What If The Golden Age Of Modeling Makes You Freeze: Episode 161

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 skillmodeling as well as the news and
events around the hobby.
Let's join Mike in KentuckyDave as they strive to be
informative, entertaining, andhelp you to keep your modeling
module alive.

Mike (00:43):
All right, Kentucky Dave, it's episode 161.
It is indeed.
How are you doing tonight?

Kentucky Dave (00:51):
I'm doing good, man.
You know, spring has sprung.
You're coming off a great modeltrip.
Got great model trips ahead.
It's just spring is the besttime of the year.

Mike (01:05):
It's a season of renewal.
It is.
And uh hopefully there's somerenewal in your model sphere.
So what's up in the old modelsphere, Dave?

Well, the model sphere is good.
I've got March with somedoldrums.
I wasn't getting anything done.
I went through a dry spell thatwas at least in part a lack of
mojo.
But there's nothing to get yourmojo back, like going to a
model contest, hanging out withfriends for a couple of days,

(01:35):
going to vendors, going to hobbyshops.
And I came home fromHeritageCon just fired up, man.
Blood, blood pumping, ready togo.
And and this past weekend gotmodeling done.
So my model sphere is high.
How about yours?

Mike (01:52):
It is as well.
And we were talking therebefore I started.
There was something I meant toput in my model sphere that I
forgot, and I just rememberedit.
So we're going to talk aboutthat for a split second.
It's been busy since we gotback, man.
I've been busy.
Well, you've been launchingstuff into space.
You know, what the heck?
Well, I guess I had it's tryingto get my head around this

(02:14):
week, the fact that something Iactually fabricated with my own
hands just went around theflipping moon.

There are not a whole lot of people on this
planet that can say that.

Mike (02:22):
Yeah, it's a small fraternity.
Add them all up.
There's probably a lot ofpeople, but by the compared to
everybody else in the world,probably not.
You're right.
Small fraternity.
But hopefully I get some ofthose parts when they come back,
which is going to be in a fewdays.
So uh we're preparing for thereturn of Artemis and uh getting
our getting our hardware back.
So it's gonna be cool, man.

Yeah.

Mike (02:42):
In addition to that, in the model sphere, this is a PSA
going out to all the otherpodcasts, everybody with a
YouTube channel or any kind ofconcrete content creator on the
interwebs.
Do not put AI in the title ofanything you publish to the
internet.

Why?
Why do you say that?
I agree.

Mike (03:04):
Because every Tom Dick and Harry who's trying to get in on
this current Cash Cal AI,either through some corporate
training or wanting to beinterviewed for the corporate
training that they will provideor how to do workflows with AI
in your industry or whatever,has sent me an email request to

(03:25):
be on this podcast.
And the irony is all theirfreaking form letters are AI
generated.

You know, and that's something you and I have
commented about offline.
It is amazing that you canstill tell very quickly about
looking at content anddetermining whether it's a
picture or text or whatever, andbeing able to determine very
quickly whether it's been donewith AI or not.

Mike (03:53):
And they send you this formula like they listen to the
podcast and you tell theyhaven't.
Or when your first name isKentucky.

Kentucky, yeah.
That's right.
Well, I'm sure that it'slistened.
The AI has listened to thepodcast or at least read the
transcript.
It probably has, Kentucky.

Mike (04:12):
After that, it's I'm with you, man.
The mojo's been good after ourHamilton trip to HeritageCon.
I think you know the show wasgreat.
It always is, seeing all thefolks up there we know.
And I forget how many we knowup there.
It's kind of interesting giventhe population disparity between
Canada and the United States,you know, not to disparage them.

(04:34):
But, you know, there's thepopulation's smaller in Canada,
even though it's a huge, hugeplace, right?
Um, the number of folks whocame by the table during the
short duration of that show isjust yes, it's wild.

It it's humbling, and I really appreciate
everybody who stopped by thetable and and that was I mean, I
wasn't turning around withouttalking to somebody who either
I'd met previously who was alistener, who I'd never met
before, recognized me from thesound of the voice, although I
was wearing the black and whitecheck shirt, so it wasn't like I

(05:10):
was hard to pick out.
But yeah, I'm I'm like you.
I was amazed at the number ofpeople that we interacted with
at the show due to the podcast.

Mike (05:23):
Another thing that was interesting and a little
disappointing, honestly, wasthat at least from the
customer-facing side of things,we were the only pod represented
there from a customer-facingstandpoint.
Um you know, we saw Donati fromThe Insanity and and we saw uh
Jeff Highland from Scale ModelPodcast, but uh they were there
as kind of uh regularpedestrians on the floor.

So Well, and Stu, we we understand why Stu wasn't
there.
I mean We do, we do, yeah.
And we used to always have, youknow, f every time we've gone
to Hamilton, we've had a tableright next to to Stu and his
crew.

Mike (06:00):
Stu or whoever, and the geeks are usually there.
Or I I won't say usually,they've been there in the past.
It was uh, you know, we werethe only ones there in that
capacity, but uh uh the otherswere represented a little bit on
the show floor.
But uh, you know, I appreciatea little convo we had with Jeff
Hyland there uh um regarding Stuand uh his situation and uh was

(06:21):
glad to hear those updates.

Our thoughts go out to Stu and his wife.

Mike (06:24):
Well, other than that, Hamilton part of it, not that's
like a lot of it, but you know,the Hamilton Joe Dojo was a lot
of fun this year, man.
It was, it was.
We were a little unsure becauseour our travel party has grown
to the point where we it's justgetting virtually impossible to
get a single place for that manypeople and not have to rent it

(06:46):
all week.
And the the checkout day thatwe always want is is not
congruent to the normal rentcycle for one of those places,
so that makes it hard.
And then this time, even thoughit was like a stinking
three-bedroom, almost afull-blown house basement
Airbnb, it was owner-occupiedupstairs, so we kind of had to

(07:08):
keep it inbounds, but oh, Ithink we did.

We got a the the owner gave us a good review, so
that'll that'll help us rent inthe future.

Mike (07:19):
Yeah, so uh well, you know, it worked out.

It did.
It did.

Mike (07:23):
But we if it's somebody else next time, we need to be
mindful and and I don't know.
At some point we might justneed to tell them what's going
on.
Uh but uh but at the dojo, thethe best part, man, I don't
think we've we've done this in along time, at least outside of
our our own club, the MMCL outof Louisville.
You and I got into a bunch ofstorytelling about all the crap

(07:50):
that's gone on in our club forthe last pushing for me 30 plus
years.
Man, some of those stories arehilarious.
I just I really enjoyed that.
And I think our guests enjoyedsome of those stories.
I think they do.
Uh we we won't get into themhere because nobody wants to
hear the inside story stuff.
But uh really had a good timeat Hambledon.
So, folks, uh, if you're upthat way, you can make it next

(08:14):
year.
You want to check that one out.
So that's my dojo, man.
Just lots of stuff going on.

Weeding through AI emails.
You know what you need to do?
You need to have your you needto have an AI bot set up to go
through your AI emails.
It's called fighting fire withfire.

Mike (08:31):
Or I could troll them back, that'd be good.

So, Mike, we're recording again.
This is a regular episode, sothat means it's modeling fluid
time.
What do you got?

Mike (08:41):
Well, we polished off the weller at the dojo in Hamilton
to everybody's satisfaction, Ithink.

Yes.
The weller was unsurprisinglyvery popular.

Mike (08:54):
So none of that.
And we had enough peopleimbibing that uh nobody got
nobody crossed the line.
Let's just say that.

Yep.

Mike (09:01):
So no weller tonight.
I won't say I'm too fisting,but I started with something
that I'm not quite done with,and I'm on to something else
that I kind of just started.
So the one I just started, I'mnot gonna talk about.
The other one is my big pintcan of Molson Canadian.

Oh, okay.

Mike (09:15):
So that's what I got.
So a little vibe on that, andwe'll get to that at the end to
talk about the uh the origins ofthat.
But uh, what about you, man?
What do you got?

Well, I have Flying Monkey Craft Brewery
Juicy A double S IPA.
Was brought to us by listenersSteve Johnson from Fuzzy's
Ghosts Models on Facebook, andhe brought you and my I each

(09:45):
three three beers.
Yep.
And this is the first one I'veopened, so we'll see how it
goes.

Mike (09:53):
I got some sitting around too in the fridge, sitting on
them.
Yep, yep.

Well, how how's the first taste?
Is it good?
That's good.
Yeah, it's IPA, but it's notoffensive IPA, and it has some
citrus spot to it, so yeah,that's gonna be real drinkable.
That'll get me through theepisode.

Mike (10:15):
Well, that's good because even though we're out of town
for a while, listener maildidn't stop.
Good.
So we got a few.

Yeah.

Mike (10:22):
We got some we got some repeat offenders, but they've
they've come back with some goodquestions, man.
There's man, there's a coupleof come to Jesus ones in here.
Uh all right.
This first was not for usanyway.
It might be for uh the sender.
Frank Blanton, our friend outof Richmond, Virginia.

Yeah.

Mike (10:38):
With regards to CA glues, he seems to be having an
allergic reaction shortly afterusing them.
And uh typically manifestsitself in the form of block
sinuses and that old miserablefeeling like you've had a head
cold, and this can last two tothree days for him.
And he's wanted to know if anyother modelers have had a
similar reaction.
And a follow-on, is there anyalternatives other than CA and

(11:02):
soldering?
He avoids PA whenever possible,but as he says we know and we
do, it's not always an option.

So I've never experienced it, but it doesn't
surprise me.

Mike (11:12):
That stuff Yeah, you you can have sensitivities to
things.
Right.
You can develop you can developsensitivities over time, too.
That's another thing.

Yep.

Mike (11:21):
Have you ever had any hazmat training?

That's true.
Uh the the one thing that Iwould think of off the top of my
head to try out would be areally good filter mask with
cartridges.
You know, not not just like apaper mask or or something like
that, but an actual respiratortype mask with the separate cart
cartridges.

(11:44):
Because you would think that italmost has to be, given his
symptoms, the inhaled offoff-gases of the fumes or
whatever.

Mike (11:55):
Right.
Yeah.
So I looked into it a littlebit.
Probably the the largestreaction folks have to this is
like a contact dermatitis.

Yes.

Mike (12:04):
Which makes sense.
It's just a skin irritant.
But this is real interesting.
And I'm not a doctor, and Idon't play one on TV, and I
don't play one on a podcast.
But for my general allergies,these steroidal-based uh
anti-inflammatories that blockhistamine reactions in your
sinus is like the brand name'sFlonase.

Yeah.

Mike (12:24):
But it's over the counter now, and you can go to a
supermarket and get their brand,same stuff.
Uh I don't know if you're usingthose, Frank, but for me, they
they are a game changer forgeneral seasonal allergies,
particularly in the spring rightnow and fall when the the leaf
dust and dust mold gets kickedup.
I don't know if it'd work forthis or not, or if you've
already tried it, but uh if not,and you don't want to wear a

(12:46):
big clunky respirator whileyou're using CA, ask your
doctor, man.
I I don't know.
Uh I've never heard of this.
I'd I'd be curious if anyoneelse out there in the model
sphere is having this kind of uhhead sinus reaction to uh
cyanoacrylated adhesives.
That's a really unfortunate butinteresting thing.
Yep.
If with with no better otherbetter way to say it.

(13:08):
As far as alternatives go to CAand soldering, I guess PE to
PE, I think you're kind ofstuck.
Yeah.
PE to the model, there's uhhard tack kind of uh PVA glues
like Gator Grip and Eileen'scraft glue that are gonna
probably be okay.
Uh I don't know that there'sgonna be much else.

And there's sometimes that super glue is the
only thing that will that thatgives you that combination of
hard, fast attachment, you know,and and near near quick dry,
near immediate quick dry.

Mike (13:47):
That's right.
So that's unfortunate, man,because uh, you know, he's a big
armor guy, and a lot of hisarmor kits now come with quite a
bit sometimes.

Well, play around with the respirator mask, play
around with the flow naze.
Flow nays and get back to us.
And anybody else who's had thatreaction, please reach out and
let us know, because I suspectit can't just be one person.

Mike (14:13):
I I just had another idea.
Maybe you port your PE workover to your your spray booth.

Oh, that's a good idea.

Mike (14:21):
And use it like a chemical fume hood.

That is an excellent idea.

Mike (14:26):
And I would even pull the filter if you can easily to get
the get the uh air exchange rateup higher.
Yeah.
And give that a shot.
That'd be one thing you couldtry.

No, that's a great uh that's a great idea.

Mike (14:37):
I hope it works out because uh like I like we've
just said, I don't I don't knowthere's many other options
between CA and soldering for forphotos.
Yeah for for for brass tobrass.
Yeah.
Particularly.
Yeah.
Kind of stuck there.
Well, one of Frank's friendshas written in.
All right.
Now he used to be in Richmond,Virginia.
Now he's in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania.

(14:57):
Wait a minute.

I refuse to believe Frank has French.

Mike (15:01):
Well, we know he's got at least one Ben Pluth.
I know.

I'm kidding.

Mike (15:05):
If if Ben Pluth's your friend, you can't be too bad a
guy.

No, that's right.
I'm having fun.
Go ahead.

Mike (15:13):
Wayne Stopka from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
He knew Frank because he usedto be in Richmond.
IPMS Richmond about 30 yearsago.
He's been out of the hobbyabout 30 years and jumped
headfirst back into it.
Yay.
Which is great.
Now, Wayne is the person whosubmitted the topic for our main

(15:33):
feature tonight.

Okay.

Mike (15:36):
So I just want to acknowledge Wayne being one of
Frank's old friends.
And we'll get to more of whatWayne had to say when we get to
our special segment.
You got it.
Well, folks maybe remember lastepisode, David Enders had
written in about other modelerswho had done this AI to figure
3D print thing.

Yeah.

Mike (15:54):
And he mentioned some threads on like large scale
planes.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (15:59):
And I had asked him if he wouldn't mind to aggregate those
links to the exact threadswithin that forum because that
would be a lot easier for peopleto find.
And he's actually done that atlarge-scale planes and large
scale modeler, both thoseforums.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (16:14):
And I'm going to make sure these get into the show notes.
So if folks want to continuedown that path that we started
with Jake McKee in that episodeabout uh AI and its use in uh
figure generation, uh checkthese, check these threads out
because these are all likelarge-scale aircraft and he's
he's making uh figures forthese.
So interesting stuff.
Well, on the theme of 3Dprinting, John McAvoy is written

(16:37):
in again.
You hear a lot from John.
But uh he's had some experiencewith 3D printed tracks.
He's been using some of theones that Jeff Hearn used to do.
I think these are probablysquadron products now.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (16:49):
If I'm not mistaken.
Yeah.
I think they are.
And a tow cable that he did inone piece from his own design
that's got everything, includingthe the eye fittings to to and
the hold down bracket for the tothe hole of the tank.
So he's done that.
And he's done a gun barrel fora US four and a half inch
howitzer to convert the uh 155mmBronco kit to uh a four and a

(17:12):
half inch gun.
I I guess this distills down tosaying he he he chose these
methods because they were themost effective method to get the
end product he wanted, but hethinks styrene will always be
king uh for reasons of massproduction, assembly, and
fabrication, resin printing andcat or just other hammers in the
toolbox.
That's a good take.

Yeah, I think that's generally true.
But I would not be surprised tosee kits evolve to having only
the largest parts in styrene andmany of the things that we get
as small parts on sprues instyrene in future getting those
as 3D parts.

Mike (17:54):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I I could I don't know.
I'm not gonna say that's notwhat may happen, but the
converse of that might also betrue because those those large
plastic parts are the ones thatare most expensive to tool
because True enough.
The uh the the tool base isbigger and the machine times
more.
So we could we could see thedetail parts being injection

(18:15):
molded and and and the and thebig clunky parts being the 3D
print parts.
Could be.
I don't know.
Um I think you're probablyright and I'm probably wrong,
but uh I can my engineering mindsays the uh converse of what
you said might also be uh aplausible situation.

We live in interesting times, man.
I mean, the the changes we'veseen in the last five years are
amazing, and I'm betting thenext five years are gonna make
the last five years look like itwas moving in slow motion.

Mike (18:45):
You're probably right, my friend.
Oh, you're gonna like this one,Dave.
Okay.
Leo Posner from the city ofBrotherly Love, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
Yep.
He's a one to 144th scalecommercial airline modeler.

Okay.

Mike (18:59):
And a while back he picked up Mini Craft's Boeing 757-200
in the American Airlines Retrolivery.

Mm-hmm.

Mike (19:07):
And not too long ago, well, a long time after
purchase, but not too long agobefore the email, he finally
opened it up uh to start thebuild and quickly realized the
kit had seen better days.

Uh-oh.

Mike (19:20):
Parts off the sprue.
That's common.

Yeah.

Mike (19:23):
Uh no instructions.
That sucks, but hopefullythey're on scale mates.
Yeah.
Worst of all, the decals weremissing.

Well, there are plenty of alternative decals out
there.

Mike (19:33):
Well, he didn't want alternative decals.
He wanted the American Airlinesretro scheme for the 757-200.
I get it.
So if there's a retro scheme ona 737, you're screwed because
the stripes aren't going to belong enough among other things.
But he uh searched around withsome decal printers and no luck
there, no luck getting areplacement set printed.

(19:55):
So reluctantly he posted to theairliner modeling forum on
Facebook and asked if anyonemight have these decals.
And lo and behold, severalpeople, not just one, but
several people, he says, repliedsaying they had the sheet and
would send it to him.
He offered to pay for it, butnobody would have any of that.
And five days later, he's gotdecals in his mailbox so he can

(20:16):
get started on his 757 in hisRetro American livery.

This does not surprise me for a number of
reasons.
A, same things happened to menumerous times.
Modelers are great people, andthey really are willing to give
you the shirt off their back.
And this is common.
In fact, you and I'veexperienced a version of this
with the Pod Father recently,where you and I both have some

(20:44):
decals that he's he's covetousof.
So we are going to, when hecomes to my house this year,
supply him with those sheets.
Yes, it was.

Mike (20:59):
Well, I I guess the obvious lesson here is that
something we've always said thathe probably long suspected, but
had never seen it play out inhis favor that the community is
great.

Yep.

Mike (21:11):
And maybe next time don't be so reluctant to post in one
of those forums because I canunderstand you might feel like a
mooch or something if you'redoing that all the time.
Right.
You know, just trying to getfree stuff or whatever.
I don't know.
But I don't think this is thecase.
And I think uh I know, I knowI've done this before.
Hey, has anybody got in sure,I'm glad to pay for it like

(21:31):
anybody else.

But and my experience has been that
everybody declines to acceptsomething for it.
And most of the time.
What I do, and I do this a lotwhere I'm not put out if they if
they don't do that.

Mike (21:46):
No, neither are they.
If they want something tocompensation, that's fine,
because maybe they're cabbaginga kit to give me something.

Exactly.
But I will tell you what I tellevery time I've done this, I've
been on the supplying end ofthis.
And every time I've done this,what I've told the person I've
sent it to is pay it forward.
Just sometime some modeler'sgonna need something that you've

(22:11):
got and you can afford to giveup.
Just do that.
And that's all all I want tosee happen.
And like I said, modelers aregreat guys.
They really are.
Great guys and gals.
I'm sorry, ladies.

Mike (22:26):
Next, Dave, is Roderick Kunz.
Mm-hmm.
And he sent me an eB eBay link.
He said, Mike, just saw thisand I wanted to share the link
with you.
We saw these guys somewhere.
Nautilus models.
Uh-huh.
Where do we see them?
It wasn't Las Vegas.
It was the one after that.
Omaha.
Omaha, maybe.
Maybe it was Vegas.

(22:47):
I can't remember at this point.
We're getting old.
Getting a backlog of nationalsmyself at this point.
Oh, you poor baby.
48 scale Nautilus Models, U.S.
Navy P6 catapult display base.
Now, this is the turntable andthe the firing section of the
catapult only.
I I remember this, and Iremember it's in other scales

(23:09):
too, because 48th is not goingto interest me.

Right.

Mike (23:12):
Um, just it's just not it's not the scale I'm doing
this stuff in.
And I just wondered if they'reever gonna do the whole thing in
48th scale.

That's a good question.
But then again, with 3Dprinting, you could or 70 second
scale.
You could extend it outyourself.
I could.

Mike (23:28):
I mean, especially giving- or somebody else could do all
the hard work and I could justbuy it from them.

All right.
Now that's good.
I like that.

Mike (23:39):
Which sometimes is the better way.

Yes, it is.
Because they're usually betterthan me at it.

Mike (23:45):
Brandon J has been trying to reach out to IPMS Reno High
Rollers a few times now, andhe's getting no response.
He knows you have saidsomething about having
connections with IPMS.
Well, that's an understatement.

Well, maybe yes, maybe no.
If you send me the info, I'llflip an e board.
Yeah, I know.
If you send me the info, I'llget him hooked up with the Reno
guys.

Mike (24:13):
Well, let's let's carry on here a little bit.
All right.
Uh he won't know if it's badetiquette just to show up at a
meeting uninvited.
Gosh no.
And I'm and I'm gonna say goshno, because this this IPMS
chapter, Reno, if you'relistening, you've put this stuff
out on the website saying whenyour meeting is, what night and
where to go.
So that means anybody can showup.
And and that's how I'm gonnalet uh Brandon know that no,

(24:36):
it's not bad etiquette.
They want you to come, or we'regonna put that out on the
interwebs to uh invite anybody.

Yeah.
And what what you'll find is ifyou show up and this is your
first time and nobody knows you,you will get you, you will
usually find yourself with anembarrassed amount of attention
because everybody wants thesethese guys and ladies have all

(25:01):
been in the club for years.
They all know each other.
The chance to talk to somebodynew, that's great.
And so usually the new guy isis the center of attention.

Mike (25:17):
So if you're looking for a response just to get an invite,
I'd say stop waiting.

Yeah, no, just go.

Mike (25:22):
And just and and just show up.
The information is on their ontheir website.
But here's one that needs to befixed tomorrow, Dave.
Okay.
IPMS Reno High Rollers is notlisted in the IPMS chapter
directory on the Flippin'national website.

Oh, which means, well, one of two things has
happened.
I'll check and figure it out.
All right.
All right.
No, we'll get it straightenedout.
Up next, Steve Rui.
Uh, do we know this guy?

Mike (25:53):
Yes, Steve was with our travel party for Heritage Con.
And he's stoked, man.
Yes.
He's he enjoyed our timetogether.
And in fact, he's uh now he'llbe he's confirmed he'll be
attending the nationalconvention in Fort Wayne.
Good.
And Chris Wallace, modelairplane maker, might just be
his roommate for the show.
So that's that's great.

Yes.
First of all, you can't make abetter friend than Chris
Wallace.
Number two, to show you howdedicated Steve Ruey is, Steve's
a Delta pilot.
Steve lives in Minneapolis.
Steve could have simplydeadheaded to Hamilton or to
Detroit in Madison.

Mike (26:34):
That would have been easy.

Okay.
He could have done either ofthat.
Instead, he rode in a car forLord knows two days with Mark
Copeland and Steve Houstad,rather than taking the easy way
to get to Detroit or toHamilton.

Mike (26:50):
Well, we'll see what he does for Fort Wayne.
I'll assume he'll do the exactsame thing.
It's not nearly as far asHamilton.
I assume he will too.
Well, Steve, that's great newsand look forward to it.

Yes.

Mike (27:02):
Well, from uh the Pacific Northwest, friend of Jim Bates,
friend of us, friend of theshow, Mark DeRamos.
Listening to and reading aboutDave's time tracking.
He wants to know if that's alawyer thing.
He's wondering.

It is a lawyer thing, but I'm doing it because
I'm trying to find anything tohelp drive myself to the bench.

Mike (27:26):
He says not so much in 2025, but in our earlier years,
we were both saying the podcastwas a way of holding ourselves
accountable for getting thingsdone at the bench.
Yep.
Dave was also very concernedabout his productivity when he
did get to the bench.
Yep.
Well, here's the come to Jesus.
Yep.
How's that worked out for you?
Did you discover, did youdiscover any tricks or tips for

(27:49):
keeping up with your projects?

I I will tell you that as a lawyer, the the the
law firm that I work at now, Idon't have to track my time.
But most lawyers and most lawpractices, you bill by the
hours.
So you have to track everyminute of the day what you're

(28:11):
working on for what client andwhat project.
And lawyers hate this.
And lawyers are bad at it.

Mike (28:20):
Yeah, 35 minutes, morning constitutional.

Usually that's some non-billable item.
Usually I say.
You never know.
If you're reading a brief, youmight get away with it.
In any event, so lawyers hatedoing it.
And Lord knows when I was at afirm where I had to do it, I
hated it and was not very goodat it, just like most lawyers.
I will tell you that.

Mike (28:45):
Oh, in your in your early days, not now.

Yeah, not now.
But I will tell you thattracking the time really has a,
it's been motivational.
Because when there's a like Ihad a two-week gap in the end of
March.
I mean, I had two weeks where Ididn't get to the bench and
model a single minute.
And I'm gonna start callingyou, man, like at nine o'clock.

(29:10):
Yes, I don't need youinterrupting me.
But to look back at the timeand to track the time when you
actually do the work, for somereason, I do find that that is
helping keep me both accountableand motivated so that I can

(29:31):
see, hey, maybe you're slackingoff, maybe you haven't been, you
haven't gotten any time in inthe last three or four days.
Why is that?
Is it legitimate reasons, orare you just procrastinating,
which is the other thing thelawyers do a whole lot of?
So to answer Mr.
DeRamus's question, the timetracking is actually helping me.

(29:55):
And I would not necessarilyhave thought that when I started
doing it.

Mike (30:00):
And then did we discover any tricks or tips for keeping
up with your projects?
I'm not sure the context ofthat question.
Uh I I will say this.
I've started writing down paintformulations, and the last
thing I did on my projects, notall the time, but a lot more
frequently than I used to.

(30:20):
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
And you know, and you'rebuilding one right now, you've
pulled off the shelf of Doom.
Right.
And you you mentioned it in thelast couple episodes about
okay, what the heck was I doingwhen I put this thing on the
shelf?

That's right.

Mike (30:33):
And uh, does that finish?
I might have thought that wasfinished four years ago, but
man, it doesn't look finishednow that I've gotten better or
whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
Just stuff like that.
So I guess that's a a tip forkeeping up with my project.

And let me give you another tip.
You can buy on Amazon.
You know what a reporterreporter's notebook is.
They're really cheap littleflip notebooks that you, you
know, in the old movies, you'llsee a reporter pull out spiral
bound at the top.
It's real made of cheap paper,cheap everything.

(31:08):
But they sell them in likepacks of 20 on Amazon.
And if you put on the front ofone of those notebooks, the kit
you're working on, and use thatto make notes about where you
are, or don't forget to do this,or don't forget to do this
before this, as opposed tomaking notes on instruction

(31:31):
sheets, which I know a fairnumber of people do.
But I found these littlereporter notebooks, and then you
can just throw it in the boxwith the kit parts.
And so if it does move to theback burner or God forbid, the
shelf of doom, when you pull itback off, when, not if, you pull

(31:53):
it back off, you've got a handyreference.
The more notes you've made, thebetter.
Pack of 20, huh?
Yeah, pack of I bought a packof 20 on Amazon for I'll I'll
send you the link.
You can put it in the shownotes.

Mike (32:06):
Dude, I could throw 10 of them away and still be set for
life.

Yeah, well, that's okay.
That's that's a you thing.
We need to although again, no,it's not.
You you it's an us thing.
Well, yeah.
But you finished a kit thisyear.
You're you're one and oh.

Mike (32:24):
I am barking at the the back gate for number two.

Yeah, that's right.

Mike (32:29):
And you're close too.
We'll talk about that later.

Yes, that's right.

Mike (32:32):
Well, he closes.
Would you recommend a podcast,a vlog, or blog as a means of
keeping yourself accountable?
A podcast, no.
Blog, definitely, definitelynot, because that's more work
than a podcast.
A blog where it's allmanuscript and pictures, maybe.

Yeah.
I think I think a blog is, infact, that's one of the things
that Inch got into the blog forwas an ability to track his
previous builds.
Now he's prolific and all, soyou know, he's producing so much
that he may forget what he didtwo years ago on that be nice,

(33:12):
on that KI 43 group build.
And the blog is a way for himto memorialize that so he can go
back and look at.
So, yes, I think a blog iswonderful.
They're just set yourself up asimple WordPress blog, free to
do, and it'll help you keeptrack of what you've done and

(33:34):
you what you've done, and youmay find it motivating for what
you're what you want to do.

Mike (33:40):
Well, Dave, that is it for the email side of things.
Okay.
I I I've seen some interestingDMs come across.
Yes, there have been a few.
One I think I even flagged you.
Hey, you want to talk aboutthat one for sure.

So I hope I did remember what that was.
I don't know.
Maybe I did, maybe I didn't.
You're gonna have to help mewith that.
Well, okay.
First things want to mention isyou and I got a lot of happy
Easter DMs.
Thank you all very much forthat.
Second thing I want to mentionis that we got a number of DMs

(34:15):
from a number of listeners whoeither were already doing the AI
fig 3D printed figure thing, ormotivated by Jake's interview,
started doing it.
And a number of members havehave sent us photographs or or

(34:38):
descriptions or updates on doingthis, and people seem to be
having some some real successwith it across multiple scales.
And so that just further piquesmy interest about where all
this is going.
I mean, just really, reallyinteresting.

Mike (35:02):
Yeah, that wasn't it.
Okay.
I'm not disagreeing with any ofthat, but that's not the one I
was thinking of.

Well, listener Marco Lips was listening to some
of our back episodes and heardus, or me, I think, mention,
maybe Jim Bates as well, mentionthe Fine Mold's 104 that's
coming out.
Well, Marco was at a show, Ibelieve, in Germany, and came

(35:29):
across This is it, by the way.
Okay.
Came came across a vendor whowas doing 3D printed items in
multiple scales.
And one of the items that thisvendor had was the West German
Zell system, which is zerolaunch length launch.

(35:51):
It's basically a rocketstrapped to the bottom of an
F-104, and then you raise theF-104 up on a launch rail and
shoot the F-104 into flight,basically to provide you the
ability to launch fighterswithout an airfield, and

(36:13):
particularly the 104 requiredpretty long runways.
And so he saw that, was interhad been interested in it, so I
think he picked it up.
And then he gave us a link tothis manufacturer, and um we'll
put a link in the show notes tothe manufacturer.

(36:34):
And this manufacturer had notonly this thing, but a bunch of
really, really interesting 3Dprinted items.
So I've got to tell you thatyou buying any of it?
I've started making a list.

Mike (36:51):
We'll check it twice.

Yes.
Next, we've already mentionedthe Podfather, but we do need to
let people know, and the reasonthis is in the DM segment is
the Podfather was DMing with us.
You and I are going to be doingan appearance on an upcoming
OTB that's going to be recorded,I think, this Friday night.

(37:17):
And so if you if you can't getenough of us on plastic model
mojo, or need a break from thenormal OTB crowd.
There you go.
Then if you hop on over there,one of the next episodes of OTB
should have both Mike and I onit.
Next, Chris Mettings, Insidethe Armor 3, ITA 3.

(37:43):
He had uh DM'd with mepreviously, shown me some work
he was doing on Japaneseordinance and 48 scale.
I kind of begged and cajoledhim into considering shrinking
those down to 72nd scale.
And he sent me some shots ofthat he had done.

(38:08):
And I guess you don't call themshots, you guys you call them
prints.
They're stunning.
I mean, just absolutelystunning.
These are Japanese bombs andbomb racks for 72nd scale.
He also makes them in 48 scale,by the way.
Japanese aircraft.

Mike (38:26):
The fidelity of the tail fins and uh Yeah, that's where I
thought it would fall apart ifit was going to work or not.
You'd have to go back and redothose in a thicker size.

And I and it was amazing.
And I was talking to him.
I'm like, how do you possiblydo this?
And what he does makes perfectsense.
He designs it, prints it, thengoes back in and tries to make
the parts thinner, prints itagain and prints it again,
saving it each time.
And at some point, the printfails.

(38:59):
And so he knows, okay, well, goback one, and that's what I'm
gonna be able to accomplish withit.

Mike (39:07):
Are you familiar with the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon about
how they rate bridges?

No, I'm not.
Keep driving heavier trucksover them.

Mike (39:18):
Yes, how do they know this how do they know this bridge is
rated for three tons?
Yeah.
I can't remember they, butyeah, it's the same thing.
They keep driving bigger andbigger trucks over until it
falls down.
Then they back it up by one andbuild rebuild the bridge.
Yeah.
Um, and but they are nice.
And and I'll I'll say that theonly reason that my E16 doesn't
have the bombs under the wingsis because they sucked.

(39:39):
Yeah.

Well, if if you ever feel like putting them on,
I can shoot you a pair of them.
I'm not gonna touch it.
Okay.

Mike (39:46):
But next time, they'll there'll be something else.
Yeah.
Um, but probably need to get mesome of those.

These things are amazing.
Absolutely.
They're on his website.
You can get them.
Also, he happened to share withme a secret project that he was
working on, which we can't talkabout, but is equally amazing.
So I can't wait for him to getall that done so that he can

(40:11):
tell the world, so that I cantell the world, because it's
pretty darn amazing stuff.
Finally, you and I didn't makeit to Indy.
We did not.
But it's just too close toHeritageCon.
Yes, I know.
And amps.
We've had it it was sandwichedin between, and there's just no
way our we we could we couldjustify that to the family.

Mike (40:33):
Not the not the working man's uh ideal situation.

Yes.
However, that doesn't thatdoesn't mean that listeners
weren't there.
And both Tom Choi and JeffIntro Who was at HeritageCon, by
the way.
Yes, Tom was at HeritageCon andthen did Amps.
So he's he put us to shame.
Or I mean he was atHeritageCon, then did Indy.

(40:57):
So he put us to shame.
If he shows up at Amps, I'mcalling his wife for a
conversation.
Really?
Don't you spoil it for him,man.
Um I'm not.
Or maybe have her talk to yourour wives.
Uh in any event.

Mike (41:12):
Now you now you're seeing what I got going on.

There you go.
In any event, Tom and and Jeffuh managed to to connect up and
uh good.
I got photos from both of them,of both of them at the show, as
well as photos of the show.
They posted photos of thecontest.
It was really great, and I amthrilled when even when what

(41:37):
we're not there, our listenersmanage to find each other and
and get together and talk andshare it on our Facebook page.
And share it on our Facebookpage.
It's awesome.
So that was fantastic.
And I had a real case of FOMOwhen I I did too, because it

(42:00):
looked like that show rocked.
It did.
It really looked like they werethey were hitting on all
cylinders, and and I did I didfeel twins of jealousy not being
there.
So Tom, Jeff, thank you verymuch.
I'm glad you all found eachother.
I'm glad you all hung out.
And maybe next year in Indy,we'll see.

(42:22):
That's it, Mike.

Mike (42:24):
Well, that was a lot and some really great feedback and
questions and all that.
So we appreciate it.
And we want more, folks.
If you want to send it inlistener mail, plasticmodelmojo
at gmail.com for the email.
Direct message via the FacebookMessenger system.
Dave will get those.
I'll get the emails most of thetime.
And there's a feedback web linkin the show notes of each and

(42:44):
every episode.
You can use that too.
We get some that way as well.
Not this time, but we have inthe past, and that's certainly a
viable alternative if you don'twant to do email or Facebook
message for some reason.
Keep it coming, folks.
Well, folks, our main segmenttonight is starting anew or

(43:19):
starting over.
And we'd mentioned Wayne Stopkain the Lister Mail episode.
And to recap on uh Wayne, he'sWayne's an Air Force veteran,
and for the last 30 years, he'sbeen a over over-the-road
cross-country truck driver, butnow he's local and his travels
are close to home now, so he'shome every day and on weekends,

(43:39):
so he's trying to get back tothe bench after a 30 year hiatus
from doing so.
He never lost the bug of beinga modeler other than being on
the road or being in the AirForce and not being able to do
it.
Yeah.
He wants to do it, but he'skeeps coming to a complete stop
because so much stuff haschanged since he was last doing
this that it just makes his headspin.

Everything.

Mike (44:00):
From canopy masks to weathering.
He says in the last four to sixmonths, he's done nothing but
set up his work area and hebelieves he's doing it to avoid
actually building a model.
I feel you, brother.
I was going to say, Dave, thatmight sound like you.
That sounds familiar.
Yeah.
I need to stop organizing andstart doing it.

Yep.

Mike (44:19):
But he says every time he sits down to work, he just sits
there and stares.
I can understand it.
Let me keep going here, andwe'll then we'll get into this.
He sent me a long email.
Yep.
He knows he's not going to beat the level he was at when he
punched out 30 years ago forlife stuff.
But he feels everything he knewthen is obsolete.
Now, this is where I can startrelating to this too.

(44:40):
He has no clue what to do.
He sees models from thesemembers of the club that are so
outside his comfort zone.
Doesn't feel he can get there.
I'm not going to say he can'tget there.
He doesn't feel he can getthere.
I think he can get there.

Oh, he can easily get.
Well, I don't want to sayeasily.
He can get there.

Mike (44:56):
He can get there.
And he's he's comfortable withhis fundamental skills.
You know, the the the gettingthe parts off the sprue and
getting them together, and Iguess even getting the the base
paint on them.
And he wants to know things.
Can a clean model airplanestill win a competition?
Oh heck yes.
Or does he need to dirty up hisplanes to where they're
unrealistic?
He does not have to.

(45:16):
He's gotten the feeling some ofhis local shows that all the
grungies are winning.
And I was thinking, wow, that'suh that's uh paradoxical to
what a lot of folks say is goingon uh within the the the major
IPMS shows, right?
It's all the spotless stuffthat's winning and everything's
overweathered.
Well um I you know he and hemakes the comment about the
commander of his squadron in theAir Force and what planes what

(45:40):
might have happened if planeswere let to get that dirty.
And you know, that's I don'twant to I'll get into that a
little bit.
I don't want to get into itdeeply, but it gets back to the
whole the meme about no crewchief ever would have left this
whatever, insert whatever detailor paint job, right?

Right.

Mike (45:55):
Um and it gets into the difference of of a of uh a daily
wartime squadron versus apeacetime squadron.
And then a land-based squadronversus maybe a naval deployed
squadron.
Yeah.
A lot of Air National Guardjets are stinking blindingly
clean.
Yeah.
Well, I've got I've got a lotto say.
That and getting their hours inis basically all they got going

(46:17):
on, right?

Yeah.
Well, I've got a lot to sayhere.

Mike (46:20):
But you you got a a ground support aircraft or an Eighth
Air Force bomber who's flying amission every day off a grass
field.
They were incredibly dirty.
Those planes have mud on thebottom of them, like a freaking
Jeep.
A naval squadron at the end oftheir deployment.
I've I've seen, you know, likea reconnaissance plane or a
drone photo of a U.S.

(46:41):
aircraft carrier taken 90degrees from above, straight
down.
Those planes look like an emptyparking lot at Walmart on a on
a on a holiday.
That's how filthy and andmiscolored the top surface of
those planes are after, youknow, however long their
deployment is at sea.
So I wouldn't get too wrappedaround to Axel about what's too

(47:02):
clean and what's too dirty.
But yes, absolutely a cleanmodel can win the contest.
Maybe, maybe I wouldde-emphasize wanting to win at a
contest.

That's a whole nother topic.
That's another topic.

Mike (47:14):
Go ahead, Dave.
You got something to say.

I got lots to say.

Mike (47:18):
Well, about this, or we're going to get into how do you
start over?

No, well, about this.

Mike (47:23):
Okay, we'll start there first.

A, welcome back.

Mike (47:27):
Okay.

You have you have rejoined the modeling community
at the right time because thisis the golden age of modeling.
And it is easier to become areally proficient modeler now
than it ever was 30 years agowhen you were building before.

(47:51):
Because the kits areunbelievably better engineered.
They will go together so muchnicer than the ones you built 30
years ago.
That in and of itself is goingto lead you to better models
more quickly.
Not only that, but you haveYouTube tutorials will you can

(48:17):
probably find whatever yourproject is, you can probably
find a YouTube build of thatproject.
You watch that, it will tellyou, okay, you know, watch this
step here, or this part ismislabeled, or be sure the
instructions say do it in thisorder, but you really should do

(48:38):
it in that order.
The amount of informationavailable to help you combined
with kits that are so muchbetter engineered than a
30-year-old monogram kit or a30-year-old Hasegawa kit.

Mike (49:00):
It's just next level.
Well, that's a decent segue ingetting into the heart of what
he's asking as far as a topicfor plastic model mojo is what
do we have to say about startingover?
Maybe a primer or a guide tostarting over.
You you've mentioned kits,let's so let's start there.
If if you were a new guy comesto the club, he's still trying

(49:25):
to build those old kits he builtas a kid.
Right.
He can't get the folding wingson his monogram Avenger to to
work.

I'd smack them out of his hand.

Mike (49:33):
What do you say?
What what kit, kits only now?
What what kits should a anewbie or somebody just coming
back after like him, 30 years,from from Dave's 72nd scale
aircraft centric perspective,what should he get?

What you should concentrate on is building a kit
that's been released within thelast 10 years.
Okay, whatever your area ofinterest is, okay, whatever
particular aircraft you love orarmor piece or whatever, but I'm
just gonna talk aircraft.

(50:10):
You want a kit that's been madein the last 10 to maybe 12
years, because that's when therevolution happened.
So I'm gonna hand him a TamiyaZero.
I'm gonna hand him an EdwardF-6F, I'm gonna hand him the

(50:32):
brand new Edward BF-109K4s, ArmaHurricane.
If it's a modern jet, maybe thespecial hobby HE162 or the new
Arma ME262, but there are modernequivalents, okay?
The Fine Molds F4s, the FineMolds F104s.

(50:53):
Just I would tell somebodycoming back into it or somebody
starting fresh, you can pick upold kits cheap at vendors at
swap meets and contests.
Don't do it.
You're gonna have a bad time.
You you might develop a faunusin place for that later.
Well, right.

(51:14):
That that comes later.
Greg's models is a greatYouTube channel, and you can go
watch that later, and it'samazing what he does.
But but seriously, kit first.
Get a good newly engineeredkit.
Second, start by building itout of the box.
Okay.
I know you see all theseYouTube channels, you know, the

(51:38):
photo etch and the resin and 3Dprint and all that.
Your first few kits, build themout of the box.
You're just getting comfortablegetting back into it.
As far as painting, first ofall.
Well, hang on, you're gettingahead of it.
Okay.
How am I getting ahead of it?
Okay.

Mike (51:58):
Well, so but you don't you don't have the same outline
I've got.
That's why.
Well, of course.

But what you'll find those kits easier to
assemble.
You'll find the materials toglue them together much better.
Any filling that's required,first of all, filling is almost
unheard of other than lightcoats of Mr.
Surface or 1500 along seamsjust to catch any small gaps.

(52:29):
Modern kits go together almostwithout without needing filling
in any significant fashion.

Mike (52:37):
Well, from the armor side, 35th scale.
Okay.
I I think I would start.
In a past episode, I mentionedlike a Tamiya BT7.

Yeah.

Mike (52:48):
I was rummaging around in my Tamiya JS2 a couple days ago.

Beautiful kit.

Mike (52:53):
And I think for for an armor modeler looking to get
started, I think that would be agood one.
It's got uh all the all thearmor stuff, it's got all the
the cast texture and all theweld seams and all that stuff
that's gonna let you practicedealing with those things on the
painting side.
Um that kit comes with bothlength and length tracks, which

(53:16):
are pretty well engineered intheir own right.
And if you botch that, it's gotvinyl tracks like the
traditional armor kits did inthe past.
So you gotta opportunity to dosomething that's on a newer
spectrum with a fallback optionin the box if you fail to pull
it off.
And I don't think you wouldfail to pull it off, but the

(53:36):
option's there to use eitherstyle tracks, and uh just a
really solid kit that's gonna gotogether and it's gonna give
you a really cool palette to trya bunch of other stuff that
we're probably gonna talk abouthere in a couple seconds.

Next up for aircraft canopy masks.
You have now, you have comeback into modeling at the time
where the single worst thing youhad to deal with as an aircraft
modeler, masking the canopy,has now been made extremely easy
for.

Mike (54:09):
And it's interesting because in his email, it it's it
he he put that out there assomething that's causing him
consternation and confusion oror hesitancy.
Maybe I'm misreading how he'she's mentioning it here, but
yes, if it's canopy mask for theone you're building and it's
not already in the kit, go getit because it's gonna make your
life easier.

Exactly.
And if it you know, you're notused to using canopy masks, so
because you've come back into itand your modeling previous
modeling experience didn't haveit, have it.
Maybe it gives you somehesitation, but there's no
reason to hesitate.
I mean, these things arefantastic.
Maybe what you do is you getsome canopy masks and you take a

(54:55):
couple of kits and a couple ofcanopy masks and cut the
canopies off and mask thepractice masking them.
Because once you do, you canput it in a ziploc bag, put it
back in the kit, and then you'vegot the kit masked even before
you start the you've got thecanopy masked even before you

(55:16):
start building the kit.
So that's something that youjust have to to do a couple of
times, but you will quickly findthat it is so easy compared to
what you did previously.

Mike (55:30):
Yeah.
Like covering the whole thingwith mask and tape and carving
it out.

Yeah.
Oh God, please don't give meflashbacks.

Mike (55:37):
I would Canopy Mask let a large percentage percentage of
modelers achieve what was quitedifficult before, almost voodoo
with some kits.

Yep.
Not only, not only that, butthey they probably have they are
probably responsible for thefinishing of more aircraft kits
than anything else combined.
Because the place thatmodelers, aircraft modelers used
to stop was they get throughthe build, they might even prime

(56:11):
or start painting the kit, butwhen it came to that canopy, if
it was any complex canopy atall, that would stop you dead in
your tracks.
Because it was such atime-consuming pain in the butt.
But even beyond that, once youmask your canopies, once you've

(56:35):
used the canopy masks a coupletimes and you're comfortable
with them, the paints that areavailable now are so much Mike
and I joke on here a lot abouthow there's a new paint line
announced every week.
And we're only partly kidding,but the paints that are

(56:57):
available, the wide spectrum ofthe different types and the
fineness of the pigment and theuh ability to thin with some
really great thinners, combinedwith inexpensive airbrushes that
are high quality.
I remember when airbrushing,airbrushing was an art that a

(57:22):
lot of guys didn't do becausethey couldn't afford the the
upfront cost in their hobby.
Now these things areunbelievably inexpensive to get
a decent one.
And to get a good one, not muchmoney at all.
I mean, especially compared tothe price of a of a nice kit
these days.

(57:42):
Yeah.
You will find that because ofthe quality of the paints and
the quality of the airbrushes,that your ability to learn to
put down a good paint on a modelis again a whole lot more, a
whole lot easier than it was 30years ago.

Mike (58:03):
And what paints to use as a recommendation for somebody
new or coming back is it's it'sa harder question to answer
because uh we all have our ownsituations in in where we're
doing our modeling and what wecould get away with spraying.
But no matter what the uh youknow the the chemical basis of
the paint line you're you'regonna use, be it a you know a

(58:26):
water-based acrylic, alacquer-based acrylic, a
straight lacquer, enamel,whatever, I think my
recommendation would be tounderstand what you have and do
the the investigation intogetting the best results for the
paint you're using.
And you know, there he's asponsor of the show, but John
Miller at Model Paint Solutions,his website has got a lot of

(58:49):
resources for getting the mostthe or most or best performance
out of a multitude of paintlines and how to make make some
of those things work when theyseem like they're impossible.

So and on that subject, the place where I think
the biggest gain has come isguys who don't want to spray
enamels or lacquers, who, forreasons of lung health or odors,
you know, disturbing thefamily, et cetera, they wanted
to spray water-based acrylics.

(59:23):
Well, water-based acrylics thatused to mean you got poly S and
there was some voodoo magicthat you had to try and, you
know, it didn't spray very well.
Now there's a half a dozenwater-based acrylic paint lines
that spray so beautifully thatin nine cases out of ten, you

(59:48):
couldn't tell the differencebetween an acrylic locker finish
and a water-based acrylicfinish.

Mike (59:55):
Yeah, just understand what you got and the various
compatibilities.
Do your research there anddon't uh you shouldn't have to
jump.
There's enough out there, Iguess is my point.
There's enough information outthere that you should not have
to start spraying something newblindly.

Kentucky Dave (01:00:09):
Yeah.

Mike (01:00:10):
Unless it's a brand new paint line with no no Right.
And don't do no legacyinformation out there.

Wait for somebody else to be the explorer.

Mike (01:00:21):
Yes, and don't do it on your new model.

Stuff that you mentioned, two things that he
mentioned in the email that I dowant to talk about.
One, don't worry aboutcontests.
And two, don't compare yourselfto other modelers and your
models to them.
We are we all go through all ofthese phases as we build
models.

(01:00:44):
The good news for you isbecause of all of the advances
in modeling, you will go throughthose phases much more quickly
than guys did 30 years ago.
30 years ago, it might take you10 years of building five to

(01:01:06):
seven models a year to get to alevel that you consider decent.
Nowadays, your fifth model isgoing to be so much better than
your first, you'll be shocked byit.
And really, I understand somepeople are motivated by contest,

(01:01:28):
and some people are motivatedby trying to achieve what others
have achieved.
Try not to do that.
Try to build it for yourselfand say, okay, I completed this
model, and we're all morecritical of our own build than
anybody else's because we satthere with it for 50 hours.

(01:01:50):
So we know where every flaw inthe paint is, where every not
quite covered seam is, whereevery misaligned decal is,
you're always going to be yourown harshest critic.
Don't let that bother you anddon't compare yourself to other
modelers.
Because ultimately the hobby isabout you enjoying yourself

(01:02:17):
while you're sitting thereconstructing and finishing a
model.
And if you get to the end of itand you enjoyed your time doing
it, to be honest, the endresult is kind of, I mean, it's
important to you because of thesense of accomplishment, but
that's really not where theenjoyment comes in.

(01:02:38):
We were talking the other dayabout how often do you go back
and look at your built models?
And the answer is, at least tomost people, not everybody, but
most people, I don't look atthem often once they're finished
and in the case.

Mike (01:02:55):
We had a few that did.
So that's that's that's kind ofa there's a spectrum there as
well.
There is.

There's a spectrum in everything.
But try not to compare yourselfto other people.
Understand that your firstbuild is not going to be good as
good as your second build,which isn't going to be as good
as your third build.
But you're going to progress inyour skills much more quickly
than modelers did 30 years agowhen you were modeling

(01:03:22):
previously.

Mike (01:03:23):
Well, let me ask this, Kentucky Dave.
All right.
You are new to this, you havelimited disposable income to
throw at this, at least upfront.
Yep.
As you start a new or startfresh into this new hobby.
What are your must-have toolsto start getting down the road

(01:03:45):
to get a successful buildtogether?

Well, if you happen to be building 70 seconds
scale aircraft, there's goodnews for you.
Because you can acquire areally good 70-second scale
aircraft for a very inexpensiveprice.

Mike (01:04:02):
No, I said tools.

I know, I'm I'm starting there.
I'm getting there.
Hang on.
Hold up.
As far as tools go, uh, sandingsticks, you can now some of the
branded sanding sticks likeInfini or Display, they're
really nice and they are ofhigher quality than, say, a

(01:04:25):
stand sanding stick that you getat the beauty supply store.
But you can start out withthose and they'll work perfectly
fine.
I mean, they'll they'll get youthere, particularly on your on
your early builds.
So you don't need to lay out alot of money on that.
As far as the paint, paints arenot that expensive either.

(01:04:47):
The thing I'd recommend is toget yourself a good side cutter
or guillotine cutters, they callthem.
Now, I like the god hand, butthat's really expensive.
And and you don't need them toget that bleed.
The god hand gets you to thebleeding edge of cutting parts

(01:05:07):
off of sprues.

Mike (01:05:09):
You don't need your 800 and above sanding sticks.
Right.
Right.
But if you got them all the waydown to 80, you don't need as
good a cutters.

Exactly.
So you can find some goodoff-brand side cutters.

Mike (01:05:22):
Or even inexpensive non-off-brand.
Like a to me to me, it's gotsome decent cutters.

The steady off of Amazon has really nice side
cutters that are that are veryinexpensive.
Same thing with tweezers.
You can, again, Mike and I, youyou don't want to buy cheap
tweezers because the teeth, thethe jaws don't meet evenly, etc.

(01:05:50):
But if you buy a steady ordespake tweezers, you're even
the inexpensive quality is isthe price for quality is.

Mike (01:06:00):
Come down.
A lot.
Yeah.
When we've we've joked aboutthe the argument 30 years ago in
our own club, and I was, man, Iwas paying a lot of money for
some good tweezers from alaboratory supply company.

Because that's where you could only place you
could get really good tweezers.

Mike (01:06:16):
But but even those now aren't as expensive as they used
to be.
So yeah, I agree.
A good pointed set of tweezers,a good angled set of tweezers,
and a good kind of blunt squaretip kind of tweezers.
Yep.
That's that's where I'd go.
Yep.
Those would be my three.
And that now you get a littlemore advanced, you're gonna want
different sizes of all thosethings is what I've got now.
I've got a lot of tweezers, butI've got a rack full of them.

And then the the other thing that you you really
are gonna need is an airbrushand a compressor.
You're gonna need a hobby knifeof some kind.
Well, yes, okay.
And a regular exocto oroff-brand exocto, perfectly
fine.

Mike (01:06:55):
Or or or even scalpels, but yeah, Swan Morton.
Where where I would be, thereare three blades I use, and
there's only three blades I use.
And they're available, thesethese these numbers, at least
for the scalpels we buy at myemployer for the lab, the
numbers hold for the bladeshape.

Yep.

Mike (01:07:13):
You've got a number 11, which is a pointed blade.
Right.
The classic.
The classic number 11 exactoblade.
There's a number 11 scalpelblade that we use at work, the
exact same shape.

Yep.

Mike (01:07:23):
Uh there's a number 10, which is a a round, a rounded
blade.
Right.
Which I use a lot.
It's great for scraping and forwhat I call edging into a cut
instead of going straight at it.
Yep.
Number 10, the rounded tipblades, either Xacto or scalpel,
whatever you want to do there.
And then I use the uh the thesquare front chisel blade, the

(01:07:44):
number 18, which is the one forthe the standard size handle.

Right.

Mike (01:07:50):
Now they make a wider one.
But I don't know if that's theythat exists for a scalpel or
not.
It might.
I've never seen it, so I Idon't really know.
But those those are the threeblades I use constantly.
It's the only ones I I everbuy.

Yeah, and that that is one thing I would say
that you, you know, again, ifyou're getting into the hobby,
you might start with cheaperoff-brand blades.
But as soon as you can affordit, if you buy the exacto
branded blades, or Swan Morton,if you're working with a
scalpel, the the quality of theof the of the blade itself is a

(01:08:31):
lot better.
And it's one of those thingsthat's worth paying a little
more for once you get into it.
But if you start and you startbuying off-brand blades, that's
perfectly fine.

Mike (01:08:44):
Um and then then things like you know, sandpaper, you
can get that at the hardwarestore.
Right.
Uh just get a good assortmentof wet dry.
Yep.
Uh that's usually not veryexpensive.
If you need the really finestuff, again, like flexifile or
somebody like that, it's gotassortments of the really fine
stuff.
That you can't find it at thehardware store, but you can
probably find maybe an autofinishing supplier, things like

(01:09:06):
that.

Get yourself some Tamiya extra thin cement.
Get yourself some cheap superglue.
Particularly what I do is getthe super glue in the little
one-use bottles at HarborFreight or one-use tubes.
Then you don't have to worryabout it going bad.
And then, like I said, the thebiggest final thing is the

(01:09:28):
airbrush and the compressor.
And back in the day, that usedto be prohibitively expensive.
There were a lot of modelerswho were brush painters, not out
of choice, but because thatpurchase was simply just out of
reach.
That's not really the casetoday.

(01:09:49):
Now, you can get high-endbrush, high-end silent
compressor, and you know, payout coin, some real coin, but
you can get a decent, I thinkit's gallery, is the Chinese one
that you see a lot.
You can get a decent gallerybrush and a decent compressor.

(01:10:10):
And the combination's not goingto run you uh a hundred dollars
or a hundred and twenty bucks.
And that'll that'll serve youwell until you get to the point
where you realize, okay, maybe Ineed something better, but by
that time, you're you've you'vegotten a fair number of models

(01:10:33):
under your belt, and you'reyou're ready to make those
choices as you model more.

Mike (01:10:40):
Well, we've talked about kits, tools, and paints, and
we've talked about some of thechanges, for better or worse.
I think you know the canopymask is is a change for the
better.

Oh, by far.

Mike (01:10:50):
For armor, most of the time, I think individual track
links are a change for thebetter.

Yep.
And they're getting cheaper.
I mean, do you remember whenthe only game in town was model
casting and they were superexpensive and super hard to get?
I do, but not so much anymore.
And exactly.

Mike (01:11:11):
Yeah, they even still making tracks.
I don't I don't know how theycompete with some of this stuff
that's coming out now, but uh alot of those get better results
and they're are faster to puttogether than a lot of the well,
I don't know about faster puttogether, but uh they look
better and they are not hard toassemble generally for uh for
most vehicles, I think.

Yep.

Mike (01:11:32):
The media landscape, yes, if if you're if you're just
coming back to the hobby,there's a lot of information out
there to help you out.
And you mentioned one, Greg'smodels, if you're if you're
gonna delve into the thenostalgia kind of kits, but uh
there's a a lot of resources.
You know, we often mentionMartin Kovac and Night Shift

(01:11:53):
modeler, a very advancedmodeler, doing a lot of crazy
stuff, a lot of really coolthings.
But for the new guy, I don'tknow if if would that be a good
place to start?
Yeah.
Well, I mean For inspiration,maybe not, but for learning
techniques, for actuallylearning techniques, maybe not.
I don't know.

Well, and here's the thing
watch a lot of really goodmodelers on on YouTube, and you
should, and you should learnfrom them and try and try and at
least learn the techniques andtry them out yourself, but don't
compare yourself to Ian.
Our friend Ian McCauley whoworks I've got that on my

(01:12:32):
outline.
Our friend Ian McCauley, whoworks up at Hobby Shop up in
Ottawa.
The Hobby Center.
The Hobby Center, yeah, shoutout hobby center.
He talks about people walkinginto the shop who have watched
Night Shift or one of theseother really, really talented

(01:12:52):
modelers who have their ownchannel.
Panzermeister 36 would beanother one.
And these people come in afterwatching those videos, buy the
products that they see used inthe videos by the armful.
By the armful, and then thinkthat simply because they

(01:13:15):
purchased the product, theirstuff is going to come out as
nice as night shifts.
And it's not.
But he's been building modelsforever.
And the techniques and and thetalent that he has, some of it's
innately God-given, but a lotof it is he's done model after

(01:13:37):
model after model and perfectedthose techniques.
And a lot of modelers who getback into modeling or come into
modeling, see those YouTubes andcompare themselves to those
guys, build a model, it doesn'tlook as good as the one on the
video, and they get frustrated.

(01:13:59):
Well, of course it doesn't lookas good.
You haven't built the number ofmodels this person has built.
You're, you know, you're juststarting out.
Understand you're gonna getbetter, and you're gonna get
better quicker because of allthese things.
But if if you compare yourselfto these go these people with

(01:14:23):
these very large YouTubechannels, you're ultimately
gonna become frustrated justsimply because you're thinking
that you're gonna become MichaelJordan overnight.
And Michael Jordan didn'tbecome Michael Jordan overnight.
Michael Jordan was out therefor three hours before every

(01:14:45):
game, shooting, shooting,shooting, dribbling, dribbling,
dribbling.
And that's how he got to beMichael Jordan.
Same thing with Night Shift,same thing with Panzermeister,
same thing with pretty much allof those YouTube guys.
And while I think all of thatYouTube information is really,
really helpful, there is adownside to it.

(01:15:08):
And that downside to it ispeople compare themselves and
their work way too quickly tothose those people.
And if they do, they can becomefrustrated.
Unrealistic expectations.
Exactly.

Mike (01:15:24):
Is what I have on the outline.
We've talked a lot about itnow.
It's getting coming back afterX number of years.
You know, my experience wassimilar.
The the the whole paradigm ofweathering and things changed in
like one build one of my buildcycles, essentially, which was
probably too long to begin with.
Oh well.

Um It was a very quick transformation.

Mike (01:15:46):
It it did.
When when Miggie Menace came onthe scene, things changed
really, really quick.

Yep.

Mike (01:15:52):
And for the better, I think.
I think the model certainlybetter.

No, no doubt.
I'm I don't think it's a lot ofpeople.

Mike (01:15:58):
And the products are better, and and uh like you
said, it for the average Joe,you can you can get to a a good
place a lot faster than youcould in the past.
Yep.
And and you you've said it anumber of times here in this
segment, don't compare.
Right.
Try not to compare.
Try not to certainly s seekinspiration in all this stuff,

(01:16:18):
but don't be down if yoursdoesn't look like theirs.
Right.
Because it maybe shouldn't,because of of reasons you've
already stated here.

Yeah.
Listen, because of thispodcast, I'm friends with Steve
Hustad.
If I compared myself to SteveHustad every time I built a
model, I'd I'd quit the game.
Keep at it, man.
You're gonna get there.
I hear you.
Anything else?
No, just I I'd encourage you.

(01:16:47):
Nothing makes me happier, andthis happens a lot.
Mike and I are at shows, and amodeler comes up and says, I
just got into modeling, or Ijust got back into modeling,
found your podcast, and you allhave really helped, and all.
I love nothing better thanhearing stories about people

(01:17:09):
either getting into the hobby orgetting back into the hobby.
And those are the kind ofpeople that we want to
encourage.
And it that's part of thepeople we make the podcast for
is to give you all encouragementto keep doing that, to to build

(01:17:31):
and improve.

Mike (01:17:33):
So, Wayne Stopke, keep at it, don't stop, keep building
models.

And thank you for your email because it uh and
we've mentioned this numeroustimes.
Please send in topics,suggestions, questions, because
a lot of the topics we end updiscussing are generated because
somebody had a reallythoughtful question or insight
or whatever.

(01:17:58):
So please keep sending thosein.

Mike (01:18:00):
And Frank Blanton keep helping Wayne out.
Absolutely.
Keep him on the straight andnarrow, and then who get to
where he's really pleased withwhat he's doing if he's not
already.
So uh that's a really goodquestion.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) (01:18:13):
Plastic model mojo is brought to you by
Squadron.
Head on over to squadron.comfor the latest in kits and
accessories, all at a greatprice and with great service.
Check out their wide selectionof kits and supplies, including
a growing range of squadron'sown line of paints and 3D
printed kits and accessories.

(01:18:33):
Mark your calendar for April2nd through April 4th, 2027, and
join Squadron and theChattanooga Scale Modelers at
the Chattanooga Model Con EagleQuest 2027.
Squadron adding to the stacksince 1968.

Mike (01:18:51):
Dave, it's time for the bench top halftime report.
And I hope you've been doingbetter than you have in the last
few weeks.

I have this past weekend, after, like I said, I
had a two-week dry spell inMarch where I did not get a
minute at the bench, or at leasta minute building at the bench.
This past weekend,post-HeritageCon managed to grab
some time and got some goodsessions in, got all of the

(01:19:21):
weathering on the top of theHellcat done.
Now I've got to turn it over,do the oil weathering on the
bottom, then satin coat it, chipit, and it'll be 99% done at
that point.
It's moving along.
The thing I have realized, andthis is partly just an epiphany

(01:19:44):
on my part that I it's notreally an epiphany because I
already knew it.
But when you're weathering amodel while you're in the
process and not finished withthe process, there are stages
where it looks really bad.
It just does not look good.
And it's discouraging, and thatI think drives you away from

(01:20:09):
the bench.
What you have to do is powerthrough that and realize that
when the model weathering iscomplete, then you judge how it
looks.
Because while you're doing itin the different stages, there
are many times where you're atan intermediate stage, and that

(01:20:30):
intermediate stage doesn't lookgood.
Just like when you're halfwaythrough a model that you primed
and sanded, primed and sandedand primed and sanded.
It doesn't look like it's evergoing to come together, but you
just got to have faith and andgo through.
So I made a lot of progress onthat.

(01:20:52):
I also made progress on the T33from the shelf of Doom.
I uh filled.
Again, pulling it off of theshelf of Doom after seven or
eight years and looking at it.
I really wasn't as good amodeler then as I as I am now.
So it truly, you know, when youbuild model after model after

(01:21:17):
model, you may not see a lot ofprogress in your skills.
But if you go back and startworking on something that you
put on the shelf of Doom eightyears ago, it really does lead
you to see it.
Now, the downside of that isthat meant there's a whole bunch
of things I had to bring up tomy current satisfaction level.

(01:21:39):
And I'm in the middle of doingthat.
And I really like it.
I thought I it it now, the bigchallenges are going to be that
it's a bare metal finish.
So I've got to get everythingjust right before I proceed to
apply a bare metal finish tothis, to this aircraft.

(01:22:01):
But it's moving.
I feel good about both of thosekits.
The Sam's sitting therewaiting, and as soon as one of
these two gets done, it's backon to finish it off.
I'm pleased.
I'm I'm feeling good.
The mojo is flowing, and I'malready starting to think about
what I'm gonna do after I clearone or the two of these off my

(01:22:21):
bench.

Mike (01:22:22):
So uh I hope you do, man.

Yeah, yeah.
So that that that's myhalftime, my bench top halftime.
How about you?

Mike (01:22:30):
Well, with the moose through deeply in the rearview
mirror now, has gone over thehorizon.
Can I get a hallelujah?
Yeah, hallelujah, brother.
Uh that was done, unless I digit back out and finish what I
was hoping to do with it fromthe start.
Yeah.
Odds of that are slim.
Won't say none, but they'reslim.
Right.

(01:22:50):
Man, last week after I wasbusy, so I didn't get a lot done
the first week after hairdiscon, but but this past week,
I've gotten things to the pointwhere it's ready for primer, the
KV 85, that is.

Yeah, you got a lot done on it.

Mike (01:23:06):
That's exciting.
So I got all the little bitsand bobs, I got the turnbuckle
things done for the for the towcables.
That was kind of the last realmodeling problem to solve.

And I really liked your solution on that.

Mike (01:23:19):
Well, it it it came together pretty good.
I I was pleased with them.
Um they're they're better thanthe kit parts, I think, at this
point.
And I can I can pose them anddo with them what I want instead
of being stuck with what I wasgiven.
So uh that's always a plus.
Yep.
Other than that, trying tofigure out what I want to start
next, once, once primer startshitting that plastic on the

(01:23:42):
KV85, it's gonna be time to getsomething else out in the build
phase again.

So that's a nice problem to have, man.

Mike (01:23:48):
I got several things I'm considering.
I don't even want to get intothem tonight, but uh I will say
that maybe a real space or realspace adjacent subject may uh
creep onto the bench after,especially after all the stuff
going on at work's got me kindof jazzed to do something,
something like that for achange.

Yeah.
You know there is a kid of theArtemis, right?

Mike (01:24:10):
Uh couple.

Yeah.

Mike (01:24:12):
Actually.

Yeah, I know.

Mike (01:24:14):
But I don't have those.
I know.
So other than that, I don'thave anything else new yet, but
something's coming soon, Ithink.

I'm I can't wait to hear it.
And listeners, if you've gotsuggestions for Mike, write in
and tell him what you'd like tosee him build.
It's called the Musaruka.
Oh, I'm just funny with you.

Model builders know bases by Bill for
innovative display solutions forany scale model project.
Bases by Bill creates customhardwood bases with engraved or
full-color placards that includetext, unit emblems, and
national insignia for theperfect finishing touch on your
next aircraft, armor, or ship.
And when your aircraft projectis complete, show it off in

(01:25:06):
style.
Choose from aircraft carrierdecks from World War II to the
modern era or airfield stylebases that showcase any
aircraft.
With contest and show seasonhere, Bases by Bill can also
craft your club's major awards,plus one, two, three, or gold
silver bronze.
A wide range of styles andoptions are perfect for clubs of

(01:25:28):
any size and budget.
Visit basesbybill.com becausethere's always something new at
Bases by Bill.

Mike (01:25:52):
Some money got spent.

Okay.
Well, I could I can tell youthat I spent some money.
And boy howdy, was I I waspleased with every purchase, I
gotta say.
Absolutely.
So you want to go first?

Mike (01:26:12):
I will go first.
We've we've mentioned beforenumerous times in this episode
that we were we were recently atHeritageCon in Hamilton,
Ontario.
It was a two-day affair to getthere because we we went up to
Detroit on the first day andovernight there with our
Minnesota friends.
Picked up Jim Bates.
Picked up Jim Bates at theairport and then met our

(01:26:32):
Minnesota friends at the hotel,had some drinks, went out to
dinner, came back, had some moredrinks, went to bed, slept
late, got up and hit some hobbyshops that didn't open till 11
on the Saturday after.
So first stop, Michigan ToySoldier.
I came out of there fairlyunscathed this time.
I picked up a couple of vialsof paint and a color I was

(01:26:55):
interested in investigating alittle bit, and then an AK book
on uh modeling World War IIlight tanks that I thought had
some interesting projects in itI wanted to read a little bit
about more about.
So didn't do too bad atMichigan, Toy Soldier.
Then we went a little furthernortheast of there to Great Lake

(01:27:16):
Hobbies, which is in an oldgrocery store or drugstore or
something, an expansive place.

Yes.

Mike (01:27:22):
I will say that.
I picked up one kit there fromDaswerk via Amusing Hobby.
I picked up the YagpanzerCanona 90mm Panzer Jaeger.
It's kind of the last PanzerJaeger ever built.
It was a West German projectduring the 1960s in the Cold
War.

And I've got to say, Mike, I was impressed by
the number of kits that thisplace has.

Mike (01:27:47):
Good grief, yeah.
No kidding.

It's like going into a grocery store for model
kits.
Just row after row of kits,everything from really old.
Old kits to fairly currentkits.
And the prices were theyweren't dirt cheap, but they
were very reasonable.
They were reasonable.

Mike (01:28:10):
And then there's a whole model railroad side.
We didn't even well.

I didn't buy it.

Mike (01:28:16):
I mean, there was a lot of that too.
Yeah.
So, you know, I picked up thatkit and you know, I've opened it
since then.
And yeah, I gotta say, I don'tknow.
I'm I'm tempted to do aside-by-side build because I've
got the the older Ravel kit ofthat vehicle.

Yep.

Mike (01:28:33):
And a bunch of aftermarket from perfect scale model bow
out of Germany.

Yep.

Mike (01:28:37):
And I'm not so sure that with those aftermarket sets in
the Ravel kit, you don't get abetter model than this DOS work
kit, as far as Fidelity ofDetail goes.
I don't know.
Quick look says some of theseperfect scale model bow parts
are better than the DOS workamusing hobby parts.
So we'll see.

(01:28:59):
And for some reason, that kitfrom DOS work is is kind of
difficult to find.
It's the first time I've everseen it on the shelf anywhere.

Yeah, it I don't know.
It's like it wasn't widelyproduced.
I agree with you.

Mike (01:29:12):
I don't know.
And it's not, it's, you know,and when you find on eBay, it's
like only one seller has it.
Like there's not like a bunchof folks, it's not like some
tiger tank or something wherethere's like 18 people selling
the same thing.
Right.
So that's what I got.
And then finally, Sunday atHeritageCon, I was fairly good
there too.
I I picked up speaking ofnostalgia kits, the Air Fix

(01:29:38):
E-boat.
Yes.
S-boat.
I already had one, but it wasBut you gotta tell them why you
bought this one.
Well, I bought this one becauseit was only $30.
Well, that was one and and itwas an original pressing in the
original box with the originalshrink wrap on it.

Yep.

Mike (01:29:54):
So when I got that one home and cut the plastic off of
it, I was the first person toopen that box.

And yeah, it's if you had not bought that kit, I
would have bought it.
And it's a nice kit for theday.

Mike (01:30:08):
And when you say $30, you mean $30 Canadian.
$30 Canadian.
So it was like 20 something.
So dirt cheap.
I was when I got my originalcopy of the kit, I was worried
that some of the parts might notbe in the box.
So now I've got two of thesekits.
One of them, they're both,they're both original air fix

(01:30:28):
releases.
They're they're not the the newincarnation of the kit.
And they're not they're not 80sor 90s versions of the air fix
kit before it went out of hardout of production for a while.

Yeah.

Mike (01:30:39):
Uh but this is the one that says got the new stamp on
on the box art.

Yeah.

Mike (01:30:44):
And it had the original shrink wrap on it.
So uh really, really funny.

The molds were as fresh as they ever were gonna
be.

Mike (01:30:51):
It it's that kit's as good as it's ever gonna be.
Yep.
And yeah, that one's on theshort list too.
That one I don't blame you.
Not necessarily that one, butone of the air fixed 72nd scale
boats is is on the short list.

I I like all three of those choices.
I will, I'm, I will encourageyou.
And if you go e-boat, I've gotreferences out the wazoo.
Well, I think for me, that'sit.
Oh, well, gosh, that's sincethe last episode.

Mike (01:31:19):
That's amateur hour.

That's fine.
Okay.
Let me let me tell you whatwhat I did.
We went to Michigan ToySoldier.
I bought six bottles of Mr.
Color, Mr.
Hobby.
I bought a spare airbrush hoseuh simply because I like to have

(01:31:44):
one around in case uh I've hadhave you ever had a hose develop
a leak before?

Mike (01:31:50):
Yeah, but it's it has happened.

And it always happens to me in the middle of a
project.

Mike (01:31:55):
So I like I like to feel safe.

Yeah, I like to feel safe.
So I'm just hang that and Iknow that I can use it.
So from there we went to GreatLakes, which again was really
impressive in the number of kitsthat they had.
The prices were reasonable.
It it's like a vendor, a reallygood vendor at a show on

(01:32:23):
steroids on steroids, lots ofgreat stuff.
I think almost every one of uspicked something up at Great
Lakes.
I picked up the Fine Molds, oneof the Fine Molds KI61s, and
also picked up a another KI61 byFine Mold.

(01:32:43):
So there were two in twodifferent boxings.
Um one of those pretty old?
Well, one of them is older,probably about 20 years, 18
years old, but it is topquality.
And between the fine molds andthe Hasegawa and the Tamiya, you

(01:33:06):
can build now pretty much anyversion of the Tony, including
the the KI100 versions.
So and I like the Tony, so itwas nice to pick that up.
Then we went to HeritageCon,where I bought, and this is
gonna shock everybody, fivedecal sheets, including a really

(01:33:31):
great Hussar sheet of B24Ds inassembly ship markings, and some
other Hassar sheets, two oldAeromaster sheets for 109Ds, now
that the IVG kits out.
So I've got five decal sheets.
I bought three books, two wereactually French magazines, and

(01:33:57):
then one was a Polish book onU-boats.
Then in addition, I boughtwell, okay, Jim Bates gave me a
special hobby F-86H.
You gave me something I hadordered from Squadron, the Arma

(01:34:18):
Hurricane 2 ABC combo kit.
And then I purchased two kitsat the show at HeritageCon, the
Hasegawa Betty with the Oka.
And I also purchased an ME110 Cor D, I forget which is the

(01:34:39):
Edward kit.
But our friend Mark Copelandwanted that kit.
He'd been looking for it.
And so I simply sold it rightto him for what I had bought it
from the vendor.
So I actually came home withone less kit.
Oh, and I would be remiss if Iforgot to mention Steve Hustad

(01:35:02):
picked up from his source slashdealer in Minnesota the two new
Fine Mold Zeros kits, the earlyand mid-production of the Model
52 Zero, and he brought them andI paid him for those.
So I came home with threebooks, five decal sheets, and

(01:35:29):
one, two, three, four, five,six, seven, and two minute kits.
Oh.
And then in addition to that, Ibought a new light box and a
new DSLR camera.
Uh oh, geez.
To hopefully take really greatpictures of my models and maybe

(01:35:53):
do some videos.
I'm gonna experiment aroundwith that just to see.
I may have to reach out to Evanand Chris to get their input on
doing those because both ofthem do really, really good
videos.
So we'll see.
But I spent a lot of money andnow gonna not spend a lot of

(01:36:16):
money for a while, althoughwe're going to amps next week,
and I'm not sure how I'm goingto avoid spending money at amps.

Mike (01:36:24):
Well, there won't be many airplanes there.

Well, that doesn't that necessarily
necessarily mean I'm not gonnaspend money.

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by
Model Paint Solutions, yoursource for hard-earned steam
back airbrushes, David UnionPower Tools, and laboratory
grade mixing, measuring, andstorage tools for use with all
your model paints, be theyacrylic, enamels, or lacquers.
Check them out atwww.modelpaint solutions.com.

Folks, it's that time in the podcast where we ask
you when you're done listeningif you would please rate the
podcast on whatever app you'reusing to listen to us.
Please give us uh the toprating.
It helps drive visibility.
In addition, if you know amodeler who isn't listening to

(01:37:19):
Plastic Model Mojo, would youplease recommend us to them?
Give them any help they need tolocate the podcast and start
listening.
The best way for us to continueto grow is for current
listeners to recommend us toother modelers who aren't
currently listening.

Mike (01:37:38):
And in addition to that, please check out all the other
podcasts in the model sphere.
You can do that by going towww.modelpodcast.com.
That's model podcastplural withan S.
It's a consortium website setup with the help of Stuart Clark
from the Skill Modeling Podcastup in Canada, where he's
aggregated all the banner linksto all the other shows in the
model sphere, and it's aone-stop shop for you to go find

(01:38:00):
out what shows are out thereand available.
So please check them out.
In addition, we got a lot ofYouTube and the blog type
content creators out there inthe model sphere who we've
befriended over the years.
We've mentioned Chris Wallace,model airplane maker.
He's got a great YouTubechannel and a great blog.
Stephen Lee, Sprue Pie withFretz, a great 70-second scale
centric blog with a lot of uhmodel railroad content as well.

(01:38:23):
Evan McCallum, Panzermeister36, a great YouTube channel on
armor weathering and also alittle bit of uh model railroad
content thrown in there.
We mentioned Jeff Groves, theinch high guy.
He's got a great 70-secondscale blog, does a lot of group
or a lot of batch buildsbuilding the same subject across
manufacturers and multiple kitsand just some amazing builds he

(01:38:44):
does there to show you thedifferences in those kits and
what can be done with them.
Yep.
We've also got uh Paul Budzik,Scale Model Workshop, and he
certainly made a pivot hererecently from his ship bills to
another aircraft.
So you want to check out whatPaul's up to on Scale Model
Workshop.

Finally, if you're not a member of IPMS USA,
the national organization, we Iwould ask you to join.
It is a fine organization of uhvolunteers, modelers who give
up some of their time to helprun the national organization,
to bring a lot of benefits tomodelers at local shows, at

(01:39:26):
regionals, and at nationals.
In addition, if you areinterested in armor or post-1900
figure modeling, pleaseconsider joining the Armor
Modeling and PreservationSociety.
Their national contest is nextweek, the 16th, 17th, and 18th,

(01:39:46):
I believe, of April in SouthBend, Indiana.
A great group of guys, greatorganization, really dedicated
to the art form of armormodeling.
You can't go wrong going to anyAMP show, but particularly the
Amps National.

(01:40:06):
Mike, we're almost at the endof the show, and I'm almost at
the end of my Flying MonkeyCraft Brewery Juicy A double S
beer IPA.
6.5% all alcohol by volume.

(01:40:27):
It's it's good.
It's an IPA, but it's notoverly heavy.
Like most of the IPAs that Ienjoy, it has very much of a
citrus background.
Very smooth.
I can recommend Flying MonkeyCraft Brewery, Juicy A S IPA.

Mike (01:40:53):
Keeping it clean.
Keeping it clean.
Well, my Mulsa Canadian wasgood.
Oh, well, of course it's good.

Comes from Canada.
Everything that comes fromCanada is good.

Mike (01:41:06):
Well, you know, it's a it's a mass market Canadian
beer.
Right.
But we have a low bar to beatwith our mass market American
beer.

Exactly.

Mike (01:41:16):
Not even close.
I mean, for a mass market beer,it's it's really good and
enjoyable.
And we got it from RobbieKnouse.

Yes.
Thank you, Robbie.

Mike (01:41:27):
And Robbie's got a YouTube channel called The Model Guy,
which we were familiar with, andI hope folks out in the models
who are familiar with.
If you're not, check out themodel guy on YouTube.
That's Robbie's build.
We had never met Robbie face toface until HeritageCon, and he
hung out with us at the at thedojo at the Airbnb and at the
show, and then with uh most ofour meals.

(01:41:49):
So we enjoy getting to knowRobbie and enjoyed his company
throughout the time we're in uhCanada at HeritageCon.

Yep.
Like most Canadians, he's agreat guy.
Mike, this is uh the actual endof the episode.
But before we go, we want to dosome shout-outs.

Mike (01:42:09):
As I always do, I want to shout out all the contributors
who have chosen to help PlasticModel Mojo through their uh
generosity.
We appreciate the help tosupport the show.
It's uh gone a long way to helpus keep this going and to help
us expand our reach and to uh dosome new things.
And hopefully you'll see someof those new things a little
later this year.
We've set up several avenues todo that via through uh via

(01:42:32):
Patreon or PayPal or buy me acoffee.
All those links to thoseavenues of support are available
at plasticmodelmojo.com.
And thanks a lot, folks.
It it makes doing this a loteasier for us, and we're gonna
keep it coming as long as we aslong as we can.

I'd like to shout out two modelers, both of whom
we mention on the podcast allthe time.
They are Steve Hewstead andChris Wallace.
The reason I'm shouting themout is at HeritageCon, both
Chris and Steve gave me gifts,and they're really special.

(01:43:11):
They're something that I'mgonna treasure.
It really was thoughtful ofthem to do so, and I couldn't
have two greater modelingfriends.
So shout out to both Steve andto Chris Wallace.

Mike (01:43:28):
And all our HeritageCon travel crew for that matter.

Absolutely.

Mike (01:43:32):
They all made it a great time.

Yep.

Mike (01:43:34):
Uh my last shout is to uh Dr.
David Morris, uh recentlyretired.
He and uh Brad Belsheim were atuh at HeritageCon.
I think we're gonna see himagain at AMPS, honestly.

Yeah.

Mike (01:43:45):
Uh which I look forward to.
But I had what I will call aprofessional conversation with
uh Dr.
Dave, and uh I just want to lethim know that I really
appreciated the insight and it'sgonna help me with some
decisions going forward and lookforward to seeing him at AMPS.
So uh thanks for that.
I re I I appreciate the uhnon-modeling conversation we
had.

Modelers are good guys, though if they've got
information for you, they'll behappy to give it to you.
Oh, that's for sure.
Yeah.
We got anything else, Dave, orwe need to wrap this up.
I think we need to wrap thisup, Mike.

Mike (01:44:16):
Well, as we always say, folks, so many kids.
So a little time, Dave.
And yes, we've been backaround.
Yes, we've been.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

The MeatEater Podcast

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}What If The Golden Age Of Modeling Makes You Freeze: Episode 161

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

The MeatEater Podcast

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

What If The Golden Age Of Modeling Makes You Freeze: Episode 161

Stuff You Should Know