The Modeling Insanity Podcast
The Modeling Insanity Podcast
Episode 47- Live From the Floor: With AMPS Nats Recap & Rob Riv Unleashed
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Episode 47- Live From the Floor: With AMPS Nats Recap & Rob Riv Unleashed
In this Episode the guys recap the Amps International Show that took place in South Bend Indiana with lead ins to 7 Live fun and insightful interview segments at the show. The guys were joined Live at the show by Brad Belsheim, Shaun Pekar, Adam Jackson, Nick Butta, Dave Vickers, Jeff Herne, Fank Blanton, Mike Sacklyn, Lee Fogel, Ashley Abernathy, and TJ Haller. Rob Riv also goes on an epic rant at the beginning of the show and breaks an unwritten Podcast rule. But the rules needed to be broken this time. This is the longest running show we have produced coming in at 3 hours and 46 minutes, so take a listen, have some laughs and most importantly relax and enjoy...
Opening and end music by Supernova by Arthur Vyncke https://soundcloud.com/arthurvost
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All right, guys, welcome to the Modeling and Sanity Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Rev. I'm with my co-host, Mr. Justin Ryan. Ahaha! I wasn't replaced. Not yet. Frankie Donati. Hey. And Steve Santucci.
SPEAKER_12Hello.
SPEAKER_08All right. So Rob Adams isn't here tonight. Um, he had some things to do, but we're recording on a weekday. We don't usually record on a weekday, but we're doing this because we wanted to do our live show, which we did at Amps Nationals in South Bend over this past weekend. So if you were there, you saw us recording. We recorded about, I guess, like two hours worth of stuff. It's like really funny. We had a couple, we got a bunch of guys on. We're going to get to those segments and we're going to introduce each of those segments when we get to them. Me and Justin are going to talk about our take on the show. Um, about a few other things. There's going to be in riverant, depending how this is going to sound. I got to see if it's going to be in or not on the final edit, but we will see. And hopefully it is. And uh, and Frankie and Steve are here for moral support a little bit, but they're here just to hang out. Did you say they're here for oral support? Immoral. Immoral support.
SPEAKER_18Immoral, not oral. No, that's your area.
SPEAKER_08Right. All right. So Amps Nationals, me and Justin were there. It was a great time. We saw a lot of people, those who were listening who were there, they know us. They came by the table. Wow, it was overwhelming again this year with the amount of people that come to the table that want to meet you, hang out, just talk and have fun and have a couple of laughs. Which we did. I will say that this is a more relaxing show for me, and I'll get to the reasons why coming up in some ways, but in a lot of other ways, it was a very down show, in my opinion. And I'm on the executive board, so I guess I I'm supposed to be a little more pick and choosy of the words I'm going to use when we discuss these things, but I also need to be honest with the people that listen. And I'll always be honest what I what I say, right, Justin? We talked about that. So I will definitely give my take on the show. And I know Justin has his take, even though, Justin, you were a little removed. You didn't did you didn't enter anything, right, Justin?
SPEAKER_05No, I didn't enter anything. I just threw it out there for just the the people because that's what that's where I'm at in my life.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Frankie Danati was supposed to maybe come on Saturday, but he texted us uh midway through that he couldn't, right, Frank? You couldn't make it?
SPEAKER_18Yeah, I couldn't make it this year, which was uh FOMO'd like we it's me and Adams had a support group going over the weekend just because we were FOMO texting him, son of a bitch, stop.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, so I'm glad you guys had a good time. I needed you there, Frank, and I needed Tooch. I actually texted Tooch. I got a little there was a moment there which I'm gonna talk about in a little bit that I actually sometimes, as much as I joke that Steve Santucci drives me crazy, he is the voice of reason for me sometimes that I need him sometimes, and I actually freaking really did need him this weekend. I I did actually. I was a little I had to walk out of the room and I I was like, I need fucking Tucci here, man. He's the only person that keeps me fucking even remotely, you know, stable. He's the angel on your shoulder while Frankie's the devil on your show.
SPEAKER_12I think what you texted, we called, we texted.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, there was a text to Toots. I'm like, dude, man, I fucking need you. You know, I need you here, man. Because no, you did, and we did talk, and you definitely made me feel better, and I will say that. The Roy Dare sucks from Long Island. I'm not gonna this, I'm not gonna fucking lie. It fucking sucks.
SPEAKER_05It was that's because you didn't have Lou in the car.
SPEAKER_08I did not have Lou. You had Lou.
SPEAKER_05So was my community with Lou was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_08You were lubricated. Well, I drove with Jim Gould, my buddy Jim Gould drove, and my buddy Dan was in the car as well, and I was in the backseat of a fucking Jeep Wrangler for 13 hours.
SPEAKER_05Were you singing that Cincinnatsky song?
SPEAKER_08Yeah. But we did talk about this on the live show, is about our experiences driving. So you'll hear it again when we go to the live little segments, and they're all long. So this is gonna be a long show. This might be three hours, three and a half hours long. And I'm not gonna cut this into two. So if you're listening, just take a break and come back to it. I don't feel like cutting.
SPEAKER_05Sit right back and you'll hear it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I'm just gonna throw everything, the kitchen sink and everything in here. But uh, we did drive to South Bend, and uh uh Jim Gould had some car issues, like his transmission was kind of going a little bit. We didn't make it to Brad's. I did not get killed at Brad's house. I always thought I would get chopped up and buried somewhere because I always see him as a serial killer and all pigs. Yeah, fit to it. Yeah, never trust a guy with a who who has a pig farm, right? We had a great time at Brad. He was a gracious host. I cannot lie. It was a good time being by Brad's, and I am glad I went there. I know I was saying on the show that I didn't want to go, but I did, and it was a lot of fun, and I do appreciate Brad. He was a great host, and he's a great friend. Well, that was with Jim. And how was your drive? It wasn't bad. You and Lou would choose.
SPEAKER_05Oh, it was good. Yeah, Lou and I uh we we drove out, we took two five-hour shifts, we uh stopped around Pittsburgh or so, swapped seats uh after hitting the head and uh continued on. So, I mean it was a pretty straight shot. We had some uh some nice philosophical conversations, as well as me just being Bad Santa and making him like almost pee his pants. Yeah, blush a little bit. Yeah, he definitely blushed a little bit. No, I I learned about my man Lou and he learned about me, and uh no, it was it was good. It was deep thoughts going to South Bend. 100%. It was the start of a weekend that I desperately, desperately needed.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, no, and we didn't switch seats for us because Jim drove the whole way, and uh, I listened to punk music for like 24 13 hours going and like 13 hours coming back. That's a whole lot of Ramones. Uh, it was a little more than the Ramones. He's listening to some great 70s British punk, which is was good after, but after a while it was starting to get a little grading. I'm like, I can't take it no more. All sounded the same after about dying back there. But anyway, the show. So the venue itself, and I said it before, and I said it, I'm gonna say it again here. I knew going into this show, and I said it months back, that I knew that this would be a down show for amps for a few reasons. One, obviously, we didn't realize the gas situation that's going on in this world right now in this country, which definitely was a factor in people going because it was very expensive to fill up your tanks multiple times driving 800 miles. But I also knew that IPMS Nationals at Fort Wayne in August was also gonna impact the attendance, and it did. And you can't say it didn't because the numbers were down, down, down, and you know that's a that venue is it's it's huge, man. Average like that, in my opinion, it is way too big for what what Amps offers, and the vending was excellent. Brandon Lowe from Squadron was there. Brandon says hello, Tooch. Oh, and Frankie, Jeff Hearn with Squadron, our good friend Angel over at Micro World Games was there. Rick Lawler was doing his demos as he always does. What a great guy that guy is, man. I didn't want to bother him too much. I kind of let Rick do his own thing. I didn't I talked to him a little bit, but that was really about it. CRS Tankworks, Cody Rosmuth's company was there, but he couldn't make it to the show. They gave me some tracks to review for the magazine, which I appreciate. Jeff from Squadron gave that new M2 quarter scale tractor 3D print for me to review, um, as well as to give one to Luke. Yeah, one to Luke Pitt. So, Luke, you're getting one. It's gonna be in the mail this week. Um, I did tell you already, you know, I'm grateful bastard. But uh the other vending was really good. You had um Ian was there, Jeff's good friend Ian was there. It was great to see Ian. David Doyle books. I spoke to David, you know, Doyle because he does stuff for Guardline and he had all the you know books and guardline stuff there, which was great. Vending, again, greater was there, great vending, right? The models, you know, it was an okay show. There was some really good stuff on the table, but not the best I've ever seen out of nationals. Um, there was some stuff that was there was a couple of really good exceptional pieces that that won, and we'll get to that. But overall, it was, I think, a downshell. But I had a little problem at that show, and I'm gonna talk about it here. And this is our podcast, and this is what I do, and I need to speak my mind. And if I don't, I would be I would be um giving the audience uh, you know, not what they listen. They look, they come here to listen to good stories, try to make things in a fun way, and I'm gonna try to make the rib losing his shit. Yeah, I'm gonna try to keep I'm gonna try to keep this as um as low-key as I possibly can. And again, I don't know how the post-edit of this conversation is gonna be. Frankie's moving his hand low-key like 20 minutes ago, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Or low-key like Thor's little brother.
SPEAKER_08I'm definitely gonna dominate this conversation right now before we move into the I'm sorry, I gotta do this guy.
SPEAKER_12Rob, this is your safe space, this is your comfort zone. Yep. Okay, just breathe.
SPEAKER_08All right, so before I do that, I gotta say Jeff Horn outdid himself this year when it comes to the Rob Ribbs tolerance juice. If anybody saw on Facebook the picture, if you were there at the show, Jeff Horn, the running gag since 2022 is Jeff would put like I don't know, whiskey bourbon. What does he put?
SPEAKER_05Scotch last year was scotch, this year was bourbon.
SPEAKER_08Everything, all right, into these, and he made these awesome Rob Ribb bottles. So the running gag is everybody's got to drink this to fucking tolerate me at a show or whatever. And it's just so much fun, and I really did appreciate everybody coming by at 12. It's sort of like a birthday serenade, and it just lets people know that people love the show and care about everybody and old friends and everything, and and that's what those shows are about. But I'm gonna say this as much as I love amps, and I do, and I'm on the executive board, and Neil Stokes is doing an amazing job. And Neil, I know you're listening, and I'm sure you are. What you're doing for this club is amazing, and I really appreciate it. I know a lot of people who are listening who are at that show do appreciate what you have done in the short time that you've been president, and you've been doing a great job. But the problem with amps is this there's too many people involved in this club that shouldn't be involved. We have an executive board for a reason, but I feel like the executive board in AMPS doesn't really have sees and everything because there's so much outside influence of people who have either been on the executive board in some position or not, or hold positions that aren't like elected. And I think it's the influence is really, really starting to make it, it's just not allowing this group to grow. I don't know if that makes any sense, but this past show just showed me more and more of why that view of mine is prevalent in this group.
SPEAKER_12Rob, I think to clarify, and I understand where you're coming from being in so many other organizations myself, is that it waters down the value of these elected officers, these outside people. It waters down, and it comes to a point, and then why do you have my position to begin with when somebody else is kind of stepping in and doing it themselves? There has to be delineation, there's an organizational structure you need to stick to that. I know what I think I know what what someone would say was, well, we have to grow the organization. That's not how you grow the organization. You can mentor people up, you have regional responsibilities, things like that. But it's like I I sometimes wonder why I was even there to begin with in the capacity of the city.
SPEAKER_08Well, I agree with that, and we've we've had that talk, yeah.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, so I I think it's not a matter of the organization growing as much as is it retards the organization from growing because it waters down the value of the elected people.
SPEAKER_08The little saying I'm gonna say here is what Adam Jackson said, and it stuck with me. He goes, culture eats strategy for lunch. The culture in amps, even though there is this willingness or trying to change, but you can't when you have certain people involved in the club the way they are. Now, this is what I'm gonna talk about. I made the decision early on that I was not gonna be taking pictures from Military Modelcraft International at that show. I made that decision back in January that I wasn't gonna do it. I knew Tom Foxon from MMI and Guardline was not coming out to the show because there's a lot going on right now. Alan just passed away from uh who owns Guardline. There's a lot going on. Tom wasn't coming over, and I wasn't gonna take pictures at that show because I wasn't taking pictures for the people who run that show. Now, Chuck Alschier, I have the utmost respect for you. You're a great guy. So this is not directed towards you because you're one of the show chairpersons. But the other show chairperson of that show, John Chabot, that guy needs to learn his people skills. He's a rude bastard, and I'm gonna tell you why. I hadn't seen that guy since fucking Camp Hill when he said to me and Steve Santucci that they didn't want me and Steve on the executive board as if they have a fucking say on who could be on the executive board. I didn't know that you had a say in it, John, because you don't. It's the membership, that's the culture. These guys still have a stranglehold on this club, and it's never gonna change ever. So I'm walking into the fucking venue. Listen, I even mentioned it on this podcast leading up that I put a couple of LBs on. I'm having a little rough time physically. I can't fucking run six miles a day right now. So, what does John Shavit say to me the minute he sees me? Wow, man, you're gaining weight. Thanks a lot, asshole. Like, I didn't know that. Is that how you fucking say hello to somebody?
SPEAKER_12A good thing I wasn't there because I would have probably decked him if he told me oh you look like that.
SPEAKER_08With his fucking smile on his face, finds out that military Modocraft isn't there because he's the show person and has to control every single thing that's going on in that show. Why have an executive board then? And then he's gonna come up and then say, Oh, well, I'm giving the fucking MMI table away to another fucking group. Oh, Riv, you can't set the podcast up on that table that's not being used. You got to use this table over here because I want you to go there.
SPEAKER_12Rob, can I ask you a question? Where was the table? Was it away from everybody else?
SPEAKER_08It was it was away from everybody else. It was Frank Fromont's table for the Heritage Museum up in Massachusetts. They weren't using it. Frank said use it, but John didn't want me to use it. I had to sit in the corner because he needed to feel like he was having a little bit of power. I didn't want to fight there and say something that I should have said. But I was like, you know what? I'm gonna be respectful while I'm at this fucking group. He's like, oh, well, you know, you're arrogant. Yeah, I am arrogant, but you're an asshole. And I'm gonna say that on my podcast. I don't care. I'm gonna say this right now, and maybe this guy needs to hear it. I can't tell you how many people came to me over the last X amount of days to say how much they can't stand that guy, whether they're in the group or not. The problem is, is he's got a big fucking mouth, and no one's told him to shut it. And I'm sick of that guy thinking who the fuck he is. Simple as that. And I know I'm going on a rant, and I know I'm using this podcast as a means to do it, and I hope he's listening. And I hope he calls me because I'm gonna tell you right now, our group is doing Camp Hill in 2027. You can come up to me at my show and come talk to me about how things are because you do nothing for this hobby. I break my ass day after day for this hobby, whether it's behind a microphone giving people content, I do it because I do a fucking magazine with Dave Grummit and a fucking great magazine it is, and try to help people enjoy this hobby. And you're walking around with your fucking skinny shorts like you're the fucking Pope of Greenwich Village. I'm sick of it. And this is my rant, and this is staying in the podcast because I don't care what that guy thinks of me, I don't care what he thinks about my show, and I don't give two shits what he did for amps fucking 20 years ago. Simple as that. And I hope this comes through because I'm fucking screaming right now.
SPEAKER_12It does seem to be all right.
SPEAKER_08I'm pissed right now at that guy.
SPEAKER_12Raven what I've heard you give rants, I've heard you get angry. There's real true emotion in your voice. He touched a nerve in you, didn't he?
SPEAKER_08He did, because he's a fucking disgraziade. If he fucking knows what that is, living in the middle of America, I respect you as a veteran, but I don't give a shit about your fucking opinions about me or whatever I do. Fucking walk the other way when you see me. You couldn't hold a candle to what I've done in this hobby. I don't give a shit that you were president of AMP for however long you were with your fucking poo-bar hat. Your attitude sucks. And people don't like you. And the quicker you realize that people don't like you because you have your fucking attitude, the better this organization will be. And I ain't fucking going nowhere. I'm here to fucking stay in that organization. I don't care. I'm sick of that guy, man. I'm sick of him. He rubbed me the wrong way, not even two seconds from seeing him and his freaking attitude. And I can say some more things that happened at that show that he knows happened, that I'm not gonna even do that to even disparage whatever character he has left. He should be ashamed of himself. So there's my rant. And I hope that people understand where I'm coming from. I'm not trying to attack somebody because I want to fucking break them down and knock down their character. I'm talking about my interactions with somebody or this person's interactions that I have with other people, where he raises his voice and tries to be intimidating and think who the hell he is. And that shit ain't gonna work with me. It ain't gonna work with me. And that was my experience at this show, and it was a fucking damper for me. I didn't want to be there, and that's why I didn't take pictures because I wasn't taking pictures or promoting his show in our magazine. I was not doing it. So there you go. So I gotta fucking calm down a little bit. Somebody say something because I gotta take a breath here because I'm fucking worked up.
SPEAKER_05All right, so I um let me give my perspective of the show. You know, no offense to any modelers out there, but I didn't even get over to the display tables. This for me was just a way to get with friends. Uh, it's because it's been a rough one, it's been a rough year, so I just wanted to say how happy I was, how glad I was. Thank you to everybody that came up to me and gave me well wishes or words of condolence, or you know, just pats on the back, you know, that they were glad that I was still on the on the episode, on the show. You know, that that's why I drove 10 hours. People thought I was out of my damn mind to drive 10 hours to a model show, and I wasn't even putting anything in. But I went out there because I needed the connection of my weird internet friends, and I made more weird internet friends in real person in real life at this show. And thank you, everybody, everybody that listens, everybody that came up to me. You don't know how much it meant.
SPEAKER_08No, man, it was a good time. You're right. It was it was a great you're getting choked up a little bit, man. I love you, and I'm sorry for getting upset. I gotta I'm bringing it down. I'm better. We're we're balancing it out. That's all. We're balancing it out. You we had a great time. You're right, though. It was it was a great time, man. It was a great time. That play being with friends and hanging out with everybody was a fucking great time, and that's what that's about, and that's why I decided to go to the show because it wasn't until the Thursday before the show that I decided to go. I wasn't going, and then I decided to go. And I apologize for the rant that I just did, but I'm not apologizing for what I said because I'm really fucking livid at this situation with these people, and it's like it's gotta start, man. The culture's gotta change, and when these people are still strangleholding this club like it was freaking 20 years ago, it's never gonna get better. It's never gonna get better, man, at all. And I'm fucking had to get that off my chest because I've been fucking stewing on it for like the last two days. I think that's why you've retired. And and I'm using and and I feel and um, and this is my safe space. And you know what? I would have done it there, but I was gonna be respectful to the organization. All right. I don't back down to nobody, and like I said, I'm I love this hobby. I fucking love it, and I love the people in it, but there are some people in this hobby that need a fucking reality check, and that guy's one of them. All right. I'm not fucking so I'm not sorry for the shit that I said, and I'm gonna say it again, and I'll say it to his fucking face. All right, that's the problem with that organization, and it's the problem with other organizations like IPMS and other organizations, because you got these same fucking people in these organizations strangleholding them and not allowing these organizations to thrive and become better. Because you know what? I mean, you're gonna hear now when we go into our first segment, which we're gonna lead into, how I'm making jokes about the state of the fucking of the community, especially at that show. Justin, you remember what I'm talking about when I was talking about the age of everybody, and it's really funny. And a matter of fact, the segment we're gonna go into right now, and this is what we're gonna do, we're gonna talk a little bit and go into these segments because this is gonna bring a little levity to the show. You'll go into the hear the live stuff from the show, and it was fun because the first segment is me and Justin and our good friend Brad Belsheim and our other friend Sean Picard.
SPEAKER_12Brad Pacchim. Did you hear that, Brad? Good friend.
SPEAKER_08Good friend, our good friend Brad Belsheim, Belsheim, however you say Brad's name, and Sean Picard, and we had a good time talking for a while. And uh it was it was our little kickoff. We didn't use the microphones on day one because there was really not much going on, and there was no one there. So we fired up the mics early day two, and we had a great time. We got about seven segments that we recorded, and this is Our first segment right now. We're gonna go to it. It was myself and Justin, and it was with Brad, our good friend Brad Belsheim and Sean Picasso. So here we go. Alright, this is the first spot. We're gonna discuss a couple of things. We're here at Amps Nationals 2026 in Southend, Indiana. It's his mean Justin right now. So, Mr. Ryan, you're here. Your feet are hurting you. You walked around for about I don't know. An hour, if that. An hour. But we're both kinda out of shape right now, man. Absolutely. Well, round is a shape. Round is a shape.
SPEAKER_05Unfortunately, it's not a it's not an attractive shape. It's not one that that induces physical.
SPEAKER_08No. I'm gonna honestly say that uh at South Bend, Indiana, this uh venue um, and I'm and this is gonna be on the show. We're gonna talk about this. Um this particular venue for Amps Nationals is probably the the least favorite of mine as a as a venue. It's way too big. And not only that, it's not big because like, oh my god, there's so much filling the space. It's so much girth. There's a void here in this in this uh right in front of us. Yeah, it's like a void. And you have the display room, you have the vendors, the vendors, and then you realize that uh everything is really spread out to make it look like there's a little bit more than there really is. Right. It's like you know, putting spreading a little butter across a piece of toast and like trying to get it to the edges, but you're like not enough butter and you're fucking scraping the toast. Yeah. That's what it is. And uh it's and in my opinion, the fucking judging room at South Band is probably it's criminal.
SPEAKER_05It's like cavernous, isn't it?
SPEAKER_08Cavernous, it's like a f it's like cell block nine. Go watch like any go, you know, go watch like you know, Escape from Alcatraz. That is the judging room. There's no lighting in there. They didn't even bring extra lighting. I feel bad for like you know, Dave. You know, he's the head, you know, he's the head judge, he's one of the best chief judges you know, they've ever had at Amps. And it's hard. You know, some of these guys listen. And I'm gonna say this, and we were talking about this over breakfast, and this is the lead-in um for our Amps, you know, you know, our live show here that we're gonna put repost not live, but live and recorded. We're talking here unedited and un you know, unscripted as always, but unfettered. We're sitting here looking at the show, and you realize that uh wow, man, there's a lot of fucking old people.
SPEAKER_10A lot of old people.
SPEAKER_08And as a 51-year-old man that I am, and trust me, I'm not like, you know, the model of health either. But you look at some of these people, you got people fucking going down on like motorized scooters. Amps Nats 2026 in Indiana, sponsored by Geritol. Here we got Lou bringing me my drinks. Lou, you're such a good guy, man. I'm worried about Lou. Ah, Lou, you're the best. I love you, Lou.
SPEAKER_10Thank you.
SPEAKER_08Oh, fantastic. Yes, Lou. This is Lou. Lou. Lou always needs assurance that he did the right thing. He followed directions while and you did, Lou. Thank you. I love you, Lou, my buddy.
SPEAKER_04Just can't win, Lou.
SPEAKER_08But I will say this though, back to what I was saying, I gotta get this point out. It's like you're sitting here and you're like, wow, there's a fucking lot of old people. Right. Is this what I look like? And the motorized scooters, it's like the old lady in the supermarket fucking bumping you. There's like old, like, old, like tremendously like out-of-shape men going around on like these hover scooters. Right? It looks like fucking Wally, right? It's like crazy. You got guys in walkers and fucking stumbling. You're like, holy shit, is this guy gonna walk through the display room and start bumping into shit? It's like you say to yourself, what is gonna be the state of the hobby in like 20 years? There's no way any there's no way that half of these guys that are at this show right now will still be walking this earth like 15 years from now.
SPEAKER_05Jesus Christ. That's morbid as fuck.
SPEAKER_08It isn't morbid because these people are like in their 70s. I mean, look, it's it's morbid, it's not dishonest. And the problem is, is this is not like some budding tree that's dropping fucking seeds in the ground that when they're not here anymore, that then there's all of a sudden gonna be like other fucking people to take their place.
SPEAKER_05New oak trees.
SPEAKER_08There's not. And we got Brad Belsheim coming over, who was a gracious host last night for us at his house the other night, not last night, but the other night. I might get him on the live here, even though he he definitely disappointed me the first time. There's the only one episode of the uh uh a modeling insanity podcast that that was never released, and that was the that and that was the Brad Belsheim episode of the modeling insanity podcast because he was so intoxicated that he couldn't finish the show. He leaves and never returns. Well, he's got coffee. So we had about an hour of the show. So hold on, we're gonna get them on. So put your headset on.
SPEAKER_05It's not Irish coffee.
SPEAKER_08We're gonna get you guys on. We got and just talking to the microphone, and then we're gonna get my friend Sean Picard is also here. Um, Brad, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you? You gotta talk into the microphone. Sorry. Yeah, you got to mouth it. You gotta mouth the microphone here. Sorry, Riv. Um Brad, thank you. Very gracious host. I I did not want people to honestly know that I had a good time at your house, and I actually did. I was very happy that I didn't get killed at some point during the night. Um, there was no screaming. Sean Picard's here also. Uh he actually stayed at the house as well. Sean, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty good, but nobody really wants to hear from me. They don't, but I have a bunch of horse shit.
SPEAKER_08Right, but you know, it it would be very um rude of Justin and myself if we didn't have you guys sit down while there's two open mics. So we're letting you sit down really quick. You can hear my little pre-riv rant as we're going here. And we were talking about how my observations, not just yesterday on day one, but now my observation morning of day two is the fact that there's a lot of old fucking guys here. And the fact that these guys are not budding trees where there's no seeds dropping when these guys are not walking the earth in 15 years, there's gonna be a sprout that's gonna take their place. His non-ambulatory preamble. Like the the the AMPS community and the people that are part of it are not like going green. Like, we're not like replenishing the amps um participation in the future here. So, my outlook on what's gonna happen for amps and a lot of these model clubs moving forward is very bleak. And if anybody wants to know what I'm talking about, maybe at some point I'll try to get as many people from an angle of all the people walking the show, and you will think that it's like, you know, like the civil war.
SPEAKER_00You know, I I I really think Rogane missed out by not being a uh a vendor here. A vendor or a sponsor.
SPEAKER_08Well, there's two sponsors you can have. You can't right, Ozempik can be one of them. Um, and I can use Ozempik right now because I'm getting very robust. And Leo's getting a lot of money. But I am gonna take care of that soon, hopefully. I gotta get in a good mindset. The hobby in life has been taking a lot of time. But I will say that you're right, though. Ozempik, Rogain, yeah, man. There's no beauty contest here, man. There's none. Uh arthritis cream. And it's a sausage fest. There's not a lot of women here. It's like all men. Well, all old, wrinkly men in this place.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you have been to a model show before. I have.
SPEAKER_08And there's always hope that there might be something else there till even just to not and listen, I'm not like I'm not Steve Andriano that says I'm like crazy shit. But uh I'm just saying that there needs to be something better. Um we do have Alicia here, um, who's our good friend Nick butter is fiance. And I always say that my friend Nick always walks non-sausage. Right, and she's bar the table, and I we'll get we're gonna get her on the show. And she was on the show when we did our little Armicon cut-ins a few shows ago when I did the whole touching in a model episode live. But uh Alicia, I mean, she's definitely too good for Nick. Nick uh walks around like he is either um like an old man lost looking for the toilet or someone who's like in the early stages of dementia.
SPEAKER_05Which can be one and the same.
SPEAKER_08It could be both. Yeah, it's a crossover. So Nick definitely, yeah. If you ever see Nick walking around, Nick Barter, he definitely is someone that you uh you you're worried. You're gonna check his arm if his family left some like identification band on him in case he got lost like in the city on something. Found return to up in any mailbox. If found, please return him to the information uh desk. Um but no, overall we're here. Um Lee Fogle is now passing the table. We'll get Lee on. Lee's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet in his hobby, man. He, you know, you Lee's can't have a bad thing about to say about this guy. He's always he's always overly too polite, which I'm you know, I'm not a fan of. You know, we like to be a little like roughly.
SPEAKER_05That's that somewhat Midwest charm.
SPEAKER_08Lee might be like, you know, he might be the like the you know, I talk about Brad. It's all the Midwest. I'm forgetting. Lee might be like William Gacy or whatever his name is. What was his name? John Wayne Gay. John Wayne Gacy, who dressed up like the clown. One of the hacking up bodies, burying them across the way. No, Lee, you're a good guy. Listen, we're glad to be here. I'm looking ahead. I see Mike Sacklin stumbling around too. Maybe we'll get him on the show a little bit later. This was our little intro to test the microphones, but it actually turned out pretty funny. Brad, uh, how you how listen, I okay, so this is the fucking message that I got last night. Um, Lou, oh Lou actually called me, but I missed the call, but he did bring me my my stuff, so Lou was following directions well. All right. So this is the message that I got at Let me guess.
SPEAKER_00Andrew Messi.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Andrew Messi did a mass text to all of us at 904. He wrote to me, good, have fun after I told him we were having a good time. He says, You have no pressure except for the ones you impose on yourself. Tell Brad he has a four-beer limit and has to stay away from the Korean figure sculptors. Everybody knows about the incident that occurred. We'll keep that on the DL that Brad got beat up at a previous um uh show. Oh, we're getting a buzz from somebody. Hold on a minute. I want to make sure there's no buzzing going on here.
SPEAKER_05I I think it's just carryover from Brad from last night.
SPEAKER_09I mean, I'm buzzed. Dude, I was so fucking polite last night, I didn't know who I was. I heard he was laid back over.
SPEAKER_08But you were telling everybody you loved them. Like you were texting I love you, man, to everybody, and that's an indication that you are now becoming uh impaired. Impaired.
SPEAKER_09Impaired?
SPEAKER_08Yes, because you black out. You don't know where you are. And that's the only good thing about amps, is you have an excuse to kind of get drunk, and I guess it's what stay what happens at amps kind of stays at amps, you think, until the pictures until it gets on the podcast. Right, well on the podcast, until the until the pictures get exposed on someone's feed. Um, we were at the bar last night. We were at the bar at the hotel, and I want to give a shout out to Mr. Bill Moore from World of Armor. Hopefully, we'll get him on the show. Some point this weekend. Bill's a great guy. Um, he promotes the hobby really well. So anybody who wants to check out World of Armor on Facebook, go check out Bill's page. He definitely promotes the hobby great, and I appreciate what he did last night. It was fun. Is he around? Is that why No, Bill's not. I don't see Bill, but I want to give him a shout out because kidding, just kidding. And we got the place uh we're adjacent to the plastic model mojo, who are gonna be setting up their microphones. They always do shows. Dave Knight, Mike Basquette. Uh, we love those guys too. It was great talking to them. Um we actually had, you know, we I think we said some bad things about Brad last night a little bit. What's new? Right. He's always fun to talk bad. I didn't, Brad. I doubt it. I did though. Um so I'm sure Mike actually, you know what? Mike and Dave are walking as we speak with their plastic model mojo shirts. Look at them. They uniform stuff. They're like flowing in the wind as they're walking to their table. And they're definitely hung over as they're going and they're looking at us, staring and smiling. And uh maybe they'll have me on their show eventually. They don't want me on there. I like I said, I think I'm the bastard child of the podcast world. Um, for some reason, you know, Mike. I'm gonna go ask Mike at some point if he's gonna have me on. So would you say your reputation precludes you? Yes. Mike, am I coming on at some point this weekend? I don't know if you guys heard that this went. It was a radiant no that this blew through the chamber. He's like, you're not coming on our show. All right, so Sean, what's your expectation? We're gonna sign off in like two segments on this little segment. So, what is your expectations for this weekend? Model-wise, not drinking wise.
SPEAKER_00Like how I'm gonna do in the show, what I'm gonna see, uh talking the microphone.
SPEAKER_08Like, what? Like, what's your expectations? Are you gonna judge?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, I'm gonna judge a few uh few sessions.
SPEAKER_08Okay, and uh are you gonna attend any seminars? Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which one are you attending? Uh I'm going to attend the masters himself, uh the nicest guy in seminary. Jeff Feller. His Tart making.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Pretty excited about that.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Jeff does Jeff is one of the and that's no joke, man. He is definitely one of the nicest guys that we have in this group in the hobbies. A nice guy, he's a great fucking model.
SPEAKER_00Otherwise, I just look forward to seeing some good work on the tables and you know.
SPEAKER_08That's what this show's about. Just seeing good work and and and giving people credit for the work they did and and wanting, you know, see people's progression. Also, maybe Brad Belsar is improving. Not at a great rate, but he is improving a little bit, but he doesn't have much time left before his faculties and his senses will prohibit him from actually doing better. But you only have a couple of more years before you can improve, well, to a certain extent, Brad, right?
SPEAKER_09Yeah, you can only, you know, you can only make bad into good to such an extent, right? It I mean you just can't get to great. It just can't happen.
SPEAKER_08No, it can't. I I I but no, but you become a good one. No, but you can apparently get to expert at some point. Yes, with enough gold medals, you can make it enough gold medals you can make expert. Unfortunately for myself, I don't fucking enter enough shows. So I haven't I've only entered two shows in like 15 years, so and I only enter like a model, so that's my fucking resume when it comes to contests, but that's not part of the hobby that I care about anymore, you know. I'm here to look at your guys' work, critique it, make fun of it, Brad, if I can. But unfortunately, this show I can't because you actually brought some really nice shit. Oh, thanks. Um, really good stuff. We did a little uh critiquing of models at Brad's house prior to coming here, and I will definitely say that Brad, your stuff looked really good. A couple of critiques here and there, but everybody's got a critique for stuff. Thanks, Riv. Um Sean does World War I stuff, he does really good stuff. Um can he win a best Commonwealth again here? I don't know, man. There's a couple of really good Commonwealth stuff I saw. You might have a run for your money this year.
SPEAKER_00That's all right. I mean, I'm not here for the medals, so.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, well, you're here for the women that are not here. You're here for the very robust and overweight and aging men. Yeah. If you are if there's any women out there that are into like not good looking, overweight, unwashed, unwashed, balding, and smelly peep men, this is the show for you.
SPEAKER_05Aside from the unwashed part, give me a few months. I'll probably start bringing some women around to everybody. Now that I can.
SPEAKER_08You can't even say it's midlife crisis anymore for people that are here. It's more like end-of-life crisis. It's end of end-of-making stage crack. You know, I'm gonna take a lot of shit for saying that. People get like guys, like it's funny because guys in the in this organization, even in other ones, but in this one in particular, get very mad at me for the things that I say regarding like the hobby in general when it comes to like these type of things. But this is where the where the honesty comes. Like you cannot sit here in the viewpoint and vantage point that we have and not think to yourself, wow, there's something that needs to happen soon, very soon. Like, people are like doomsday preppers, right? They prepare for the worst. Like they make bunkers, they fill their fucking house with food and water. And models. Right.
SPEAKER_09And models. And models.
SPEAKER_08And they prepare for what's gonna inevitably happen. Maybe sooner, could be a lot a lot of years later, right, Sean. But overall, in the end, something has to happen because there's not like there's no backfill here for these organizations. There's none.
SPEAKER_00I mean, if if they get that mad, maybe they should just not take themselves that seriously. Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_08And I am kinda joking, but not kinda sort of. Like, you know, I'm looking at you're creating humor from the truth. Humor from the truth, and I'm hopefully people sit there and say, you know what, Riv was right. I'm gonna die.
SPEAKER_09They make that is they like maybe that last snip of the sprue, and then they they feel the heart attack coming out, and they're gonna fuck Riv was right. Riv was right.
SPEAKER_05You know, Brad, that's a very good analogy there. The last snip of the sprue.
SPEAKER_08I like that. And and Justin, and Justin remember from what about Bob when Charlie Cosmo is in the bed and he's like, I'm going to die.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna die. And he's just sitting there talking about it. I think more people need to realize. I'm gonna die. You know, what's gonna happen. But uh overall you could be like Bob and pretend you have Tourette's that way you don't have it. Right. More like, you know, while you while your wife left you because she was a big, she loved Neil Diamond. Eating son of a bitch. All right, well, this was like this was supposed to be a mic test, but this is gonna turn out to be our first little uh 17 to 20 minute little intro test of our Amps 2026 show. We're gonna do a bunch of segments. I'm gonna be on most of them, hopefully, because I don't want to get my fat off this chair. Um, I'm doing a judging session or two. We got the fucking EGM tonight where you sit down and listen to people talk about the growth or whatever's going on.
SPEAKER_05Wait, are we talking about growths like cancerous? No, no, no. No, no, no, no. We're talking about the average weight of the modelers. Right.
SPEAKER_08And you sit there and it's sort of like sitting in a very, very boring insurance seminar.
SPEAKER_05Um Did they ask you to buy a timeshare at the end? You know what?
SPEAKER_08And I'm gonna tell you this. Um the only good thing about this venue is that the the area where people do sit, it's sort of like a little mini like amphitheater, like a like a like a seminar or a um a lecture hall. And it's kind of spread out slightly, which is kind of better than Camp Hill, because when everybody's in that Camp Hill room, oh my God, you could fucking put a petri dish in the air and shit'll start growing.
SPEAKER_05It's like ass soup.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's really fucking food in there, man. But uh, yeah, so you know what I'm gonna go over and give Mike Basket a problem because he said I can't be on his show, and I'm gonna campaign of why they should have me on, um, and we'll see how well that goes. Brad, don't go over there. I don't think they're fans of you right now, to be honest with you. Why? I don't know. You need to talk to them about that. I'm I want to cause trouble with you, that's why. Okay. Alright, so on that note, we're gonna sign off for this little segment. So uh we will catch you on well within a second or two. There's no flip side. There's no flip side. He's gonna the next segment's gonna be starting right now. All right, so listen, man. I mean, Brad is never that insightful, but um, Justin, um obviously you didn't listen to this segment because we are editing this. But if you remember the conversation we were talking about how Am should open up like, you know, a freaking old age home fucking because you know, everybody you know, and it's like everybody's a stage of the progression. Yeah, man, and it's like but that's the but that's the thing though. I it was it was definitely having fun and telling jokes and trying to have a good time, but in reality, it's the truth. It's the truth because the the as like I said, we're not butting trees here, we're not we're not dropping seeds and like other people taking our spots, right? Frankie that I think that I can jump in.
SPEAKER_12Well, I'll jump in there. I because while you guys were playing with toy plastic kids and doing stupid stuff, I was doing 18th century living history, and I gotta say, if you go look at the photographs I posted, if there's one unit that has about 50% kids under age 30, but the rest of the units are 50 plus. I mean, we got an artillery crew that I think they have three quarters of their of their members on that gun are over the age of 60.
SPEAKER_18Yeah, you'd think that the American uh you know independence was done only by the AARP.
SPEAKER_12Oh, yeah. I mean, you really these hobbies that have been around for a long time. Modeling's been going on forever, but I mean the modeling as we know has been going on since post-World War II with the plastic injection mold. I mean, it's it's it's a greying hobby, and you're right. Rob, you know, you and I both have gained weight in the past year and we're both set on getting rid of it. So hopefully next year.
SPEAKER_08I've been doing good the last couple of days. We got back, and I'm back on intermittent fast. Um, I've been in the last two days with Tommy, and it's easy. I got through two days of intermittent fasting. If I break the week, I'll be great. But by August, by August 1st, I'll definitely be halfway to my goal, and by the time October comes, I'll be back to where I was a year and a half ago.
SPEAKER_12So that's that's my goal, too, to be able to hug Frankie without having two stomachs.
SPEAKER_18And then you can go back to being an intermittent bastard.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, that's right, right.
SPEAKER_05In that same veininess that you're talking about, Riv, I actually just ordered myself a kettlebell so that I can start getting active again and uh and start shedding a few pounds.
SPEAKER_08Me, if I walk and then then do and then get just start walking a couple miles each day, increasing every week, I'll get my groove and I'll do good. I I lose too noes. I'll I'll I can shed 40 pounds in the way.
SPEAKER_12You become a fanatic like I do, like we're trying to raise each other.
SPEAKER_08But right now I'm just I'm a little chunky, but it's okay. But but you don't, you know, there's a way to go about it. You know, you're already sensitive about it. You know, you don't go to somebody and go, Wow, man, I heard, you know, like what is the remember in wedding singer when he's like, he's like, Wow, man, I heard your girlfriend left you at the altar. Yeah, my parents died in a car accident when I was 10, too. You want to talk about that? And he's like, Why were we talking about it? He goes, I have no idea. Like, you know, have a little fucking you know, people need to have a little uh you know, tact. Be tactful. Like I'm a fucking idiot sometimes and I say stupid shit, but I would never go up to the fucking summit and go, Wow, man, you know, you gotta be you know what happened, you got bad acne on your face. It's like who would do that to somebody? Are you putting on weight? It's like weird, man. It's like it's like listen, I'd take a scan, but because if if it would have come from somebody that I actually liked, it wouldn't have bothered me. But when it comes from somebody who's doing it in a way to be fucking a dick, that's why it fucking bothered me. But other than that, we're not talking about that shit no more because we're gonna get all worked up again.
SPEAKER_05As a kid, I was always taught that if it's something that somebody cannot change within five seconds of you meeting them, you don't mention it.
SPEAKER_08People who have no inner monologue are fucking have their own problems.
SPEAKER_12What's the inner monologue? Is that the avoidance side that's a good idea?
SPEAKER_08But if you're saying things that you're thinking out loud that you know can be hurtful or inappropriate, that's a fucking disorder. You have a psychological disorder. I'm not gonna bring out the DSM and try to fucking start analyzing people's fucking psychological disorders or fucking take out a Wesk and fucking try to make it with a fucking exam. But like you got problems, but we're not talking about this no more. I want to just move on. We're gonna go to our next cut-in and we're gonna see here we spoke to our good friend Adam Jackson and our good friend Nick Butter. It was a nice little conversation, too. I think we kind of piggybacked off of the original discussion, Justin, that we were talking about. Um but uh it's also good again. Adam Jackson, who was on our last episode, is a great friend, and uh always a lot of fun to talk to. Who has really changed since he's been a part of this group? Oh, yeah. He was actually after listening back to the episode. I realized how many F-bombs Adam dropped over in that episode last time. It's a new Adam.
SPEAKER_18That's what he told us when he came back. He said you can't help but be influenced by this group. It's the new Adam, we have to deal with it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and Adam forgot his models home, so he didn't bring anything, which he said he actually liked, which I agree with. Yeah, but Nick Bought it was there with he brought his Alicia, his fiancee, who was a you know, who's become a good friend of ours too. Like I said in the I think I think I said it on the live show, yeah, about how like they're exactly like the opposite. How in the world they're together personality-wise is beyond me because Nick is very dull. He's reserved, he's not dull. Reserved. Nick has become a good friend, and uh, I was glad to get him back on. We had him on the show last year, and we had him on again on again this year. So, again, this next segment we're gonna listen to. It just goes about a like 25 minutes. It's with Adam Jackson and Nick Butter. We're back right now for a little segment just to just talk about what's going on here. Again, um, I did go on my little pre-rivrant regarding the state of the hobby when you look at amps and uh I guess the age or what's the word I'm looking for, Justin? The geriatricness. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I know what I said, and I need to say this before we speak to Adam Jackson, who's back again, who we should just make him the sixth guy. He should be like the sixth Beatle. Um, we should get him on as like the sixth beetle. Take your shoes off and have across in front of us to see if you fit. Right. We have Nick Butterback, who was on last show, who was really dull on the show last year, but hopefully he'll do a better job. I don't want him to be nervous. Just be with your friends, to act normal, Nick.
SPEAKER_06Are we sure we want people to act normal?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, well, no as normal as possible. We have Alicia, uh Nick's fiance, and just in just off of earshot, um, she's kind of like his monitor. Like, you know, we we everybody has like a handler and stuff. We have a handler here, and it's and it's uh Alicia for Nick because Nick needs a lot of guidance while he's walking around.
SPEAKER_17She's my CNI dog.
SPEAKER_08Right. So what I do want to say is this. I meant to say when we were discussing the state of uh Justin, you're not paying attention, Justin. I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_05I'm fucking paying attention.
SPEAKER_08I think I'm gonna say something very witty and very funny, so you need to listen. There's organizations out there, Adam Jackson, like the Masons, like uh like the Eastern Star, or like the American Legion or something out there, that like they have like preparations for their membership. Like they use their funds to build like some nursing home for their membership to take care of them in their later lives. And I feel like Amps is missing out on a big opportunity.
SPEAKER_06There's a lot of money in that.
SPEAKER_08Right, to make a facility that would care for most of the membership that I'm looking at that will need care.
SPEAKER_17Lord. Um the AMPS retirement home.
SPEAKER_08Right. I think there needs to be an Amps retirement home, and I think it's something that Amps needs to really consider moving forward. Um, we got Adam Prophet walking by. He doesn't want to, he's gonna make me believe he's not watching, but he is. Adam, good to see you, my friend. We're gonna get you on the show a little bit later.
SPEAKER_06I like that name. We need more Adams in this hobby. We need more Adams in this hobby.
SPEAKER_08All right, so Mr. Jack, you remember Adam Jackson? Did you meet Adam Jackson last year? I've not met Adam Jack. Adam, Adam Prophet, Adam Jackson, I'm sure you won't forget his name, Adam Adam. Um but I remember talking to the microphone, Adam. But you're pro now. You like I said, you're like the sixth beetle, you're like our producer now. Um, I think of the insanity.
SPEAKER_06Wait, does that mean I'm like uh who is who is the producer or the manager? Was it Skeeter in the Muppets? Yes, yes, you're Skeeter. I'm Skeeter.
SPEAKER_08Um but you know you're pretty, you know, you you you you hold yourself at a high standard, Adam. I don't know if you want this on your resume. You might not get that promotion at the job if you let them know that you're associated with this um sh this buffoonery, right? Justin? If any Tom Foolery.
SPEAKER_06If any of the pictures make make their way out, I'm just gonna say it's all AI. Yeah, yeah. It's not that's not really Adam.
SPEAKER_08That's that was somebody else, you know. Um AI put them in there. So, Mr. Jackson, we'll go to you first. What's your I I asked Sean what his expectations were of the show. He didn't understand what I was saying, so I had to kind of break it down. Hold on, we got an announcement here. They're already asking for judges, and then that goes in that plays into what we talked about on the road to the Amps Nationals and the replacing Private Ryan episode, which went over really well so far within the first less than 48 hours of release. And no, I'm not going anywhere. Amen, bro. So um so far as you think, you know, there might be a change. Not on my end. And uh we we've got we got my good friend here Ashley Abenathy will come on. Ashley's staring at me um like uh, you know, he's reading something, you know. Ashley needs to stop and you can't walk and read at the same time, Ashley. He needs to stop and read. Um, but we're gonna get Ashley on. Um but I am talking to Mr. Jackson here. Mr. Jackson, what are your expectations for the show this weekend?
SPEAKER_06To have a wonderful time with all my good friends. Yeah. So let me ask you.
SPEAKER_08So we didn't meet here. Well, I mean, we've been friends for a while now, a long time, and you're a big part of this group. Um we didn't meet two years ago.
SPEAKER_06Two years ago we met, yes.
SPEAKER_08Um, and you were here two years ago. Yes. You were at Camp Hill last year.
SPEAKER_06No, I was not at Cill. No, you weren't at Camp Hill. I was at No, my my uh oldest son was graduating from the first one. Oh, no, no. I was you choose family over friends. Right, right.
SPEAKER_08I was with you at the Hampton IPMS nationals.
SPEAKER_06Yes, we saw yes.
SPEAKER_08Right, that's where I got so you know what I I this kind of ruins what I was gonna ask you because I was gonna ask you what no no no, it was gonna be an uh an honest question.
SPEAKER_06Ask it anyway.
SPEAKER_08Was about like what you which venue did you do you prefer better? Uh Venue or Camp Hill, and I was hoping you were gonna say Camp Hill, so I can't get that out of you right now. Well, I mean you can still say that.
SPEAKER_06Well, depending depending upon how much the answer is worth to you, I can say it. Uh well, no, I want an honest opinion.
SPEAKER_08You know, like I said, we don't we don't uh we don't talk, you know well, I shouldn't say we don't talk shit here because there's a lot of shit gets talked, but um, I don't want to say anything that's like Well, we don't. I don't want to say anything that I know is is blatantly false, I should say. Um, but uh I will say that I'm not a fan of this venue. I think it's not the best. Um there's a lot of other amps venues that are better than this. It is location-wise, it is really good because of the central and right. Yeah. That's the only thing that's going for it. It's I it's just it just doesn't feel it doesn't feel I don't know, man. You're not digging the vibe. It's it's too open, man.
SPEAKER_05It's like you got like 90-foot ceilings here or whatever. Well, that's good. That means there's more air to filter through the the the aged expansion.
SPEAKER_06Is there are some individuals in the hobby who do need more ventilation? Yes. Yeah, no, we talked about that.
SPEAKER_08And and and and that's definitely I don't want to sit here and bust on this.
SPEAKER_05All I gotta say is for for a minute or so ago, someone passed by and released some kind of back pressure. Wow. Back pressure.
SPEAKER_08So no, I'm getting some stuff from over here. So I get CRS Tankworks. We're gonna talk about him on the main podcast. But CRS Tankworks is here. Cody Wersma is a really nice guy. I've been communicating him with him on uh email. He actually was at the show last year. He he befriended our very own Frankie Danati.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's right. I remember Frankie was really talking about that.
SPEAKER_08And he and Cody was actually on the the the AMP show at um Camp Hill last year, uh, which was really good. And uh Cody's a good guy, and it did this gave me some more stuff to check out and review for the magazine Military Model Craft. So we're gonna do that. But let's get back to what we were talking about.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_08So uh you were at the Airbnb last night. Uh what happened? Did anything crazy happen?
SPEAKER_06Nothing. It was a very tame evening. There was lots of uh I know this is gonna sound crazy. There was lots of really good conversation and wonderful laughter. Good. It was excellent. There was nothing too crazy. Now people are gay. They're probably Oh, Justin. Justin. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying that's what it sounds like. Okay, I'm gonna have to send you to sensitivity training. Oh.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I'm really sensitive.
SPEAKER_06No, it was I it definitely was not that wild. It was dead, not yet. Tonight it might get that way. We're getting pictures.
SPEAKER_08This is uh Dave Knight's taking a picture of me so they can throw dots at the end. No, this is for the commitment here. Listen, man, that's what these shows are about, Adam, is that you get together at these Airbnbs. We stayed at the hotel last night, but I think we're gonna get there tonight after the AGM meeting, the meeting, uh, the general meeting tonight. Oh, that's right. The meeting, that's right. Right. But I want to come by and see you. Listen, I love the guys there, man. I love seeing you guys, and it only happens once, twice a year that we all can get together and uh have some fun.
SPEAKER_06So this is what is most important about this hobby. That the models are just like the entryway into the the great part of it's the roofie into the friendship.
SPEAKER_08But I but I will say this.
SPEAKER_06What sort of friends do you have?
SPEAKER_05What the Well, I mean I'm starting a all new life. That's true.
SPEAKER_08Justin is starting over, which I'm a little jealous about. Um but I will say this though, you'll never get that same experience that we had two years ago. You're why it was your first one, and that Airbnb, the Donkey Punch Villa, where we did the where we had Jeff Hearn do the funny AI of uh of Idris Alba doing uh the the the the night in the donut story the donut night in the donut. Yep, that can never ever happen again in that way because you'll you can't recreate it. You can't and you can't force it.
SPEAKER_06But the great but the great thing is we have this opportunity to make all new memories in this moment. Exactly. I love Adam.
SPEAKER_08He always he has a great he's like uh you know you're dying, but you know, it's there's a lot of things.
SPEAKER_05It's okay because there's something else behind it that's even better. Yeah, it's okay.
SPEAKER_08No, but you're right though. You do make you gotta make your own memories from show to show. And yeah, um, again, this is a you know, listen, there's a great bunch of guys. I mean, I wish I could say that for everybody here, and I and I'm gonna lie if I lied and didn't say that there's a few people that are walking this um show that I I would prefer not to see. Um, and I would be lying if I was I'll being honest. There's a couple people here, one couple people in particular that I just don't care for. And uh uh I try to avoid as much as possible because I'll definitely say something that uh can cause a trouble. And I'm not gonna do it here today. So hold on, we're gonna talk to Nick Butter. My buddy, my good buddy Nick Butter. Um Nick is always uh, you know, full of he doesn't shut up sometimes. I gotta get him, I can't get him to shut up, right, Nick?
SPEAKER_17Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, so like Getty Venner said, we found the Butterman. No, no, no. Nick is here, you know, and and and listen, I I I respect Nick. Nick is a great guy, um, does good work, and I know Nick for quite a long time now, he's a good friend. Um and I, you know what, I I gave him a hard time about bringing his fiance Alicia to the shows. I'm like, no women. Even though I complain that there's no women at the shows, I'm telling Nick not to bring his fiancee. Such a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_05So many sausages.
SPEAKER_08Where are all the buns? No, no, no. The reason why I say that is not that that you don't want people here, it's that you don't want them in the like around us when we're saying like inappropriate things. Like some of the shit that comes out of my mouth, I can get you know get arrested for in some states. Um you don't want I was like, ah, you know, you know, we say some stupid fucking battery humor. Some wives and girlfriends are around, they get offended. Not your girl. She's jumping right in, like adding to the the actual like adding to the fray.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, she gives it right back to you too. She keeps you in line, Riv.
SPEAKER_05You guys are like polar opposites, man. Well, you remember, you remember Scat Cat and Paula Abdul, opposites attract. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Oh my god, I was thinking the same freaking thing.
SPEAKER_08Like you guys two step forwards, two steps back. Personality-wise, you are the yin and yang. Like, it's really, it's it's an interesting dynamic. It actually would make for a fucking great like reality. Yeah. Oh god. The two of you, because she's like, it's it's weird, man. Like, you're kind of like, you know how what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the Osbornes when Ozzy was all drugged up and all fucked up. What the hell? Could barely get a word out. That's you. And Alicia's like Sharon or whatever, like never shutting up and talking, talking, talking. And you just sit there.
SPEAKER_05You know, like peanut butter and jelly. You're the peanut butter and cheese, the Irish whiskey, orange marmalade. Sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06There are many people, when someone asks me about Nick, I mean, I love him, and I don't think I ever would have thought of Ozzie Osborne. Yeah, I know. Right. No, it's way too coherent for the case.
SPEAKER_08That is, I think that is a good analogy because it's my heads off bats either.
SPEAKER_17Who's playing cricket?
SPEAKER_06The the woman who who you were just talking about, possibly.
SPEAKER_08I thought I heard a cricket.
SPEAKER_17Crickets? Yeah, someone just played a cricket. And there's no sound effects in this thing, but I'm going to do it for it.
SPEAKER_08Um, so Nick, what is your like what are you looking forward to the weekend? It is day two. I mean, it's day two, but day one is really not really day one. It's only like for like three hours or whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_16Yeah.
SPEAKER_17No, I'm I'm excited to see everybody here again. This is my fourth Amps Nationals, you know. I like coming to these things, seeing everybody. The Camp Hill's a better venue. It's closer to home.
SPEAKER_08It's more close. I mean, I mean, closer to home.
SPEAKER_17Driving 11 and a half hours.
SPEAKER_08Right, but the proximity can't be the factor. But you're right, though. It is for us on the East Coast, the far as close is closer. It's closer for Adam here.
SPEAKER_06Well, for me, for me, either way, it doesn't matter. It's just a plane flight. And Denver's got enough flights going out, like whether I'm flying into Philly or Pittsburgh or flying into whatever, it's like it's not.
SPEAKER_08Right. Yeah. I mean, the drive is a big drive for us here, but it's not just the drive, it's okay. I'll give you this. The hotels here are nicer, much nicer than Camp Hill.
SPEAKER_17I agree.
SPEAKER_08Um, it's a Hilton or there's a Marriott the two hotels, and they're nicer. Um but the convention hall where things take place, like the display room, the convention hall, the m- the judging area is the judging area is amazing at Camp Hill. It's all open lights, there's windows. You feel like you're like in a in like a fucking tranquil garden.
SPEAKER_06Although, although, I mean the thing is for these, because I'm used to just shows with a gigantic open space like this. The thing is about uh our types of shows, if you have a a judging room, it's hard to find a like that's a unique need. Yes, like like that's a unique need. Like you need not only a certain amount but a certain type of lighting. Yes, I think that's hard to find in commercially available spaces.
SPEAKER_17That's the nice thing about Camp Hill, they have windows there and you get natural. Oh, there's natural. Okay, I got you.
SPEAKER_08Oh, yeah, okay, so a good example of how it would be at Camp Hill would be like the outside of here. If you go outside here, go get food and sit in on that landing, it's really good. It's like that. You go in here, and like I said before, it's like it literally is like cell block. A cell block in a prison. It's all cinder block. There's no, it's it's old-fashioned fucking yellow fluorescent lights in the fucking ceiling. And you you know what? The lighting in there is not conducive to modeling because you're not getting the right color of you're not getting the right color. Don't put that on Facebook. It's chubby. I'm getting chubby and I don't want my dis it's I it's like my face on Facebook is not good. Well, he'll just use the wide angle so you don't get to make it. Right now I'm panoramic. That I'm fucking overly sensitive to the fucking chunkiness that I'm getting right now, but I gotta get my life in order. This it's just it's it's a cyclical thing for me. I'm in the the chubby side the chubby cycle of my um like a fucking morph. I'm in the chunky cycle. And then I'm gonna cycle again.
SPEAKER_06Wait, wait, yeah. Where does this happen relative to the to the cocoon stage? I'm in the cocoon right now.
SPEAKER_05Are we talking cocoon like Steve Gutenberg? I'm in the cocoon.
SPEAKER_06Um you mean you mean the fly. Yeah. Okay. So let's Jeff Goldblower. Let's talk hobby. Let's talk hobby really quick.
SPEAKER_08So everybody's listening and we're gonna have these. I don't know if we're gonna have a full show where we're gonna do like, you know, the Amps Live one and two like we did last year, we might. Or do I do a show and have these cut-in like we did for Armacon and things like that, which is also good too, because it breaks it up a little bit. Um The vending. I'm telling you right now, the vending isn't bad. I know I bash vending at shows, meaning like the prices of things that you get and things like that. But uh, I think the vending is not it's not bad. The quality of vendors is bad. The quality is very good here, right? Yeah. Did you buy anything already, Connect?
SPEAKER_17Did you get anything? Yeah, I bought the Bradley kit from Squadron. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I bought one of those penis the guy has over there for our work. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08I bought one. Nice. Well, Squadron is here, huge display for Squadron, as always. Brandon Lowe's a great guy. Squadron is like we do um they prom we promote Squadron on the podcast. Um, they're great people. Brandon, a good friend Jeff Hearn, is uh works for Squadron, does a lot of RD for them. Um wow, man, do they got a lot? Like, I was amazed when I went by the squadron table how many products that are produced by them now, like the groundwork stuff, the paints, the 3D print.
SPEAKER_05And yet they still haven't come out with those silly little paper mailers like back in the day. Oh, the little lowers on them.
SPEAKER_08But they should do it for nostalgia purposes, but that's it.
SPEAKER_06Well, but they're not, but they do they're doing their monthly newsletter that's actually got a lot of cool information about what's coming out and what just came in. Right. It's well done.
SPEAKER_08Brandon does do the squadron, does do their squadron show on Squadron TV. I think weekly they do. We usually do a lot our live casts on Thursdays or Fridays.
SPEAKER_06They do theirs on a on a Wednesday night, and they do a show and tell, is it once a month? Yeah, they do a lot of great stuff.
SPEAKER_08Sort of like our on the bench that we do, it's sort of similar where they get people on to talk about what's on like that stuff. And uh listen, it's it's a it's great. Listen, Squadrons got they got a hobby shop here right now. Like you literally have a shop of the amount of stuff that they have.
SPEAKER_06It is when they show up, having helped them set up a couple times now, like you know, IPMS Nats was gigantic. This is slightly this is small as I think. This is smaller than I can. It's more direct what they're selling. But the next but the next one, I mean, yeah, it's all it's almost all armor, of course. Right. But uh if you show up to IPMS Nats this year in Fort Wayne, he said it's gonna be 50% bigger than what it was last year in Virginia. That's insane. Yes, I know. It was already it was already gigantic.
SPEAKER_08You had to get online, it was a freaking like a 10 or 15 minute wait just to pay for things at IPMS NASA.
SPEAKER_06And people were happy to wait. No, and and the thing is, I was I was telling my wife about this because she we were talking about different hobby shops and everything. I said, Squad, I mean, there's there's there's some really good ones, of course. You know, Andy's and Andy's a good guy. Like Brandon is just a great, great dude. He is like you want you want to shop at his store. Like he's just a good dude. And he's a great service.
SPEAKER_05I legit have no need for anything at my current stage of my life cycle, uh, but I want to support him. I probably will end up spending money over there that I don't technically have. Um you know, with bills like that. I like the word technically. Um but since since my home store, quote unquote triple A and their online presence mega hobby, are retiring, yeah, uh, you know, um I think most of my attention, whenever I'm gonna need stuff, is gonna go to Squadron.
SPEAKER_08Listen, Brandon Lowe, who runs Squadron and his brother are fucking great guys.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they are, huh?
SPEAKER_08And when we did our charity auction, um they donated two huge models to our auction. They did a 16-scale Sherman for My Hard Kits or I Love Kits or whatever, and then they also donated a 32nd scale Hornet, Super Hornet from Ravel. And these are not cheap kits.
SPEAKER_05No. You said the word Hornet very aggressively.
SPEAKER_08Hornet. Hornet.
SPEAKER_06You know, I think he put in, and I think he even put in, did he put in a Dora, I think, for the uh auction again here? Yes. He probably did.
SPEAKER_08Listen, this is the this is this is what they do. They so they're great supporters of the hobby. So Squadron's great, man. So kudos to them. You got uh Boomer Books, which is um John Rosher here. He always has all the Copper State stuff, um, as well as other things. And then you also have um David Doyle, David Doyle books. David Doyle Books is here. And the one thing about David Doyle books that's that's interesting is the fact that David Doyle is also one of our distributors um for guideline publication magazines like Military Modelcraft, as well as other um, you know, periodicals, I should say. And David Doyle Books actually did a couple of things for guardline. He did the um Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_06I just saw one yesterday. It was uh was it half-tracked? I forget what it was.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he's done a few, yeah, which is really great to see that he does that stuff. So it's always good to see David Doyle here doing that stuff. Um, and uh also he's a great guy. And then you got obviously Angel for Micro World Games. Angel's another guy. Wow, he's got like every paint you need, so right, Nick? Yes, sir. I mean, you can take you three hours just to fucking find something.
SPEAKER_17Also you got Michigan Toy Soldier here too. Yeah. He's good too.
SPEAKER_06He's got a lot of VMS stuff. And if you go over to you know uh Micro World, I mean you got Rick Lawler there. You can just sit down with one of the best, one of the best guys out there and one of the best creators of of of works.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, I actually picked up one of those new AK books. The one with the signs and stuff.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yeah, that's right. That just came out.
SPEAKER_17Yeah. Angel had a dozen of them. I was like, I'll take one. He's like, okay.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I mean, listen, Angel's well, Angel is like a one of the retailers or distributors of AK products here in the U.S. And uh Rick always does do like on-site demos, and I respect Rick Lowell a lot for that because you have like these seminars that are going on at these shows that are like an hour, two hours. And Rick Lawl is sitting at that table willing to work with anybody who sits down just doing what he likes to do, doing what he likes to do for hours on it. Hours on, and he's just sitting with anyone. One of the nice, and I don't get enough time to sit down and talk to Rick at these shows because he's busy. We're also busy. Oh, we got another announcement here. We're gonna take an edit here.
SPEAKER_05I know that this is gonna be an edit, but kind of wish that uh 135th scale HE111 over at Squadron wasn't almost $200.
SPEAKER_06It's a it's a lot of plastic.
SPEAKER_05I know, I know, but I've always liked that bomber. I don't know if I need one in 135th scale, though.
SPEAKER_17It's tempting though.
SPEAKER_05It is 100% tempting. Very tempting. But I got child support to pay now, so yeah.
SPEAKER_08Well, back well, back to Rick. Rick is a fucking great guy. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I don't get an opportunity to really sit with him um enough at the shows. I try not to bother him because he is busy here. And I'm I do a lot here when we're here. Thankfully, this show I'm not taking any pictures for military Modocraft this year, which caused a little bit of a problem for Riv, that frees up some time for you to go ahead and learn some figure painting techniques. That's true. But me not taking my me not doing that and backing out doing that part of the show kind of cause a little snap food. Particular people here at the show.
SPEAKER_05Not the good kind of friction?
SPEAKER_08Uh no, and uh people don't realize the amount of time and work it takes to do that stuff at a show. Taking pictures and doing other things, like I can we can never run the podcast here. It's constant. And also, and who you guys waving to?
SPEAKER_05We're waving to anybody. Yeah. Do you just walk by and get a little bit more?
SPEAKER_08And um and and it's hard to you're an idiot. It's hard to do this stuff with the podcast and also be part of the show and then also do all those pictures. Yeah. Adam seems me. I sweat like a like a like a hoo-a in church? Yeah. That's some would say.
SPEAKER_05Pick at the slaughterhouse. Well, they may be whores, but they deserve to believe in God too.
SPEAKER_16Amen.
SPEAKER_06How many why why do you come to shows? Somebody hang out with friends who say things multiple times an hour, and all I can do is just stop. My internet my internet friends. Weird internet.
SPEAKER_08My weird internet friends. They're all weird internet friends. All right. So, you know what? We've gone on about 20 minutes or so on this one. We're gonna kind of sign off. Adam, you come back in a little bit later. Nick, you're not welcome back, but it's okay.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so is it what we should do? What we should do is let's when I come back later, and if you'll have me on the mic, I'll bring over Jeff. I'll bring over the like we can have the you know how the gang.
SPEAKER_08You know what? I mean, uh Justin's gonna be sitting at this table a lot today. I'm gonna be doing a little judging session.
SPEAKER_05I'm actually gonna go steal that other table over there so I can paint some while I'm here.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna do ACG, I'm gonna ACJ.
SPEAKER_06Um time do you have what what time is your ACJ shift? Um at 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_08So I'm gonna do a quick ACG session. I kind of showed Justin how to run the zoomer that records all this nonsense. Doesn't mean retained um so you know what to do. You hit the record button, then you hit the start button when you're done, um, and then you can mute the mics. I showed you how to do that, and then there's your levels. Everybody's at six, kinda sort of. So everybody should sign pretty much the same. And uh make sure people talk into the mics, and then we're good. All right, so Adam, I'm glad you're here, but you come back, dude. This is the we got four mics, and it's just me and Justin, Nick, like I said. Lose my number.
SPEAKER_06I'll bring back, I'll bring back I'll get I'll get the whole gang together. I'll bring them back around. Do you want to do noon? Noon sounds great. Why don't we do noon? All right, so we can go hit CJ's for lunch.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's good. What did you have?
SPEAKER_17Two eggs?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and a Belgian waffle. And a Belgian waffle. And a little bit of egg. The eggs were runny. Ugh. Disgusting. Were we eating the same eggs? Uh, you know what I mean. My eggs were nice and I gotta get back on my I should I shouldn't be eating until past 12 o'clock. I gotta get back on my intermittent fasting. All right. On that note, we're gonna sign off and we'll be back in like two seconds, alright? Alright, we're back. And uh listen, man, Adam is he he's comfortable behind the microphone now, I will tell you that. Did you realize listening back to episode the last episode, uh replacing Private Ryan with episode Frankie, if you when you listen back, he was moderating the show a little?
SPEAKER_18Oh yeah, no, no, he just naturally starts to become that bridge, that negotiator, that he definitely does a lot more hurting of cats than anyone's ever realized when it comes to the Adam is definitely in his place now.
SPEAKER_08Adam was a shy guy, and now he's like, you know, before you know it, he might be taking my spot over here on the insanity. He might be, yeah, he might be a bully.
SPEAKER_12I find that hard to believe.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, no. We love Adam, he's a big part of the group, and Nick is a great guy too. So that was a lot of fun. Listen, man, the conversation's here is great. Like you can hear like the background, everybody moving around, but we were really removed from like the main area because it's so big over there. It's like it's like this huge, like it looks like the warehouse, like we said. Um, I think you'll hear it later on. It's like the warehouse, like where they bring the freaking uh the Ten Commandments and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's like where they bring the lost arc at the end. It's like this big warehouse. That's what the outfit is. I remember getting exhausted just walking over to the restaurant. It was exhausting, this one, man. And it's like it's things are not close, and that's one of the problems there as well. And the judging area is like a fucking cell block, man.
SPEAKER_12And there's no lightning in the uh storage. That's a storage room.
SPEAKER_08It's a storage room, and it's probably and I said, Why don't you just set up the you should have set up the judging out here where the podcast tables we eventually went after all the nonsense that I talked about before? And they're like, Well, you know, you heard they say which is gonna be coming up soon. They've got a point of out. You know, we they didn't want to bring it out on the on the default boy where the display room was because they didn't want people walking through. That kind of really makes sense. Um Georgia's like a fucking um dungeon, but you gotta remember something. This is a show where they take models in the back room in Georgia, and when you're bringing models into the back room where it's like you can't see. Like you can't see, there's no light back there. So it's it's like almost it's like how can you probably look at anything when you can't see?
SPEAKER_12And and even though they have lamps, right? Because they have it in the trailer. You don't realize as we get older, yellow light doesn't work, low light, you can't see. We're getting older. We're all wearing cheaters now.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's just like I mean, it just they gotta they they gotta find a better way, but I mean, they're going back to this venue in 2028, man. You can't be judging the models back there. You just can't.
SPEAKER_12They're going back in 2028, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Because they signed a two-year thing. And remember, I mean, they're going against it. I mean, it's like, it's like, oh my god, it's like, is it gonna be like this year down here? I mean, I mean, I don't know what the final numbers were, but they were not good. They were not as good as previous years. That's for sure. You know, it is what it is. Alright, listen, we're gonna go to our next segment here. In our next segment here, we talk to our good friend Lee Fogel. Lee came on, and I love that guy. Lee's such a great guy, and uh, he's one of the most polite guys you ever meet. He's a smile on his face, not done a care in the world. He's just if you're having a bad day, like I was kind of having a rough, I was kind of pissed for a little while there. That guy made me fucking relax, man. He's such a good guy. Him and Adam Jackson together, those two. They're like um, they're like they're like the thing where they're like the wilted flower comes to life like after they pass. That's them. That's just the that's just the energy they bring. They just bring such positivity that you can't not like Lee Fogel. He's such a great man, and he's such a good person that uh he's always welcome on on the on the show and with the microphones and hanging out. He's just a great guy. And the same thing goes for my good friend Ashley Ashley Abenathy came on. Everybody knows Ashley, you know, 172nd scale armor guy from Virginia. He's good friends with Frankie Blanton, that crazy bastard.
SPEAKER_05Wait, that big dude builds 172nd?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, for Ashley does. Um, so yeah, so Ashley then Lee came on. That was a lot of fun. Ashley came on about like three or four minutes into the conversation. I brought Ashley in to sit down, and we had a good conversation, and it was a lot of fun. And we talked about a lot of things. These conversations on these live casts, we weren't just joking around. We were we were talking the hobby and the in the show, which was a lot of fun. So the next segment is with Lee Fogle, Ashley Abenathy, and sitting in for Justin Ryan is my good buddy Jim Gould. So we have Mr. Lee Fogle sitting with me. Lee, how are you doing? I'm doing great. How are you doing today, Rob? Doing great, Lee. You were with us last year at Camp Hill. You sat down for a nice long segment. I think he did with Bruce. Were you on with Bruce McCrae last time or no?
SPEAKER_01Bruce had come by right when we were in the middle of the segment that I was nice to sit in on. So yes.
SPEAKER_08I'm looking across the way and I see Bruce talking Mike Basquette's ear off right now. Yep, yep. Surprise, surprise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's well Mike's a sponge, he'll soak up everything and Mike is a very good listener.
SPEAKER_08He sits there and nods, and then he gives you those eyes and tells that that's when you know that he is no longer listening and wants you to leave. Well, we're getting another announcement.
SPEAKER_02But some people don't pick up on that hint. Right.
SPEAKER_08Hold on, we'll get let's let this announcement pass. This is an edit. It's different compared to last year. Well, I'm glad you said that, Lee, because the reason why is a lot of factors. Well, first I gotta say Jim Gould is here with me, my one of my best friends from Long Island, and my chauffeur slash Uber driver for this trip, Mr. Jim Gould is here. So, Jim, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Hi, Jim. Yeah, we gotta get Jim. Jim has been on the live cast, but I gotta get Jim on the podcast actually, too. But I gotta say this about why it seems like there's not as many people. One, it is definitely a little bit bigger, so people a little bit more spread out. But I also believe that the attendance is, you know, we we gotta see what the final numbers are, but I think there's a couple of contributing factors this year. One being that Fort Wayne, Indiana, is the host of the IPMS Nationals in just a few months. And a lot of people, you know, sometimes you get those aircraft guys, those car guys that, hey, you know, Amps Nationals, let's go for a day or whatever, and they'll come down and like, you know, we'll do a be a walk-in or a hangout. They're not gonna come to Indiana two times from the East Coast.
SPEAKER_02And gas price.
SPEAKER_01And gas prices. Yeah, for me. For me, I'm with you, Rob. I I had to decide between going to Fort Wayne or going to uh coming to Amps.
SPEAKER_08You want to sit down here? We're gonna get Ashley Abenati. And Ashley, sit down, my good friend Ashley. We got three open, we have an extra open mic, so we're gonna we're gonna do a quick uh add-on to this conversation here. And Ashley, hold on, we'll get him on before we start talking. So throw the headset on, Ashley.
SPEAKER_11Oh wow, I'm an official now.
SPEAKER_08You gotta talk right into the microphone. Once you get that on, I'm gonna open up your mic, talk in there.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, you sound so much better.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, there you go. You'll hear us great now. All right, so Ashley, you know what we're talking about? And you being a former, and we talked about this over breakfast, you being a former show chairperson of a very, very good Amps Nationals that I believed. Jim Gould will remember that's the at Nationals on the return trip that we got rear-ended by a car right before the out of ridge crossing over in Jersey. Um, how you doing, Bruce? Hey, real good, buddy. Good seeing you. Bruce McCray over here stopping by, say hello. Um and um the interesting story about returning from Anne's Nationals from Newport News was Jim and I both won best of at that show. Uh-huh. And that was actually the last show that that was a show I hadn't entered for years. That was a show that I entered and haven't entered since. But we got rear-ended, and both of our models got pretty much my model got destroyed. Mine, it was fixable. I fixed it. I definitely fixed it. But I will say that um it was definitely uh one of my favorite Ants Nationals. The venue was fantastic. So, as a show chairperson, former, how do you think that this is as a venue as you speak?
SPEAKER_11Fantastic. It's got great space. Uh, I wish the floor was softer, but yeah, it's a hard floor though.
SPEAKER_08It is. It's like a it's like a warehouse.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it's it's a warehouse, it's good. The lighting is not too bad. Um I haven't been in the judge's room, but that looks like it's a small space. Small in a cave.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the judge's lighting, unfortunately, is it was really difficult last night. Yeah, but that's you're being kinder than me. I was gonna be more colorful since I'm sitting next to Rob. But uh, yeah, it's lacking, unfortunately. So for the judging, it was tough for us last night. Um, but I will say yeah, I agree with you, Ashley, on the floor. The lighting's really nice, everything's nice and open, um, and you can see everything really easy.
SPEAKER_11So yeah, it's a great space. Uh the the the thing that really helps is when you have the models and the vendors all in the same space. Because if you separate it, people get confused. And but here, walk into one room, everything's there. One room makes a big difference.
SPEAKER_08Right, one room, everything's there. Ash you talk right into the mic, I guess.
SPEAKER_11I'm talking and yeah, you sound good.
SPEAKER_08You're good. I just want to try to get your volume up a little more. Um yes. The venue, listen, I don't want to badmouth this place too much. It's a big trip for us, so just off the bat, you kind of have like uh it's a little trip. Um I just feel like it's just like just too big. It's just really big for an IPMS Nationals venue type of thing, my opinion.
SPEAKER_11It's actually nice to be able to move around without tight. When we did the Fredericksburg show back in 11 and 14, it was tight. It was it was tight. Great place, place to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_02Especially for vent you don't want your vendor area too tight.
SPEAKER_08You don't want it, and it is spread out here, and like I said, the vending here is actually pretty damn good. Um and they have the weasel.
SPEAKER_11And they have a weasel.
SPEAKER_08They have a weasel, it's right, they are have a weasel on display over there. Um I was over by Hobby World, you want to say, or Hobby World, and the guy Matt is the person who runs that. And wow, man, he's got great prices and stuff on his stuff. I just bought he's got VMS pigments for two dollars a bottle. Um, some of the older VMS, which is still great. Two dollars a bottle for like a thing of uh pigments, that'll last you three lifetimes. You're gonna have enough of that. Right, it's not gonna go bad. No, it doesn't go bad, and uh his prices are excellent, and uh I definitely encourage people to go on his website, Hobby World. I think it's Hobby World USA, I think. Yeah, to be wrong, but uh you gotta go on there. So, Ashley, did you borrow anything yet?
SPEAKER_11I can neither confirm nor deny that at this time.
SPEAKER_08Well, you're a big 70-second scale guy. You said that you brought a lot of quarter scale, so I'm happy about that. So quarter scale is definitely the the that's like the perfect scale. I Jim's gonna disagree with me, but I think it's the perfect scale.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, we were talking about that over breakfast too. It's a it's a great scale. I'm surprised there's not more. Right. Uh to me is is the leader in that Bandai earlier. Hobby boss is kind of getting in there too. Hobby boss, yeah. And uh, but they stopped. They did the Sherman's and the T34s and stopped. Yeah, they came out with a challenger.
SPEAKER_08They came out with a challenger too as well. Challenger one, I think it was.
SPEAKER_11And the good thing about the Hobby Boss is those are full interior.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah, that was great. Yep, real nice kits. The Sherman line was excellent.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you know what? The the believe it or not, the T30, like the the KVs and the T34s and stuff in the Hobby Boss line are like scaled-down versions of the trumpeter kits. Because it's the same company now. Um, but they're great. And Lee, what did you bring to the show?
SPEAKER_01Um, I brought four things, uh, a Jeep with towing an M55 uh quad 50 cannon setup, um, uh Flack 38 from the old Family kit, uh, the old Italy M1340 Italian uh tank, and then I did a uh matchbox uh, you know the matchbox line that had little diorama pieces with it. I did the uh Firefly with uh going over the uh bridge. So I painted the bridge piece with the Firefly. So just small stuff. Um I was trying to get my Mercava hybrid done in time, but I just didn't I didn't want to push it. Nah. So I just went with this and that was fine.
SPEAKER_08You do good stuff, Lee, and you don't want to rush something for a show ever. Yeah. There's always another one. Once you find yourself, like I was I remember years ago when I would do can put stuff in shows and you're trying to get something done and you feel yourself rushing and not doing it the way you want it to be done, that's when you put it aside for like a week so you know you can have it ready for the show. Like you're never gonna get it ready now, so you gotta walk away. Um, Mr. Gould, I know that I know I saw the stuff that you did. We did the critiquing of our good friend Brad Belsheim, who was actually a gracious host. And you're still alive. I'm still alive, I didn't get killed. And he picked up the tab at dinner. Yeah, he's a tight ass, and he never pays for anything, you know. And he gave me a kit afterwards. Wow, he did. Wow. And uh, but it's very odd for Brad Brad to pay for anything. This is why he has, you know, he's a you know, he's a pretty well-off guy in some ways. You know, he's not a good looking guy, so in that essence, he doesn't uh he's not well off. But I guess financially he's doing pretty good for himself, and the reason why is he's a cheap bastard. You know, the the the cheap the rich ones are the cheapest, right? Uh Ashley? You I don't know if you know Brad well, so you saying something disparaging about him won't be too bad because it'd be even better, actually. Do you know Brad?
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_08All right, he's cheap. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um I'll have to point him out to you.
SPEAKER_08Um but yeah, but if I saw him, I'd recognize it. He's a great guy. He was it was uh an old joking aside, it was really nice. We had a good time. Um, it was fun. I was kind of resistant. I don't like sleeping over people's houses. I just don't do well. I don't do well in hotels. Justin's like you were tossing and turning all night. My back was killing me on the fucking air mattress again. I'm dying here. Well, that you know, talk about being cheap. Just get a room. Yeah, I know, but then the you know, my God, Lee, tell me you agree with this. Like, I don't know, Lee, who you're staying with, but like you gotta kind of mitigate the, you know, not that it's being cheap, but like, what do I need a room by myself? I mean, uh I gotta have a couple of people in the room. I don't mind sharing a bed. What's Dan? I s your sidekick. Dan, Dan took a bed because he's a large guy, and he can't sleep on an air mattress because he it'll never work. Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02You guys here have four guys in the room.
SPEAKER_08Four guys. One guy in the bed, one guy, one guy in one bed, one guy in another, and me and Lou on the two air mattresses. Okay. But the air mattresses are terrible on their mind. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02The other two guys get a room and chair.
SPEAKER_08I was having nightmares last night, like very bad intrusive dreams because I was getting sleep. Um, but you know, a restful sleep at these shows is good because you can be very cranky here, right? Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, I I got to bed just after midnight and then I woke up at 2 57 this morning anticipating coming to the show. Yeah. So I'm gonna be on fumes, but you know, it's it's awesome. It's it's worth coming, you know, it's worth staying up late and getting a little less sleep than seeing everybody for sure. So um, yeah. But I mean, no, I I got my own room on my own, but I'm staying about 30 minutes away at in Elkhart because I couldn't go wrong. So I got my room for $129 for the whole stay that I'm here.
SPEAKER_08That's phenomenal. What the hell is that?
SPEAKER_01It was like $40 a night. Yeah, it was $40 a night.
SPEAKER_08Sure, there's no dead hook is in the mat underneath the mattress?
SPEAKER_01No, I I did look when I came in the door. But he was scratching if he came out of bed. You got bed bugs? No, no, no, definitely not. That was the very first thing I did Ashley. There you go. You know, they they call those hotels the light on for you. Yeah, they did, yes.
SPEAKER_08Jeff Hearn will refer to those hotels as the Hotel Magadishoo.
SPEAKER_01So, as a side note, you're saying they leave the light on for you? Yeah. Um, you'll like this. I grew up in Alaska, as some of you know, and Tom Baudette is from there at one point, and he did the whole Motel 6 commercials, and he actually was the commencement speaker at the my senior uh graduation. That's that's interesting. You're from you're from Alaska? Yeah, born and raised. What part? Uh the interior, Anchorage, and then Homer, Alaska. So did we did you live in an area where you want like you know 20 hours of darkness? Uh when I was in Fairbanks, yeah. It was about four and a half hours of light that you'd get at the darkest point, and it was only, it was like behind the mountains. So you there was no sun in the sky. It was just bracketing behind the mountains.
SPEAKER_08That's gotta be fucking creepy.
SPEAKER_01Uh you sleep really good. I can imagine. I tell you that, you sleep like a like a log. So and in the summertime you're up. You're like, it's midnight, and you're like, holy crap, I gotta go to work. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So I'm glad you got a good room for a good route. Now, Ashley, on the other hand, is like Amps Royalty. He gets like the red carpet put out from Ashley's name. Listen, Ashley won a bet you won a best of last year, didn't you? Or a a special, right? Best braille scale? I got the braille scale. Right. Ashley always went something special. You almost won uh um was it the first year in Camp Hill? I think you you were you almost won a best of in, I think for you did a challenger, right? Did you do like a 72nd scale?
SPEAKER_11What did you think? You had a couple German pieces in 72nd scale.
SPEAKER_08No, two back camp.
SPEAKER_11You were very close. As we like to say, going behind the curtain. And so if I can get behind the curtain, you're always back.
SPEAKER_08You always get back in.
SPEAKER_11Usually every year.
SPEAKER_08You're pulling a 30 on something.
SPEAKER_11Oh yeah, I guess.
SPEAKER_08You should do good 70 second scale stuff. And listen not a lot of guys doing 70 second scale. Even an amps in our circle, if you look at this show, a handful of guys are doing 70 seconds because it's not easy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I picked up a 70-second scale kit. What did you get? Oh the Ace. Yes. Centurion? Woo! Ace Markets. I know. I built a couple of them, but I kind of got snookered into it. I was like, ah, 15 bucks. It's a little bit more. Not a bad for 15 bucks. It's a not a bad thing. Let me see the spruce. Hold on.
SPEAKER_08I'm going to do an on-mic review. We're not going to open it up. It's in the Ziploc bag. The tracks look who rubber.
SPEAKER_01The tracks are the two-piece rubber style.
SPEAKER_08Alright, it doesn't look terrible. I mean, it's going to be a tough build, though, I'll tell you that. Right. I did only I've only done one Ace model kit, and it was for the quarterscale. It was um a flat gun that I built for the quarter scale Opal Blitz and 48 scale. Um the well, quarter scale and 48 redundant. The quarter scale or the 48 scale Opal Blitz from Tamiya, I scratch-built the back to be like an Africa core with the flat gun. I remember that. And no one makes a 48-scale flat gun except Ace Hobbies. So I wound up getting it, and I had to make a lot of modifications to it just to bring it up to like a level. So, and there was only like one sprue. That thing's got like eight of them. So, Lee, I want a before and after review before you start that kit. Not of the kit, of your face. Okay. See how it aged you as you built it. All right, I'll see what I can do. I want, yeah, time lapse of Lee Fogel in the mirror. You know when people take pictures of themselves at the phone, like they're trying to lose weight with their shirt off when they're really chunky and like myself right now, and then I do like an eight, like a fat progression. That's what I want you to do, Libra. Do an ace progression?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's an ace progression, but make sure you keep your shirt on though. Oh, yeah, no, I would blind people with this whiteness. So, no, no, we're good. Um I will tell you one thing I've noticed the last couple of shows that I've been to. I'm noticing on pricing, and I'm wondering if anyone else is noticing this, that older kits seem to be actually, some of them even coming up in prices. Some of like especially the 35th scale older Tamaya stuff and um the dragon stuff. Definitely seems to kind of, I mean, at one point you could see some of those kits pretty cheap, you know, under 20 bucks even for some. Right. But I'm noticing the last shoes that I've been to, you know, the Cincinnati show last fall, the Louisville show, uh, BlizzCon this spring, and here. It's one thing I'm definitely noticing with that. And I didn't know if you guys have noticed anything. It's not much of a like a complaint, as much as it's interesting to see some of these older kits kind of starting to come back up in value. And I don't think it's collectors, I think it's builders. I really do. I don't know. What do you guys think?
SPEAKER_02I have off and on. It's I've seen it going both ways. Uh MosquitoCon that we were at just uh what two weeks ago now? Yeah, two weeks ago. And uh there was some fair prices, and then there was also some really great deals on stuff. Stuff that was should usually be say $40 per kit. I got uh for 20. I only picked up one kit, but that was the only reason I got it. I was like, okay. It was so there was a you know a deal to be had.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02But here I haven't really, you know, I haven't lost I I bought bulk so far, so I haven't even learned that.
SPEAKER_08I didn't bought any kids myself. You didn't buy any kits, right?
SPEAKER_11Not yet, but I'm looking around. I've seen some that are like uh wow. Surprise me. It's like I can go to the store right now and buy that for 40 bucks. And somebody had something for $175. Not going to mention the kit or anything, but you know, and and to add on to that comment, we did our ODO shoulder shoulder uh shop shoulder show in Richmond um just a few weeks ago, and we had a lot of estate sales. Yeah, right. And that is the thing that's coming in for the twenty dollar kits instead of the right, you know, the higher price stuff. So uh and and unfortunately, I think we're all getting to an age that that's gonna be a good thing.
SPEAKER_08Well, that was the that was the theme of the show for me, was age, and I said that uh you guys weren't here to hear it, and I would see get your take on it. That I I said to you, Ashley, during breakfast that like you know how like those organizations make like nursing homes or rust homes for like their members. I think AMS could get do very well with the nursing home soon for a lot of them. They're on to something. Yeah, we gotta build it. We gotta we gotta find some land. Well, no, we can do it. We can do it. You know, we should do it. I mean, that's a I mean I could be an entrepreneur, we'll franchise it up. We'll do just like we have region coordinators or region vice presidents, second vice presidents. Right. We can have like um rest home coordinators. Ashley, would you be up for one in Virginia?
SPEAKER_11Yeah, I work in healthcare, so it's it's not too bad. I think we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_08You know, we're gonna talk off air and we're gonna arrange this so no one steals our idea. Yeah.
SPEAKER_11I mean, we can do Amps Hospice and uh that way we can get the kits at the end.
SPEAKER_02What would we call it? Like the merchants in death?
SPEAKER_08Uh yeah. Because I said, man, it's like, you know, I mean, a lot of old men, um, but which is good. And uh, but back to the kits, though. Listen, you know, you got squadron here, and let's, you know, Brandon's gonna give you a deal, but they're not gonna you're not gonna get a great deal, but you will get a deal. But you're right. You know, like I said, this isn't back, you know, people like oh, you stay back in the day, always back in the day, but it's true. Like when you went to a show like in the 90s, maybe early 2000s, and you walked to a show like in Amps Nationals and you walked through the vendors, you were getting deals. I'm not saying the Gene deal where Gene gives you the bullshit uh fake deal that he's making it act like you're like he he's like doing a want to be your best friend. Right. I'm giving you the psychological test, like he always knew he was giving you the kit for $35. Reality TV. Right. He marked it up at $60, and then he and then he does like the whole like you know, Wink Martindale bullshit or whatever it is while it's going down. And oh, I'll give it to you for $35. Um, it was always gonna be $35. But he did give you a good deal. And there was times when you would walk to a vendor and you know you would say, Ah, well, I'm buying two books, I'm buying two kits. You oh, you know what, I lie. I'm gonna lie. I'm lying to the everybody who's listening right now. I did get a deal here. There was a Darius Miniature set of the Auto Blind. The Darius Miniatures does those resin sets that are like little wedgy vignettes. And I really like them because I like they are good for like this practicing painting. It's it's already a pre-made vignette and it's like half of a vehicle.
SPEAKER_02Get right at it.
SPEAKER_08The price was 28, he gave it to me for 20, which is a great deal because those can go up to $35 and they're not always easy to get. So I lied, that was a deal I got. Maybe because of my voice. I kind of, you know, gave him an offer he couldn't refuse. You sweet talk someone? A little bit.
SPEAKER_02Kind of like the uh waitress last night.
SPEAKER_08Oh, yeah, that poor girl we saw for breakfast today. We kind of she was kind of like uh everywhere. Yeah, that girl was overworked. But she was good, she was she was nice. But I will say this though. Um back in the day you got deals. You got two kits, two books, you're getting this, and they say, you know what, that's $120, give me 90. You don't get that today.
SPEAKER_02You know, and I'll say who? Say John Raucher. John does that? Yes. Last year, I'm trying to think, it was last year or the year before. Talking to Mike. Last year or the year before, yeah, it was two years ago. I was looking at uh like three kids to buy. And I was like, okay, do I want one, two, I'm like, John. They're at like say sixty bucks a piece. I said, you know, well what do you do for me if I picked up all three? And I so I picked up all three, and he, you know, and he cut me like 10 bucks off each. That's pretty good. Yeah, exactly. That's a good break. And then I was digging around, I even found a a third one or a fourth one. And it was an older kick. So he was gonna use it for it was the older terrier um Italary uh uh Crusader. Okay. And he wanted 25. I and he said, I said, what if I pick up this? And he goes, I'll give it to you for 15. And I said, you know, great. And even better, I got it home and it had fruit tracks.
SPEAKER_08Oh shit. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02I was like, score, right? Score, right? I was like, okay. Yeah. So not to mention he has, you know, he has tools. Yeah, we get all like the dot, the space, tools, and stuff. I mean, and they're sweet, yeah. You you gotta love that red stuff.
SPEAKER_08No, you do, and listen, John's a good guy. He's got a little thing with Copper State and um Vargas. So's Vargas stuff, the 3D printed Vargas stuff. I mean, I I was like, how's Louis doing? Vargas. He's doing all right. I'm like, he's been on the radio silence. People like think he died or something. You guys been no one knows what's going on with him. Um, I'm not a fan, you know, I'm not a big fan of like, you know, those big 3D printed kits, so I don't partake in them, but guys like Steve Santucci and them do. I don't know if you ever built those kits there, Mr. Uh Abernathy or Flea. Those um yes, I've got I've done one.
SPEAKER_01One it was okay. It was it was an early one about a year and a half ago, so it was took a lot of cleanup. Uh they've got their pluses and their minuses. I I mean you're definitely gonna see even more esoteric one-off stuff with the ability to do this. But it is a different kind of medium, and you can definitely see the quality differences. I mean, I think the 3D printing where it's gonna shine most is in the detail stuff, which is gonna make photo etch work a little bit different. And how we and we talked about that last night in our judging between ourselves is what are we gonna do when it comes to judging 3D printed parts versus somebody that does something the same part or similar part and photo etch. Right. So that's a dilemma. And that was one thing we kicked around last night.
SPEAKER_08That's the dilemma, right?
SPEAKER_11I mean Ashley, would you take 3D printing? I you know, you can be good or bad. Um and you know, I was I was thinking about um I do some sci-fi and I've gotten recently some 3D printed sci-fi ships. They're 24 scale, studio scale, and 32nd scale by a guy in Canada who's absolutely phenomenal and prints it in 8K and it's damn near perfect. Um I'm building a 30-second scale Y-Wing right now and have it lit up and all kinds of stuff that takes me back to when I was a kid, you know, and working in fiber optics and grain of wheat bulbs, um, and just really having a good time with that. Of course, there's no kid of that anywhere. But, you know, oh he designed his own kits and he can get it printed through him. And it's phenomenal. Now, of course, sanding is challenging with dust and stuff like that. I bet you wet sand, you're okay. Um and you know, when you're finished with that, you you can't see layer lines, you can't see print lines. But you do have some cleanup, and you do have some areas that I would say are still kind of uh you know short shot, you know, where it just the nice nice square kind of goes and it disappears, you gotta rebuild that area. Um but I that's gonna be interesting to see where that goes. I mean, I've seen some of Vargas's kits and just the the subject matter stuff is fantastic.
SPEAKER_02I mean one-off stuff, I mean it could fill in the holes that were in real life. You know, hasn't been made yet.
SPEAKER_11And you know, looking at the you know, the copper state models of the building of a lot of War I stuff, aircraft as well as you know, armor pieces, it's like I'd never even seen one of those things before. And now suddenly it's like wow.
SPEAKER_01And you bring up an interesting point, Ashley. You're talking about with lighting in the in there, is that with the 3D printing, they can do that where they set up where you have the place to put everything. So it's not it's a different it's not that it's any more easier to do if you're doing a comparable plastic model and trying to find the lighting because you still have to run the wires, you still have to do everything. But the fact that they can scan and print all of that basically for you, and it's up to you to your skill as to how well you can either hide those lines or integrate that stuff, it does open a door. I mean, I remember when you would see kits lit up and it just it was a showstopper. I mean, it was like, okay, even if the build wasn't super beautiful, but it was pretty darn good, the fact that they went through all that trouble, you're like, damn. But nowadays, it's just getting easier and easier for fucks fit feet folks to do that part of the stuff. Just like me. Pardon me. Um it's uh easier. I got George Collin on to do his own. But it is interesting to you can you bring that up in that with the 3D printing, they could do that and have that ready to run.
SPEAKER_11Well, there is a couple companies out there, uh Polar Lights is one that are bringing back the you know, the Enterprise and Klingon spaceship models. And uh, you know, if you get one of the large scale ones, it's a 350th scale. I mean, it's a three-foot-long model. I mean, if they're like the bird of prey and stuff, yeah. Yeah, they have it in the smaller scale ones of that set up so that the interior is already set with plastic, you know, panels and buffers and settings and holes and stuff. So you can buy their light kit. They come with their own light kits, they buy that they brought separately, you know, for like a hundred bucks, something like that. And then you integrate that in the kit, and now you've got it everything pre-lit, pre-wired, you don't have to do things from scratch. So the average monitor now has a beautiful representation of the spaceship, and all the lighting is done, is all put together for you, it's all right there.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna be in the right place, the right color.
SPEAKER_11There's a there's a little uh you know, attachment point, or there's a the hole to put the light bulb in, or there's a place to glue this down or glue that down, and the instructions tell you exactly how to wire it. Um fantastic. You certainly never had that before. No, as the only kit I've ever seen that had anything in pre-lighting uh and stuff.
SPEAKER_02And I bet you for if you have something that was uh the quality wasn't there, getting a hold of him to get you know, send you another replacement piece, it's probably gonna be a lot easier.
SPEAKER_11Yeah. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Mom and pop. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_11And in fact, I had to do that on those the two 3D ships I got. I got a 24-scale Viper from Battlestar Galactica series. Oh my gosh, it's gorgeous. And I didn't realize you can go in and recognize all the tank parts on that thing. Right. Uh Star was, you know. Wow, there's M48 connector links, there's a T30, uh T34 track, which is in the inside of the intake. It's like, what? I never knew that before. Sure enough, looking at the photographs of the miniature, there it is. He reproduced it. The back of the Y-Wing, in case you're wondering, has on the back, the back deck of the wiring has a German shovel on it.
SPEAKER_08Right, and if you have a look at the um the Adatts got a SD, uh it's got a 222 or 223 on the back. The butt the Y-wing. Yeah. I mean, you know about that too?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Hold on, you got to see. I wasn't a big Star Wars.
SPEAKER_11The back of the X-Wing has a Sherman hull. Yeah, yeah. Well, even the Millennium Falcon. Yeah, and it's uh to me a kit, I'm sure. It's it's great uh just to see some of the kit parts that are on some of the ships. And and this guy, and I'll I'll even throw out his name if I can, Alan Rivard, who's out in Canada. He just he's on Facebook, and you just message him through there and say, This is what I want. Oh, okay. I've downloaded some of his STL files, so when I get a 3D printer, I can do it myself. And you know, he just finished the the blockade runner. Oh wow, so I'm giving him I'm giving him a shameless plug here because I believe you know his work is just he does it himself. It's amazing. He's I think he's been in the industry in some in some capacity when he was younger. And now he does a lot of this stuff. And he you know, this blockade runner, you know, he designed, I mean, it's like four feet long. I mean, it's absolutely huge. Now it's it's pretty expensive to make because it's 3D. Right, right. But if you get it, you will get something that's just how many sections is that uh broken down? He broke that down to 1520 pieces? Holy at least means.
SPEAKER_08What is that? Yep.
SPEAKER_11Oh, that's a 222. Yeah, on the back.
SPEAKER_08That's the back of the ad ad. Oh, that's a trip. I never even see that. Yeah, the back of the adat because that's what they because what they did was when they were making these models, they were taking any available Tamiya and Ravel and monogram models, and they just dumped it on the table. Ever watched the video? There's a documentary of seeing them piecing through like all these bottle parts trying to figure out how to make these Star Wars chips.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's a few pictures out there where you can see rows of kits, the boxes, the kits on the wall, and they were like, we'll just grab them and take them.
SPEAKER_08Those guys were true model makers, man. Because that's what that movie was all about was this all model making. Today it's you know all digital, but back then it was the that was all conceived, but just all model making. Yeah, yeah. And uh that that's the that's the that that comes back to our original debate when we do our shows about like how important building is to this hobby, and that allows you to be creative in a lot of ways. You can be creative with paintwork. We've had that, I know that's that running debate that's been going on in the podcast world. Or you could do both, or you could do both, and you can do both well and have fun with them. But I mean, Star Wars is a good um a good indication of what it was like then to have really good modeling skills and imagination to boot. And you have a good imagination, Jim, because you do a lot of dioramas and a lot of vignettes, and when you do models, you don't just do a static model and put it on a base, you're putting it with some scene, telling a story, or doing something, and that alone takes time and an imagination because you know you don't do you're also a furniture wood maker, you do wood, so you do pretty look at Adam Jackson's coming by again to take pictures of his good friend Lee Fogo. There you go. It's gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_10I'm trying to avoid pictures here.
SPEAKER_08I'm not I'm not photogenic right now. Um worry about it. So, how about this? So, we're gonna we're we're we're going on about a half an hour here on this segment, so we're gonna cut this down. So, Mr. Leafogo, it's always a pleasure having you on. Thank you for having me, right? Good friend, and you uh you're always a big supporter. You're wearing an insanity shirt. Um, Jim wore one yesterday. Um I think Ashley has one. He should have had one. Um my modeling insanity shirts, my gray and black ones are like stretched spandex on me right now. So I gotta either get back into rib shape or like maybe get a larger size. So I am not wearing a shirt. Yeah, we gotta be home over. Uh Mr. Jim Gould, it's always a pleasure, my good friend. Do I gotta ride back home?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_08Am I getting a ride home? You gotta ride home. It's pretty good. I didn't I didn't complain too much from the back then. I was like, Dad, are we there yet? Shut up two more hours. Right? Okay. You're worried about Lou a lot. I was worried about, I'm always worried about Lou. Always worried about Lou. Um, Ashley, I love it. Ashley knows how I feel about him. Me and Ashley have one of the best pictures ever taken at an Amps Nationals. It's a picture of me looking off into the distance with my head on his shoulder, sitting on his lap before I think it was at Camp Hill, waiting to hear the announcements of awards, and there's Ashley with this ear-to-ear grin on his face.
SPEAKER_11Yes. And I was playing Santa at the time. You were, it wasn't even Christmas time. But it was and Rob was.
SPEAKER_08But that is a that is I I I love that picture. That's so funny. And that's what Antwerp's about having fun, being with friends, and enjoying yourself and uh talking the hobby and you know, it's getting away from the family for a couple of days, right, guys? That's it. Absolutely. All right, so we're gonna sign off and we'll be back with another segment. How we do it, I don't know, but we'll see who'll be on next if we can get somebody. I don't think there's many people want to come on anymore, but we'll figure it out. All right. Thanks, man. All right, we're back. And uh, like I said, me and Ashley Abenati had the best picture I think ever taken at an Amps National back in Camp Hill. Was it Camp? Yeah, Camp Hill 2023, a very much skinnier, much more um in-shape Rob Riv was sitting on Ashley's lap with my head on his shoulder, staring out to the distance, and Ashley had this smile on his face from ear to ear, which was very, very creepy, but it was so funny. So I I got that picture, and I gotta probably share it. I gotta try to find it. It's somewhere in my pictures of my phone, but wealth of information. We had a great time, that was fun with those two. You know, Lee's a great guy. I didn't know Lee was from freaking Alaska. I never knew that he was from Alaska. No, I didn't I didn't know that he was from Alaska, but we had some good talks and it was a good conversation. Just to break this up a little bit, the vending at the nationals was you know, I I bought some stuff. The Hobby World USA Hobby World USA was there too and he had um he was selling um Master Club tracks, but he was selling VMS and he had he was selling VMS pigments, the older pigments that are still great for two dollars a bottle.
SPEAKER_12Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_08No, man, I wound up buying a ton of it. Two dollars a bottle, a jaw and the jaw's the size of your head. Yeah, man, I didn't think of you. I should have been a good friend and bought more for you. But that was a bad friend and I didn't trust him. He's a better friend than me. But uh and I bought um no no kids. I didn't buy oh no, but um like I said, uh Squadron gave me the M2 tractors to review, so they gave me the blu gave me a kid B and P that I've been wanting to build. Um but I didn't put any kids. I bought a couple of like little details. Do you really need 'em? No, I don't. And that's why when we do the auction next year, I'm gonna wander. Probably putting in like 25 models. Frankie Perone was winning models at the raffle and buying models and giving them to me. He's like, Yeah, this is for the auction in December. I'm like, Frank, it's fucking April, man. I gotta take Rick home and find the highest rent. So, um, yeah, so it was a good time. The vending. Justin, you bought a couple of things, right? I did. Uh I got some VMS black super glue.
SPEAKER_05What'd you buy? Cuba glue. Jesus, you go through it that fast. I'm like, uh, no. But every time I buy super glue, I can't find it. So I bought extra so that I can find it. He goes, You gotta be careful though, because it does go off fairly quick. I was like, I'll throw a couple in my freezer just so I have them. But um I made the mistake of visiting angels section. I wasn't gonna buy anything. Money is tight, uh especially with the tips I was throwing out to the server in the restaurant. You were trying really hard, man. You know what, honestly, I didn't really have to try hard with her. She spent a lot of time just standing there chatting with me the whole time. Like, I you're a fucking great guy, man. You are a great guy. Ask Frankie Peroon. Frankie Perun makes a hell of a wingman.
SPEAKER_08Listen, I'll tell you, I'll tell you this. So this is a fun story here to break up this stuff. So I sleeping on a man, I got my air mattress, and it was fucking hard. My back was killing me. I couldn't sleep the first night. I slept on it at Brad's house and I slept on at the first night in the hotel. I was like, fuck it. I'm sharing a bed with fucking Justin. So here's Justin with his fucking C PAP machine on, and I'm sleeping next to Justin. I'm like, how do we do this? Do we go ass to ass or tip to tip?
SPEAKER_05You know what we both we've both gotten a little round so it wouldn't be tip to tip. Yeah, so me and Justin.
SPEAKER_08And it was a point where me and Justin were both farting while we were in the bed. It was me, Dan, and fucking Lou and Justin. So Dan is snoring so fucking loud. And I'm like, Lou, shake Dan, because I was so comfortable on the bed that night. It's so fucking easy. Lou gets up and does his little Lou strut over to the bed, and he like he taps his foot, he goes, Dan, stop snoring. And he goes back in the bed. I'm like, I got up and I fucking go went up to Dan and I fucking shook him. I'm like, Dan, stop fucking snoring. And then he fucking rolled over and he stopped snoring. And he didn't even remember he did that. It was fucking funny.
SPEAKER_05And then the next night there was a tornado warning.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, 140. Everybody's fucking phones and all of South Bend went off. And I'm gonna tell you right now, when they showed us the video from the guys in the Airbnb, it was pretty fucking scary, man. That fucking sky was swirling.
SPEAKER_12It goes grayish green, right? The sky goes grayish green.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, dude, the growling, I was like, holy shit, man, I would have been scared shit. But needless to say, me and fucking Justin sat a bed together. We kind of spooned a little bit. I was like, he wakes up, he's like, Where's your hand in like between two pillows? He's like, Those aren't pillows.
SPEAKER_05It is a good thing though that we didn't go belly to belly because if we happened to be do that shirtless, we might have been stuck for a long time when there was belly buttonholes suctioned together.
SPEAKER_08Dude, I I I slept terrible and I slept terrible for three days, man. I was having the weirdest worst dreams, man. When I don't sleep good, I was fucking I was waking up in the night.
SPEAKER_05Your dreams came from oxygen deprivation.
SPEAKER_12I had the last weekend of sleep. I was so exhausted on Saturday. I I actually laid down and around nine. I didn't wake up until 1 40 a.m. to go take a peek in the woods. I was sleeping on the ground and I actually, for the first time, just left for two night.
SPEAKER_18I wasn't even there.
SPEAKER_12And then he's not a water.
SPEAKER_18I mean, I think I bought eight. It might have been more. I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_08He does, he does, and I will say that.
SPEAKER_12That's the problem. He builds them as fast as he buys.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Ian actually did the stands for the coins. He's said giving up, he comes up with the other box of all the other stands. So Ian, thank you for the stands. Rob Adams is supposed to pay you. So I said, You want me to give you money? He's like, he's like, nah, Rob Adams is supposed to pay me. I'm like, excellent. So Rob Adams, he's a cheap bastard anyway. All right, so we're gonna go on. We're gonna go to our next little tie-in. We're not doing any ad spots because this thing is gonna be too long this way. So this is an ad spot free episode because we're doing these little cut-ins. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go into our next little interview, and it was with the chief judge Dave Vickers, and again, Adam Jackson was on. Like I said, Adam Jackson's everywhere, right? Dave Vickers is a great guy, man. He's a great model, he's probably one of the best chief judges we've had for Amps. Um, he's so down to earth. He's he knows what he's doing, and and and he's just a great guy, man. I I'm glad I can call him a friend. And uh and it's you know, he was really relaxed this show a little bit, maybe because there wasn't as many models coming in, but uh he was definitely a little more relaxed this time. And uh I think that uh the AC group, the ACJ group he had was pretty good. Um it made things a little bit easier for him. But it was great getting Dave on the show. Adam was there for a little interaction with Dave as well.
SPEAKER_05Before you get there, I did want to say uh I did get to uh I guess I guess you could say I had a beer with uh Dave Vickers Saturday night. And uh Neil Stokes came down, Dave Vickers was sitting there. Uh yeah, good dudes. Absolutely good dudes.
SPEAKER_08Like I said, Neil's doing a great job, man. Neil Stokes, I cannot say a bad word about him. Neil's doing a phenomenal job, man. He got he had food poisoning the first day. Poor Neil was having a rough time, and I felt bad for him. He definitely he recovered, he he recovered by the end of the show, but he was having a rough time. But Dave Vickers, man, kudos to you. You you you run a great show when it comes to the chief judging. Um, really good guy, man, and I respect you. And you just keep doing what you're doing. He's contributing to the magazine now, which I'm happy about because he does great work. He did some great pieces there. He had his Panzer III in the desert. He had uh his Tiger One that he's been doing, went to Whitewash, all in 16 scale. Amazing stuff. It's very inspirational. And again, kudos to you, Dave. So this is our little um this is our little interview with uh Dave Vickers and again Adam Jackson. He always seems to be there. So here we go. And this is on uh I think our fourth, I think our fourth segment that we're doing right now.
SPEAKER_05It was only a second for you, but it's been hours for us.
SPEAKER_08It's been hours for us, and everybody just weren't here. You're Dave, you didn't see the did you see all the people we were just here? There was a what about 30 people doing the rob? Does anybody have the bottle so I can show them? Everybody just drank this and you're gonna get a kick. So it's a tradition at AMP shows.
SPEAKER_03Um it's the Rob Rivs tolerance juice. Made with dough urine and what else? What? What is that, Rob? I don't know.
SPEAKER_08So Jeff Fern does this every year. It started with uh the the Nationals over in Newport News where they do the Rob Ritz Rob Riv Tolerance Juice, and it's like what You can tell you've been drinking it all. No, I didn't drink. I don't I I can't I would get a bellyache from this.
SPEAKER_03Um this was what it's dough urine, that's why.
SPEAKER_08Is that is it is it Scott's ball batch. Uh Evan Williams. All right, so everybody about how many guys were here? Like 20, 25 guys just didn't stand it. Which I really appreciate. That's a big following but a great bunch of guys. The Instanding has a big reach, I think. Um indeed. Definitely. So we have Dave Vickers on, the Chief Judge of Amps, um, obviously on episode 45 when we talked about Amps and the lead up to Amps National. So Dave is with us, and we have Adam Jackson back, um, who's pretty much, like I said, our the sixth Beatle. And Justin Ryan, who still has not been replaced, but his contract is up at the end of this week, and so we'll replace me.
SPEAKER_03So, Dave, how's so how's the show going so far, Dave? Uh it's going great, guys. Like, you know, before that though, you know, it's like number 45. So, like, can I get an insanity shirt with number 45 on it or something like that? No, we gotta get your shirt.
SPEAKER_08Cooch has been slacking with the merch. We're we're really bad with the merch right now. We gotta make sure we get more, you know what, we have to get more shirts, and we're gonna get them, and I will definitely send you a shirt. I don't know if we're gonna have 45 on it, uh, but uh we'll get your shirt.
SPEAKER_05Special shirt just for him with the number 45 on the left arm.
SPEAKER_08Maybe Spivey can work out something.
SPEAKER_03I'm good with a G string if you've got wells or something, you know. Sweet Jesus, whatever.
SPEAKER_06I thought it was weird. I thought it was it was weird sitting next to Justin.
SPEAKER_08Now uh Yeah, Dave can say put some pretty you know, he's an X-Marine. Yeah. Tank or two for the.
SPEAKER_05I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as an ex-marine.
SPEAKER_08Well, no, he's always a Marine, but he's a retired Marine. Former active duty.
SPEAKER_06Former active duty. Once a Marine.
SPEAKER_03Well, what we say is like the only way you're an X-Marine is if you got your ass court-martialed. So not X might be an ex-Marine.
SPEAKER_08I I definitely take that back. He is a former Marine. Um, and Dave can be very he could say some fucking crazy stuff. Definitely fits in with our podcast. I don't know if the mojo might get you on. Did you talk to the guys over there a little bit? I did talk to him and they summarily dismissed me, but that's okay. All right, well, that's Dave and my.
SPEAKER_06Well, you shouldn't have you shouldn't have said that you know Riv. Yeah. Well that was my problem. And then they heard there was dough urine stuff out there.
SPEAKER_08But like we said, I'm guessing weird. Well, you know, the the insanity name can only take you so far with some. Some it goes far, some goes nowhere. So it depends on the person. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh but I can understand that. I'm sorry, good. I I it's funny because when I'm in the shows and I get in cheap judge mode, I get really punchy and I start saying really weird stuff more than usual. Well, then you're at the right place.
SPEAKER_05That's a usual for me, just in general conversation. That is also true.
SPEAKER_08So we're good. Like I said, that we're you're happy, Dave, right now. Um right now at approximately uh 1224 on day two on the Friday, we have Happy Dave. Now, 1224 tomorrow, day three, might not be happy Dave.
SPEAKER_03A little stressed, maybe.
SPEAKER_08There's no reason to be stressed.
SPEAKER_03There really is. You know, I mean what you do is you're looking at how many models have to be judging, you know, in three hours you got an award ceremony. Yeah. So you don't want to rush the judges, but at the same time, you're like, we don't want to be doing an award show at 10 o'clock at night either. How how are you on the pace right now with what's been entered? We're we're doing really good. You know, that's the thing that's crazy about being chief judge is you're constantly watching like the flow, and we we did and we've had some shows where like the first night we get completely slammed. Like we have no room for entries coming in and we got to turn modelers away. And then some shows it'll be the second night, like on a Friday night, and then we get slammed. This one's been unusual, it's been kind of steady. Like we had, you know, 150, 200 last night, we had like 200 today so far, but they've been at a steady, reasonable pace, and we haven't run out of space, which is nice because I hate turning models away, man. They've got like their tubs of models, and they're like, and they've been schlepping them around like you know, halfway across the country, and then they finally get to the ramrod, we go, well, we don't have any space, you gotta come back. It's like, oh crap. You know, and I've been in that spot, and it's not fun, especially when you got big ass dioramas or something, but but I'm really happy to say we get enough room for everybody. And and the venue as far as the exhibit room, my God, I mean, this is really great in the fact that you know, we're not for those who've been around a while with amps, you know, we're in Java de Grace and we are literally shoulder to shoulder with people, and there's so much room to walk around out here, and it's so much easier to find the entries. Like if I need to find them as chief judge or just a spectator looking at them, you you've got space where they're not junked on top of each other. They're not nuts to butts. Yeah. Nuts to butts. I that's a Marine Corps thing. I was gonna say, they're not tip to tip.
SPEAKER_08Uh no, no, you're right though. And and that, and that's something that's good about this particular like we talked about Camp Hill, and Camp Hill is great.
SPEAKER_03That's another great one.
SPEAKER_08Great for the judging. Um, I think that this the spread of the display room is a little bit better here because of the space. Um, but uh it has been consistent. I'm gonna tell you right now, Chuck Rothman did a lot of the ram rotting, especially yesterday.
SPEAKER_17Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, and uh I was gonna go jump in, like I said, to help him. I was like, Chuck's got it. You know, Chuck's got a system. He does. You know that everything that came in while he was there came in with no issues.
SPEAKER_03Uh no, because I I gave him crap about one that really he took in a Confederate Civil War gun on the right. Oh, that's Chuck Bo. And I'm like, Chuck, what are you doing, man?
SPEAKER_05Painted it up in German count, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, German Confederate. It's really weird. No, no, he he he's like, I I'm sorry, I didn't catch it. So I only tell that I because Chuck is let me tell you, we would have a hell of a time doing a show without Chuck Rothman. He he's an unsung hero. He completely designed our database, which makes yeah all the scoring much easier. I mean, back in the day, we used to hand jam all of this, and if you can imagine that for six or seven hundred entries, oh my god. But he made it so much easier.
SPEAKER_05I don't know if Chuck listens to his back to hand jamming.
SPEAKER_08I don't know if Chuck listens to the show. I don't think he does, but I will say that um I don't know if you listened to the last episode, the replacing Private Ryan, The Road to Amps National is unscripted, which is a great show. People loved it.
SPEAKER_03I saw the AI generated version of that.
SPEAKER_08We get a lot of downloads in 24 hours, man. And even in 48 hours, it's far exceeded my expectations. Because people were excited to see Justin go, I think. That's what they listened. But besides the point. Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_05Fuck those people.
SPEAKER_08But the reason why I bring up Right. The reason why I bring up that episode is because, Dave, I don't know if you listened to it. You probably didn't because you didn't bring it up. I do go on a little riv rant at about the the 25. No, maybe a little later than that. Maybe like, yeah, maybe like midway point. Right? Adam, Adam was there. And I brought up the webpage of how difficult it was trying to find how to judge for judging. How I was looking for like 15 minutes and I was flipped flipping it out. Right, Adam? Well, that's only for you.
SPEAKER_06I've been trying to defend them.
SPEAKER_03We have you were defending Chuck. We have it designed that it recognizes Rob Riv and then we make it very hard. It complicates it automatically. It's an algorithm, which it is.
SPEAKER_08I tried to I tried to emphasize that uh Chuck does a great job with the website. He works very hard. He does. But I had to reverant on the fact that I it was so damn difficult to figure out how to uh uh sign up the judge. And I said that it was easy to access porn. It's easier to find pterodactyl porn on the hub. I was like, you know what, make it like Pornhub where it's like this one click and it takes you to where you gotta go. Are you gonna are you gonna put that in the evaluation for in the comment section? Chuck Chuck didn't listen to the show because he came up very friendly before. So I was like, Chuck definitely didn't listen to the last podcast. Um but it was an all it was a riverant to get like it was definitely I was half serious, half joking, trying to make fun a little bit, but I'll take that under consideration.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well listen, Chuck does do a good listen. I'm not gonna use the porn hub reference, but yeah, I'll I'll do that. But yeah, you you know, I mean just fine. There's so much information that goes on the show thing, but you're you're right. Uh but you know, my little rant about the whole we did the whole pre-sign-up for judges, and I took some crap last year because I qu I kind of got fed up with the pre-registration thing because first of all, there was only like like 12 or 14 guys that would sign up early for their judges thing, but they'd do it like two months before the show, and then they couldn't remember what they signed up for. Right, and then I had to transpose their names onto the the sign-in boards outside there, which took me a while, and uh because you know, because I had to find it on the website, yeah. I had to get through the Rob Riv algorithm, and then after I did, and I was like, oh wait, it recognizes me, it was very easy. Yeah so I know you're challenged, Rob. But I am, I am. I have definitely special needs when it comes to accessing things like that. So so anyway, I I I I was getting really frustrated because then guys, then they'd get at the show, and even though they had pre-registered to sign up for a certain shift to judge, they would change their mind and decide, no, you know what, I'm gonna do it like four hours later. But then they wouldn't change it on the side. And then they're like, oh, and we uh I shouldn't say that. Well, it's an open book. You can be honest. We almost had a fight between two judges because one guy had pre-signed up and another guy was already sitting at the table. Ah and and they like almost went to fisticups. Progressive expansion. So I'm like, it's judging models. Right.
SPEAKER_06So that's another example of you're taking this a bit too seriously.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, like well, I can appreciate the the the what's the word?
SPEAKER_06Um passion.
SPEAKER_08The passion, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Wait, thank you for your passion. Let's talk about constructive ways to channel this. Thanks for your passion, but chill, bitch. Right. That too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03No, what was this? I mean, but that's extremely rare. And the guys are really cool. And this show would not work if all these guys did not jump in and help in one way or another. And they do. Right. I mean, I get I I only had to jump on the mic once. I was a little concerned last night. I had one judging team, and I had one this morning. So I when I finally got the PA system up and running, I'm like, okay, you knuckleheads. I I got 400 models back here, and I got one judging team. So, you know, if you want to see your model anytime during this show, yeah, you need to get back there and jump in and help. And they did. All of a sudden, I had six teams run running, and I had two diorama and vignette teams going.
SPEAKER_08So you need solid teams on the vignettes and dioramas, though. I think you need a really solid team.
SPEAKER_06That's the one I I need some real training on.
SPEAKER_08Because I've I've I I feel pretty comfortable with the standard the standard uh armor and our I hate saying it, but uh I don't you don't you know you remember doing the old school where you d judge the dioramas and vignettes on the table. Yeah, well I changed that when I was. Yeah, no, no, and I think it's a good way to do it. It's perfect, it can't peel because of the lighting, but the lighting in there, I don't know. You have a tough time maybe seeing all the intricate details on a diorama. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Well, some dioramas are at night, so it it works out well, Rob.
SPEAKER_08Some are meant to be viewed in the DVD. They directly get better scores. Did you bar did you bar anything at the vendors? Like, oh, you just like total show and no enjoyment.
SPEAKER_03Like my ass as a modeler would stay on this side of the show. Are you kidding me? I was like first in the line and all that. You know, I mean, that's one of the things that's great about Amps is you've got all these super guys that we all know, Squadron and Angel, you know, and and and you got Rick Lawler of it. He's one of my favorite modelers, by the way. Yeah, Rick is great.
SPEAKER_08Great guy. We talked about Rick before when we were talking, great guy, man.
SPEAKER_06The only thing that's better than what he creates is his is him as a person. Yeah, that's such a good man. That's why I love him.
SPEAKER_08And he takes the time to show, he'll sit there for hours. It does and won't complain.
SPEAKER_03He'll just sit there. And he'll be patient. He does have a great sense of humor, though. He was trying to show me these AK like uh easy paint things. They were not easy for me. And I mean, I go, well, I go, I go, that looks bad, man. That I I go, that I don't know. This looks like a like a fourth grade modeler did it, and then uh like I was trying something different later. I go, what do you think of this, Rick? And he looked at me and he goes, a fourth grade modeler.
SPEAKER_06So I guess well, that's very candid of you. Thank you for that feedback.
SPEAKER_08No, he does he's got the patience of a saint over there, man. He does. And he's he does. He hasn't stopped, hasn't stopped over there, though.
SPEAKER_03But I mean, these vendors, man, they they come like if for you guys if you haven't been to a an amp show, if you're into armor modeling, I mean, it's great because you have it kind of like all in one space and you save all the shipping. That's what I tell my wife. Uh just like, honey, I'm saving all this money by Album being right there.
SPEAKER_06I spent $500, but I saved $50. So I actually saved $50.
unknownThat's right.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05You know how much this would have cost if I didn't buy it here? Right.
SPEAKER_08Well, we talked we talked about the vending before, and uh this is a good show when it comes to the vending. David Doyle Books, I mean, he's a guardline public for the guard line publications. He he distributes, he actually has done books for us recently, and the stuff that he's been doing has been fantastic. Yep. Um, I mean, uh like I told Dave, this Dave is starting to get involved in the publishing, he's starting to see the other side of the hobby, the dark side of the hobby. Yeah. But it's also the that's that's the celebrity part of the hobby. I don't know if Dave Vickers is up to gain celebrity a little bit. No, not that. I think you are, man. I think you are. I think you gotta get outside of Amps and expand your horizons.
SPEAKER_03They kind of know me as the guy to go yell at at Amps. You are that I like that title.
SPEAKER_08I'll tell you, the Tiger one looks great, Dave. I love it. The tiger one looks great, it looks really good. I mean, you know I love Panzer III, so that's a shoe-in. But did you see Dave's 16th go? Diorama's opening.
SPEAKER_06I well, I uh I I remember looking at um Give me a minute, I'm tired. I was up until 1:30, thank you very much. I'm tired. That's like 12 hours past my bedtime. Wow. You saw them, right? Oh, you saw my other show? Yeah. No, they're they're amazing. They're excellent. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I mean, there's not a lot of sixteen scale dials you see, not often.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, I'm glad to see it make a comeback because, you know, uh, you didn't have much of a choice like 15 years ago. No, no, no. If you could find some out-of-production Berlin figures, you know, and or buy a to me a RC kit and convert the damn thing for $2,000. You know, that was that was your only choice.
SPEAKER_08Well, there's a rumor, there's a rumor that some a couple people might um request or like give in consideration what the next theme award should be. And one is 16 scale armor. Large score, big boys, which I per which you know, I've been I've built a lot of 16 scale over the last year or so with all the stuff from Gecko and Andy and all those companies, but it does work. But uh I think it's a actually a good idea. I mean Hey, hold on.
SPEAKER_03The chef's coming to take your order, I think. Yeah, we're hungry. Hey, how's it going? Sorry, I was thinking about hamburgers. Because I only listened to you like half the time, Rob. I know. Well, okay.
SPEAKER_05He's got a lot of words. He does have a lot of words.
SPEAKER_08You gotta get it, you gotta get that you gotta get that that um thing that they used uh on uh a Christmas story where he has the decoder. Where like he can just decode like just only worlds, right? There's a there's a secret code in what I'm doing. Stupid ad. There is a commercial?
SPEAKER_05I was thinking more of uh the movie Amadeus. Too many notes. True.
SPEAKER_08No, but 16 scale big boards, I think, is a great idea for a theme, actually. Um, but there is a lot of kits available and it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03And I get asked, like, okay, Vickers, how do you come up with a theme? It it literally is we have a general meeting and then we take all the ideas the guy starts shouting out these themes, so I write them all down, and then by a show of hands, we come up with a vote or what's gonna be the theme next. And then my ass job is to figure out a whole definition of what that theme really is. Yeah. Which, you know, I it's funny too. Like this year's theme is Vietnam. And I got I got some emails like I tried to make it as easy as possible. I said, okay, look, any vehicle that fought within the geographic of what today is Vietnam qualifies for the theme. And they're like, you can't limit it to that. The Vietnam War was also in Cambodia and Laos, and I'm like, oh shit, here we go. Right again.
SPEAKER_05But it also began in the late 50s, so shut the f up. Right.
SPEAKER_03And I'm like, I'm like, look, I I'm including like the French at Dienbin Fu for crying out loud. You know, I mean, I I think I was pretty lenient.
SPEAKER_05We're going with time, not geography, motherfucking. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Well, listen, I every year, like like Dave said, people do shout out raise well, I mean, they should raise their hands and then say it, but people do shout out. And every year, I usually say naked models, and they say everybody, and everybody goes, oh.
SPEAKER_05It's like that's just because they heard your voice. That's yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because you got this Pornhub. That is Pornhub thing. You know, that would be a good theme.
SPEAKER_08But I think we're back. Listen, we're back. Vietnam is broad, but like last year was Africa. So like Africa's like really, right? Africa was no Armacon was Africa, right? Was it Armacon Africa?
SPEAKER_03I don't know if I think Armacon.
SPEAKER_08What was all the theme last year at the at the Nationals? You remember the theme?
SPEAKER_03We did have an Africa theme.
SPEAKER_08Oh, is it Africa or the Amps Nationals?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So like that's so broad. Yes, I think something like that. But Africa was last year's nationals, and that's like a really broad theme because there's so many, like anything that was ever like drove on African soil.
SPEAKER_05I mean, for crying out loud, you could do a diorama with reigns. Yeah. I admit.
SPEAKER_03I saw a giraffe driving a Toyota.
SPEAKER_08I played that one just when uh Sean said it on the podcast. I played Africa in the background. Dave, you were saying something?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I said I I saw a giraffe driving a Toyota in that theme. I mean, anything goes.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You know? And that was a broad. I didn't even know they could drive.
SPEAKER_08You know what?
SPEAKER_06Especially Toyotas.
SPEAKER_08That was a broad. You know what happened.
SPEAKER_06Only with sunroofs. They can just not stick shit.
SPEAKER_08What's the what's the average number of models in a show that would be in consideration for a theme award? Do we know what the numbers are? Is it like 10%? Why are you coming at me with magic? I don't know. That's something that that's something to think about. Like how many technical answers. You know what? Last year there was a snafu with the theme of the theme award. What happened was is we announced somebody else who won it, and in fact, it was somebody else who won it, our own Frankie Blanton. And we didn't realize it, Dave, until I was doing the photos for military monocrit.
SPEAKER_03It was it was a bet it was a best of. It was Bretch best Commonwealth, I think.
SPEAKER_08No, no, no, it was a theme award. No, because Storm Picard won Comedy won Commonwealth, yeah. No, no, no, it was the theme award. We thought that a person won it and we missed it was another Valentine.
SPEAKER_03Another Valentine. It looked exactly almost exactly the same. Exactly.
SPEAKER_08And it was Frankie Blanton who actually won. And I realized it when I was putting together the oh, we thought Mike Carroll won the theme award. And it was actually Frankie Blanton. And I realized that when I sent Mike Carroll a picture of, because when I take pictures for the magazine and going to put it in, I always send the picture of the picture I took to the person because it's like a thank you. And the pictures, you know, this is the picture that's going to be in the magazine, and this is what it's going to do. And I sent it to Mike Carroll, and Mike Carroll wrote back to me, That ain't my model.
SPEAKER_03And it's not mine. And that's Frankie Blanton's.
SPEAKER_08Are you sure that's the one that won? And I'm like, it is, because I took a picture of it immediately after it was selected.
SPEAKER_03Hey, and and you know what? That whole thing, I I really hats off to both of those modelers for their like, hey, totally understand. We were mortified. Yeah. So that's a mistake that happened. Yeah, and you know, we're human.
SPEAKER_08Those are life for amps guys, so they were definitely not going to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_05I think next time two modelers should not be building the exact same model. Yeah. Let's let's blame the victim in this case. Good luck.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, we've already got a Valentine in the show. You can't enter yours. Yeah. And they both did a great job.
SPEAKER_08They both did a great job on it.
SPEAKER_03They did. And and they look, and there was something weird like their entry numbers were very close to one another, like you could transpose the numbers or something. They were.
SPEAKER_08I you know, we're gonna blame somebody here, and I'm gonna blame them. And it's gonna be in a joking way. And he knows if he's if he listens, I'll go on Kurt Lock Lachlan, right? Kurt, who takes the stuff off the table. Oh, right. I love Kurt.
SPEAKER_18I don't think he's here this year. Yeah, he's yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_08He's never good. He's our runner for best of. Are you kidding me? Poor Kurt has to deal with all the chips at the end, the poor guy. He's the best though, man. I I love that guy, and I'm gonna say that before I say what I'm gonna say. He's he's a great guy. He's a listen. I know we go at it on uh oh, we're gonna buzz here. Hold on, from somebody. Hold on. It's the Robert Talent shoes. Uh no. Um, I um we we go at it on Facebook sometimes because he's very technical when it comes to things. He's so knowledgeable on vehicles that like he'll give you a critique and he can see that's why he's my best up runner, because he knows exactly what to look for. Right. But what happened was is when he took that model, I think Mike and Frankie's models were right next to each other. And they were both Valentine's, so when he took the paper, he saw Valentine.
SPEAKER_03So he took Mike Carroll's paper, but took it was Frankie's It It was kind of a comedy of errors, you know, like uh one thing on top of another, and next thing you know, we had this snafu on our hands. But I'm happy to say, you know, that is extremely rare at the show. I mean, we we make other kinds of mistakes. It was like Chuck taking in a Civil War gun last night.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, what's the cutoff of it? No, but what is the there is a cutoff though, and that's something that we've discussed, but there is a cutoff of the time period, right?
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, there is, and but it it's generally the uh close to the turn of the century. But it gets a little tricky. Like we have another uh gun that was like uh entered and it was like from 1860, and I thought, okay, this is a problem. But that particular gun was used up into the 1940s. So we're like, okay, if it's portrayed as one that's interwar years before the 40s, okay, I can live with that. But the one that Chuck took in, it literally has a Confederate soldier on top of the gun. I'm like, okay, that's definitely not inner war, unless that dude was fighting for like 45 years. Yeah, you know, that's a bit of a dead giveaway.
SPEAKER_05Like that Japanese soldier that 70 years later comes out of that island still fighting.
SPEAKER_03Right. Exactly. So with his clothes should have been all torn up or something, I don't know, fallen off. But anyway, so yeah, but you know, when you have this many entries coming in at the same time, and and I love all these guys, all these guys that are my judges, they all bust their butt to do this. And they do. And and and uh most of our modelers that you know they're also judges, but even the ones that don't judge, they're very understanding with our crew, and we appreciate that. Um, you do have some personalities every now and then, and that's my job as a chief judge to do that. I remember I had um I was just telling this story the other night. I had this lady come in, and one of my judges came out and they're like, You gotta talk to this lady, and she's like, This was I don't know, maybe five years ago, and she's she's like, uh, I need to talk to you. I understand that you actually move my art, and I am an artist, not a hobbyist, and no one will touch my art. Do you understand that? But she said that oh yeah, she was very defining.
SPEAKER_05I hope your response was shut the fuck up, hippie.
SPEAKER_03Well, I was that's I was I was kind of thinking that, but but I told her, I said in a nice way, and it's true. I said, I'm gonna assure you that all of us here are artists, and we are gonna treat your art just the way we would treat our art. And I said, So your choices are we're either gonna move your art like we move our art, or you're not gonna get judged. So she ended up finally, you know, relenting.
SPEAKER_06Not Did she have you did she have you sign a waiver?
SPEAKER_03She was Yeah, had to take out insurance. Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_05Your your banana duct tape to a plain canvas is not going to be harmed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and and and and I mean in fairness to her work was was pretty good, but uh but I'm like, my God.
SPEAKER_08They don't understand, and uh they don't understand the uh the the fact that things will be moved or touched. And then we do this is a debate that we had on the podcast when it came to that issue up in well, was it just in the the I don't want to get into it here, but the the touch into the car model up in uh PACCOM. And uh me and uh uh a a well-known guy in the amps who I'm not gonna name again here, and the people who listen to the show know I went after him a little bit, about touching models and amps. But amps you're moving for a specific reason. Yeah. Move like models are being moved to categories, they're being picked up and put on trays and judged and put on trays and moved. They're not being handled or touched with bare hands.
SPEAKER_03Never.
SPEAKER_08And if Dave sees you touching a model with his bare hands, he's gonna say something to me.
SPEAKER_03I will kill you. The Marine won't come out, and you'll get the knife hand and I will summarily summarily drag you out.
SPEAKER_08I said this before on our show, and I'm gonna say it again, and I made Dave blush, and I'm gonna say this. Dave is the best judge, head judge we've had at AMS, and you know. Listen to that. And he must have the patience of a man. And he does, but the problem is the thing is Dave is the reason why Dave is such a good judge is because he's also a very good modeler, and he also, and he's an AMS master, which is another thing, um, but he also knows what you should be looking for, and he knows the way it should be done, and he knows the system, and that's a problem in other organizations where a lot of these judges are doing things and they don't have an idea of what should be done and how to do it. And when you got a good person who's overseeing it, which Dave does, it makes the process that much easier and more efficient, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_03I I appreciate that, and yeah, I am blushing a little bit, but I'm actually looking right over at the guy who taught me everything I know, and that's Mike Petty. Yeah, uh, he's been uh Mike was great. Mike was great. Don't offense to Mike. Mike was fantastic, and and he really kind of he's the guy who actually came up with the standardization for judges because before him it was just kind of like an IPM show, like, hey, you want to judge? And Mike said, no, no, no, no. We're we're gonna be trained to a standard here and and do this. And I and I've just kind of built on top of that or tried to. And uh Mike was much more anal than you.
SPEAKER_08He was you Well, I'm not into that. Yeah, we don't need to we don't need to go. He was Mike, Mike, Mike was my you know, one thing about Mike Petty, and and God bless Mike, he was Amst president, he was like again, head head judge, chief judge for a long time. Um Mike Petty is he's a tough, he's a tough judge, man. He's tough. And you know, you have to be tough. And we were talking about before how we talked about in the judges' training, or we talked just talking about this in general as a group, about like that people complain that maybe the judging has been a little soft and the people are getting a lot of awards, but it's also indicative of how well people have gotten in the hobby.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_08You know, that's people doing better and getting better awards is because they're doing better.
SPEAKER_03That's right. The the the quality that and I can say this because I've been judging at AMPS for I don't know, over 15 years, maybe 20, and the quality is a lot better. And and one of it is like it's a lot of these are the same guys every year. So obviously, unless they're just stagnant, they're gonna get better just out of experience.
SPEAKER_08That's the reason we do this, is like there's a reason for the skill levels, it's a reason for the seminars, it's a reason for it. It's to get people better and exactly better. And that's Arthur Diaz right there. The newest AMPS master from last year. There he is. Holding a model car. He is. He's a good modeler, too. Yeah, very good modeler. He's he's what the master's about, too.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, you hit the nail on the head. I mean, if if your listeners out there, if any of you've never been to an amp show, just come to if you don't bring anything, just come to look at the stuff and shop. I mean, it it's pretty inspiring. I'm always inspired after I do an amp show.
SPEAKER_08Why is Aaron Skinner using a flash for models? We have to have a talk. You don't flash models when you take pictures of them. You don't settle down. Make sure you talk. It's almost like he knows what it's almost like. Yeah, it's something like I know how to take pictures, I guess. Um listen, Dave, I know you got to get back, and we've been talking for a good wow, we've been talking for almost a half an hour. Oh, half an hour and a button. Um, always a pleasure talking to you. I will be in there with you in a few hours to help. I will definitely try not to talk too much, and I will be a teacher. There'll be teaching moments from Rob Rebecca. No, I like to be Rob, but I do like being. But Dave, I appreciate you. I really do, and you do appreciate it. I appreciate you guys. All right, thanks, Dave. I appreciate it, guys. All right, we're back, and uh that was uh Dave Vickers, man, and uh Adam. And listen, Vickers is always having fun, man. He's always always you know joking around, having a good time. I was glad that he had took some time to come over to the table. He came over at a little bit of a downtime, which was good. He was able to get a little bit and give me his take on the show. Again, Dave is great, man. And Adam Jackson, man, I think we should guess we should just bring him on as the sixth beatle.
SPEAKER_18Something bad happened to the George Mills. I mean, let's just fuck up. Yeah, we'll just leave it like it is because this way we we would hate for Dr. Field good to end up on like opius or something at the Airbnb.
SPEAKER_05We can shuffle and shift into a traveling Wilburys type mode rather than just the Beatles.
SPEAKER_08You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_05Um, I was actually listening to the episode where you guys were interviewing for my uh my role, my position. And absolutely Adam Jackson or Frank Carone, the two of those, it would have taken a minimum two of those guys to take my spot. Those two would be my first picks if I had to pick my replacement.
SPEAKER_08Listen, Adam is a great guy, he's a big part of our group, and he knows he always has a place here as a guest, and uh maybe we'll take a fucking uh you know what? Rob Adams might need to take a break. Alright, so then so what we're gonna do is we're gonna go into we're gonna talk about our next guest that's gonna be coming on the show, and that's Jeff L. Jefe Hearn, again, the originator of the Rob Ridge Talent Jews. Thank you, Jeff. He came on for a little bit. This was one of the shorter interviews, but Jefe came on, he took the mic, it was a lot of fun, and uh, you know, we you know, you know, he's always you know, he's very you know, what's wrong with the computer? He's on the edges, he's intimidating, he always wants to hurt me. Other than that, it was a good little talk we had with Jefe, but Jefe only was you know, only had a little bit of time. He jumped on the mic, and this is what we talked about. So Jeff Hearn from Squadron. Thank God I gotta get the fuck out of here. I'm tired. This is a crazy show. Um lot of stories to talk about, not here because there's people listening, but when we do our recap show, um, maybe where these cut-ins, or this might be its own show. I think we're gonna do its own show. But when we get home and we do our amped recap show, there's a a couple of river ants that might be woof you uh for the books.
SPEAKER_05So you you just don't want to have any live retribution?
SPEAKER_13Now he just doesn't want any witnesses.
SPEAKER_08Right now I'm just trying to get away. No confrontation. Um we got we got Jeff El Jefe Herm with us. Um my um we had to get him on. Uh he was watching me with disdain. Um that look in his face was disgusted with me. Lies um if anybody saw um on Facebook, and I don't know if anybody did, there was a nice little thing that too um tooch. Holy shit. I got Tooch on my mind. Um That's weird. El Jefe, and I was just talking about Santucci like two minutes ago, that's why. El Jefe does the Riv Rob Rivs intolerance juice. And this time you actually made a really fucking cool bottle. Let me see the bottle again over there. I I love that you used the picture that my daughter drew from our podcast logo, which was really funny, and you did like did you AI that it's a mix. Well, whatever, it should be because it's really fucking funny. This is what the mix. But the best part about this, which I really do appreciate, Jeff, and I know that you this is the running gag now for X amount of years, um, is the amount of people that came over to the table yesterday to do this.
SPEAKER_13I mean, yeah, well, you know, good booze is will always draw in a crowd, but I mean you had a you had a a role in it too.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and and there was at least like 25 people came over here, and I think everybody in the freaking um display and vendor room was like, what is going on over in that corner? And they don't realize what a community we have here. Yeah, and the ones that feel left out, I feel bad for you because you shouldn't. You should come over and enjoy yourselves and introduce yourself. And as I met a lot of people this show, um, but we're gonna talk to Jefe. It's not about Justin, it's not about me right now. Jefe is the man of the ten minutes.
SPEAKER_13The yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08You're the man of the ten minutes. Um so you squadron, you got a lot of things there. Um, how was it so far going into the last day of the show?
SPEAKER_13Well, I mean, but there's still a lot of inventory left, but it's only because we've brought a lot of inventory. We bring a lot of stuff, you know. We've got that whole wall basically lined up with kits and and everything else. And um, you know, they uh they announced at the uh meeting last night that the theme for next year's show is gonna be recovery vehicles. Recovery vehicles. So we we pulled all the recovery vehicles out of our general inventory and uh put them up front. So you know, you got some options there, a lot of good subjects. I think uh if you get a jump on it, you uh you get some really good choices for next year's theme.
SPEAKER_08Right. Uh well yeah, well, next year's theme isn't 16 scale. Yeah, okay, whatever. They um Dan Feldman actually put that to a vote, um, and these um discraziads over here, they don't want that. Fuck that mean uh dis disgraceful people. No.
SPEAKER_05Um they uh Some of us are Irish, we don't know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_08Um they want they they voted for fucking like engineer and recovery vehicles is the theme award. I was like, how generic can you possibly get? And I'm not saying that 16 scale is not generic and it is, but like who the fuck is building like I mean, what am I gonna do now? I gotta I gotta build that um I don't know, what do you bring, a FAMO or something, or some like wrecker? There's all sorts of choices there. I don't know. I'm not very happy with that uh that choice of theme. But no, Tam Fang, my my I feel bad. You were all pumped for 16th scale, and it is not. Well large scale. It wasn't just 16th, it was anything larger than 35th.
SPEAKER_05So I actually kind of like that theme because we possibly able to entice some car guys because it doesn't necessarily have to be armor.
SPEAKER_12Right.
SPEAKER_05So we get some car guys down for the Amps Nats next year building recovery vehicles.
SPEAKER_13Well, you know, and you'll you'll see you'll see military vehicles and civilian markings.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_13You'll see civilian vehicles and military. Military marketing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um I'm all for large scale stuff. I mean, those of you who have been to this show before, you know, I'm the guy with the one six scale half-track and the one six scale Yog Panzer. I love doing that big ridiculous stuff. But from a logistics standpoint, I mean you got people that fly in from all over the country for this show.
SPEAKER_05And that's a yeah, that's that's awful large. Uh you'd have to rent the cargo plane.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_08Nah, listen, this is this is turned out to be a good sh this isn't the best Dance Nationals, obviously. I think that the numbers are down a little bit. I mean, it's also listen, man, there's a lot of external factors that factor into this. One tornadoes. Well, tornadoes. There was a big tornado morning at 1.40. Like everybody's phone had this emergency alert like all throughout Indiana, and it was like echoed through the night, especially in the hotel. Um, but did scare the shit out of me. And me and Justin shared a bed. I was not sleeping on the air mattress, so I slept in the bed with Justin and we were sleeping tip to tip last night. It was great. And we made a decision: should we go ass to ass or tip to tip? And we both had really bad gas. And we just started that and bellies now. And we just started that going tip to tip is probably the safest. Bet who might you know those bellies actually prevented it from actually being a tip of the very dude I'm very I'm okay with my masculinity. Right. Um and but the rest of us aren't. That's the problem. So it was really nice sharing a bed with Joe. We shared separate blankets. We didn't like share the same blanket. Um, but there was almost a spooning moment last night.
SPEAKER_13Why does this why is this conversation always happening?
SPEAKER_05Well, Riv got scared with that tornado warning that came across.
SPEAKER_13So last night we're all raising hell and partying, and uh the the uh tornado alarm goes off, you know, and it's that screeching, you know, get your attention. And somebody yells Amber Alert, and then somebody else yells, Where's Chris Green?
SPEAKER_08Oh god. Oh my god. This is fucking great. Fucking Chris Green. Did he get really drunk last night?
SPEAKER_13Well, we all did.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you know what? I feel bad. Hefe gave me the business last night because we did not go to the Donkey Punch Villa part three this year.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um I we didn't go. I was so tired. Uh maybe we go tonight. Um we gotta remember, I'm not driving, so I'm beholden to on other people to bring me.
SPEAKER_13Well, you know, I uh I offered to come and get you guys.
SPEAKER_08You did, you did, and I got a little worried about that because you can get like you can get pissed at the spur of the moment and just veer off into that running river over here and kiss all. I'm ending it all. Um, but no, back to the show though. Um it's do you got listen, I gotta go over there. Angel now, I heard, is doing 50% off kits the rest of the day. Oh shit. So you better tell Brandon you might have to beat that deal. Not 50%, but maybe give a little something else.
SPEAKER_13Well, no, I I I don't make those rules.
SPEAKER_08So well, I know, but uh, listen, Brandon's a good guy. We talked last night too. Maybe I was hanging out with uh the mojo guys. I see Dave and Mike over there both on their phones, ignoring us, but it's okay. Um Dave bought me a drink, he bought me a beer.
SPEAKER_13Um that's because he owed you one, right? And then give me a wet. Didn't he lose a bet or something?
SPEAKER_08No, I don't know. He might have. And then and they and and and and Kentucky Dave proceeded to give me a wet willy, which was like crazy. I think they were drunk. Um I'm gonna try to get Dave on here in a little bit. Maybe he'll come on. Um But Hefe, listen, we're gonna do uh we're gonna have a good time. Uh I expect a nice deal later. Make sure you put one of those other I already told Luke Pitt you you got I you I got the kit from me, thank you. You're welcome. And Brandon personally, he'll probably send you a message. You know, I gotta like Luke is the man. I gotta, you know, what he tells me I gotta do, I gotta do. He's like my boss over on the quarter scale.
SPEAKER_13So well, we we got a lot of exciting stuff that we're starting to put into into development. You know, you saw the M M5 tractor. It's really nice. It's uh we the prototype is over there and and it's um it's drawn a lot of attention, and that'll be ready sometime in the summer.
SPEAKER_08Dude, there's a lot of really good vehicles, a lot of things you can do. And listen, man, you guys got a good I mean listen, squadron is back. Well, listen, I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna We're back. They're back. And and and you need to have um you need to have people like Brandon yourself and his I guess his brother as well, right? Yep, Jared.
SPEAKER_13Jared unfortunately couldn't be here because um you gotta work the store, man.
SPEAKER_08Well, yeah, I mean business go keeps going.
SPEAKER_13We uh we had a a large influx of orders that came in, and uh of course, you know, our customers always come first. So the question was do we send Jared up here to have fun with us or do we get work done? And we we opted for the latter.
SPEAKER_05So which customers? Because aren't there customers here? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just cus. Um look, we got you and we got Brandon, so we can you can survive.
SPEAKER_1350-50. You know, two out of three ain't bad, right? No, but I gotta go over there exactly.
SPEAKER_08I gotta go over there and take a look at some more stuff. I mean, I bought a bunch of stuff, but I'm I don't really spend a lot of money at shows because I mean I bought like like I said, like the ancillary things, like the pigments, the paints, the the little upgrade things, like kit-wise, I don't really buy because I got so many. Unless it's a kit that I really need to want it, I'll pick it up.
SPEAKER_13Well, that's that's been the downside of me since I started working with Squadron. An entire warehouse at your disposal and you And you know what? It's it it's that part of it is actually kind of depressing because you walk into the warehouse, the first time you walk in, you're overwhelmed. Like like everybody is. You're you're a kid in a candy store, and I want that, I want that, I want that. You know, four hours later you're putting stuff on the shelf and you're like, I don't really care. I don't want any of this stuff. I don't want any of this stuff. That's right. Even though it's all stuff you actually do want, that overwhelming realization that you're just never gonna get to any of it.
SPEAKER_08Exactly, exactly. And uh you guys are great here, man. It was good hanging out. So um there's a couple of things in the works with me and Jefe, I think. We're trying to work on something. Should I mention it here? But then it might not happen. Maybe it doesn't happen. Uh yeah, I'd hope that something might come up, and and and it's gonna be a special episode if we do it. Um, and I'm hoping it happens, and it's uh there's some negotiations. It's sort of like when you gotta try to bring back, like, you know, alumni to shit and like, you know, past athletes and stuff. So we're gonna try to work on something that might be really fucking good.
SPEAKER_13What's that saying? Have your people call my people.
SPEAKER_08Exactly. And then there's always like that one person wants more money, and this guy's getting paid this, and this guy doesn't want to work with that guy. So, and this, you know, but I think it's gonna work out. There's I think the powers that be, I think it's gonna get it going. I'm still looking at this place, man. There's a couple people walking around, but this is definitely a lot.
SPEAKER_13Well, it shows the the weather is crap coming in.
SPEAKER_08I mean and the gas prices are crazy, man. Four dollars, like we come in, it's like you see the prices dipping and going up and like ebing and sping and flowing, and you got you know, four dollars and ten cents, and then you're into three dollars and seventy cents, and then back up to four dollars and twenty cents. You're like, holy shit, man. It's a lot. I mean, and then here in the United States, we complain about four twenty. You got guys up in Canada paying like three dollars a liter.
SPEAKER_05I'm fairly certain though that there's no one that complains about 420.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's true. Not even Rob Adams, that bastard. Rob, if you're listening, which you probably are, you're probably yeah, and you're probably intoxicated at the time of listening. Um, but uh, you know, you know that 420 is a good time for you. All right. We're gonna we're gonna sign off with This is National Holiday. Hefe has work to do, and um I know Brandon's now like looking for him right now. We don't need to have Jeff um, we don't need him to get his pink slip here at the the Amps Nationals. Yeah, that ain't happening.
SPEAKER_13I didn't think that's all the flair. There's too many things that need to be done.
SPEAKER_08Okay, my wife just met my wife just texting me. Let me I need to call Debbie because if I don't respond to Debbie within a certain time period, she'll send out APB. No, she'll yell at me.
SPEAKER_13Oh, wait, I just got a text from Debbie too. She said to smack you upside the head.
SPEAKER_08All right, on that note, you know, Hefe might join us again a little bit later. We might do another segment with him. Yeah, when I get sober up. He does got to get back to squad because it is early. He says when I so we'll do that, okay? I'm joking. I'm joking. All right. Thanks for joining us. Sober up or come back. It's a horse. Back sober. It's a horse apiece. All right, Jefe. Thanks for joining us for a few quick little just to open up day three. We will do some more discussions over the course of the day.
SPEAKER_13All right, guys.
SPEAKER_15See ya.
SPEAKER_08Alright, so we're back, and uh Al Jefe. Listen, man, I've never seen Jefe so relaxed and happy than I have seen him. This is like Jefe, like prior to like uh scale colors jefe. Like this is Jeff Ron is he's just happy, man. It's great to see. He smiles, he's like, it's he's got life, he's got he's got pep in his step. He's a happy jefe. Yeah, man, and I told him, and I when he when he was taking on this endeavor, I remember we had a talk, and it was when it was going through, and I was like, listen, man, this is a great opportunity because it's gonna make you relax. And he's like, you know what, you're probably right. And I'm gonna tell you, man, Jefe was nice and relaxed, a lot of fun, smiling, joking around the way it should be. And I'm proud of you. Jefe's done good, and squadron's doing phenomenal, man. This setup was great. The amount of squadron products that they had there that they're making between the paints and the tracks and the groundwork stuff, the diorama stuff, the extra detail stuff is amazing. I don't think any of these other companies out there can even compete with what the squadron is doing.
SPEAKER_12We desperately need it here stateside because a lot of European and Asian manufacturers are doing that, and they're you know, the wholesalers. We desperately need that here, and I'm glad it's them taking that lead uh given you know where we are economically and climatically in the in the world today. So kudos to that team down there for doing that.
SPEAKER_08They're doing a great job, Squadron. And uh Squadron's gonna be doing the Eagle Quest, the ModelCon 2027 in Chattanooga. And it's gonna be April 2nd to April 4th of 2027. It's gonna be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday show. It's gonna be great. And they asked me to come back to show up at the show and do a seminar. So I'm gonna I'm gonna be listed as a seminar. Actually, Saturday is listed as gonna be there as a podcast to do the show there. April 2nd to April 4th. It's a Friday to Saturday. 2027? 2027.
SPEAKER_12Okay. I might go right out with you.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I'm definitely gonna go. It's the same weekend as Mosquito Con, but I will not be making MosquitoCon. So that's again that's the Modocon Eagle Quest 2027. And it's gonna be great from the squadron, and it's gonna be at one corner street, Chattanooga, Tennessee. So I'm gonna stay over at Frankie Perron's house. Um, because he's only about an hour outside, so you'll be in too if you want to come. You know, Justin. We have a lot of time listening, you know. You're an idiot. Alright, so so that was that was fun, though. So we talked about the vendors a little bit. Um so let's um let's go to our next little discussion, and there's only two more, and the next one was with crazy Frankie Blanton. Um, he was a little hungover, I think, because this is all these interviews will be on day three, and our good friend, Mikey Sacklin. So we kind of brought back the miscreants about a little bit. We had Jeff Hearn on the previous segment, now we have Mikey Sachs on. This segment, if anybody knows Mikey Sachs, was on the Miscreen Podcast with myself, Jeff Hearn, and Steve Santucci. And that was a fun little time. Actually, last year on the Ants episode, I put in um some awesome outtakes that we did from the Miscreen Podcast, which was the I guess the insanity in its in a in another form. But uh, it was a lot of fun talking to Mike. Mike loves to give me a hard time still, but I love Mikey Sacks, and he knows that uh I look up to him, he's a good guy, he's always a good friend.
SPEAKER_12You have no choice but to look up to him. He is much taller than you.
SPEAKER_08He's a big guy, Mikey's a good guy. Like Mikey always said, he would uh, you know, he has no problems choking me out. So and Frankie Blanton was a lot of fun. Frankie's always a great time. Hey Mikey, Frankie won Best Comic Well, he won a best of at the show, Frankie Blanton. Good for you, Frank. Frankie did not have any mishaps happen at the show. He was on the last episode. No fools. Yeah, nothing, nothing, no, no, nothing, nothing terrible happened with my uh with Frankie. He didn't Frankie Blanton did not fall off of walls, he didn't twist ankles, he didn't bang his head. So Frankie actually did pretty good. So um and Mikey Sack. So for our next segment, we're gonna go listen to our good friends, Frankie Blanton and Mike Sackling. Um, this is probably the second to last, or maybe the second to last, last little segment we're gonna do. I don't know what order these are gonna be in, but uh right now we're about uh what eleven o'clock? 10 30.
SPEAKER_05It's been seconds for you, but hours for us.
SPEAKER_08It's now day day three at 11 uh 10 30. So Frankie Blanton is with us, Frank the Tank Blanton. So Mr. Blanton, uh first, are you hungover still? Good morning, everybody. No, I'm feeling great. Yeah, talk right into the microphone, we'll hear you good.
SPEAKER_05So uh mouth it mouth at Frank.
SPEAKER_07Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_08So did you do some judging? What's up, Jeff? Look at Jeff Feller. Look at this guy.
SPEAKER_07He needs a robe and some sandals.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he looks good. He's a great one.
SPEAKER_07He used to be a dabber guy.
SPEAKER_05One of the nicest. Now he looks like he just came down from the heavens. Yeah, Jeff Feller, one of the nicest guys in the hobby. Scale model Jesus.
SPEAKER_08I say that every I say that every time I see him. He is one of the greatest guys in the hobby.
SPEAKER_07All right, now back to me. This is about me.
SPEAKER_08Mr.
SPEAKER_07Blanton, how are you doing? I'm doing fabulous. This has been an awesome show.
SPEAKER_08You're coming off of a best theme award last year. Yep. Are you can did you bring a theme award this year, Vietnam?
SPEAKER_07I did not, no.
SPEAKER_08So you didn't you're not defending your title, I guess.
SPEAKER_07Uh, no, I'm I'm a I'm a World War II guy mostly.
SPEAKER_08All right, so this is day three. Last year, day three evening, you had an incident where you uh fell and twisted your ankle, kind of urinate, right?
SPEAKER_07Um yeah, it was uh it was a hike back through the hotel. So, you know, that that place in Pennsylvania is cavernous.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, but it was I love that place, though. Oh, it's a great place.
SPEAKER_05It reminds me of the Stanley Hotel. A little bit. Yes, the rug. Somewhere, somewhere between the Stanley Hotel and the Winchester House.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, well, the Winchester house has got like a it's like that's cavernous, it's got like stairways everywhere.
SPEAKER_16Doors that go to nowhere.
SPEAKER_08That lady that she kept doing construction, the ghost of all the people died from Winchester guns, win coming killer.
SPEAKER_07And you know, when Mother Nature calls, one must heed the call.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. So, Frankie, how many models do you bring to the show? I've got four show.
SPEAKER_05I spoke with Frankie over here on the way over here, and he said he wasn't sure. He apparently put them all in a box blindfolded, so.
SPEAKER_08He didn't know how many brought?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, no, I brought four in, and uh so far so good, I think.
SPEAKER_08I think you I just saw what your M113 was that? Is it an M13? M577. Oh, I was off by about 400 numbers. That's all right. All right, but it's close. There's an M in there, so that was that's that would we got that going first.
SPEAKER_04You were talking World War I and he's building World War II. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So so Frank, so how do you like the show? How's the show so far? Do you think it's going?
SPEAKER_07Well, I think it's going really well. Um it's definitely spread out more. It's not as compact as as PA, so you're really not on top of everybody, which which is nice.
SPEAKER_08It's a plus. It is a little bit of a plus. It's a negative two because I think it's a little too spread out, but yes.
SPEAKER_07Yep, the bender room is fantastic. Um, lots of stuff to to see and put your hands on.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah, listen. Uh listen, you'll you'll hear the the reverant for this show um post show, and I won't do it here, but there will be one. I think Neil Stokes did an amazing job as president. He's doing a fucking great job. Um, I love the guy. Uh he's doing a great job, Neil Stokes.
SPEAKER_07This this is my first year with uh a bunch of guys at the Airbnb.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_07We've got a nice townhouse about 10 minutes from here, and uh in the evenings we've had uh nice BS sessions, uh the booze and the beer's been flowing a little bit.
SPEAKER_08What about food? What kind of food have you had?
SPEAKER_07Uh well most of the guys have been eating out. Nobody's been really preparing anything there other than popcorn and chips, which is kind of like the peanuts Thanksgiving diet. No donuts. Uh there were some donuts earlier that Scott Wattico brought in, but listen, last night it was about 1 a.m. I just rolled over and started falling asleep. My phone goes off, tornado warning. The sirens throughout town blowing, tornado warning. Everybody in the house is running downstairs to get to the lowest point of the house because that's where you're supposed to go. There's a lot of Midwesterners staying in the house with us, Brad Belsheim and Scott Wattico, these guys, Jeff Hearn, they all know the drill, where to go. So we hung out for about a half an hour in the lowest point of the house, waiting for this uh for the tornado threat to clear.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, well, I mean, I think everybody's everybody's phones rang at 1.40 in the morning, and in the hotel it was like stereo, like everybody's phone. I guess every single person. Oh wow. So three people in our room's phone went off at the same time. It was fucking we I was sleeping. I got s I got startled for a bit. Yeah. I was like, what the hell? And I look at it, it's like severe tornado warning. I'm like, eh. Who might sit to you? I said to you. It was like, what?
SPEAKER_05You know what? I uh I actually responded a lot like Vivica A. Fox and Independence Day when the uh alien ship's first coming down, and Will Smith's like, what is that, an earthquake? And she goes, not even a four-pointer. Go back to sleep. Yeah, exactly. I was like, oh good, a tornado, whatever. Yeah, turn back and if he dies, he dies.
SPEAKER_08You know, we're in a fire, we're in a 10-story hotel with one operating elevator. Yeah, so I don't we're not Russian. So if it's that's our destiny to get taken out by a tornado from that distance. Look at here, Mike Sacklin himself.
SPEAKER_07There he is, the man of the hour.
SPEAKER_08Mike, why don't you pick up a microphone? Go sit at the end.
SPEAKER_15We'll sit here and aggravate Frank a little bit.
SPEAKER_08No, come sit down.
SPEAKER_07Hey, buddy. Oh, are you? I'm hanging out like a little bit.
SPEAKER_08Come sit down over here. Come on. Join us.
SPEAKER_07Join us. So listen, Riv, uh, Riv, I gotta talk to you a little bit real quick. Uh so the Old Dominion Open in Richmond, Virginia. It's a fantastic show, but you have to know that it's on La Burnham Avenue. Oh, I I I misspoke. Sounded out with me. La.
SPEAKER_08La.
SPEAKER_07Burn. Burn. Um.
SPEAKER_08Um. And you got a lot of nerves saying that to me after you said Tamaya. Well, you're saying Tamaya before. Tummya? No, Tummyah. Tummy. So Mr. Mike Sacklin, Mr. Mikey Sachs is sitting down. Sit down, Mike. Come on. You don't acting like you're uh you're a guest here. You're not a guest. You're Mike Sacklin, for Christ's sake.
SPEAKER_07You know, Mike Sacklin has has been one that's given me.
SPEAKER_08Should move in a little bit? Move over. Can we get can we just do some moving? This might be an edit really quick if I can. No edits. Don't fucking edit that shit. Come on now. This is how the sausage is made. So listen, so Frankie Blanton, we got Mike Sacklin joining. Look at this guy, man. Always like his hands, always nicely donned. This guy always looks nice and clean. Like this guy's got perfect hygiene mics out. I'm not listening, I'm not one of these sloppy guys here, you know?
SPEAKER_15I gotta represent well.
SPEAKER_08Always got nice, he's always got like these nice like $500 mutton like Nikes on. You will never catch it.
SPEAKER_13Those expensive hoodies.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, man. Listen, I'm gonna tell you right now, man, obviously this is a you know, no one can see, but Mike, I'm telling you right now, that is probably the best show sweatshirt shirt I've ever seen in all the years I've been going like that Amps Atlanta show shirt that you have, you got a panther, they have a Panta concept thing for BJ on the show on the side, and uh the stug on the back, it's a fucking great and the color, it's a great sweatshirt.
SPEAKER_15Well, you know, this is a Mike Spivy collaboration. You know, he'd start on our shirts for the past three years. I'm I'm taking over that helm after I was not pleased with some of our other club offerings. They kind of just, you know, added it. It was an afterthought, so I went ahead and took at the realm and said, you know, we're gonna we're gonna do it a little better job.
SPEAKER_08No, I love it, man. That's a really good shirt. And you said what they like 45 bucks?
SPEAKER_15Yeah, they're they're 45 for this particular one. But if you go ahead and buy the shirt, I'd knock another five bucks off. So, you know, we've got to be.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I gotta talk to Spy. I I actually did talk to Spivey before he had his little whatever's going on with Spivey. Spivey's got something going on over there.
SPEAKER_15Spivey always has something going on, so there's never a case where it's it's not the case.
SPEAKER_08Spivey kind of like his car broke down in some like rural area. It was sort of like deliverance. He was stuck getting chased by like cannibal like hillbilly somewhere. He couldn't get out of the neighborhood, right?
SPEAKER_15He sure did have a pretty mouth.
SPEAKER_08So my so we've got Frankie and we've got to talk to Mike too. We're gonna share it some time, Frank. Frank doesn't, you know, Frankie's a team player.
SPEAKER_15Yeah, we're all big family. So look, I didn't want to bogard Frank's time.
SPEAKER_08No, I just grabbed Frank. Listen, it's very rare that I get Frank on a on a Saturday morning of the show where he's not hung over. I was gonna say, at least he's sober.
SPEAKER_15He hasn't been drinking yet, right? It's morning?
SPEAKER_08It is morning. Yeah, well, they exactly still morning, only 1038.
SPEAKER_15So we're still yeah, he hasn't fallen off of any, you know, enscarpments or fences or walls yet. So, you know, he's still good.
SPEAKER_08Still morning here. So um Mikey, how you so how long, Mike.
SPEAKER_15It is how long you came with Dave Hobbs? Yep, came with Dave Hobbs, came with the Atlanta crew. We picked up uh Bill Ferguson as well from from the Armor Club. And then um we're making the pilgrimage back to Atlanta tomorrow, so right. Now, Gary Asley, is he in your group? Yeah, Gary, well no, he well, he's kind of he's the you know knows Hobbes and whatnot, so yeah. He's a fool. He's a fun guy. Yeah, Gary Gary's a trip. I never thought I'd meet somebody more crusty than Hobbes, but there you go.
SPEAKER_08I didn't I I I I when I when I was H E Jane and you guys were uh judging, I didn't realize it was Gary because from behind, like I'm I I'm not looking at the guy's face. And I come over and I'm like, guys, make sure you you know you check your math.
SPEAKER_15Gary, Gary's like, if you if that guy comes over one more time, I'm gonna retry and pop up. Right.
SPEAKER_08I'm like, yeah, you know, I I mean you know that I'm the messenger here, man. I'm the I'm the fucking pigeon. You get mad at the guy who wrote the message, not the guy who dropped the you know what kind of pigeon hell the hey guys, hey guys, hang guys.
SPEAKER_16No, I I I got Chuck Robinson saying, tell those guys to check the mat table one. Hey guys, you know, we're gonna do this, and hey guys, we're gonna do this, and hey guys, make sure you check them out.
SPEAKER_07Gary Awsley and I were were judging at a table the last show we were at, we were at the Auburn venue, right? And if you'll recall, they had a cocktail bar set up across the room on the other side of the display room. And it was our turn to judge.
SPEAKER_15Yeah, didn't you he was saying, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, we heard this story.
SPEAKER_07This is we had been judging for about an hour, and they said, Okay, everybody take the seventh inning stretch, get up, stretch. I disappeared, I came back with the bourbon old fashioned and sat down at the table, and Gary was like, Where the heck did you get that, man? And he was uh he, you know, I said, Dude, you snooze, you lose. And he's never let me live that down.
SPEAKER_15See, I well it was funny, we were drinking those last night, and I'm surprised by Frank went and didn't appear somewhere mysteriously. Are you in the bar drinking those? No, I had I brought my own.
SPEAKER_07Oh, because I had one in the bar yesterday afternoon. And let me tell you, the pricing here, they should just put MP next to the drink menu. Market pricing. Yeah, God. It's like a lobster.
SPEAKER_15Well, that's why that's why I carry what I do. But the fact is, is anywhere a bottle of bourbon's open within a five square mile radius, Frank hears about it. He's got an app on his phone that signals the location of where it's open.
SPEAKER_04Every time there's an empty bottle, he goes, it's like a thousand voices cried out at once. Exactly.
SPEAKER_07I had a brand new bottle of scotch Wednesday and uh midnight last night it was gone. What scotch was it? Uh it was uh Glenn coin. It doesn't matter. Any Glenn.
SPEAKER_15You know what I do at Scotch? I use it to clean my brushes. But it's all it's good for. It's an expensive brush cleaner. It is well, it's all it's good for. That's what I do.
SPEAKER_07Exactly. Yeah. It's like I, you know, I'll drink bourbon if there's no scotch in it.
SPEAKER_15I'm about the same way.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, Justin and I have to we gotta split a bottle of rider's.
SPEAKER_15That's all I need to know. I'm a little blanton here. Your little Padawan in training. And we put little in quotation marks.
SPEAKER_07We're not talking mad here. No. I'm one 35th scale, sir. That's gentleman's scale. Yeah.
SPEAKER_15I'm still gonna go. I'm lovely.
SPEAKER_07That's but that's funny that you say that.
SPEAKER_08That's what you're telling me. You say, Frankie, that 35th is the gentleman's scale.
SPEAKER_07I think I stole that from Kentucky, Dave.
SPEAKER_08Uh you probably did. Um I think 48 scale is like the best scale because you could do so much with it. It's got the overall average. Yeah, it's it's scale.
SPEAKER_07You got a dollar, I need to get a drink. Yeah. I I really would have preferred 48 scale to I I wish it was much more popular 30 years ago.
SPEAKER_15Rivieso has those little tiny hands, you know. He's all able to m manipulate those small parts.
SPEAKER_08I I I do agree with that, man. I mean, when you got little hands, you got you know the little details. 16 scale is like one-to-one scale for me. Yeah, you can you can hop in it and ride around. Right, this got an R-C car. You know, that this you should know, Mikey, got your grandpa now. There goes Riviezzo. Mikey, but you see what they got now, in all seriousness. They got like these um, like the little cars you sit in, and then you can motor and you can you can R-seat car, like put your grandkid or your kid in a car.
SPEAKER_15Power wheels. Now, you know what that is? That's that's pop-up pushing her around. Dude, are you gonna get one of those? Well, no, I don't need to. I already get she gets in the car and you push her around. We've never seen the remote control. I have seen the remote control. That's so cool, man. Yeah, but she wants pop to get in there. Right. What's fun?
SPEAKER_05What's fun for a granddaughter to go?
SPEAKER_15Hey, pop pop, hold it the moat, Mike. I have, I have, yeah, she's like, I already have somebody. We gotta get a I have already have a remote control.
SPEAKER_08You gotta get a masculine child in that family, Mike. I don't I don't know. My daughter haven't got the number of the children. You're destined to have old granddaughters, too.
SPEAKER_15I probably am. You're gonna have like not enough uh water.
SPEAKER_08Dude, it's gonna be the thing where it's like it's like you got your four daughters and you're gonna have like ten granddaughters.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it's like the four horsemen almost. Mike, I think if you go over to Angel's booth, he probably has a pack of four Y chromosomes in there somewhere all the time.
SPEAKER_15I bet you he will sell it to you.
SPEAKER_05Pour it into your son-in-law's beverages is like trying, guys. It's like, listen, guys.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I don't you can't try it anymore, but we can, you know, we've got to figure something out here, man. I don't know.
SPEAKER_15Uh I look, it is what it is. You know, I love my granddaughter to death.
SPEAKER_08So listen, you had four you had three and uh twins, so you No, no, no.
SPEAKER_15I had two, and then got to buy one, get one free.
SPEAKER_08Right, true and the right. Your wife was only pregnant three times away. Exactly. One of my best friends has got four daughters. Like, he had a daughter and then a daughter. He's like, I have to have a son. This is the last one. Had a daughter, and he's like, We're gonna have one more, and that's it. It's gotta be a boy, another daughter.
SPEAKER_15That's when you pack it up and go home.
SPEAKER_05You call it a my my mom actually was the opposite. She wanted a daughter and got four boys.
SPEAKER_15Yeah, my mom the same. Well, she didn't have four boys, but she wound up getting like she got one close.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you're kind of feminine. Just because I got titties.
SPEAKER_05Justin's a little so that's a lifestyle thing, not a genetic thing. Well, you know, these days called modeler's breast.
SPEAKER_08That's great. So, Mike, how are you liking this show though this year? Be honest, man. It's it's okay.
SPEAKER_15I'm gonna I'm gonna be kind of honest. It's a little light here in this year. Right, yeah, it is light. Energy feels lighter, like different. Well, I know. You're not used to that, right?
SPEAKER_08But it's a little light. It is a little light.
SPEAKER_15No, it is and in all in all seriousness, I I think a lot there's a lot of different things sworn around and there's some external factors. Well, you can see it, it's kind of had a impact on this particular show because usually by now this place is hopping. Yeah. And even yesterday it felt kind of like is this Thursday, Friday? What day is this? Yeah. Where am I? Yeah, Thursday was like weird and quiet. And I haven't even I just finally got to see Frank after you know, there's a final Frank sighting over here.
SPEAKER_08So last year, we would talk about that. So last year you were we we were together, Mike, me, you, Frank, Whitey, Dave, a couple other guys were in the back at uh Camp Hill with the fire pit, which was great.
SPEAKER_07Yep, Jason Jennings found that. Jay Jennings, yeah, that was we went scouting around looking for a place they wanted to sit down and smoke their stogies, and we found the fire pit that worked and got it going and started texting people, and people started showing up. We were having a ball.
SPEAKER_15That was the one where you you misjudged.
SPEAKER_07Uh just a bit. It was three feet on one side and six feet on the other. Yeah, and then you picked the six foot side, of course, and Frank. Well, to be fair, to be fair, when I peered over the wall looking for a place to go, it was a dark void, and I thought, oh, I can do this in the shadows. So over the wall I went to the room.
SPEAKER_08I jumped over that same area, but it was like I had a long drop. I don't think you expected that it would have been a shorter drop. Riff, riff.
SPEAKER_05Every drop is a long drop for you.
SPEAKER_08Because I had a B. But that there's none of that here, though. You don't have any, like, unless you go to an Airbnb or something, there's none of that here because you're like in the middle of like a city. Yes.
SPEAKER_05I just gotta say, I'm a little hurt because I don't remember seeing a text message at all about that fire pit.
SPEAKER_08Well, I don't I'm trying to remember where you were. You're a text message. What happened was this is I was I left, Whitey and Frilldo came and I went back to their room, and someone said that Frankie Blanton and Mikey Sachs and Hobbes and everybody were in the back. So that's when we went and we went back there. You know what it is?
SPEAKER_05You guys left the Grateful Goat a little earlier. I hung back because Chris Green was there. And I wanted to make sure Tooch and Chris Green got back safe, so I uh I hung back and by the way.
SPEAKER_15That's a big undertaking, by the way, to be to manage both of those guys.
SPEAKER_05So you know, Tooch was good. Chris Green really wasn't too too bad.
SPEAKER_15You gotta just throw him over your shoulder.
SPEAKER_07We've got Chris Green in our house, and actually he's been he's been quite well behaved. Really? Oh yeah, he's he's fantastic.
SPEAKER_15Well, Chris Green, I mean, you know, he's greeny, man. He's the best. I love that guy.
SPEAKER_08Well, um the the um the the running joke with me and sax is that when the when when when sax finally met Chris back in Camp Hill the first time, it was like he's mine now. And it was like and it was funny because I mean it was funny, and it was like they were just going back where people were fighting over who was gonna get Chris Green's attention for that time period. And he actually chose Mikey Sachs that didn't even.
SPEAKER_15Him and Mikey Sachs are like hip to hip, like the whole job. Exactly. And it's been love at first sight ever since. And yeah, and Tucci is also very buttered about that. He was he felt like a joke did lover. Stan Tucci was not happy.
SPEAKER_08I wasn't happy. I didn't think I you know what you I went in with the expectation that Chris would like, you know, divvy up his time equally to everybody, but like he actually like chose Mike Sacklin for a good part of the day. They were there at the bar together, the knit mic and at the dinner, like they had to sit together at dinner. Exactly. Yeah, like there was no time for anybody else that time.
SPEAKER_15You know, well, what can I say?
SPEAKER_07That's all I can say is that Mike Sacklin got me home that night. I did.
SPEAKER_15Um, with Hobbs, Hobbs, you know, was right in Chapburn as well. Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_07Hobbs was on the left flank, Sacklin was on the right, and I was dragged along.
SPEAKER_15Yeah, you were there was a lot of issues with the glass of the ankle?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah. And Ashley Abernath, he was in bed snoozing and that came in, and Ashley woke up. He's like, What's going on? And Mike says, I brought your wife home.
SPEAKER_15And he's like, and Frank's like, hey, come on inside, and Ashley's like, shut the damn door!
SPEAKER_07I got another bottle in here somewhere. Come on.
SPEAKER_08You know, I have, I actually have, um, I I'm almost positive that I have part of your of your Hurricane Gussie video of whatever you did at the show recorded. I got part of it. Because it's incriminating. I thought it would be really funny if it was if we had. I got it somewhere, but it is fun. That Hurricane Gussie story is funny.
SPEAKER_07So you did hear the one about the uh three nuns that died and went to heaven, right?
SPEAKER_08I I think I did, but the audience probably didn't.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, that so they're standing there in front of St. Peter, and before they go in, St. Peter says, Look, I gotta ask you some questions before we let you go in. So he asked the first nun, said, What's the what's the first book of the Bible? Nun goes, um Genesis. He says, right, you're in. Second nun comes up. He says to her, he goes, Who's the name of the fellow that uh had the boat for 40 days and 40 nights? She said, Noah. He said, right, you're in. Second nun comes up, he says, uh third nun? I'm sorry, third nun, thank you, Mike. Third nun comes up, he says, Um, what was the first thing Eve said to Adam in the Garden of Eden? And the nun's thinking, and she was like, My God, that's a hard one. St. Peter says, right, you're in. Ah, Frankie always with the great jokes. You do have some good ones, man. Well, listen, I gotta thank uh Rob Adams, because Rob Adams, I was having a tough time on a model a couple of weeks ago, and I reached out to Rob because he had a particular technique that I was trying to try out. And Rob gave me some great advice. I was telling Justin yesterday, and Rob's advice to me was don't give up. Keep going. He said, if the hair around your butthole can survive in a challenging environment, so can you. Keep going.
SPEAKER_15Word. Oh boy. I went ahead and walked over here for this. Yeah, I I apologize, Mike. I know that you try to keep yourself at a certain standard. You know, look.
SPEAKER_08You know, I thought you would balance out Frankie coming here, you know.
SPEAKER_15I'm trying, man. I'm trying, but it's an uphill slog over here.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, the balance is a little, it's a little off tilt. Look, look, Frank, so what's going on tonight, Frankie? Is there anything going on special?
SPEAKER_07Uh I think we'll just have our last powwow at the end. I gotta get over there tonight. Stop by and uh check it out. We have uh it uh it's great, great spot. Austin Austin came in with a whole bunch of model kits he was selling. Guys dug through boxes last night, got some goodies. Vultures, man. You guys are all vultures. They are a bunch of vultures. Yeah, we had a good time. Sean Picard's got the giant cooler of beers, been very generous with uh all the different beers from uh what was it, Wayward Brewing?
SPEAKER_15That's another reason why I have to have somebody to go ahead and take my stuff because I don't want all your vultures to add it when I went ahead and finally kick the bucket over here. It is true, man. But Mike, Mike, you've been all you're always generous with your stash though. Well, you know, I mean, but I get to a point where you're like, look, I got a lot. And if somebody needs something or if somebody was you know has something or has a desire for specific, I don't mind trading or doing whatever I gotta do, you know, to help with these guys out. That's that's just part of that's part of the fun of modeling because you never know when somebody else has something that you don't want to spend.
SPEAKER_08Exactly.
SPEAKER_15Well, you know, it it you know, we've been around for a long time, and a lot of this stuff sometimes, if you don't grab it, when it first comes out, and it you know it gets discontinued or they start another run, and then you know is that why we over purchased an underbuilding?
SPEAKER_05Well, is that what it's like?
SPEAKER_15That's also part of that, yes, because and we've billed every one of them in our head at some point, but then there's a realization. You know, sometimes you wake up and go, I'm never gonna build this data thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that there's a you know, there's an equation for that that you're not supposed to die until you build all your kits. Right, that's true. So technically, I should be about 150, you know, by the time we kick the boat. We'll all be the age of Yoda. Exactly. I'm not even gonna go there with a Yoda. I'm not gonna even do it.
SPEAKER_04You wish you had the size and girth of R2.
SPEAKER_07I mean, there's definitely subjects out there that are just way cool, and ones that would look great in the living room or on display. You tell your wife, honey, this is gonna be fantastic. Get that vase off the shelf. We're putting an M68.
SPEAKER_05I don't care if that's all Ming vase. Right. Yeah. This M60 looks better there.
SPEAKER_15Yeah, instead of a Ming vase, we'll just put a Ming T73. Right, there you go, yeah. We'll just switch the specific dynasty. Exactly. Different dynasty.
SPEAKER_07Decorating is decorating. Oh my god. Look at there's Roy Chow over there. I haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, in a few years. He's a great guy, man. He's always like, is he he's always happy? Yeah. He's always smiling, he's always in a good mood.
SPEAKER_15The exact opposite of the city. Even when he's checking all his losing lottery tickets, watching Dave Hobbs walk through with another grip of dragon kits. So there you go. He's in his natural environment. Yeah, he is.
SPEAKER_08Man, when the time comes. It's a well, it's an unrivaled stash.
SPEAKER_07So uh Dave Hobbs has more DML M3 half tracks than I think DML ever had in their warehouse.
SPEAKER_15Probably at any given one in time.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, he showed me he showed me an image of his uh stash.
SPEAKER_15Well, that's that's not let's be specific. It was a stash. That is a that is a section, one section of one corner of many different stashes in different areas of the Columbus area, you know. Yes, that was uh shelf AA23. That is correct. That was yeah, that was just a hand. You know how when at the end at the end where they're wheeling the arc back into the warehouse, yes, that's pretty much every new every new grip it gets that comes out.
SPEAKER_07Find a place to put it. What are we gonna do with Dave Hobbs stash? We have top men working on it. We have top systems. What type of men? Top, top. And you know the guy that delivered that line. That was Jack Porkins, yeah. Yeah, that was Porkins.
SPEAKER_08And he was also the he was also the the corrupted commissioner in Batman, Tim Burton's Batman thing. That's right.
SPEAKER_07Right. And did you see Cliff Claven in The Empire Strikes Back? He was.
SPEAKER_08He was the one that talk tells the voice is dubbed over because his Boston accent was too thick for Star Wars. Yeah, that's it. That'd be like being that'd be like me like being in Star Wars. Like Rob River got like casted into Star Wars movie. Like what planet is he from with that?
SPEAKER_15You could you could be a droid somewhere.
SPEAKER_08What dialect is that?
SPEAKER_16We gotta go. Hey guys, we gotta go!
SPEAKER_10Hey guys, we gotta go.
SPEAKER_08Is that nice to say about your friend? I'm always worried about you know what? To this day, I still worry about Mikey Sachs. I always say I worry about Mikey Sachs.
SPEAKER_15I appreciate the worry, but you gotta worry about take care of you too.
SPEAKER_08I got there's a lot that I need to do. Is that bad to worry about my friend?
unknownNo, no, no.
SPEAKER_08You're good to me. You're good.
SPEAKER_15I try.
SPEAKER_08You are, you're a good guy, man. I mean, listen, you're an okay modeler. Not too shabby. I'm gonna tell you right now, Mike, and I'm gonna be honest with you, man. You know, the your Japanese stuff is sorry because you always do good with the jab stuff. Oh, but uh but uh I'm encroaching in the stug territory. Dude, that stug is there any Japanese stuff? Mike, Mike, I'm not kidding. No, that well, you never know. They had a tiger one they were using. They actually did. Well, it's debatable. Right, but I'm gonna well, I think it was more like uh maneuvers they were doing. But that stug that you did is excellent. That's and uh and I'm gonna be I'm not to say this is to blow smoke up your ass. That is probably one of my best favorite miles at your show, at the show. Really? I even said it to Dan Feldman, hands down. I love it. You did it the white the build, the stowage, everything on the kids. And it's a tack home kit, too, so it's right, and that makes it even better. Because we know that those kits aren't the best. Oh, hey no.
SPEAKER_15Hey no. Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_08No, no, well, it's a blitz kit. You know it's a lot of cleanup.
SPEAKER_15Well, not actually, that kit actually has very little cleanup.
SPEAKER_08But you uh you did a great job on it. You really did. Did you see my Syrian stug?
SPEAKER_15Yeah, I saw your Syrian stug. I kind of laughed a little bit because it's too damn clean.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, but it's supposed to be. Why? Because they weren't dirty, they were only dusty. Oh, okay, well. If you look at Syrian stugs in the Golem Heights, they didn't have dirt or mud or anything. But they were just dusty. No, they didn't. They were just dirty. They just were dirty. That's what they were.
SPEAKER_15Look, we nobody ever will say that you don't put a good model together. Right, but that's what I mean. You do a pretty good job on that. It's about the finish. It's pretty good job. Pretty good job. Right. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Remember, man, sometimes mud and dust ruin the finish. And amps, sometimes you get and and remember amps, sometimes a what a model that's overweathered, even if it's weathered correctly, it gets dinged.
SPEAKER_15Over weathered terms. Just gets dinged hand. It just makes me. Yeah. I mean, come on, dude. We exactly. If we actually weathered models the way they were supposed to be in the wild, it'd be boring. Everybody would be like, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Right, exactly. Got a little autistic flavor. But listen, I'm glad Mike. Autistic. Just like oral. I say. Oral pleasures. Yeah. I'm Mikey. I'm glad you came on as well as Frankie Blanton. Uh Frankie, I love you too. That's our key.
SPEAKER_15That's our cue to get the hell out of here, Frankie. Well, no, we're going on. No, we're going on a half an hour.
SPEAKER_08I'm trying to do half an hour segments. Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_07Mike, let's go find the liquor store. Amen, brother. All right, guys.
SPEAKER_08Thanks for coming on, Mikey. Frankie Blanton. We appreciate it, alright? All right, thank you. Hardly even know her. All right, we're back. And listen, Mikey Sachs is like always gotta, you know, he's always a tough guy a little bit. He's always gotta try to intimidate me a little bit, but he knows we have a lot of fun. And Frankie Blanton's always in a good mood. When is that guy not happy? Or drunk? That wasn't rhetorical, guys.
SPEAKER_181981. That was a good year.
SPEAKER_08That was a good year. So no, that was a good old discussion we had with Frankie Blanton. I mean, he's really good. I think he I thought he did a great job on that. There's a couple of favorite pieces that I had at that show, but that's like he did was one of my favorite pieces. Um he did a great freaking job on it. Um Hobbs was there, we saw Hobbes, and Hobbes was actually in a pretty good mood, was good to see them. And uh and the posse was there. And uh I saw John, Jensen came, I'm over from England, and wow, does that kid look good, man? I said Jensen, man, you look fantastic. The hardest part is keeping the weight off, man. Hopefully he keeps it off because he looks great, he looks happy, he had a smile for me to earn, TJ was there, Aaron Cook was there, man. I was glad to see him because I haven't seen him in a long time. And it was good to see him at the show because I was I meant to weekend. I'm like, I'm gonna see him on Facebook, and he's like, ah, a lot of things have been going on. So it was kind of really good to see him as well. So um Jackson's there, was there, and Zach Rizzo and those guys, those guys were all great. Ian Banana was there, man. Fucking Ian Banners are fucking great. He was taking pictures of like John Banani was doing a seminar. And he was taking pictures and ARM with his shirt off and like a fucking like um German officer's uniform.
SPEAKER_12German uniform. He was taking a shirt off and AR ing a German uniform. Is that what you said?
SPEAKER_08What he was doing was he had John was fucking doing a seminar, and he was like taking pictures and like AR ing like him in his underwear on the stage while he's doing the seminar. Doing crazy shit. It was fucking fucking Mike McNeini was there, was great seeing Mike McAnney there. Um I'm gonna forget people because it was Michael Mike Michael, I always mess up his game boy was great seeing him. One of the nicest guys, I used to look I would come up with the bride. He did always do the great house for Victoria. He was a great day. So the reason why I brought up the post of being there is everybody was always asking, are you and John ever gonna do that little debate that never happened and all the stuff that was going on? And it was good seeing John, and we did talk about it, and everything was fun and fine, no problems. Even with TJ was fine. And a matter of fact, our next segment is gonna be my little interview, just one-on-one with me and TJ. Holla. Um, and it was a lot of fun, and we talked about a few things, we joked around. TJ as always was breaking my balls and being a little um what's the order? Intimidating a little bit to me. He's trying to intimidate me a little bit too.
SPEAKER_12Did he flex and try to squeeze you between no no no no no no?
SPEAKER_08But it was we were talking about how he sends me like you'll hear it in the in the discussion, how he sends me messages and gives me a hard time and then doesn't respond for like three days after I was like respond back. But he did a fucking great job on this Sherman striking the iron. It was a vignette. Definitely my favorite armor piece of the show. He fucking did a great fucking job on it.
SPEAKER_12Did I see that he did a Pacific War uh Sherman as well?
SPEAKER_08He did another Sherman there. I think it was a Firefly, I think.
SPEAKER_12Okay.
SPEAKER_08I don't know. I'm not good with Sherman's, but he did another Sherman piece. But this one that he did in a vignette that was like bunkered down in the dirt, um, which was almost like he had like a reference photo behind it, and it was like either behind it or with it, and it was a spot-on picture, like that he fucking did it exactly like the picture.
SPEAKER_05I think that's one that he saw over in Europe, and it's like it's like an old beat up one that's been out in the field.
SPEAKER_08Amazing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, is the one I'm thinking of.
SPEAKER_08By far my favorite armor piece at the show. It was amazing, and he was he won Best Vignette for it, he and it was well deserved. He deserved that it was fantastic. Scott Primo won Best in Show with his figure, it was the first time a figure won. It was also the first time I ever met the guy. Great guy. And his room was right next to ours, and they were screaming and yelling until like 2 a.m. the night before the last day, before he even won anything. I'm like, what are you guys doing in there? But it was funny. Great guy. Scott's a really nice guy. Not as much talkative as I thought, but he was a really good guy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he was reserved.
SPEAKER_08Right. So again, so I had TJ on, and we're gonna listen to TJ and me right now. It was a lot of fun, and this was the last one. So after we listen to this, we're gonna kind of do a little uh send-off. So this is my little um discussion at Amps Nationals with TJ Holler. And this is a first, and we didn't think it was gonna happen because he's been blowing me off for I don't know, a few a while. No, we actually did a show on the insanity, which went really well, which caused a lot of change. We were the catalyst for change, and that's why we did it.
SPEAKER_14The judging episode.
SPEAKER_08The judging episode, Mr. TJ Haller, right? I say I say hauler, you say no, it's Haller.
SPEAKER_14It's Haller. Haller.
SPEAKER_08TJ Haller. How do you say my last name?
SPEAKER_14I don't. I just say Riv. There you go.
SPEAKER_08Riviezzo, it's a hard one. No, TJ's here, and listen, TJ, you're a great guy. And you're an amazing modeler, and you're on a great podcast with those guys. John, who's Roman. Jensen looks fantastic, man. He he lost all the weight and I gained it. I gotta help, he's gotta help me out, man.
SPEAKER_14If he turns sideways, you can't see it.
SPEAKER_08No, good for him, man. That's that's awesome.
SPEAKER_14He's gotten cockier, though, as he's gotten smaller.
SPEAKER_08That's what happens, man. You get you get to you feel good about yourself, you start uh feeling good, you know, you can start talking more smack and you get away with it then, you know?
SPEAKER_14Yeah, but I keep reminding him that he he talks a lot of trash for someone that I can curl.
SPEAKER_08You could. And but you know what? I think he might be the best looking posse guy now. You actually were the probably the best looking guy, followed by maybe John. And then uh, you know, Grant, you know, Grant is Grant, and then you got Scott, but now you got Jensen who's definitely moved up the ladder. You don't think so?
SPEAKER_14No, yeah, he is. He looks good. No, he looks good, man. He's he's happy, which makes me happy.
SPEAKER_08Listen, man, you do good stuff, and your Shermans at this show are fucking awesome. Thank you. And I'm gonna tell you, you you've you listen, you were more of a sci-fi guy before you were an armor guy, weren't you? Yeah. That's you kind of really only got into the armor within the last like few years. When I first met you at Camp Hill in 2023, you were just getting into it kind of.
SPEAKER_14No, no, no, no. No?
SPEAKER_08No. I thought you were. I thought you were more of like a more of like a heavy, like sci fi more of a sci-fi guy.
SPEAKER_14No, for probably let's see, I've been modeling. Thir 14 years? Yeah. For the first probably four I was heavy into science fiction. After probably 2017, I think, is the first tank I ever built.
SPEAKER_10Alright.
SPEAKER_14So uh and then it was kind of split. I mean now it's it's I mean still a lot of sci-fi, but yeah, mostly armor, armor focused.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Well, you do a lot of other like you do good so you do that that Ma K or M A K, however you say it. You do a fucking good job with that though, too. You were in Lincoln Wright's book.
SPEAKER_14I was.
SPEAKER_08I was I I I I call shenanigans on that. Lincoln Wright knows how I feel about that, but we'll get we'll talk about that another time. No, you did a good job on that.
SPEAKER_14No, that was that I was um extremely honored to be asked by him as um that's an official machine and Krieger publication, blessed by Ko Yu Kaman.
SPEAKER_08No, no, no, no, no. That's that's that's big time. That's that's like getting in a nigga mig fact book, right? Kinda sort of, wouldn't you think?
SPEAKER_14Same level, say so.
SPEAKER_08You know, or like doing something like that. I mean that that's that's a big honor. That he is the guy in that Makay world. That he's the guy, Lincoln and that, you know, all that stuff. And having him get you in there was a big you know It was it was pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_14I was um I was beside myself. No, well he asked me.
SPEAKER_08Listen, as much as I you know, you drive me crazy, and as much as you threaten me, if anybody ever saw the text messages that I get from TJ, um they they can be I I don't know, I can get uh I can press charges against him for like the harassment. Look, he's getting tech. This guy's like the you know, he's always got something going on.
SPEAKER_14That's my wife.
SPEAKER_08I know my wife is blowing up my phone all day today, too.
SPEAKER_14She's at a volleyball tournament with my daughter. Ah, it's awesome, man.
SPEAKER_08That's what it's you're missing it this weekend. But she gave you the this dispensation to hang out with your friends for a weekend.
SPEAKER_14Oh, yeah, she she knows how important this is.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, well, Deb got me out of the house. I didn't want to come, and uh, you know, and I gotta my son's you know disabled, so it's kind of hard sometimes with my son. But my wife's like, you gotta go, you're getting crazy. But back to what I was saying here. If anybody sees the text messages I get from TJ, they're one-word threats, and then uh he doesn't respond to a text. Like you call back, I go, Are you alright? And he won't respond back. And I know you read it, but you purposefully don't respond, which is okay. It's like it's just leave you hanging. No, but it's okay. And then I appreciate that. And then you know it's all in fun. And you know, listen, man. There was a little, you know, the last couple, like people always I get a lot of messages asking, are you gonna have TJ on? Are you guys gonna do you and John gonna do something? I said, it's gonna happen. It'll happen because there's no grudges in this hobby. You don't have a grudge against me, do you, TJ? You don't.
SPEAKER_14No, if I had a grudge against you, I wouldn't be scared.
SPEAKER_08Listen, man, we all say crazy shit, especially me. Half the stuff that I say is really crazy, and half the stuff I say is bullshit and nonsense, first of all.
SPEAKER_14Oh, it's definitely bullshit.
SPEAKER_08Right. And you know that I have the utmost respect for you as a model. And a person, um, I think you're a great guy in TJ, and you guys, Scott Gentry's an awesome guy, man. He's one of the nicest men in the world that I've got. That is true. He is, and I and I say that wholeheartedly, that he is one of the he has the biggest hearts in the world. He's a nice man. And you and you're lucky to be associated with him, because he really is a good guy, man.
SPEAKER_14No, I was actually, I was just telling him when I was I talked to him on the phone when I was driving up here, and I told him, and I've told him this before, but I I reiterated him because he's really upset that he's not here. Yeah. Um he really wanted to be here, but he couldn't make it happen. So we were trying to feel him a little, make him feel a little better. And and I told him, and I've told him this before. I was like, Scott, you're the reason why I have all of the friends that I have now. I would not have met any of these people if you hadn't reached out to me six years ago at this point and said, Hey, do you want to talk about models on a podcast with me and my friend Doug? I'm like, I just would have been another guy slightly overweight guy building models in his basement with not a care in the world.
SPEAKER_08Well, it did listen, the podcast world has definitely expanded, right? I mean, over time. And it's definitely evolved, and but it there's always listen, there's always banter that's gonna happen, right? And I say stupid shit sometimes. And I'd say no, no, no, no, no, I'm being honest with you. And this is gonna be, we're gonna have a little live show that's gonna go up there. People know that half the things I say, I'm like part serious, but also part joking. And sometimes you gotta decipher on what's a rant of seriousness and what's a rant of me just saying it just to get a response.
SPEAKER_14I know.
SPEAKER_08And my personality is geared more towards reaction and comedy in some ways, as opposed to you guys are, you know, you guys are funny, you have a good time, but you guys are straight, you know? You're straight. You don't say crazy shit like I say on the podcast. Wait till you hear the first podcast after the show. It's gonna be crazy. But that's the deal, though. Like when I go on the mojo, well not the mojo, what I say, the mojo. They didn't want me on. Mike Basquette and Dave, you bought me a drink, he goes, I bought you a drink. That was your time on the show. Thanks. Um, but when I'm on like the geeks, or if I go on like another show, I mean, they tell me before I get on. You got it, no cursing, you can't say anything too crazy. There's there's like a total like you know, I gotta follow the rules over there. But uh on the Insanity, things just get crazy. Oh, we know. And you and and and there's been times where I wake up to messages at like four, like five in the morning where you say, Riv, you're full of shit. No, you've done that. I know. You wrote, you know, what you said was total bullshit. And that's it. That's all you'll say to me, and you won't respond back to my response for like five days.
SPEAKER_14Well, because because I normally send you those when I'm in my truck before I go to work. Because I'm up super early, because you know, I had to be had to be funny in high school instead of No, I know. Instead of, you know, uh be a good student. So uh, you know, got one of those jobs where you gotta wake up early.
SPEAKER_08No, but listen, I wake up, listen, man, I don't want to hear that. You you you can you do I listen, you do well for yourself. And you do well for yourself in this hobby. And like you said about Scott, and I want to get back to that. Scott Gentry is the, you know, that guy is a hard people say, Riv, you're the one of the hardest working guys in a hobby. I say, you know what? Scott Gentry is a fucking working hard, too.
SPEAKER_14He's he's a low-key killer.
SPEAKER_08I said that guy's always got something going on, especially with that Rocky Mountain show that he does, the 48 and 48 that you guys do with skiffins and also the geeks and those guys over here on this side of the pond. Um, it's a lot. People don't realize how much time and effort it takes to put a podcast on, to get the guys together, get topics, get people to come on, and to keep a brand. It's not easy.
SPEAKER_14No. And you know, we all work full-time jobs.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_14I mean it's doesn't help. I mean, it helps us do this this kind of stuff, but it doesn't help with uh time, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_08And and listen, there's a there's and when you're on a show, especially like your show on the on the The Posse, there is there's is some responsibility that you have as a modeler. There is a little bit of responsibility. Like you don't when you come to a show like this, you're gonna meet people who listen to your show who want to say hello, who might not want, who might say, oh, well, that's TJ, you know, and that and you see them and you say, come over here, say hello. You know, that happens, right? It does. And you gotta be like, you gotta open yourself up to people. And you're listening you're a tough egg to crack. You are. And you know what? I've seen the fun TJ. I've seen the happy TJ, I've seen the, you know, not the crazy TJ, but I've seen all, like I think almost every type of personality you can have, I've seen come out at you. I've seen the angry TJ. Hold on, this guy's talking. Oh hot. Are you going today?
SPEAKER_14I might. I might go so then.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_14But he already he already kind of told me what they got.
SPEAKER_08All right.
SPEAKER_14With their next uh they're doing more Allied.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_14Because they're I think their last couple ones were uh some German.
SPEAKER_08Right. Right.
SPEAKER_14And I think they're still working on the Gag Panther?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, they're doing something. I think that's what it is down there, yeah.
SPEAKER_14But after that they they were directed to do another Allied piece. Yeah. They also recently did that M4A176. Right. That is the the oldest M4A176 that is known. It's like one of the first ones.
SPEAKER_08Is that the one that that's not is that the one you modeled?
SPEAKER_14No. No, no, no, no, no. That that's uh that's just a regular M4A6 model.
SPEAKER_08And that's the model, and let's talk about that really quick. So you did this awesome model, which I thought you did a fucking great job on. Thank you. And and when we and I remember when we were doing the Amps magazine leading up to Amps, Dave Grummit said to me, I got an idea. I said, What's the idea? He goes, I think we're gonna do two covers this time, and we've never done it. But I don't know how it's gonna work. He goes, What do you think getting Kristoff on the cover of the European one with the Sturm Tiger and TJ getting the cover on the US one? I said, I think it's a great idea. I said it's gonna make TJ fucking get his head blown up a little bit. No, I didn't say that. I said, no, I said I think it's a great idea. So it was awesome on paper, but the logistics of having the printing company on both ends of the country that sees to do it. So that meant the one magazine, I think it might be worth money because it's very difficult to find. The the the US version with your your Sherman on the cover.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, I looked and um I can't remember. Uh Barnes Nobles, I think, sells MMI. They do, yeah. And uh mine didn't have it. And but like Ken Childress, he founded the Barnes and Nobles in Arkansas where he lives.
SPEAKER_08Okay.
SPEAKER_14And uh yeah, I then I did then I kind of forgot.
SPEAKER_08No, but it was a good it was good though, and I'm glad we did that. And I was happy to get you those issues. But you gave that of course, and you gave that issue, and you gave that model to Hobbes.
SPEAKER_14I did. That's awesome, man. I did because he's the one uh Hobbs made that happen. You know, he gave we we were down there for the Amps Atlanta show, which is an awesome show. I missed I missed it this year, and I'm I was really disappointed because I've been, I think, three years in a row. Yeah. Um, and you get to they open up the collection at Benning for the attendees of the show, which is it's amazing. If it anyone has the opportunity to go to the Armor and Calvary collection at Fort Benning, as an Armour fan, you you gotta make it. It's they have an amazing collection. It's just unreal. And the stuff they don't even have on display that will show you why you're there is even cooler. Yeah. We saw the the Yag Panther that they're currently working on. They had just started it last year. That's awesome. And uh we saw they pulled, I think they pulled some of the road wheels off so we got to see real uh authentic period Dunkel Gelb. Like behind that is cool. Because it had never been repainted.
SPEAKER_08You took pictures of it, I hope.
SPEAKER_14I took a couple photos of it. Right. Uh, because it was a it was a combat casualty that we captured the Americans' captures and sent back home. It's a it's an amazing vehicle.
SPEAKER_08No, that's that's awesome. And that's that's that's Hobbes is great with that stuff, man. That that guy's a wealth of information, man. He's crazy too, though. Yeah. He's intimidating. He like there's times when he like, you know, he's he just looks at me briefly and like this gives me a fist pump, and there's times when he like chokes me, you know. So but Hobbes is a good guy. I mean, talk about uh, you know, somebody does a lot in the hobby too, like externally. He's not a big builder, but he that he's someone that like contributes in other ways, you know, with the whole like thing with Tacum and you know in the sukkah. Suka and all that right, all that stuff. It's that's he's a good guy. He's crazy though, man. Hobbes is a crazy guy. Guys got like 10,000 models in his collection. It's insane.
SPEAKER_14He has multiple locations. He's got it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he's got like it's like we talked about it like in uh Indiana Jones when they're bringing the arc. When he brings a kid in, Mikey Sachs said it's like him bringing it in, like, you know, where's he gonna put the kits? But uh listen, DJ, I'm glad you came on with me. Um I listen, man, there's no this everybody's like, are you the the the Triple P having problems? I said, no. No. I was like, listen, man, it's like it's my little don't listen to what I have to say. Everything I say is nonsense. It's all opinion, it's all fun.
SPEAKER_14It's a friendly rivalry.
SPEAKER_08It's a friendly rival. There's nothing to be rivalry about. Like, I don't compete. Like we help each other out.
SPEAKER_14Because you can't compete at all. I'm here.
SPEAKER_08You you ever need anything, you know that I would get. If I can, if I had the power to do something, you the same, you know I would do it in Harvard. Absolutely. And it wouldn't be a hesitation. I respect your TJ as long as you don't hurt me. I'm chubby right now, I'm out of shape. Maybe you gotta get me on a nice regiment, man.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, we'll get your whip back up.
SPEAKER_08Dude, I was so skinny two years ago, and then I hurt my hip and my knee, and like that's it. Um my poor wife is like, you have it, I'm just struggling right now. My hip is really bad. It's just over exercise. I was running like six miles a day.
SPEAKER_14Fuck bad.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and I just and my doctor's like, you gotta stop, you gotta tone it down. You're getting old, and I'm like, nah, it's okay. And then boom, one day, just twisted it the wrong way, and it's never been the same. So, listen, DJ, I really appreciate you, man. I really do. Well, thank you. I'm glad you came on. Um, I'm still waiting for my invite to be on the plastic posse. Hopefully it'll happen one day. Um, everybody gets on. You have everybody on. I'm like, hey, goff, go off, you get River on to talk photo etch and building and just have some fun, but it'll happen. It'll happen. I think you and John will be on the Insanity regular show again before I'm on the posse. We just like blue ball on you. Nah, that's listen, that but you know what? Um someone asked me that that I'm not gonna mention their name that's involved in the podcast world, too. And they're like, why don't they have you on? And I said, because they want to, that's like the power. They want to be like, you know what? Everybody has that asshole on, and we're not, I know gentry. Now listen, Scott's like, we're not having him on. Because he's on all those other shows, there's no reason to have him on, we're not doing it. And I see. We just like to dangle it and fuck it. I love it. But that's the gag, though. It should be. It's a bit now. It's a bit now. And Brett Advance, we talked about this before, man. One of my heroes in the hobby, man.
SPEAKER_04What is this, like a joint venture?
SPEAKER_08Well, TJ, yeah, we're talking. We're actually we're giving a peace offering for people to realize that we're really not like, you know, arguing. It's all bullshit. Just having fun. Until the mics go off, and he's not gonna talk to me for the rest of the fucking show. That's what he's gonna do. He's gonna walk past me. All right, so TJ, we'll sign off and we'll say hello to Brett. So thanks for coming, TJ. I appreciate it. Of course, thanks for having me. All right, thank you. And guys, listen to the plastic posse. You guys are on what? Show 160 by now?
SPEAKER_14Dude, I don't fucking remember.
SPEAKER_0862, 61, 62.
SPEAKER_14I lost count. I just I get told where to be. Yeah, I know. And I show up, I say what I need to say, and then I fucking sign off.
SPEAKER_08Well, you guys do good. And you go you listen, you guys do good. And all you guys, I respect all you guys, man. Everybody over there. You guys are awesome for the hobby, great ambassadors, um, okay modelers. We do okay. Nah, you guys are great. All right, we're gonna sign off. Thanks for coming, TJ. Oh, of course. All right, buddy. All right, we're back, and uh that was fun, man. And you you guys didn't hear it. I mean, I I heard it, I know what it is because we're just cutting it in, but it was fun talking to TJ, and it actually was um good because you know, people think there's a was always like a little thing going on. It's playful in a lot of ways, and I don't think there's uh nothing they can't take that stuff seriously. Um it's a hobby, and we're having a lot of fun. It was great talking to TJ. And it's funny how, like, you know, I said, TJ, you know, you're gonna have me on the show or whatever. He's like, nah, I go to freaking Mike Basquette, if you heard during the one of the one of the previous ones. I was like, Mike, having me on the show. He's like, no. Yeah, it was good seeing Mike Basquette and Dave Knight. They're great guys too. And I guess I didn't know. He bought you a beer, so he bought me beer and gave me a wet Willie Doctor uh Dave Knight. It was funny.
SPEAKER_05Like, I'm a fellow whiskey drinker, they didn't even offer to buy me a whiskey.
SPEAKER_08Nah, I don't know. Maybe they don't like you. Um I like, you know. Listen, I know that um I I went off the deep end before at the beginning of the show, and I was hoping I wouldn't do that, but my emotions came out, and I need to get out there because I think people need to hear it. Again, I I I got I had I had to get that out, man. I had to get that out. I try to be as genuine as I possibly can here. I try to be as fun as I can. This is a weird episode because we really didn't talk modeling, we just we did our little discussions and our little tie-ins to the to the little live key thing. So this is more of the live show with us interjecting, but I had to fucking get that rant out. And again, there's like a kind of an unwritten rule where you don't call people out like that on podcasts, and I might take a hit for it, but you know what? I'm a big boy, and uh this is what I needed to do. And I'm an open book, man. There's no secrets here. Um, this is life as you live it, as you know it, right? This is what we do. Again, I would have said this there, but I was trying to be respectful and not do that. So I'm using what I have my thing. I got my little microphone here, and I'm allowed to say what I want to say. If anybody wants to come on the show and have a debate with me about anything I say here, they're more than welcome to come on. This is an open show. You're always welcome. We can have a discussion, right, Justin? That even goes to anybody that I say things about here. And I think that I was more than warranted of what I said, and I don't care about even if there's uh any type of and there wouldn't be, but and even if there was, I can give it two shit. But um if there's gonna be some sort of fallout from it, I don't care. Defend yourself, defend yourself if you feel like you need to defend yourself. Call me a liar. Go ahead, prove me wrong, I'll accept it, but it ain't gonna happen, right? So, overall, guys, Justin Amps Nationals, it was a great time.
SPEAKER_05Phenomenal. Again, I'm looking at it from a different I'm looking at it from a different sp perspective as a modeling show. I don't even have an answer, but as as a way to connect with friends when I desperately needed it, 10 out of 10 would. Definitely would do again.
SPEAKER_08Next show is our show. Steve Santucci and Jim Gould, all the show chair people. Toots, you know, we had to fucking clean up the fucking show because the people who do the show the next year has to clean up, put everything in the fucking U-Haul. So we had to put all like the racks and all the all the fucking supplies and everything in. I was like, what?
SPEAKER_12Who's got it after us?
SPEAKER_08We make sure we we we we we we remember John Savage and Chuck Alchere.
SPEAKER_12They're doing it again.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, they'd do it because South Bend is in 2028. Well, that's cool. That's I might be able to get out there and and see my uh see my server again.
SPEAKER_12That's two years. You know what happened the last time, the goat. 100%, 100%.
SPEAKER_05That was all tongue in cheek. And not my tongue, her cheeks, tongue in cheek.
SPEAKER_08With the exception of the issue that I had that I fucking ranted on at the beginning of the show, I had a great time seeing everybody. Um, it was really awesome seeing people and people coming up and hanging out and walking around and seeing people. Steve Munzel, I forgot to mention Steve Munzel. I also saw Andy Taylor there. He gave me chili flakes that he made. My daughter loves it since I brought it home. She's putting it on everything. My daughter loves cooking and doing things, and she's like, These chili flakes are amazing. So, Andy, I want to thank you for the chili flakes. They're awesome. Last time I saw you, me and Tooch, we were in IPMS Nationals. You gave us the Narragansett beer, which I appreciated. You're a great guy, and it's always awesome seeing you too. I'm looking forward to the next hands because we're doing it, and it's gonna be a different thing because Camp Hill is like three hours away as opposed to 13. We're the host chapters, so we're gonna be doing a lot of things there. Seminar-wise, I'll probably be doing a seminar at that show because we got to figure out who our seminar coordinator is gonna be. Maybe I'll do it, maybe I'll be the seminar coordinator.
SPEAKER_10You should do it later.
SPEAKER_08Oh, maybe I'll ask Brian Eberley, he's so good with that, man. But that's another thing I gotta say. Brian Eberley, love you, man. You're a great guy, and I and I gotta make sure I I emphasize this. What's the caveat? No, there's none. Brian Eberley called me down from the fucking ledge at that show. And I, you know what, I could be overwhelming for people, for some people, and and and they right, and I know I know I can be overwhelming when I'm not happy about something, and I can't be I can't have a tantrum and things like that because I don't want to do that. But Brian is a great guy, man. He sits there, he talks even like heel, trying to get my mind, like trying to break the change the subject and trying to get my mind off of things, and I can definitely appreciate that. So, Brian, this is a shout out to you. He's a secretary of Amps, wonderful man. His wife is a wonderful lady, they're good people, and I appreciate them. There's a lot of other good people on Amps again. I gotta say it. Chuck Al Shir is a great guy, he's another good man, his wife, great people. Chuck is a really great guy, and Chuck, are you probably listening? I know you are, and you were one of the show chair people there, and I respect you, and you do a great job because you're a wonderful person yourself. You're a good guy, and I enjoy talking to you about the hobby or otherwise. Like I said, Neil Stokes, excellent. George Ironman did the raffle. George did a great job with the raffle. George, kudos to you, Chris Grader. He knows I love him. Vendor coordinator. Obviously, you didn't have as much a pull this time around because of the issues that happened that I described earlier in the show, but we all know them, right? When you're the vendor coordinator, you should be the one that kind of figures out where the vendors go on your show. But, you know, not everybody has to have like full creative control, like some people. Chuck Rothman as well, Frank Fromont, Frank uh Toots that took your spot as VP, spoke to Frankie Fromont, another great guy. You know, overall, everything was great with the exception of that little rant I had to do at the beginning. And I'm rambling on, but this show is gonna be way, way too long with the cut-ins and what we're talking about. So we're gonna wrap this up. I apologize that there's not a lot of model talk on this episode, but this is a really a live episode with our cut-ins. So we're kind of gonna wrap this up. Mostly it was me talking, but um, guys, anything to say before we say goodbye?
SPEAKER_18Yeah, I'm uh glad everyone had a good time that got to go there. Uh it's nice to sit back and and just see all our friends having fun. Um I say again, Adams and I FOMO'd like crazy. I'm sure we weren't the only ones. Uh but uh you know, congratulations on another show. And uh I'm hoping to be at Camp Hill. So see you all next year.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, tooch.
SPEAKER_18Anything?
SPEAKER_12Glad you all had fun. I can't say yes, I did miss the guys. I I don't think I was as depressed as I was after the uh Virginia one that I missed because I had a lot going on here that meant a lot to me and to my state. So kudos to you guys uh for pulling off another one and uh see you guys this time next year in person, hopefully.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Um Justin, anything? Yes, it's in my backyard next year, so I definitely will be there. Only about an hour and a half, two hours away from my place. I did message Andrew Measy that if he does desperately need a boring place to crash when he first lands, I've got a nice comfy boneless couch for him to sleep on, and uh I can take him out to the show on the first day. Frank, same thing goes to you. If you end up coming in town, shoot for uh Philly International. I'm not too far from a train station. You can stay here as well, and I can drag your Heine ass out to Camp Hill as well if necessary. Other than that, good show, guys. Thank you, everybody that uh that offered me words of support. It means more than you know.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, definitely. And uh hopefully our next show will be more, we'll have a nice topic again, a couple of good things and some fun. There won't be any fucking screaming by me about anything.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_08Dave Grummit wants to was supposed to be our next guest, so I'm hoping Dave can come on as the next guest to talk about uh well, hopefully we can pick his brain and talk about a lot of fun things on the next show. All right, so for the modeling and sanity podcast, again, thanks for listening and listening to me rant. I'm your host, Rob Riv. I'm with my co-host, Mr. Justin Ryan. He's out, Cubscouts. Frankie Denati. Thanks for spending some time with us. Steve Santucci.
SPEAKER_12Build what you love, love what you build.
SPEAKER_08All right, guys. Thanks for listening, and we will catch you on the fifth day.
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