Plastic Model Mojo
Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby
Plastic Model Mojo
3D Printed Kits with Brad Belsheim: PMM Episode 140
What happens when a lifetime of collecting ends without a plan? Kentucky Dave shares a moving story about rescuing an extraordinary military history library from destruction after its owner passed away. The massive collection, facing the prospect of being pulped after nine months of unsuccessful liquidation, sparked an emergency rescue mission that filled Dave's car to the point of affecting its handling. This sobering experience serves as a powerful reminder to all collectors: organize your possessions and create clear disposition plans to avoid burdening loved ones.
The heart of this episode features Brad Belsheim discussing the evolving world of 3D printed model kits. Having built numerous 3D models across various manufacturers, Brad offers invaluable insights on quality variations, construction challenges, and finishing techniques. He recommends RTM as his current favorite manufacturer, explaining how their approach to parts breakdown and print orientation delivers superior results. The conversation delves into practical tips for working with these often-brittle materials, including warming parts before removing supports and using Perfect Plastic Putty for imperfections. Brad's experiences highlight how 3D printing has revolutionized access to rare and unusual subjects that would never be commercially viable as injection-molded kits.
We also explore an emerging trend in the modeling world: a renaissance of Vietnam War subjects. Gecko Models continues releasing remarkable figure sets and diorama accessories that capture the era's unique character. This growing interest likely reflects how generational distance has transformed our relationship with the conflict, allowing modelers to approach these subjects with historical curiosity rather than raw emotion. Meanwhile, the explosion of 3D printed figure manufacturers creates both opportunities and challenges, with quality assessment becoming increasingly difficult as new companies emerge monthly.
Join our community at plasticmodelmojo.com where you can share your experiences, ask questions, and connect with fellow modelers passionate about pushing the boundaries of our hobby.
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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.
Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby. Let's join Mike and Kentucky Dave as they strive to be informative, entertaining and help you keep your modeling mojo alive.
Mike:Well, happy May Mojovia and welcome to episode 140 of Plastic Model Mojo. Dave, how are you doing tonight?
Kentucky Dave:All right. Wife cashed a winning ticket on the Derby, so all is right in Kentucky.
Mike:Well, it's also the 4th of May, so may the 4th be with you, all our Star Wars geeks out there.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, yep, as a matter of fact, I was talking to Jim Bates this afternoon and he was at the museum out there, the Air Museum out there, and they were putting on a— I saw that they were putting on a I saw that he posted some pictures of some models some of the club had put on display out there for May the 4th. And it was just more than models. They were having the reenactors out there and activities and really a great time, and you love to see stuff like that.
Mike:Well, good, glad to see Jim out and about doing it Me too.
Kentucky Dave:That's exactly what I told him.
Mike:Well, Dave, what is up in your model sphere, my friend?
Kentucky Dave:Well, besides going to derby parties and besides my wife cashing a winning derby ticket, it's hard to talk about. Up in Indianapolis there was an individual man who died and to say that he had one of the finest collections of a library, focused on mostly naval military history, but it was much more wide-ranging than that, one of the finest collections I have ever seen in my life. And obviously he was survived by a widow who, like all widows, is faced with how do I get rid?
Mike:of all of this stuff. Yeah, how do you disposition all that?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, how do you do that If they've not?
Mike:had a plan.
Kentucky Dave:That's right. We all need to make plans so that our spouses don't go through this. Well, she had an individual, a friend, family friend, who had spent about nine months helping to liquidate things, helping to sell books and all, and Inch High Jeff, inch High Groves, got in contact with this guy and then he and a couple other people went and made purchases from this library, but even their purchases at super discounted rates did not begin to put a dent in the size of this collection.
Mike:Did they offer a top-end estimate of how many volumes were in this thing?
Kentucky Dave:It's two full rooms full of bookcases packed together so tightly you have to walk down them sideways. I'll post a couple of pictures I took on the dojo so you all can see this. But after spending about nine months liquidating a tiny fraction of this library just because it was so huge, basically he had the individual who was helping the widow had a deal to sell the entire collection and it fell through. And after almost a year, rather naturally, this lady simply wants her basement back once it all cleared out. And basically the guy who was helping her was like I'm going to have to call a dumpster and just pulp all of this stuff. And Jeff, to his everlasting credit as both a modeler and a librarian close to my heart, begged the guy and said please don't do that. Give me a little time to organize a rescue mission. So Jeff reached out to me, jeff reached out to album, musical albums, you know, 33 vinyl CDs just unbelievable.
Kentucky Dave:Me and a couple other people and the widow just wanted us to come in and take as much as we wanted and find good homes for it. No charge, no, nothing. Just come in, take what you Make it go away. Make it go away and if you can find a good home for it. That would make her feel better. So I drove up to Indy, met Incha to Culver's. We had a nice little lunch, then went over to this house where I spent three and a half hours and took a ton of books. A bloody filled my I drive a Volvo XC60. Maybe literally a ton of books. A bloody Phil, I drive a Volvo XC60. Maybe literally a ton. Yeah Well, yeah, you could feel the car drove way differently on the way back Front wheels barely touching the ground.
Mike:It's amazing Like an overloaded pickup truck.
Kentucky Dave:It was amazing. But in any event I cleaned out a bunch of these books. Inch took a bunch more, john Bishop took some, and then some of the other people, and we still have not put a huge dent in this collection. I did rescue a lot of really good and valuable books, some of which I'm going to keep in my collection because they are things that interest me. But a lot of this stuff I am going to try and be rehoming and I may post a few on the dojo if people are looking for some stuff.
Kentucky Dave:But it was a surreal three and a half hours. I mean just I pride myself on, like I said, I joke around here that I am a librarian who models occasionally. I pride myself in having seen a whole lot of military history books and I was going through these shelves and it was like, oh my gosh, I've never seen that before. I wasn't aware of that book, book after book after book and, like I said, it was one of the finest private collections that I have ever seen in my life. And you know, jeff, and myself and John Bishop and some other people are going to rehome as much of it as we can. I don't know. I mean I think eventually a fair amount of that stuff is still going to get pulped. I'm reaching out to the indie club to try and get some of their people over there, and Jeff's going to reach out to one or two more of his contacts and maybe we can get some more of it rescued.
Kentucky Dave:But, oh my Lord, the one lesson I did I think we all came away from is A organize your stuff, because this guy had a really great collection but it was utterly unorganized. The books on the shelves you would occasionally encounter like half a shelf where all of them were the same subject, like Pearl Harbor, but then you'd encounter another shelf and book to book. There was no rhyme or reason. So organize your stuff, guys and I'm preaching to myself on this as much as anybody, because I need to get way better organized. And number two, make a plan.
Kentucky Dave:Do not burden your spouse at the time of your passing. And let's face it, statistics are statistics. Most of us are going to die before our better halves and you need to make a plan so that when, whatever that is, everything goes to the model club, everything goes to some club members who take it and vend it to try and generate cash for the widow or whatever it is. I don't care what your plan is. Make a plan, because no plan really puts a lot of extra stress on your spouse, who's already lost you and this lovely lady I mean she had you know it was her husband's collection. She didn't want, she wanted to see something happen to it to preserve it. But by the same token, after nine months and the basement is still 99% full, I understand why she was ready just to get rid of it all. So please make a plan. So that's what's up in my model sphere, mike, not bad.
Mike:Not bad. I'm curious to see what the haul was.
Kentucky Dave:Oh well, I will send you pictures. See what the haul was? Oh well, I will send you pictures. Seriously, the weight was so much that the car drove noticeably different on the way back, and I would bet that my gas mileage went down significantly as well.
Mike:Ruthie just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Kentucky Dave:Well, yeah, less said about that, about that the best, so we'll get through that in any event. So what was up in your model sphere?
Mike:well, I had had to miss out on that. I'd like to ridden up with you and, and oh, partaking in that, but what?
Kentucky Dave:in the cards.
Mike:You'd have been strapped to the roof on the way back because the front seat the passenger seat was completely full well, I'd had a rainy day to up and back to cincinnati and it's just an exhausting day and I had crap to do around here. So what in the cards? But my model sphere? Yes, you know, I got some inspiration from our last guest, jake McKee. Yeah, he was talking about researching the Clubmobile. Right, and I was eating that up because I knew exactly what he was doing there and how it was going down, because I've done it before several times. Yeah, and you, just you go down these rabbit holes and all of a sudden you're faced with a left or right turn and it just goes down and down. You meet some people and somebody knows somebody, who knows somebody, who knows something, and that's just the way it works. Well, I'm like, if Jake can build this club mobile, I can get this Raboboton thing moving. This is stupid.
Kentucky Dave:This is a Hungarian truck.
Mike:Yeah, this is all me being lazy and not putting any effort into this, whatever. So there's a Facebook page and it's a publisher I think it's called Huns on Wheels, and all the books they promote on there are all Hungarian subjects.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, wow, oh, Huns on Wheels. Yes, okay, when I hear Hun, I think German, but I got it Huns on Wheels.
Mike:So they've done all these books on the more prominent, the Toldy and the Tehran and some of the Saba armored car. You know, the ones that have been kitted primarily are the ones they've been focusing on. You know that makes a lot of sense. But I'm slogging through this Botan project. I kind of lost my contact at the Reba company and not gotten a response back yet from them after reaching out again yeah, also after Jake's appearance on the show. But I was like man, they got to know somebody that knows, somebody that knows something. So I messaged them through Facebook Messenger, through their Facebook page, and it took a few days but they got back with me and they put me in contact with someone.
Mike:A couple of guys have been creating a 3D model of the truck, kind of like what I'm doing, and I don't know what stage it's in, but there's a printed book conceptually in the works. I don't know if it ever come to fruition or what, but that's kind of where it is right now. Right, they've kind of done this thing. So I'm at the front end of the conversation with these guys, one of them in particular. So thanks, jake, Thanks for reminding me how I'm supposed to do things and we'll see where this goes. Interestingly though, the one part that has me stuck right now in the chassis is is one they kind of had to gloss over and guess themselves. So still some work to be done, but we'll see what. What else they have that might be of interest to me. But you know this, this project kind of come back online a little bit Well maybe you all can collab on the 3D.
Mike:Maybe we can. That would be cool. So that's my model sphere. Primarily is putting some new kindling on that and seeing where that fire goes. So we'll see.
Kentucky Dave:Well good, well good, since we're recording. I know you've got a modeling fluid, maybe one left over from a derby party or something.
Mike:Or a birthday.
Kentucky Dave:Or a birthday. That's right. It was your birthday recently. What did the birthday boy get?
Mike:The birthday boy got a Walcott bottled in bond. Oh wow, which is? I need to go look at the distiller. I don't know who makes it. Uh-huh, they've got it in spades at Total Wines Maybe a Total Wine kind of deal, I don't know. A collab, probably. I've had Walcott featured before, but not this one. This is the Bottled and Bond with the blue label, but that's what I got. What Walcott featured before, but not this one. This is the bottled and bond with the blue label, but that's what I got. What do you have?
Kentucky Dave:Well, I actually am doing one of my rare repeats. I have from the brewer in your town, Mirror Twin Brewing, the West Coast India Pale Ale called Two-Way Street.
Mike:That's going to be hoppy out the wazoo.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, and I've had it once before, as I said, and the lovely wife brought it home again from Trader Joe's beer and wine and liquor store. You get her a checklist. Yeah, I should, and, and you know I want I. I was not overly impressed the first time, so I want to give it another chance because you know I, I think you always probably ought to, ought to give it another chance. Oh, by the way, wolcott is from Barton 1792 Distillery. Oh, did you just look it up? Yes, I did. No, I knew that. I pulled it out of the top of my head.
Mike:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kentucky Dave:I looked it up. I looked it up, so I'll let you know how this goes down at the end of the episode All right.
Mike:Well, the listener mail is is slipped back into moderation. Okay, so we're not inundated and we're not want either. Okay, so a good spot. So we should probably get into the listener mail, dave, yep, all right. Well, first up from Dallas, georgia, is Bill McCullough, and he sent us a list of things folks can do while attending AMPS or you know, adjacent to those travels. Right, of course, yungling Brewery is around there somewhere, so that's going to be on draft about everywhere you go. Yeah, which is not a bad thing it's good beer.
Kentucky Dave:It's good beer.
Mike:And just east of Harrisburg is Fort Indiantown Gap, which is now a Pennsylvania National Guard training site. He says there's a few interesting static displays there. So if you want to go to amps and you're coming from a direction that lets you get to Fort Indiantown Gap, or either coming or going, there's apparently something to see there. There's a EC-130 Commando Solo. Oh wow, there's a TF-102. Nice, and an M12 GMC.
Kentucky Dave:All right. Well, there had to be something with an AMPS tie-in right.
Mike:I think so. Yeah, these are all on the main road across from the airfield and also along the way. Is Moose's LZ a great place to find quality modeling fluid and some of the best burgers in the Fort Indiantown Gap area. There you go. In addition, dave, an hour east of Camp Hill in Redding, pennsylvania, is the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum. The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum Dave has a great collection of civilian and military aircraft, but the must-see attraction is their P-61. Oh, wow.
Mike:Which is currently being restored to flyable condition. He's seen it several times over the years and rarely misses a chance to visit this museum when he's in the area. He's provided a link which we'll put in the show notes. But it's a Black widow, right.
Kentucky Dave:Right Indeed it is.
Mike:Yeah, That'd be interesting One to see flying again. Yes, it would. He also mentions Gettysburg is very close, but it's a very hard thing to experience on a day trip. It's just too too much.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah.
Mike:He tried that once and barely scratched the surface. A weekend was barely enough. So you know you're going to need a couple three days there at least. And we mentioned Antietam, which he reminds us of, but not to forget Harper's Ferry, yes.
Kentucky Dave:Harper's Ferry is beautiful. If you've never been through Harper's Ferry, you ought to go just to see it.
Mike:And I've been there, and I would recommend that you go very early in the morning because it's just a beautiful time of day to be there.
Kentucky Dave:Oh yeah, Up on one of the mountains surrounding the town. Yeah, there's a lot of misty kind of sunrise it's just a really, really cool thing.
Mike:So yeah, if you can do it, go see Harper's Ferry.
The Voice of Bob (Bair):Yep.
Mike:So we appreciate the recommendations. We always like the adjacent peripheral stuff to do while you're at a major model event. It's kind of become our keynote thing.
Kentucky Dave:By the way, other listeners, if you're up and from that area, food and microbrewery recommendations are greatly appreciated. Many of the folks attending AMPS are going to be there for multiple days and, you know, while you find a close microbrewery Mike and I have emphasized this before go out and experience the town, which means go to multiple restaurants, sample a variety, see the place while you're there. That adds so much to the enjoyment of the contest.
Mike:Well, he's got a small bone to pick with us, Dave. Uh-oh, During the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom. The question posed was which scale we'd eliminate and why yes.
Kentucky Dave:And he says we eliminated 125th scale and I would either make armor in one 24th or one 25th scale so that it went with all of the civilian vehicle kits. So no, I didn't eliminate 24th or 25th. I actually wanted to promote 24th or 25th by eliminating 16th scale, which I think is too big.
Mike:I'll have to look at that again. I tend to agree with you. We might have suggested they pick one or the other and roll with it.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you're right, because there is both 24th and 25th scale. I don't remember.
Mike:He's a big rig guy, so he's got a lot of 25th scale.
Kentucky Dave:Gotcha.
Mike:Stuff going on. He says his feelings are hurt and he may have to file a hurt feelings report against the dojo.
Kentucky Dave:Oh no. Well, if he shows up at Amps, I'll buy him a beer and we'll call it a settlement.
Mike:There you go. Ever the attorney Dave.
Kentucky Dave:That's right.
Mike:Well, thanks, bill, that was a lot of fun. Well, dave, up next is Charles Rice, and Charles is from the well, the show he wants us to mention is the Simpsonville 2025 South Carolina Model Association Upstate Model Contest on May 17th. This is primarily a car contest. Uh-huh, they got a big swath of car categories and then the other half is everything else.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:In their respective categories but not cut nearly as fine as the automotive category. Yeah, Simpsonville, South Carolina.
Kentucky Dave:Even if you don't build autos, let me tell you, going to a show that is primarily autos even at IPMS shows I will spend a fair amount of my time looking at the automotive categories. There is some fantastic work being done. The depth of finish that some of these guys get and the details it is super impressive. And so, even if it is a mainly car contest, go talk to the guys, have a good time. If you don't build cars, but you build something else, take something else to help bulk up their non-car category. So share and share alike.
Mike:This show is going to feature the sixth annual Box Stock Shootout, a showcase for model builders skills, also got the 2025 Stock Car Challenge with individual class awards plus best stock car award, and the 2025 Big Drag Classic with the top three awards plus the top eliminator award. So they're really promoting the car side of this, which is fabulous. And they also have armor, aircraft and ship category figures, sci-fi, dioramas, miscellaneous. Again, it's not parsed as fine as the automotive, but take what you got and go support these guys.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, now what was the date of that show again?
Mike:The date of that show, Dave, is May 17th 2025 at the Simpsonville Activity Center, 310 West Curtis Street, Simpsonville, South Carolina. And that is a little south of Greenville, in the Greenville-Spartanburg kind of area there, Gotcha. So it's not too far from Charlotte, not too far from Atlanta, not too far from Columbia, South Carolina. So we wish them the best of luck and a great show. Yep, Absolutely. Tom Choi has written in again and he is empathizing with our situation where, you know, we attended a bunch of shows last year, kind of we're unsure how that, how that manifested itself and how that's probably not going to be how we roll this year.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:Anyway, he's probably going to three shows this year. Two of them he's already attended because we saw him up at Heritage Con.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we did.
Mike:That was one of them. Yeah, and he was at Roscoe Turner, which we both ended up missing, yep which we both ended up missing, yep, but Tom's number three show will be Scale Model World at Telford.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, oh, rub it in. Hey listen, if you can't make quantity of shows, quality of shows counts. And man, Telford is Telford's on that bucket list side. That's a bucket list item, so I envy him.
Mike:Well, he's got an explanation of how all this came to fruition, but I won't get into all that. He's going to be taking this trip and he's going to be taking it solo oh wow, and everyone's on board under his roof.
Kentucky Dave:So good on him. That's right. You need to get the Mrs Something special.
Mike:Well, after the back and forth about losing emails, Ray Legrand has written in again. Okay, we're getting his loud and clear. I will say once again yes, we're getting these and we don't often respond to. We respond to a few emails immediately, yes, but most of them we bank for the show. So if you don't hear back, it's because it's going to be covered on the show. So that's the way we roll right now. And when he was talking about the, he had written about the model with the high fragility we'll call it that the space subject that he built. That was not going anywhere because it was probably going to get broken if he did.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:So it kind of begged. The further question who do you build for competitions or yourself?
Kentucky Dave:Oh, I can answer that one real easy I build for myself. Now I will tell you, when I was younger and first started going to model contests back in the 80s, I was more into competition and so, while I didn't necessarily build for the competition, I certainly cared more about the competition, cared more about the competition and I've seen by the way I have seen that's a progression a lot of modelers go to when they get into the hobby. But I have seen it ruin some modelers where they get so wound around the pole on contest results that it ruins the hobby for them and you don't want to do that. You do not want to. Contests are fun, contests are great. It's good if you win at a contest. It's a nice validation that you've built a nice model and that it was award-worthy on that day on that table. No-transcript.
Mike:Well, I will use that to suggest that when you're building for competition, I don't think this is an either, or I think it's just a different objective. Yes, I agree, if you're building for competition, you're still building for yourself, but you're trying to get something else out of it Right, other than just building it to do it Right, other than just building it to do it Right Either some sort of validation or whatever.
Kentucky Dave:Right, maybe you're testing your skills to see if you can pull something off and have it be award worthy.
Mike:True, and also some people get wrapped up in it. It becomes part of their identity.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, that's true.
Mike:And that's probably not a good place to be for long anyway, and, like you said, we've been through it. I've certainly been through it. You know my story and I've told it on here too many times. But yeah, now I don't care. I am truly doing things for myself, at my own pace, and just could give a rip about anything else, but it took me a while to get here or back here. Back here, yeah, back here. Good question, ray, and I hope you figure out how to get that Jupiter C somewhere. Yes, I'm sure a lot of people would like to see it.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:But we completely understand. I'm sure a lot of people would like to see it, yep, but we completely understand. From Covina, california, dave Steve Burke told, and he wants to know if we know about any person or service that you can send old decals to, that can copy them onto a better quality material because they're expired, they've given up the ghost, they're yellow, they're gross, they're brittle, fragile, fragile, whatever. A short answer is no, I don't know anyone who does that. Generally. What I would suggest is you go watch a few videos from greg's models in the uk yes, he manages to take some very, very old decals and get them to work no, he takes some very old decals and copies them on something.
Mike:Right, well, he does that too he does it a lot and I'm really curious what he's doing. I suspect it's a scanner and a color laser printer, I would suspect On the right paper, but I don't know Greg's Models. I would recommend that YouTube channel anyway.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, it's a great channel, but if you'reels, I would recommend that YouTube channel anyway. Yes, it's a great channel, but if you're curious, I would reach out.
Mike:I don't have an email address, but there might be one in his channel somewhere.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you can comment on his videos and ask him the question.
Mike:You could do that too. Yeah, but if there's an email, if he's put an email in there and folks can use it, that's even a more direct line. But either, or generally, yes, I would reach out to greg of greg's models and see what he's doing there and then I would give you a clue as to if it's something you would want to pursue on your own or if you know someone else who has the equipment. Maybe you just go get the right decal paper and somebody can help you out there. But it'd be a step in the right direction. Well, dave, that is the end of the email side of things. What's going on with the direct messages?
Kentucky Dave:Well, we had a fair number of direct messages. First is Martin Pietta. He remembered the episode we did with Jeff in Chai Groves where Jeff mentioned that due to some medical issues and medicine that he was taking that he couldn't drink alcoholic drinks at the present time. And Martin likes Blue Moon and he just encountered the fact that Blue Moon is now making a non-alcoholic Blue Moon and he bought some. He tried it out. He said it was indistinguishable from regular Blue Moon and thought that Jeff might like that as a non-alcoholic alternative. And Martin, since I saw Jeff today and had lunch with him, I passed along your suggestion and he was very flattered that you thought of him and wanted to reach out and help. So he said to tell you thank you.
Kentucky Dave:Next is our friend, chris Wallace, who posted a video of his build of the Tester's F19 and 48 scale that I was involved in getting to him at HeritageCon, much to my eternal embarrassment and shame of having supplied him with that kit. And in his video he manages to reference, again to my eternal shame, that I'm the one who got that kit to him. So I just I want it to go away. Don't mention it anymore, chris. Our friend in England, neil Gilborn sent photographs from a place that he'd never been before, but was just 10 miles up the road from him a bar called the Dam Busters Inn. Up the road from him, a bar called the Dam Busters Inn, and, of course, the logo is the image of one of the Dam Buster Lancasters dropping the Barnes-Wallace bomb, and in the bar they have a full-size Lancaster tire, which, by the way, is huge, isn't?
Mike:it for a table.
Kentucky Dave:No, no, it actually was up as a display and he said that you know, he had been there all the time. It's only 10 miles away, but he'd never gone to it. He found out about it. He went and he says they have really nice modeling fluid Well, good. And he says they have really nice modeling fluid Well good.
Kentucky Dave:Warren Dickinson contacted me because, as you know, I had mentioned that Fine Molds is doing one or more 72nd scale A6M5s in addition to the ones they're doing in 48th scale, and Warren was querying me. He was thinking he was going to go ahead and pre-order them, because a lot of fine molds kits tend to be very limited release and he didn't want to miss them. So he was thinking that he was going to go ahead and pre-order them, and I'm not so sure. That's not a great idea, and that's what I told him. I may well jump in on that, just because I don't want to miss out on those.
Kentucky Dave:Ron Smith, he and I had a really nice, pretty long DM interaction in regard to organizing your hobby room and so we had a you know we had talked about that on a previous episode so we had a general discussion and then he sent photographs of the different ways that he organized different things paints, tweezers, nippers, whatever Much of his organizational items were homemade. But the one thing that he and I both agree on that is essential for your hobby room, for organizational purposes, and that's a p-touch label maker. It's super important and you and you've got all this stuff in all these drawers and stuff like that, and having that P-Touch and being able to label everything is essential to good organization. Finally, jared Nuss reached out because we had talked about how we really liked the display-only models at Madison and talked about the different ways to display. And one of the things we were saying was you know, while the room in Madison for the display models was beautiful, it was separate from the contest area was beautiful, it was separate from the contest area and, frankly, we talked about ways to blend them together or to at least get them in the same room.
Kentucky Dave:And he reached out to tell us that at Hampton, the display models you know they call them the tiger meat models the display models are going to be in the contest room Now. They're not going to be in the contest room. Now they're not going to be on the contest tables, they are going to be on separate tables, but they are going to be in the same contest room. So when you go to see and view the contest models, you'll also, without having to go someplace different, be able to see the the non-contest entry models well, I think that's great, I think that's true.
Mike:It's step in the right direction. Yeah, or it might be the solution. I mean that I don't, it could be either way. I mean, sure it's, more people are going to see them if you do that, yes, and they have. If they have the room to do it that way, that might be even a better way than intermingling them, commingling them on the table, right? Yep, at least from the judging standpoint, right.
Kentucky Dave:So I think that's a great idea. Contests are evolving, and one of the evolutions is more and more models just being displayed but not competing Yep, and I think that's a wonderful thing.
Mike:And at least we've seen on the invitational level that they're evolving to where the word contest might be obsolete.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, you're right, anything else, nope. That's it from the GM side.
Mike:Well, folks, if you want to write into the show and we hope you want to write into the show we encourage you to write into the show. You can do it a couple of ways. You can send us an email to plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, or you can send a direct message via the Facebook messenger system, and Dave and I will take those and work them into the show and have as much fun as we can answering them. It's a lot of fun for that and we really appreciate it. In addition to these methods, there's also a give us your feedback link in the show notes that you can use to send us a message that way too. It can be a voice message or a written message or whatever. So we encourage you folks to write into the show. It's a great segment. We get a lot of good content and a lot of good information in it.
Kentucky Dave:And we appreciate it if you would rate the podcast on whatever podcasting app you're listening to us on, or if you would go to the rate the show link in the show notes of this episode and rate the episode. It helps us out. It helps us be more visible. In addition, if you have a modeling friend who's not listening to the podcast, we would appreciate it if you would recommend the podcast to them and help them. If they need a little technology help to be able to get the podcast, download it, subscribe to it, et cetera.
Mike:Well, in addition to that, we've got several other things we'd like for you folks to do. First is check out all the other podcasts out in the model sphere, and it's really easy to do. You can go to wwwmodelpodcastcom. It's model podcast plural. It's a consortium website set up with the help of Stuart Clark from Scale Model Podcast out of Canada. He's aggregated all the banner links to all the other podcasts out in the model sphere and it's a one-stop shop to go find them and you can check them all out, subscribe to them if you like or do what you want, and it's a great place to check them out. In addition to podcasts, we have a lot of other blog and youtube friends, content creators out there in the model sphere that we'd like to recommend. Some of our friends and favorites dave, you already mentioned, mentioned Chris Wallace, model airplane maker. Yep, has he done a video on that stealth fighter thing?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, he did, and he let everybody know that I was instrumental in getting the model to him. I'm never going to live this down.
Mike:And you spent the day with Jeff Inch, high Groves yes Digging through the massive book repository.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:He may have a blog post about that in the future. That'd be interesting.
Kentucky Dave:There will be a blog post about it, I have no doubt, and we got to spend some time talking about what he's got coming up on his blog, so keep an eye on it guys.
Mike:And that blog would be the inch high guy blog. Yes, a lot of 72nd scale content there. Spru pie with fret Steven Lee. Speaking of 72nd scale content, I've been talking to Steve a little bit. I don't think he's going to be at amps but we may see him later in the year. The national convention, I hope.
Kentucky Dave:I hope he gets down Not too far from him yeah.
Mike:Evan McCallum, panzermeister, 36. And boy, I hope he's coming up in the next episode. He just got back from the motion show in Hungary and, uh, had a great time, sounds like. Check out his YouTube channel. And finally, paul Budzik, scale model workshop on Patreon and on YouTube, and he just dropped another little short video with some really insightful commentary in it, so folks need to check that out as well.
Kentucky Dave:If you are not a member of IPMS USA, ipms Canada or your national IPMS organization, please join. They're good organizations run by volunteers to help the modeling community and if you have any interest in armor or post-1900 figures, amps, which is having their national May 15th through 17th in Camp Hill Pennsylvania consider joining. Consider going to the contest. It's a great group of guys who are super dedicated to armor modeling and its related subjects and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They really are a great group of guys.
Mike:Really looking forward to this show.
Kentucky Dave:You and me both brother.
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Mike:Well, dave, I was sitting at my bench pondering about all the things I don't like about 3D print models. Then I remembered at Heritage Con we put one of our little plaques down next to a little Russian tank that had been built by listener Brad Belsheim. I reached out to Brad and learned that he'd built a number of these, that I flat asked him I mean, what's your experience with this kind of thing? And he told me he'd built quite a few Surprising number. Really considering my build pace, I would even say embarrassing for me. I would even say embarrassing for me. Brad agreed to come on and we had a little conversation with him about, you know, the ins and outs of these kits and the good and the bad and the ugly and just what he's experienced. And it's pretty interesting. You know I get these ideas when things aren't going good at my bench sometimes and you know I've been working on a 3D printed model not one I've done myself, but purchased STL files and having a little trouble there at times not really trouble, but frustrations.
Mike:And we're up at Heritage Con and we ran into Brad Belsheim and Dr Dave Morris, who we see together quite a bit, and Brad has joined us tonight. Brad, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you guys? We're great. And, speaking of HeritageCon, it was good to see you up there and the reason I kind of came to you with this topic of 3D models and their idiosyncrasies and we'll get into that in a little bit, but you had an entry up there. That little Russian heavy tank thingy was on the table and, honestly, we've seen a lot of your work over the last several years and it keeps getting better, and I think that one came out really, really well.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, it really did, it was eye-catching, thanks guys.
Mike:I reached out to you and you said you'd had quite a few of these models under your belt and I just thought it might be an interesting conversation to talk about the various aspects of building these things and the ups and downs and the good and bad. So you up for that.
Brad Belsheim:Absolutely.
Kentucky Dave:Well, let's start with asking you that kit that was on the table. What was it? Where was it from?
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, so that's. It's a Danish. Sorry, it's a Dutch 3D print company called RTM and it's Jan I don't remember the guy's last name, but it's an MT-25, which was a kind of a typical Russian. You know the BT-5, bt-7, you know run on tracks but you can take the tracks off and run on the wheels kind of a concept. It's like a mini KV right, it's a little baby KV and it is an amazing. I think it's the best 3D print kit I've ever done.
Kentucky Dave:Obviously it came as a kit. You didn't buy the STL files and print it yourself.
Brad Belsheim:No, I did not, okay, but I actually hooked up with the guy through through rob riv, who we all know because he's got that new york accent yeah, he's been pushing that guy pretty good.
Mike:That's fairly new company, I think fairly, yeah, fairly new. Yeah, well, you say it's the best 3d kit you've ever built. Let's, let's start with the, the gamut of kits that are out there and then ones you've tackled. How many have you built at this point?
Brad Belsheim:Oh, at least 10. I've built a bunch of SS models, which is a Chinese 3D print company, probably six from them I've built. Bovington has a kind of a captive Bovington Museum because I know they're kind of stepping back a little bit. So I know the guy who runs the hobby shop at Bovington Tank Museum, which is amazing. We are best friends. I've known him for 20 years. He's an amazing modeler in his own right, tim Roberts, and he hooked me up with the guy who does some specialized 3d prints for the museum. They did a little Willie print, okay and great in some aspects, not great in other aspects. But I've also done, if you look at, some of Vargas's prints, vargas models I'm actually on the the, the box prints, the cover, the cover art for some of his kits and so, yeah, I think I have a lot of experience with a 3D print.
Mike:Basically, there are kind of two camps in the design world for the 3D printing kits. There's the one that has a fairly substantial parts breakdown, and then there are the ones who try to print everything in as few parts as they can. Yep, I have a preference there. What's yours?
Brad Belsheim:I don't. I think it depends, which is kind of a non-answer, but I'm in sales, so of course.
Kentucky Dave:I was going to say. I thought maybe you were a politician.
Brad Belsheim:Well, you're the lawyer, there you go. Fair cop, it really depends. I mean, ss Models does some really amazing stuff with not that many parts. Ft Models, which is a Spanish I think it's FT Models, spanish company. They're not that great, not that many parts count and also not that great of products at the end, I guess. And also the thing with 3D print is the layer lines. At the end of the day, it all comes down to layer lines and so I've built. I mean, I think the perfect example is I'm totally into British armor and if you go into everything all the websites and facebook pages and whatever, I mean I'm called the 50 shades of green guy yeah and so because I love, I love commonwealth, I love american armor, world war ii, etc.
Brad Belsheim:And I think that that layer lines is a big issue. And so if you look at the matilda one, right, yeah, ft models came out with a 3d print and I, when it came out, I was like, oh, this is great, but I'd made the resin model version from accurate armor and I thought that was great and I was like the ft models is not that great. And then vargas came out with his kit and it was that is, I think that's vargas's best 3d print kit.
Mike:It is amazing I've got that one and my kit in particular is going to need a little work, but we'll get into that. It's kind of a different kind of nuance of these models. But why I bring up the trying to print it all in one, which Vargas kind of does he's one of those guys, I guess, as an engineer, where, where it makes me a little, it gives me a little heartburn, I guess I would say, is back to your comments about layer lines. If you print it all in one go with all the detail on it, something in that print is going to be suboptimal. Yes, for the layer lines where if you'd have broken it up you could have optimized every piece to their best print orientation for the layer line issue, and I think things are easier to handle that way.
Mike:And this is all my opinion. I've dabbled with a couple. I'm working on one that I've printed myself, so I'm kind of get to play around with that. But the, the vargas kit of the matilda one, you know I might have a lot of layer lines on the, the, that front plate that holds the idler wheels on the front yes, yeah, and that's, and that's that.
Brad Belsheim:That's exactly where that they are. They're right there, you, you're absolutely correct.
Mike:And the other issue with that kit at least my copy was that front plate was warped, so the cylinders, the mounting drums, the hubs for the idlers were towed out, so the forward edges pointed outward. The forward edges pointed outward. And the issue with 3D printed resins at least right now with most of them, is the old hot water and bin to fix. Doesn't really work in my experience.
Brad Belsheim:It doesn't. However, recently I've been looking at a bunch of things online and it still helps. Right With the warm water, but not hot water. Cause hot water you're going to get, you're not going to do yourself any favors.
Mike:So mine was warped and I had a plan to fix it. I ended up I ended up breaking it. So I'm going to have to rebuild that whole front part. But you know, I can do that. I just, unfortunately, my little clumsy clumsy hands kind of kind of took care of it for me.
Brad Belsheim:But so did I. What I understand is you you downloaded on cause you have the your own 3d printer. Is you've got that 38 T based Kubla Kubla?
Mike:The Kubla.
Brad Belsheim:Kubla blitz yeah.
Mike:Right it's. It's not bad. It's got some things about it. I would done differently, even though it's multiple parts, but I'm working through it. I don't think it'll take me that long to finish it. I just got to get to the bench and do it. But I've played around with a lot of print orientations and I joked maybe on the last episode even it's going to end up being the most expensive model I've ever built, hands down, just because I'm burning through resin and that sort of thing.
Brad Belsheim:So what's your level of print? I mean, you have your own printer, so what is it? Where are we now in the print level?
Mike:Mine is a Formlabs Form 3, which is a commercial printer actually for most people.
Brad Belsheim:It is what we had 8k, 12k, what is well?
Mike:it's, it's, it's a. It has a laser scan unit. It's not a dlp printer ah, okay so it's a little different than that.
Mike:The reason I got it I got it secondhand on the cheap. I got it for a really good price and it's what we use at work, so the learning curve was zero. I mean, when I got it, I just threw it together, back together, filled it up and started messing with it and honestly, at this point in the game, like the printers Vargas is using or any of these other really nice 3D print model makers, they can print circles around them on Form 3. Absolutely, but I don't. Really nice 3d print model makers. They can print circles around them. I form three, absolutely, but I don't. I'm not using it that way. Yeah, doing more gross shapes and general shapes and and jigs and fixtures and things like that. Will I ever utilize it for other things? Probably. I'm printing this one model on it. It's. It's came out pretty nice, but the small details there's not that many on it, so I'm kind of lucky in that regard.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, so my sons, both engineers. They keep threatening to buy me a 3D printer because you're like well, dad, you know we'll figure it out for you, Right? And I mean I think that's, that's great, you know, because I'm always willing to get free stuff from my kids because I paid for their college, so there you go.
Kentucky Dave:That's right, it's the least they can do.
Brad Belsheim:It's the least they can do, right yeah?
Mike:they're not that much by comparison either.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, that's right, they're not that much by comparison. But the thing is, it's all about the quality, right. It's all about layering and angling and all that. And that's where RTM, I think, really is amazing. I mean, Jan, he's got some really good stuff going on and he's got a thing coming out and I can't share it with anybody. But I'm really hoping that he sends me a test print of this and I get to do it, because he's got it figured out. He really does.
Kentucky Dave:That's another issue that I think you know. You talked about the different manufacturers, that you built stuff and the varying quality, that you built stuff and the varying quality, and I think at least part of that has to do with the fact that the 3D print technology is advancing so quickly, absolutely, that you could be cutting edge at the beginning of the year and by February of the next year you are hopelessly out of date because the technology moved yeah, not because of anything you did.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, it's like electric cars, it's like your battery was the best yesterday and not tomorrow, but I will say so. I kind of, you know, went out to some buddies of mine Dr Dave, some other guys that I really trust and value their opinion, and you're looking at not only 3D print kits but, excuse me, accessories. You know, light guards for Shermans and light guards for you know whatever 3D print this and 3d print that and what I get feedback from is you know, I think of myself as a pretty good modeler. I mean thanks to you guys for having me on the show and everything. And there there's a issue with 3d print. Is it's so hard to get these? You buy these things. They're not cheap, right? I want to buy Sherman light guards, Cool, right, they're easier than PhotoEdge. Sorry, riv and you put them on.
Kentucky Dave:You're right, he's wrong.
Brad Belsheim:Thank, you, oh my God. I want to say that over and over again.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, well, you can send that to him on a loop when this comes out.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, I will send that on an infinite loop, but it's really hard to get them off of their to the old school. The sprues they're not sprues, but you know what I mean. Yeah, the support structures the support structures, right, and yes, you can warm them up and you can do this and you can do that, but it's hard, right, and they break and it's a good thing that for some of the companies I mean I'm looking at right now I'm in my basement, my dog's looking at me, going what the hell are?
Mike:you talking about? Who are you talking to?
Brad Belsheim:And I'm looking at Heavy Hobby and I'm looking at Sherman going. What the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to? And I'm looking at Heavy Hobby and I'm looking at Sherman Guards and when you open the box right, you're like you're going to lose 50% of these. You're going to lose them. Yeah, they're going to break, but we spent a lot of money as a modeler on this and I don't care who you are mean, you know. Obviously, kentucky dave makes like a billion dollars a year wrong type of lawyer, but see this is.
Kentucky Dave:This is why you need to let your sons buy you a 3d printer. When you can print all of the guards you need, you don't care how many of them break. I don't know about that?
Brad Belsheim:I don't know about that. I don't know about that.
Brad Belsheim:But it's a good point. I mean it's a good point. Dr Dave brought that up Again. I canvassed a bunch of guys and that was one of the things. I agree with that. It's easier than PhotoWetch, but it's also how much do I want to spend on this, right?
Brad Belsheim:So that's, I think that's part of the whole 3d print issue, or where we are right now in the hobby and I, I mean I, I love the 3d print stuff. I'm, I'm, I'm looking at and you guys are coming to amps and ads, right, yeah, and I, I just I'm, I'm working on a ancient mime, a mine roller right now, and I'm doing a whole bunch of aftermarket stuff. You know, photo edge resin. I love to put it all together, right, and I've got some of it is is 3d print, I mean for the, the light guards, right, and I'm like some of it is 3D print, I mean for the light guards, right, and I'm like, wow, that's great, but do they match? That was I got a really good feedback from somebody is, sometimes they don't work. They just don't work, right.
Mike:Sure yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Well, that's the problem you have with any aftermarket. If the right, if the designer failed to properly render the copy of the prototype, it doesn't matter how well it's printed or how inexpensive it is, if it doesn't match what's on the real item, it's not useful. Right, because they have a level of demand for well for want of a better word for authenticity for the item on the model matching the item in real life that they like, the ability to have that level of control.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, no, that's a good point. I mean, you look at the new. Here's a great example the Meng Kugelwagen with the tracks, right it's. If you've seen this kit, actually I don't do German stuff, if you know me. I'm like I just I'm Norwegian, so I have a really bad time with the nazis and I actually went to school in germany and I love germans, but I have a problem with the other people. So, anyways, that's a cool kit, that's a cool. The 3D print on the Trax, that's awesome. But I'm like, well, how's that going to work right? Is the mass production 3D print going to be better? Maybe, maybe not.
Kentucky Dave:Well, as far as Trax go, I know our friend Evan McCallum Panzermeister36,. Evan McCallum Panzermeister36,. He has done several YouTube videos comparing all of the different, or at least some of the different 3D print companies. And, just like any other thing, the quality varies widely, the assembly varies widely, etc. Assembly varies widely, etc. But the price point I mean prior to 3d printed tracks you were either getting the metal, metal fool tracks or you were getting some aftermarket resin thing. Yeah, um, and the fact that with 3d printing the price point actually drops way below what the previous options were, it does it does.
Brad Belsheim:And I think it's only going to go down. I got to tell you I mean, like for Soviet tanks, World War II Soviet tanks I mean, Fruel is like oh, the weight, it's so awesome, it's just the best. I don't care if I'm poking holes in my fingers putting those little rods in there, I don't care, it's the best.
Mike:Well, you're talking about breaking things, which I talked about breaking something that's a little more significant than a light guard. I talked about breaking something that's a little more significant than a light guard, but is there anything you do or have had to learn differently, working through that? Many different 3D kit brands and things that are sort of similar to what you're doing with an injection molded kit?
Brad Belsheim:Or maybe even a polyurethane cast resin kit that are kind of unique to a 3D printed kit and the materials they're made out of? Yeah, that's a great question. So I, I'm an old school. I loved accurate armor. Oh my god, I loved accurate armor. I used to buy all these conversion kits for them, whatever. And so you got them and you you basically put a mask on because you were going to like, stand off so much crap, right, and or you're going to die. But I think the thing with 3d, with 3d print, is you just have to be so careful with they're so brittle right.
Mike:I notice it because of my engineering background, but that sometimes when I cut a support structure off, at the very end where it meets the part, it gets what is a classic brittle fracture. Instead of cutting through, it snaps. And when it snaps like you got a round support structure. So it forms this 45 degree angle cone where you cut it, where it broke off, and brittle fracture instead of cutting it, and it leaves a divot in the part. That leaves a divot on the side. You want to keep yep, and it's like damn it. So I cut all this off. I don't know either. Got a well, it's going to break. How do you? Is there anything you can do to? You mentioned warming things up. Does that? Does that help on some?
Brad Belsheim:things. Warming up does help a lot. I will say that it's also kind of your like tools, right? So I love what's? The Japanese company that makes kits and tools? Fine Molds no Zuki Mori.
Kentucky Dave:Zuki Mori Okay.
Brad Belsheim:Zuki Mori's got some that they're clippers of the best, right? So warm up, warm up the thing and use that clipper. But again, it might work, it might not. That's, that's the sad. That's the sad part of it, right? We are where we are in this hobby.
Kentucky Dave:What do you use as fill material when you've got a divot or an imperfection in a 3D kit? What do you use to fill it?
Brad Belsheim:and blend it. I use perfect. I use perfect plastic for everything. Okay, now, which one's that? That's the? Uh, I don't. I'm looking at it right now. It's perfect plastic putty. It's. It's water based. It's awesome. It's user friendly, which is actually it's like know stupid people like me, you can just use it, rub it on there and let it dry and then go over with a Q-tip and it's awesome.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you have no problem with it adhering to the 3D printed material.
Brad Belsheim:Nope, it'll adhere to anything.
Kentucky Dave:So you don't have to prep the surface of the 3D printed material to take the no, it'll actually adhere to basically resin or plastic or 3D print or whatever.
Brad Belsheim:I mean, it's not a 172 scale zero, you know, but whatever. Yeah, well, I know that's all right.
Kentucky Dave:We forgive.
Mike:Now on on this flak panzer I've printed myself. One thing I've noticed as I build it I'm doing some spot priming with one of the Mr Surfacers, probably 1500 thinned out with MLT. I don't think it sticks to that 3D print resin like it does plastic at all. When you sand it it does some things I don't like sometimes it.
Brad Belsheim:It doesn't. But. But on the other hand, if you let it set, it's okay, and by okay I mean it's okay well before you before speaking of which.
Kentucky Dave:that related question to my last one do you treat your 3d printed kit at all prior to painting? In other words, you know, with a plastic kit, there's some people who wash it before you know, with water, with a little don, there are people who, you know, wipe it off with denatured alcohol. There's all sorts of different things For 3D print. With the current set of resins that we have, do you do anything to it prior to painting it?
Brad Belsheim:I spray it with water, literally just water. Okay, it should have been rinsed in alcohol anyway, yeah just a little bit of water just to make sure it's got nothing on it, because it might right. But water is fine. I mean, if you want to be OCD about it, just a little bit of, you know, denature water. But yeah, water, water is good.
Kentucky Dave:And you haven't had any adherence problems at all to any of the different kits you've built.
Brad Belsheim:No, actually, but I do love to be a primer. I do a lot of stuff of multi, what do they call it? Photo, etch, plastic resin and multimedia, and I do that. I put it all together and I will totally put to meamiya primer on that. Well, if I lived in England I would do Halfords primer, but that's a different story. But yeah, tamiya primer on top of that is awesome. You will take care of everything you need to take care of.
Mike:What are you doing for layer lines, especially places you can't sand? Now, this kit I'm working on it had some in the ribbing on the front fenders. Well, the whole front fender has some layer lines in it. I couldn't just sand it because of the ribbing in the fenders, unless I just wanted to go rebuild the whole thing. One thing I've done there is really thinning out, Mr Servicer, something like that, to where it's like as thin as a paint really, and then just putting that on as self-levels, and I've gotten pretty good results with that for filling layer lines in kind of odd places. But sometimes they're hard to get to.
Brad Belsheim:One of my favorite tools, which I just bought when I say just bought, it was like months ago. Is the display that little electric sander tool like months ago? Is the display that little electric sander tool?
Kentucky Dave:Oh yeah, oh yeah, the little display.
Brad Belsheim:Jesus came down and gave me this tool. It's great. It's great Get one. Oh my God.
Kentucky Dave:Do you apply something to the 3D print material before you try to sand away the layer lines, or are you sanding the 3D print material itself?
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, it's called spit.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, well, so you wet sand? Yes, for those people who don't live in Cleveland, wet sanding with water.
Brad Belsheim:In Kentucky. Dave, I do not live in Cleveland. I live far west of Cleveland.
Mike:But somebody else who uses spit yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I have many, many friends from the greater Cleveland-Akron area, so anytime I can poke fun at them, I will do so.
Brad Belsheim:But, yeah, that's an amazing tool. That's a great tool. It's a great 3D print layer tool. I recommend that for people who love 3D prints, as I do. So, yeah, get one.
Kentucky Dave:Let me ask you another question. We were talking about the variation in quality among the different manufacturers, and we were talking about how the technology is progressing very rapidly. Now you were talking about your current favorite manufacturer with RTM.
Kentucky Dave:RTM yes, rtm, and you were talking about how high quality it is compared to what you've built previously. Yep, do you think that has to do with a progress in the quality of both the resin and the printer? Do you think it has to do with the skill of the designer? I think it has to do with the skill of the designer obviously a combination of both. How much of that do you think is just natural progression, and how much is it that this particular manufacturer is paying very close attention to his quality?
Brad Belsheim:control. I think that's a wow. That's a tough question, because I think JAN is awesome. I think it's a quality, it's a technology advances all the time, right, Like you know, back in the olden days, we, you know, to me it was the best and they weren't, and they were and they weren't, and whatever. But I think that it's also a question of your printers, it's a question of your designer, it's a question of your software, the FT models, if I'm quoting them right. I was so disappointed by their quality, especially with the cost. I was like, wow, I paid this for that, Meh.
Mike:It's like the old resin days.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and that brings up a separate but related issue. If you're buying a 3D print kit from a new manufacturer, one you haven't dealt with before, these things aren't cheap. Nope, talk about your recent disappointment. Quality levels vary. Are you willing to buy a pig in a poke? Do you just take a flyer, sometimes hoping that it turns out to be a good kit?
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, kentucky Dave, I will totally tell you that is absolutely true, hoping that it turns out to be a good kit. Yeah, kentucky Dave, I will totally tell you, that is absolutely true. So I am a. If you look at the stuff I've built, I love weird. When I was in California I grew up in California I used to build a lot of stuff when I was back in San Diego and they used to call me the odd man out. So there's a track come tank that the Kiwis developed in the war, which was a oh, you mean the oh God.
Kentucky Dave:What's the name of it? The one that Vargas does a kit of it.
Brad Belsheim:Nope, not the Vargas kit.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, okay.
Brad Belsheim:No, this is more like the German or actually Austrian tank come track and it was a really cool kit and there's actually a. Really it looks great on internet, doesn't everything? Doesn't everything right? It's $150, which I don't care. I mean, I'm lucky enough that that would be a fine and I have a. I have a kiwi good buddies who who is down there, and I'm like I don't know. I mean it looks really cool, but I have no experience with this 3D printer, right, and so even at my point, I'm like I'm not. $150 plus shipping, I don't know.
Mike:I get it. There's a naval catapult that S&S makes that man it's calling my name. It's like $150. It's like the catapult and the gantry and the whole half section of the deck of the ship right, that is exactly what I was thinking of when I asked him this question.
Brad Belsheim:It's it's actually. It's not the dollars, it's, it's. It's well. I mean, none of us want to throw away money, but you know, is it cool, it great? I want to see it right.
Kentucky Dave:Show me the actual product right, well, and if you spend the money and it turns out to be less than top quality let's be kind then you really feel the disappointment. It's not so much that the money went away, although that hurts, it's the fact that what you were thinking you were getting doesn't turn out to be what you actually got Right. Or Mike's talking about with the S&S, this rear battleship section. I mean, you have no opportunity unless you can find somebody who has already taken the leap Right and these things are, and Mike and I talk about this all the time. These companies are popping up left and right. If you go on ScaleMates, I would bet that fully half of the announcement on ScaleMates now are 3D printed items and they're not cheap. They're not cheap.
Mike:Nope, Absolutely. Well. Speaking of vetting, is there a social media outlet for just 3D printed model construction? Yet has anybody got anything like that out there?
Brad Belsheim:I wish there would be, because I would jump on that, and that's the thing, and that's why I was really privileged, I was honored that you guys reached out to me, because it's like there's so many products out there and so many vendors and so many this and so many that, and you know like exactly so inconsistent.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and you see that same thing in injection molded manufacturers. Yeah, it's called an academy. Well, okay, I was not going to name names, but yeah, there's an example where you can have a manufacturer who turns out really nice stuff and then you know stuff and that and that and the thing you can do. That that you encounter with a, a traditional injection molded manufacturer. Same thing you encounter with these new 3d manufacturers. If you buy one of their kits and it turns out and it's really good, then that becomes your level set for thinking okay, kits from this manufacturer or 3D printer are good stuff. So when you see the next item on offer, you are much less hesitant to take the leap. And then it turns out that this manufacturer's quality is not consistent.
Brad Belsheim:Well, and that's the problem. I mean, I think it's for everyone, right? It's like hey look, we all love Tamiya. If you don't love Tamiya, you're a fascist. I mean, let's right. I mean they're just the best, Okay, you know you look at like trumpeter. Okay, but sometimes yes and sometimes no, Right, Right, you know you look at Dragon back in the day. Well, you're going to mortgage your house and then get maybe something. This is cool, but it's got 47,000 pages of really bad directions.
Mike:And there's many parts that you don't use on the model.
Brad Belsheim:Well, that's 95,000.
Kentucky Dave:And speaking of that, to take it back to 3D printing, are most of the kits you've gotten? Do they come with any instructions?
Brad Belsheim:Well, that's a good point. Kentucky, dave, my attorney, yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Hey, I haven't got the retainer yet. Let's not put the cart before the horse.
Brad Belsheim:Let's not put the cart before the horse. So you know, rtm has great short to the point directions. They are my faves. They are my faves right now. They're awesome. Some others like SS Models. They're focused on the. You know, here's a decent kit and it should be simple and 3D print and just go for it. Why would you want directions? And this sounds not totally correct, but it's just a little Chinese method. It's like what's the point, right? So I've got this really great kit from SS Models of this American assault tank. I had to go to Tim, my buddy, at Bovington and he took a bunch of pictures of inside of the tank and the outside of the tank and all this stuff. So I was like could figure out. How does it really work? Right, and that's the problem, is these 3d print companies. They have some great stuff but they also have like no directions. It's like old school, 15 years ago. Resin kits.
Kentucky Dave:So you say that RTM actually does supply you with a set of directions in the kits yes, their directions are actually quite good.
Brad Belsheim:They're simple, they're to the point. Here it is Do it.
Mike:I'm excited to learn what their new thing's going to be. So I'm not asking you to tell me, but if you're excited, I'm excited because that little heavy tank really and I love Soviet armor but I'm pretty much like the more operational production level stuff.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah. So this is just a little bit of a. I'm hoping, I'm really hoping, that they give me the pre-production one and I get to build it, because Riv and I know this guy, jan, at RTM, and it's a one-off Soviet tank, because I love Soviet crap. Well, I'm, you know, 50 shades of green. Here I am.
Kentucky Dave:Now I know we've been talking mostly 3D printed armor kits and we talked about the kits and the number of parts, breakdown and all, and whether they come with any instructions or good instructions. Do any of the 3D kits you buy come with decals or are you on your own for all of those, with all of the kits that you bought?
Brad Belsheim:I have not bought a 3D print kit with decals or decals, as our northerner friends would say.
Mike:Well, the Vargas Matilda comes with them. Does it really yeah?
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, and they're wrong.
Mike:Okay, well, there's that.
Kentucky Dave:Well, that's a different question as to whether or not they come with decaf.
Mike:It doesn't surprise me to be on your own. That's a whole different ballgame, which reminds me what I was going to ask Some manufacturers. You just seem to tell that they have a vested interest in the subjects they're actually kidding versus just pumping crap out that doesn't exist now that they can make a buck on. We just bought these. I bought two of them and gave one to Dave because I owed him money on something else and that's the way friends work.
Brad Belsheim:It was we all do that. I owe you money here. Take this, yes.
Mike:F&A out of Poland. It was a little WZ-34 Polish armored cars.
Brad Belsheim:Oh, I've seen that.
Mike:That kit is gorgeous, but, man, it is. Is you're gonna break something? It's just it's. It's. It's like the wheels are separate and the turret's separate, and that's pretty much it.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, and oh man well, even even at the aftermarket stuff. So I'm, I'm sitting here right now and I I'm looking at what I'm, cause you guys will see this at amps, nats and it's the to me, a one 48 scale. Sure, stuart, right, and I've got the, the, the GT, I'm moving, it's called the GT resin skeleton tracks right on it and it's. It's really cool, it matches, it looks cool, whatever. But what are we gonna do with this? As far as, like you know, is it okay to enter this as a kit by itself, or is the aftermarket or whatever, right? Where are we with that?
Mike:Well, that's. That's another good question. I don't think it's been too big an issue on the armor side, but do these things need their own category? I guess where this really gets to be. I don't think it's a problem, but there've been people who think it's a problem. This, this category that's coming around to be called scratch printed, where the modelers actually doing the 3d design and printing themselves. And okay, is it scratch built, sort of, but not exactly. Well, the craft, the craftsmanship is different, so so what do you do with it?
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, what I mean, what won the best of ipms this last year was a, basically a 3d print kit.
Mike:right that that, um, all the spaceship from yeah yeah, yeah right, we, we got to see that a lot. That that's yeah. He's amazing, by the way.
Kentucky Dave:Yes it's amazing? Yes, it is. He's a really neat guy with a really interesting story, and it won also in Europe.
Mike:Not surprised. Yeah, he was at.
Kentucky Dave:Wonderfest. He won at Wonderfest and, yeah, he's taken that thing to a number of contests and it has done well at all of them, simply because it is such a and he did all of that, other than the electronics that lighted. I mean, every bit of that was designed and printed by him, right?
Brad Belsheim:It's, it's, it's effing amazing.
Kentucky Dave:And I agree with Mike, it's not scratch-built in the way that you think of traditionally a set of plans and a stack of styrene but it certainly is. It's scratch-designed.
Kentucky Dave:Scratch-designed and printed, which is not just, oh, stick it in the printer and let it come out. You have to think about it. You have to think about the support structures and the way you print it. I mean, there is a lot to it, it is every bit. While it's a completely different set of skills, it is every bit as creative as the guy who sits down and scratch, builds a model using a set of plans and styrene and brass rod and all Right right, I mean it absolutely is.
Brad Belsheim:When I saw that, I was like oh my God.
Mike:Well, you've kind of answered this in in bits and pieces along the way here. But and I think I know what you're going to say, but we'll let you say it in your own words what is the big drive for you to, to, to go down this whole lane of pursuing these, these kits for your builds? What, what, what's the attraction? Is this just the proliferation of these oddball subjects?
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, I, I've always been the odd man out. I mean, if you look at, before AFV Club came out with their own bridging Churchill, I bought the Resicant one, right yeah, and spent way too much money, and then you could buy it for way less, right in plastic.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you threw yourself on that project for the rest of us.
Brad Belsheim:That's exactly right, thank you. Thank you, kentucky, dave. Yes, I made it better for everyone else, I true, yeah, so it's just. You know, I love 3D because it gives you stuff that no one's ever going to make anywhere else. Right, it's not going to happen. Yeah, I think that's right.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and with 3D, you do have the hope that almost anything will be done. Anything will be done. In other words, you know, back when we were limited to injection molded, you know you could have your hope that the fairy fruit bat was going to be molded by Airfix. You know it was the one-off that you particularly wanted, but you knew that there was no way that was ever going to happen. Now, with 3D print even more than resin, with 3D print, the odds of seeing any single one-off go up dramatically, just because you've got to have one guy who has an interest in that item and a 3D printer and a CAD program and time and some talent. Well, I was just talking about getting a kit. I wasn't describing a good kit, but yeah, I mean that's. Ultimately, your hope is that he's good, he or she are good, and you get the one item that you always wanted. But you weren't ever going to put that time in.
Brad Belsheim:Well, yeah, matilda 1. I mean, I love the Matilda 1. Well, I love all British armor.
Mike:I love it too. When I saw that one, I was like, okay, I'm definitely buying that one. I hope it doesn't suck. Let's just say this up front Brad loves.
Brad Belsheim:I love it too. When I saw that one, I was like, okay, I'm definitely buying that one. I hope it doesn't suck. Let's just say this up front, Brad loves British armor?
Kentucky Dave:Well, and you can't not love the Matilda one. It's so ugly, it's so ugly, it's pretty. Yes, exactly.
Brad Belsheim:But here's the thing. What are we missing? What I want is an awesome 3D print or whatever of the Australian Sentinel.
Kentucky Dave:Which there are existing copies of the real thing around, exactly. So, please, please, god, give me the Sentinel. Well and again, that's not unlike if we were back in the injection molded only era that would be a plea that we would all laugh at, because it's never going to happen.
The Voice of Bob (Bair):It's never going to happen, right.
Kentucky Dave:To me it isn't coming out with the Sentinel Nope, nope, sentinel. But the odds are, sooner or later, if you, if you, hang around long enough, somebody's gonna do that yeah, it's, it's, it's moving up the universal list.
Mike:Exactly what have we covered?
Brad Belsheim:I. I hope we've covered a lot of stuff.
Mike:You guys have been great we've covered a lot of stuff. You've said it you're gonna be at amps, we're gonna be at amps. We're looking forward to that. Anything you bring in a 3D kit, what do you got going on right now?
Brad Belsheim:I am bringing the MT-25 and I'm bringing an Amtuner 5 in 48 and 35th scale, because Jan sent me the 48th scale one and that'll be great because I love that kit. Also, he's got something special coming up and I'm really hoping he's going to send me a prototype and if it does, you guys will be happy.
Mike:Sure I will. If it's Russian. I can't wait to see it. He's also doing some 16th scale stuff. Yes, that brings up the point of you know, we talk about these oddball and low interest kind of subjects getting done, but when you get some folks who have a vested interest in particular subject matter, they're actually cranking out upgrades and replacement parts that are way better and way more accurate than what's in a lot of the kits. So yes, that's that's been cool too.
Kentucky Dave:With. With armor, you're in a lot of the kits. Yes, absolutely, that's been cool too. With armor, you're seeing a lot of complete kits. I think where 3D printing in aircraft is right now, you aren't seeing nearly as many complete kits, but what you are seeing is an absolute explosion of upgrade for existing kits. Yes, and engines, cockpit interiors, stuff like that.
Brad Belsheim:So Kentucky, Dave, I love airplanes, I love like oh my God, I love mosquitoes and I love zeros only when they're on fire.
Kentucky Dave:I'm sensing a British theme here zeros only when they're on fire. I'm sensing a British theme here Mostly mosquitoes. There you go.
Kentucky Dave:But, in a 3D world is there a lot of stuff going on there? There are relatively few 3D printed aircraft kits. It's just not for, I think, a number of engineering reasons. I don't think it's as common, although it may come to be that, but what you are really seeing is just to take the Mosquito as an example, which is the best plane ever, by the way. Well, you're wrong, but that's okay. Tamiya Hasegawa and Airf. The top mark of the Mosquito was 3743, some outrageous number up there, but that is at least in aircraft right now where I think you're seeing the vast majority of 3D materials.
Brad Belsheim:So it's an upgrade conversion kind of thing.
Kentucky Dave:Although and here's the other place, you're seeing it, and this is kind of armor aircraft crossover is all of the airfield equipment, oh, which is also very cool and lends itself to being manufactured like a 3D printed armor kit, like any 3D printed armor kit, like any 3d printed armor kit. Yeah, you know you're. You're seeing everything from bulldozers to to bomb haulers, to.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, that's cool, that's totally cool. I mean, if you're an airplane guy and you know you're one of those people.
Kentucky Dave:That's all right, that's okay.
Mike:Well, brad, if someone was eyeballing a 3d printed kit and they'd never done it before, what would be? What would be the advice for somebody wanting to just have have their first go? Where would you start? Kit wise, would you think, and and that sort of thing.
Brad Belsheim:All right, so 35th scale, I can't not say RTM, it is just the best. That jam is awesome If there's a variety. I mean, what do you want, right? World War I, World War II, specialty stuff? That's the whole point of 3D kits, right? It's weird stuff. Well, Brad, thanks for 3D kits, right Is?
Mike:weird stuff. Well, brad, thanks for coming on the show and giving us your experience with these kits and sharing all that with us. It's a neat world out there with all these crazy subjects, and I guess I've just had reservations on a lot of them for the reasons we've discussed and, like you, I'm sure if you've been at this as long as I have that we learned a lot of hard lessons back in the early resin days.
Kentucky Dave:So yeah, those, those marks, those scars still, those scars are still there I can mention, you're still there mike, I was there when you opened a box from a certain resin manufacturer way back a long time ago well, there's a lot of those I just appreciate you guys, you know, reaching out to me and I mean that that you guys put that little mark on the mt25.
Brad Belsheim:It meant a lot to me, um well, you're welcome, you're.
Mike:You're, it was a.
Kentucky Dave:It's just a really good model, a very nice model, and the nice thing is you're seeing something you don't see every day.
Brad Belsheim:That's the thing I've always been, from when I was in San Diego, where I grew up, to Texas, to now I'm in Ohio. Everyone always says if you want to see something weird, go see Brad.
Kentucky Dave:Wait a minute, that could be misconstrued yes. Never, never mind. Well, it's good to talk with you, brad.
Mike:Thanks, guys, you're welcome and thanks again for coming on. We'll look forward to seeing you in Camp Hill Pennsylvania.
Brad Belsheim:Yeah, absolutely Me and Dr Dave.
Mike:Well, brad, thanks for coming on, and we look forward to seeing you and Dr Dave at the AMPS convention here in a couple of weeks.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, and you know that's funny. Since we recorded that interview, I have had three separate conversations with three different modelers, all revolving around this subject. All revolving around this subject not printing 3D printing, but the construction and assembly of 3D printed kits. So it is a topic that is becoming more and more relevant as time goes on.
Mike:It certainly is, and the quality spectrum is kind of the big gotcha there. So interesting stuff.
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Mike:Well, Dave, it's time for the Benchtop Halftime Reports. Man, I hope your update's better than mine.
Kentucky Dave:Sadly enough, it's not. A it's spring yard work, etc. B my riding lawnmower broke and I have to fix it. C derby festivities and all the appropriate or all the things involved in that. D my younger daughter had some minor surgery which necessitated a couple of days away, and all of it conspired to keep me from getting much modeling done. I've gotten a little more progress on the Bearcats. I'm working on the landing gear, which are very simplified. I'm working on the landing gear, which are very simplified, but since I'm not adding a lot of detail to this kit at all, I am trying to play with painting techniques to do what I can to make details pop out, and so I'm giving a little more attention than I might otherwise to these landing gear and I need my, the SAM is still there.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, it is. Yeah, I know. And I need to finish oil treating the rest of the underside, and once I get that done, the thing will move very, very quickly from there. And once I get that done, the thing will move very, very quickly from there. I just need to grab an uninterrupted two hours worth of time and unfortunately that hasn't been in the cards. But the next two weeks look good and fingers crossed, when we talk about this in episode 141, I'm going to make a lot of progress.
Mike:I'm going to hold you to it. How about you Not a lot better. The Flak Panzer and the KV-85 have been stagnant since the last episode because of what I talked about in the front end in the model sphere segment of the episode front end in the model sphere segment of the episode I've been doing some 3D modeling on the Raboboton chassis and I've been doing some more test prints and I've been sending emails to people to try to get the missing pieces of this puzzle answered and that's what I've been doing. It's close. I need to finish this. I need to figure out this one part at the front end of the chassis ladder to tie this thing together, and after that I think I can move forward because I've got great information on all the steering and and all wheel drive, transmission and stuff. So it should it should be able to progress now. Whether I get to it or not in a timely manner, I don't know, but there will be no blockers holding me back from lack of information, hopefully.
Kentucky Dave:There you go. Well, I will tell you that I am going to send you some STL files. I have some things that I'd like printed and I want to make sure that your 3D printer at home doesn't gather dust and like to keep it exercised. So I'm going to send you some STL files and see if I can get you to print some for me.
Mike:We'll give it a shot, man.
Kentucky Dave:All right.
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Mike:Dave Brandon and I have been playing the email tag for about two weeks now. Oh, have you. Yeah, we got to get him back on here, man.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we do, yes, we do. Well, the model releases have picked up a little bit. Yeah, no kidding, and it's faves and yawns time, so I've got a few. I do too, I got more than normal.
Mike:I'll let you start my first. One has been on in this segment at least two other times. It's gecko models yeah, I I know what you're gonna refer to. It's another vietnam war era. Street vendor figure set and man, they are killing it yes man, it's becoming a gaping rabbit hole, man.
Kentucky Dave:And I think—.
Mike:If I don't go down it myself, the ground around it is going to collapse. I'm going to fall in.
Kentucky Dave:I do think we are due for a Vietnam War renaissance as far as modeling kits and dioramas there was. Back in the 80s there was the first post-war surge of Vietnam-related modeling and then it kind of fell away and I think it's going to come back and come back hard.
Mike:Well, it's an interesting phenomenon and I wonder if it has to do with the time elapse.
Kentucky Dave:I think it does, and the generations.
Mike:Yeah, that's what I was going to say the generational. What to say? How far removed the current folks are to be able to think about this more objectively than emotionally.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, exactly. Well, not only that, but you've got a lot of 30 and 40-year-old modelers who are now talking with their 80-year-old grandparents who— their parents, yeah Right, who served? And?
Kentucky Dave:so either their parents or grandparents who served, and so you're starting to get a lot more books on the subject. You're getting a lot more kits, both the diorama type, like the Gecko, or good kits. The 16th scale M113 is a classic example, as well as the Australian version of the Centurion that was used in Vietnam. I mean, you're starting to see more and more kits that relate to that period, so I think we're due for a renaissance in that area. Well, I think it's certainly happening.
Mike:I think it's certainly happening. But another thing to say about it is you know it was well a couple of things. It was the first time this came to the American living room on the television. Yes, the war in real time. In addition, there's a lot of folks outraged. I think it gets into this period, late 80s, maybe even early. I don't know when all these movies came out, but there was a slug of movies that came through Hollywood, kind of all within five years of each other Yep Platoon, Full Metal Jacket.
Kentucky Dave:Hamburger Hill.
Mike:Hamburger Hill. And then there was the TV show. What was that? China Beach? No Well, maybe it was China Beach. That was the nurse show.
Kentucky Dave:That was the nurse show.
Mike:No, the other one with the the gay team no, god no. But there was a rash. Come on there. No, not God, no, but there was a rash. Come on, there was a rash of detective shows going back to Vietnam. Oh, magnum PI and all those and all that. But that's neither here nor there. But I think we're at a point now where the emotion of all that period is tempered and it's becoming more of an objective thing. So really good stuff, because it's reflected in what Gecko's doing Scooters, street vendors, all this stuff. They're kind of ahead of the curve. We're kind of just getting some of that stuff for World War II fairly recently through many art and the likes of that. They are really putting out some really cool stuff.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, they are.
Mike:That lets you replicate just about any vignette of that era you've ever seen, either in a magazine photograph or a movie or whatever.
Kentucky Dave:I see a Vietnam vehicle in your future.
Mike:Maybe We'll see what else you got. What's your first one?
Kentucky Dave:Well, quinta Studios, who are known for their 3D decals for cockpits, instrument panels etc. Have announced a series of machine guns, 72nd scale. Well, they're doing them in other scales too. Machine guns for aircraft the Vickers K gun, the Lewis gun, us M250 World War II aircraft with one of those type of guns on it. I'm convinced that replacing that with aftermarket really good aftermarket is a big improvement.
The Voice of Bob (Bair):It usually is.
Kentucky Dave:Over what you get in most kits. So I'm happy to see these and, frankly, I want to see some of them in person to judge the quality.
Mike:Next for you TACOM doing a fresh take on the Yacht Tiger.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I saw that.
Mike:Big full interior one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, You're going to wait for the non-interior right.
Mike:Well, I'm probably mistaken, but somebody just did one, and I don't know if they came out with a non-interior first. I don't know if it was a different manufacturer, but no, I don't know, it's. This one's a pretty good one for an interior, though. No, it's got a full, full interior. Well, I mean, but the it's got that the big swing hatches on the back of the fighting compartment can open up and you can open the two crew hatches on the roof to get some light in there, and then put a little grain of wheat well, not grain of wheat, but now an LED bulb in there to light the whole interior, so there's a lot to it.
Mike:Yeah, I don't know, it's probably not something I'm going to buy, but seeing a fresh take on that one looked promising for a lot of people, I'm sure.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, I agree, take on that one. Look promising for a lot of people, I'm sure. Yep, I agree. What's your um? My next one is our friends at kit masks, kevin and janelle, the pace at which they are releasing new mask sets. It's you know, you, we know they're a small cottage operation yeah, it's him and her right exactly, and to make a musical reference, it's she and him.
Kentucky Dave:I am just amazed at the quantity of new items that they continue to put out, and then they're branching out into armor stuff. And you know, every time I go on ScaleMates there are new sets announced and it just it's pretty dang impressive. It is, it really is, yep.
Mike:So what's your next? Now? You know I bought their quad bofers from our local hobby shop, scale Reproductions, right A while back. They've come around and they got something kind of cool now in addition to that kit, which is it's an 8-inch, aka 240-millimeter, heavy gun, a heavy howitzer. Oh, I saw that Now they're calling it the M2A1. Yeah, and at the risk of talking out my posterior, I think that designation is incorrect. I think the gun is M1. I think the transport carriage for the well, the transport for the gun carriage is the M2. And the transport for the barrel is the M3. That's what I think. Now, this is a big honking thing. That's not like the long time which had a split trail. This was a. You disassembled it, you loaded it up and you transported it and you put it back together when you got to wherever you're going to emplace the thing. It's a really cool, cool kit Huge gun.
Mike:It's a big gun? Probably has. I just had not enough interest to know it existed. But I wonder if this thing's ever been kitted in anything else before. That's a good question. I don't know. Maybe it has.
Kentucky Dave:Maybe our listeners can tell us.
Mike:Yeah, somebody set me straight. I don't know if this thing's ever been kitted before or not, but yeah, there's a lot to this. There's a lot of big balloon tires and a lot of parts, so really looking to see what that one looks like in the box once it's released.
Kentucky Dave:Well, my next one is not a particular kit, it's a note about what's going on in the hobby for releases. In the hobby for releases, the number of 3D printed figure companies is just exploding. Every time I go on ScaleMates or I go to Hannitz or whatever, in the new releases there are 3D figures from companies I've never heard from, never heard of. And of course, the problem, as we talked about earlier in the episode in the interview, is with 3D printing.
Kentucky Dave:Quality is 90% of the game and I would love to see somebody out there, some youtuber hint, hint out there, do what evan mccallum did with all the 3d printed track companies, where he got a bunch of different items from a bunch of different companies I think there's like 15 or 16 by the time he stopped, just because there were too many new ones continuing to come out where I would love to see some industrious YouTuber get 3D figures from all of these different companies and give us the good, bad and ugly, because, as we noted earlier in the episode in the interview, you're really kind of hesitant to order a pig and a puck and so you know, unless you know somebody who's already got the figures from a particular company or if you're lucky enough to have a hobby shop that stocked them.
Kentucky Dave:You're really firing blind and I don't really like that feeling. But I would like more and more quality figures and particularly quality 72nd scale 3D figures. So some YouTuber out there take me up on my suggestion and give us a comparison review of a bunch of different 3D figure company releases.
Mike:And hopefully you figure out a way to get them for free.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, if you can do that, so much the better. So that's it for me. What do you have?
Mike:I got one more, my last one. You know it's funny. I don't think we do this one roughly every other episode, right? So once every other, once every two months.
The Voice of Bob (Bair):Right.
Mike:Faves and yawns and the Tamiya H39, hotchkiss H39 kind of fell through the cracks. Yeah, because because of when it was released. Yeah, ah, but we hit the M36 Jackson this time and I'm sure there's quite a few folks who are ecstatic about this one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I'm not one of them. I like the M10 better than the M36. I like the.
Mike:M18 and the M10. Of the American tank destroyers, this is the least interesting of all of them. That's my opinion. I don't know why. I think it's the shape of the turret. It's got something to do with that, I don't know. But, like I said, I'm sure folks are going to beat the door down to get this one. Yep I agree with you Long overdue, so good on Tamiya, for a couple of 35th scale armor releases this year already.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I'd love to see them increase the pace of their armor releases. Mike, we are almost at the end of the episode and I assume you are almost at the end of your modeling fluid.
Mike:I am. I'm at the end of my modeling fluid, the glass and the bottle. Okay, the Walcott Bottled and Bond needs a splash of water.
Kentucky Dave:Does it?
Mike:Yeah, it's 100 proof, gotcha, which is where the heat kind of starts to pick up. Yeah, it's going to do it, but I tell you for 100 proof, this one straight up is really, really hot. A little bit of water makes it a little sweeter and kind of takes that burn off the back of your throat. Yeah, I probably wouldn't get this one again.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you live and learn. That's how you find out. You sample these things yeah.
Mike:I'm kind of 0 for 2 on the Walcotts. Now, who did you say this distiller was again?
Kentucky Dave:Barton 1792 oh, very bad, barton very well, very old barton, but yes, many people call it very bad barton that explains a lot actually it's a, it's a bad sign when very old barton comes in a plastic jug, that is. That is never an indication of bourbon quality, just no, it's not. In case you listeners out there didn't already know that if your bourbon is coming in a plastic bottle, with a screw top. It's not good, bourbon, almost assuredly.
Mike:Well, how's that hop explosion. You got going on, it's actually not bad.
Kentucky Dave:I may have been a little harsh last time in judging it. It's 8% alcohol by volume.
Mike:It's mere twin brewing out of Lexington, just down from where Space Tango is located, that's right, I can walk down there after work and I'm probably going to do that tomorrow actually.
Kentucky Dave:There you go, there you go Probably not going to have that and I'm probably going to do that tomorrow. Actually, there you go, there you go. Probably not going to have that. I was going to say if you were inclined to, I would say this while it might not be my first choice, because Mirror Twin has a whole lot of really good beers, so it might not be my first choice, but it would not be the worst choice. It's perfectly fine.
Mike:Glad it worked out the second time.
Kentucky Dave:It did Well. Now we are truly at the end of the episode, and there is nothing left but the shouting out.
Mike:I'm not going to shout. I'll shout out, though. Okay, go ahead and shout out.
Mike:Well, always going to thank our contributors, dave, the folks who choose to support Plastic Model Mojo through their generosity, and we've made that really easy for folks to do that. You can go to wwwplasticmodelmojocom, the official website of our podcast. You can click the support option in the menu bar and that will bring down the selection of avenues which you can contribute to the show. Also, you can grab any of the show notes from any of the episodes, and those links are in there as well. So, folks, we appreciate it. It helps cover our expenses and it just gives the incentive to keep plugging along here and bringing you better stuff.
Kentucky Dave:So thank you very much and I second that. Thank you very much. I have two shout outs. The first one is rather obvious Jeff Inch High Grows. Jeff, thank you, thank you for thinking of me. Thank you, thank you for thinking of me, thank you for giving me the opportunity to help save a whole lot of books and find them new homes, and thank you for thinking of both Mike and I when you went through the collection initially and grabbed a bunch of stuff that you knew that Mike and I would be interested in. You're a good guy, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Thank you, jeff and your other one. My other one is Martin Pietta, who thought about Inch when he listened to the episode and heard that Inch couldn't currently drink alcohol and thought enough to mention the Blue Moon, et cetera that I described earlier.
Kentucky Dave:That is an example of the community that we have here. It wasn't about modeling okay, it was about one modeler thinking about another modeler and wanting to tell him something that he found that they might find helpful. That wasn't really related to modeling, and that's the kind of people we attract. I don't want to toot our own horn or pat ourselves on the back too hard. Toot our own horn or pat ourselves on the back too hard, but this podcast has attracted a community of modelers who are really great people and very thoughtful in regard to their fellow modeler, not only as a modeler but their fellow modeler as a fellow man, and I could not be more pleased. So thank you, mark. All right, dave, that's it.
Mike:That's it Time to get going, as we always say. Folks, so many kits, so little time. Dave, I better get your bags packed for amps. I'm good, I'm doing it, man, all right.
