Behind the Scenes with KitMasx: Saving Modelers Time and Frustration

When Kevin Hedrich noticed a serious gap in the modeling market, he knew exactly what to do. "Manually masking canopies sucks," he explains bluntly, "and somebody had to step in to save those countless kits from the shelf of doom." That's how KitMasx was born—a specialized business creating precision-cut canopy masks for scale model aircraft.

What makes KitMasx unique in the modeling world isn't just their quality products, but their focus on overlooked kits. While many manufacturers rush to create masks for the latest releases, Kevin and his wife Janelle concentrate on producing solutions for older, discontinued, and neglected models that might otherwise never receive proper masking options. With over 400 sets available and more being added regularly based on customer requests, they're breathing new life into forgotten kits sitting in modelers' stashes.

The couple's passion for serving the modeling community shines through in everything they do. Kevin personally cuts and tests every mask set multiple times for quality assurance, while Janelle manages customer relations with warmth and efficiency. "Canopies are the first thing you notice on an aircraft model," Kevin reminds us. "If the lines aren't clean, it detracts from the whole model." This attention to detail has earned them devoted customers who appreciate both their products and their exceptional service. Ready to transform your next build? Visit kitmasx.com and use code MOJO15 for 15% off your first order. Your shelf of doom will thank you!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Kit Mask Introduction
• 6:00 Meeting Kevin at HeritageCon
• 9:10 What Kit Mask Does
• 9:41 Material Supplies and Future Shows
• 14:38 Missing AMPS and Future Plans
• 16:15 Working with Customer Requests

Transcript

Kit Mask Introduction

Kevin Hedrich 0:05

kev, tell everyone why you started kit mask well, manually masking canopy sucks and somebody had to step in to save those countless kits from the shelf of doom and now we've got over 400 sets and counting.

Janelle 0:17

We've got old kits, new kits, forgotten kits, you name it yeah, and if we don't have it, just ask yeah, people don't realize. We take customer requests and we even have a service that gets you canopy masks for free.

Kentucky Dave 0:27

We do.

Janelle 0:28

Our masks are precision cut. They fit well, they're easy to apply. Kevin cuts and tests every set.

Kevin Hedrich 0:34

Several times.

Janelle 0:35

Yeah, precision is kind of his thing.

Kevin Hedrich 0:37

And Janelle. She does everything else. She cares about each customer and is the heart of our business.

Janelle 0:42

If you ever reach out, you're talking directly to us. Real people, real modelers.

Kevin Hedrich 0:47

And if you don't love your masks, we'll refund or replace them. No questions asked.

Janelle 0:51

Visit kitmaskcom, join the mailing list and treat yourself to easier, cleaner masking.

Kevin Hedrich 0:57

Kitmask made by a modeler for modelers.

Janelle 1:00

Hey, what about me?

Kevin Hedrich 1:01

You're not a modeler.

Mike 1:07

Oh, all right, kentucky Dave. I don't know what we're going to call this one.

Kentucky Dave 1:16

I don't know, mask Mania.

Mike 1:19

Mask Mania. We can call it Mask Mania. There you go, we've come up short on our model show spotlight but we need to do a vendor showcase to talk about our latest sponsor that we've alluded to. In the last episode we brought Kit Mask on board. They had shown some interest in supporting Plastic Model Mojo and we sure liked those folks yes absolutely.

Mike 1:42

We took them up on it and we had kevin back for a little conversation about that and kit mass and heritage con and all the things around. What's been going on with that, and well, let's just hear it from the horse's mouth, dave, well, dave, I'd hope to drop some of this content after HeritageCon, but when we recorded the session up there I had a lot of crosstalk from our adjacent podcast buddies over there on all our recorded channels and I really couldn't do much with the audio yeah.

Mike 2:16

That's the downside of recording live Well tonight with us is Mr Kevin Hedrick from Kit Mask. Kevin, how are you doing?

Kevin Hedrich 2:24

I'm great. How are you guys?

Mike 2:26

We're real good and we just were thrilled to meet you and Janelle up at HeritageCon in Ottawa at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. It was just a lot of fun at HeritageCon and it was just a blast seeing you guys set up talking your talk to all the folks that were at the show.

Kevin Hedrich 2:41

Yeah, we had a really good time up there as well.

Kentucky Dave 2:43

So now, that was your first time at HeritageCon. It was Now I know you were doing it mostly to try and become more visible and all, but it seemed like your table was fairly darn active.

Kevin Hedrich 2:58

We were pretty busy from the morning to the early afternoon and then everything just sort of tapered off. Sure, but we had a really good morning.

Kentucky Dave 3:07

It was great, and luckily, with your product, you can transport it a whole lot easier than a lot of vendors can.

Kevin Hedrich 3:14

It's very easy. We don't have to worry about airplane-holding jigs or anything like that, just a box, yeah.

Mike 3:23

Well, for the uninformed or the folks not paying attention in the past, how about a quick rundown of exactly what Kit Mask does?

Kevin Hedrich 3:30

We do canopy masks and marking masks for scale model airplanes. We do do some requests for armor and sci-fi, although mostly we've been focusing on airplanes.

Mike 3:43

Well, your products are really good and I know the folks I know who've seen them and tried them are really pleased with them. So that brings me to the next point. Because of that, because of your style of business and your way of doing business and interfacing with the public, we're just really pleased to have you guys come on board as another sponsor for Plastic Model Mojo.

Kevin Hedrich 4:02

Yeah, it's our honor. We're really looking forward to the collaboration with you guys. Well, it's been great so far.

Mike 4:07

We've got a box of swag from you guys a couple three days ago, oh good, and looking for our next opportunity to hand out some info cards and some stickers.

Kentucky Dave 4:18

Well, and count me as one of your satisfied customers. Of your satisfied customers. I got the F8F Bearcat canopy masks up at Heritage Con and just started using those and I'll post some photos in the dojo shortly. But really, really pleased with them, thanks.

Kevin Hedrich 4:39

That's great. Yeah, that's going to make your life easier, especially when you're doing a batch build. Yeah, I told you.

Kentucky Dave 4:44

I am really to the point that I will not do an aircraft model without canopy masks. I don't blame you. It's so much of a time saver and you get such a better result With aircraft. Canopies are the first thing that you notice and if the lines aren't clean, it detracts from the whole model.

Kevin Hedrich 5:11

You tend to look at the canopy and if it's not clean, you sort of dismiss the rest of the airplane.

Kentucky Dave 5:17

That's absolutely true. That's absolutely true. So, like I said, I'll post some photos on the dojo. What's your latest stuff? Have you been focusing on any particular scale, any particular company, or I mean what's in the pipeline for you all right now?

Kevin Hedrich 5:44

right now, basically, right now, it's just what people have sent us. There's a multitude of 72nd and 48. We have some of the HK models parts coming in, so hopefully we can jump on that bandwagon.

Kentucky Dave 5:53

Gotcha.

Meeting Kevin at HeritageCon

Kevin Hedrich 5:53

And just catching up on everything that's been sent to us. There's no rhyme or reason as to what is coming out. It's just what we get, and then that's what we make.

Kentucky Dave 6:05

And that's why your business is a little bit different than maybe some other canopy mask manufacturers out there. You'll see the latest kit come out and then the manufacturers will announce a set for that kit, where you all tend to be. I mean, you may do some stuff for some very recent kits, but then you do a lot of canopy stuff, canopy masks for kits that have been out 15, 20 years, that may not have a mask set.

Kevin Hedrich 6:39

Yeah, most of our stuff is old, discontinued kits and just kits have been mask set. Yeah, most of our stuff is old, discontinued kits and just kits have been neglected mostly. We'd love to get some new kits. I'm going to try to get hold of some manufacturers and maybe I can work with them a little bit, but I don't know if there's much I would have to contribute to them Right, whereas it would be definitely a benefit to me and not so much them. So we're going to have to come up with some creative ways to work on that.

Kentucky Dave 7:08

Well, I'll tell you, what gives me a little bit of hope and encouragement is the fact that you are getting all these requests for these slightly older kids. That tells me that there's still a lot of people out there who are building them, even though they may not be the latest and greatest kit off the assembly line.

Kevin Hedrich 7:32

Yeah, there's a lot of old kits that people are building. It's kind of it's surprising in one way, because there are a lot of the subjects.

Kentucky Dave 7:40

There's better kits out there, but I think a lot of people like the old nostalgia builds so they keep those kits around and now that they have masks they can tackle them mike did a nostalgia build with the little airfix armor piece and it is amazing how much a nostalgia build can kind of bring back the fun of modeling, so that, like I said, I find that really encouraging.

Kevin Hedrich 8:09

Yeah, it's nice to see. Those old kits need some love too.

Kentucky Dave 8:13

Yep absolutely.

Mike 8:15

Well, you say a lot of what you got going on is what people have sent. So is this the backlog of custom jobs?

Kevin Hedrich 8:22

Yeah, there's a lot of backlog still. I'm still not caught up. We were setting it up so that I could have a little bit of time off in the summer, but not so much. There's just not enough time in the day.

Mike 8:36

Oh sure Is that something you're still pursuing, the custom stuff You're still adding to the pile, and if so, let folks know how that works again.

What Kit Mask Does

Kevin Hedrich 8:43

Yeah, what we originally started was I had my stash, I made a few off that and then I realized quickly that my interests were kind of one-dimensional. So we decided to offer people free canopy masks if they sent us their parts and that sort of basically launched everything. We just took off after that and people just keep asking to send parts and make masks for and it's mostly old stuff that nobody makes masks for anymore. And we did have to pause it late last year and we're going to open it up again in this September. I'm still just working through everything from last year still.

Kentucky Dave 9:25

Well, that's the sign of a successful business. You obviously have touched a nerve when you get that kind of demand.

Material Supplies and Future Shows

Kevin Hedrich 9:33

Yeah, I think so. Like most of the bigger manufacturers, they tend to do runs and stuff, so some of that stuff that may have had mass before, I mean, you can't find that stuff anymore. So I kind of stepped in and filled a hole, which is nice.

Kentucky Dave 9:49

Now, are you having any problem with material supply? I mean, the material is the Oramask 810, isn't it?

Kevin Hedrich 9:58

We use Oramask 810. That's really easy to get hold of. I mean, every everybody uses that stuff right. But we use tamiya tape right sheets right, because we can't really find a bulk supplier of of any other kind of kabuki tape like that right, plus the tamiya is. You know, everybody knows tamiya tape is really nice. So every every few months we have a supplier hiccup where we're running dangerously close to being out of it, and then we're on a big scramble worldwide to find a supply.

Kentucky Dave 10:34

Well, at least so far you've been able to keep finding it. I hope that keeps up.

Kevin Hedrich 10:40

Yeah, we just got hooked up with a wholesaler in Canada and it sounds like they're going to be able to help us out. Oh nice, so that's a bit of a stress relief there.

Kentucky Dave 10:51

Well, good, that's good news. Now what's the next show you all are attending?

Kevin Hedrich 10:56

We were supposed to go to Seattle for their show that they just had Right Everything was packed up ready to go. We had all our stuff. Grab our passports. I opened mine up and it has expired in February. Yeah, that can be a problem. That was a huge problem. That was basically oh my Lord, we're not going anywhere.

Mike 11:19

We've got some friends who had to pull the ripcord on a Bahaman vacation. Oh no, that's even worse Because of an expired passport.

Kevin Hedrich 11:28

Yeah, it was nice when we used to be able to cross the border with just our driver's licenses, but it's been a while since that was the case.

Kentucky Dave 11:38

Well, my passport expired the month after HeritageCon, so I now have to get a new passport if I'm going to get to HeritageCon next year.

Kevin Hedrich 11:47

Our next show that we're going to be at is in Vancouver. Oh, okay, when is that? That's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in October, gotcha, I think it's right around the 8th, 9th or 10th somewhere around there.

Mike 12:01

Okay, okay, we're glad you're getting around there. Okay, yeah, well, glad you're getting out to another one.

Kevin Hedrich 12:05

Yeah, I mean Seattle, Vancouver and hopefully Heritage Con yearly are kind of the only ones we've been able to get to so far, but I really would like to go to the Nationals next year.

Kentucky Dave 12:19

Well, the Nationals are very close to us next year. So, yeah, we're going to be in Virginia or Hampton this year and then next year it's up in what is it? Fort Wayne, fort Wayne, indiana, yeah, fort Wayne Indiana. So that's super close to us. So, yeah, you'll have to come down. We'll have a good time Excellent.

Mike 12:41

That sounds like a plan. Well, kevin, to wrap this up, why don't you tell folks where they can find Kitmas and then explain a little bit how you got a family operation going on there, because your website's really nice. I'd like to know who's helped you out with that, and then we'll let you go.

Kevin Hedrich 12:54

So the website has been done. Everything has been done by my wife, Janelle. She is very talented. She's a stickler for detail, she loves talking to all our customers and she makes sure that everybody is looked after and responded to right away. So you can thank her for that and you can find us at kitmaskcom, K-I-T-M-A-S-K. And for everybody listening, there is a discount code that you can apply to get a 15% discount and the code is MOJO15, M-O-J-O 15.

Kentucky Dave 13:34

Well, I will say, having met your lovely bride at HeritageCon, she is definitely an asset to your operation. She was absolutely the star of the show, talking to pretty much everybody who was there. It was amazing. She has a real great personality.

Kevin Hedrich 13:55

Yeah, she's awesome. I mean I lucked out there. I was punching way above my weight class.

Kentucky Dave 14:00

There you go. You only got to get lucky once man. Yeah, that's right.

Mike 14:05

Well, Kevin, we are really thrilled to be working with you folks on the sponsorship side of things Likewise, and look forward to the next time we see you at a show. I assume it's probably going to be Heritage Con next year, so a lot of water under the bridge before we get there, but we hope it works out. But I'm sure we'll be in touch fairly regularly. Until then. Folks check them out. Kevin and Janelle are great. They have a great business and it's really going to help you out having some kit masks for those kits you didn't think you could find one for.

Missing AMPS and Future Plans

Kevin Hedrich 14:31

It was great talking to you guys again and, like I said, we're definitely going to try to make Heritage Con next year and we do have some loose plans in the works to visit more model shows as time allows.

Mike 14:42

All right, loose plans in the works to visit more model shows, as as time allows. Good, all right, we'll talk to you next time, kevin.

Kevin Hedrich 14:47

Take it easy you betcha, you guys have a great weekend, thank you.

Mike 14:55

You too, dave. It's going to be fun handing out the new swag from kit mass and plastic model mojo and looking forward to our next opportunity to do that, because unfortunately it wasn't an AMPS this week.

Kentucky Dave 15:06

Yes, our consolation prize for not being at AMPS is sitting here tonight recording. Yeah not great, but life happens. You know, you and I both are still employed, still working. We got teenage kids and sometimes life comes first.

Mike 15:28

Life comes first and work comes first and all that stuff. So you know, like I told you in private earlier, just keep in mind the money we're saving.

Kentucky Dave 15:39

Yes, that's right, although I am going to go out and buy a lottery ticket tomorrow and if I hit it, this all changes. You and I are retiring.

Mike 15:51

Oh, thanks for including me.

Kentucky Dave 15:52

Glad to help.

Mike 15:54

You're going to be my driver. Okay, that's fine, as long as you meet my salary demands.

Kentucky Dave 15:59

The salary is going to be awesome.

Mike 16:01

And I can wear flip flops.

Kentucky Dave 16:03

Yeah, absolutely.

Working with Customer Requests

Mike 16:05

Absolutely Well, folks, we've talked to a lot of you leading up to Amps and it went right up to the bloody end and even when we recorded the last episode we had in our minds, we were still gone. It just kind of all hit the fan.

Kentucky Dave 16:18

Fate is a B word.

Mike 16:21

That's right, it is.

Kentucky Dave 16:22

And we didn't know what was, or at least I didn't know what was waiting for me at work, and work's got to come first, as much as I wish it didn't Well, and the apple basket got even more sour.

Mike 16:36

on my end. So it wasn't meant to be, I guess. But we got plans. We'll figure something out. We'll be out in front of folks again before too long, we hope.

Kentucky Dave 16:44

Yeah, you and I have already discussed a little bit of planning.

Mike 16:48

Yeah, we'll see how that works out. Maybe we don't talk about it too much. No, that's right. Don't jinx. It Carved in stone, that's right. Well, I hope everybody's having fun either getting to AMPS or coming home when you listen to this or while you're there and send us lots of pictures on the dojo.

Kentucky Dave 17:05

Yes, absolutely, and we're sorry we're not getting to see all those great models, all those great vendors and, most of all, all our great friends.

Mike 17:14

So, folks, in the meantime, check out Kitmas If you build aircraft, primarily a real time saver.

Kentucky Dave 17:20

Yes, it is, wouldn't build without them.

Mike 17:23

Well, Dave, until episode 141,. I guess I'll talk to you later. Man, you got it. Bye.