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
Hampton Havoc: Reflections on 2025 IPMS National Convention
Fresh from the whirlwind that was the IPMS National Convention in Hampton, Virginia, we're bursting with stories, impressions, and a renewed passion for scale modeling. What draws thousands of modelers to this annual pilgrimage? Beyond the spectacular contest entries and vendor treasures, it's the profound sense of community that keeps us counting down the days until next year.
The vendor floor transformed into what can only be described as the world's largest traveling hobby shop. Squadron's presence was nothing short of spectacular – their massive booth complete with video games, sound system, and even their trailer parked inside the convention hall. We caught up with Brandon Lowe amid the constant stream of eager customers to discuss how they manage to outdo themselves each year.
Our microphones captured fascinating conversations with niche vendors carving out unique spaces in the hobby. From 3D-printed Gundam accessories to exquisitely crafted diorama buildings, these entrepreneurs represent the evolving landscape of scale modeling. We also previewed the 2026 Fort Wayne convention with Mr. Figueroa, whose enthusiasm for themed awards highlighting underrepresented genres signals an exciting future for the hobby.
The true heart of our experience, however, was the personal connections. We shared an Airbnb with modeling friends we met just three years ago, developing deep bonds through our shared passion. Dozens of listeners stopped by our table, transforming digital connections into meaningful face-to-face conversations that felt like reunions rather than introductions.
Among the many discussions sparked during the convention was a thoughtful debate about competition in modeling. Does competing actually make modelers better without meaningful feedback? This question resonated particularly after connecting with Bob Bear, whose ornithopter model drew crowds, and observing on-site building sessions with modelers like Ben Pluth and Frank Blanton.
Whether you're planning your first national convention visit or reminiscing about Hampton, join us for this celebration of what makes the modeling community extraordinary. And yes, we'll reveal exactly what broke our wallets at the show – because what's a national convention without expanding the stash?
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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:Oh yeah, kentucky Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, Mike, what do you say? We just cut out this model sphere section, this episode, Because I mean we haven't done anything in the last two weeks or gone anywhere.
Mike:Speak for yourself, but I know it's not even true for you, man Woo man, I'll say it for my model sphere, but I'm. It's not even true for you, man man, I'll say it for my model sphere. I'm going to ask you, dude.
Kentucky Dave:Well, no, I'm going to, I'll preface this.
Mike:We both had to come up for air to even get to the nationals. Yes. And then I had to go back underwater as soon as I got back into town.
Kentucky Dave:I know Well, I kind of did not to the level you had to, but yeah, I think it's finally over.
Mike:on Sunday they were recording. This is actually one week since we returned home from the IPMS national convention in Hampton Virginia. Yep. And, man, I tell you what? Let's just get into it, brother. What is up in your model sphere?
Kentucky Dave:Mustang week of the year Every freaking year.
Mike:Every time I go I say it was the best one yet, and it was Well, don't say it this time, even if it was.
Kentucky Dave:It was. It just had an awesome time, other than the downside of you having to drive the whole way both ways.
Mike:You know, that's okay other than that.
Kentucky Dave:I mean just that you know you're visiting the world's largest traveling hobby shop, which this year was incredible model contest, fantastic facility, great getting to spend four and five days with guys that many of which this is the only time we get to see them during the year, almost.
Mike:Well, a lot of them, yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, it emphasizes to me once again guys, get to model contests. The contest is the least important part of it. Get to the contest. You'll connect up with people who have very similar interests Some people you may interact with online, others that you've never met before. We met gosh, a dozen or more people that we had never interacted with at all, where we had just really interesting conversations and my model sphere is full.
Kentucky Dave:I got nothing else to say other than my model sphere is full. The moment I got home, I was depressed because it was over and I can't wait for next year. And it's 360 freaking days away. Or whatever You'll make it, man, I may not, but what a great time. How about you? Did you enjoy yourself?
Mike:I did. You know we wondered if we're gonna get to go. You you're tossing around the idea after we got there that you were kind of on the fence at least part of the time there. I was at the last minute and I was it's. We're kind of a package deal, so if you had bailed I'd probably not gone either.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, that's what made me go. I mean, thank God I was committed because, yeah, no life has just been coming at both of us so hard for the last four or five months, but I needed it. I am so glad I went. I needed that and I think you did too Well I did.
Mike:I had two weeks and some of it's still going on, this moving my sons, yeah, which is almost done For the my sons, which is almost done For the most part. The moving's done. School starts for those guys, one of them next week, the other one the week after, because the freshman's got some non-class stuff he's got to do for a week. But that's all said and done. But you know, I came back from the Nats and were faced with the SpaceX 33 launch, prepping for that. I mean, there was stuff going on while I was gone and I was keeping up with it on Slack while we were at the show. So you know I got right back into that when I got home and that all got shipped out the door today. So it's time to relax a little bit and think about, finally, what happened last week.
Kentucky Dave:That's the other thing. It happened in the blink of an eye it did. We got there Wednesday and the next thing I knew we were closing up the Airbnb on Sunday morning.
Mike:Well, I guess the Airbnb kind of is the focal point of what I would have to say. It's just really amazing and I don't know, I don't really know how to describe it. It's basically we spent four nights in an Airbnb. Yeah. With three guys. We didn't even know three years ago. Yeah. And gave one of them copious amounts of money to help make that happen. Yeah, and it all worked out.
Kentucky Dave:And it worked out. It was good. Now, if you get an Airbnb disaster, I could see how that could be bad, but we got a really good Airbnb and it was just perfect for what we needed.
Mike:Well, I think my point is how fast those friendships have developed and how deep they already are, and the trust and the mutual understanding and I think you were talking about being around like-minded people and I think that's what facilitates that, and it was just a lot of fun. I guess if I had any regrets, it would be that our typical dojo activities after hours at the National Convention were much muted and subdued. I think part of that was well one. We were at the Airbnb instead of the host hotel, so we had other people involved which would have probably been open to some of it most of the time, which is great and we did. We did it one night, but we we've, we've, we've played with fire twice, Right, and I think we're going to come up with something different, but not quite there yet. This was a lot of fun and I liked it because you know we weren't up till three in the morning every night and what have you, and didn't come back nearly as tired. No, it was fantastic, but work took care of that this week, yeah.
Kentucky Dave:You and me both, brother you and me both, brother you and me both.
Mike:So my model sphere is really just trying to get my wits back about me and figure out what the heck happened last week, and we'll talk about some of that as we get on into the episode. But you know it was a lot of fun. I'm glad we went. I'm glad the Airbnb worked out with our friends and just was glad.
Kentucky Dave:Great to see everybody at the show. Well, and you're fired up to model, aren't you?
Mike:Yes, I am, I just need. Maybe that's what I'll do this week. There you go. I didn't do any last week. Yeah. Well, that's my models for Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Good, I almost feel stupid asking you if you got a modeling fluid, because we have some very generous listeners and we came home with ridiculous amounts of modeling fluid. So what modeling fluid do you?
Mike:have Mike Well, and I'll remind you to save the details for the end, but I am sipping on some Uncle Nearest 1884 small batch whiskey.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, can't wait to hear about that.
Mike:This was gifted to us by the amazing Bill Moore from Middle Tennessee. What do you got, my friend?
Kentucky Dave:I have Medallia Premium Light, a beer out of Puerto Rico, courtesy of listener Hector. Colon and Hector, thank you, thank you. I'll thank all of you, but thank you for tonight's modeling fluid.
Mike:Yeah, we'll get to the rest of you in the coming eight to nine weeks.
Kentucky Dave:Exactly Eight to nine episodes.
Mike:Eight to nine episodes, so more like 18, 20 weeks. Well, we'll get caught up on these at the end, dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, so do we have any listener mail?
Mike:We do, because we took some time off. We got a little bit of a backlog that we're going to work through tonight, but I'm really looking forward to it. Yep, me too. Well, I'm just going to dive in, man, go ahead. First up, dave is Spencer Talmadge, from Methuen, massachusetts. Okay, talmadge, that's my grandfather's first name. Oh, okay. That's an old English name. Yeah, that is.
Mike:And to have it as a first name is really old English. Well, dave Spencer wanted to thank us for having Harvey Lowe on and taking the time to talk about the Shizuoka show, and he'd already seen some coverage of the show through other content creators. He was really engaged to hear how it contrasted and compared to what he'd heard elsewhere, and he just now has got to convince his wife to take a trip to Japan.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'm glad and I was fascinated too. I've met Harvey a couple of times at different shows and all, and I was really looking forward to that conversation and it did not disappoint.
Mike:Well, he also wants us to plug and give a shout out to PATCON 2025, an upcoming show. It's going to be held nine to five on Sunday, september 28th 2025 at the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, massachusetts Nice, that's a nice museum actually. Yes, museum in Hudson Massachusetts, nice, that's a nice museum actually. Yes so that'll be fun, yep, and another Sunday show like HeritageCon Yep.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, that seems to be a Northeast thing.
Mike:Maybe it is. Yep, he actually sent me two emails, and the other one was just to let us know, even though he lives in New England currently, he's from the Dayton-Cincy metro kind of area Okay. So one of the things he likes about the show is we're jabbering on about shows in the region, things he's familiar with. So he's given us a burger, fries and beer tip for Cincinnati.
Kentucky Dave:Well, good.
Mike:Should we make that show in the fall?
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'm trying to plan for it. I don't think I'm going to make MMSI, so I'm trying to plan for it. I don't think I'm going to make MMSI, so I'm trying to plan for Cincy. For a number of reasons.
Mike:Well, Stephen McDonald has written back in Now. He was the one looking for the real space info. He's out of Sullivan, Indiana, and Mike Ida-Cavage, our friend down in the Marietta and who we also saw at the National Convention.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we did Heck. We saw everybody at the National Convention.
Mike:Yes, we did, heck, we saw everybody at the National Convention we did. He's been getting more and more into the hobby, which is great. He ended up getting Horizon's 72nd scale double box in the Mercury capsule.
Kentucky Dave:Oh nice.
Mike:Which was per our recommendation, and Mike out of Cabbages probably as well. And since he got sidetracked on a 69 Mustang Fastback he was building for his dad. And he also mentions this Model Cave Hobby Shop up in Ann Arbor. What's the? How do you pronounce it? Ypsilanti, yeah, ypsilanti, up there, a lot of kits. So you know, I'm thinking, if we go to Heritage Con again and we do what we did this year and overnight in the Detroit area, I wonder if we need to hit this place too, because this is the place where all the kits are.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah, michigan Toy Soldier didn't have that many kits.
Kentucky Dave:Right, it's got all the other stuff.
Mike:And Stephen, I must say you bought an eclectic collection of stuff from there. He's got all kinds of things A 60s TV series, Batmobile, a big U-boat, a 16th scale tank.
Kentucky Dave:He Automobile, a big U-boat, a 16th scale tank. He's what we call a renaissance man.
Mike:I think so, dave. Yeah Well, he's got a question for us All right. He wants to know if we could build a highly detailed, impeccably engineered model or diorama of any movie scene. What would it be?
Kentucky Dave:That's a good one.
Mike:It is, and we probably should have saved it, but too late now We've let the cat out of the bag.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, that's right, we've let the cat out of the bag. Movie scene. You know what would be really good. Now this has actually been done, and been done by a master, but a U-boat interior from Das Boot with the figures and the you know, with the red light on, and I mean that would just that's. I love that movie. That movie is very atmospheric, it captures.
Mike:That's a good one. Yeah, you should build it, dave.
Kentucky Dave:No, no, I shouldn't, no, no, no, I don't need. I don't I got enough to do, so how about you? Well, let me mention he. No, I don't need Got enough to do I got enough to do so.
Mike:how about you? Well, let me mention he mentioned one.
Kentucky Dave:Okay.
Mike:You know something from the 53 War of the Worlds movie where the Martian war machines are giving the army the what for. Yeah. And another one was Slim Pickens riding a bomb, Dr Strangelove. Now, if I'm not mistaken, there's a figure out there.
Kentucky Dave:There is there Now, if I'm not mistaken, there's a figure out there there is there is a figure that goes with the bomb.
Mike:I can't remember who did it. I don't remember Maybe more than one, but it seems like there's a Jimmy Flintstone one. Maybe, For me. I don't know, man, that's tough. There's so many. I can even go into sci-fi. There's some stuff from Star Wars I could do. There is a couple of scenes from well, you could do it that you know the, the, the barcore manor scenes in band of brothers yeah, you know their first engagement with the german 105 millimeter gun battery.
Mike:Yeah, one of those would be good yeah there's a scene where they're crawling through the, the junk car, the rusted out car, in the junkyard on the property. That could be cool.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and you know it's funny our friend Mark Copeland, because he runs tours over there, he's actually been there on at least one, if not more than one occasion, so that's something I would consider.
Mike:Yeah, Well, speaking of folks we met at the show, I mentioned the Arm Air chapter in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Mike:Yeah, show, I mentioned the Arm Air chapter in Salisbury, North Carolina, in a recent past episode and one of their chapter, well, one of their officers president in fact and I'm looking at the email real quick of the Arm Air chapter in Salisbury, North Carolina, Sam Morgan, and this just dredged up all kinds of memories. He sent me a really quick synopsis I guess the club is no longer in existence and he gave me the cliff note version. That said, he was at Hampton and he came by the table and I got to meet him face to face. As soon as I saw him I recognized him. I mean, after all these years and I'm talking 35 years or more, and it was the first model show I ever went to. And we mentioned Mike Ida-Cavage, who volunteers at the IPMS Nats every year in the registration area, Former club member, colleague of mine back in Tennessee, and we drove to the Arm Air chapter in Salisbury in his Subaru station wagon 1985 or something like that.
Kentucky Dave:That's ironic, given the car that we were driving.
Mike:Yes, it is. We had a Subaru out back ourselves for the rental car, yeah. But, Sam, if you're listening and I hope you are, thanks for coming by it is good to connect with you again and relive some of those those memories. But yeah, I think I still got some trophies from that show. Good to meet you again. Well, Dave. Up next is Colin Tatusko. Well, Colin writes in and talks about a recent episode where we were discussing model shops in Japan and model shops on military bases in Japan. Yeah.
Mike:Which I think came up in Harvey's episode yeah. And he was flying out of Naval Air Facility Atsusugi with the Carrier Air Wing 5. And it's about an hour southwest of Tokyo and he loved living in Japan and there's a little hobby shop nearby run by a Japanese gentleman, and it was packed, just typical story. You know, I've got my Hong Kong stories Right and Harvey had his Japan stories.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, tiny shop packed to the gills. Have to turn sideways to walk down the aisles.
Mike:Yes, he says it was a great way to spend some of his overseas pay and no idea when the shop closed, but he thinks it got shut down not long after he came back to the States. Thanks for writing in, colin. Next one's from Ireland, dave. Oh good, paul Gogan, mm-hmm. And he sent in a great email. And it all gets back to your organizational struggles, dave.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, and I'm still struggling.
Mike:And I'm going to forward you this and, should we get to where we want to be on the website soon, I'm going to post what he sent there as a blog article. Well, Paul says given your love of all things Japanese, Dave, this is ticks and boxes for you in the Toyota way. All right, he's talking about the 5S approach and applying that to our modeling spaces. Are you familiar with the 5S approach? Kind of like Six Sigma, isn't it? Yes, it's a lean concept and yes, he mentions me being an engineer. Not just from being an engineer. I'd never really heard of 5S to actually work for a Japanese auto supplier.
Mike:And then there are posters all over the place the 5S is in English which are kind of made to fit the Japanese definition. Some of them are a little quirky or corny. They are sort set in order, shine, which that's the odd one standardize and sustain, and it is a method to streamline your work process. Keep your workplace clean, keep things where they are, and I'll send you this, dave. He generated a document for us that explains all this and how you might apply it to a skill modeling workspace.
Kentucky Dave:I would love to see it, because man organization is my downfall. I absolutely admit that I could get twice as much modeling done if I was organized.
Mike:So he sent an example of his workspace and talks about what he's done and it's all applicable. You just got to do it and you got to stick with it. That's the hard part, sure.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, and that is my problem. Which was the hard part? Sure, yeah, and that's yeah, that is my problem.
Mike:Which was the hard part at work too. Yeah Well, Mike Halliday's written in again. We hadn't heard from him in a little bit, no, and he'd listened to episode 144. And he agrees with my assessment of discord. Says it's not just me, Not. Intuitive Barely works. Since it's not just me, not intuitive, barely works. It could all be true. Or maybe the young folks got it all figured out and it makes perfect sense. That could be true as well For me. I didn't like it. Folks who run Discord groups. I just haven't got there yet. Yeah, no, I agree. Maybe it's fine. Second, as far as turning up the heat on figure painting and the brute force of improvement through large volumes of practice, he asked if I would consider something like the bolt action tabletop game, Because you know there's lots of figures to paint. It's a decent idea. I just don't need another hobby.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, same problem with me.
Mike:Yeah, I think, yeah, that would work. They're like 28 millimeter or something like that. Right. So they're a little bigger than 72nd scale.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, they're 156 or something like that.
Mike:Something like that, but it would be a good idea. Yeah. Other than me not needing another hobby.
Kentucky Dave:I'm with you, brother, I am so with you.
Mike:Thanks for the suggestion. And finally, dave, from the email side of things, there's somebody else we saw at the National Convention Not till late, I believe it was Saturday Eric Curvina. Mm-hmm. And he had listened to episode 145 on the drive down from Northern Virginia and he wouldn't respectfully disagree with Bruce McRae's statement about competition making everybody better. Yeah.
Mike:He sends a pretty long email. It's not too bad, eric, but I'm going to paraphrase here. You know he said that's not necessarily the case if there's not really any kind of feedback, anything meaningful. Coming back to the modeler after the competition, to understand, like Bruce said you don't know if you're fourth or 20th Eric would say that competition may help some modelers progress, but others it doesn't affect at all and even alienates some from the hobby.
Kentucky Dave:And I think that's true. I think competition is a really double-edged sword. I think that it can have the effect that Bruce talks about if you want your hobby to be something that's competitive. I don't think competition makes those folks better. I think it may drive them away from the idea of even showing up to shows, which is why I've harped on the fact. Listen. Shows are fantastic. People need to come. It's some of the best part of our hobby, but the competition is the least important part of it.
Mike:Eric goes on to say that it isn't competition that makes people better. It's honest and clear evaluation and feedback delivered in a way that the modeler is prepared to hear, and there are a fair number of folks out there who are not ready to hear it.
Kentucky Dave:And that is one thing that they provide at the IPMS Nationals. Actually, two things. One, there's a seminar that they give every year, what judges look for, and then on Saturdays, they actually have the ability for you to bring your model to a table that a rotating set of judges sit at and they talk with you about your model, the pluses and the minuses, so that if you want that kind of intensive feedback, the nationals is one of the best places for it.
Mike:Yeah, I think the seminar what judges look for probably at a high level of construction and fundamentals is good. But you know, whether folks want to admit it or not, there's some subjectivity that creeps into this and that's not going to help. You know why you aren't one of the top three, necessarily if it was outside the scope of those things.
Kentucky Dave:By the very nature of judging models, which are artistic creations. They don't get Buddha and Muhammad and Jesus to show up to be the judges. They are judged by other modelers and those modelers have biases. Those modelers have likes and dislikes and no matter how hard they are personally trying to put all that in the background, it is by its very nature subjective and cannot be otherwise.
Mike:Yeah, that's true too. It's not a nothing's perfect. Nothing. Nothing ever will be, I think. Well, here's Eric makes a bunch of good points here, and I agree. Well, here's Eric makes a bunch of good points here, and I agree. I think, though, that the competition and contest is not necessarily the only place. Well, it's not the only place where that can happen. So this is me speaking about my modeling journey and my experiences, and this may be rooted in my engineering training and my own technical awareness, but as far as contests are concerned, or model shows even if they're not quote unquote contests prior to AMPS at least in the United States and I don't know how it was elsewhere, but in the United States prior to AMPS, this feedback was not a thing. Right.
Mike:And I don't remember anybody asking for it. Honestly, I don't that's not me being a smart aleck. Well, I don't, I don't remember anybody asking for it, and let me, let me finish here, not to say that it's a bad thing that folks are asking for it. Now, that's not. That's not my point. My point is, for me personally, I feel like I was self-aware enough to know why I wasn't placing here or there, or getting this or that. I don't know. That's just the way I feel about it.
Kentucky Dave:No, I think that's true, Although back in the before times you did have the occasional modeler who would, after a show, walk up to somebody and say how can I get better, what can I do? And they would-. That's true.
Kentucky Dave:But it was very individual. Amps came along to provide feedback on a routine basis to everything entered, although there can be some challenges with that. And then IPMS has the what judges look for and then talk to the judges about your models opportunities. I do think more people are seeking feedback and I wonder if part of that is just a change in our society that people become more open to seeking feedback Possibly so I don't know, but it's an interesting observation.
Mike:And you know I'll. I'll clarify again that I don't think it's a bad thing, I don't think it's something that's should not be asked for. Right, I like it too, but I just I remember a time when it wasn't a thing, and now it's. Now it's a, and now it's a huge thing in some circles. But you know, eric, I appreciate your candor, I appreciate the email and I think a lot of things you say here are correct. Competition in and of itself is not the end. All you got to get something meaningful out of it on the back end, or it's really not going to help you. I can see that absolutely being true. Yeah, I agree with that. Well, dave, again, that's all the email. What do you got?
Kentucky Dave:Well, we got some Facebook DM stuff, and the first one's from Dutch Vospert, who encountered another one of Facebook's little joys that we encounter running the dojo. Dutch posted a post and it didn't publish. And the reason is Facebook has this thing where they will randomly and it is utterly random, I can see no pattern in it whatsoever, Utterly random, I can see no pattern in it whatsoever Utterly randomly select a post and say, well, this needs to be reviewed because it might be spam. And it's happening to a couple of posts a day. And Dutch got caught up with one and he DM me and said, hey, what's going on? I looked into it, I found out that was happening and so I fixed it so that it would publish. And then I went on and whitelisted him. And they give you the ability to whitelist posters so that they won't get, in theory, won't get flagged as spam. But I've seen people that I've whitelisted and it still does it. It's just Facebook. And you know, as much as I enjoy the dojo and as much as I enjoy the good things about our community and the ability to interact and show each other work and stuff like that, Facebook does seem bound and determined every once in a while just to take a hand grenade, toss it in and go, hey, enjoy. And then it's a matter of figuring out, okay, what's going on here, how do I fix it, how do I turn it off, if I can turn it off, or if I can't turn it off, what's the workaround? And it happens. So if you post something and it doesn't show up, DM me, I'll go check the spam. I check it every day anyway, but I will check the spam filter every day anyway. But I will check the spam filter and if there's stuff in there, I will publish it out. So, Dutch, I appreciate you reaching out to me and, yeah, we're doing what we can. Steve Sauve from IPMS Canada, from the Great White North I usually see him at the Nationals and didn't get to see him and a bunch of the Canadians at the Nationals this year, but he did happen to be in a bourbon bar and thought of us and sent us a lovely shot of the bourbons on selection at that particular bourbon bar. And it's just nice to know that our brothers in the great white North are thinking about us when it comes to bourbon. So, Steve, I hope we get to see you in Fort Wayne.
Kentucky Dave:Chris Wallace model airplane maker, another Canadian friend. He DM'd me wanting to know the results of the IPMS elections and I told him that they're not over yet. They still have a little while to run. I think it runs through the end of August or middle of September or something, so there's still time to vote. He thought that the voting ended at the national convention and the results would be available. That's not the case. The voting runs sometime after. So if you haven't voted you can still go out there and vote. I'm not telling you who to vote for, Just if you haven't voted and you're a national member, please do vote. We've actually got a couple of races where there's more than one person running, so that's great. I'm thrilled to see it. So I got to tell Chris that I'll update him when the results come out.
Kentucky Dave:Martin Hulst out of the Netherlands we've interacted a number of times and he was looking at photos at the IPMS nationals and he saw the UPS table.
Kentucky Dave:You know the place where you could go to ship your packages home via UPS and he said over in Europe you don't see that at all. And he wondered is this new, Is it common? And I explained that due to the vastness of the US and the fact that there are many people who show up to the nationals who've come there via air, that if you buy a fair amount of stuff it's hard to take it all back on an airplane with you. And thus I know the UPS table has been at the nationals, or some shipping company table has been at a Nationals at least as far back as 2004 in Phoenix, because that's the year Terry Hill shipped back a ton of stuff to Louisville when he and I were out there, but he was just interested in it, just simply because there wasn't something that they see over in Europe. It's not something I would have even thought about if he had not brought it to my attention.
Mike:That is interesting.
Kentucky Dave:Our good friend Bob Bear. The voice of Bob. Good news, well, bad news. Bob had a little car trouble at the Nationals and frankly we feared that it was really bad news. But it turned out not to be as bad as it could be. He got his car shipped back down to his home and got it to his local mechanic who delivered the good news that it wasn't nearly as bad as we had feared when talking with him.
Kentucky Dave:We're happy for him, although sad that he had to go through it in the first place. Listener Terry Wilkinson reached out and Terry came to the Nationals and was looking forward to seeing us, got there Tuesday, traveling with his wife, and had reached out beforehand, said he was looking forward to coming by and talking with us, et cetera, and he never was able to come by and he DMed to explain that late Tuesday night or early Wednesday his wife took ill, and ill enough that they had to return home. Now, luckily it turned out not to be anything serious, but it crashed his Nationals plan, so I'm glad that she's okay. I'm sorry that you didn't get the Nationals experience you were planning on, but Fort Wayne is 360 days away.
Mike:Well, we missed him at amps too. So, and I know we were. I was thinking he had said he was looking forward to seeing us. Yep. I didn't go. Look, while we were at the show I was like I thought Terry was going to be around. Yep. Maybe I misread the email, but apparently not. He just had to bug out.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, had to bug out and get his wife home, and but apparently not, he just had to bug out. Yeah, had to bug out and get his wife home, and I completely understand that. There are priorities. And then there are priorities. And finally, on the DM side, Bob Sarnowski reached out right after we got home from the Nats. He had picked up a PZ-4, and he wanted to do it in AfricaCore markings and the kit didn't provide those markings for it. Now I did not inquire as to what model of PZ4 and whether that was AfricaCore appropriate. That's beyond my knowledge base. But he did ask if I knew of a manufacturer who did aftermarket and I pointed him to Star Decals, which has several AfricaCore sheets in their range. So hopefully there'll be something that is useful for him. Well, is that all you got?
Mike:That's it man All right. Well, that was a lot. Hopefully we're caught up now.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we are.
Mike:So folks, we're going to need some more emails and DMs, and you can email us at plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, or you can send us a direct message through the Facebook Messenger system, or you can send us a message through the message link in the show notes. So we got three ways we can do that now.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, after you're done listening to this. If you would rate the podcast on whatever podcast listening service you're using, please give us the highest rating. It helps drive visibility of the podcast, brings in new listeners. The other way and best way to bring in new listeners is to have a current listener recommend us. So if you know a modeling friend who isn't listening to Plastic Model Mojo, please tell them about it. Ask them to listen, tell them how to listen. If they need help walking through the technology, walk through the technology with them. It is the single best way for us to continue to grow and we are continuing to grow and it's in large part down to you current listeners recommending us to your friends. So please do that.
Mike:You can also rate us on the web link in the show notes and once you've done that however you're going to do it you're going to want to check out the other podcasts out in the model sphere and you can do that by going to wwwmodelpodcastcom. It's a consortium website set up with the help of Stuart Clark from the Scale Model Podcast up in Canada. He's aggregated all the banner links to all the podcasts in the model sphere. It's a one-stop shop there to go find out all the things you can be listening to In addition to podcasts. We've got a lot of blogging, youtube friends out there. We've mentioned Chris Wallace, model airplane maker. He's got a great aircraft modeling blog and YouTube channel. We've got Jeff Groves, the Inch High Guy 72nd scale blog. Stephen Lee SpruPi with Frets, who we saw briefly at the IPMS National Convention.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, we did.
Mike:It was good to see him he day tripped down. He's got a great blog, also a lot of 72nd scale Sentry stuff. Evan McCallum Panzermeister36. A great YouTube channel dealing with armor weathering. The occasional railroad subject thrown in and hopefully he gets caught up on his project soon.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, evan's been like you and I. Evan has been busy with life stuff.
Mike:That's right. Funny how life gets in the way sometimes. It does. And finally, dr Paul Budzik, scale Model Workshop. You can see him on YouTube or his Patreon link will get you to some great videos and some great insight into the hobby.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, he just posted a new one not long ago. Hobby Yep, he just posted a new one not long ago. If you are not a member of IPMS USA, ipms Canada, your national IPMS organization, please join. These organizations are run by volunteers to make all of the hobbyist's hobby experience better, and there's no better example of that than the IPMS USA Nationals every year. In addition, if you are an armor modeler or post-1900s figure modeler, the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society is a great group of guys. They are dedicated armor modelers. They do fantastic work and have fantastic shows, and there are shows in South Bend again in 2026, and Mike and I are both planning to attend. So if you're not a member of AMPS, go and join.
The Voice of Bob:Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by Model Paint Solutions, your source for harder and steam-backed airbrushes, david Union power tools and laboratory-grade mixing, measuring and storage tools for use with all your model paints, be they acrylic, enamels or lacquers. Check them out at wwwmodelpaintsolutionscom.
Mike:Well, dave, while we're at the National Convention, we recorded a few bits and pieces for some content with some folks we found either interesting, or companies we hadn't heard of, or folks we had never talked to before. Right, it's kind of the way we like to do it. The first one, however, though you already mentioned Bob Bear. We ran into Bob early on the first day.
Kentucky Dave:This was before his car trouble. This was before his car troubles.
Mike:This was before his car troubles. So let's take a listen to what Bob had to say with us, dave, for us it's day one, thursday. We've been perusing the show a little bit, yeah, buying a few things Already.
Kentucky Dave:Attended a seminar, bought a little bit.
Mike:Starting a seminar at nine before general admission seems a bit odd to me, but hopefully it was well attended.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, it was. It was extremely well attended and really well done. It was Lynn Ritger's 109 talk and previewing his upcoming book, so it was really good, that's cool.
Mike:Well, we've run into the voice of Bob, one of our last, most recent guests. Bob, what do you think?
The Voice of Bob:It's the Nationals, man, I mean. What else is there to say?
Kentucky Dave:Well, and for you it was close. I mean, how long was the drive?
The Voice of Bob:It was like it was about five and a half hours, Not bad. Not bad at all, it wasn't bad, it was raining the whole time. Yeah. But other than that, no, in fact it wasn't even any traffic. Really, I was amazed.
Mike:I was really surprised. We didn't have any either, until we got up near Richmond.
Kentucky Dave:Well, the stretch of 81 where you have to get on 81 for a brief period. That's always really crowded that mix right there. Yeah, yeah.
The Voice of Bob:Because I run into that going 77, 79. Yeah Well, bob, did you bring anything this year? I did. I brought one of my ornithopters one of my main ornithopters. I didn't get the—I was going to to bring both the harkonnen and the atreides, but the, the atreides I messed it up.
Mike:So yeah, you mentioned that when we talked to you last yeah, are you on the table already? It's on the table okay, we're at the final.
Kentucky Dave:We haven't been in there yet no, we haven't even been in the, in the model room at all.
Mike:Well, what are you hoping to accomplish? Uh, this year at the nationals.
The Voice of Bob:The usual Spend money I'm hoping that I can spend money. In fact, I've already done that Picked up a couple P40s and you know, there's a few special things, specific things that I'm looking for, but it always ends up that I have this little list and then I buy everything else.
Mike:Yeah, everything else except what's on the list. I gave up on lists at model shows a long time ago, Me too for the exact same reason.
Kentucky Dave:I'd make a list and I'd end up buying everything but the stuff on my list.
The Voice of Bob:Yeah, and honestly, you know everyone's here, all these great people are here. I mean it's all in the order of what's important. It's seeing everybody buying stuff and contest too sure, but it's it's really all about. You know, I would come here with and bring nothing and it doesn't right, it's great I brought stuff, but it's not going to the contest this year I was gonna put it in the tiger meat.
Mike:But I'm like I want people to see it and talk, talk about it. If it's in there, I'm not in there, you're not in there. So I just brought it out here, yeah, and hopefully it survives. I don't do something dumb like hit it with my microphone cable.
The Voice of Bob:Well, you just have to get people to stop trying to spin the propeller.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, exactly.
Mike:I saw a little kid do that at a show a long time ago, yeah.
The Voice of Bob:But, I saw a little kid do that at a show a long time ago? Yeah, but it's presented well, I really like it. If people yeah, well, they didn't get a chance to see it, I was thinking, oh, you guys ought to come out and look at it. Well, okay, they're not listening right now.
Mike:That's right. Well, I need to get Wes and Bill from Bases by Bill to come by and look at it now, because they made the base for me.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, they made the base for it, yeah.
Bob Bair:And it came out really good. I really like the way it came out.
Kentucky Dave:Well, it's good to see you at the show. I'm sure you're going to be. We're going to see you some one of our evenings. Oh okay, Looking forward to spending some time over some adult beverages and talking models.
The Voice of Bob:Yeah, I think that's actually probably higher up on that list that I gave earlier. I hear you. Yeah Well, I look forward to it. I always look forward to the Nationals, I always look forward to meeting you guys face-to-face, and it's all a good time. It's all about.
Mike:Hopefully we'll see you up our way sometime soon.
The Voice of Bob:Yeah, that's a possibility.
Mike:You know the show from last year. I think I might be meeting my brother there in Kentucky at the same time. We'll get together and go over there. Yeah, fantastic. All right, bob, We'll have a good national show man.
The Voice of Bob:You bet We'll see you around Hang out Yep Working on the lightning wallet.
Mike:All right, take it easy. Bob ended up spending some money at the Nationals just putting on model kits.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, thank gosh, his problems turned out to be not as serious as they could have been. I know when we were first talking to him and he didn't know, it was pretty depressing, so I'm glad the result came out to be better than what it could have been.
Mike:Yeah, I think that tow bill was more than I spent on the show floor, though.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure he doesn't want to hear about that.
Mike:Well, moving on, we saw another guy who was catering to the Gundam crowd.
Bob Bair:Yes, I saw another guy who was catering to the Gundam crowd.
Mike:Yes, and I don't get to a lot of shows where well, I didn't get to a lot of shows this year at all. So far Right, but up to today or any time in the past, I've not seen any vendor beyond selling Gundam kits. That was actually doing something different for the Gundam crowd. Yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, and it's a natural development. This guy had 3D printed accessories and really a wide variety. It seemed like a natural thing.
Mike:Well, Dave, we're always looking for new things at the National and get people on that we don't normally see in our normal travels, and this Gundam genre has really taken off. And finally we've got somebody here at the National Convention that's actually doing some aftermarket for these fabulous kits. John, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us what you're doing here?
MiniMechArmory:Hi, I'm John. I started Mini Mech Armory and I'm here to sell some 3D printed weapons for, you know, Gundam builders and or anyone in general who thinks it fits their projects.
Kentucky Dave:So how did you? Were you a Gundam builder before you started doing accessories for?
MiniMechArmory:them. Yeah, actually I was. I started in like 1998.
Mike:Oh, wow for them, uh, yeah actually I was.
MiniMechArmory:I started in like 1998 and then, oh wow, it's a long time just building for a while. But actually the funny thing is I started doing my 3d printing for lego related stuff okay, that's so if you actually look down at the, the model, okay, that's if you look at the body proportions, that's actually like a lego minifigure oh cool so.
MiniMechArmory:But then because you know how all the tolerances for lego are like super, like precise, I wasn't able to match that, so I kind of kicked out off the wayside. And then, as when I got back into gundam building, that's when I started making exclusive parts for gundam kits.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):But where are?
MiniMechArmory:you from oh, just up um virginia.
Mike:Okay, so you're close you don't have to come very far do you set? Up many other shows, gundam shows or more other IPMS shows I've done.
MiniMechArmory:A couple IPMS shows. Mostly like the Fairfax area but this is the first one. That's pretty far.
Mike:IPMS has been actively trying to cater to this genre and bring it in. It's mainstream for you guys in your own world, like ours is in ours but they've really started to cross a lot more. Lately. There's been a lot more acceptance, we think, in the IPMS community.
MiniMechArmory:I've seen a lot of like Gundam stuff at like specialty stores for a while in like the very late 90s, early 2000s and then it kind of died down a little bit. But then definitely after the pandemic I saw a big difference in seeing it more often. Were you a?
Kentucky Dave:3D printer before you decided to start 3D printing for Gundams, was it part of your job or did you just start learning it because you thought?
MiniMechArmory:YouTube. It was all.
Mike:YouTube there's lots you can learn on YouTube, because she thought YouTube.
MiniMechArmory:It was all YouTube. There's lots you can learn on YouTube.
Mike:Yeah, so.
MiniMechArmory:I started the whole 3D modeling venture with the Legos, okay Related stuff, back in 2015. It was not doing great, so then that was around 2020. That's when I shifted gears to go back to doing stuff for Gundam. Okay, cool, well, tell us about the kind of things you offer. So right now, what I like to try to do is I'll take a design and I'll try to make it modular so you can replace out, like the magazines, the optics. Ok, maybe add a. You know, don't you want a grenade launcher attached to your machine gun?
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):I'm sure most people probably do so.
MiniMechArmory:I'd like to give that option to people. So right now it's mostly armaments, mostly ornaments. Um, yeah, like sometimes I'll find stuff from like old video games, okay, and then I'll go, you know, just try to get something 3d out of a 2d picture, all right, yeah, just try to find like a lot of like really niche stuff that maybe you'll only find in a manga.
MiniMechArmory:That's in like one panel and some obscure, some obscure story that maybe like five people have heard of, but you know there's some people that really want that part and it's like all right, well, I'll try to make it and see what happens. Okay, do you have a website or an Etsy or anything?
Mike:like that.
MiniMechArmory:Yeah, you can find me on Etsy. It's a mini mech armory.
Mike:Okay, well, I'll find that link and put in the show notes when we get this episode up. The show notes when we get this episode up Awesome, listen. Good luck this weekend and I hope you sell a lot, and it's just really interesting to see you out here. Cool, thanks for having me, michael.
MiniMechArmory:All right.
Mike:Thank you very much. Thanks. Well, I hope he did all right at the show. I hope he did. I don't know how big. You know it's a growing genre within the IPMS shows, which is good, but I don't know to what degree it would be supported on the vendor floor. But he had a lot of nice stuff and he gave us a couple samples that we probably need to offload here to somebody at some point and we'll get to that in a future episode or short or something. But really interesting to see. That was the first time I've seen like quote unquote, aftermarket for, uh, for the gundam genre at an ipms show and it was really well done it was.
Mike:He's doing a good job with it. The quality was was good and it looked like it was uh designed in a way that would integrate well to the to the bandai kids yeah well, the next one was another kind of aftermarket supplier, I guess Diorama Accessories. Yeah. This gentleman had a lot of stuff and what drew me to the table was just the quality of the craftsmanship and finish on his display items.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, yeah, I mean really really well done really well done.
Mike:Well, dave, we're always looking for unique and different things when we come to Nationals and try to showcase some of those people, and we've got one. Red Wild Diorama has got some really neat displays at their vendor booth and we have the proprietor here. Why don't you introduce?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):yourself. Hey guys, Greg Vandivisser. Okay, I've been doing modeling since I was a kid, but in the last 10 years or so I've kind of rekindled it up and started Red Wild Diorama.
Kentucky Dave:What made you decide to get into the business side of the hobby, as opposed to just being a hobbyist building and all of that?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):Right. So I always wanted to build a village and a diorama with a train and everything, and I was kind of a 135th scale guy and a train guy. So I ended up building a pretty eight foot by five foot French village, all scratch built. I tried to find already built buildings with Verlinden, but all theirs were blown up. So I got the village built and then a lot of people my friends who were modelers and other people were like hey, we'd like to see these as kits. So I gave it some thought, talked to some people about how to pour resin, how to pour plaster, different things like that, and next thing, you know, red Wild is born.
Kentucky Dave:So you're doing both 35th scale and 87th HO scale buildings, barns, mostly modeled off, like you said, a French village.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):Yeah, the catalyst was European for my village and then, as I got into it, I like trains as well, so the number one scale in railroad was 187. So I kind of started there. Of course, the S-gagers would disagree with that. Well, that's okay. So I wanted to diversify and to cover both customer segments because I'm a fan of both, and so yeah, but the European was the 135th scale because of your wartime guys Right here at IPMS, and the train guys are more American, but I have some European influences there, gotcha. But it's also accessories and stuff that you'd find in a diorama or layout.
Kentucky Dave:And you've got both stuff that you pour out of resin, make out of resin. You've got some laser-cut wood accessory items a cart, some coffins, some other stuff items a cart, some coffins, some other stuff. Did you have any prior experience in resin casting or anything, or did you?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):just decide I'm going to do it. Yeah, I think I just decided I was going to do it and I'd figure out how to do it. You know, I saw other people's work and I did some research. Luckily, I met a guy, a train guy, named Chris White. He's since passed away now. He was making Soviet-era trains HO trains and he taught me how to do resin pour. Okay.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):And I took that to do plaster pour. I've since moved away from poured resin. I do a little bit to 3D 3D resin. I bought a laser cutter and I've converted some of my resin parts, like wooden doors which were resin, are now laser cut wood. So yeah, so I had learned it. As I went on, I've met people who've taught me things and I've tried to share that with others who have questions.
Mike:How long have you been even in the hobby? You said you came back to it. I ask because the workmanship and craftsmanship and finish on your product samples up there are just exquisite.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):They're really nice. I appreciate it. I guess I started out as a graphic designer. Okay.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):Drawing, painting, that kind of thing. And I have a career as I work my way up to art director, creative director, marketing. So my career side kind of lends itself to the creative output and I'm a maker at heart, so getting into this, when I say rekindled, you know when I was a boy I had trains and I built models, you know, following Shepard Payne and the monogram models. But then that kind of went away and I focused on the career. And now I'm in a position where I could, you know, kind of maximize the hobby and share it with others and make a product. And there's something about making something with your hands, selling it to someone and sharing that experience. It's different than buying an already made product from wholesale selling at retail. You don't get the same experience. So I think I like that part of it.
Kentucky Dave:So how long have you been in business, doing the hobby as a business?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):I would say about four years, four or five years. I guess COVID kind of got me started into that Gotcha.
Kentucky Dave:A lot of free time. Yeah, a lot of free time, just swinging around.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):So, yeah, I would say that me and every other person in the world started-.
Kentucky Dave:Is this your first nationals? Yes, okay.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):Yeah, yeah, I've done a couple.
Kentucky Dave:I didn't think we'd seen you.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):Yeah, no, I did a regional in Richmond, okay, and then another local one in Havelock, north Carolina, gotcha.
John Figuroa:Where are you?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):out of, originally from Maryland Eastern Shore and then moved to North Carolina about 12, 13 years ago.
Mike:Okay, so you're in North Carolina now. Okay, cool, fantastic. So how's business been?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):It's been great.
Kentucky Dave:I mean I love meeting people.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):A lot of the vendors, the people I buy from, were just you know an online experience I've befriended and now I know by first name, so that's kind of exciting.
Kentucky Dave:It is nice.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):And then seeing customers who have seen your product other places or bought your product and they like it, and then they say, hi, it's all just a good experience and sales have been good as well, Great Well that's the goal here is to make friends and make money. If you're a vendor, both of them.
Mike:That's right For folks listening. Where can they find your products?
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):So I'm online at redwilddioramacom Okay.
Mike:Sounds good. Well, thanks for coming over, and we like your stuff. Oh, I appreciate it, so we're glad to help give you a little push here, maybe it means a lot. Maybe we'll send some people to you. Thanks a lot, all right. Thank you. Interesting story. He had some nice stuff, man.
Kentucky Dave:He did and it's an interesting story's. He had some nice stuff, man he did, and it's interesting story. And it again goes back to show you how many modelers also have been my, have been or are model train enthusiasts as well, and how the the two hobbies cross over, inter interact and it's just really interesting well, I think, especially railroading and armor.
Mike:yeah, kind of you got big steel equipment sitting outside so you kind of got the same kind of vibe going there for weathering and scenery and his stuff he does a really he's a really good modeler. The bottom line is that he's a really good modeler and it's really interesting to see somebody turn that into a cottage business. Well, dave, the next one is well, a little plus and minus. The plus is it's it's a good friend of ours from our region, ben Pluth. Yeah, he was at a table behind us right in our little corral of tables with a longtime listener and friend of the show, frank Blanton, who we had not met face-to-face until.
Kentucky Dave:Right, we had interacted with, but never actually seen.
Mike:And they were just doing some on-site building. We'd seen Ben do this before at our show a couple years ago, maybe last year, the one I missed maybe he was there doing it again. But yeah, you know, he he carts around his his modeling supplies and he's got a couple of projects that he works on in this kind of environment and those projects are kind of the ones he brings to the shows and and works on and they were setting up and they're working on models right on the vendor floor with the IPS nationals.
Kentucky Dave:The downside is, I don't know what happened, but I cut off a little bit of the front of this interview. Well, that's okay. Technical difficulty.
Mike:Technical difficulty. It's kind of been our forte here lately. We've got to fix that. But this is a quick bit from Ben and Frank and what they were up to. What are you working on? So right now I'm working on the Fine Molds KI-43, doing it the Series 2 version and just building it completely out of the box, and been working on this for about two months or so, on and off at club meetings with Model Makers Union. So yeah, I'm really enjoying it and I think you've gotten a chance to see the detail on there.
Mike:So that's a good kid, but you, you do a good job. Man, Getting people walking by the table, it's like a really amazed. It's like, oh, that's how the box. I'm like, yep, it is. Well, you know, we're behind you over there. I bought a few of my currents to set out. Yeah, it's like it's fun, it's promoting the hobby. It's like I'm here with Frank Blanton.
Ben Pluth & Frank Blanton:It's like hand it over to him. Frank Blanton with IPMS Richmond in Amp, Central Virginia. Yeah, you're a longtime listener too, frank, I sure, am I sure am, what are you? Working on. So I picked up the 25 for 25 AFV Club M36 Jackson tank destroyer. Now I say 25 for 25 because it was $25 and it's number 25 in my kit stash.
Ben Pluth & Frank Blanton:Okay, I was. I. Yeah, I'm trying to get my kit stash down. Uh, ben and I were talking before the show and he says he says I'm going to be building it to show us. Man, I've always wanted to do that, so I grabbed my toolkit. This first time we've met in person at this show. We've been on chat groups for three years now yeah, so I was about to ask how that happened. Yeah, I wanted to hang out and build models with my buddy. All right, mike later on we.
Mike:It's like, uh, floyd warner was gonna be joining us, but right now he's at the reviewer core okay, so yeah, you'll see. Maybe uh two, three more people uh joining in, uh here at the table working on stuff. All right, well, guys, I'll get out of your hair, but uh, thanks for quick chat all right, let it.
Ben Pluth & Frank Blanton:Let frank have it again. All right, mike, listen, I've got some extra road wheels to clean. You're always welcome to come join us, friend. No, I got my own to clean.
Mike:All right, michael ben where are we gonna see you're gonna see at our show, hopefully. Yeah, it's like an uh, I'll have a younger modeler, uh, with me, uh, checking it, checking it out. My uh, now fiancee. It's like I'll have a younger modeler with me checking it out my now fiance. It's like her oldest son is getting interested in modeling.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):Congratulations how old.
Mike:He's 15 years old. That's not young. Is he interested at all? He's kind of gotten the bug, but we'll see. It's like how much more. It's like him and his dad got into the hobby together a little bit, but he really enjoys. It's like my work. So he's like trying to work with his dad to get to my level. So we'll see in September then, all right, I'll see you there, thank you. Thank you, mike. Well, we see Ben at our show.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, speaking of cars on his way home with his brand new fiance from the show between Hampton and Richmond, ben got rear-ended. Now, luckily it was not a serious accident it didn't disable the car or anything like that but a bunch of us actually got caught up in the traffic backup that happened when he had that accident.
Mike:He must have not been too far behind us because it was starting to get dodgy when we were coming through there and we got through it okay. But that poor guy was involved in a pretty major incident not that long ago, two or three years ago.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):four years ago maybe something like that.
Mike:But glad he's all right and hopefully, if it was a rental, hopefully they gave him too much crap about it.
Kentucky Dave:Well, luckily, like I said, on his trip to Virginia Beach and Hampton he got engaged, and so he and his fiancée were both in the car. Luckily neither one hurt. Luckily it was not very bad. So all in all, good news for Ben.
Mike:Well, Dave, probably one of the high points of the vendor room was the squadron booth is an understatement.
Kentucky Dave:You can't call that a booth, you can't call it a corral. It was a warehouse inside the the vendor room. It's the only way I know to describe it. It was huge. It was like brandon lowe and squadron had just picked up their warehouse and dropped a large portion of it onto the vendor floor.
Mike:Well, I think that's exactly what they did, and we'll just let him tell us about it.
Kentucky Dave:Okay.
Mike:Brandon, it's the last day of the show and we finally made it over here, finally found you. Yeah well, thank you.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):Thank you of the show and we finally made it over here, finally found you. Yeah, well, thank you. Thank you for coming over.
Mike:This is absolutely impressive. You've got video games, You've got some big clip speakers pumping out the tunes and I think that may be your trailer back there.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):It is. This is the first time we've ever got to park our trailer in our booth. I have never seen it.
Kentucky Dave:It's like you lifted up not just a hobby store but a hobby warehouse and just dropped it in the middle of the vendor room.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):We have too much fun with this.
John Figuroa:I mean when you come here.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):I want people to have an experience. You know they're getting one?
The Voice of Bob:Yeah, they're getting one.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):We got tanks, we got planes, we got ships, we got figures. I want to bring enough that we have something for everybody, regardless of what kind of models you like. Even hot sauce, apparently.
Mike:Yeah, hot sauce. We've been working all this with shirts and hats.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):It's very cool and we're very appreciative that we have a brand that people like to support, more so than just a place to buy models. They feel a part of Squadron. So how are you going to outdo this? Like maybe a disco ball or something? I don't know. We're already talking about it, trying to figure out what we're going to do next year, because that is what we like to do. We like to outdo ourselves each year and it's kind of like a running joke in the warehouse. Okay, what are we going to do next time to go bigger?
Kentucky Dave:I see that you managed to get Tamiya's brand new, not yet released, other than you got them.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):Right, yeah, the new Pac-38. Five centimeter, that's right yeah. Pac-38 from Tamiya in 35th scale does not release until October. Yet you can buy them here at the squadron booth during the show.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you had a big stack of them and there are not many left those.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):Those seem to be very popular yep, there's, they are the their new m36 jackson. Uh, those are already gone. Yeah, just all sorts of new releases here this week. Uh, that people have been pretty excited about it. Looks like you guys are having fun over here, but busy, it has been a busy week, but that's good. That's what we're here for.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):And you're live streaming the whole thing, oh yeah, yeah, we can wave, we are, and you know, it's just, there's a lot of guys that would love to be able to come, but they might be too far away or for whatever reason. My dad, for example, russ. He was supposed to be here and some things came up and he wasn't able to make it. So it was actually his idea to live stream because he said, look, I want to feel like I'm there. So I brought an extra webcam along and set it up, so Dad's sitting over there watching all day while he does the rest of his work.
Mike:Well, the next upgrade is three or four more webcams in the corners of this thing yeah, we've got these little security cameras.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):Jeff wanted to do that and I was trying to figure out how to hook those into the streaming, but that doesn't work.
Mike:They have their own little thing. They may not be as good at cameras either.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):Probably not.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):But no, it's good. We really enjoy this, setting it up the best we can and letting everybody have a good time.
Kentucky Dave:I'm sitting here looking. You've got a line 10 deep and it seems like every time I've been over here you've had just a line at the cash register.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):Oh, yeah, that's one of the things we're going to try to do next year is perhaps have more checkouts, okay, so we can get people in and out of here faster. I mean thankfully they don't seem to mind. We've got some good music going, you know, give you something to listen to.
Kentucky Dave:That was a good idea too. The line's moving fast, but I'm just it's amazing the number of people coming through here and buying. Y'all brought a hobby shop.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):It's impressive, it's a lot of fun and, like I said, the more we can put on display for people, the better chance I have of having what you need or what you want. Yeah.
Mike:All right. Well, we won't keep you any longer, brandon, all right. And we appreciate taking a few minutes with us and we look forward to the next time we see you, Absolutely.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):And we'll probably talk to you before then yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Mike:And it's all great.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):It's always good to see you guys.
Mike:It's good.
Brandon Lowe (Squadron):All right, thank you so much. Thank you.
Mike:Always good to talk to Brandon and man did they have it going on, Good grief.
Kentucky Dave:If you couldn't find something in the squadron area that you wanted to buy, you were not working very hard. Whoa dog did. He have an unbelievable assortment of kids with a couple of game machines and his own Muzak sound system. I mean it was impressive.
Mike:New employee, jeff Hearn, was there helping out with the paints and that stuff and folks. I just can't wait to see what he does next year, because it keeps getting bigger. He's already a platinum sponsor for the convention, which is great, and that's what he did, dave. He did bring a big warehouse and drop it on the show floor.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, and every time I was over in that area he had a line of people lined up to make purchases. I mean there was not a slack few minutes during the whole four days.
Mike:Well, good on him and I you know we'll see what happens We'll. We'll see him before the Nats next year. Hopefully we've got a chance to see him at Wonderfest. We'll have a chance to possibly see him at amps. We get there both of those shows, but IPMS national convention in Fort Wayne. If he wants to outdo himself, he will.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I'm not sure how. How could you possibly?
Mike:Well, speaking of Fort Wayne, Dave, we have a little bit here from Mr Figueroa from the Fort Wayne area in the upcoming convention in 2026. Sounds like they're going to have a good show man.
Kentucky Dave:I have no doubt.
Mike:Well, dave, as of Wednesday, it is less than a year until the 2026 IPMS National Convention, and who do we have with us?
Kentucky Dave:We have Mr Figueroa, who is the show chairman, we have Mr Figueroa, who is the show chairman, driving force and all-around big cheese when it comes to Fort Wayne and the Fort Wayne show I prefer Grand Poobah. Grand Poobah. Okay, that works.
Mike:I'm sorry, grand Poobah Do you need a big blue hat with horns on it.
John Figuroa:Yep, okay, we'll see what we can do.
Mike:But what's in store?
John Figuroa:in Fort Wayne, indiana. Let me start with the themed awards. We wrestled with these awards for weeks and the whole team we got a team of 11 clubs doing the show Okay and we wanted to get something that gave a little love to the traditionally underrepresented genres. So we've got Happy Birthday America. It's the American Revolution for figure guys. We've got Gundam RX-78, back to the Future or Back to the Beginning, I'm sorry, that's for obviously the Gundam guys. I guess RX-78 was the first Gundam Truck Town USA International Harvester, any International Harvester. Subject 60th anniversary of Star Trek for the sci-fi guys and the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland for ship modelers, so you've got something for just about everybody.
Mike:That's really interesting.
John Figuroa:Yeah, I mean we don't.
John Figuroa:I'm an aircraft and armor guy, okay, but you'll notice they're conspicuously missing from it because they've gotten the brunt of everything for 60 years. Okay, and we need to pass the baton off to people, younger people that are interested in other subjects if we're going to grow the society. So we're pretty happy with what we got and, like I said, we wrestled with it for a long time. So when is the show next year? It's the 5th to the 8th of August. Okay, it's at the Grand Wayne Convention Center, which is right downtown.
John Figuroa:Fort Wayne is a small city it's 275,000, but it doesn't even have like a metropolitan area. Right Outside of Fort Wayne is cornfields and there's little towns, right, right, so downtown is like six blocks by seven blocks. Okay, you can walk from one side to the other in 20 minutes. You know if you're slow, right, but there's so much to do down there. It's very walkable. We've got 60 restaurants within walking distance of the convention center, anything from Arby's to Ruth's Chris. We've got the Embassy Theater right across the street, which was opened in 1928. That's where we're going to do our awards ceremony and I think that's going to be the crown jewel for us If we don't do anything else. Right, I think people five years from now are going to still be saying oh man, remember that theater in Fort Wayne. It's a real gem.
Kentucky Dave:Now you've got three convention hotels all attached by skyways to the convention center, correct, correct. So that's going to open up a whole lot of rooms, I think one of them.
John Figuroa:You have to go from one hotel to the other to get across, but you can still stay inside. And the same to the Embassy Theater. You just from the Convention Center. You go up the escalator, you go across the skywalk, down the stairs and you're in the theater. Great, fabulous.
Kentucky Dave:Well, we're looking forward to it. Like you said, you've got 11 different clubs who have volunteered to staff and man the convention. I know you're having meetings what?
John Figuroa:monthly or every two weeks, twice a month, and we're going to go to weekly meetings here at some point soon.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and you've got a promotional table out here at the Hampton Convention and every time I've walked by it's been A well-staffed and B. You've had people coming by who really seem interested in going to Fort Wayne.
John Figuroa:Yeah we're going to be doing road shows also. Nora and I are planning to go down to Pensacola, Florida. We're in November 8th. We're going down to, we're going to drive down to Austin. Right.
John Figuroa:And we've got a guy that's going to go to Seattle. So you know, I mean, and you're going to promote at Wonderfest next year too. Yes, exactly, and at the Amps Nationals. So what we did is we talked to Amps Nationals, we said, hey, if you give us a table to promote our show, we'll give you a table to promote your show. And they thought it was a great idea and that's happened in the past.
Mike:I mean, there's a big Amps table in Texas when we were down there in San Marcos. Okay, are vendor tables being open for reservation yet, or when is that kind of thing going to start?
John Figuroa:We have completely sold out the main vendor room already Damn. Well, I mean there might be one or two, okay. But yeah, my vendor coordinator is a hot dog, okay. The first day I told him you know, he said I'm going to go sell some vendor tables. I said you want me to go with you? And he just gave me the stink eye. I said John, that's your job. I said go do good things. I said I got other things to do.
Greg VandeVisser (Red Wild Diorama):He said you know, leave me alone.
John Figuroa:Stay out of my dickers.
John Figuroa:All right and he just did a great job, for we actually have four vendor rooms. They're all right in the same area. You just go across the hall and in and one of them is about 25,000 square feet the main one. We've got a 10,000 square foot one and a 6,000 square foot one, and then we actually have one at the top of the stairs which is in a beautiful. It's got glass windows and the ceiling is kind of glass and the sun comes in.
John Figuroa:You look right out over the Embassy Theater and over downtown and we got 27 vendor tables in there and it's right across from the Tiger Meat room, gotcha. So that's another thing. Tiger Meat we're live and well, we've got 65 tables for Tiger Meat and anyone who doesn't know what Tiger Meat is, it's display only. If you don't want to enter the contest display, only Anyone can put it up there. We're going to do a commemorative poker chip, so only people that enter the Tiger Meat will get the poker chip. We've got two t-shirts a convention t-shirt and a vendor t-shirt with different designs on them. I think we're good to go.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, all right. Well, I promised we wouldn't keep you. Thank you for coming over and sitting down and talking about what we've got to look forward to in Fort Wayne in 2026.
John Figuroa:Thank you, and maybe we can do this again in six months or so. We'll get a little closer, absolutely.
Mike:Given that our club's involved with your volunteer course, we would love to be a bigger part of this one.
John Figuroa:Absolutely Thank you guys for having us. You're welcome. Bye-bye.
Mike:Looking forward to it. Man, I am too. I'm so glad we rose above our situations and didn't bail on this one.
Kentucky Dave:I am so glad and it reminded me why it's the best four days every year. Again, I came home depressed that it was over and immediately starting to look forward to 2026. And especially the fact that we're not going to have to drive nine plus hours.
Mike:Yeah, and one of my wife's best friends is up there, so this one may be a maybe a good one. Yeah, but before we get too far ahead of ourselves for 2026, what else you got to say about 2025?
Kentucky Dave:It was good. Now, that's not to say it was perfect. I've never been to a convention where there wasn't something didn't work right. This time they're transitioning to an online registration system and if you brought your models and didn't register them ahead of time, you registered them there, but you had to do it via the computers they had set up and that was a little slower than I think they wanted it to be. They had some minor things with the printed schedule for seminars not matching what was actually going on. The vendor room map layout was incorrect due to some rearranging, but all that's I mean, that's so minor, it ran so beautifully.
Kentucky Dave:High compliments for the fact that they've altered the awards ceremony and this year they were running slides of the first, second and third winners in each category during the banquet and then, immediately after the banquet, they announced all the juniors, all of the best ofs and specialty awards, announced that 2027 is going to be in Huntsville, alabama, and then released everybody. The model room was opened by 8.30, which is as early as I ever remember it being opened, which allowed a lot more time because it wasn't so late, to not only get in and pack up your models but to socialize with the other modelers that you knew and you had seen their work in. Or you could catch somebody who was boxing his work up and say you know, I really like this piece. How did you do this? Or how did you do that? It gave much more time for that and that was a great. I mean, that was one of the highlights of the show. So what did you?
Mike:think I had a great time. The Airbnb worked out great. Great hanging out with Paul Gloucester and Mark Copeland and Steve Hustad.
Kentucky Dave:And let's not talk about the fact that Paul Gloucester transported 10 models halfway around the world. I don't know how he does it.
Mike:I had a good time, man, and I tell you one thing I want to mention is we have some crossover with the Model Geeks, but they killed it. They were there broadcasting every day and putting out content every day and they absolutely killed it. So kudos to those guys and, uh, it was great to see them. We didn't get to spend a lot of time with them this time just because they were busy. We were busy, but, uh, they did a great job. Well, that's a wrap for the 2025 National Convention. Dave and I guess we'll get on to regular life again.
Kentucky Dave:Onward and upward man.
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Mike:I was glad Bill and Wes got to see the E16 on the base they made for me.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, yeah, that was fun. That attracted a lot of attention. That was one of the things that we did that we hadn't really planned ahead of time, but it really did work out, having a couple of things that people have heard about when we talk about them on the show actually on the table for people to stop by and look at.
Mike:Well, that one's been to Canada and it's been to Hampton Virginia, and I think it's not going anywhere else.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I think it needs to go in a case.
Mike:It might come to our show. Yeah, it ought to come to our show, that's a short one, so maybe that's 60 miles.
Kentucky Dave:You can do that.
Mike:Well, you're always fired up after nats, dave, yes, I am.
Kentucky Dave:What's your benchtop looking like for the benchtop halftime report? It looks better than it did right before the show. As everybody knows, a group that I am a part of called the Septembrists they do a group entry every year. This year, aircraft that were stationed in Norfolk from 1930 to 1950 or so and I was working to finish a Bearcat. I already had one model done for the display is an F-4, f-3 Wildcat and Yellow Wings markings, which I did get to the show and was part of the display. But I was working on a Hobby Boss Bearcat in Norfolk Naval Reserve markings and through a combination of pressure, laziness, I failed.
Kentucky Dave:And this happens every time and I apologize for the language, but there's not another way to say this. I'll get rushed on a project and I will try and half-ass something I will try and instead of doing it right the way I know it should be done, I try and shortcut it to get it done because I'm under a time crunch, and that's exactly what happened here. I was working on the well, first of all, I hadn't thought it out completely, and so I applied some details that I should have waited until after I painted the tailband for, and then, when I went to paint the tailband, instead of getting my micrometer out and measuring and doing it the right way. I tried to improvise it and just, oh yeah, that'll be good enough, it'll work. And of course, it didn't work to the point where it ruined the model and, in a fit of pique, I did something that I don't think I've done in at least 10 years, which is I threw the model in the trash. Now, luckily, I had a backup, because I was building two of these F8F2s along with one F8F1, on the theory that I needed a backup and had it available, and if the original one worked out, then I was going to do the backup in alternate markings. But in any event, I trashed the one I was doing, but the backup one is 99% done. In fact, as soon as I got back from the nationals, I painted the tail band on and did it the right way masking, measuring, doing the things that needed to be done.
Kentucky Dave:And when you're trying to take a shortcut, you always know you're trying to take a shortcut and, frankly, in the back of your head, you know it's a mistake. Now, every once in a while, you get away with it and that's a problem because that gets you thinking oh, I can do that, but no. But I've been posting photos on the dojo. The tail band is on. I've just got to put some decals on, gloss, coat it, slap the gear, the propeller, take the canopy mask off and it's done. So it'll be in the next week or two. And then I've got to somehow hook up with Dr David Geldmacher, the leader of the Septemberists, who has the current display, and get this to him so he can include it in shows that he goes to down the road.
Mike:Oh, I got to laugh.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I know.
Mike:I did it. Not at your misfortune, not at your misfortune. I already did that. That was last. Yeah, I know.
Kentucky Dave:That was nine hours in a car each way.
Mike:So you guys had this display for the 2025 and you're working on the next one for 2026. Right. And you mentioned Dr Dave. Yep. And most of these guys were at the convention. Yeah, a fair number of them. We got to see them all, for the most part, who participated in this build, except for Vitkus, I think. So I'm on the emails for all this. I'm like this peripheral Septemberist, I guess.
Kentucky Dave:You're a member, we're going to suck you into the group.
Mike:So they're. So you've said there's been a meeting set up to determine what the next subject is going to be. Yep, and I had to double check the date september 26th yeah a month and a half away to figure out what models you're going to build for the next convention.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, this is what yeah, I know, I know where you're going.
Mike:I love these guys, but Dave man, this is the most eccentric bunch of modelers I've ever been around. Yeah, watching you guys try to plan. Something is like watching the episode of the Bob Newhart Show.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, it is With Larry Daryl and Daryl no no, the old Bob Newhart show.
Mike:Oh, okay.
Kentucky Dave:Hopefully we're going to settle on a theme where I've actually got one or more models that it might already fit into it.
Mike:But you know what happens in a month and a half.
Kentucky Dave:We'll see what happens.
Mike:I'll tell you what's going to happen. As an engineer, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen.
Ben Pluth & Frank Blanton:As an engineer.
Mike:I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. Every Septimers is going to have a month and have to think about their own idea. Yeah, you're going to be that much further apart.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I don't know, we'll see. Actually, we've been, as you know, because you're on the text or the email chain. We've already settled on maybe two or three and it's just figuring out which of those we're going to utilize. You settle on one? Yeah, well, we will On September 26,. We will settle on one at that meeting, okay, because it better not go one day past that.
Kentucky Dave:It will not. I vow to you. That's all right To hear that, dr Gellmacher, I know he listens. So fun, fun to jab a little. Oh yeah. And also I've actually started a little work on the special Navy, kfk and 72nd scale. That just cause I need something to work on when I want to build and not paint. And then as soon as the Bearcat's done, the SAM goes back on the stand and it gets finished because it's 90 plus percent finished, plus percent finish. So I have vowed to Steve Fustad, among others, that that one is next and it's going to get finished and wrapped up before the end of the year, at which point I will have four completed models for the year in your face.
Mike:That's fine. It's well, it's August, I'll get there. You got about four months for the dark period, as you say, sets in.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, the dark time sets in, so if you finished.
Mike:If you finished, you're going to finish the Bearcat Right and you finished the SAM.
Kentucky Dave:That's three. Actually, I said four.
Mike:Well, there's a couple collecting dust.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, there are many collecting dust, well no, yeah, well, there are many collecting dust.
Mike:Well, no, yeah, probably some of those weren't even. We weren't even doing the podcast when those were. Well, that's true, started collecting dust.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I have a deep and wide shelf of doom.
Mike:You could clean that up and maybe get five.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, you're right, it's possible. Folks push them on. I want to see you finish two this year.
Mike:Yeah, it's possible, but uh, I want folks push him on. I want to see you finish, too, this year.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, it's possible because the paul got finished in january.
Mike:It's not it's not likely, but yeah, yeah, I got finished in january so all you gotta do is get that kv85 done by.
Kentucky Dave:I mean, I'm not even gonna hold you to the base if you can get the model done okay, all right, I'll count that one. So, mike, speaking of that, what's? What's your benchtop look like?
Mike:I don't know, I haven't seen it in two weeks. I really haven't I know, you know, even though it's right behind me, because it's literally behind me where we record tonight but but I haven't got to anything. I haven't got there yet.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, you came back and you dropped into it big time. Now I did too as far as work and all the stuff waiting when I got back. But I didn't have to work this weekend and you did. I actually got a night or two of modeling in this week where you haven't been able to unpack anything from having been at the National Convention.
Mike:Not much, but there's stuff that's happened. Yeah, one was I got an envelope from Brandon Gentry, who we met at the National Convention, mm-hmm, and he had heard me talking about this nylon filter mesh I'm trying to figure out for the for the KV 85. Yeah. And as he said he would at the show. He mailed this on August 11th from Indy. Yep.
Mike:He sent me some filter meshes he'd pulled out of some parts he had told me about, and I'm trying to see if it's going to work Now. I already took one in a haste and hit it with some black rattle can to see what it was going to do and I don't know what. I didn't shake the can enough, so it all kind of beat it off and made a mess. But he sent me several. So I gotta I gotta get those painted up and see if they're going to work. I'm trying to think it might be too fine still, maybe not. It's it's close, it's real close. So hopefully it'll work out. So so, brandon, I appreciate that you said you're going to do that and you actually did it, and thanks for thinking of me and coming up to the show and tell me about it. So I appreciate that very much. The other thing that's happened is that we were able to open the box that the Moosaroo Cup kit came in.
Kentucky Dave:What did?
Mike:you get. I got a car kit, Dave, a curbside car kit. Okay.
Mike:It's an aoshima kit. It is a nb8c roadster, also known in north america, maybe other places, the mazda miata. Oh okay, so it is a. It's the. The kit as boxed is a from a manga kind of anime, ip, so it's got kind of that kind of artwork on the front. It's curbside kit again, so no engine, so you don't have to worry about that. It's the whole theme of this moose root cup this year is kind of the fast and furious kind of thing right so this thing is a typical god.
Mike:What to call it? Exhaust, delete, non-functional whale, tail, fin on the back, fast and Furious Roadster.
Kentucky Dave:Now, what are the limitations out of the box?
Mike:No, we can build it and implement anything that is along that theme.
Kentucky Dave:Okay.
Mike:As long as it remains like the still looks like the car right.
Kentucky Dave:Gotcha.
Mike:So I don't know I got to get into this. I got an idea. We'll talk about it later.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that offline.
Mike:Luckily it's an easy kit to build, so that won't be the problem this year.
Kentucky Dave:Well, now that you have SpaceX 33 behind you hopefully this week you'll actually in in the evenings get to come sit down at your bench and model Everyone got to see the KV-85 where it is yeah, they did when it is currently and it's hopefully we can push on and get that, get that going.
Mike:That's pretty much my bench right now, man.
The Voice of Bob:Classic Model Mojo is brought to you by Squadron. Head on over to squadroncom for the latest in kits and accessories, all at a great price and with great service. Are you a modeler on the go? Check out the Squadron mobile app for your Apple or Android device for easy shopping from just about anywhere. Squadron adding to the stash since 1968.
Mike:Or get lost in their vendor booth.
Kentucky Dave:Oh gosh, you know. This next section is called what Broke your Wallet? Yeah, and on the outline I just wrote everything.
Mike:Well, it's interesting. For varied reasons we've both been kind of muted in our purchases of really since Heritage Con, since March. Yep. But we went to the national convention and I was in a better frame of mind than I was in Heritage Con. The fog is lifting and some things were bought, but who's going first?
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'll go first, because I think I got more than you.
Mike:I think you did too.
Kentucky Dave:Right before the Nationals I placed an order with Squadron Shop for another Hobby Boss, f8f because I thought I was going to have to steal the decals out of it and had it rushed delivered to my house. Decals out of it and had it rush delivered to my house. So I've got it. But it turns out I don't need it. So I'll probably end up selling that because I don't think I'm going to build a fourth Bearcat. Other than that, we went to the Nationals and the vendor room was great. I was relatively self-controlled. I counted it up. I bought eight books, of course, three decal sheets, about six of those foam blanking wheel well blanking masks that UMM USA has. And then I picked up five, six, seven kits man, only one of which was actually a new release buy it at nearly full price kit and that was the Blosh MB210 in Romanian markings, because I'm a sucker for anything in Romanian markings. So I bought that.
Kentucky Dave:But the other stuff, what happened the last Saturday afternoon? We're walking around and all the vendors are packing up and some of them are blowing stuff out and stuff out, and some of the things they were, some of the prices they were asking for kits were just ridiculously low. So I picked up, I think, four Jap. Oh, I did find a Tamiya Zero at the show. Tamiya Zero for $10. So it was the automatic buy price. It was a model 52. So it was the automatic buy price. It was a Model 52. So now I have 14 of those. But I picked up four Japanese aircraft for like $5 or $7 a piece, a couple of Fujimi kits. It was just. I mean, you know, when they're giving them away like that, it's hard to resist it, even though I probably should, because usually I already have one of what I'm buying at home. But all in all I didn't go crazy. But yeah, I put a hurtin' on to the point where I don't think I'll be buying much of anything the rest of the year. I think I'm done.
Mike:We'll see. I'll have to watch you at our show in September.
Kentucky Dave:That's right, that's right. How about?
Mike:you Well, I guess. On the kit front I only bought three. I came back with more than that, though. Yes. We mentioned Paul Gloucester earlier. He had been to a swap meet in Australia and found the Dragon Cyber Hobby Gloucester Meteors.
Kentucky Dave:Which are tough to find, man.
Mike:Which are tough to find. I got the F1 and F3. So I got the two World War II era birds. Glad to get those. I'm a sucker for this stuff, Dave. There was a guy there selling stuff at a good price already and some of this classic Airfix stuff. I just can't say no, especially when it's cheap.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, and this was cheap. Doesn't begin to describe how cheap this was.
Mike:So the first one's been re-released. It's in a modern red box by Airfix, and there's also a 35th scale kit. I can't remember who made it off the top of my head, but it's air fixed 70, 17 pounder anti-tank gun in 32nd scale. Yep.
Mike:In the original 1980 new release box. Yep, just a classic kit. The seller had four of them. The seller had four of them and up until up until this show, I'd not seen four in my entire life, including two that were built already and this kit not that long ago, before they re-released it and before the 35th scale, you know way better kit came out. You couldn't touch this kit for less than $100. Yeah. So I got mine for $10. Yep.
Kentucky Dave:With asthma-inducing mold included.
Mike:Yeah, I had a big allergy attack after leaving this table. That wasn't all, though, dave. Again, some things that have some of these have been released. I think Some of them maybe not, but the Airfix 30-second scale multipose figures. Yep. And this guy had a stack of these things for $5 a pop and most of them were still in the original shrink wrap. Same with the anti-tank gun.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, and again, mold included.
Mike:Mold included. I picked up for two ideas. One there's a scene from the Market Garden campaign of one of these anti-tank guns on the road firing across the river at the Nijmegen Bridge. So I picked up the British multipose figure set to use as additional gun crew, because there's a British multipose figure set inside the 17-pounder kit as well. So that's 12 figures total. Don't need 12. I need more than six to do that scene. And on this theme of getting better at figure painting, I've always wanted the Japanese infantry set from the Airfix Multipose range.
Kentucky Dave:I think that's the box art that makes that one.
Mike:I think it makes all of them desirable. Should I have bought the Marines and the Germans and the US infantry in Northwest Europe? Yeah, probably, probably not, I don't know. They never did a Russian set though. Yeah, god help me, if they had done that. I'd have bought all of them. But this is a fun little set and looking forward to maybe getting some figure painting practice and maybe a little vignette with those six figures, that might be kind of cool too. Uh, I bought a couple of books.
Kentucky Dave:Dave, yes, you did Well wait a minute. Was that the only kit you bought?
Mike:I bought another old airfix kit. I bought a uh a Wessex whirlwind.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, that's right, that was at the blowout phase.
Mike:That was at the blowout. I think that was $2 or something.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, yeah, it was some ridiculous price?
Mike:It wasn't much. What else did I get? Oh, the books. Yeah, there was a publisher called AGA Press. I don't know if they're still around, they're out of Poland and they've done a series on the Japanese tanks, they've done one on the Panther, they've done one on the Tigers.
Mike:They've done one on a lot of stuff, Trying to think what else? M3 Lee and the American Halftracks. Well, the Japanese armor series was five volumes long and I walk up to this table. And not only has he got all five volumes of the Japanese tank books, Japanese armor books, he's got a copy of the T-34 Mythical Weapon, the old Air Connection book. That was published I don't know, it was probably 15 years ago now or more.
Kentucky Dave:Which you happen to have missed when it was published.
Mike:Yeah, which I missed when it was published. There's some controversy about the book, but it's a good reference. Right. Maybe not singularly, but as a part of an overall collection. T-34 references is one you probably want to have, so he had that too, and all this stuff's out of print and none of it was at out of print book prices. Yeah.
Mike:So I couldn't remember if I had the fifth volume of the Japanese tank books or not. So I texted my son back at home and said hey, here's what the spine looks like, here's what the cover looks like. Pull all these off the shelf and see if I've got them all. He said no, there's only four of them, dad. I'm like okay, so I picked up the fifth volume. So that was a good score for me.
Kentucky Dave:And I'm glad that the bookseller was willing to break the setup.
Mike:Yeah, he was unsure if he wanted to break the setup and he ended up selling the others too. Yeah, kind of interesting. There was another copy of the mythical weapon book at the show, yep, and it was at a much higher price.
Kentucky Dave:Triple. Almost three X not quite Almost three X yes.
Mike:Two and a half times as much, and I may be mistaken, but I want to say it's the same guy who had that book at the amp show up in South Bend yeah, year before last yeah, or now last year, he ended up buying the other four yeah we'll see what those end up being sold for.
Mike:Yeah, I don't blame him. I mean he's a lot out of print books. It just happened to be the timing this. Somebody else was there with one who was willing to part with him, for you know MSRP at the time of their release, so I picked up the Mythical Weapon for under $100. Yeah, it's a steal at that price.
Kentucky Dave:Well, if you go by per pound, it was a real steal, because that's a big book.
Mike:That is true, it's a big book and I had to rearrange the bookshelf, but it's over there now. I bought a lot of big, heavy books this year, dave, I know, but as far as the Nationals goes that's pretty much all. I bought Way more than I bought at Heritage Con, but it's still a little reserved. I'm not buying a lot of kits right now. I came back with several, but glad to have them. I'm getting quite the collection of vintage Airfix I need to start building a few of them.
Kentucky Dave:I'm going to start calling you Jim Bates.
Mike:Yeah, that'd be good.
Kentucky Dave:You can't resist a classic Airfix in the old box. Mike, we're almost at the end of the episode and I can tell you that Hector Colon did us a solid by bringing Medallia Premium Light Beer from Puerto Rico. It's about 4.5% alcohol by volume, so it's 4.7%. So it's a classic light beer, but it does have way more body than an American light beer. I'm not sure what the base grain is. You know most American beers it's rice and I don't think this is rice. It's got a little more body to it. It's got a little bit more malt to it. But, Hector, thank you. Very good beer, Very enjoyable, Got me through the episode easy. How about yours?
Mike:Well, I finished up the Uncle Nearest 1884. Yep. And it's really interesting. Now, Bill, thank you for bringing this Interesting. Now, Bill, thank you for bringing this. We may have talked about this a little bit down in Knoxville a year or so ago when I met you there. This is an interesting one. I've been wanting to try because of the history behind it.
Kentucky Dave:Right Uncle Nearest is named for a gentleman named. Nearest Green who is the first recorded Africanrican-american master distiller in the united states, and jack daniels distillery there's.
Mike:There's a connection there. A little weak on the history of that, but yes, there's a definitely a jack daniels connection and it's a tennessee whiskey. Now, what does that mean? Um, the mash bill is is essentially the as bourbon, but with a bourbon it goes right into the new charred oak casks.
Kentucky Dave:Right Charred white oak barrel.
Mike:When they're done distilling the alcohol. In Tennessee whiskey there's a process called the Lincoln County process. So before it gets barreled it goes through a filtration, through maple charcoal, right, and then it's barreled and it mellows it out. And one thing it does it kind of peels off those oak notes somehow, I don't know how, but the oak is not there, because I think this goes into oak barrels but something's going on there. I'm not sure what. It really mellows it out. It brings the corn forward, which I kind of don't like. So it's a little sweeter. But this thing, this is a good sip man, it's not bad at all.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah Well, it's a quality. He didn't give you a cheap, let's put it this way that one didn't come in a plastic jug.
Mike:No, it did not. It came in a nice bottle. So, bill, thanks for that. It's good. Yeah, I'd do it again, for sure. Yeah, from Shelbyville, tennessee, home of the Tennessee, walking horse. There you go. Well, that's the modeling fluids. Man.
Kentucky Dave:Now we truly are at the end of the episode. Shout outs God, I've almost got too many, but I'll confine them to two. You got some shout outs.
Mike:I'll go first. I've got one. Okay, I'm going to skip the customary thank yous for all the contributors. We've got some more and I'll address those in the upcoming episodes. But, brandon Gentry, I appreciate you remembering to send me this filter mesh, and you know it speaks volumes of the modeling community that we had that short conversation. You mentioned it and we agreed that it might be worth looking into, and you've actually put an envelope and sent it to me. So, brandon, thank you, thank you very much.
Kentucky Dave:Appreciate it. I've got two. First is our thoughts and prayers go out to Dave Goldfinch, podfather from OTB. He recently experienced a loss in his family and that's always difficult and Dave's such a great guy. We're always thinking about you, dave, especially at a time like this, so I just want you to know that we're all thinking of you. And finally, I want to thank all the listeners who stopped by the table. I think we had more people stop by this year than any other year. I especially want to thank everybody who brought us a modeling fluid. You have stocked us well and there's nothing I love better than trying a modeling fluid that I've never tried before.
Mike:And we got a lot of them.
Kentucky Dave:And we got a lot of them. But the interesting conversations we had with listeners, some guys we knew, some guys we'd met before, plenty of guys we saw and met for the first time and it was immediately like talking with old friends and they bring up something they heard on the podcast or something on your KV 85 or whatever. And it was just, it was an immediate rapport. It was great. That I'll tell you. Obviously, when Mike and I started this, we never envisioned or planned on anything like that and I got to tell you it has really turned out to be. One of my favorite parts of podcasting is going to the National sitting at our table is going to the National sitting at our table and getting to talk to so many interesting modelers, all of whom have something to contribute Could say any better myself, Dave it was a good time.
Kentucky Dave:It was a great time.
Mike:All right. Well, as we always say, dave, so many kits, so little time. I guess we got a show spotlight to kick out, and then it's on September, yep.
