From Vintage Sci-Fi Blockbusters to our Hangar; The Story of our Master Model Builder: W.V. Ep 47

Rob and Scott sit down with Master Model builder Steve Carricato and talk about his journey becoming a top flight model builder.  We discuss his time in movie modeling.  Also he talks about the many newer processes of building very exacting models from scratch.  This is a podcast your inner child will love!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello everyone and welcome to Winged Victory with Rob and Scott, a podcast by the National Museum of World War II Aviation here in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 0:17

Welcome to another episode of Winged Victory with Rob, me being Rob and Scott. That's me. We did not consciously go Machi Poo this morning, but sometimes it happens. Our stylists, they get together.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Yeah, well, you obviously have a stylist, and I obviously don't. Well, this morning we've got our friend Steve Caracato. I hope that's perfect approximation. Yep. Who is our model builder here at the museum. And I've been trying to, it I seem seems like I'm always trying to run somebody down. And schedule's finally meshed. But when you have a historical museum, you know, you you can't have the Japanese battleship Yamato. Uh she's definitely unobtainable. But you want to represent it. And you do a whole lot of that with us. Yeah, I do. I enjoy it though. Yeah, now is this a profession or just a hobby?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Well, it it started out as a hobby and it turned into a profession. So I I've been doing this for 25 years. So I I've been building models for for family members, you know, their their parents or whatever in the war, and and I I've done commission builds for yeah, quite a long time. And it's just it was one of those things when I was a kid, you know, I always wanted to work for Hollywood and build airplanes and ships and all that. And and then I I got my calling back in '94. Um somebody asked me to build a model for them, so I did that, and then it took off, and then I got a website going on, and then now everybody's calling me, and you know, and I'm retired now. Okay, you're retired.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

I was I was about to say, if you want to plug the website, but if you were retired, you probably don't.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

No, it's it's it's it's over with. I I just do it for fun now. You know, I I I still do, I got all my clients and everything, and they just contact me when they want something, you know. And and then like I I just finished one uh a couple days ago, Don Johnson uh reached out. He had a guy that wanted this B-25, his dad was in the 8th Air Force and he wanted this thing built. And and I says, Ah well, okay, sure, you know. So I con he lives in Alabama, he sends me this old model kit that his dad built back in the 50s. And I told him, I says, Oh, this is pretty bad, but I'll try to redo it. So I looked at it, found it on eBay, found another model of it, and I just rebuilt the whole thing for him, and I shipped it back to him and got all his nose art and everything, and he was happy. And it was really interesting because when I was taking it apart, he had he he needed so the V25, of course, you know, needs nose weights, otherwise it tips over on the models. We used to put BBs in there, yeah, exactly. So so this thing's rattling around in here, and I'm I'm wondering what's in it. And I opened it up and it's got 245 live shells in it that his dad carried on his sidearm because he was the pilot. Uh and um so that's what he used for the for the and and I was like, this is crazy. So this model is actually close to 60 years old, right? And it had the real live shells in there. That stuff lasts forever. It does, it does. And and he he wanted me to ship it, but I I couldn't put it back together like that. You didn't like paint up the the 45s as bombs and put them in the you know, I I thought about that because they were in pretty scale, pretty good scale, and that would have been perfect. But I yeah, I I still have them though. No, but it was kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

The postal service would have frowned on sending that to Alabama. I mean, you can you can do it, but not worth the trouble.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah, they make you push that button all the time. Does it got any any of this? And it's like, no.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Well, and I mean, those of us I I built all these models as a kid, obviously not professional grade and you know testers model cement on the canopy and all that.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

I used all that stuff when I was a kid too. The the whole the whole technology changed about 20 years ago. Did it? Yeah, so they they got photo-etched, uh, and what photo etched is is uh it's brass and they use lasers. They take a picture of the real cockpit or the ship or whatever, and then they burn it out, and then you can fold it and bend it. It's flat, but you make it round, and then you you solder it, and then it it's an actual, you know, the railings on a ship are exactly like the real uh ship or airplane or cock pit.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

So, how does one go from like what everybody did it growing up making models like you, you know, you and me were sticking our fingers together with the glue and and all that, and then taking it to the deciding, well, I want to keep going with this and go to a next level. I mean, what was it? What was the inspiration behind that?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Believe it or not, it it was it was um uh Star Wars. Yeah. Okay, so when Star Wars first came out, I was like, man, I want to do this. So I ended up uh getting all these magazines that they had, they they had all these magazines on how to build models basically professionally. And I just turned that the science fiction into everything, basically, you know, all the way down the line. So they have these books, and they oh, I didn't know you could do this, you know. Like so to fill a gap in plastic, when super glue first came out, they didn't have all these fillers and stuff. So, you know, you're using uh Bondo from cars and stuff to fill all this stuff, and the stuff that they had back when we were kids, when they were making all this stuff, the glue, the tester's glue would actually melt the model and melt. Yeah, that's and then and then this is horrible, you know. And then you put the canopies on and they're all goobered up, and I was like, how do they do this, right? So so they have all these little tricks, they used Elmer's glue to put the canopies on, so it's water soluble. So then you take a Q-tip and then it holds it in place. All these little tricks. And then so I read all these books on how they did all this stuff, and I was like, hmm, okay, so this is how they do it. So I kind of self-taught myself, and then and then down the road I started figuring stuff out on my own, and then I I learned how to scratch build, uh, because some of these models you can't, you just can't make them. And then Star Wars is just what they did. They they made these these ships from a bunch of tanks and airplanes and all this stuff, and they just started gluing parts on, and they show how they did it, and it's really amazing to to look at some of these models that they did over the years, and you look, there's a there's a uh an aerial engine, you know, a radial engine from a uh uh F3 on there, and they got all these things. It's kind of interesting, but uh the answer the question is they had they started coming out all this technology, and then how to how to take a seam, you know, and they have this new glue that you just uh instead of using the testers, you wipe it on. And you hold the two pieces in 60 seconds it melts. It basically it's a solvent that they use for plumbers. It's the same stuff that's used for P V C pipe, like the purple stuff, like the purple stuff, except it's clear, it's it's the the thin stuff, and that's how you put models together nowadays. It's a super thin, it's uh it evaporates really fast. So if you leave the cap open, it'll be gone by the end of the day. And you know, it's highly toxic in California, but only in California. I mean in California.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Well, California's highly toxic, so it's a it's a wad. So this podcast won't be uh broadcast in California. I'm I'm I'm sure I'm persona non broad of it California long ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

It's it's it's just that that code or whatever, but no, all the all the glue is all legal and stuff. But so yeah, there's new technologies in that, and now now everything's got into 3D printing, which the hobby's kind of going away now because now you get a piece and then you paint it, and that takes all the fun of putting it together. Yeah, you know. But on the other hand, it's also an enhancement because now the photo etched was was the state of the art about 20 years ago, and now 3D printing is. So now they take a picture of the real part and they 3D print it, and then it comes out in resin, and then you can put that part right into the model, and you don't do anything, it's already done. Some of them are all already printed and painted now.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Um well that's kind of funny because it's kind of what our B25 crew is doing, the the the uh college kids, yeah, you know, they're doing a lot of 3D printing for all the actual parts. Yeah. So they're you know, instead of going in and raiding our real parts and putting them in into a simulator, you know, they're they're taking those real parts, they're 3D printing them, or scanning them, and then printing them, and then they now they got an actual you know B25 cockpit, but they're not they're not killing all the parts that we need.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Exactly. And and and the these when when they when they do this, this stuff is so accurate that you could actually use it. I mean, on and so so now the models are super accurate now. Before they were a loose association of what it's supposed to be. So and so that's that's another another point on the models.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Well, and I think another advantage of that is you now you're you're a kid that doesn't have to wait for them to to build a specific model. You know, true. You always part of the most of the thing for me when I was modeling was like going to the hobby shop and scouring. You know, well, what is it that I want to build? Oh, you know, I really want to build the P38, you know. Well, there's no P38 models here. I gotta go to another hobby shop. I mean, remember when they used to have hobby shops?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Yeah, they have hobby shops. Actually, no, I have I have been in one recently, and I was I was astounded because there's all this other stuff. Right. And my grandson wanted to go in there, and I sure I walked in and said, so I'm an old guy, I used to build plastic models. Do you have any? Oh yeah, right over here. Wow. And some of the same models that I used to build.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

But it they are rare. And what we would think of of a hobby shop is just one section.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Exactly. And it it and now they all kind of gone away because the hobby's kind of it but believe it or not, it's actually coming back now because the the people over in Europe and and Japan and Hong Kong are bringing all these old models back, they're retooling them, and they're making them accurate now. So now if the fuselage was wrong on an airplane or a bow on a ship, they're redoing it and they're taking pictures and they're taking the line drawings. And uh even the the old P38 lightning that we had, the Tamiya company came out here and measured it. Oh, yeah. So now that model is an accurate model of that P38.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah, I was pretty interested to watch that actually. I mean, they took all this like line tape and tape and taped the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Oh, I would have thought about it would all been lasers or something.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Well, they did, but I mean they I think they had all this tape to like for references and stuff, and then the laser some I don't know how they did it, but it was like a three-day process.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

So it was pretty cool. And it's just amazing because some of the model kits that I built when I was a kid, I'm still building those. So because I can't find some of these models for some of our projects that we have here. I'm on the internet trying to find these, and then if I can't, I have to scratch build. I I I did build one vacuform the old days when you couldn't when you couldn't get the airplane, somebody would make it out of wood, and then you'd pressure the plastic over the top and vacuform it, and then you would have this kit. Well, you're really it's it gives you the basics, but then you have to scrounge and get another kit for the landing gears and all the other stuff to make this thing happen. So it's a it turns into a skill, and that's what I loved about the models was actually building stuff from scratch.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Well, and um we were looking at the the B-17, the Memphis Bell over there, uh-huh, and you got thrown at you by our curator here, fix this. Right. And you said eventually that that kit was like $400?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah, it's like $450 from Hong Kong. And whoever whoever built it before that donated it to the they did the best they could, but because I do this, I I see stuff, and when they when they put me on, they go, you know, this this this display is not up to par, so I think I want to redo it. You know, I still want to leave it the original for the original person that built it. Yeah. But I'm gonna fix the seams, I'm gonna repaint it, fix the decals, and do all that stuff. So that's kind of what I do. But the the the B-25 was just so far gone that I was like, you know, this this is this is not a good representation for the museum, you know. That's what I was looking at. I I want this, I want this place to be the top, top and and I As we all do. And I I think we're we got it. I mean, we're nailing it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

So yeah. I mean, okay, you make a TIE fighter or whatever from Star Wars, it's not like that was ever a real thing. Right. But if you wanted to recreate grandpa's B-17, exactly, somebody's gonna say, no, that's not how it was. And so historical accuracy.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

And and that's that's exactly right. So when it comes to some of these models are not historically correct, so that's when I'll take them out of the museum and redo them, or I'll fix them to make them correct. Because I mean, the model companies were just what they were doing. They're putting on an airplane, the kids put it together, it's all great. Well, now they've changed it all, now they want to make them accurate. So now they do the photo X and the 3D printing. They they get the panel lines all lined up, and you know, all the Avalons and everything works now. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

That's kind of like what you have observed in the warbird industry. Instead of I just want the P51 to fly. Oh, yeah. And then you get the guy who flew the airplane, it's like, where's the relief tube?

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Well, there's you know, there's an evolution to everything. I mean, people, you know, somebody might start something, you know. You we all started as a model builder as a kid, you're you know, but then there's people like you that are like, well, no, we can go this could be better. And then there's somebody else that watches you and goes, Well, you know, we we can make it even better. This area. So there's a constant evolution, and then there's always the the cost ROI, you know. Yeah, I mean you you gotta take that into uh consideration when you're doing what we're doing. Um maybe not as much with you guys. I mean, because you you're one of those. Well it's a question of scale. Yeah, scale and everything else, but so I I don't know, it's it's a little apples to oranges, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

And and and the model industry has really come up a lot, and the price of models have come up. You know, the average model you were back when we were kids were five, six dollars for a model. The average model is about 150 bucks now. It's just ridiculous. Yeah, they're expensive. But it's all the tooling, you know, and you know, they gotta make all the molds and the price of oil and everything's gone up. But but now the model companies are more accurate now. They're not just they're they're going back and looking at the real airplanes and measuring them and making them accurate now. So let's go back to the Star Wars thing.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Okay. Um, so you're this is what inspires you to kind of start doing this thing. You want to get into the movie making stuff. Did you ever get into that industry?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I I I did. So uh back in 1980, I had I had a I I scratch built this giant spaceship, and uh I want it was my made it my own, of course. I I learned the technique, thought I could try to make this thing, so I scratch built this big spaceship.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

So when you say scratch built, how do you how do you let's even dig in and even deeper to that? How do you scratch build? Is it a plastic spaceship?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Plastic wood, what whatever materials.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

So how are you forming in this in 1980?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Okay, so in 1980, I I went to the local hobby store and bought balsa wood. Okay. So I took the balsa wood out, framed up how the spaceship was going to be, and then I would then I started taking some styrene plastic, which was just flat plastic, and gluing it with epoxy onto the onto the wood to make my frame, and then I'd start adding the parts and the panels and cutting out the panels and and and gluing them on and making this giant spaceship. And then so this thing I had it and and I was like, what am I gonna do with it now? So I went back to the hobby store where I was buying all these model kits, I was buying tank parts and airplane parts and everything I could throw on this thing because that's how you make them, and then um started doing this, and then I got this big thing, and the guy says, Can we just hang it up in the in the store? And I was like, Yeah, that'd be great. So I hang it up here, and you got all these people telling stories. Well, yeah, they're using this in the next Star Wars movie, people making up their whole stories. Sure. And I was sitting there laughing because I'm in there just hanging in the hobby store, and and everybody's laughing, and the owner's like, Well, you why don't you just talk to Steve over there? He's the one who built it, he'll tell you the real story on it. And so I told him, and then so that this guy approaches me and he goes, I work for Brick Price uh Industries down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and they're making these new line cinemas. Uh they made this movie called Battle Beyond the Stars. It was it had John Boy in it. I I don't forgot his name, the actor's name. Richard Thomas. Richard Thomas, exactly. And um, so they says, We want to we want to take your model and use it in the movie. And I was like, sure, this is just what I want, right? So they take it down there and they they film it and stuff, and they they don't like the head on it, so they knob the head off and they put a different different uh uh bridge or whatever on it. They use it, and then they uh they tell me um uh we're not gonna use your name because we can't, blah, blah, blah, you know. And I was like, Why can't you do that? You just took my model. Yeah, are you gonna pay me for it? And they says, Well, yeah, we're gonna pay you for it. Uh, how much do you want? And I was like, Well, I don't know. I mean, I got maybe $2,000. This was a lot of money back then. I said, That's what I got into it. If you pay me for it, that's that's fine. They says, Well, we'll do that. So the the model was used in the Battle Beyond the Stars, a giant, there's an opening scene, and they used that there. So that was my first deal of fame, but I never got my name or recognition or whatever, so I was like, that's fine. So, you know, later on in life, I life happened, stopped doing models for like 20 years. Sure. And then back in 2004, I think it was, I worked out here at the Carro Springs Airport for 20 years. And I was working one night, I was working late, and one of the guys I worked with, he's like, Do you do models? I said, I haven't done models in 20 years. I did when I was a kid and I stopped. He says, You need to come out to the hobby store, we're building models out here. And I was like, Okay, I will go out on a Saturday and they're um uh building models, and they said, Hey, we got a sci-fi uh model contest. If you got any sci-fi,'cause I was like, All I have was what left. I had this little spaceship that I built that hung up into this giant spaceship that they used in the movie, and I pulled it out of dust and I put it in there and it won first place, won all this stuff. And they sent me to a Star Trek convention and it won first place again, and and I was like, I didn't want to tell the guys that I built this stuff when I was like 17, right? Yeah, and I was like, ooh, I'm not gonna tell them that. So I come back and this other guy taps me on the shoulder and he goes, I want to I want to master build this, and we can start selling it as kits. And I was like, Really? And he says, Yeah, he says, I'll make the molds, we'll make molds of it, and we'll start reproducing this model. So I did that, got into business, and then that's when it blew up. And then after that, then I started making all these movies, and then and then uh there's uh another show that I built a flying saucer for um the third rock from the sun. Oh, really? And it's in the background as a prop. Oh, that's cool. Hey, and they again they didn't put my name in there because they contract people, that's how they do it now. Ah, okay. So I started doing that, and then I got all these people, and then then I started I wanted to really get back into World War II history because that's been my thing, my whole thing. That's what I always wanted to do. So I started redoing that, and then I got different different clients that their parents or were in Vietnam, and you know, I so I I build everything tanks, ships, you name it, I build it for everybody. So, what does it take to build the average build?

SPEAKER_02 21:18

I mean, how long are you talking? What what are we what are we talking here? I mean, what is your longest to average, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Okay, so the the the longest would be the lang leave that we have here in a museum that I built. That took me two years to build that because of the photo etched. But usually it takes me about a month to six months on any kind of model. If I really get on it, I can get it done in about a week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

But that never works out because are you like doing multi yeah, like how many projects do you have to do? I got right now I got four going on at the same time. And you're retired.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah, I'm retired. So yeah, I'm retired and I'm st yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Not building models anymore, but he's got four going on at the same time. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah, so you know, sometimes I want to build one from myself and I'll start to build one from myself, then I'll build it, and then somebody's like, Well Yeah. Can I can I get that from you? You know what? Here. I I sell it to them. So I don't have anything at home really because all my work is in people's houses or all over this museum.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

So you got a Langley over there that's about this big, right? Right, yeah. And it took two years of your life. So how big was the scrap pile compared to that? I mean, I mean, how often do you, you know, you spend a couple weeks maybe doing something, and then you just look at it and go, nah, it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Uh that happens a lot. Yeah. You get tired of the project, so that's why I have multiple projects. Yeah. So that way I start on something. Like right now, I'm working on one of the trainers for the museum. Gene set me up for build four trainers. So we're going to have the all our real trainers that we have that fly, and then all the ones that we don't have. So we're going to have every trainer in the museum that that they use like a 1920. B22. Yeah, I d I'm doing a BT22, a P a BT13. I'm working on the Jeep right now. That's the last one out of the whole collection. So we're going to have this collection of the ones that we can't physically have here.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

Well, and going back to the movie things, I'm thinking about one of my favorite movies, but it's got this massive naval battle scene, and the models are so bad. They are super bad. And it just What movie are we talking about here? Uh in Harm's Way.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

I was going to say, I I was going to name it. I knew what you were talking about. They didn't even have masts on them. They just kind of just sort of a silhouette. A silhouette, you know, and then they got this noise going through the water.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

They wanted to get you, but you retired, so they were like, well, I guess we got to get what we get.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

I suppose. And and and the thing is with the movie models, they just make it good enough to last for 10 minutes because it's a pass by. Even all the Star Wars models are not that good. If you look at them, it's like this is a horrible thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

You could never put the ships on the screen for you know seconds.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Exactly. So that's why they don't do the masks for the ships, because they're not going to go through all that detail, you know. Now with CGI and stuff, it still doesn't look right, but it's a lot better. But yeah, it's it's the whole thing. So you either you either decide when you're a model builder, are you gonna make something that's museum quality, or are you gonna make something that's good enough for that you're happy with, or you know, that you're gonna sell it. So I take when I build stuff, I'm building this for somebody, I'm not gonna have my work out there and so, oh, who built this? You know, I want to make sure that it's really good. I want it museum quality. If it's not museum quality, I'm not gonna sell it to you. I'm not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

Well, and the other the other part of this is you're not just building the model per se, you're making a diorama. Right. And so you've got to put all those little details. I love the fact that on some of these, you know, the hard stand's got oil spots on it, yeah, yeah, and stuff like that. That level of detail is museum quality.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah, and and and that's what I try to emulate is on all my models, I try to make them like they're real. Yeah. I don't want it to look like a model. See, there's there's a model, and then there's uh a re a real model, and I try to make them look like a real model. So, you know, you'll you'll have uh the wings will be worn a little bit, you know, and the the ship will be worn because it's been at sea, you know, and I mud on the jeep tires and part of that is the telling the story. Exactly. That's exactly the artifact. And that's that's what I look at as a model. Yeah, I'm turning a model into an artifact because I'm trying to put it back into that time zone and that scene of where it was and what it looked like at that, you know. And so I'll do the research, and that's where the fun comes in. Oh, yeah. Is the research to make this thing accurate because I don't want to put something in a museum and find out that it never had that, you know. It's like, and I I have uh many people, I got I got in our in our team, they're constantly, I bring it to them and say, is this accurate? Because I don't want to put this in here, you know. And then they'll do their research, and then uh uh Gene and uh Jim will come back and they'll go, you know what, I I don't think it had this, you know. And it's like you're right, it didn't have, I was tested.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

We we deal with that all the time in the museum, and when we bought the P38, you know, it was the same thing, it had a cannon in it. And a lot of people were like, well, that model didn't have a cannon in it. That's not real. But we pulled that out of New Guinea. Yeah, I mean, it was buried in the war, it had the cannon. And it had the cannon, you know, it had to mount the whole setup.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Well, and I I'm sure you encounter the experts, you know, who are gonna critique your work based on all of about three minutes of a video 20 years ago. Yeah, thanks for sharing. Um Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

We call them rivet counters. Oh, there you go. That's what that's what we call the the the people that critique your models, they're start they actually count the rivets. You know, they want to make sure that it has that many rivets. Or or that, you know, they they they look at the contour of the aircraft and you know that's all. Well, some of it is not your fault, it's it's the the model kit. Right. You know. Unless you're building it from scratch from plans, which I have done in the past. I've actually built full-blown ships from scratches from the Naval Institute. I've got I have a couple destroyers and stuff at home. I have a bunch of stuff at home that that I built for myself back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

Yeah, well, somewhere, somewhere on my shelves I have the class of ship I served on. Oh. Um but unfortunately there were three of them built for the Germans, three of them built for the Aussies, and the rest for us. And I got the German kit, but I'm gonna have to do a whole lot of changes to to make that into the ship. And some somehow in my copious spare time, I haven't even got the thing down. Well, you're gonna have to make time.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

So I mean, you got all this incredible skill. I mean, let's just face it. I mean, oh yeah, your skill level, I mean, you're obviously top of the top of what you do. So do you have any ideas or plans on and getting that out into the world somehow? Like doing maybe video series or some kind of and I I've done that, I've done a couple YouTube stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

I I've had how how to paint an aircraft. Yeah, you know, I I've done stuff like that, and uh, you know, I've taken some of my techniques to some of the local uh hobby clubs, you know. You know, I I use future floor wax, which is now the floor wax, it's just called floor wax, but it used to be called future. Yeah, it's what you use for like mop and glow for doing your floors and sure. Well, that is pure liquid plastic, okay? So I found out by just accident that the canopies on all on your on your airplanes and your ships, your your model cars, all that. When you paint this stuff, you just take it right out of the bottle and you paint it, it turns the plastic into glass, pretty much. It takes all the imperfections out of the plastic, so now it's super clear now, so now it looks like a glass canopy. Huh. And I and I use it for the decals. Well, when I go to put the decals down, I paint this stuff right over the top, and I try to tell everybody my technic my technique, and they laugh at me, they say it doesn't work. So when you're going to put a decal on, what if you've ever done decals, I'm sure you have, it's a water slide. Yeah. So you put it in, you cut it out, you slide it on, then you damp it on, and you hope that there's enough glue that it sticks. And it doesn't bubble. And it doesn't bubble up on you. So I found out that what I do is I take the future floor wax or whatever they call it now, floor wax, and you you paint on where the decal goes, then you put the decal down and you dab it, and then you paint over the top again, and then it kind of wrinkles up and stuff, and then you just sit back and wait, and it sucks right down. That the rivets and everything pop through, and it looks like you painted it on. That's amazing. So that's how I do all the decals, and everybody's like, Did you paint those on? It's like, no, I I used the the future floor wax. Then I come back and spray it with a dull coat, and the dull coat takes all the sheen out so it doesn't look like it's you know clear, and then that's how I do it. So little techniques like that that I've learned over years by my by mistake sometimes. Well, that's uh that's the best teacher ever.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yeah. Yeah, honestly, though, you ought to really think about just doing like many, many little, you know, two-minute how-to videos. Oh, this is how I glue this together, this is how I put on this decal. And just kind of have a site for that. Because I'm telling you, the kids these days, I mean, I I know kids that want to do this, that build models, but they don't know what they're doing. You know, and and they and they get frustrated with it and they don't know how oh, how do I how do I do this? Well, well, I don't know, you know, because I exactly I'm still on the glute days, yeah. Yeah, I mean, just to run yeah, little vignettes, I guess. I don't know what you would call it, but yeah, and just kind of have your own site where they can, I mean that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

I think you would do very well very well. Actually, Steve, this may come see us. Start with that, yeah. Okay. Um, I mean, seriously, somebody's gonna see this episode, and I need I need to learn from this guy.

SPEAKER_04 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

I mean, where can where can people go to see your your current stuff that you got on YouTube now?

unknown 31:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Do you have a site? No, I don't have well, I did. I I used to have spacecraft creation models. Um was the was the site. Unfortunately, I got hacked a couple days ago, so my whole my whole thing is down right now. That's another story and a half. Yeah, well. I I can't tell you what what how messed up that is right now. If there's a shell, but you can still see some of my stuff. But however, you can see all of my work. Uh it's um there's there's a couple other sites out there that that I've I've built models uh for people. And this this this uh it's called uh Starling Technologies is what it's called. I I can find out exactly what we're doing. We'll ask William to put the put the link up. And then so he he puts up all this all my commission bills that I've done over the years, and I I've done all kinds of stuff like I've even did the the Batmobile for a guy. You know.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Well maybe this is a good time to kind of refresh, rebrand, start fresh, get some Facebook out there, get some you get your own YouTube channel, yeah, and then start monetizing that thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

That's that's a great idea. I should probably do that, you know, and then it just it's just gonna get me more work. And I'm so busy, Gene's got me so busy doing all this stuff. It's it's I gotta have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Well the great thing is all you gotta do is have a microphone and a camera. Yeah. Have it set up, and while you're doing what you do, anyways, that's true. And you could just talk about it and then you know find somebody, or if you can't do it yourself, you know, find somebody like William that can cut that thing up and make it presentable.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah, yeah, that's that's a great idea. Yeah, I I probably should because the tr trying to get the the new generation to build models is just it's it's it's tough because they make them all snap together and now the 3D printing coming out now, that everybody just wants to just have it done. And that's that that's the part that is lost. It's lost now.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

There are still, I mean, let's not let's not sell a whole bunch short. There are still gonna be ones who want to do it right historically accurate.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

If you're if you're showing them these techniques that can give them really great results, then you it would it would jump start, it would take them out of the hey, I don't want to do the Lego sets anymore, I want to actually build this because I feel like I got more blood and sweat and tears into this thing than just putting you know, reading instructions and clipping stuff together. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

So yeah, but there you go. So a new a new project. Okay, sounds good. Yeah, I'm gonna take you guys up on it. I think it's a great idea.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Well, we want to thank you. I want to thank you, certainly, and uh I'm sure Scott does too for taking the time to uh to sit down with us, uh you know, walking through this pavilion and just go, wow, look at that.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a different level to what you do. So to be able to see that is it you know, there's there's all the models that I've done or people have seen, but to walk around and see these really, really nice, nice pieces.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

It's really fantastic to have. And that that's the good thing about this, is now I can come back and see my models. In the past, once I do them, I never see them again. They're gone, you know. All I have is pictures, you know, and and now I can actually go back and see them again, you know. It's kind of cool anytime I want to, I forget where they are half the time. But you know, I have I have a whole bunch in collections too that we haven't put out because we don't have the space yet. And soon now we are gonna have the space. So I mean I'm working on uh the Nortzmann, the the Glenn Miller plane that uh that was lost.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

Well, you said that again is gonna be a diorama with the Jeep and him getting into the airplane.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Yeah, he's actually signing his papers and all that. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's a moment in time. Exactly. So and that that way pe a lot of people don't know what what his plane even looked like, you know, or what happened to him, because you know he flew a he he flew a C47 around with his band, and he was he was a little bit of a kind of eccentric, like most musicians. And uh, but he wanted to be there first before they set up. So he uh they were they were at this particular time they there was weather and they couldn't fly, but he wanted to get there sooner, so he went into the local establishment or whatever, and there was a uh a young, I forgot his officer, we'd have to go back to history, but anyway, just to make it short, uh this guy takes him up in the Nortesmann. Well, the Nortzmann was known for freezing up, carburetor problems, no instrumentation, you know, you know. So they they they went up. They they went up and he'd only been flying for a hundred or eight hundred hours or something. He was just green as could be, and they never saw him again. He went over the English Channel, but there's all kinds of theories of what happened after that.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

But yeah, well, spaceships. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

So you could you could combine that with one of these spaceship levels. Yep. So all right, Steve. Well, we really appreciate you. Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, it's been great. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks. All right, thanks. Thanks. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks. Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

All of us built these things. Or not all of us, but basically. I mean, almost every everybody child, everybody I grew up with certainly did.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Yeah, I mean, well, not everybody that I grew up with, but yeah, I mean, it wasn't like something that I did a lot, but you know, definitely tried my hand at it a few times, and then you you know, like I said, I would just get so frustrated with it because it would come out looking so bad, you know. It was like finger, like you said, glue fingerprints everywhere, you know, and the paint never looked good. And I mean it was terrible.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

Oh, I had them suspended uh from the ceiling of my bedroom.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

I mean, I would have really enjoyed, you know, if we had a computer back then, to to be able to like clip on somebody's clip and oh, this is how you do that. Oh, okay. Well, you know, and have somebody just you know mentoring you through that.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

I'd uh you you may have planted the seed. Yeah. And and given Steve, who's already, you know, loaded with all kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

We can do this, I think he can do that.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Well, that's true. That's true, and he would actually have something of substance. Yeah. But speaking of substance, um we've got uh the August fly day. Uh there's a Mustang coming down. Yeah, we got uh Mark Bingham's bringing down Staying Evil from uh She's Pretty up in Broomfield, Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

So it's a beautiful, beautiful Mustang. He is also gonna be flying in our air show again.

SPEAKER_03 38:14

Oh good.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

Um but yeah, he's coming down, uh, and I'm not quite sure what the the presentation is or the even the dates, to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

But uh well, our curator Gene is doing the presentation, and I think it is just the victory of air power, you know, eliminating the the Luftwaffe as a as a force. So that's probably gonna be either the 15th or the 22nd, depending on the Yeah, yeah, they usually do it about that time period every month.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

So um yeah, we're real excited about that. I'm excited to see the Mustang down here. It's always a fan favorite. I'm I'm just excited to hear it.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

I love that sound. Oh, who doesn't? The V12. And then something else we got coming on in August, which is uh I guess breaking news here, really, is uh we're gonna have a hell diver reunion. Oh, so that that's really gonna happen. Yeah, that's really gonna happen. Uh Mr. Ron Fagan from Fagan Fighters has really been a driving force behind this. He's the owner of the the newest Dash 5 that was restored at the same time that we finished our Dash One. Um he's really wants to see this happen.

SPEAKER_03 39:25

So the only hell divers that we know of.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Well, the only three hell divers flying in the world, and we're gonna have them all here in our facility for uh, I believe three days. And uh unfortunately it's gonna be during the week. Um I think it's gonna be August 16th, 17th, 18th, might be the 17th, 18th, 19th. It isn't all set in stone yet, but uh we're gonna have them all out here. We're gonna be doing some photo flights with them. I hope. Um I'm sure that we're gonna as the month gets or gets closer, we'll probably have some activities or something kind of put together around this this event. Sure. I mean, it's the first time in I I don't know, since probably post just post-World War II that you know, three of these things are been flying together.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

And to have the only three and and for everybody to come together and make this happen. I mean, the CAF, you know, they're on a busy air show schedule. So for them, that's why we're doing it during the week, because they you know, the only time they can get out here is is during a week. So it's just all coming together. Um, and we're gonna make this thing happen. We're really thankful to Ron Fagan and the Fagan fighters and the CAF for for participating. Bringing those stash fives up and coming out here and coming to our facility and yeah, down wherever they're coming from. So that's exciting news, and uh definitely gonna want to put that on your calendar.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's going on mine. I I don't know, I mean put up at 10.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

And then uh, you know, like talk about the air show again. Um yeah, we still have the air show going on September 19th, 20th. Um, there's still tickets available. Um there's still believe it or not, I I can't believe that these tickets are still available, but there's a photo opportunity. Oh, really? Yeah. Those there's some of those still. There's still some of those available uh as of this recording. So if they're gone by the time you guys see this, it's not my fault. But I mean it's it it's great. We're gonna we're gonna open up early before the sun even comes up, allow you to go out onto the hot ramp. You can go anywhere you want on the ramp. Uh, except for on the airplanes, take all the pictures you want. And I'm telling you, when that sun comes up over the over the east, uh I had some of the best photos just on my my camera phone two years ago.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

I um in 19 when we had the four Sky Raiders here in 19. Three. Was it three? Three Sky Raiders, yeah. Okay. Um I caught them as a sunrise with my phone. Yeah. And that's just treasured.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Yeah, so you get to you get to roam around before anybody uh the public gets out there. The public, I think the hot ramp doesn't open till 8.30 for the public. So that gives you that gives you a good hour and a half, probably, walking around, getting good pictures. Um then you also have your own designated area on the flight line, and we're bumping the flight line out so that there's more you know open space for photographers to get the airplanes as they're taxiing by and get your own porta potty. That's that's a big one. And it's limited, it's only limited to 100 people, so we're we're keeping this thing pretty small, and it's available on Saturday and Sunday on two individual tickets, and it's a great opportunity. So I would I would highly recommend if you're a photo guide and and you want to get those you know opportunities that nobody else is gonna get, that's the only way to do it.

SPEAKER_03 42:59

That's that's prize real estate right there. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

So, partner, this is excellent. It's good to get back in the saddle with you. It's been a couple of weeks. It has been. I missed you on the 4th of July. We didn't get the hook up, but uh this is.

SPEAKER_03 43:13

Well, we didn't get the link up.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Well, okay. And on that note, we're gonna end this thing. So that's for Steve Caracato, my partner Rob Gale, William Stevenson behind the glass, and myself Scott Clare. Stay safe out there.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Please do.