for the hard stuff.
Now, things aren't cheap, butif you want it it's there Right.
So the common rule is if youwant rare stuff, you're going to
have to pay for it.
The new stuff, especiallythings made in Japan Hasegawa,
tamiya, really cheap, reallycheap.

Did you have any trouble getting any of this back
into the country?
No Good.

Well, the one thing I do stay away from is obviously
paints and those things.
But it's funny you asked Davebecause I was at a store and I
wanted to buy.
So take Tamiya.
Tamiya offers some productsthere that somehow I've never
seen, at least in Canada.
They've got their own maskingfluid.
They've got a huge line ofairbrushes that you never see

(01:22:31):
over here, so I picked up anairbrush.
But they also have this.
They have some putty which Ithink you can get here, but you
got big tubes that you can buyover there.
But then when I bought it theyknew, as a tourist said, they
won't sell it to you because youcan't bring that on the plane.
So there are limitations ofwhat you can buy, right?

Mike (01:22:50):
At least they told you.

At least they told me.
And if you are going over tobuy, bring your passport, cause
a lot of the big stores like yobut, I, should camera give you
times like 10 20, so bring yourpassport, really they will give.

Oh yeah, they gave me a deal at bees hobby.
Yeah, there you go.
I wonder what okay, it'scourtesy is, that is it?
Just?
I guess that's the cultureyou're.
You're a guest here, we'regonna give you a little
something extra, that's niceit's like it was like when
steven lee went to scale.
Yeah that's right.
Well, yeah, what happened there?
He got the friends and familydiscount.

(01:23:28):
Really, yeah, harvey, if youcome down, I'll take you to
Scale Reproductions and we'llget you the friends and family
I'd love to Love to, although itsounds like you acquired plenty
to build for the next few years.

Yeah, well, who doesn't right?
My collection is focused onreally rare stuff and, yeah,
even then I have enough.
But I don't build as much fornational level contests like I
used to, because it takes youtime, right.

Right.

And even for scratch building.
I, I I talked to a couple ofscratch builders we're on a
different topic but a lot ofthem.
They may or may not go to thebig shows because scratch
building, like it, takes youtime and then if you apply
simple fit and finish rules to ascratch boat mall, it's pretty
hard to do so.
So I, I just I'm pretty fastnow, like having done five

(01:24:27):
already, but one a month, andI've got about three almost
ready and finished.

That's, you know, I'm pumping them out so one
last thing I wanted to mention.
You talked about selling yourcompleted works.
Yeah, so you, you clearly don'thave once.
The fun for you clearly isdoing it, and once it's done,

(01:24:53):
you don't seem to have toostrong of an attachment to the
finished product.

You know, yeah, yeah , you're probably right, I do
have large display cases in myhouse.
But if somebody wants to buysomething, I will sell it.
And, for example, I have aregular customer.
I built F1 112th cars for thiscustomer.
He doesn't build models, but healways asks me to build one.
Now, I can't do them all thetime because they take time.

(01:25:21):
Oh yeah, but you know now, I'mnot a huge fan of building for
clients.
The subject matter has toresonate with me.
So this guy is a huge AyrtonSenna fan.
Okay, he's got everything onAyrton Senna.
So I'm working on a.
He asked me to build I think itwas a Tamiya McLaren MP4 or

(01:25:41):
whatever it was, which wasSenna's car.
I did that.
And then he says, harvey, hedrove a lotus 98t.
Right, is there any kit of alotus 98t?
And I go, well, if you want 112, there is, and it's by a
company called mfh.
And if you know mfh, they'reout of japan and if you know
those kits, they go for around$2,000.

(01:26:03):
Oh, yeah, so I told him thatand he goes get it.
I go, okay, and I'm actually,I'm looking at it right now and
I'm working on it.
So I, I, I bought it and and andand I'm working on it, but so
am I.
Am I kind of like, you know I?
Yeah, it's going to be there inmy house, but honestly, if

(01:26:24):
somebody appreciates it, I'mhappy to sell it.
Look, and what's going tohappen?
To look.
I don't want to be macabre, butyou know, the day comes, what's
going to happen with all ourmodels.
I'd rather have somebody enjoyit, or it's in some sort of you
know museum or something, andthat just makes me happy.
So I have no qualms to keepthese forever.

(01:26:49):
I do love them.
I love that one 70 second saw,but it's got a great hole and
and that keeps me happy allright.

Mike (01:26:55):
Well, that sounds like a pretty awesome trip, harvey it
was.

It was now.
I know we're kind of ending it,but if the if you guys do go
over or your listeners go over,also don't miss the museums.
You got to go there, becauseit's not just the hobby stores,
but if you go, there are someplaces that you should go, like
the air bases Hamamatsu and Gifubeing the two large air bases

(01:27:20):
with museums.
Down south there's the TuranKamikaze Museum and I went to
some battlefield sites, whereone of them is Sekigahara, which
is their Gettysburg, and thatwas a big samurai battle way
back in the 1800s.
Oh wow, interesting, so you cansee the beautiful museum,
beautiful, so to end it, it's awhole experience, right?
It's the Shizuoka show, it'sthe breadth of hobby stores

(01:28:05):
no-transcript, and then compareand contrast.
That's a great idea You're on.
That's a great idea they'reboth island countries.

It would be a great compare and contrast.

Yeah, and even in Canada, in September I was asked
to visit the guys in Alberta,so I'm heading out to Calgary.
They've got a military show.
So in Canada in September I wasasked to visit the guys in
Alberta, so I'm heading out toCalgary.
They've got a military show.
So you know, I'm trying to getaround and I want to get to the
Malaysian show.
They just had theirs andTaiwan's got a big.
So I like to get out there andjust meet new people.
And because you know, when youfind, you'll find that the style

(01:28:41):
varies by countries.

Yeah, Well, there's a big.
There's a big one in China,Shanghai.
I've asked China.

Yeah, I've heard, and you know, hong Kong has a
show.
I'd love to go to those.
Yeah Right, cause I think thehobby it's a very solitude hobby
to begin with, and if you havethe ability, take advantage, and
I'm lucky no-transcript.

(01:29:43):
That you're missing out on awhole part of modeling.
Absolutely, dave.
I met you guys and it's notjust social media, you're right,
it's going and meeting peopleface-to-face.

Mike (01:29:54):
Yeah, it is Especially somebody.
It's really fun when it'ssomebody you've met on social
media and maybe havecommunicated with for sometimes
even years.

Yeah.

Mike (01:30:03):
And you've never, ever met them face to face.
Now, now, the video componentto what we can do now bridges
that a little better.
But you know, wasn't that longago before we didn't have any of
this exactly and you just havetheir, their text.
Or maybe you had an audio callevery now and then, but that's
it.

That's it when I met hisao in japan.
It's like we're brothers now,like passion, and you know
there's there's a languagebarrier I, I, you know, between
our broken languages it's butyou have that that common
passion, right, and so that's,you're right, that's what it's
about and I love getting out tome.

(01:30:41):
It's not.
It's not to me.
It's not about the bling or theaward or any.
No, because that just sit inthe box.
It it's the people you meet,yeah, and you guys, you guys got
so many episodes on you.
It's good for you.

Mike (01:30:53):
Um we're halfway through our sixth year, so, wow, no end
in sight either, so we're havingtoo much fun that's right.

yeah, so yeah, but I you know, whatever you guys
want, I'm I going to call away,that's great, because we're
going to have you back forsomething.
I'm sure.

Mike (01:31:07):
And maybe have some fodder for that later.
You mentioned what you'reworking on now.
I don't know how far in advanceyou plan your projects, but
what are a couple things you'reitching to get to that haven't
even seen the workbench yet theworkbench yet.

Yeah Well, one of the things that I am kind of
like scoping out now is I wantto do an LCT landing, craft 593,
and I'm kind of scoping out thedrawings.
It's kind of like half wood andresin that's going to be LCT
not to get into details, butit's.
If you see a photo of LCT 593,she has the fuselage of a
sterling bomber on it and Ithought, well, that's different.

(01:31:48):
So I'm kind of scoping out thatI do have a lot of projects now
.
Look, I'm I don't want to gloat, but everything I start I do
finish.
There's seldom anything that Idon't finish, and so when I'm
looking at my list of to do's,I've got about three, six, about
maybe eight that are that areall underway.
I don't just work on one, Iswap back and forth.

(01:32:09):
I will get them all done.
You know I'm honored and happyto talk about anything you want.
You just let me know I will dowhatever you want, say whatever
you want, how long, whatever youwant Six hour, one or six
minute.

Mike (01:32:25):
I don't care.

Well, we're glad you're enjoying your retirement
and I hope you make it toTelford, I do too, we are
scoping it.

That's in, I think, november.

It is yeah.

Mike (01:32:35):
Are you coming down to Virginia for the IPMS National
Convention?

Only I can't, only because I'm out in Quebec and
Ottawa for just kind of a tripand another show.
But yeah, I'd love to get backdown to Louisville.
I'm a frequent participant withthe Cleveland guys the Buffalo
guys right.

Yeah, the Rochester guys, we won't hold
that against you.

I even went out to OrangeCon out in California.

Yeah.

That was a great show.
So, yeah, it's just a matter oftrying to get my time to all
these places.

Mike (01:33:11):
Yeah Well, if it's HeritageCon, that's where we'll
see you.

Yes, definitely.

Mike (01:33:16):
All right.

And if you've got time happy to take you around
you let me know.

Mike (01:33:20):
All right.
Well, harvey, thanks forjoining us tonight, and it's a
pleasure talking to you, andit's really really interesting
to hear about your trip to Japan.

And I'm honored to be here, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mike (01:33:34):
Well, that was really interesting, Dave.

It was.
It was really interesting toget his perspective, having just
been there and having beenthere several times, about how
different the hobby is in Japanthan it is other places.
Well, I do hope he goes toEngland for Scale Model World

(01:33:58):
and would love to hear from himand hear a compare and contrast
between that experience the USNationals which he's been to
before and going to contests andstuff in Japan.

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(01:35:01):
your model display needs.

Dave, it's the Benchtop.
Halftime Report.
Yep, lay report.
Yep, lay it on me, brother,what you been doing.
My bench has been active, notquite as active as I'd want, but
I have been concentrating onthe or the group entry in
Hampton.
They are now just recently inprimer so, and all of the

(01:35:32):
peripherals are already paintedand everything.
So it's just a matter of now.
Having primed, I want to hitthem with a quick wet sand.
Then it's overall glossy blue,which is, let's face it, not
going to be too difficult, andI'm pretty sure I have enough
glossy blue, mr Color, to get methrough the whole project.

(01:35:56):
And then, once that's on, it'salready glossed, so I don't even
have to gloss before I put thedecals down.
I get the decals down and fiveweeks should get me there.
It may be off gassing as we'redriving to Hampton, but five

(01:36:16):
weeks should get me finishedwith these models, well, with
that glossy blue.

Mike (01:36:22):
I've got a F8 or f9.
Yeah, was it panther.
Yeah, cougar, something I can'tremember.
Right.
Naval plane from the korean warf8 f9f is the panther f8 f9 f5,
the one with the long fuse right, yeah, that's the that I that I
to do and unfortunately theMatchbox kit's the only one of

(01:36:45):
that one in 72nd scale it is,but I was wondering how the just
and maybe, since it's a groupproject, I don't know, I won't
say you don't care as much, butmaybe you don't Do you think
that level of gloss on the 72ndscale plane is good, or would
you want to dial that back alittle bit?

I will probably I'll do one of two things Either
I'll leave, since I've got twoentries in the group build, I
may, when I've finished decalingand weathering and everything,
I may hit one with a gloss finalcoat and one with a satin final

(01:37:25):
coat, just to get somevariation and see what the two
look like, just to give thedisplay some variation.
I think you can do either.
I've seen them as high gloss,sea blue, even weathered, and

(01:37:46):
they look good.
And yet I've seen other oneswhere they come along and they
have really toned down the gloss, and not so much as to make it
dull or flat, but say satiny,and both look realistic.
So I may try one of each.

(01:38:06):
I've also got a French bird thatI'm building along with it and
that one may get a true flat,because those things were really
hard worn in Vietnam.
I'll be interested to see.
I'm going to play around withit.
And again because I quoteunquote, don't care, I don't
mean I don't care, it's justbecause it's part of a group

(01:38:29):
build.
It's going to blend in with awhole bunch of other models.
So I feel a little bit morerelaxed about taking a chance
and doing something that I mightnot normally do if I was
building a standalone model.
We'll see, I'll let you know.

Mike (01:38:49):
Well, I have to make a point to make the rounds in the
small scale tables and see whatother folks have done.
Yep, I'm sure I'll come out ofthere liking one or the other.

Or maybe both.
Maybe, Yep, but everything elsehas been shoved aside to get
that done.
All the props and wheels andgear, doors and everything else
are done.
So it is just finishing a light, quick wet sand on the primer

(01:39:22):
and then straight on to thegloss and we go from there.
So I'm cutting it close, butI'm going to make it Just like I
did with the LCM last year.

Mike (01:39:34):
I'll rah-rah while I'm at your house this weekend.

Okay, yeah, that's right, I'll let you see
them so I know what you've beendoing, or at least part of what
you've been doing, becauseyou've been posting a lot on the
dojo and I kind of like whatyou've been doing.

Mike (01:39:48):
Well, what I've been doing is working through the KV-85
details now and, honestly, Ithink I really underestimated
the amount of work that wasgoing to take yeah, I did Not so
much in complexity, I did notso much in complexity Nothing,
none of it's been particularlyhard, once I figured out how I
was going to do something, butjust a lot to do.

Yeah.

Mike (01:40:12):
More than I thought and some of it's.
It's been a little tedious.
You know, I suppose I'm goingto pose the visor driver's visor
open, so I had to work out howthat was going to go together,
because I was not interested inthe way the kit parts actually
went together to make thatfeature like it was and the kit
visor didn't fit all that wellanyway.

(01:40:33):
So I've used the visor out ofthe trumpeter kit.

Well, what I really liked was the wire that's
next to the machine gun.
Yeah, it's like a harness, well, sort of.

Mike (01:40:48):
There's a metal conduit that basically one end covers a
hole in the hull roof that theelectrical wires come up through
and into the tube.
Then it comes down over thefront of the front plate and the
electrical cable for the hornand the headlight are in there.
Well, let me back up.
There's a main power line thatcomes through that conduit and

(01:41:12):
then it comes down to thislittle button-shaped thing on
the front of the tank.
That's basically a junction box.
So the one comes into there andit splits out into two, and the
two go to the light and theother one goes to the horn.

I was going to ask you what that little button
thing was.

Mike (01:41:30):
Yeah, it's just a junction .
It's where the line goes fromone feed to two.

Gotcha.

Mike (01:41:38):
So gosh what I use.
I use some brass or copper wireout of an old mile railroad
switch power switch solenoid fora turnout or switch track.
One of those has about 800miles of wire on it.
So I've had one of those sincemy teen years.

(01:41:59):
I've not even used a tenth ofit, I don't think, but it's
really really fine wire.
Not even used a tenth of it, Idon't think, but it's really
really fine wire.
Yeah, the condo is just a pieceof evergreen rod that I drilled
the end out of to get a hollowend where the wires come out.
What else I do?
The little junction box thingwas a punched out of styrene and
then it's got like a rivet orfastener in the middle of it

(01:42:20):
from, uh, some of I can'tremember one of the model
railroad suppliers nuts andbolts, sets, rivet sets.
So got all that on there Tryingto think what else I've done.
That's about it.
I'm probably fortunate Ihaven't broken the headlight off
because it's on a really reallyfinely molded bracket.
It's molded to the light bulb,the light housing.

Well, hopefully it will survive the whole
building process.
Well, it, it will survive thewhole building process.

Mike (01:42:44):
Well, it ought to look good when it's done, because the
lens for the headlights isactually a clear part with the
crosshatch texture molded intothe one side of it, so that
ought to be a nice part.
So you know, now I'm hoping towork my way back from there.
I've got the I think that frontplate's done.
Now I probably won't actuallyput the visor into the opening

(01:43:05):
of the armor in the front untilI start painting the thing.

Right.

Mike (01:43:10):
Really, that's about all I've gotten done and I just
chipped away at it a little bit.
The nights I can get down hereand it's making progress.
I thought I was going to goblind after that little wiring
harness thing.
Man Jeez, that was small.
I haven't worked that small ina long time.
I'm out of practice.

I hear you.
Well, we need to build faster.

Mike (01:43:31):
You work on anything else.
Nope, that's it, man Well, whatare you hoping to get back to
after the national conventionFinish?

the SAM and the BT-7.
Both are going to get finishedafter the Nats and the F-8.
Well, and the F-8, too.
Come on man, but it's in thirdplace behind the other two.

Mike (01:43:53):
Gosh, but it was started before either one of them.

I know, I know, I know.

Mike (01:43:58):
Hustad built a BT-7 inside yours.
Yes, I know he did and put itin a diorama.

Of course.
He models seven hours a day Atleast.
And no matter how many hoursyou give me, mine's not going to
look as good as his.

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Squadron adding to the stashsince 1968.

They've been announcing a fair amount of new
kits coming out.
See anything you like.

Mike (01:44:49):
I've got several faves.
Now you know I've gotten alittle diverse with my faves,
just stuff I think isinteresting.
Whether I'm actually going tobuy it or build it, it's a
completely different topic.
Got three of those and a yawn.

Well, I've got two faves and an I'm not sure.
Well, who's first I'll take?
It sure this one's 35th scaleand it's armor and I don't know.
That it's a fave, but I just I,I don't know want to hear what

(01:45:21):
you think about it.
A company I've never heard ofbefore, called Zimi Z-I-M-I, has
announced a 35th scale MarderOne and flat car.
Wow, and I like the way theMartyr 1 looks.
I've never heard of thiscompany, zimmy, before.

(01:45:43):
I have no idea, and it'sinteresting that they release it
as a joint product with a flatcar.
But I don't know.
You tell me.

Mike (01:45:53):
Well, I'll tell you that was my yawn.
Okay, zimmy also made that quadbofers, us Navy quad bofers kit
.
So I've got that, and they makea couple other things.
This one's a yawn for mebecause I know why they released
it like this.

Why.

Mike (01:46:08):
It's because they picked up the old Panda models.
Martyr one tooling and it's adistant second next to the
Tamiya kit.

Gotcha.

Mike (01:46:20):
And they're not going to sell me those solo anymore.
They're just not that.

That explains obviously.
I did not realize that that wassomebody else's mold so you
know, it's an interestingcombination I guess.

Mike (01:46:34):
But I don't know, for for me the the tank on flat car
things kind of kind of run itscourse.
For me as an interest, Iprobably have in the stash a
35th scale resin German heavyflat car back there somewhere.

Yeah, because that's how they got released
first.

Mike (01:46:54):
Yeah, so now there's more than one in plastic.

So, Mike, what's your first fave?
More than one in plastic.
So, Mike, what's your firstfave?

Mike (01:47:02):
It's one kit from a new company out of Ukraine.
It's SPA LAH or SPALA or SPALAI'm not sure how to pronounce
that, but they're a 3D printcompany doing some 35th scale
stuff.
And the one that's interestingis an MT-12 100mm anti-tank gun.

(01:47:24):
Now, this was a post-war Sovietanti-tank gun.

Is that the upgrade of the BS-3 that was
during World War II?

Mike (01:47:37):
I don't know if the two are related because it's a
smoothbore gun.

Oh okay.

Mike (01:47:42):
So it saw issuance with a lot of Third World armies and
then most of the Warsaw Pact.

Oh true.

Mike (01:47:49):
Even after it was phased out of Soviet service.
I just thought it was a reallyinteresting offering from a
newer company.
So again, a 3D print.
I don't know if it's going tointerest me that much, but as
far as a subject, I think it'sone that's not been done.
I don't know.
I don't know if there's one ofthese in like the trumpeter line

(01:48:11):
or not, I don't really know,but it's a neat looking little
gun.

Yeah, I love anti-tank guns.
It just there's something aboutthem.
What you got next.
Next one is one that I wasaware of but you pointed out to
me BPK Big Plane Kits 777-700 in72nd scale that they have now

(01:48:41):
released with the newer blueSouthwest airline scheme.
They had actually done one ofthe earlier 737s in Southwest in
what was called the peanutscheme, the brown scheme that

(01:49:04):
Southwest had forever, and thenSouthwest, a number of years ago
, switched over to the bluescheme, which is very attractive
in my opinion, and so they'vereleased a kit of it.
My wife flew on this airplane awhole whole lot in her career
and I got to say I'm probably atsome point going to pick one up
because I want to, I want to doan airliner and doing that one

(01:49:29):
would be really nice to make anice, nice, nice display piece
with all of her Southwestmemorabilia.
So I may, I may have to pickthat one up.

Mike (01:49:40):
I thought you might be interested now.

Yes, yep so you're next.

Mike (01:49:45):
I can't read my own writing.
Newware, uh-huh, it's in 1 to144 scale.

Yep.

Mike (01:49:54):
It's a Titan II rocket as the launch vehicle for the
dinosaur.
I know the one.
I don't know much about thiscompany.

I've got several of their kits.
How?

Mike (01:50:04):
are they.

They're good models.
They're good.
I mean, they're not, you know,modern injection molded and they
are helped by the fact thatthey are modeling.
You know a lot of round shapesand things like that.
No, the NuWe wear stuff is verygood.
In fact, if you talk to MikeIda-Kavich, I'll bet you he'll
tell you that he likes a lot oftheir stuff.

Mike (01:50:28):
Well, maybe he'll chime in and let us know.

Okay.

Mike (01:50:31):
But I thought this one was interesting because the rocket
certainly has some fairlycolorful markings.

Yep, and the dinosaur was just a cool concept
.
We got another one.
Well, yes, and this one is my.

Mike (01:50:46):
I don't know oh, it wasn't the martyr one, no, the martyr,
one was, was was going to be.

I don't know about this kit, but it looks
interesting.
Okay, this is a company calledEmboss E-M-B-O-S-S.
Never heard of them before andthey are making in 35th scale a
decal for do you know what abead seat cover is?

(01:51:14):
Yeah, you know.
Like you see in a lot of taxis.

Mike (01:51:19):
Yep, like half the dang taxis in China had those things.

Exactly.
They are making 35th scale,which I think is interesting.
Would have thought they woulddo it in one of the car scales,
but 35th scale bead seat coverdecals in like three or four
different patterns.

Mike (01:51:42):
Now, are they generic or are they kit specific?

decals in like three or four different patterns
.
Now, are they generic or arethey kit specific?
No, they're generic.
Hmm, interesting, and, like Isaid, it's in three or four
different patterns.
And just when you see them, youlook at them and you go, oh, I
know what that is.
It pops right out, they looklike what they're supposed to be
, but that's just to me such aninteresting little detail that a

(01:52:10):
company would actuallymanufacture that.
I found it very surprising.

Mike (01:52:17):
Maybe we've reached the pinnacle.

Maybe we have.
No, the pinnacle will be whensomebody 3D prints it in 35th
scale.

Mike (01:52:27):
And the beads actually rattle.

And the beads actually rattle.

Mike (01:52:31):
Oh brother.
So do you have any more?
I do, I've got one more fave.

Well, I'm done, so you go.

Mike (01:52:39):
Well, you know, many art's been ripping through the rsos
yes they have.
They finally boxed one inplastic.
That I don't think has beendone before.
Maybe there's a photo etch setout there to do this, but
because normally you only seethese stowed on the sides of an
rso tractor, but the big stampmetal snowshoes.

Yeah.

Mike (01:53:01):
Well, they've kitted a version now that you can
actually apply those to thetracks.
Wow, and it looks prettyridiculous with those things on
it, because they like span acouple of lengths and just
really wide and they're justthese thin sheet metal stampings
.

Right.

Mike (01:53:20):
So, yeah, it looks like some kind of moon buggy with
those things on it.

Well, the RSO is odd looking to begin with.

Mike (01:53:27):
Well, this doesn't help it .
High time somebody did it.
I have to wonder.
I don't know if someone's donethose, maybe in Photo Etch
before, but then I don't knowthat they've ever done them,
even in Photo Etch, to actuallyapply to the tracks.
They were just to enhance thestowed versions of the things
yeah somebody let me know if I'moff base or if I'm correct.

I don't really remember, but that's the end of
my faves and yawns, dave allright, mike, we've reached, uh,
almost the end the episode, andI am not quite done with my
modeling fluid, but it's gettingthere.
And Browmaster KrampusnachtSchwartz beer, 5.0 alcohol by

(01:54:15):
volume.
It's out of Canada, out ofBrowmaster Brewing Company.
I want to thank Evan for thebeer.
I'm not a Schwartz beer fan andI'm not fond of the maltiness
that you get with a lot of verydark beers.
This is reminiscent in manyways of Guinness, but it's not

(01:54:39):
quite as thick and not quite ascreamy, but it does have the
extra carbonation that youassociate with the Guinness.
So, all in all, not bad.
Thank you, evan, and thank youto Mr Grisbein for the glass and
the t-shirt.

(01:54:59):
How was the 1920?
After?

Mike (01:55:03):
not having it for a very long time again.
I had to get past the heatbecause it's a hundred and
something.
I can't remember.

Yeah, 110.
110 or 112?

Mike (01:55:13):
proof, right so?
But once you're there, man,it's got a lot of really
interesting flavor to it.
Yeah, I remember how much Ienjoyed it.
Yep, real quickly.

Yeah, it really does have.
You know, a lot of times, onceyou get a bit above a certain
level of alcohol, the heat fromthe alcohol is all you taste.
But the 1920 has some reallygreat flavors to it.

Mike (01:55:41):
It's not just drinking hot alcohol, the 1920 has some
really great flavors to it.
It's not just drinking hotalcohol.
Well, I'd be curious how DonGilman's flight went and what he
came out of there like andbetter than the others.

So let me know, Don Either comment in
your thread you put on the dojo,or send us an email.

Now we truly are at the end of the episode.
So, mike, do you have any shoutouts or anything you want to
mention?

Mike (01:56:16):
Like we normally do, dave, I want to shout out all the
folks who've taken uponthemselves to help Plastic Model
Mojo out through theirgenerosity.
We've had a flurry of activityin this regard.
We really appreciate it because, again, we're still chipping
away at the website and we'vegot a little ways to go before
we have anything new to launch.
So all this is really helpingus out.
Robert Morales, michael Grisman, who you mentioned already, and

(01:56:38):
William Sommer have come onboard as new patrons, so that's
great.
We really thank you guys a lot,and I sent them all a message
thanking them.
And then we got kind of amystery one too.
Hopefully the person who didthis can reach out.
They're from a particularlywell, a famous namesake chapter
down in South Texas, and thisemail address has gotten handed

(01:56:59):
around by a couple of peoplewhen I was doing a little Google
searching.
So I'm not sure that thecontext of this one, but again,
it's greatly appreciated.
And then, finally, dave palaishas kind of amped up what he was
doing before, so he's helpingus out a little more than he was
.
So really appreciate it, folks.
Uh, it's going a long way thatthe nest egg's growing a little

(01:57:19):
bit so we can finish out thiswebsite and we're going to bring
you some good stuff, and itjust helps keep the whole train
moving down the tracks and weappreciate it very much.
So thank you, thank you, thankyou very much.

Thank you, I want to second that.

Mike (01:57:32):
What about you, man?

Well, I want to shout out Mr Grispen again for
the T-shirt and the beer glass,always appreciated.
Brisbane again for the T-shirtand the beer glass, always
appreciated.
In addition, I want torecommend another YouTube
channel.
The guys Al Murray and JamesHolland who do the we have Ways

(01:57:53):
podcast, have a World War IIYouTube channel and they're
doing little short YouTubes.
They did one that I posted onthe dojo about the Me 163.
And then they just droppedanother one on five reasons why

(01:58:16):
the Sherman was the bestall-around tank of World War II
and it's really great content.
Why the Sherman was the bestall around tank of world war two
.
And they just it's really greatcon content.
It's short, it's digestible.
You know 10, 15 minute YouTubeepisodes and and really fun
little watches.
So I highly recommend those.

Mike (01:58:38):
Anything else?
Nothing else for me.
How about you?
Nope, that's it until 4th ofJuly, my friend, all right,
can't wait to see you Until then.
So many kits, so little time.

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