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
Floods, Crashes, and Models Unscathed: Bruce McRae's Epic Journey
A journey that could only be described as a country song come to life. Professional modeler Bruce McRae returns to share his unbelievable cross-country expedition to four scale modeling competitions – a trip marked by disasters that would have sent most people packing for home.
What began as an ambitious nine-week journey across America turned catastrophic when Bruce and his wife woke to find their campsite in Louisiana rapidly flooding in the early morning darkness. With water rising to waist level, they evacuated with their two golden retrievers, only to discover their vehicle disabled and their trailer ruined. Most would have called it quits, but Bruce's models had miraculously survived dry in their elevated containers, and the competitions beckoned.
Renting a replacement vehicle at considerable expense, Bruce continued to Florida's Armorgeddon show, showcasing both armor and figure modeling. He highlights the benefits of open judging systems that provide detailed feedback to every entrant, allowing modelers to understand their strengths and weaknesses – a stark contrast to traditional competitions where non-winners leave with no insight on how to improve.
The most remarkable aspect of Bruce's tale isn't just his perseverance after a second disaster – when a van ran a red light in Albuquerque and destroyed their rental vehicle – but his unwavering passion for the hobby community. His reflections on different show formats provide valuable insights for competition entrants.
Bruce's extraordinary determination reunited him with friends at each show and allowed him to share his exceptional modeling work despite overwhelming obstacles. His story reminds us that sometimes the greatest modeling adventures happen far from the workbench, and that the true spirit of this hobby lies in the connections we forge and the challenges we overcome together.
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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:Mojovia. Welcome to episode 145 of Plastic Model. Mojo Dave, how are you doing?
Kentucky Dave:I'm doing okay. Well, again, how can we be doing bad if we're on the way to the nationals? And by the time people are listening to this, we should be on our way to the nationals.
Mike:And it doesn't get better than that. No, what's up in your model sphere?
Kentucky Dave:Well, the model sphere's been hectic and scattered. As I mentioned last time. We've had some family stuff that has taken a lot of time. Then my wife had to travel, unfortunately, for a funeral for a cousin. Then her birthday was yesterday and we had a nice party with friends and neighbors and unfortunately you weren't able to come, but I understand that, given you're moving two college kids this weekend. But I have been. I mean, I've been getting model-related stuff going. I've been packing for the Nationals, which I've got to tell you and maybe we'll do this as a shop talk or something. Packing for the Nationals has now actually become a thing. Used to be back when I was headed to the Nationals the night before I'd open up a suitcase, I'd throw some stuff in there.
Mike:There was socks and underwear.
Kentucky Dave:Right socks, underwear and a couple of convention t-shirts and I was off to the races. It's actually become a thing that, okay, I gotta remember this, I gotta take this for this guy, I've gotta yeah.
Mike:I mean, it's really been become a thing so you know we were probably gonna go out, at least one. We'll go out for dinner virtually every night oh yeah, um, but usually we end up, especially with the minnesota twins. Yeah, uh, we end up, uh, especially with the the Minnesota twins. Uh, we end up going probably one place, it's, you know, nicer than the others.
Kentucky Dave:I won't say something that you don't wear. Want to wear shorts and a t-shirt?
Mike:shorts in your uh Canada IPMS t-shirt.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, the sweating beaver t-shirt, yes, which I am bringing again. I mean, even if we have fewer Canadians at this year's nationals, I'm still going to be representing IPMS Canada.
Mike:You need to get the logo and print a new one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, they actually reissued it.
Mike:You can buy them now. You can buy them again. You need to retire that one.
Kentucky Dave:But I've got an original that still fits me from 1986. Have you seen that insurance commercial where the guy tells his daughter. He bought all these clothes when he was in boot camp. Yes, boot camp, that's it. That's me, man. Is that how that shirt's fitting? No, it actually still fits pretty well.
Mike:All right, just kidding you, man.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I know. So what's your model sphere been?
Mike:like Same kind of thing Gathering our wares, all our gear to have at the table. Making sure we've got fresh batteries and everything. Making sure the rechargeable stuff's recharged. Make sure I have the rechargers, all the cables.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, I've got to remember my microphone.
Mike:All the mic stands, the microphone. We really should just buy another one so we don't have to have that issue anymore.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I know. Well, I haven't screwed that up so far.
Mike:No, you haven't.
Kentucky Dave:So, but it'll happen some point.
Mike:Well, you can pack it after the after tonight. Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do Take it down and pack it up.
Mike:Yep, yeah, I'm just getting all that stuff together. Make sure the swag we've got on hand is packed, just stuff like that. And another thing I've been working on is at some point between we were, we did a video going through st louis. So it's when we're going to omaha sometimes. Since that national convention, facebook changed something that you cannot facebook live in landscape format and we haven't been able to do it because you put the phone on the stand in the car and if it it's in portrait format it's not wide enough to see both Right.
Mike:I found a hack for that. Oh good, I've got an app that runs above all the other apps on the phone and forces everything you turn that sucker on and landscape is the only thing it'll do.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:And I've tested it. It looks like it's going to work. It's the only thing it'll do. Yeah, and I've tested it. It looks like it's going to work. Folks, you may see a short test video early this week tomorrow or Monday me driving around town or something, giving this thing a test drive to make sure it works. But if it does keep your phone close during your travel journeys, you might see Mike and Kentucky Dave in the front seat of the car.
Kentucky Dave:I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to that. I have actually commiserated with several listeners on Facebook about different things Facebook has been doing that they do without notice and seemingly for no sensible reason. And then you've got to like that AI chat bot.
Mike:It's all sensible for them.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, exactly. Or well, the thing in the dojo where every once in a while it'll mark a member's post, a potential spam, and it's like there's no rhyme or reason for this. Why are you doing this? So there's a fix we go in and we whitelist people so that that doesn't happen. But it's a pain in the butt. Come on, Facebook, get it together.
Mike:Well, hopefully we'll be able to do this again, because I always enjoyed those.
Kentucky Dave:Those were fun.
Mike:It's fun. So that's my model sphere trying to get everything ready to go. Man, trying to get ready to have you roll up sometime before 6 am.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, I'm going to be there.
Mike:Wednesday morning, because it's ass and seat at 6 am baby.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, that's right.
Mike:And we're rolling out.
Kentucky Dave:Well, Mike, since we're recording, I'm assuming you've got a modeling fluid.
Mike:I do Dave.
Kentucky Dave:What do you have?
Mike:It's Russell's Reserve, 10-year, but unfortunately it's a bottle I thought I was buying to take to Nationals. It hasn. It's a bottle I thought I was buying to take to nationals, so it hasn't survived the weekend. Oh no, so I'll bring what's left. I was going to go get something else anyway, yeah. Yeah, I just was winding down last night. Like you mentioned earlier, my wife and I have moved my two sons to their respective new accommodations here in town for the start of the next college year, and man, I'm beat like a dirty rug.
Kentucky Dave:You're not as young as you used to be. That furniture moving in your 20s was a whole lot easier wasn't it?
Mike:Well, yeah, it was Well. Part of that was because IBM and Lexmark paid a local mover to move me all the time. Nice that was kind of nice. Because IBM and Lexmart paid a local mover to move me all the time. Nice, that was kind of nice, but yeah, I tapped into this and, I don't know, by the end of the weekend it's going to be down quite a bit. I'm going to have to get another one of these, and one more, to have with us on the trip.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, we'll probably have some modeling fluid while we're in Hampton.
Mike:What about you? What do you got?
Kentucky Dave:Well, I have Texas's favorite soft drink, Dr Pepper. There's a reason for this.
Mike:Are you constipated? What? No, yeah, I swear that natural ingredient they have on there is prune juice. I swear it is.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, if you heat it up it tastes like warm prune juice. But again, there's a reason for this. It has nothing to do with my colon. We got the Nats coming up, the Minnesota Twins are coming in, we're going to see plenty of our listeners and so, kind of to rest and recuperate prior to the Nationals, I thought tonight, instead of a modeling fluid, I'm going to have a soft drink. Take it easy on Mr Liver, let him kind of get ready so that when we get to the Nationals we will be able to enjoy whatever modeling fluids are available at the Nats. So here's a Dr Pepper. It is also the drink that you and I take on the road when we travel.
Mike:Yeah, it is.
Kentucky Dave:That's one of the reasons I have it is because we're going to have these. I bought a bunch of them, so we're going to have them for the road.
Mike:Enjoy it, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:I will.
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Mike:Well, dave, we had modeler Bruce McRae back for another interview and some storytelling, just in time for folks' journey to the IPMS National Convention.
Kentucky Dave:This could not be a more relevant interview for folks who are listening to this episode as you travel to the Nationals. It was a fun interview. It was a great story, even though at the time, Bruce probably wasn't enjoying it while things were happening to him. But it's a good story. We got to talk to him not only about his misadventures, but also about the shows that he attended. It was a really good time.
Mike:Everyone out there who's had a TSA incident, a minor accident on the way to a model show, had to have something canceled because of weather or whatever this Bud's for you show had to have something canceled because of weather or whatever this Bud's for you. Well, dave, it's been a minute since we've had tonight's guest on. I was looking back. It's been a year and a month since we've had our favorite professional modeler retired, mr Bruce McRae on the show. Bruce, how are you doing?
Bruce MacRae:I'm doing fine, just nice. It's always hoops we get to jump through to make this thing connect.
Mike:You know well, our good friend John Miller, dr Strangebrush, has similar problems, and so we keep this backup plan B up our sleeve for such events, because sometimes it's just easier to cut to the other one, the other option and hopefully it works out.
Mike:And it and it worked out again. It was easy, anybody could do it. Well, bruce, we had a, had John before and we talked a lot about your career and your, your start in the hobby, and then last year well, that's how we met you. Actually, you were on your, one of your whirlwind model show tours.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, yeah.
Mike:That's all great and grand, and you've done it again this year, yes, and this year we're just going to leave with that and we'll talk about some other stuff later. But I tell you what, man, when you sent me that email, I'm not sure Merle Haggard could have written a better song. You talk about reading like a country song.
Kentucky Dave:All you needed was a steel guitar.
Mike:And a dog. Yeah, dog and a dog. Oh, add dogs. There's dogs in the snow. That's right, two golden. Good man, we've got a golden.
Bruce MacRae:Oh got that, we got that in common.
Mike:you're of the body, then we are. Well, listen, you know, dave and I've both had model show mishaps. I've had stuff broken in transit. Dave was involved in a minor car accident once and some stuff got damaged. We've got a host of friends in our podcast friend circle. We've all had TSA issues traveling to international shows via even domestic shows via aircraft. But I tell you, I've never heard anything quite like the story you emailed me about, and the fact that you even finished the mission was pretty amazing. So for the folks who are we're going to drop this, like right before everybody starts traveling to the IPMS, yeah, I was good.
Mike:So this is going to be some good entertainment, hopefully for those folks who folks trying to figure out what they're going to do for the next seven hours.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, this is also not a challenge for somebody to up me. Let's this one be the worst, okay.
Mike:I hope it's all downhill for you, but let's start with what the initial plan was, and then you just go.
Bruce MacRae:Well, like the initial plan kind of like combat initial plan goes to hell as soon as you meet the enemy.
Mike:Yes.
Bruce MacRae:And kind of what happened here. We had a nine-week trip planned. We were going to hit four model shows, let's see. One was in Pennsylvania, that'd be the Amps Nationals, Florida. There was a dual Amps and a figure show, and one in Texas, model Mania, and the last one was in Ohio. So the plot was we'll hit those shows, we finish in Ohio, which is about four weeks, and then we will go to the East Coast and see some of the museums and battlefields, like New York and down to Tennessee. And I even wanted to stop and see the what's the museum, the Smithsonian that has the aircraft.
Kentucky Dave:Udvar-Hazy.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, I wanted to see that again because they finished building the Heinkel 219. Yes, I've always loved that model.
Kentucky Dave:I got to loved that model. I got to see that as it was being restored.
Bruce MacRae:Me too. Yeah, about 17,. I saw that, and now it's all there. Also, I wanted to visit my model displays that are in the Smithsonian and the Aerospace Museum again. Never hurts to look at those.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:Make sure they're taken care of.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, yeah, they're taken care of. Yeah, yeah, they're kind of high up, you can't really touch them. So that was the plan. Okay, nine days into the trip. Now, where did you start from? Oh, from Las Vegas. In what, and with who? With the wife, my two golden retrievers, the Baron and Nimrodel, and we have a SUV that's big enough for all of us. In the back seat, in three tubs, are my models very carefully packed I'm really a master at packing for shows. Now, and then we had our trailer, which is we will use campsites, sure and camp and do that Gotcha. So, leaving from Vegas, heading, I think, around the 10 for the most of it no, I'm sorry, the 40. And we get into Louisiana. We parked the camper at a campsite and we unhitched, and then the next day we went into town and kind of looked around. There was a really cool air museum there, kind of one of those little private ones.
Bruce MacRae:So, it had all kinds of interesting stuff stuffed into corners and kind of one of those dusty ones.
Kentucky Dave:I have to interrupt and ask you For campers, just a classic fifth wheel or no, no, it's sort of one step down.
Bruce MacRae:It's got one axle, two wheels and the front and back fold out for your, for these, for the, for the beds.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, okay, Kind of like a teardrop or a one of those mini campers.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah yeah, it's big enough you can stand and walk around. It's a little tight, especially with two Goldens, and one side the front side opens down and makes beds and that's for the kids and the other side is for us and there's a little dining room table which I can set up a computer and we can read and chat and eat Gotcha. So we anyway. The thing is that this was a Wednesday and it was raining on and off all day and at one point really really hard, hard enough where you pull over because you can't see a thing. In fact, when I was coming back to the car from lunch, I started to get into the wrong car. Our vehicle's white. There are no other white vehicles, right yeah. And it was starting to rain hard and I went to the first white car and opened the door. I'm so glad there's nobody in it, but I'm like this isn't my oh crap. Close the door. Oh, there's my car. I ran over there Meanwhile. I'm becoming soaked. So anyway, we get back. We stopped at a hobby shop.
Bruce MacRae:That was kind of fun and we got back a little later than we intended, and of course I like to hook up the trailer when we get back and drive out first thing in the morning. Well, it was getting dark and we were both tired, so I said we'll just do it in the morning. That was the first mistake. It rained hard all night, thunder, lightning to points where the vehicle shook and wakes you up. I didn't get a lot of sleep, 5.30 in the morning, finally asleep.
Bruce MacRae:My wife wakes me up and says Bruce, get dressed now. And there was an urgency in her voice. Okay, up I come. What's going on? Look out the window. It is pitch black out there, except for just a few lights on some of the buildings in the distance, and it was reflecting water. What the hell? There's water out. Wait a minute. There was no water. We're in a lake, holy mackerel. I can see what the land rises out in the distance.
Bruce MacRae:And so I said, okay, yeah, let's get dressed. We gotta figure out what's going on here. And when she noticed the water had just come up to the folded down steps, by the time I got my pants and shoes on, I noticed there's water on the floor and shoes on, I noticed there's water on the floor by the time I got my shoes tied. The mats on the floor are floating. We got about two inches of water now and we were like, okay, we have a problem. So we got our leashes on our kids and our harnesses, we grabbed our backpacks, we moved anything low up high and at that point the water is now ankle deep in the trailer within really a couple minutes. And so I was like, yeah, I guess I better get out of here, because you know who knows how deep this is going to get or if the trailer might roll over right or float away and, like a jelly sandwich, it always lands face down right Pretty much.
Bruce MacRae:Like the door. Yeah, so we open the door and water flowed in. Now it's about shin deep and I goes. Well, I hate soggy, wet shoes, but well, we're already there, so what the hell? So the kids jumped out. Oh boy, we can swim. It's a swimming pool.
Kentucky Dave:Hey, Goldens right, they thought it was an adventure.
Bruce MacRae:This is fun, yeah, hey, great, let's do this every day. So wife steps out and she's waist deep. I step out it's about high thigh on me and of course it's still raining. So we sort of carefully plod our way towards the higher ground, which is about 100 yards away, and we get to the shore and your head's just swimming with. What the hell Will my car work? What's going on? Are my models safe? And we get to the high ground, which is, of course, where the ranger cabin was on the high ground. Hmm, smart man.
Bruce MacRae:Anyway, it's now 6 am, it's still dark and I'm looking at my vehicle in a swimming—it's like a swimming pool. The fortunate thing is the water didn't rush in like a tidal wave which would have probably moved the trailer or even knocked it over. It just filled it up like a bathtub. And as I looked at it, the water was already up to the, just starting to go over the hubcaps of the car. And as time went on to the next hour, the tires of the car were totally covered.
Bruce MacRae:And yeah, that was a special day and the horse was sopping wet. Dogs don't seem to care, and you know. So. Now it's about 10 o'clock, the rain stops and it appears the water is receding slowly. And anyway, what happened was Marzen has contacts from the SCA in Florida and contacted a friend named Carrie, and she contacted other people and we eventually found somebody where we were staying in Louisiana or swimming and they managed to come, get us and the dogs and take us back to their place so at least we could dry off. And about 4 o'clock they drove us back over there where the water had recessed to about 12 inches deep and we were saying can we move our car? And the car was stone cold dead.
Mike:I imagine the water that high.
Bruce MacRae:Not even that. You know, no, nothing. One of those electric cars I mean not an electric car, but there's too many electronics in our cars, now, right, and so we folded up the trailer and we moved stuff out, starting with my models which were not in the water. The water did enter the car, but up to just below the seats, and my models were in tubs on top of the back seat, so they were dry. The also funny, fun part was you've probably heard of Mike McFadden.
Mike:Yep.
Bruce MacRae:And Mike had said Bruce, could you take for me my beautiful scratch-built German flagship to Texas, where I will meet you, and then I don't have to worry about transporting it there. And I says I can do that. Yeah, it was in the car. I was like, oh great.
Kentucky Dave:I know that model.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, yes, I says well, at least it's a ship. You know, I probably could have pushed out and pushed it across the lake. No, no, no, no, no, I didn't do that. So anyway, all the models were fine, we pulled them out and that's just sort of cut the story. At the end of this, about 10 o'clock at night, a tow truck showed up with our car. They towed it out and the trailer showed up with our car. They towed it out and the trailer, the car. Now we deal with the insurance and I have a show in two days in Florida. My wife manages, with these same friends, to get me and my models to the show, spend the night there and then shuttle me back while Marsden worked out the insurance. I did very well at the show, yay.
Mike:That would be no doubt. Mike McFadden probably thought he was playing it safe sitting with you.
Bruce MacRae:Oh yeah, oh yeah, because you know PSA, you know they love to trash your models. Right, you don't have to worry about it. Yeah, so, by the way, I didn't tell him what had happened because I know he would worry, though I know his model was fine, and so, once we were able sorry, they totaled the car, they totaled the trailer.
Mike:I'm sure.
Bruce MacRae:It took. It was an enormous amount of effort to get them to rent us a car big enough for us, the dogs, the models and whatever we could salvage out of our trailer. We did eventually get one and packed it to the gills. I mean you couldn't have gotten a shoehorn in there, but it was enough room for everything, and we were able then to drive to Texas at the model mania show.
Kentucky Dave:At this point you didn't just call it a day and go back home. You decided we're going to persevere.
Bruce MacRae:Well, yeah, and really what happened was we went, what do we do? And I said, look, we're already here, you know, and we're on the right side of the country to hit the shows. And I hate to go home going. Well, see dead car, dead trailer, no show. Yeah, no. I said well, let's see dead car, dead trailer, no show, yeah, no. I said well, let's do the shows. And then we saw the $3,000 rental for the car. That pretty much eliminates the second half of our trip. So if we do the show, the amount we would have spent on the second half of the trip would be equal to basically what the rental was. So it'll still cost about the same.
Bruce MacRae:By the way, I had a friend tell me it might have been Mike and he says that shit, mcrae, you ended up a flood, fire, car crashes, I'll get to that next. And you still go to the show. Nothing can stop you. He says that's about right. So I met Mike. We had a great day the day before, going to hobby shops and his bottle was safe and I gave him the whole story. He blanched and turned pale, but he saw his bottle was OK. I was afraid to open it, I didn't want to look inside and we had a great time at the show. I'll tell you about the Mania later. That's a very interesting show, and so we did our shows. I did the Nationals. I was disappointed you guys weren't there, so were we? Yeah, yeah, where are these? Oh damn, what is it?
Kentucky Dave:Amps is a great show. The Amps Nationals is just wonderful. It was a wonderful show, Absolutely.
Bruce MacRae:I've got stuff about that for you later. So anyway, we did the shows. I did Ohio. Ohio was magnificent, Funny stuff there. And we're on our way home and we're taking pretty much a direct route out. Now you both have grown up with Bugs Bunny and you remember his famous quote I should have turned left at Albuquerque. Bugs was right, we should have turned left at Albuquerque. We had stopped in the morning at Albuquerque at the Costco to get gas. We got a hot dog lunch. We came out. We were at the red light. We went into the light. Go green, Goes green. We make a right-hand turn. As we get just into our turn smash. A car crashes into us, Plastic flying everywhere. It was a van. He ran the red light. I thought they only did that in Vegas.
Mike:Apparently not. They do it in Kentucky too.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I guess the guys who do it in kentucky are usually uninsured and their licenses have been suspended oh good, I'll remember that.
Bruce MacRae:So it turns out the guy hits us and he he hit the, the front driver quarter from like the front wheel up and destroyed it. It was just pieces all over the place and the vehicle could not move. I'm like, great, this is nice. Now what? His car, his van, had a nice dent in it. I wish it was bigger, but his car was drivable. And I heard him talking to his boss saying oh, these people hit my car. How did we hit your car when you came from behind us? How does that work out? Anyway, what was fun with that is we had to deal with getting a hold of the rental company and then the cars total. So we got to get a vehicle to take it away. We have to empty the vehicle. I remember with everything we had in there.
Mike:Probably, at this point, more than you've left with.
Bruce MacRae:Oh yes, there was like 500, I'm sorry, five carts I filled from the parking lot just to get our stuff out, plus our dogs, plus my models, plus me, and then Marzen took Uber to go to find us another vehicle. Five hours later she showed up. You know, by the way, that time of year sitting in Costco parking lot it's very hot and there's not much shade, so that was special. Anyway, we get the car back and we get another car, get everything in it and the next morning we have four hours at the police station to file their police report and then we can go home. I just couldn't wait to get home before somebody hits this car. So that was that. I hope nobody can beat that story. That was a pretty lousy trip. That was not good hope nobody can beat that story.
Kentucky Dave:That was a pretty lousy trip. That was not good.
Mike:Well, I tell you that's not the only thing hard to beat. I tell you something else that's hard to beat is the patience and perseverance of your wife.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, you are clearly married to an angel.
Bruce MacRae:Clearly. Yes, I don't know how I could have dealt with it, but I'm just sort of the artist guy in the family, but she's the tough one and she got us together online here. I couldn't have done that. Yeah, well, throw that in too, but you know, there was ample opportunities for a. We're going home, bruce. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yes, definitely.
Kentucky Dave:Definitely. Hey, Mike, when you go to rent the car for the Nats, look for a picture. Do not rent to this man A picture of Bruce. I bet you that's in every rental car counter in the country.
Bruce MacRae:Well, you know it was funny is that when we were dealing with the next car from the same company, they were trying to tell us oh, you didn't want the collision insurance, baloney. We didn't. Of course we did. They were playing some interesting. Then they said oh, you rented a Lincoln. No, we didn't, we had a USV. I mean, it's totally different. They even had the serial number of the license plates wrong. What are you guys doing? Luckily, I had a photo of our license plates. No, no, this is the car we had. You rented it to us, so it was just fun, fun, fun.
Kentucky Dave:Well, the last car Mike rented didn't have a license plate. Yeah, we got one without it.
Mike:Well, no, we got one with the temporary plate, yes, and by the time we got to San Marco, texas, it had blown off.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, that happened to us too. Yeah, oh, by the way, that vehicle was seven months old, yeah.
Mike:Didn't live very long, did it.
Bruce MacRae:No, it didn't. No, it didn't, it certainly did well, oh, by the way, no model was damaged.
Kentucky Dave:That's amazing, that's great, that is amazing, it was amazing.
Mike:Most of those don't survive too many car crashes.
Kentucky Dave:I was going to say you need to do a seminar on how to pack your models for transport. I could do that. If on how to pack your models for transport, I could do that. If you manage to survive both a flood and an auto accident, you know what you're doing.
Bruce MacRae:Well, you know, the funny part is with the flood is I had them in those clear plastic bins. They're kind of large and I can put like two Xerox boxes inside and if the water had come up it would have had to come up, like well, over the top of the window because you know they were closed, sealed, and if anything they would have been floating inside. So they were pretty good. The only thing I did do is to get extra room. I bungeed two Xerox boxes to the top of the bins. Now, those would have gotten wet.
Kentucky Dave:You didn't have any hassle with your insurance company getting your claims paid.
Bruce MacRae:No, no, we didn't, In fact, just to cut back. We also got pretty much all of our money from the campsites we couldn't go to. We got refunded and there was one that told us that well, we're going to have to cancel the campsite because we've been flooded. That would have been bad. Yeah, I imagine, but it was a different campsite and it was like weeks later.
Mike:Well, glad to hear you survived all that.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I take it nobody was injured in the accident.
Bruce MacRae:No, no, that's right, because we weren't hit that hard. But gee, cars are made of plastic, so there's just crap flies everywhere.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:I was glad he didn't hit us directly from behind, because the dogs were back there. Yeah, I was glad he didn't hit us directly from behind because the dogs were back there, yeah. And he might not have survived me if he had hurt my dogs.
Mike:I can certainly appreciate that.
Kentucky Dave:I'm sure they just thought it was a grand adventure, oh yeah.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, they didn't think the parking lot got boring after an hour.
Mike:Yeah, Well, let's talk about some of these shows.
Bruce MacRae:Definitely. Let me talk first about the Texas show, Model Mania. It was a nice big show. It was just south of Houston.
Kentucky Dave:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, now, I can't think of the name of the town Houston, but it was just south of Houston. Yeah, now I can't think of the name of the town Houston, but it was just south of Houston. Yeah, okay, and some sub-suburb. It was a nice built, nice big place. It was like a convention hall. There was tons of parking, the table, the room between the tables was nice and they had I counted about 500 models there.
Kentucky Dave:Nice.
Bruce MacRae:And they said, at the time when I asked them, they had about 190 people entering and there were still more coming in. This is an IPMS show and what they did was they did an open system.
Mike:Yeah, that's getting more popular.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, it is. And so Mike and I, since we were together, we judged together, we did armor, we did about half of the armor. The other side of the table was another team and what they did is they gave you a score sheet that was with each end entry, and we would fill those out and they would stay with the entry. So the entrant would come back and could see oh, I got this score and these are the notes that they liked and these are the notes that I need to improve on. And it was kind of cool and a perfect score would be a 21. And what made it really nice was when you're dealing with best of category, best ship, best tank, best plane, you just start looking at the highest scores. So we say, are there any 21s here? No, any 20s, I have three of them. Okay, which one? Now we judge? Those Makes it easy, and if there's only one with the highest score, like a 21, bingo, it's real easy, right, I mean. So it takes really no time at all so what's was this?
Kentucky Dave:your first time at this show? Oh yeah oh yes.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, not my first time at texas, but first time at that show now was the first time they'd run this judging format.
Bruce MacRae:I think it is the only thing that they did, something that was kind of neat and then they kind of screwed up on it. They said that we will give you two bonus points. So 20 is a perfect score. But a bonus point would be, if it's like you went way over the top, the wow factor. You know he scratch built this whole thing out of a potato peel and it looks amazing. That would be wow factor, okay. The other was documentation. They say we want we will give you a point for documentation and they just want to see that you did some research on your model. And so Mike and I we did docs on all of our stuff and in fact he forgot his stuff so he had to type them out fresh.
Kentucky Dave:Apparently, from what we understand from our Australian friends, that's very common in Australia. Oh, is it?
Bruce MacRae:Okay, yes, I know Amstead is here.
Mike:Yes, they do. It's like a half point or something for that. It's a half point, yeah.
Bruce MacRae:So here's the part that they blew is that, as I was in the judging meeting with Mike, they're explaining how we're going to do things and here's the sheet. And I looked at the sheet going oh, I see a checkbox for did you get the wow factor point, but there's no checkbox for the documentations. What are you guys going to do about that? Oh well, just write docs and put a point if it gets it. So it wasn't a negative if you don't get it. It would be a bonus if you do. Well, it wasn't on it and we noticed that nobody put a doc point for anything. So I have people doing it and nobody got credit for it. Ah, sigh.
Mike:Well, I'm sure they'll amend that the next time.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, it just matters putting a little box there, you know.
Mike:It's amazing what slips through the cracks. I'm sure to someone's chagrin, the big challenge coin they had made for the Madison National Convention last year had Madison spelled wrong on it.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, did it really? Yeah, that's good, that's rich, that's rich, I like that, I like that. So let's see. Oh, by the way, the show. They put out coins first, second, third place gold, silver, bronze for the models and they put them out. They had a guy just dropping them out as he would go through before the award ceremony.
Mike:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:So basically, people got a chance to see what won.
Mike:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:Or how did I do, what beat me, or you know whatever. And that was nice because you could actually see it. They saved the best of awards for the ceremony, which took a whole half an hour.
Kentucky Dave:That shortens the awards ceremony up significantly. Oh, big time yeah.
Bruce MacRae:And I think this is better because people get to actually see rather than saying well, the Mustang took first place, which won, which won?
"The Voice of Bob" Bair:Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:You know, and Bob Bozo took first place. Who's that? I don't know. You don't have a chance. By the way, the diorama table was kind of nice. It was very long, it went halfway down the hall and they were able to put the dioramas instead of shoehorning them in against the wall. They were on the tables, you could be on either side to view them and they were all in a single file all the way down the length of the table.
Bruce MacRae:So it was really easy to look at them. Yeah, it was a bitch if because the tables are so long that if you want to see it on the other side and you're in the middle either direction get a long walk to get around the other side. Oh well, you know.
Mike:But well, at least you could get to it instead of being against the wall. Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:Against the wall, you can't see the back. Something that I've been doing now is many of my pieces I will put on a Lazy Susan. Okay, and I put a little sign that says rotate please, and it gives people permission to rotate and it's nice seeing them do it, especially judges going. Well, I don't have to pick your model up, I can rotate this and look at it.
Mike:That's an interesting idea.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, I think that might become popular.
Kentucky Dave:It might. I've seen that done before and, yeah, that makes great sense, oh it does Well since we've been doing the show spotlights to help promote these shows before they actually happen.
Mike:especially in the last year or so, there's been several going to this format and it seems to be pretty well received. What did you think, just at a high level? Did you think of this?
Bruce MacRae:I found that personal. I think that the open system is wonderful because it supports the model maker. It helps him, which isn't that why we're having shows. It kind of helps people learn and grow and improve their skills. Well, with our typical one, two, three system, is that if there's, you know, 20 models in the category and there's one, two, three, well, were you fourth place or 20th?
Mike:Right.
Bruce MacRae:And and why didn't you place? Well, they found something they didn't like about your piece and for the most part you'll never know. So you have no way the model maker of learning and improving what we were doing, as we've done with the amps too I've now judged at both at the last two nationals and a separate amps show now and you look over the model and the whole construction, finish and all, and you say, oh, the left wheel is slightly askew and what you'll write down is left wheel third, back, slightly askew. Knock you half a point. Okay, now the guy can go back and say, oh, he's right, look at that. Well, I need to do better. Or there's a little, you know, shiny glue bit showing, and this way the modeler can learn what he did right. But, just as important, he can look at the sheet and cause, at least at AM and Mike and I did it in the Mania show you write down something positive. So the guy knows hey, we love your weathering. Oh, okay, good, I did something right. This helps the modeler.
Kentucky Dave:Did you judge at the AMP show as well? Yes, I did. I was going to ask you to compare the Model mania judging experience to the amps, because they're both open systems right.
Bruce MacRae:But not all systems are equal, as this right other than the paperwork or the number break can be different. And for amps they have their style right and this one. They had a one to twenty points and it broke down in construction and finishing, weathering and some other stuff. I did save some of those sheets and the the. The difference is that at amps you have a two-hour shift and you get to sit down in a chair with a light and the models on a Lazy Susan. It doesn't get better than this.
Kentucky Dave:Right, it's not judged on the table. It's judged back in the judging room.
Bruce MacRae:And of course here we were. You know standing A-lane squatting. By the way, don't tell anybody, but I've often stole a folding chair and I drag it with me so I can sit in it and look at the model at eye level, and then I drag it down to the next model. Don't tell anybody that.
Mike:Fair enough, fair enough. What was the next stop in the model show adventure? The next stop?
Bruce MacRae:let's see. Oh well, let me. Actually. The first stop was Florida. Okay, we skipped one. We say, yeah, I took a straight straight to Texas, Florida. I was there on my own, I didn't know anybody when in Florida. Where in Florida? It was just above Pensacola, so in a place called Milton.
Kentucky Dave:Milton, yeah, I grew up in Pensacola in the summer.
Bruce MacRae:There you go.
Kentucky Dave:My sister's a University of West Florida grad. Ah, I know where Milton is.
Bruce MacRae:I was there last fall and finally got to see that naval museum there.
Kentucky Dave:Ah the best aviation museum I've ever been to it is?
Bruce MacRae:It certainly is.
Mike:Now I'm looking here. They call this the Blue Angel Model Fest. Does that ring a bell?
Bruce MacRae:No, this show was interesting. This was an Amps show.
Mike:Oh, an Amps show Okay.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, it was called Armageddon.
Mike:I was wondering if it won when we had featured before, but no.
Bruce MacRae:I don't think so. What they did it was a when COVID hit the Amps, people, you know, had to stop. And there was a second group there that was a model figure group and they were called the Panhandle Miniature Figure Society. Their shows were small. When they were able to come back, because COVID was canceled, finally they went hey, both their shows are small. Why don't we combine our shows in the same venue? Maybe we'll draw more people? Okay, sounds good. So they did so. Literally there were two different contests in the same venue that day.
Bruce MacRae:Interesting, so there was a miniature side and there was the amp side.
Kentucky Dave:And though it was thin, I think there were less than 100 pieces.
Bruce MacRae:Interesting. It helped. Having judged at AMS the year before at the Nationals, I had kind of a clue. But it is interesting that each set of four guys kind of has their own flavor of what they judge and how.
Bruce MacRae:For difficulty, how difficult was the build? So you could give a guy a whole point if this was like. You know, this was a tough model to make rather than a model that had three parts. That one's probably pretty easy. So he's probably not going to get it. And our table captain, he told us that just give everybody a point, the full one point for the difficulty of construction, because you know, guys still had to build the model and paint it and decal it and all that. So there's been some talk about changing that point or altering it in some way. Maybe make it a bonus point rather than if you don't get it you've lost 10 of your score right there. So yeah, so anyway, we went through the models and it was a small show, small vendors, but it was kind of nice because it was kind of cozy and tight. You know, you really got to chat with people and point and poke and look at stuff, and it was the first time in my life, I've ever taken a Best of Show and two People's Choice Awards.
Mike:Well, that's cool. Congratulations.
Bruce MacRae:How can you take two People's Choice? Because there were two different shows and I'm like, okay, I see yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, pensacola is heaven on earth, so yeah, anytime you have an excuse to visit there and get in a model show, that's fantastic.
Bruce MacRae:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. By the way, I'm not real keen about Louisiana anymore.
Mike:Yeah, stay upstate. Yeah, stay upstate. You know, stay upstate.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, stay upstate, you know, or at least just don't stop, just keep going across the 10 to get out the other side.
Kentucky Dave:Hey, at least when the rain started the gators didn't come. That would have made it much more adventurous.
Bruce MacRae:Well, you know, marzen told me much, much later, like on the way home, says you know we were fortunate there was no wildlife in the water as we were waiting to the high ground yeah, it's true but I have to say this I was so angry, so pissed and so full adrenaline that if, if, if some gator came by to take a chop, I would, I would have ripped him in half.
Mike:And a new pair of shoes. You are so dead.
Bruce MacRae:Do your jaws fold all the way back around the other side. Yeah yeah, they even didn't want any part of me. Our third show was the Amps.
Mike:Nationals. Well, hang on just a second, we'll get to that, but just a quick comment. So you went Louisiana to Florida, texas yes To Pennsylvania.
Bruce MacRae:Yes.
Mike:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:And we end up in Ohio.
Mike:Yeah, this isn't a circuit, folks. This is.
Bruce MacRae:Right, no, we tried.
Mike:This is a tennis match.
Bruce MacRae:It was a bit of a tennis match On the way. We had like a week and a half from Texas to Pennsylvania it doesn't take you that long to drive there so we had some battlegrounds and museums and, of course, hobby shops.
Mike:Oh sure, I mean.
Bruce MacRae:I looked up several of those.
Mike:With the days, with other things to fill up, it makes a lot more sense.
Bruce MacRae:Oh yeah, oh yeah, and a couple of train museums.
Mike:Okay, which ones?
Bruce MacRae:Oh, I knew you'd ask me that. I'm sorry I can't remember now.
Mike:Oh, that's fine, that's fine. Well, tell us what we missed at AMPS.
Bruce MacRae:Well, at AMPS. I like getting there a day early to kind of spot everything out and know where it is, so if by some chance I had the wrong information, I don't show up that morning going oh it's not here, what? So I always come a day early and also it gives me a chance to go through my stuff, make sure everything is good, nothing's broken. I had one thing that did happen. I have a diorama called Moo and it's a German, hanomag, and the crew has bailed and they're up against the wall looking nervous. They're on a road with kind of a hillside and there's a ruined abbey above them and they hear something and they're all like what the hell was that? And they're all nervous and there's where they can't see. Up above them is a cow, you know, and it's got a cord around his neck that he chewed out, so he's loose. And you know hello. And they heard a noise and they're all scared to death.
Bruce MacRae:A figure in the half track an officer is pointing up in the direction where the cow is, though he cannot see it. Well, the figure, because of the 40, which is very bumpy, of 2,000 miles of bumpy road. He was on a pin and he sort of jiggled loose so he kind of pivoted and one of his hands fell off. Now it's not a problem. When I got to the amps I remembered that. So I set the model up and I positioned. The hand is on a pin so I put it back in and it can pivot so it rests just right on the shoulder of the guy in front of him. It's kind of a tricky pose, but keeping it loose allows it to fit perfectly. And he's pointing.
Bruce MacRae:Well, what they do normally is when you enter your model at amps and this is unique to amps is that your model doesn't go onto the display room, it goes into a whole judging room, yep, and the models are stacked up in queue. Once they're judged and photographed, then they're taken out to the floor and displayed Right. Well, they told us, put the dioramas on the table, don't? Don't, we're not going to stack them up, because they're big and we'll probably come out and judge them there. That makes sense. Guess what they? They carry that. They carried all the dioramas in. Well, they put them on a nice little cart and the cart rolls and it's cushioned and it vibrates, but itates.
Bruce MacRae:And what happened was they took Mu in and it vibrated, the man out of position and, of course, the hand fell off. And a judge came to me later, like the next day or so and are you, bruce? Yes, mu, this is your diary. Yes, it is. I need to say something to you about this Now.
Bruce MacRae:I noticed just an hour before I met the guy, the figure was out of position and the hand was off. So I just put it all back and he says well, your diorama is magnificent, everything is great, the story direction, construction is beautiful. But it was getting knocked because this guy is pointing off into another direction, like what is this, what is this about? And his hand wasn't there, like and? And he thought about going.
Bruce MacRae:This kind of quality this model maker would never make this kind of mistake. I mean, it's impossible to think about that. Something's happened and I explained to him oh so what he does. He went back and he changed his score sheet where he had knocked me a point for the figure not lining up and he took that off. A couple of the judges didn't, but I still managed to get a gold out of it. The funny part was I read their criticisms. Two of them said well, the Hanamag wheels were towed in and so we took half a point off of that. Well, the Hanamags are all towed in. That's how they are, and it killed me to think these weren't aircraft judges. These are armored judges and they didn't know that.
Kentucky Dave:And that is the downside A of all judging. Yes, but particularly in that type of judging system you have, if there's something unusual on your model, you have to spell it out for them. Yeah, you have to spell it out for them. Yeah, you know, you get three guys who build modern armor and have never seen a Hanamag in their life.
Bruce MacRae:I think I had those three guys.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I mean that happens at all, shows, no matter the system, just because you're dealing with human beings, they can't know everything.
Bruce MacRae:Well, one of the judge sessions that I did there I did three sessions and we were all looking at a modern tank I don't remember what it was and one had a comment like well, I don't think this one had the thingamajiggy there and he says does anybody know about this? I don't know anything about it. And so we all realized none of us really know. Therefore, give the modeler the shadow of a doubt because he built it. He probably knows more than we do. So we would tend to lean that way and I thought that's a good way to go.
Mike:Well, generally it was a show, well attended and vendors were hopping and all that. We missed the whole thing, unfortunately.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, Vendors were very good. Of course, Squadron was there with a huge display. I'm sure, oh, Squadron did something else that was neat. They were passing out these little pins with their logo saying something like great job and they were placing them with some of the models. I got two of them, Sorry, three. Moo got one. Oh, somebody else fun, that happened there Steve Mussel of Value Gear. He had a display and when I came in I brought my nine-scale motorcycle sidecar and the dog. By the way, I brought my nine-scale motorcycle sidecar and the dog. By the way, I've called the dog Schnapps, so I tend to call the whole thing Schnapps now.
Mike:Okay, that was the one that was on IPMS Journal cover right. Yes, that was on the cover, the fell gendarme.
Bruce MacRae:Now, I hadn't seen this yet because I was on the road.
Mike:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:And Bob Lomazaro had told me that you know this is coming out. I was hoping it would show up in the mail before I left town but it did not. So when I get to the show, mike sorry, yeah, he gives me kind of a funny look and says come here, bruce. I says what is it? And he holds up the IFMS issue with my model on the cover and he holds up the ifms issue with with my model on the cover. Oh, there it is. Yeah, it's like, can I borrow that? Yeah, sure, here. So I went on corner read it like it was an excellent article. They got bob, got everything right on it and and mike said, hey, why don't you put it down next to your model on the table, you know? And so I did and that was kind of. So it was kind of fun to see the article, see the photos.
Mike:They all came out great, I was very, very impressed. It's an impressive piece because it's so large there was a dealer there.
Bruce MacRae:I did not buy any tank models. I know that's a sin, but I did see, thinking I wasn't going to buy any kits. And then there was a guy that had figure kits like DML and Tamiya and stuff and he was blowing them out for $2 each and so if you buy six they're $2 each. I went I can use this one and this one, and actually I found six that I can use, so I pulled those out. The show was. I think they said they had all over 600 entries, so I think this might have been more than last year's.
Mike:Okay, yeah, I don't remember what last year's was, but it was. It was in that area. It was in that area. It was a nice number of entries. So glad to hear that it was in that area. It was in that area. It was a nice number of entries. So glad to hear that.
Bruce MacRae:It was. The show ran smooth and on time. I did manage to go to a couple of the seminars. I did one with Rob Rives from Model Insanity.
Mike:Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:He did one on PhotoEdge Yep, how to solder it, and I learned so much from him. It was a great bit. And he had a display, marvelous display, of a dozen of his pieces, all armor, tons of photo etch, no paint, so you could see the work. I was so impressed with that.
Mike:He's phenomenal with the photo edits. He's renowned for it. I hate I missed that. Maybe he'll do it again at a future show.
Bruce MacRae:He could be talked into that. I learned a lot. Some of my fears of it went away. That's good. I took one also with the guy that was showing you how to use the extruded foam to make walls and bases.
Mike:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:And I took the class and I did what he showed me and I realized I much prefer the foams that I use, the rigid foam and the balsa foam especially. Okay, his stuff was too much work.
Mike:Foams you're using are made to do what you're doing to them.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly yeah and I marvel at, at, at how he can he, he can make them sing and dance the way he wants them to. But like, oh, it's a lot of work it's a lot.
Mike:It's a lot cheaper though oh it is.
Bruce MacRae:Oh god, it is so cheap. I can see why people use it and a lightweight lightweight yeah. Yeah, it was. A show went well and you know what was nice about it A little different than IPMS Because it's smaller. You get more of kind of a camaraderie with the people there.
Mike:Yes, yeah, that's something we took away from the South Bend show last year Exactly. It's much more of a fraternal kind of feel to it, just because everybody's kind of into the same thing, everybody speaks the same language, all the vendors are skewed in one direction. Primarily, and it's just the whole thing, is it's an armor show.
Kentucky Dave:The smaller size, it's more intimate in many ways. Yeah, it is, and that's not a criticism, it's just. I mean, the AMPS National is different from the IPMS National. They're two different experiences, both of them great. Both of them great, but they're two different experiences.
Mike:They're back in South Bend next year, so hopefully we can get our act together in 2026 and actually get to some model shows.
Kentucky Dave:We are going to be there, mike, come heck or high water yeah that's what we said this year.
Bruce MacRae:I'll tell you about water?
Mike:And high water at that, high water and stop me.
Bruce MacRae:One thing I thought was very interesting about the AMPS awards and I've been to enough IPS awards, but the AMPS it was interesting. The room could have been bigger because they're literally people standing lining the walls.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:A little short there, but what happened was you got a sense of everyone was excited for the people winning and they do give you all of your awards. At the time they put them all in a envelope with your papers and they handed it to you. Then they call out the best ofs and there was such a sense of everyone is sincerely happy for everyone else.
Mike:Well, that just adds to the whole fraternal feel, to the whole thing it did a lot Looking forward to the next time we can get to AMPS again. Oh yeah, well, after AMPS you had one more stop.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, we can get to AMPS again. Oh yeah, well, after AMPS you had one more stop. Yes, we went to Ohio, and that was the great name ModelCon. Where in Ohio? Oh, someplace I'd never heard of before, what part of the state Roughly center, just a little to the east, yeah, kind of above Columbus, I think.
Mike:IPMS website is saying Perrysburg.
Bruce MacRae:That's it, perrysburg. Yes, okay, thank you.
Mike:Yeah, that's not one I've been to. What did you say mid-state?
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, mid-state, just maybe about 10 o'clock from the center, and it was a nice little show. We were a little squeezed for space. Tables were quite full. I did have an interesting moment. I like to do all my paperwork in advance, so all I have to do is hand it in. I don't want to fill anything out. There's enough to do, and I've always feel a little pressed trying to put everything down, get everything right, because I always judge and that means I have to get the models entered on the table. I take my personal photographs, see what's for sale that I can't live without all in the three hours, and then judge, because once the judging is done, basically the show's over.
Bruce MacRae:And then talk to everyone I talk to. So what happens? As I'm entering, I put down a schnapps in the large military vehicle category, okay, and I'm getting stuff set up and the guy who's running the show says I'm going to have to ask you to move that into diorama, really. He says, yeah, well, you know it's, you know the base is, you know it's got, you know it's got a road and grass and leaves and ruts, and yeah, so we don't judge the base if we only judge the piece. And he says, well, your figure and the dog, they're looking off in a direction you know, like they're looking at something together. And he tells a story. Doesn't every figure on a model look somewhere that would be off the table? I mean really, anyway, I couldn't talk him out of it. It's his show, so I moved it. So it has to go in diorama.
Bruce MacRae:Against my Nazis, quit diorama. You can only take one award, so automatically one is going to lose. I'm like, oh, damn it. And it's like, okay, well, whatever. And I noticed there were no entries in large military vehicle. It was now empty. It took the only one that was in it. And so the head judge comes to me and says I'm going to have to ask you to move that. That is not a diorama that needs to go over here. I'd be happy to. So I'm. I'm a rate, luckily everything in pencil. I erased it, rewrote the numbers on dang. So something kind of weird happened is that when it it took first in this category but it did not schnapps, did not take best armor, it was a Sherman tank. It was beautifully done. When the awards happened, it took people's choice and best of show. Like how can I take best of show if it didn't take best military vehicle? I've never seen that.
Mike:I don't know, unless they're spreading the wealth. I don't know. But I tell you dioramas has been a category that is well. Well, my story is where was it? I think it was in charlotte, north carolina. I was at a show very early in my modeling life and I've got this tiger tank. I'd built the old school way to get a late version. You take the old tamiya kit and you kit bash it with the Nakimo late tiger, put the steel wheels on it, put the cast cupola on it and all that and make a late tiger. And I'd done one that was on the cover of one of the old Osprey books and it was just crew in the hatches rumbling down a road. But I'd put this little chicken with his wings spread and running out, trying to run out from under the front of the tank and not get run over right.
Bruce MacRae:Oh, sure, yeah.
Mike:Perfect. It was this little tiny detail, right, and I had not had it in dioramas, so they put it in dioramas and now it gets beat out. Now, mind you, I'm 17 years old, right, right? So it gets beat out by a troop of dwarves pushing a siege cannon Right, it's a fantasy diorama. That was beautiful. But you know, that's kind of where this, I would say it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Maybe it does, but it's where things kind of get gray and it's just inconsistent show to show sometimes.
Bruce MacRae:Well, when dioramas started this was back in the 70s I really kind of pushed that category because I liked doing them, and there was no diorama category, it was just other. And what happened was when diorama started to show up. Well, then it became a diorama. What is a diorama? And there were some that were, literally, if you, if you just poured dirt on top of a flat piece of wood and put the tank on it, that's a diorama. That's it. That doesn't tell the story. No, and there are people who are like that, nuts, for for it.
Bruce MacRae:And then we eventually evolved into a place where, well, we went, maybe we should need large and small diorama. So yours would have been a small diorama, or what they call a vignette. Yeah, so it doesn't compete against, you know, the invasion of Normandy with 6,000 figures. I mean that would be nuts, right? So then then then now there's this other feel of a vignette is I think this comes from the soldier people it's a scene that doesn't have a story. So you could have the typical three guys standing next to a tank, everybody looking off in a different direction. There's no story, but it's still a scene. And then they're calling those vignettes now, still a scene and then they're calling those vignettes now and therefore we're going to show the skill of the painting and the assembly, but there's no story.
Kentucky Dave:If you want to start a fight, go to the IPMS Nationals, go into the judging room when they're doing the judge's brief and ask for the definition of a diorama and then ask for clarity on out-of-the-box basic kit build oh my, yeah, or don't yeah, or don't yeah yeah, go to the bar and have a beer instead exactly no, no, no. Those have been. Those have been areas of contention for as long as there's been model contests.
Bruce MacRae:Mike, dave is right. What you do is it's like throwing a grenade in a room and leaving. That's right, yeah, and then watch them fight. Oh, yeah, yes, yeah, we've had some. The thing about competitions is that, as I've heard people go on about, well, you know, competition is not good. We should just all display things. No, we should compete. And I think, coming from my earliest IPMS days, I realized that competition pushes skills. They raise everyone's skill level. You know, hey, I did this good and you win. Well, I need to do something better next time, because Bob over here is going to do this and everyone's skill improves, kind of like what happens. Like aviation World War II. Look what competition did with that. In the 30s they still had biplanes and then they were in jet fighters at the end of the war. Right, I mean competition. So in that way I like to see the competition, but of course I like to also see people share their knowledge. Boy, how did I get off on that one?
Kentucky Dave:That's okay. So now has your wife forbidden you from traveling ever again? Oh no, you're now simply stuck at home and you're not going to any more model contests. There'll be no more driving cross-country, none of that right.
Mike:No, well, that's a good segue. What is in store for 2026?
Bruce MacRae:She loves to travel. We bought a new trailer. We got a lot of money back on that truck, and so we bought a new trailer, one that's a little bigger, which I might actually be able to work on a model in it.
Mike:Has it got pontoons?
Bruce MacRae:No, but we could probably attach them. I'm going to be sure that every time we by the way, that site that flooded, that half of the site flooded and that if we had camped on the other half, that was all above water.
Bruce MacRae:Oh well we still probably got hit by that car. But you know, probably, but you know it would have been our car then. But, um, but yeah, so no, no, she's like, oh, no, no, we're still traveling. She loves to travel and she's loves taking me to shows and I love going to them. Uh yo, that was a thing I wanted to mention. The mike had made not like dave, had made an interesting remark. I was listening to your show yesterday, number 144. Okay, you had said the internet is like drinking water from a fire hose yep you know, it just blasts all over you.
Bruce MacRae:And I said, yes, I laughed very good, I almost spit up my milk. Anyway, what was fun was that? And yet you think about that, and from the days before we had an internet, and we all remember that today I say, I'm working at my bench, what is the color of an American World War II canteen cup? The screw the cap, what is it? And I go to the computer, I type in that, I look it up, I look for photos. I get dozens and dozens of pictures of canteens where it looks like most of them are black plastic, with a few are aluminum, unpainted. Interesting. We couldn't do that 30 years ago.
Kentucky Dave:No.
Bruce MacRae:And also the fact that we can see other people's work and talk to model makers around the world and make new friends.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Bruce MacRae:And that is we couldn't do that without this.
Kentucky Dave:Oh yeah, I cannot imagine hopping in a time machine, going back to the late 80s, early 90s and telling my much younger modeler self that you're going to know and interact with modelers from Australia and England and Finland. Yeah, I mean not much interacting with Russia right now.
Bruce MacRae:At the moment, yeah, at the moment Finland.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, but it is. It is so completely different a world. It's almost not the same hobby in many respects.
Bruce MacRae:Yeah, and you know, as we've seen from well from our days before the empire of you know, pe and 3D printing and, of course, all the types of paint chemicals that we're using now that we didn't have back when, when it was only enamel done. But you've got to wonder what's it going to look like in the next 10 or 20 years? What will kits look like?
Mike:We're going to have to wait and find out, Bruce.
Bruce MacRae:Well, yeah, yeah. But you've seen how a model kit. I just picked up a kit from last year from Wichita. It was an old Revell, 1955. The long, pointy nose thing, experimental X3 stiletto, and I remember seeing it as a kid. The guy wanted 10 bucks, it was all theirs. I bought it just for nostalgia and I was looking at how simple the model is, how few parts. And then I've got one today, ather and 48 scale. I don't know what the company is come some company never heard of sort of s? U s t a something and the parts so many, full interior, 48 scale and the details are so crisp. And it just like you know in that time how we've gone with computers to be able to basically cut the tools instead of a guy by hand doing it Come a long way.
Mike:A long way. Well, do you have shows you got in mind next year? I do you coming back east again.
Bruce MacRae:I am, I am, I am, I am, I am looking at probably not going to do the amps this time next year, but I'm thinking about the nationals. Okay, cookies hit several, several shows and at the moment we're going to test out our new trailer a long way from water and we're going to go to a show in leavenworth, because that's kansas, yeah, yeah, and there's an ipima show there, and then we will slide down from there to, yes, another Amps show in Texas. I think it's Good, some Good Will, good All. It's a small town between Austin and Houston.
Mike:Okay.
Bruce MacRae:It's kind of a small place, but they've got an Amps show there and then we'll come back and as we return, October for me there will be four shows in four weekends, so we'll do those two. When I come home, I'm planning on going back to the AVG show in Antelope Valley, Lancaster. I think they call themselves the Desert Classic. I always like the AVG, their Antelope Valley group, and the last one will be I want to go back to the one in Arizona, Model Zona.
Mike:Model Zona. Yeah, we've got several friends that attend that one every year.
Bruce MacRae:So that's Mike's hometown. Okay, yep, I'm planning to hit those. The one little thing that I have just finished is one for my wife to hit those. The one little thing that I have just finished is one for my wife, if you remember 1975. Tamiya M3 US Half Track Great kid in its day, not so good today. Well, she grew up watching the Rat Patrol, as most of us did, so you made this one as a German vehicle?
Bruce MacRae:Yes, really, I guess. So yeah, well, the funny part is that we were married and we're watching the Rat Patrol and she said hey, there's one of those German half-tracks, I said, no, no, honey, that's an American half-track.
Bruce MacRae:No, no, this is a German half-track. It's got a cross on the hood. No, it's actually an M3. And the other one there's an M16. They just repainted. See, honey, there are no Hanamags available to Hollywood in 1960s, but lots of US half-tracks. So she's like oh really, yeah, no, really, really, no, no Hanamags, no handbags. So that's been our running joke.
Kentucky Dave:You need to sit her down and watch Battle of the Bulge with her. Oh yes.
Bruce MacRae:Yes, that's right. That's right. Then she can look at M47s. And painted rocks and painted rocks yes, so anyway, she bought me this kit and had me paint it in AfriCorps.
Mike:Well, good for you, man. Yeah, for all she's put up with, that's the least you could do.
Bruce MacRae:That's right. So I found out in Leavensworth's show that there is a category for as seen on TV.
Mike:Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:Perfect, there you go.
Mike:You've already got your entry done. I got one for that All right. Bruce, it's been a joy talking to you again, a lot of fun. I'm sorry all that bad stuff happened to you, but I'm just super impressed you still made it, made it to all your shows and, man, that's a great story thank you, yeah, I'm.
Bruce MacRae:I'm sorry, it had to be a great story next.
Kentucky Dave:Next time we're on, I expect you to have set it to music country preferably.
Bruce MacRae:Oh yeah, oh, absolutely yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Have you seen the ballad of the washed out modeler?
Bruce MacRae:There it is, and yet he couldn't be stopped. There you go. If I had to float those models out, I was going to. I was really at one point debating in that early morning do I have to rescue my models? Because it means I got to wade through waist deep water, carry one tub out at a time. It'll be at least three trips and hopefully I don't slip and fall in the water.
Mike:All right. Well, we hope to see you at the national convention next year, bruce, and until then, we'll be watching out for your work and post some stuff on the dojo, if you don't mind.
Bruce MacRae:I'll do that. In fact, what I'll do is, when I get up, when I start coming with a list of things back East, I'll let you know where I'm going to be at. Who knows?
Mike:right, thank you.
Bruce MacRae:We'll keep an eye out. What state are you guys in?
Mike:Kentucky.
Bruce MacRae:Kentucky, Both of you, yes. How can it if Kentucky's long kind of where?
Kentucky Dave:on it. Well, Mike's in Lexington and I'm in Louisville. We're about 65 miles apart.
Mike:But we're in the probably the eastern third of the state, the eastern third God, okay, thank you. Thank you. So it's kind of bulbous on one end and I'm right in the middle of that.
Kentucky Dave:And then he's just due west of me and in between where Mike lives and I live, 90% of the world's bourbon is made.
Bruce MacRae:Oh, perfect. Well, I'm actually having Diet Coke on the rocks. Oh yeah, by the way, if I'm and I may well be coming through that area someday if I'm coming by your area, I'll stop.
Mike:Let us know, reach out. I'll stop by. Let us know, reach out. I'll say hi and we'll give you the Kentucky hospitality I'll take you to a really good hobby shop.
Bruce MacRae:Now you're talking, by the way. Just one last comment is that one thing that was fortunate for me as a kid is that I grew up in walking distance of three hobby shops.
Mike:Yeah, that helps.
Bruce MacRae:How many kids do we know that? You know, mom had to drive them a half an hour to get to one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Bruce MacRae:And I was walking distance to three of them Awesome.
Mike:That explains a lot. It does.
Bruce MacRae:It does.
Kentucky Dave:Well, it was good to talk to you, man.
Bruce MacRae:Great to talk to you guys. Thank you very much.
Mike:Oh, you're welcome.
Bruce MacRae:Y'all come back now, yeah.
Mike:Dave, I tell you what, man. I hope we have a lot of things happen at the IPMS National Convention and I hope absolutely none of it is any of that stuff.
Kentucky Dave:Amen, I kind of felt bad, laughing about it as he was telling the story, but the fact that he has, with some time and distance. Now he can look back and see the, a country music song, or sell it as the next National Lampoon's vacation movie, because it would work either way.
Mike:And salute to his wonderful wife too.
Kentucky Dave:Yes man, what an angel.
Mike:A lot of love and wisdom right there, so he's a lucky guy.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, he is.
Mike:I'm glad he made it home safe.
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Mike:Well, that's a relevant ad.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, it is.
Mike:I know what's up on your bench. You had to lean on Brandon and company to bail you out of some negative modeling. Dave, what is up on your bench?
Kentucky Dave:Well, as everyone knows, I'm rushing to get some stuff for a group entry done, some Bearcats for a group entry done for the Nats, and I was on track. Everything was going good. And then I had a minor masking slash decal disaster that sidetracked me because some decals got destroyed due to some masking pulling up that I sure as heck didn't think was going to pull up. And the problem is, despite having the world's largest decal stash, I did not have a replacement for one of the kit decals that I needed and there was no other way to fix it or replace it at least not quickly other than to go on Squadron's website, find it. They had it. They had it in stock because their website is dynamically updated. I knew it was actually in stock. I was able to order it. I was able to order it and ship priority mail, as much as it hurt my heart to do so, because I needed this thing ASAP. It arrived today.
Kentucky Dave:So between now and oh dark 30 on Wednesday morning, when I hop in my car and head to your house to arrive before six o'clock, I'm going to at the bench modeling trying to get stuff done for the Nats so that I can. Well, I've already got one entry done for the group build for the Nats, but this is another one and bound to determine that I'm going to finish it and it's going to be on the display table at the Nats. Well, good, and that's it for me, Other than I want to get back to the Sam. I had to move the Sam out of the way as I was finishing this project and I looked at it and reminded me how much I like what I've done on it. So as soon as we get back from the Nats, I am back on the Sam because I'm going to finish that sucker.
Mike:Yeah, y'all need that. Y'all need to have a hard conversation about the 2026 show yeah, I know I I mean for you, man, but between the dark time and the time you got to spend on these group build projects, for these group builds you do with the september's gang. You only have like four months out of the year. You're doing your own stuff.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, I know, I know.
Mike:And. I don't know From this seat. That's not cool.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'm hoping we pick a topic for next year the conversations have already started where I already have items built previously that will fit in the group build, so that then I don't have to come up with anything new. But we'll see, I'll let you, I'll report back in episode 146.
Mike:Well, I'll lobby for you. Hopefully they can do something around Imperial Japanese Army aircraft yes or Navy high-vis fighters.
Kentucky Dave:Or Japanese, you know what? Japanese catapult float planes would be a great group build. You could participate. For me I was going to say you could participate.
Mike:Yeah, I could.
Kentucky Dave:How about your bench? Well, I kind of know what your bench looks like.
Mike:Well, I've been posting a bunch of stuff on the dojo, that's what I was going to say.
Kentucky Dave:Everybody in the all the listeners who are on the dojo know what you've been doing. You've been cranking it out on that KV-85.
Mike:Well, it's not really hypersonic yet, but it's moving forward. I've got all the lifting eyes on the engine and transmission deck, I've got the transmission access hatches in place and I've got the armor-shrouded exhaust on it. I'm still stuck. I don't have the mesh I want for the radiator intake or outtake.
Kentucky Dave:You know where a great place to find mesh might be, where the IPMS Nationals Maybe Not what I'm looking for, though. Well, not not what I'm looking for. Well, you never know. I mean you never know you'll be. You'll be, you'll be pawing through a box under a vendor's table and you'll come across some old piece of aftermarket that works absolutely great for you.
Mike:And I have three different sizes of nylon mesh in my save for later eBay cart, so we'll see. With that though, and I also finished the dome hatch. I haven't glued it on yet. The center engine hatch I don't know if I've talked about that or not Made some rings out of fine solder the lift rings for that, because it has really big ones on it. I think I did talk about that. We won't talk about that. It's definitely on the dojo in the interim. This radiator screen thing has got me a little worried. You're gonna be able to see into them now.
Mike:Those screens on the real tank were pretty, a pretty fine weave mesh for what they were right still, though, if, if you can see down in there, it's obvious there's nothing under there, which, if it's dark and you can't see anything, that's fine, but if you can, it's kind of a distraction right after a lot of internet work, I finally found a photograph from aberdeen proving grounds.
Kentucky Dave:Oh the soviets sent a kv-1 to both boffington camp and aberdeen Proving Grounds.
Mike:Oh, the Soviets sent a KV-1 to both Boffington Camp and Aberdeen during the war.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:And it's still the tank that's in the American collection, the KV, but it's with the. The photographer was standing on the turret. The turret's rotated 90 degrees so it's not overhanging the engine deck. And then all the engine and transmission covers are off. I don't mean just the hatches, the entire plate above them.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:And you can see the tops of the radiators that are adjacent to the engine, and it was just enough detail that I made some quick Fusion 360 CAD geometry and I've test printed them. And I'm wondering now, though, if I get if I get the mesh right maybe a little bigger out of scale, just a little bit to where I can like. It looks like these things are kind of like the tops of the radiators or maybe aluminum, natural aluminum, and then, you know, the radiator banks themselves were probably unpainted as well. Paint these in some lighter grays and things that if the mesh was big enough, you could actually see these under them right so that's where I'm going now and the thing is, you're not trying to replicate no fine detail.
Kentucky Dave:all you want is an impression so that if somebody's looking at it from the right angle, they can see it. They can see that there's something there that looks vaguely approximately, correct?
Mike:So that's anything else up on my bench. No, that's pretty much it Now. You mentioned the float plane. We'll see how our loadout looks like when we pack up on Wednesday, but I'm thinking about bringing the float plane and two of the Moose Rook entries and put those in the Tiger Meat display area.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, yeah.
Mike:I've got no reason to enter any of those in the main contest, just don't want to.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:But I'd like folks to see them.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, you know what I've actually thought that there are one or two items I may bring for display only, as well as the couple items I'm bringing for the group build.
Mike:Well, let's talk about it. Maybe we can do a Mojo display at the Tiger Meet. That would be a good idea.
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Mike:Well, folks, thanks for enduring this truncated episode of Plastic Model Mojo. We hope everybody has a safe trip to and from the National Convention.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:And really looking forward to it, dave, hope we have a good time. I know we have a good time. Hope we have a really, really good time.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we're going to have a great time For all the listeners, everybody who's listening to this. We have a table in the vendor room and we want you to stop by say hi, talk with us about an episode, about something on the dojo, about what you brought to the Nationals.
Mike:We really that is the single biggest enjoyment that mike and I get out of the nationals, and if it's your first time, make sure you tell dave yes, absolutely well, dave, I will see you bright and early, or dark and early, on wednesday morning.
Kentucky Dave:My friend, you will, you will, I will not be late. I guarantee that.
Mike:Good luck on your Bearcat. Getting that wrapped up Another good reason for a truncated episode.
Kentucky Dave:You got a little more modeling time. That's right.
Mike:All right, man. Until then. So many kits, dave.
Kentucky Dave:So little time, mike, see you soon.
Mike:See you in a few days.
