We Keep Building Because It Keeps Us Sane: Episode 163

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 skill modeling, aswell as to news and events
around the hobby.
Join Mike in Kentucky Davis tostrive to be informative,
entertaining, and help you tokeep your modeling module alive.

Kentucky Dave (00:46):
Yes, uh a little little late, better than never.

Mike (00:51):
Well, we were hoping to push this out a little bit, but
now we may have pushed it alittle too far.
So we'll see what happens therest of the month, folks.
But uh this is episode 163, andit's been a lot going on.
Yes, there should mesh well withsome of our shop talk topics, I
think.

But uh Yes.
Although it was not planned thatway.

Mike (01:11):
Most of it's well, that yeah, that's not, but most of
the stuff underneath thosesubjects is rarely planned.
Yeah.
I wouldn't say rarely, probably50-50, but uh we'll get there
when we get there.

Yeah.

Mike (01:22):
Well, all things aside, Dave, what is up in your model
sphere?

Well, a few things.
Number one, on a previousepisode, a listener wrote in to
mention a app that they've beenusing that uh is kind of a
tie-in modeling thing to app totrack your work and your

(01:47):
progress on different projectscalled Brush Rage.
Yeah, I remember that.
I downloaded it and startedplaying with it.
And I could see the potentialright away, but it wasn't it
wasn't immediately justcompletely intuitive.

(02:09):
And so I went looking around fora manual or a video or something
to you know, tell me how to usethis software, which I guess uh
I'm old, and I couldn't figureout where, but I finally found
in the help area of the softwareprogram, it actually is not

(02:34):
exactly a tutorial, and it readsa little bit like stereo
instructions to quote to quoteBetelgeuse, but it does lay out
how you use the software andwhat the what the software can
do, at least to some extent.
So when I get back to the bench,which I haven't been to the

(02:58):
bench much in the last two weeksfor a number of reasons, which
we'll discuss later, I want toplay with this software more
because it really does seem likeit could be very, very useful
for somebody who wants to trackand record their builds and and
make notes and annotations andkeep track of where they were

(03:21):
where they are on any particularbuild.
So I don't remember who who itwas that recommended that.
So if you're listening, pleasereach out because I'd like to
talk to you more about thesoftware or the app and how you
use it.
In addition to my the otherthing in my uh that's up in my

(03:42):
modeling sphere is I've startedtearing my hobby room apart.
I've come to the conclusion thatits current configuration not
only does not promote modeling,I think it actually discourages
I managed to build a hobby roomthat actively discourages

(04:04):
modeling.

Mike (04:06):
And so is it the the clutter issue?

That's that's part of it that's bumming you
out when you go down there.
That's a big part of it, is theclutter issue, but also the
layout and a number of thingsthat are all related.
But I finally, after sitting andand ruminating for quite some
time, I finally figured out,yeah, I need to bite the bullet

(04:30):
and start a majorrenovationslash redo.
But of course, once you startthat, it has cascading effects.
Okay, well, I need to do this,but that means I need to do this
first, and therefore I need todo that before I do that.
And so it's it it it uh I thinkyou call that scope creep.

Mike (04:53):
Well, it's no, I don't know if that's scope creep
because you're doing it anyway.
Right.
It's it's a situation when youget into something like that.
It's kind of like organizingyour garage.
Yes.
There's there's this hopefullybrief time at the front end that
once you start cutting into it,it gets worse before it gets
better.

Yep, that's exactly that's exactly what I've
been experiencing.

Mike (05:18):
So good luck navigating that.
And hopefully I'll be inspiredto finally once the new school
year starts, and I got a littlemore room down here that maybe I
can start pushing mine in thedirection I really want it to go
because I've been in this housea long time and come on.
It's it's time for Mike to getsomething Mike wants in this
house, I think.

There you go.
That sounds good.
So, what's up in your modelsphere?

Mike (05:42):
A couple things.
One is real quick, and all ouramps conversations.
We had some segments from AMPSand we touched on it briefly
with uh Brandon, and we've we'vetalked about it a little bit,
but I was remembered aftercleaning business cards out of
my wallet over the past weekendthat uh I forgot one.
CRS Tankworks.

(06:04):
Yes.
The proprietor is Cody Wearsma.
Uh-huh.
They're making 3D printedtracks.
And I'm sure people arethinking, yeah, or so are 50
other people.
Um he's actually do they'reactually doing some LiDAR kind
of 3D scanning stuff on theirlinks to to maintain scale
fidelity, and they're real funto talk to.

(06:24):
Him and his friends were attheir table.
And I did buy, well, they gaveme some sample jerrycans, which
weren't too bad.
And then uh I bought their uhItalian M1340 tracks.

I love the M1340.

Mike (06:37):
So that's cool.
They're they're they're nice,nice set of tracks, and they've
got the sprockets with them, andthey've got an adapter for the
sprocket so it'll fit either theTamiya or the Attillary kit,
because they're not exactly thesame.
Exactly.
The way to go together.
Um CRS Tankworks, it's CRSTankworks on Facebook.

(06:57):
There's no web page just yet,but I'll put the email and the
Facebook link in the show notes.
But another option, I can'tremember.
I know, I know they had probablytrack links for all the big
German cats, and I think theyhad some Sherman tracks maybe.
This is all going on memory, soso don't quote me, folks.
You're gonna have to go lookyourself, but I'll I'll give you
the information to uh to dothat.

(07:18):
All right.
In addition to that, man, I'vejust been following this dragon
DML drama.

I was actually gonna mention that because it
were it actually got brought toour attention due to our our
friend Stephen Lee.

Mike (07:36):
Well, no, I've been talking to Stu Cox, our club
president.

Oh, okay.

Mike (07:41):
Or commenting on Facebook to his posts.
You know, the the the the firstannouncement came out, and God,
just watching people jump toconclusions, and I was like, eh,
this thing is really, reallyvague.
Yeah, I'm not sure what they'rethey're saying, but it it it
kind of sounded to me like theywere just gonna start farming
out work and doing contract 3Ddevelopment.

(08:02):
And then a little bit later, uh,on Scalemates, a dragon kit was
re-released under the nameDrammy, D-R-A-M Small Eye.
Small eye.
And I at first my and it stillkind of had a little dragon
symbolism, red, you know, alittle dragon.
Right.
And I'm like, is that just a anew abbreviation of some other

(08:24):
incarnation of dragon models ordragon miniatures or or
whatever?
So it looked like, you know,maybe they were gonna rebrand
their stuff.
And and then Stu Cox had postedthat original thing that that
dragon had announced, the vagueone.
And I'd made a comment aboutthis Drammy thing, and thought

(08:45):
that was just at the time, youknow, at the time, like it's
months ago, it wasn't.
It was like two or three daysago, right?

Yeah.
Tell me about it, brother.

Mike (08:54):
I thought it was just them rebranding their plastic side
into something else for whateverreason.

Right.

Mike (09:01):
Gosh, and and I talked to somebody else.
It might have been Stephen Leeearlier or later last week,
before the stuff he sent ustoday.

Yeah.

Mike (09:10):
That I think he had met the original proprietor of
Dragon.
He used to work in a hobby shop.
Right.
I I think it was in Munster,Indiana, or there and
nearabouts, where Three Floydsis.
We've had that conversation withhim before a long time ago.
But that's neither here northere.
The point was he was had his eyeon it too.
And he was thinking, oh, maybe,you know, he's retiring and
they're divvying up the businessso the carry-ons can keep this

(09:33):
in various components of maybemultiple ongoing concerns
instead of one, something likethat.
Right.
Who knows, right?
In the meanwhile, all theFacebook's blowing up.
Oh, this is the end of injectionmold of plastic models, throwing
in sales STL files, oh, thechicken little sky's fallen, all
that.
Which, by the way, completelydisregarding the fact that

(09:54):
Dragon really hasn't had a real,honest to God, grassroots from
the scratch kit release andflipping forever.
Yeah.
Right?
They're basically were didn't doanything for a number of years,
and then they startedre-releasing some of their
stuff, but really nothing new.
So they had gone from theforefront to uh kind of an us

(10:16):
two kind of position in themarket.
Anyway, I guess today oryesterday, well, no, maybe back
up.
Stu Cox sent me a picture fromthe website, I can't remember
where it was from, but theShizuoka hobby show's going on.
Right.
And Dragon Models has a tablethere.
I'm like, okay, well now thisreally makes no sense.

(10:38):
Because it was all Dragon Modelsbranded, everything on the
table.
Right.
And you can see old kits with 3Dprinted resin stuff on them, and
you know, you're like, okay, andthat kind of jives is what they
were saying in this firstvaguely worded announcement.
But then I guess today or lateyesterday they came out and said
that uh Zimi models was now thethe owner of some of I don't

(11:01):
know how much of it, but uh atleast a portion of their
injection mold tooling.

Yeah.

Mike (11:07):
So now we understand Drami.
It's Dragon and Zimme slammedtogether.
Right.
So it looks like they're gonnacarry on with the the plastic
stuff, maybe.
And I guess still my best guesson Dragon proper is a talent
farm for for other modelcompanies, maybe.

Who knows?
The only thing that was amazingto me was people jumped to concl
do dove to conclusions on solittle evidence.
I mean, some of those peoplecould have qualified for the
Olympic triple jump.
Um you know, it's like nobodywants to wait and see what's

(11:45):
gonna happen.
Yeah, everybody wants to try andguess.
And yeah, I mean, it's fun totalk amongst ourselves, but I
mean, some people just they theygo so far so quick, it's like,
no, whoa, whoa, wait.
Let's see what happens.
Okay, you could be right, yourguess could be right, my guess

(12:07):
could be right, but we don'tknow.
We don't let's just see whathappens.

Mike (12:10):
So I've, you know, even me kind of tapping my own brakes
and just say, eh, it doesn'tmake a whole lot of sense.
But even my speculation is whoknows?
That's what it is, it'sspeculation.
I'm barking out my posteriorwith with with my opinions about
what this might be, but uhright.
But again, it's a forest andtrees situation because so many

(12:31):
things have sprung up in dragonsessentially absence in the
marketplace.

Yeah.

Mike (12:37):
For all intents and purposes, uh, for the last
number of years that I I don'tknow, I'm not sure it matters.
And then Stephen Lee from SpruePie with Frets uh sent us a
message today with a reallyinteresting point.
And I hope there's going to be apiece on his blog uh write up
about his thoughts on it.
But uh the essence is that whileDML was scaled back for whatever

(13:01):
reason, a lot of their talentwent on to spawn a lot of these
other companies that are outthere now or or were hired into
these companies after otherpeople started them.
Dragon was kind of the firstreal major breakout, you know,
there in the late 80s, early 90safter a long drought of, you
know, it was it was allmonogram, revell, hell or

(13:23):
airfix, Tamiya, and Italary, andthat was pretty much it for
forever, right?
And in that sense, he said, youknow, we may owe them a debt of
gratitude to some extent aboutuh the the talent pool they
brought into the the market andthe leveraging of Chinese
manufacturing, merged with someWestern marketing and uh just

(13:44):
created a a really big machine.
And I don't know if if Zimi'sgonna be a success or not.
I know they're some of theirkits they're probably getting
from Dragon are better than thefirst Zimi kit I ever bought,
which is that quad that quadbofers, which isn't bad, it just
you know is a littleunderwhelming once you got into
it, but we'll see where it goes,man.

(14:05):
That's about the longest modelsphere we've ever had, but uh
it's it's timely.

Yeah.
Well, and it will be interestingto see where it goes.
I mean, dragon had a huge impactin the day, they did, and if
this new incarnation, let's callit, it's possible that it's just
no big deal, and it's possiblethat it's a second birth for for

(14:31):
dragon, and so who knows?
I'm willing to wait and see.

Mike (14:36):
Me too.
And uh more kits, me buying morekits is probably not a good
thing, but more kits into themarketplace is not necessarily.

Never, never bad, or almost never bad.
Oh, all right, enough enough ofthat.
So it's modeling fluid time, andif you'll allow me, I'm gonna go
first.

Mike (14:57):
Okay.

My modeling fluid tonight is orange juice.
Orange juice, baba baba boom.
It's good for you, kid.
Okay, see, you got that joke.
Nobody under 50 got that joke,but that one was for us.

Mike (15:14):
I can't believe I'm laughing.
I'm ashamed of myself.

There's a story behind this, folks, and uh I'll
I'll give you a little peepbehind the curtain.
Uh I was rushed to the emergencyroom this past Saturday,
unresponsive.
Right now, they're testing mefor a whole bunch of stuff.
We may think that it was a re areaction to medication that I've

(15:44):
actually taken for quite anumber of years.
But the one upshot of it is, iswhile all this is going on,
modeling fluid is off limits tome while I work this situation
out.
So my modeling fluid tonight isorange juice, which isn't bad.

(16:06):
It's good for you.

Mike (16:08):
I'm glad you're upright.
You and me both, buddy.
Back in the saddle for a while,at least.

Yep.
Well, see, I can livevicariously through you for for
however long I I have to gothrough this.

Mike (16:23):
You're gonna be sorely disappointed.
Oh gosh.
You might pick somebody else.
Uh-oh.

I might have to start calling Evan.

Mike (16:32):
You may have to call Evan.
He's a way more prolific modelerthan me.

All right, what do you got?

Mike (16:38):
Uh born at the forks of two rivers, Fraser and Thompson,
North American whiskey.

Hmm.
So it's not a bourbon, it's ait's a whiskey.

Mike (16:49):
It's not a bourbon whiskey.

Okay.

Mike (16:51):
It's a blend of Canadian whiskey and Kentucky bourbon.

All right.
Well, that that would beappropriate for for HeritageCon.

Mike (16:59):
Maybe.
Yeah.
Let me get through it.
It might start an internationalincident.

unknown (17:04):
Okay.

Mike (17:05):
But we'll see.

Okay.
We'll we'll we'll we'll seewhere we are at the end.
I can probably assure you thatmy orange juice is gonna be
quite satisfying.

Mike (17:15):
Probably will.
Nothing like a good glass oforange juice sometimes.

That's right.

Mike (17:19):
Just don't just don't drink too much of it, man.
You might get some ulcers inyour mouth or something.

There you go.

Mike (17:26):
Well, man, the listener mail is tsunami.
Good.
That's good.
Which which is good.
That's what we want.
We do.
And I think uh we ought to getinto it, or it's gonna take a
long time.
It's gonna take a long timeanyway.
You got it.
Quite a few repeats, but they'vebrought back some some new stuff
and some updates into theirsituations.
Giannis Grammatikos, our Greekfriend living in the United

(17:48):
Kingdom, living in London.
His current project is an AirFix 48 scale BF 109E, and he's
trying to go full water-basedacrylics on it after getting his
airbrush competency on Tamiya,Gunzi Mr.
Color, et cetera, with levelingthinner.
Right.
He's trying to get the samelevel of uh performance out of

(18:11):
his water-based stuff.

And I'll be interested to see if he can do
that, because that's always beenthe one of the things that has
prevented me from going thatdirection.

Mike (18:21):
Well, I think he'll get there.
He's he's been appreciatingre-listens on some of our Doctor
Strange brush episodes.
Good idea.
He likes Dr.
John's approach.
You can tell he's got abackground in science.
He talks numbers, ratios, andhe's tried things out himself.
Well, that's all true.
You know, I think once you getreally competent with an
airbrush and paint mixing andstuff, it kind of gets to be a

(18:43):
lot more intuitive, and theratios and numbers are kind of,
again, intuitive.
Yeah.
Touch touchy feely, you know,you know what I mean?

You get you get a feel for it.

Mike (18:53):
You get a feel for it.
But I think for for folks tryingout new paints and stuff, and
you know, John is certainlycompetent with an airbrush, and
if he still does it that way,because he's got a scientific
mind, more power to him.
But we we are great to hear thatGiannis is getting value out of
that.
And I'll give you a littlepreview.
I don't know exactly when it'sgonna be because Dr.

(19:14):
Strange brush has beenindisposed on and off for the
last several months, but Italked to him last week, in
fact, because I had sent him aline of paints that somebody had
posted on the dojo, a new lineof water-based acrylic
metallics.
A new line of paint?

Well, well, that hasn't happened in a long, long
time.

Mike (19:35):
It's been at least an hour.
Yeah, exactly.
Anyway, jokes aside, who was it?
It was it was Chris Wallace,model airplane maker.
We had him on because he he haddone the the F-104 using the
Vallejo metal stuff, yeah, andwas happy with that.
And this user was thinking thisstuff was better than that.

(19:55):
So I sent the the paints to toJohn, Dr.
John, Dr.
Strange Brush.
And once he is ready to committo coming back on, we're gonna
be talking about that particularpaint and then one other kind of
general line acrylic paintsthat's uh fairly new at this

(20:15):
point.
So there's gonna be more contentcoming for for at least a couple
of paint lines.

So I'm looking forward to having John back on.

Mike (20:23):
Uh but again, I'm I'm I'm not sure when it will be.
And once once I know, you folkswill know because it'll be in
the 12-minute monosphere of themonth that's gonna happen.

Yep.

Mike (20:33):
Uh up next, Frank the Tank Blanton out of Richmond,
Virginia.
Just really appreciative of allthe the feedback he got on his
question regarding CAalternatives.

Yep.

Mike (20:47):
And he's made some posts to the Dojo, three in fact,
about some of these.
I think he's honed in on one.
There was oh gosh, what's thatcompany in the UK that sells all
the adhesives and stuff?
Oh, uh it's uh deluxe materials.
Deluxe materials.
There's a deluxe materials PEglue, he's kind of honed in on,
and hopefully he'll hear moreabout that, but it seems to be

(21:08):
serving him well.
But uh Frank, it was a pleasureto host that uh question.
And uh, you know, I I won't sayI'm surprised, but I was really
pleased we got a bunch ofresponses back, and I'm glad
it's helping you out, and you'reyou're not having your allergic
reaction to the stuff anymore.

And it was good to see Frank, however, briefly
at the Amps Nationals.
Unfortunately, we didn't get tospend more time with him, but it
was at least nice to see him.
And yeah, I that wholediscussion really drove home the
point for me, the knowledge basethat we have in our community,

(21:45):
so that when questions like thatcome up, you're not just gonna
get one or two guys chiming in,you're gonna get a whole bunch
of info.
And so, people out there, if youhave questions.
Feel free to tap into theknowledge base.
It it really, I mean, you'llyou'll be surprised what might

(22:07):
spark a really big discussion.

Mike (22:10):
Up next from Folos Greece, our other Greek listener.
I'm not saying our other.
We may maybe we got more than Ithink because we got one in the
UK, and this one's actually inFolos, Greece.
And my apologies, I must havebutchered his name last time.
We're just calling Panos at thispoint.
Gotcha.
Per his suggestion.
There you go.
Which is fine, but Panos, sendme your name and last name in

(22:34):
the Greek alphabet to me at somepoint, and uh let me play with
it again.
Because I I really try to learn,and I I thought I had it figured
out, and then I I gaffed it whenI was trying to actually say it
on air.
So Panos was talking about mywork for the Artemis II project
and our payload we had onArtemis II.

(22:55):
And he wants to know if we couldtravel to the moon and land on
it and come back to Earth again,and we could take any scale
model with you.
What would it be?
Scale size, shape, genre.
What would it be?
And what would you do with it?
Would you leave it there?
Would you take it back?
Would you release it into space?
I would love to hear yourthoughts on that.

God, that's a great that that that's kind of
an outside the box, off the wallquestion, but that's a great
question.
Yeah.
So I want to hear your answerfirst.
I I've got one or two that Ithink.

Mike (23:29):
Oh, I couple answers.
Okay.
Whenever it happens, ArtemisIII, four, five, whenever they
actually stay on the moon for alittle while.
Right.
I think it would be cool tobuild uh the Apollo lander.
And and leave it there.
Yeah, the limb and leave itthere.

That that was my first thought.
Exact.
We've known each other too long,man, because that was exactly my
thought.

Mike (23:58):
My other one that would actually I've actually thought
about even before we were evenknowing we were going to be
doing something on Artemis.
I thought it'd be cool to havelike a, I don't know, a 35th or
32nd skill astronaut.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (24:12):
And then like hide him inside one of our payloads and
shoot him up there and get himback later and have that have
that know it's been it's been uhit's been on orbit for X number
of months at the ISS.

Yeah.

Mike (24:24):
That'd be cool.

Probably get me fired, but it probably would,
yeah.
Because the the at this pointthey they still gauge weight in
grams at this point.
The other one that I would thinkwould that that came to mind
after the lamb, the other onethat came to mind would be one
of the space 1999 ships.

(24:46):
Yeah.
You know, like the Eagle or oneof the one of the space 1999
ships.
Just because you associate thatwith the moon so much, uh, that
would be kind of cool.
It'd be kind of an Easter egg.

Mike (25:00):
It could, or you could uh be like a an AMT uh Enterprise
from the TV series.

There you go.

Mike (25:08):
And then spacewalk it and then just put it out there and
take your finger and just shoveit off.
Shove it out and let it let itgo, man.
It'll be up there forever.

Yep.
That's a great question.
I'm like I said, out of the box,but Panos, great question, man.

Mike (25:24):
Well, Martin Pietta's written us again, Dave.
All right.
Quite a few topics.
We're going to pare this down alittle bit.
On the topic of your stash andselling stuff, either duplicates
or things you're not going tobuild.
He said he started doing thatinitially just to sell off a
couple, but man, once he startedpulling stuff down, it was then

(25:45):
it was more and more and more.
And uh he thinks it's a goodthing.

Well, and and I I think that some people uh start
doing that just to pare down thestash.
And I think that they, you knowhow we derive enjoyment from
acquiring models.
I think some people find thatthey derive enjoyment from

(26:09):
actually selling out of thestash as well.
Either getting a kit to somebodywho they know wants to build it,
or just the sheer free marketexchange.
And, you know, there's a certainenjoyment that comes from
putting something out there,finding somebody who wants it,

(26:31):
and selling it to them, clearingout a spot in your in your
stash, which you'll hopefullylater fill using the money that
you got from selling out of thestash.
I can see how that becomesenjoyable in and of itself.

Mike (26:48):
I haven't got there yet, but uh who knows?
The the stash gets too big, I'llprobably do it again.
I know it makes no sense, doesit?

I know, but that's okay.
It doesn't have to make sense.

Mike (27:00):
Well, James Mirando has written in and he appreciated
our comments about uh the winecountry model expo.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (27:08):
He wants to remind us we talked about getting to Winter
Blitz uh via Southwest.

Yep.

Mike (27:14):
Cheap, quick flight.
Oh, he says that if we're comingfrom Louisville, Southwest can
get it to Santa Rosa, which isabout 20 minutes from Petaluma
where the expo is held through asingle connection to a place
like Vegas or Denver.
So uh it's not quite as farflung as we might see.
It is not.
You know, there's still, man, ifwe're for Holland stuff to
enter.

To be honest with you, if if I'm going to the wine
country, I think the wife, themodel wife would insist on going
to.
I think so.
She may not want to go to themodel contest, but she's she's
gonna darn well insist on goingto the wine country.

Mike (27:51):
Probably is.
I think uh she'd probably have acompanion to go with her too if
it's coming that way.
And he wants to confirm that themodeling fluid at the post-event
social was up to their winecountry standards.

Well, I had no doubt.

Mike (28:05):
Well, James, you're you're welcome for all the coverage,
and it was a pleasure, and weappreciate the folks who were
there writing back because uhnothing bad was said about it.
Let's just say it that way.
Up next, Rich Rich Capp fromClovis, California.
He's president of IPMS Fresno.

Okay.

Mike (28:23):
Well, if he knows Dr.
Paul, that's where he is, isn'tit?
Yep.
Fresno?
I think so.
A few men a few episodes back,Dave, you mentioned replacement
engines from ASK or Ask.

SPEAKER_04 (28:35):
Yep.

Mike (28:35):
For the 72nd Scale Tomia Zeros.

SPEAKER_04 (28:38):
Yep.

Mike (28:38):
And he's got the bug, and he wants to know if you
purchased them.
I purchased four of them.
Uh, does it seem to fit themodel?

Yes, as I did a dry fit.
I have not used it yet, but Idid a dry fit, and it definitely
seems to fit the model.

Mike (28:57):
And how does it look?

Gorgeous.
I mean, let's put it this way.
The mo I've got one in primerjust because I wanted to prime
it, because sometimes that helpsyou see the details, the the
just the regular 3D print, youyou can't tell.
And it's so good that it itinspired me to want to do

(29:23):
another to me a zero and do itwith the cowling completely off
to expose this beautiful engine.
I mean, it's gorgeous.

Mike (29:32):
And finally, how was your purchase experience?

Very, very good.
I bought directly from ArtScalein Ukraine, and this was
actually at the height of thetariff mess when nobody knew
exactly how all that worked, butthey actually did all the work

(29:58):
at their end.
I got the price, shipping,everything.
This is it.
And it should and you knowwhat's amazing to me is how, and
this applies not just to artscale in Ukraine, but it's
amazing to me how quickly stufffrom the from Europe usually

(30:20):
ends up here.
I mean, my Hannitz orders, therehave been some that didn't take
four and five days.
I ordered from AK and had it inless than a week.
That art scale order, it wasmaybe seven or eight or nine
days.

(30:41):
Modern logistics is a modernmiracle.
And man, I've I've just beennothing but amazed at how
quickly stuff ships.
Back to the his question.
I ordered direct from art scaleand had absolutely no problem
with them.

Mike (30:59):
Well, there you go.
So uh if you got the itch,scratch it, man.
Sounds like when you need toscratch.
Yep.
Well, we've got an email fromEvan's friend Michael Reese, who
we met in Madison.
Yeah, Madison.

Yes, that was in Madison.

Mike (31:13):
Uh, from Germany.
He's got a YouTube channelchannel, Hamelcar Barkas.
Yep.
A modeling show there.
And he is written in to talkabout his repeat attendance to
the Moshon show in Hungary.
You know, we need to connect himwith uh Adam Coleman, because
Adam goes over there every year.
Yep, we do.

(31:34):
That'd be fun because uh they'reboth good guys.
Yep.
Anyway, just he can't say muchenough about this show really.
He knows not everyone canimmediately do so, but he can
urge any modeler to experiencethis show in person at some
point in their modeling life.

And uh And everything I've heard about that
makes me want to get over thereand go.

Mike (31:55):
And it must have a big draw because he met some folks
from modelers from South Africain person there.
Yeah.
I can believe that.
Can't imagine can't imagine ordon't think he's ever met anyone
in person from South Africabefore.
And he says he's been to fiveshows this year, two in Germany,
two in France, and in Moshon andHungary.
May calm down for the rest ofthe year.

(32:16):
But he's considering HeritageConbecause we quote unquote keep
yapping about it.

Well, it only gets better and better, man.

Mike (32:26):
It does.
And then finally, after makingsure we all knew that this was a
show that everybody should tryto get to, which I really
appreciate because of all theforeign ones, this is the one
that I'm kind of reallyinterested in for the most part
in a hierarchy.

For for a number of reasons.
Yes.

Mike (32:44):
I mentioned uh Berliner Visa modeling fluid last
episode.
Michael's a Bavarian, so hedidn't take too kindly to that.
So he's gonna he's gonna stickto his hefe visance.

Good for him.
Good for I agree with him.

Mike (32:59):
Bavaria for the win.
This is kind of an updateprimarily for us, uh, but he's
he's got one tidbit in here thatuh other folks may want to hear
about.
But uh Mark Doramus fromSeattle, uh Jim's country, uh,
written us in.
And folks may remember we talkedabout on the show, he had a
house fire some time ago.

(33:20):
It's pushing a year, more maybemore at this point.

Yeah.

Mike (33:24):
He'll have to remind me.
But they're finally back in thehouse, functioning kitchen,
modern bathroom, all thewhistles and bells.
Seems all his ideal locationsfor modeling space got assigned
different duties.
Oh man.
Oh man, yeah, no kidding.
But he's got a dedicated spacenow.
He sent some pictures.
Uh he's got some finished workto do.
But hey, man, take what you canget for now and then start

(33:46):
lobbying later.
Exactly.
For better space.
You deserve it.

Yeah.
And everybody check yourinsurance policies.
That's right.

Mike (33:54):
He liked her episode uh with all the the sound bites in
it, especially the interviewwith Aaron Skinner.
He didn't realize that round twowas actually releasing new
stuff.

Yep.

Mike (34:05):
They are.
And just thought they werecurating old AMT and MPC kits.

That's how most people know them, but no, they
are they are making new kitsevery year.

Mike (34:16):
Well, I want to say, and I could be wrong, somebody will
need to correct me, but it wasin fact, I think it was the
episode of On the Bench that wewere on here fairly recently.
Julian was talking about how somany of the car kits on the
market are really, really oldand not so great kits.
Yep.
And unfortunately, a lot ofthose have AMT and MPC badges on

(34:41):
them.
Yep.
Just because they're, I mean,they're old American kits from
the from the 60s primarily.
Yep.
I think AMT or round two, Idon't know under what badge
they've done it, but has startedputting out some new, has
started putting out some somenew automotive kits.

Yes, I believe that is correct.
In fact, we have to we'll haveto talk to Aaron or somebody at
at round two and actually getthe information on what what new
car kits they've been releasing.

Mike (35:12):
And then you gotta wonder if if they've done the math to
see if any of those older AMTand MPC kits are worth
revisiting for a retool.

Yeah.

Mike (35:21):
I don't know.
I mean, if they're still sellingthe old ones, you would think,
but you'd also think if they'reselling the old ones, there's no
reason to invest the capitalinto redoing them.
I don't know.
I'm not in the model kitbusiness.
Uh, also from uh NorthernCalifornia, Bruce Bingston's
written in again.
He's in San San Francisco, andI'd mentioned in episode 162

(35:44):
about my acquisitions of the artthe UV Feist artwork.
Right.
Bruce actually met him in in1972, May 1972, in a squadron
shop, the one in Concord,California.

Yep.

Mike (35:59):
Long time ago.
The shop's long gone.
A lot of those shops didn'tweren't around that long.
Yep.
A couple of them were though.

Yes, they were.

Mike (36:07):
He had one of the old white cover squadron in action
books, the Schutzenpanzer inaction book, which is the
half-tracks.
Right.
The armored half-tracks, 251,250.
And Uve signed his copy for himwith an annotation.
So that's kind of cool.
That's nice.
That's a keep saying.
And then somewhere he's got asketch that Uve drew for him

(36:30):
that was a section through aPanzer Three or Four Road Wheel.
And he says he can't find itright now, but when he does,
he'll send it to us.
So I want to see it.
He's also sent a YouTube link touh a YouTube tribute to Uve
Feist and some of his work.
And I'll have to put that, I'llhave to I'll have to go watch
the video and then I'll put thatin the show notes as well.

(36:51):
Man, we got a lot of mail, Dave.

I know.
That's good.

Mike (36:55):
We're getting close, folks, unless Dave's got a
bunch.

No, I've got a little.
I've got a few.

Mike (37:01):
Jason Campbell from uh the Smoky Mountain crew down in
Knoxville wanted us to mentiontheir show's coming up again.
Ah, man.
I know.
I know.
You know what makes life go toofast?
Yes.
It's having a bunch of perennialevents on your calendar.
Yes.
Man, that makes life go fastbecause it's like every stinking

(37:22):
two or three months or somethingyou're doing again.
It just seems like the last timeit was there was just two weeks
ago.

In two weeks, we'll be at Wonderfest, which is
basically halfway through theyear.
Oh, shut up, man.

Mike (37:37):
Tell me about it.
43rd annual Smoky Mountain ModelCon presented by the Knoxville
Scale Modelers Association.
Speaking of Wonderfest, this ison the same weekend, Saturday,
May 30th, 2026.
So, folks, if you're down there,it's at the Knoxville Catholic
High School in Gymnasium.
It's a real, it's a real nicegymnasium.
He sent me the flyer, and I willpull a better copy out of,

(38:00):
because I printed mine, out ofthe email and get that posted to
the dojo, unless Jason, you wantto go ahead and do that before I
can get to it, that'd be great.
I got a couple weeks to get thatfigured out, folks.
If you want to go to that show,Smokey Mountain ModelCon 43rd
Annual.
This one comes to us from uhwell, we've got a username, The

(38:21):
Rox Rocket Guy.
And it came through our uhfeedback link on the website
show notes.
Thank you for using that.
He says he's gonna disagree withsome of the advice we gave to a
model returning to the hobbyafter a long break because he
went through the same processnot too long ago.
Well, good.
I want to hear it.
Well, and he makes some goodpoints, and we'll get to the the
biases we might have as we gothrough this.

(38:41):
He completely agrees that anEdward kit is going to fit
together extremely well comparedto something from AirFix, but
the cost of that kit's gonna befour to five times that of the
AirFix kit.
That's true.
That cost can factor in or cancause a a new model or paralysis
and moving forward.
They're not gonna mess it upbecause they spent a bunch of
money on it.

(39:01):
That assumes that they'reinterested in aircraft modeling.
Um I completely agree with that.
And I guess we went to the topof the heap because we've been
at this for a while.
And I guess it would make moresense if somebody coming new
into this, a lot of those peopleare going to be at the the front
end of everything.
And that would it that wouldinclude the economic side, the

(39:23):
cost side of this.

Well, and and his point is well taken.
It is if if you get a modern airfix kit, now I'm not talking out
of their classic line or any ofthat, because that's just a
recipe for heartbreak.
But if you buy one of theirmodern kits, say their P51 kit,
their P40 kit, their SpitfireMark 19 kit, any of those.

(39:51):
Now, the engineering is not asnice.
Maybe the the engraved detail isnot as nice, but when you're
talking about$15, if you mess itup, you throw it out and go get
another one.
And that might really, for amodeler either brand new or
returning to the hobby, thatmight be a significant build

(40:16):
incentive for them.
Because I can see how if you getone of those really nice Edward
kits, and you how how paralysiscan can hit you, because Lord
knows I have that problem, and Idon't even, I mean, it's I'm not
brand new back to the hobby.

Mike (40:35):
In addition to that, he says another new tool we
mentioned.
Well, he's he thought most ofthem were spot on, but uh he
thinks the airbrush is actuallyan exception to the the
must-haves for for a newbie.
Okay.
And he he makes the point thatusing an airbrush is its own
learning curve and its own setof frustrations.
It does.
And he used he would usuallyrecommend that a new modeler get

(40:57):
a couple of builds in undertheir belt for tackling the
airbrush.
Uh, he says for 70 second scaleairbr aircraft, a lot of this, a
lot of models you can get a adecent result with a brush for
larger scale stuff and even 70second scale stuff.
Like to me, a rattle cans arejust fine for a new modeler.
Mm-hmm for for you know broadcoverage kind of things.

Right.
If you're if you're painting anaircraft like the Edward
Hellcat, the F6F, overall glossyblue.

Mike (41:26):
Yeah.

You could do that with a rattle can quite easily.

Mike (41:30):
And he goes as far as say, even with car bodies, well, a
lot of the lot of the stuffother than the car body can be
hand painted, you know, theinterior and the engine and the
stuff underneath.
But the car body can even bepainted with uh Rust Oleum
rattle cans.
Because back in the day, a lotof the rattle cans stuff could
be too hot for a lot of plasticmodeling, but that's not not

(41:51):
true anymore.
And I, you know, I've been usingrattle cans for God, I when I
was doing railroad cars, I wasusing Rust Oleum grill black all
the time.
Sure.
It just worked.
It does.
So he's right.
And I guess it his point is welltaken for the the learning curve
for for airbrushes.
And I guess if if economicallyit was feasible for you to to to

(42:15):
chase the the kit build and theairbrushing in tandem, the
reason I would would make therecommendation I did was that
it's it's kind of the samereason.
It's it's that learning curve.
The sooner you can get into it,the sooner you're gonna get good
at it.

That that is my thought exactly.

Mike (42:31):
It could be for for some people, for maybe a significant
swath of of new modelers, itcould it could pose uh just
another challenge that would uhwould hold them back.
So points well taken.
Thank you for the for the email.
And I I don't disagree with anyof those.

That's a really good point.
When when Mike and I express anopinion, it is just that an
opinion.
And there is nothing more thatwe like than having somebody
somebody come back and say,well, wait a minute, you said
this, but how about this, or didyou think about that, or

(43:06):
whatever?
Because it causes us to reflectagain on what we said originally
and possibly change it, andpossibly not, or at least expand
on it.

Mike (43:19):
And it's always good to have another point of view.
It is, and that is the end ofthe email side of things, Dave.
All right.

Well, we do have some DMs.
I've kind of whittled them downto a few that I want to mention.
But first, by the time you allare listening to this, it is
quite possible that SpaceX'sStarship 12 will have launched
and recovered.

(43:49):
The reason I bring this up is ofcourse, our friend from down
under, Dave Goldfinch, huge uhreal space fan, and he and I,
every time a Starship launch isgoing to occur.
He and I start exchanging DMs,anticipating the date, and this
has been no exception.

(44:11):
And if you haven't followed it,Dave is building, speaking of
Artemis, Dave is building one ofthe kits out there.
In fact, I think he might haveboth kits now of the Artemis
that he is building because he'sinto real space.
Next is our friend from England,Neil Gilborne.

(44:32):
Yeah.
And he, and I'll will, I'll sendthe link to Mike to put in the
show notes.
He sent a link to a memorialthat's being built out in a
field in somewhere in England,I'm not exactly sure where, or I
don't remember off the top of myhead, where the they have built

(44:55):
a full-size Lancaster replica ona pole made entirely out of
wood.
And it is really, reallybeautiful.
It's artistic, it's not a actualvisual representation of a
Lancaster made out of wood.

(45:16):
It is the shape and everythingof the Lancaster, but the wood
is visible.
And it's just really, really anice memorial.
And I've anytime, anytime thereare memorials to the folks who
participated and provided us theopportunities we have, I I

(45:40):
absolutely love to see that.
Listener Scott Daniel.
Scott was scheduled to be intown in Louisville for a
work-related thing before he hadto go to Cincinnati.
He's the modeler you mayremember who travels over to
Cincinnati quite often.

(46:01):
Yeah.
And he was actually inLouisville for a day or like a
day and a half for work stuffbefore he went to Cincinnati.
We had tried to arrange to gettogether, lunch downtown, visit
the hobby shop.
Unfortunately, because of hiswork schedule, it didn't work
out.
But I want to I want to mentionit as a reminder to folks.

(46:25):
If you're in town, if you're inLouisville, don't hesitate to
reach out and DM me, becausethere's nothing better I love
than meeting listeners inperson.
So, you know, if you're in townfor a conference or work thing
or something out, DM me.
We'll see if we can gettogether, see if I can run you

(46:46):
out to Scale Reproductions, ourlocal hobby shop.
And unfortunately, Scott and Iweren't able to this time, but
I'm hoping that in the futurewe'll be able to.
I talked about people correctingus or giving us more information
or a different point of view.
Listener Ron Smith reached outbecause I had mentioned that

(47:10):
cyanoacrylates, superglues, weredeveloped as wound care
treatments in Vietnam.
And it turns out that'spartially true.
Actually, cyanoacrylate goesback to World War II, where it
was developed apparently forgunsite reticles.

(47:34):
And that's where it wasoriginally developed.
And it was only in Vietnam wherethe medical community started
utilizing it as a liquid suture,but it actually wasn't developed
originally as a liquid suture.
So I appreciate Ron reaching outand giving me that information.

(47:57):
Listen, I I love to learn newstuff.
So I love somebody to reach outand say, well, you said this,
but actually the story is that.
In fact, I'm going to appreciateit even more.
The next DM we've alreadycovered, Stephen Lee reaching

(48:18):
out, talking about the Trammything.
So I'm interested to see wherethat develops.
But Stephen was very nice toreach out to us to bring that to
our attention.
And then, as you mentionedtoday, give us even more
information about that wholething.

(48:39):
So looking forward to seeingwhere that goes and always good
to hear from Stephen.
Finally, listener Jared Strawn,S-T-R-A-W-N, reached out to
remind people that you shouldsave your electronics and your
electronics and your wiresbecause they can be very useful

(49:03):
for providing very, veryultra-thin wires.
The reason this comes up for himis he's building the Edward
48-scale aircode DH2, which ifyou've ever looked at one, it
looks like a spider sneezed aspider web onto a World War II

(49:27):
biplane or World War I biplane.
So he mentioned that started todo this aircraft, and luckily he
had gotten in the habit ofsaving electronic wire and
stripping it out and strippingthe wire out of it.
And so he had plenty of thisultra-thin wire to do his

(49:50):
rigging.
And I think that's a greatlittle tip that most people
don't think about, especially inthis day and age.
You know, you have chargingcords that die, or we've got so
much electronic stuff now.
And I'll tell you one that youwouldn't think of.
You know what procs cards are?
Those little electronic IDcards.

(50:13):
Yeah.
When those things die, or whenyou have one that's no longer
useful, go ahead and split itopen.

Mike (50:20):
There's an RFID tag in there.

And and some of the finest copper wire you will
ever see in your life.
Human hair thin.
And I've got actually got acouple of those.
And I mean, it's amazing.
You can use that for plumbing on72nd scale aircraft, landing

(50:43):
gear.
There's all sorts of uses forit.
So yeah, he he's absolutelyright.
And it's a good reminder to allof us.

Mike (50:52):
Is that it, man?
That's it, man.
Well, folks, this is a long one,but there were some really,
really good ones in there, andwe really appreciate it every
time we get an email or a DM.
If you want to email the show,and we encourage you to do so,
you can send us an email atplasticmodelmojo at gmail.com.
Another avenue for that, there'sa link in the show notes for

(51:13):
feedback that you can send amessage to us that way.
And of course, you can also usethe Facebook Messenger Systems
direct message.
And Dave usually handles those,and I handle the other emails.
But folks, went long with thisone tonight, but there's some
interesting stuff in there, andwe really appreciate it.

Yep, we do.
We really enjoy all of this.

Mike (51:58):
Some of the other shows have touched on in the last
three, four months, but wehaven't, at least not as overtly
as we're going to do it thistime.
And the first one, Dave, I thinkthe uh I think the posse had
this one.
Mm-hmm.
Why do we do this, man?
Why do we why do we build thesemodels?

For me, why do I build the models?
I I get, and then we emphasizethis all the time, I get
enjoyment out of it.
I enjoy doing it.
Even when you get to thefrustrating parts, which happen
from time to time.
Overall, I just really enjoy thehobby.

(52:38):
I enjoy building, I enjoylearning.
I mean, I'm constantly learningnew skills, new, new, new
techniques.
Also, it's an outlet for historybecause I have a deep interest
in aeronautical and aviationhistory.

(53:00):
This is a way for me to expressthat.
And not to be undersold thesocial aspect of it.
One of the reasons I do thishobby is so that I get to
interact with some of the bestpeople I know.

(53:21):
I mean, all of my very almostall of my very close friends are
people I've met throughmodeling.
The people that I look forwardto seeing once or twice a year
at this model show or that modelshow are again people I've met
through the hobby.

(53:42):
I think as a as a guy, well, asa person, but particularly as a
guy, you need to have a hobby.
You need something to get awayfrom life and be able to close
the door and put all of thestresses of work and home and

(54:04):
everything else on the otherside of the door and relax.
Now, some guys do that withgolf, some guys do that with
hunting, so you know, there'smyriads of hobbies.
This one works for me.
This one I particularly enjoy.
I've I've played golf.

(54:26):
I do not enjoy that.
And I don't think if I did it alot more, I would enjoy it
anymore.
Whereas the more I do thishobby, the more I enjoy it.
So for me, it's a combination ofbringing history to life, doing
something I enjoy, and giving mea connection to a bunch of other

(54:51):
like-minded individuals, all ofwhom, or almost all of whom,
turn out to be really, reallygreat people.
I would agree with all that.

Mike (55:02):
Good.
But I think the the socialaspect, and we can we can get
back to it in a minute after Irattle through through my
reasons as why I do this.
Sure.
Was not a primary reason to getinto the hobby at the front end.

I would agree with that.
Yeah.
That was not the thought at thefront end, but it turned out to
be one of the reasons I continuein the hobby.

Mike (55:26):
So I, you know, it's like like we hired some new person at
work and they didn't knowanybody in town.
I'm like, well, I'm I'm I'm newhere.
What do I need to do to meetsome people?
I'm I'm gonna say, well, youneed to take up modeling.

unknown (55:40):
Yeah.

That might be bad advice, particularly if it was a
guy trying to meet a woman.

Mike (55:48):
Well, that's different.
That's different.
But uh even the even the justthe camaraderie side of it.
I think if they were in for thelong game, it would probably
work out.
Right.
But it's not gonna happeninstantaneously.
You're not gonna be playing,you're not gonna be playing
racquetball with some dude youjust met because you got into
modeling, right?

Right.
Get it get into get into UKfootball and UK basketball in
Lexington.
You're gonna make more morefriends much quicker.

Mike (56:16):
Oh, but back to why I do this, uh, it's a lot of the same
things, man.
It's ever since I was, gosh, Idon't even know how young I was.
I was pretty stinking young.
Just I've always been a historyenthusiast.

SPEAKER_04 (56:34):
Yep.

Mike (56:34):
And and military history in particular, I don't know why.
War is, I guess, categorized asthe the result of human failure
at some level, right?
So it's it's certainly nothingto be the act of it is not
really to be venerated, I guess.

(56:55):
That's not not the point of themodeling, at least not for me.
I think you know, I can go backto 1977.
I guess I was in 78 I would havebeen 10.
So I was I was nine years old.
Good year.
That the the two movies I saw in77 were Star Wars and A Bridge

(57:16):
Too Far.

Yeah.

Mike (57:18):
And my dad took me to an R-rated movie as a
nine-year-old.

But things were different back then.

Mike (57:27):
The F-Bombs were the same, but yeah.
But it wasn't, you know, itwasn't like a Quentin Tarantino
movie.

Right.
Exactly.

Mike (57:35):
And it, you know, it was oh, who wrote the book?
The movie is based on CorneliusRyan.
Cornelius Ryan, he also did thelongest day, right?
So it's it's you know, from ahistorical accuracy standpoint,
even though the critics calledit a movie too long, uh it it
follows things pretty stinkingclose.

Yeah, and not only that, but it had a
collection of actors who gavereally, really good
performances.

Mike (58:05):
And a lot of them actually looked like the people they were
supposed to be portraying.
Yes, they did.
But that's a movie thing, that'sdifferent.
But anyway, I was into it then.
I had every box of air fixed HOscale, 176 scale figures from I
had everything, Dave, fromancient Romans and Britons all

(58:28):
the way up to their astronautsset and everything in between.
Yep.
The the only ones that werelightly represented in what I
had were the Napoleonics,because a lot of those sets when
I was getting into it werereally hard to find because they
weren't in production anymore.
But most of them were World WarII, and I had, man, I had all
that stuff.
And I used to set up these epicbattles on the the billiard

(58:51):
table.
We had it.
My dad had a full-size billiardtable from a pool hall that was
going out in my hometown.
They bought it and they moved itin, and we cut a piece of
plywood into four two by fourfoot sections that I put grass
on.
That when I wanted to do mystuff, we could go get them and
set them and cover the pooltable up with these things so I

(59:12):
wouldn't damage the felt on thepool table.

So you and I live apparently live the same life
because that's exactly what wedid, except it wasn't a pool
table, it was a ping-pong table.
But same thing.

Mike (59:26):
So you had more space than I did.
Yeah.
It was wider, it might have beenshorter.
But anyway, that's kind of theway I got into all this, and
it's just this tangible, thistangible connection to history
because with the internet andstuff, e visually anyway, museum
access is a lot easier.
You can see a lot of stuff outthere from all over the world at

(59:46):
the click of a button.
But when I was a kid in the 70sand then got into quote unquote
more serious modeling in the80s, you know, there's no there
was no internet.
Right.
You you had to make a consciousdecision to go visit a museum
and plan a whole trip aroundthat because you're gonna have
to drive to it.

Kentucky Dave (01:00:06):
Our our early trips to Amps.
Yeah, one of the the well,besides the show, one of the
major reasons you and I went toAmps was that ability to go to
Aberdeen and go visit the actualphysical items.

(01:00:30):
And, you know, that you wouldn'tsee anywhere else in the world
or anywhere else that that youand I would have had access to.

Mike (01:00:39):
True.
So, so the the tangible link andin the learning and the study
and the history part of it's oneangle.
The other side is just the thethe tactile creativity part of
it.
Always enjoyed the problemsolving and the it's my
vocation, but there's anengineering aspect to it to it
as well.

(01:01:00):
That's just so so much fun.
It's so relaxing.
And even if I sit at somethingand stare at it for three hours
and ponder it while I'm tryingto go to sleep at night to get
to a solution to a problem, youfigure it out, and then the next
day you go down there and youactually do it and it works, and
it's just a a great sense ofsatisfaction.

(01:01:20):
And then on the rare occasion Iactually finish one.
That's that's kind of cool too.
I'm not gonna deny that I don'tlike finishing a model.
And I don't want tooveremphasize that and and use
the use the journey as a cop-outthat never finish one because I
do like to finish them.
I'm slow and I got my own way ofdoing it, and I enjoy it every

(01:01:43):
step of the way because it it'sit's it's a a very targeted
avenue of escapism for me thatscratches the itch of the
historical component of it andthe uh the actual craftsmanship
part of it.
That's that's why I do it.
Because it and ultimately itgets it all distills down to to
relaxation and escapism.

(01:02:04):
It really does.

Yep, I agree.

Mike (01:02:08):
Anything else on that?
No, that's that's that's why wedo it, and we've talked a little
bit about that in the past, butuh sounds good to me, man.

Me too.

Mike (01:02:21):
Well, this one's a hot topic.
Work-life balance, and I thinkthe Model Geeks had tackled this
one a few episodes back.
Yep.
Man, you gotta make choicessometimes, Dave.

Yes, yes, and unfortunately, lately for me,
for a number of reasons, thehobby has had to take the
backseat between situations atwork, needing to get done at
home what needs to get done, andthen throw on top of that an

(01:02:57):
unexpected health crisis.
It's I feel bad that I can't getdown to the bench more than I
have been, because again, I getreal enjoyment out of coming
down here and sitting down andjust losing myself in modeling
for an hour or so.

(01:03:18):
But sometimes work and life takeover, and you know, you can moan
about that and complain aboutit.
It's not gonna change it.
You just have to accept, okay,my modeling, my hobby is going
to ebb and flow as lifeotherwise does, and I accept

(01:03:43):
that as part of the bargain toget to do it when life allows
it.
And you don't want your familyresenting it if you try and put
your hobby before your householdand home obligations.
And obviously, your employer isnot going to tolerate you

(01:04:06):
putting, although you you youhave a nice setup where you kind
of have two blended, at least insome respects.
But yeah, your your employer'snot going to tolerate you
saying, oh, I I didn't get thatdone because I was doing
something in my hobby.
So, you know, unlike many of us,Mr.

(01:04:29):
Budzig and Mr.
Usted, and all who are allretired and don't have that
problem, we do, and you justhave to accept it and put it in
its proper place.

Mike (01:04:41):
Oh man.
I so your setup's like mine.
We're we're in basements.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:47):
Yeah.

Mike (01:04:48):
And you know, we're we're in a similar place right now.
You've got one that's out of thehouse and one that's not.

Right.

Mike (01:04:54):
Your other one's about to be, and my other one's about to
be, but until summer's over,which I don't want to rush that
through because I like summer.

Right.

Mike (01:05:05):
Um we're we're we're in a very similar place.
And because we're in basements,we are removed from what's
happening above us a lot of thetimes.
So what I always have tried todo, and I've I've I would say
try, what I've what I'vesucceeded at doing is if I'm

(01:05:27):
down here and I've been downhere for I don't know however
long, hour, three, five,whatever it is, this is not a
don't come interrupt me zone.
Man, sometimes that would be anice boundary to put on it, but
it's not one I typically dobecause I'm down here removed.
They're up there doing their ownthing, maybe together, maybe
not.

(01:05:48):
They're watching a show and Idon't like to watch a lot of
television or or whatever.
But if they need something, I'mI'm up I'm up the steps.
Right.
You know, and if and if I've gotsomething like An airbrush
that's full of paint, I'll I'llI'll ask, hey, give me give me
five minutes to clean this up toa point where I can leave it,

(01:06:08):
which is usually not painting anozzle, right?
Right.
Or whatever.
I don't try to make myselfunavailable.
Well, and that's one thing I'venever done.

Right.
And the advantage of doing that,okay, is that when it comes to
doing stuff for your hobby, yourspouse doesn't resent it because
you haven't done that.
You've always made yourselfavailable.
And therefore, your spouse tendsto be much more accepting of the

(01:06:41):
hobby in general, and maybe aspecific thing you want to do,
take a day, an afternoon to goto a show or whatever it might
be.
And as I point out to my wiferegularly, and she acknowledges
this hobby is one where sheknows exactly where I am.

(01:07:07):
And if she needs me, all she hasto do is come down, knock on the
door to the to the hobby room,and I'll go up and you know kill
that spider or move that box orwhatever it is that needs to be
done.
And you don't want your hobby tobreed resentment in your family.

Mike (01:07:29):
Yeah, and I it's it's really not a hard thing to do.

No, it really is not.

Mike (01:07:34):
It just takes some just uh God, what would you call it?
Tact.
Tact.
I don't know if I call it tact.
Just some mindfulness aboutwhat's going on in your house.
Yeah.
And what's in what's importantand what's not, and and what's
important and what's not, it'snot gonna be the same for
everybody in the house.

Right.

Mike (01:07:53):
So that's where you gotta kind of be able be a little bit
flexible, I think.
But again, I'm in the basement,I'm removed, but if I'm needed,
just gotta come to the top ofthe stairs and say, hey, can you
come do this?
Yeah.
And I'm gonna, I'm, I'mtypically typically I'm gonna do
it and is that it may be a hey,give me five, ten minutes, and
I'll be right up.
I gotta I'm at a bad point tostop.

Right.

Mike (01:08:16):
Uh, but uh, you know, I'm not blowing off anybody because
I'm down here surfing theinternet.

Exactly.

Mike (01:08:21):
So, and then you we bring up the travel, you know, we we
we do quite a bit together.
And I don't know, it's early onwhen I was young, it it seemed
to make the most sense to to meanyway, to try to accommodate my
wife and and travel together.

(01:08:42):
But at at this point in my life,it's like she's not there's
nothing uh where where would wego?
Madison.
She doesn't want to go toMadison, Wisconsin.
And not that it's a bad place,but she's got her list of, you
know, she's got her punch list,and some some of her punch list
is places I want to go, and someof it's not.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:02):
Right.

Mike (01:09:02):
And a lot of these not places, she's going with one of
her good girlfriends, andthey're going and doing doing
stuff.
And man, I don't say no to anyof that.
Not that I don't even want tosay no to it.
Right.
Because because, you know, we'vebeen to Amps, we've been, we're
gonna go to the nationalconvention.
I mean, Lord willing, we'regonna go, I'm gonna show up and
we're gonna go to uh Wonderfish.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:25):
Yeah.

Mike (01:09:25):
And then we're already planning out in advance for for
the Eagle Quest show down inChattanooga with Chattanooga
ModelCon next year, next April.
So uh, you know, I'm drivingthat steak in the ground now.
So that means other stuff aroundthat, I'm gonna have to be
flexible with that and I'm gonnahave to greet be agreeable when
I need to be agreeable.
So it's all give and take.
And you know, that's you know,we've talked a lot about spousal

(01:09:46):
stuff.
Work work's work.
I mean, if you're employed,right?
You're obligated to numberhours.
I for for the hobby, I've I'venot really tried to push any
boundaries with work.
That's just seems like a badidea.
Exactly.
For me, like you said, uh it'sit's I I can bring a lot of my

(01:10:08):
hobby into my work.
I know you don't quite have thatadvantage.
But that's kind of cool for me,but it makes my working more
enjoyable.
Work's work and my my my currentemployment, I can say that I I
have willfully and graciouslyworked more weekends in the five

(01:10:30):
years I've been there thananywhere else I've ever worked.
And that's more of a testamentto my work environment and uh
the good spot I'm in.
It's it's flexible enough forother work-life stuff outside of
the hobby that typically thosehave not been conflicting, and
maybe they were a little bit attimes, but you know, it's just

(01:10:51):
it's just something I gotta godo.
But that's that's really not inthe in the vein of what we're
talking about here.
But work-life balance, lifefirst, hobby second.
Maybe this would have beenbetter better phrased as life
slash hobby balance.

Yeah.
And uh but just just giveeverything its proper priority.
And while your hobby isimportant, it is not you should
not be putting that above eitheryour work or your family.

Mike (01:11:18):
Agreed.
This one I don't know that hasever been tackled by any of the
other shows of late, maybe inbits and pieces, but uh the
other the other two topics Iknew who had done them and
because they're both fairlyrecent, but right.
Contests and competitions.
I know we've we've evolved here,Dave.

We have evolved, and not only have we evolved, in
my opinion, in fact, uh you andI have discussed this, contests
and competitions seem to beinvolved evolving as well.

Mike (01:11:58):
And to be to be called other things.

Right, in a very positive direction, in my
opinion.
I'm not sure that five years agowhen or six years ago when we
started doing this, that I wouldhave foreseen what's gone on
with contests and competitionsand displays.

(01:12:22):
I don't think I would havepredicted that.
I think I would have predictedthings to continue on on the
status quo as they've been allthis time.
But you and I have really seensome some major changes that we
have taken note of and andreally tried to kind of bring

(01:12:48):
attention to.
Yeah.
And and and query the thelisteners to say, what do you
like about this?
What do you like about that?
Do you think what these guys aredoing is a good idea?
Do you think that uh this needsto change or that doesn't?
I'm just I'm I've gotta say asyou and I are big fans of going

(01:13:13):
to contest competitions anddisplays for the social aspect,
and that that brings so muchmore to the hobby.
I've got to say that I am justreally, really encouraged by the
evolution that's taking place.

Mike (01:13:31):
And in evolution, you mean what?

I mean, contests used to be very generic, uh, all
the same, very cookie-cutter.
A IPMS 1, 2, 3 contest with ashow, with vendors, and maybe a
concession stand, if not that,then you had to go out to eat.

(01:13:54):
They were all the same.
And what we have seen,particularly over the past uh, I
would guess about three years.
I'm not sure where you would putit, but within the last three
years, we have seen thingsdevelop, like what's going on at
Wine Country or what's going onat Rocky Mountain, or we've gone

(01:14:19):
back to MMSI and gotten, eventhough that's been going on a
long time, you know, we'rere-exposing ourselves to that.
And then shows like NordicCon,who did the the thing where you
could display with thecompetition.

(01:14:40):
I mean, just all sorts of thesevariations.
Seminars are making a comeback.
As you know, I'm a huge fan ofseminars at shows.
And seminars seem to, for thelongest time, have been dead and
gone.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:59):
Yeah.

And now they're now they're coming back.
And so I'm I'm just reallythrilled with the developments
that that we see occurring.
I don't know about you, but II'm I'm really, really positive
about the trajectory that'staking place in in model what

(01:15:21):
for want of a better term,modeling get-togethers.

Mike (01:15:25):
Yeah, it's it's certainly becoming and and I I tease you a
lot to kind of change your thevernacular of of contests to
shows.
Shows.
Because the show is a lot moreopen to what that could mean.
It could be a contest or itcould not be a contest.
It could be a gold, silver,bronze, it could be an
exhibition style, whatever.

Right.
It could be a display and acont.

Mike (01:15:46):
And I don't know if it's age or just the the adapting to
the current landscape of allthis, but man, I'm I'm getting
really good at as far as the thecompetition part of this of just
not caring, man.

Caring.
You and me both.

Mike (01:16:05):
I'm I'm thinking I'm like a ninja of not caring.
I'm I I really is like,whatever, man.
What are we doing here?
Who's gonna be there?
What can we do while we'rethere?
Just so all this other stuff forme is just way more important.
And if there is a contest, andwhen I say contest, I you know,

(01:16:28):
I mean I guess I mean anything.
Anything, or maybe I mean one,two, three, or I don't I don't
know.
If if there's a competitivecomponent to this, for me, that
is the the least important partof the entire thing.

This is something that uh that okay, and my
question to you Do you thinkyou've just uh aged out of
competing?
That that it you know, you didit for any number of years, you
did very well when you did it.
Do you think that after acertain point you're just okay,

(01:17:05):
not particularly interested inthe quote unquote competition
portion of going to a show?

Mike (01:17:15):
It's an interesting question because uh if I think
about when it, you know, I I'vetalked about the the kind of my
dead time.
Yeah.
For a while there, I wasn'tdoing much.
It's kind of armchair modeling.

SPEAKER_04 (01:17:28):
Yep.

Mike (01:17:29):
After it was after the kind of shift in the the
basically it was the weatheringtechniques and the realism that
folks were bringing to models,versus the classic kind of
Chappain Francois Verlinin wayof doing stuff, which was what I
was that was a school I camefrom, if you want to put it that
way.
Right.

(01:17:50):
That had kind of run its course,and I would had done really
well, particularly at Amps, andI never won the whole enchilada.
I got close, but I'm not an ampsmaster.
Right.
When I was playing that game, Iwould have liked to have been
one.
Now I can say I I'd if ithappened, it happened.

(01:18:12):
I'd be glad it happened.
But is this something I'mactively pursuing at this point?
No, it's not.
Not even that even crossed mymind when I'm working on a
model.
Right.
So have I aged out?
I I I guess I went into thattime of not doing much, but
because I never won the won thewhole thing, I I can't really

(01:18:33):
say I aged out.
Because if if I if I aged out, Iwould think I'd done everything
I wanted to do, and then it thenit was just didn't the the
meaning was was a lot less atthe after that, right?
So I don't know if I've aged outof it.
I think in the time that thehobbies changed in front of me,
I've just taken a differentperspective on the whole thing,

(01:18:56):
and I've learned to enjoydifferent aspects of the hobby.

Well, for me, I I think when I was modeling and I
was younger, I do think I was atleast somewhat competitive to
the point that I built modelsfor contests.
I did too.
I don't ever build models forcontests.
Ever.

(01:19:19):
I mean, I have not in years.
And I just I by aging out, Imean I think at least some
people, and this is myexperience, so your mileage may
vary, and yes, I want to hearfrom all of you.
I just I don't care anymore.
It took, I mean, at some point,I just I I mean, I used to when

(01:19:44):
I went to a contest, I went andentered a model.
I wanted to win.
I didn't get upset if I didn't,you know, I wasn't gonna throw
my model across the room or dosomething stupid.
But but I cared about theresults.
Now I can honestly say I when Ido put a model down on the

(01:20:08):
table, I honestly do not care atall what the result is.
It doesn't matter one way oranother.
And, you know, usually if I'mputting a model on the table,
it's to support the local or tosupport the show that I'm
attending.
Because obviously, if everybodyadopted my attitude, there

(01:20:31):
wouldn't be any models on thetable.
And, you know, that that's a badthing.
So I I do believe in entering toput my, you know, to make a show
good and to have a lot ofmodels, because I come there to
see other people's models, soit's only fair that they come

(01:20:51):
and and see mine.
But for the actual competitiveportion, I've lost my taste for
it.

Mike (01:21:01):
Yeah, that that was good.

Yeah.

Mike (01:21:04):
I don't know what else to say.
Uh I'm a ninja at not caring.
Uh yeah.
But what I will say though isthe what you say about the
fairness of them being able tosee yours if you're gonna go see
theirs.
Man, does that not just playright into this exhibition
format kind of thing?

Yes, it yes, it does.
And again, Jim Bates, if you'relistening, you you've got, and I
told you so, you know, markerthat you get to play it
sometime, because 10 years agoJim and I were having these
discussions, and I was like,exhibition is stupid.
And now I am to the point whereI, well, I'm not all the way to

(01:21:49):
exhibition only, et cetera.
I am 75% of the way there with,yeah, every show should have at
least an exhibition portion,even if they have a contest as
well.

Mike (01:22:05):
Well, we'll see what happens.
I'd be interested in what otherfolks think of this.

No, I want to hear from from the listeners out
there, because again, these arethings there are thoughts, and I
want to hear what other peoplethink, and that's both agreeing
and disagreeing with what Mikeand I have have expressed as our
thoughts.

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Mike (01:23:08):
Where we've gone long before, folks, is going to be
made up by brevity in the benchtop halftime report.
Yes, it is.
Unless I ask Dave, what have younot done in the last since the
last episode?
That list might be fairly long.
Yes.
Hopefully, you've got somethingto tell the listeners that
you've actually accomplished.

I wish I did.
Honest to God, I wish.
Well, actually, that's not true.
I did get a little bit ofprogress on the F6F, but it was
very, very small.
And a little bit of progress onthe T33, but again, very small.
Just talking work-life balance.
The last two weeks has beenbecause of the fact that it's

(01:23:55):
May and people take vacations.
Our office has beenshort-staffed.
We've been one attorney down,sometimes two attorneys down for
several days in a row in arolling manner.
So we were constantly down.

(01:24:15):
And so work has been beennonstop from eight to five and
beyond.
I mean, I one of the nice thingsabout my current job is I rarely
end up doing weekends or workinglate, unlike you.
But the the past two weeks I'veencountered that stuff.

(01:24:38):
In addition, spring is here,pool is open.
That means that I haveobligations to get things all
ship shape, and those have totake priority, which means most
of my Saturdays and most of mySundays for the past two weeks

(01:24:58):
have been occupied with doingyard work all day.
And then you and I havecommiserated over text a couple
of times.
You know, you come in at the endof the day, and of course the
sun is up later, so you're outthere later doing the work.
You just have zero energy to hitthe bench.

(01:25:18):
So, other than starting to tearmy hobby room apart and doing
very, very little in the way ofadvancing any of my projects.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is a disappointingbench top halftime report.
I apologize to the listeners,and I will make an extra effort
to have a really good and fullbench top halftime report for

(01:25:42):
next time.

Mike (01:25:44):
Well, that's a twist screws, man.
Yeah.
I can't say I've done a lotmore.
I think the last episode I'dprimed the KV-85.
Yeah.
I think.
I think that's true.
Yes.
I have gone back and sanded allthe specks and fibers and just
goobers out of it.

SPEAKER_05 (01:26:02):
Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:26:03):
It's it's ready to to hit it again.
So it's been sitting underplastic sandwich bags now for a
couple three weeks, maybe.

Don't you have one of those cake things that
see I use one of those cakethings.
Those are great.

Mike (01:26:19):
Well, the the hull's like on a fixture I've got, so it's I
don't want to take it off.
So it's it's got a a gallonfreezer bag pulled over it, and
then so does so do all the roadwheels on skewers and the
turrets in the just display casehiding out in there.
So it's all good.
Nothing's getting dusty.
Yeah.
Everything's getting sandedsmooth and ready for a little

(01:26:41):
more primer.
And then, you know, uh, I'veI've not done anything other
than think about think about thethe process and the painting
process going forward is is sofar is not what I'm gonna do.
It's what uh books and magazinesand build guides I'm gonna go
look at for some inspiration andsome planning to figure out what
I'm what I'm gonna do on it.
So not a lot of progress.

(01:27:03):
So I'm not not getting much moredone than you, Dave.
Well, good.

That way you can't give me 40 kinds of heck.

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Mike, uh, the hobby is in full swing.
The new announcements.
Shinizuka just wrapped up thispast week.
We got to we got to see one ortwo things announced there.
So have you noticed anythingthat you're particularly
interested or particularlypuzzled by in the new

(01:28:34):
announcements?

Mike (01:28:36):
Yes.
I've got a few faves here, acouple.
Okay.
Anyway, and a and a yawn.
Where are we starting?
A fav?
Just start with a fave.
The modeling gods are shining onme, Dave.

Uh-huh.
Yeah, I know exactly what you'regoing to mention.

Mike (01:28:52):
Uh, there's a 3D creator under the brand name of
Ospenschutz.
I've actually conversed with himvia email.
Yes, I knew you had.
Anyway, Ospenschutz has releaseda couple of T26 turrets, a model
38, which is a version thatHobby Boss has done, but man,

(01:29:18):
this guy's design is way betterthan what's in that kit.
So it's going to come down tothe printer.
And just recently, he told me hehas finished up his Model 39
turret, which is the one I'mreally hot for.
So that model is all availableon Cults 3D now.
Uh-huh.
So I've also got that one in mycart.

(01:29:38):
I'm going to pay for that onetomorrow.
Ospen Schutze has told methey're also doing the sloped uh
armored hull package to convertthe hobby boss kit.
So I'm going to get my Model 39,Dave.

Well, and you you said you reached out and talked
to the guy.
Your interests and his interestsseem to overlap greatly in these
particular areas.
Did you actually have anyconversation as to why he's
interested in this?

Mike (01:30:10):
Uh a little bit, but uh not enough to talk about here
yet.
But I think maybe I'll talkabout that in the future.
I I'd I asked him to be a guest,but his spoken English is not
the point that he feelscomfortable coming on.
So he sent me some information.
Probably gonna give Aspen Schutza a little bit bigger of a
shout-out a little later.

(01:30:30):
But I'll tell you this the thisis pushing me toward buying a
new printer.

Yes, uh you you and I have discussed this, and
I'm all for it because there'ssome a couple of things that I
want printed that a new printerfrom you, you having a new
printer would enable me to get.

Mike (01:30:51):
You're welcome.

Thank you.

Mike (01:30:54):
What about you, man?

I'll buy you a bag of resin is it a bag of
resin?
What are they coming?

Mike (01:31:00):
Bottle.

Bottle.
I'll buy you a bottle of resin.
How about that?

Mike (01:31:04):
Sounds good.

You buy you buy the new printer, I'll buy a
bottle of resin.
Well, first one I want tomention is something that I
apparently missed.
A couple of years ago, Wingsy,the model company, I think out
of the Ukraine, announced a D3A2Val in both 72nd scale and 48

(01:31:28):
scale.
And then nothing happened as faras I knew.
As far as I knew, Wingsy neverreleased the 72nd scale D3A2
valve.
They've just recently releasedtheir 48 scale kit of it, and
Harvey Lowe has a beautifulbuild of it online, you can

(01:31:50):
find.
But apparently, according toScalemates, back in 2023, they
say Wingsy did release the theD3A2 and 72nd scale.
I don't think they did.
I don't think I ever saw it.
I only saw it announced.
But apparently Wingsy andClearProp, who are another

(01:32:15):
Ukrainian company, are somehowrelated or interconnected or
something, because this Wingsy72nd scale val is now being
released by Clearprop.
And I will get one.
Now, I really want the earlierversion of the Val, the D3A1,

(01:32:39):
but I am more than thrilled tohave the D3A2 as a good starting
point because we've needed a newset of uh Val kits for a number
of years.
So a a fave for me is the ClearProp by Way of Wingsy D3A2 Val

(01:32:59):
in 70 seconds scale.

Mike (01:33:01):
You're next.
Well, my next one, Dave, is from4Art.

Okay.

Mike (01:33:05):
Who uh probably their most notable release is has been
S-Boat.

unknown (01:33:11):
Yes.

Mike (01:33:12):
Their first release.
That was way back in when wewent to Las Vegas.
So that's that's not new.
Yes, it was.
That's not new at this point.

Although they did release several versions of it.

Mike (01:33:21):
They have, and they've got some other stuff out there
that's worth looking into.
They have announced a new tooledPanzer 3 House G in 35th scale.
And I don't know.
I'm I'm really looking forwardto seeing what this one's all
about because I I know thequality of those the kits I've
seen from 4AR.
And I'm really curious becausethis one's allegedly a new tool.

Now, is the the Panzer 3 Os G a neglected
version?

Mike (01:33:54):
I would say no.
No, there's a Dragon Kit of it,I'm sure.

Okay.
Well, but it you know, if it's areally old Dragon kit, you might
say, yeah, it's neglected ifnothing else has been, if no one
else has done one.

Mike (01:34:07):
But it's, you know, an another another company, you
know, outside of Dragon doingsome 35th scale stuff.
It's not a tiger tank.
So really curious how this one'sgonna be.
And if it's any good at all,I'll probably get this one.

Yeah, that's good news.
That's good news.
Stimulate the economy.

Mike (01:34:25):
What do you got next?

Next, our friends at Fine Molds announced at
Shinizuka, they had actuallyannounced it a couple of weeks
before, kind of as a preview.
They're completing their F4series by doing the F4G Wild
Weasel, which was the electronicwarfare version of the F-4.

(01:34:51):
And really to round out thewhole series, this one was the
one that you would expect.
And so they finally announcedit.
It makes a really nice pairingwith the F-104 that they that
they've just brought out withinthe last six months.
So Fine Molds, who in a lot ofways have been more known for

(01:35:18):
their their World War II stuffand before, are now really
seeming to lean into 72nd scale,more modern aircraft.
And I'm here for it becauseagain, they did an F-4 series,
we needed a new F-4 series.

(01:35:39):
They are doing an F-104 series,we need a new F-104 series.
I'm all for this, and I can'twait to see what they do next.

Mike (01:35:48):
Well, unfortunately, my next one's a yawn.
Okay.
And if this was English, itwould be Steve's, Steve's
models.
Okay.
But it's Austrian, so I thinkit's Stevis models.
I think it's a a surname.
It's not a first name.
Gotcha.
Two things.
They've released a pair of dogs.
Okay.
Oh no, I know what you'rethinking.

(01:36:10):
In the in the act of makinglittle dogs.
Yes.
So the the hobby sure neededthat.

Really?
You know.
You you you just kind of wonder,it's like that'll fill up this
blank space in your diorama.
And I guarantee you somebodywill think that's a good idea
and will put it on a dioramathat we will see in the next 12
months.

Mike (01:36:36):
Well, they've got uh two other releases that, man, uh
they are 16th scale figures.
One is a quote unquote TigerCommander, and the other is a
quote-unquote tiger tank loaderwith found gun, meaning he's
he's he's got a a small arm.

Right.

Mike (01:36:57):
These are these look like AI prompted figures.

SPEAKER_04 (01:37:01):
Yep.

Mike (01:37:02):
The uniform details are completely bogus for anybody
with even a cursory knowledge ofWorld War II German armored
crewman uniforms.
The small arm held by the loaderwith found gun is a AI-generated
approximation of an AK-47, notlike a Sturmgewehr 44, which is

(01:37:27):
at a at 100 yards, is a littlebit similar looking.

Right.

Mike (01:37:31):
And these guys are wearing web gear and and pouches and
equipment that is completely,completely made up by the AI.

And see, I think we're gonna see more and more of
this.
Okay, for all the, you know,we've spent the last month,
month and a half talking aboutthe ability to generate figures
and good figures with AIprompts, et cetera.
And I think this is the downsideof that, which is you're gonna

(01:38:01):
get a ton of slop.
People, people who are justmaking something quick and
dirty, particularly to sell, andthey don't really care.
And they or they don't know.
Or they don't know.

Mike (01:38:20):
I mean, it helps to have a little bit of foreknowledge
about what you're trying todesign before you try to go and
design it, right?

Right.
Or they think that, you know,they don't care and people don't
care.
That, you know, you can get awaywith AI slop and enough people
will will buy it to make itworth your while.

Mike (01:38:41):
It's almost almost free, right?

Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
While I'm really, reallyencouraged, enthused, and
thrilled about the positiveaspects of AI and 3D printing
and the two things combined,there is an obvious downside
with AI slob.
And just as the technologyexpands, we're going to see more

(01:39:09):
and more of that.
And you're just gonna have to bemore and more discerning as a
consumer.

Mike (01:39:17):
Uh I'd say at some point we'll see less and less of it,
which that gets into some scarystuff, so we won't talk about
that on a modeling podcast.
But um, at some point it'll knowmore than we know.
That's that.
You got any more?

I got I've got one more, and it's uh a Fave
manufacturer called Ames AI-M-S.
It's a biz small cottagebusiness run by Anglican
minister, used to be out ofEngland, but now he's in Central
Europe.
And he does some amazing hisspecialty is JU88s and their

(01:39:54):
variants, but he has a bunch ofa bunch of World War II
German-related stuff.
And he has just come out with adecal sheet for the JU88 or JU
388 L1, the late war JU88, JU388 that was manufactured right

(01:40:20):
as the Germans didn't haveenough fuel for their bombers.
So a lot of the JU 388s gotbuilt and then part.
And so there's some because ofthe late war manufacture, there
are really some visuallyinteresting color schemes and
variations because these thingswere manufactured from parts

(01:40:44):
made in different places.
But he's got a decal sheet forthe JU388 L1 version.
And again, I can highlyrecommend any of Ames' products.
A really, it's the theantithesis of what we were just
talking about.
He is a cottage manufacturer whocares deeply about accuracy and

(01:41:11):
quality.
So I highly recommend his stuff.

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Well, Mike, uh, we're almost to the end.
How's your modeling fluid?

Mike (01:41:46):
Uh this was given to me as a birthday gift from my
mother-in-law.

Okay.

Mike (01:41:51):
Who's very generous, never giving me any grief about
anything for the most part.
That said, I think marketingdepartments see her coming.
Let's just say it that way.
Fraser and Thompson NorthAmerican whiskey is a blend,
allegedly out of Bardstown,Kentucky.

(01:42:14):
Well, it is.
It's from Bargetstown, but 92%Canadian whiskey.
Oh, wow.
Eight per 8% bourbon.

Oh, wow.

Mike (01:42:23):
And if folks go way back to the first season of Plastic
Model Mojo, you can hear mycomments about Canadian whiskey.
I hear you.
Not going to repeat them here,but I'm not sure they used the
good Canadian whiskey when theymade this.
It's a little ironic.
I know why she bought this.
It's because it has a hang tagon the neck that has Michael

(01:42:44):
Bublet on it.
Okay.
So if Michael Bublet sponsorsthis, it must be good.
Yeah, must be.
He's Michael Bublet.
Exactly.
The reverse of the hang tag saysit's going to be strange liking
whiskey.
And I would say, yeah,especially after you drank this
one.
That is rich.
I can't believe it.

(01:43:05):
This tastes like a bad rum.
It is a very sweet, butteryflavor to it.

Uh-huh.

Mike (01:43:13):
My pipes need a much-needed cleaning in the
kitchen.
And I think that's where this isgoing.

Oh my.
This is poor.

Mike (01:43:21):
This is drain pour.
And in what are we, in ourseventh year?
Yep.
Six and a half years of plasticmodel mojo.
This, man, I don't know.
This might be the worst oneever.

Oh, wow.

Mike (01:43:37):
This this might be screwball.

Oh, I was gonna say you need to save it and have
a taste off with screwball.

Mike (01:43:44):
No, it's going away, man.
This is uh you there's nothingyou could not make a drink that
you would make with bourbon andput this in it and have it taste
right.

Right.

Mike (01:43:55):
Yeah.
It's gonna be strange likingwhiskey.

Wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't make a good highball.

Mike (01:44:01):
If you were saying, I want a rum and coke and you grab this
instead of the Captain Morgan's,yeah, it might be okay, but no,
it's a rum and coke, so whocares?
Right.
Not recommended.
You're getting a thumbs down onthis one, folks.
Fraser and Thompson, NorthAmerican whiskey.

Well, sadly, I lived vicariously through you
the one time you had a thumbsdown.

Mike (01:44:26):
Um you still you still come out a winner.

That's true.
Because I didn't have to.

Mike (01:44:31):
Because once you're on the back on the wagon, man, you
don't have to foot with it.

Yeah, I don't have to try that.
I will tell you my orange juicewas excellent and got me through
the episode, and now I'm full ofvitamin C and Vim and vigor and
ready to go out and model.
All right, man.
All right.

(01:44:55):
So uh we really are at the endof the episode.
Do you have any shout outs?
I've got two.

Mike (01:45:01):
Okay, I've got one.
Well, one is the cursory thankyou to all the folks who've
contributed to Plastic ModelMojo through their generosity.
We appreciate it.
It's been kind of growinglately, and it's gonna help us
keep talking about his phasetwo.
I'm not gonna dwell on it muchmore, but uh it's it's really
gonna come at some point thissummer, hopefully.
And everybody's making that alot easier for us.

(01:45:24):
All those avenues can be foundat www.plasticmodelmojo.com or
in the show notes of each andevery episode.
Folks, it's really humbling andwe really appreciate it.
And we thank everyone who's beenuh giving us some support.

I would like to thank the fine people at Baptist
East Hospital and uh my myphysician, Dr.
Marques, who I got to see today.
Obviously going throughsomething unexpected and
certainly unwelcome.
It's really nice to have a groupof professionals who, from the

(01:46:00):
moment you start dealing withthem, you feel confident that
they know what they're doing.
So shout out to the folks atBaptist East and to Dr.
Marquez.
And hopefully things will be100% back to normal very soon.

Mike (01:46:17):
I hope so, man.

You and me both.

Mike (01:46:20):
Yeah, cut this crap out.

Yep.

Mike (01:46:25):
Well, Dave, my last shout out is to uh not a new
acquaintance, but a newlistener, Adam Mann, who's like
the third uh musketeer for uhEvan McCallum and Michael Reese.
Yep.
I forward you that email.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:46:42):
And Adam, if you're listening, I really appreciate
it.
And I I sent you a personalemail back to express uh why and
just really appreciate it, man.
Thanks a lot.
And hopefully we can keep youengaged and keep you listening
because we enjoyed meeting youin uh Madison and hopefully
we'll see you again, man.
Yep.
Hopefully you make it to FortWayne.

(01:47:02):
Anything else, Dave?
Nope, that's it, Mike.
I think we need to get out ofhere.
I think we do too, man.
I gotta get to bed.
You know, I know you need yourrest.
Yep.
Well, as we always say, so manykids.
So little time, Dave.
Take it easy, man.
Take it easy.

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