Retirement, Inspiration, And Finding Joy In The Build: Episode 150

Ever feel your hobby start to feel like homework? We hit episode 150 with a full tank of mojo and a guest who knows how to keep it running. Dr. Paul Budzik joins us on the eve of his retirement after 51 years in dentistry to share a refreshingly honest blueprint for building with joy: protect inspiration, shed obligation, and stop treating your stash like a to‑do list. If finishing every kit has become a guilt trip, this conversation offers the reset you need.

We dig into how small workflow choices can unlock big momentum. Paul explains why returning to simple, durable siphon‑feed airbrushes lets him paint in fast, focused sprints, and how linear building—one solved problem at a time—keeps him in the zone. He talks candidly about giving away kits and tools, the surprising relief that followed, and the fun of re‑engineering gear to fit the way he actually works. The theme is practical and personal: optimize for flow, and the bench becomes a place you can’t wait to sit.

Looking forward, Paul outlines his shift toward 1/350 ship modeling. Rather than chasing every aftermarket add‑on, he focuses on form, history, and design evolution—comparing cruisers, exploring treaty constraints, and building on keel blocks for clean presentation. Along the way, he draws an important line between knowledge and skill: a video can teach a CAD commands, but blade control, masking finesse, and problem‑solving are earned at the bench. His goal on his channel is to teach thinking—how to define the objective, work backward, simplify, and make smarter choices with less effort.

We also share highlights from the Cincinnati show, a stacked listener mailbag (from club table innovations to mirrored vs blurred bases), and quick hits from the release radar with a few buyer caveats to save you time and cash. If your bench feels crowded or your to‑finish list feels heavy, this one will help you reclaim the part of modeling that made you start in the first place.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, share with a modeling friend, and leave a rating to help others find the show. Then tell us: what obligation are you dropping this week to build happier?

Mike Mackowski's  Space in Miniature YouTube  and Website
Paul Budzik's Scale Model Workshop Patreon Page

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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.

Chapters

• 0:00 Milestone 150 And Model Sphere Catch‑Up
• 3:36 Cincinnati Show Highlights And Rekindled Mojo
• 10:05 Life Load, Schedule Slips, And Modeling Fluids
• 15:00 Listener Mailbag: Shows, Tools, And Ideas
• 27:00 Community Shoutouts And Hobby Finds
• 33:07 Introducing Dr. Paul Budzik
• 34:00 Retiring And Redefining The Hobby
• 39:20 Inspiration Over Obligation
• 46:30 Shedding Stash, Tools, And Mental Weight
• 52:40 Airbrush Choices And Fast, Linear Workflow
• 1:02:30 Choosing Ships And Scale Philosophy
• 1:12:00 Historical Lenses: Cruiser Plans And Kits
• 1:24:00 Skill vs Knowledge And Problem Solving
• 1:35:20 Wrapping With Paul: Channel Plans
• 1:38:40 Bench Top Halftime: Funk, Fixes, Progress
• 1:48:30 Air Supply Dilemma And Armor Updates
• 1:56:00 Faves And Yawns: New Kits And Caveats
• 2:10:30 Community, Sponsors, And Support
• 2:13:00 Closing Thoughts And Sign‑Off

Transcript

"The Voice of Bob" Bair: 0:10

Modeling module. Well in 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 module alive.

Mike: 0:36

Well, folks, it's 150. How about that, Kentucky Dave?

Kentucky Dave: 0:39

Yeah, 150. We're we're closing in on the Big 200, man.

Mike: 0:44

That'll be be a while, but uh yeah. We'll get there. We'll get there. Well, happy Friday. Happy Friday. Happy uh happy episode day. That's right. So uh let's just get into it, man, because we got a pretty pretty long interview by comparison. What's been up in your model sphere, my friend?

Kentucky Dave: 1:03

Oh boy, what a model sphere. As you well know, last weekend the IPMS Cincinnati Club put on this Cincinnati scale model show. And those boys know how to put on a model show. The weather was perfect, and it seems like it always is for them. I mean, it's wonderful.

Mike: 1:30

It's the time of year.

Kentucky Dave: 1:32

Yeah. So they had the the hangar open, which allowed them to get extra vendor tables in. The turnout was fantastic. The vendors, there boy, you talk about deals. There were deals. I and I got to spend the day sitting next to Inch, sitting next to Skippy, talking models all day. You got Barry Numerick came by the table. IPMS president John Nowack came by. Got to spend time talking with different modelers. Couple of listeners stopped me out of the blue. And, you know, well, I'm wearing the PMM shirt, so people know. But stopped me and are like, hey, are you Kentucky Dave? And got into some great conversations. People like what we're doing, by the way. That just uh just to let you know that was the consensus of the people who stopped me. Well, that's always good to hear. And like most model shows, I came home fired up. Pre-Cincinnati show, I was experiencing a little bit of a funk, had some stuff, uh, some negative modeling and some difficulties, and was feeling, you know, a little bit like I couldn't glue two parts together correctly. And the Cincinnati show really, really got my juices flowing. It was fantastic. Had a great time.

Mike: 3:06

We're good.

Kentucky Dave: 3:07

And the model sphere is wonderful. Now I'm already looking forward to Murphy'sboro. So hopefully you'll get to go to Murphy's.

Mike: 3:14

Yeah, I'm I'm trying. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm trying. We'll see. Okay. Can't can't commit till sometime next month, but yeah. We'll see. We're getting close though. A couple of three weeks.

Kentucky Dave: 3:24

All in all, great. Feeling good. Got the mojo flowing. You know, I feel like Emperor Palpatine when he's firing lightning bolts out of out of his fingertips. Here's a geek reference for you. So how's how's your model sphere?

Mike: 3:39

Oh man, a lot of stuff other than modeling.

Kentucky Dave: 3:42

Oh, that's not good.

Mike: 3:44

I know. Well, we won't talk about it in detail here, but we've talked about it. It's just yeah, man, I tell you, life. I'm about one inconvenience, we'll call it, from uh 2020 being better than 2025. That's that's about where I'm at. And I'm I'm serious about that.

Kentucky Dave: 4:00

Oh man, that's bad. So that's bad.

Mike: 4:03

Well we'll see. You know, we're we're late getting this out, but we had a our double double barrel model show spotlight last week, which is still kind of cranking through the listeners. And it's okay. We'll get this dropped or first of next week. Luckily, I don't worry about that too much. Um, you know, it's it's helped me have the edit time instead of trying to crank crank it out on exactly the schedule, which passed a long time ago.

Kentucky Dave: 4:28

But this is a model sphere. It's modeling that you need to get inspired by. I know, you're right. You need to sit at a bench and put some parts together.

Mike: 4:37

Well, I was a little fatigued last night from uh supporting the guys over at the machine shop. Do you have a launch coming up? No, we got some parts to get done, and and one of the guys was out, so they needed a chuck monkey to keep feeding parts into the CNC machine. So Chuck Monkey. I did that for about six hours. But hopefully, hopefully this weekend I can I can get some stuff cranking on the bench. Uh my fuel, we'll talk about that during the during the bench top halftime report. So, you know, the model sphere has been a little distracted of late again. So getting a little tired of it, honestly.

Kentucky Dave: 5:12

I'll send some mojo your way. How's that? All right. Sounds good to me. Well, since we're recording, you gotta have a modeling fluid. So what modeling fluid do you have?

Mike: 5:25

I have juicy IPA from Tailgate Brewing in Nashville, Tennessee.

Kentucky Dave: 5:30

Juicy IPA from Tailgate. Oh, the that's one of the ones we got as a gift. It is. Well, who did who do you remember who gave that to us? Bill Moore. Oh, that's right. We're gonna see hopefully we're gonna see Mr. Moore in about a month.

Mike: 5:45

We should make it, you'll see him.

Kentucky Dave: 5:48

Well, good. What about you?

Mike: 5:49

What are you working on?

Kentucky Dave: 5:51

Well, I am taking a break from the many beers that we were gifted because if I go to Cincinnati, one of the joys of going to Cincinnati is getting them to go over to Hofbrow House and have a fine German meal. And I gotta say, I think the one I had this pastime was the best I've had ever. And that means I also get to get a couple of growlers filled with Hoffbrow House Hefeweizen, and it's freshly brewed, it's awesome, and so I have a Hoffbrow House Hefeweizen. Oh, God, is that good?

Mike: 6:39

Well, Dave, my call for a little more listener mail than we got last time was certainly answered. We got some good stuff here. Well, good, good. Let's get into it. Hopefully it'll keep coming like it's coming. Well, you know, we always ask the show people we talk to in our show spotlights to give us a little feedback at the end of the thing. Yep. Doug Reed from the Oregon Jamboree Show did get back with us and since a fairly exhaustive summary of the show. I'm not going to get into everything, but the sh the short of it is it was a success. And if you remember, their kind of innovation was these club tables they were doing. Right. So they feel that went really well, and the feedback from the participating groups was was good, and they they seemed to love it. And you know, they got a lot of anecdotal type comments from others and emails from attendees that also liked it. Well, they ended up with eight groups hosting tables, and it ranged from a couple of the groups were just there with information about their club, but some of the others had active builds going on or displays or other handouts, and they had clubs from Oregon and two from the Seattle area, IPMS Seattle and the Northwest Scale Modelers.

Kentucky Dave: 7:47

Jim went to the show, did a report for the dojo, and and he told me that he thought the club tables were a real success.

Mike: 7:57

Well, good. Maybe we'll catch on. Yeah, I hope they do. Well, he also mentions that you know it was a partnership, and he wanted to uh to recognize IPMass Salem and the S the SABA Automotive Club and the West Coast Gundam Group. They all provided great help in the planning and on the floor with the categories and their club tables, et cetera. And uh they're looking to grow the Oregon Jamboree next year. So good. Doug, we're glad that worked out. Hope we helped with that a little bit. Well, Dave, up next from the San Francisco area is Bruce Binkston again. Okay. He's got an interesting one. He wants to propose that fingernails are an important modeling tool and are perhaps under underappreciated.

Kentucky Dave: 8:41

I I agree with with that, and and my wife always wants me to keep mine trimmed very closely, and I I'll try to preserve one a little longer because I agree with him. The fingernail is uh is a an underappreciated modeling tool.

Mike: 9:02

Well, he was inspired to think about this a little bit because he's been watching several well-known YouTube modelers with no fingernails. Seems to be nail biting. I'm a little guilty of that myself, nervous habit.

Kentucky Dave: 9:15

Yeah.

Mike: 9:16

He says these modelers are good and helpful with uh lots of viewers, but he doesn't see how they do a lot of things with their fingernails bit into the quick. He says they're free, renewable, adjustable, and can be modified for special tasks. Now I've never done that.

Kentucky Dave: 9:29

I've brought one out to a little bit of a point before. Yeah, I've done that.

Mike: 9:35

It wasn't for some other habit, was it?

Kentucky Dave: 9:37

Yeah, no, no, no, no.

Mike: 9:40

He says there are natural tape peeler offers, part picker uppers, surface gauges, surface scrapers, tweezers, and the vertical part pinner downers on the work surface. Just a few of the uses. Use your fingernails, folks. That's what he's saying.

Kentucky Dave: 9:53

I agree with him 100%.

Mike: 9:56

Well, Mr. Panzermeister 36 wrote in. He must have felt sorry for us. And uh before I get into this, uh, there's a lot going on in Canada this weekend.

Kentucky Dave: 10:07

Yes.

Mike: 10:08

We have a Canadian homed uh World Series team.

Kentucky Dave: 10:12

Yeah.

Mike: 10:13

Losing to the Dodgers right now. Last I looked. And tonight, the night we record this, Friday, October 24th, is his last day as a single man.

Kentucky Dave: 10:25

Yes, it is. Tomorrow's Evan's big day. I was just messaging him, and our hearts go out to both Evan and his lovely bride to be Gabby. And by the time you hear this, they will be married and on their way to a full life together, and I could not be happier for both the both of them.

Mike: 10:48

Well, we've met her several times now in our Wonderfest journeys, and guess we'll see them again in March.

Kentucky Dave: 10:54

Yep. Looking forward to it.

Mike: 10:56

Well, he's gonna gig you first, man. That's okay. Go ahead. Says you got 15 Tomia zeros in the stash, you've only built three. Yeah.

Kentucky Dave: 11:07

Yep. But that ain't that that's three zeros I've built. That's an accomplishment. I'm I'm not gonna feel bad about that.

Mike: 11:20

Then you just go buy another one when you're done. Yeah.

Kentucky Dave: 11:24

Well, if he thinks that's bad, Cincinnati and Yeah, I saw it. It yeah. The the broke your wallet segment on the next episode we do that is going to be mine too. Long and distinguished.

Mike: 11:40

It will be. So there's something to look forward to for 51, folks.

Kentucky Dave: 11:44

There you go.

Mike: 11:45

Well, he had a lot to say about my blurred base thing with the lifting body, maybe.

Kentucky Dave: 11:51

Yep.

Mike: 11:52

And he thinks the blurred bases are kind of the uh antithesis of the mirror under the aircraft. He says the mirrors look great in display, but they make for terrible photography.

Kentucky Dave: 12:03

Yes, they do.

Mike: 12:05

And he thinks the blurred bases are the opposite. Most of the time they don't look great in person, but they look great in foot in photographs.

Kentucky Dave: 12:12

A, I agree with that. And B, his point about mirrored bases is especially true if your model happens to be natural metal. So yeah, a natural metal lifting body on a mirror would be almost impossible to photograph. Whereas on a blurred base, probably gonna look awesome in photos.

Mike: 12:38

Well, and it gets into you know the viewing angle and hiding the uh the basically the post it's got to be mounted to or whatever, however you pull it off. And he says it's kind of what I was thinking. Maybe you need to angle the whole scene. Yeah. Or or have a base that curves up into a backdrop so you've got this curved blur. So looking at the plane, it's it's almost like it's in a bank.

Kentucky Dave: 13:01

Yeah.

Mike: 13:02

So that's kind of what I was thinking. And another way to control it would just be build it in a box.

Kentucky Dave: 13:06

Yeah. So like a forced perspective diorama.

Mike: 13:10

Yeah, like in you know, shadow box.

Kentucky Dave: 13:12

You know, and this is from going to the Chicago MMSI show for years, is I just love shadow boxes. I just think a well pulled off shadow box is, you know, something you can stare at for 10 minutes.

Mike: 13:30

Forcing the viewing angle really lets you do a lot of cool stuff. Yes, it does. And pull off a lot of neat tricks. Well, from Down Under Dave, Will Edwards has written in again. Okay. From the law offices of small parts and petty disputes.

Kentucky Dave: 13:45

The law offices of small parts and I love that.

Mike: 13:48

Attorneys at Miniature Law, 72nd Scale Chambers, Australia. Okay. Again, in foghorn leghorn voice, folks. Go for it. No, you just got to imagine it. Dated 12th of October, 2025. Regarding notice of cessation of legal hostilities and revocation of title, patron saint of 172nd scale. Dear Kentucky Dave, following extensive negotiations, several glasses of modeling fluid, and the strong recommendation of all parties, significant others, we hereby confirm that all legal action concerning the great 172nd scale World War I dispute of 2025 has been formally and permanently ceased. The ceasefire shall remain in effect unless you make additional disparaging remarks regarding the most sacred of modeling genres and scales. However, it is the unanimous decision of the scale modeling tribunal sitting in the garage last night that you, Kentucky Dave, are henceforth stripped of the honorary title Patron Saint of 72nd Scale. Oh God. However, you may retain the lesser but still distinguished title of keeper of the decal sheets unapplied, subject to good behavior and proper use of tweezers. We trust that this settlement brings peace, harmony, and proper alignment of wings, struts to all concerned. Should you wish to appeal, please direct correspondence to the official appeals box, a repurposed model kit box labeled bits and bobs. With mock sincerity and full comedic authority, Sir Will Will Edwards Esquire, Acting Counsel Society for Sensible Scale Modeling. Now, Dave, I think you have an out here.

Kentucky Dave: 15:29

I will work on the settlement paperwork because as our correspondent well knows, that no settlement agreement is enforceable unless we draw up the paperwork and get both parties to sign it. So while I'm willing to accept what they propose, I want to make sure it's ironclad. So I'm going to get to work on that settlement paperwork, and he can expect a copy in his email box for review and editing.

Mike: 16:06

You're going to have to request some clarification or file a dispute, Dave. Why? You're the barrister, but hear me out. There's a little nuance here that that has gone unnoticed by the author of this document. Which is the regards phase, notice of cessation of hostilities and revocation of title, does not have a comma after the word hostilities, which means that this is the cessation of both the legal hostilities and cessation of the revocation of title.

Kentucky Dave: 16:34

I like that. I like that uh nitpick. That was very good, but the problem is you probably just got his paralegal beaten.

Mike: 16:43

Okay.

Kentucky Dave: 16:44

Because no attorney will ever take responsibility for a typo in their own document. They're always going to blame it on their paralegal. And and Lord knows the poor paralegal is probably going, as soon as this is broadcast, is probably going to be punished severely. And down in Australia, they've got a lot of spiders and snakes to punish people with.

Mike: 17:12

Okay. Well, maybe we need to cut them some slack and uh we can mail them a comma.

Kentucky Dave: 17:18

Yeah. Well, may I tell you what, with when I send them the paperwork, I'll send them a spare comma somewhere in the settlement agreement, and he'll just have to dig for it and can can then use it.

Mike: 17:31

Well, I'm glad that's uh coming to some fruition for you, Dave. You know.

Kentucky Dave: 17:35

I'm loving this.

Mike: 17:37

Only one international incident a year.

Kentucky Dave: 17:39

There you go. I promise you.

Mike: 17:41

This one, next one's interesting because it it it happens to be a regarding uh a show.

Kentucky Dave: 17:47

It doesn't declare war on either of us?

Mike: 17:49

No, not us. Okay. Charles Rice from uh South Carolina. Yeah. He's going to a show coming up there in the Southeast.

Kentucky Dave: 17:58

Mm-hmm.

Mike: 17:59

And uh this show happened to have a a fee of twenty dollars for the first five models and five dollars for each additional. Sound sound familiar?

Kentucky Dave: 18:08

Yes.

Mike: 18:10

So this is the uh the regional show coming up in in Charlotte, I'm pretty sure. Yep. And he thinks it'll show show uh greatly slow the the show's turnout or impact the show's turnout. And he knows some folks around his club area that this might be a deliberate move to keep the keep the amount of models down, given that it's a regional show, maybe? I don't know. So his his direct his direct question is have we ever been turned away from a smaller show because of higher registration fees? One. And two, do you guys think that any organization in their sane minds would keep the price of a show high to keep the amount of judging efforts lower?

Kentucky Dave: 18:50

The answer to those questions are no. Given the amount of money I spend on models, an entry fee at the show at a show has never been high enough for for it to be of concern to me. Now, I don't know that it would be necessarily to keep the judging effort down. I could see if you have an invitational contest by a club and they have limited space or limited number of tables, I can see them using a price structure to try and prevent the guy who shows up with his entire built collection over the last 10 years, you know, where he enters 54 models across 28 categories, and or the guy who builds 30-second scale aircraft models coming in with 10 30-second scale aircraft models and eating up a table and a half. So I wouldn't, I didn't immediately think of it as a an attempt to keep judging easier. I thought that maybe it was an attempt to limit the number of models because there might have been limited space.

Mike: 20:11

Could be. I don't know. I guess I'm a little conflicted on this. And I don't I don't want to offer criticism for the the club because it's a show planning exercise for sure. And let's be honest, Dave. How often have we walked into a show and and needed to pay additional for models brought versus however many you get for the front front level admission?

Kentucky Dave: 20:32

Right. Yeah. That's not a thing that affects you or I. You're right.

Mike: 20:36

You know, it's I have to take an empathetic position, I guess, because it's it's it's not something uh I've ever had to deal with, even, even in my most productive years.

Kentucky Dave: 20:46

But the other thing that I that you have to think about is that depending on the location, the local club may be paying a significant amount for the rental of the hall. And, you know, because in some locations there's not as much choice and prices are higher some places than others. It may also be an attempt to recoup their the the rental of the hall cost. So I don't know. I I'm sure it's something that's not done lightly. I wouldn't think so. No, every club when they're when they're putting together their contest, you know, they come up with a number for the vendor table and they come up with the numbers for raffle and and for entry fees, etc. And usually those are well balanced to try and make sure the club doesn't lose money. Which there are very few clubs that are trying to make bank on putting on a show, but they just don't want to lose money because that can, I mean, that can be devastating to a smaller club. I trust the clubs to price their their shows correctly for their needs.

Mike: 22:03

And I guess my recommendation, Daisy, would be to attend if you're planning on attending, and if if if you don't want to go beyond and get into the five dollars per range, then you're just gonna have to limit yourself this time. Yep. Well, Dave, the final email to me via the email address is from another guest from our model show spotlight, Mike Mikowski from the folks out in Phoenix. And he's got a new YouTube channel.

Kentucky Dave: 22:34

Oh, wow.

Mike: 22:34

And we'll put the link in the in the show notes, but it's uh Space City Mike, and there's a whole YouTube address for that. They're mostly build videos of real space topics, so that's gonna interest a few people.

Kentucky Dave: 22:45

Absolutely.

Mike: 22:46

And each build runs, you know, six to twelve episodes so people can viewers can see him progress through a project.

Kentucky Dave: 22:54

Mm-hmm.

Mike: 22:55

You know, a lot of his models are.

Kentucky Dave: 22:56

I'm not sure what that I don't know what that's like.

Mike: 23:01

So they can see all his scratch building and modifications and all that. And uh he also has a tour of his uh hobby room on his landing page. So uh we'll direct folks there, Mike, and uh they can check it out. Now I'll remind him that he's also the publisher of space and miniature reference books for for modelers. And this this YouTube channel is just uh just an extension of that. So we'll put the we'll put the uh the link to his website in there as well. We we've Yeah, that's good stuff. It's it's been a long time since Mike was actually a guest on the show. That was probably our first or second year that he was on. Yep. It's quite a ways back now. So good to help him out a little bit more. Yep. Well, Dave, that is all that came through the email address. What else is going on in the listener mail?

Kentucky Dave: 23:42

Well, on the DM side, first frequent DMer Ben Pluth is going through some stuff with family issues uh related to aging parents, and and our our hearts go out to him as he faces those challenges. Ben was supposed to be at the Cincinnati show. He had a table, in fact, a table right next to where we were gonna be reserved, but he wasn't able to make it due to those issues. And just want him to know his friends in the modeling community are thinking of him and sending him our best thoughts. Next is a DM from our favorite guy, Agent 003, who had two things. One, he wanted to report that the next winter blitz, Rick Lawler from AK, is going to come down and be at the show and I believe do a presentation. And uh Mr. Jacobs was absolutely stoked about that. And I understand why. I'm sure it's gonna be a fantastic presentation. We're always happy to see Rick at a show. In addition, he continues to buy these collections and part them out. And one of the things he's discovering is he'll buy a collection and then he has to go through all the boxes because in many boxes he finds things other than just the kit. Do you remember the company's small small shop?

Mike: 25:26

Yeah.

Kentucky Dave: 25:26

Okay. And you remember they got started with photo etch benders, and then they they branched out, but he got a collection and it had a whole bunch of small shop items in in a box in it. And he was like, What the heck are these? Because he doesn't have the familiarity with the with with uh the deep deep ancient modeling history. So he he DM'd me a photo and he was like, Do you know what the heck this is? I think it's come from a company called Small Shop. And so I was able to tell him a little bit of the history and what the things were and that generally they were very popular among armor modelers, although useful in a number of modeling genres. But it was just it was just interesting that these collections, it's not just models, modelers squirrel away either aftermarket or decal sheets or all sorts of stuff in their model boxes. And then when when the inevitable happens, you know, it's it's like going through Cracker Jack and finding the little toy prizes in the little in the little toys.

Mike: 26:49

Well, I saw on one of the model clearinghouse Facebook groups pages, somebody was trying to sell it their similar business, but their business was taking all these incomplete kits and parting out the complete sprues and the loose parts as replacements to folks. And uh so Brandon, if you listen, you want to you want to expand your your enterprise. I don't know, man.

Kentucky Dave: 27:16

That's a lot of work. Particularly if he gets kits that aren't complete kits. There are there is a a fair business, and this shocked me, but I know we've had conversations with Evan, among others, where there is a thriving business with people who are selling individual sprues from model kits rather than selling complete kits.

Mike: 27:43

Oh, yeah. I've bought a few.

Kentucky Dave: 27:45

Yeah.

Mike: 27:46

It's really helpful for some of these Asian companies that you just absolutely cannot get replacement sprues for.

Kentucky Dave: 27:51

Now, in our last show spotlight, one of the shows we did was Bob Bear's local show. And I want to thank Bob for his help in hooking us up to be able to do that as a show spotlight. Bob's been a great friend of the show, and we appreciate it very much. And what he did was he went back through his old records and he found a flyer for he said their first show or one of their first shows back in the 80s and sent me a picture of it. And the funny thing is, I have a flyer that looks so similar, you know, hand-drawn artwork type the faces type uh typed from the first MMCL show in 1982, and it looks exactly the same. And it was just kind of a neat, neat nostalgia throwback. Our friend Ethan Eidenmill has been DMing us. He's been he's been on a streak of enjoying some top quality modeling fluids. And he has been on a streak of sharing those with us as he sits down to his bench. And I've got to tell you, I really enjoy that. It's really neat to see what other people are drinking because, you know, no matter how wide our reach is and all, we go to the nationals and people bring us stuff, and it happens at local shows too. But, you know, there's only so much modeling fluid you and I are ever able to really see and sample. So it's really kind of neat to see what's out there that is maybe beyond our knowledge or reach, and just see what some of the trends are. And I I like it, and I'll encourage not only Ethan to keep it up, but others, either in the dojo or through. DMs, let us know of the of the regional modeling fluid that you're sampling as you sit down to the bench. And finally, from the DM side, Jason Campbell, who reaches out to tell us two things. One, he's working on a 48-scale F4F and it's coming along really well. And two, to remind you that he's from Knoxville. You apparently keep trying to place him in Middle Tennessee.

Mike: 30:32

I know, I do that. I don't know how that happened. I think I apologize to him.

Kentucky Dave: 30:36

Well, considering you're from East Tennessee, you should remember he's from East Tennessee.

Mike: 30:41

Well, I think when he first when he first started writing in the show, he was talking about the Middle Tennessee show, I think. And some somehow that got that cable got plugged in the wrong socket.

Kentucky Dave: 30:52

Gotcha. Well, he wanted to gently remind you, and it was gently and lovingly remind you that he's located not far from where you grew up. He's located in Knoxville. Where I went to school. Yeah, well, that's true. You did go to school. I did. I was in Knoxville for several years. And your your baseball coach got just got stolen by the San Francisco Giants.

Mike: 31:15

Good for the Giants, not good for us.

Kentucky Dave: 31:17

So yeah, well, you and Wallace now have something to bond over.

Mike: 31:22

Well, I'll be curious how the the F4 turns out from the Gundam Gundam guy.

Kentucky Dave: 31:28

Yep.

Mike: 31:29

So glad to see it. Diversify. Me too. Me too. Anything else? That's it. Well, folks, we appreciate the listener mail. We say this is our favorite segment with all sincerity every every episode. Yeah. You can send us email to plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com if you want to send it by email. Or you can direct message it to us via the Facebook direct messaging system, or in the show notes of this episode, which can be found at plasticmodelmojo.com, there's a feedback web link on the on the website, so uh or in the show notes. And you can do it that way as well. And we really appreciate it.

Kentucky Dave: 32:06

We appreciate feedback however you give it to us. We really do.

Mike: 33:07

Dave, we've talked a lot about downsizing collections and making sure our significant others don't have a mess to deal with when we're gone. And and then I even have an instance about a month ago where I had some scheduled free time with nobody in the house and ended up not knowing what to do with myself after I thought I was gonna have this big multi-evening modeling session. And our guest tonight is uh Dr. Paul Buzzick once again, and he's been dealing with some, I wouldn't say dissimilar life situations. He's planning on retiring soon if he hasn't already. Paul, how are you doing tonight?

Paul Budzik: 33:42

I'm doing great. Yeah, I hope you guys are.

Mike: 33:45

What's the status on that? Are you are you done yet? Are you still working on uh getting out the door?

Paul Budzik: 33:51

End of the month, that's it.

Mike: 33:52

Oh wow. So a few days away.

Paul Budzik: 33:54

Yeah. Another week, another another rest of this week and the end of next week, Halloween, I'm out.

Kentucky Dave: 34:00

So no, how many years will you have been a prien in practice?

Paul Budzik: 34:06

Well, this is year 51 of practicing dentistry. But I started my first social security check was, I don't know, back in 65 or something. And I was working in a dental lab when I was in, say, my last year of junior high school. You know, my dad would, hey, he was a lab tech, and you're not sitting on your ass all summer. Get in the lab. So he was working in a lab for a dentist that had a large prosthetic practice, and there were two lab guys. And so I'd fill in during the summer, and they insisted that I had a he I was on the payroll, so he had to go down and get his social kid going down. His mom's got to drive him to the Social Security office, you know.

Mike: 34:53

I didn't start that early, but I I cleaned operatories at my father's practice for a number of years growing up. So can relate a little bit, but you were doing more fun things than I was.

Paul Budzik: 35:04

Well, you start out at the plaster bench and just kind of working your way up.

Kentucky Dave: 35:09

After 51 years, you are at the end of this month officially retired. Now, I assume that you have already sat down and planned out all of the builds that you're going to accomplish now that you all have you have all this voluminous free time.

Paul Budzik: 35:31

Actually not. And that's one of my points.

Mike: 35:34

Okay. Well, I think, yeah, there's you you've you've put out two videos on your your channel lately, the Hobby Logic one, finding my essential modeler. And then you did it, you did an update in August about cleaning up your tools that were either non-functional or had been modified, and et cetera. So won't you take us through kind of your thoughts on on both those things? Because I know your videos are are are not that long. So I know there's more detail there to be had. So I know you're in this life transition. We've we've got, you know, this this hobby does skew older. It always has. And we we just think there's probably other people out there that are, if not in this situation now, are close to it enough to start thinking about it a little bit.

Paul Budzik: 36:17

I had to come to grips with what is it I want to get out of the hobby, really. It it goes down to the the point is that I really it's just about, I really just like building and having a finished model or whatever, it doesn't, it's not that important. I just like the activity of building and constructing. But what I started realizing was every kit that I had around, every time I would look around, I'd look at a stack of something. It was just one big obligation. So, like when you said you had free time and nothing happened, that's what I see go. You okay, I'm gonna retire, and I got this laundry list of stuff. No, I had to say, wait a minute, it isn't gonna be like that because I spent my life work, and it's okay. That's you can't start something and not finish it when you start working with a patient. You can't just say, okay, that's enough. I've I'm not I've lost interest. That doesn't work. But in a model, here's what here's what I would say. Think about it. When you you're you go to the hobby shop as a kid or whatever, or later on, even then, you're still looking at the box art. Oh man, that looks really cool. Or maybe you've been looking at something else, or you watched a drama or a documentary, and you're hot on building something. You've got all these juices flowing, and you're in this energy of inspiration. And the problem is with me that I, you know, I got to go to work, I got to do this, I got to do that, a lot of stuff bleeds over, and that inspiration starts to wane. What I want to do, what I realized is when I boiled it down to what is the what's making it fun for me, what's getting my, you know, what's turning my crank, is to stay in that inspired energy of inspiration and ride that wave as far as I can. Now, this is an interesting thing that I I started thinking about another concept about, because you know, the obligation creeps in if you get down that road and somehow the inspiration goes away and you're stuck with hearing your mother say, Listen, you got to finish what you start. And I'm going, why? Not now. I don't need that anymore. If if I get to a point where I've truly lost inspiration in the thing, and I know I'm not going to come back, just check it. You got your money's worth out of it. You got a lot of, I mean, there's a lot more stuff that you can do. Otherwise, you don't have to work on this thing and drudge it out. So that's off the table. And I started looking around at all these things that were started or things that I meant to do. You know, I'm going to build this collection. That's a bunch of crap. I'm never going to do that. It's not going to happen. There's not, and there's not enough time, which is the additional complication for me because I'm retiring later. You know, I'm 75. What? I mean, my I know guys that work into in their 90s, but that may not happen. So there isn't that many more years. I don't build that fast, at least not with other stuff that's going on. So I had to be realistic and I started to go, what is it that I really like building? Well, and that's why I'm kind of sort of put airplanes out of the picture, because I was using that as a subject to show techniques and ideas. But the problem was I had it bass Ackwards. The things that made my techniques and all the stuff that I do interesting was I they were created in that energy of inspiration. When I would start a project and things would just flow. And I don't know how I would come up with solutions to things, it would just happen. So I uh here I am starting a project and trying to weasel the project around so that it shows this thing, and all I'm doing is getting further behind, and it's just a pain in the butt. You know, you don't it's like, no, I I you and that's where you get to that. I don't want to do it. So when you get free time and you and you can't figure out what you want to pick up, maybe what that is is you're in the energy of obligation, not inspiration. I want to stay as far away from the obligation as possible. And I started looking around at stuff that was sitting around that hadn't been used, kits that I know I I would never build. I don't have, I mean, I don't have time. Pass them on, just give them away. There's been like four different groups of models. Some of them, well, one of them was ridiculously large. And well, uh, it's the the story was is that I handed, I don't know, it was a couple hundred models to the one of the guys in the club, and I said, here, find homes for them. Well, they had a show coming up and they decided to raffle off every one of those kits. Well, the vendor that came got very angry because nobody wanted to buy anything from him because they were all buying raffle tickets. Because there was all this stuff that was on display that they were raffling off. But that's okay. It went to someone who could use it, and and that's the way I feel about it. If I'm not going to use it, give it to someone who can use it, get some use out of it.

Kentucky Dave: 41:50

What I find interesting about your what you were just discussing is you did something that I don't think a lot of people do, which is you thought about your hobby, what you like about it, what you don't like about it, and came up with a plan to maximize your hobby. You know, we all do hobbies because we want the enjoyment. I mean, right. No, no, nobody's hobby is doing something that's drudgery to them. But but it's really, I think 90% of the modelers out there don't ever stop and think, why do I do this hobby? What do I like about it? What don't I like about it? And is there a way to shed the things that I don't like so that I get more enjoyment out of the hobby? People don't think that deeply about it. And I think it's it's I think it's interesting that you stopped and took the time to do that and and had the the presence of mind to do that.

Paul Budzik: 43:08

I think that comes with the age.

Kentucky Dave: 43:11

Okay, I'll buy that.

Paul Budzik: 43:13

Okay, and here's a little thing for you guys. I know it's cute to say so many kids so little time, but to an old dude like me, that isn't so funny anymore. Because there isn't much time. Right. And so I don't want to live. Well, I tell you what, if I lived in that, I would be drinking. That would be my modeling fluid, would be a lot of alcohol. Because I like I'm playing a game that I can't win. Well, I'm gonna go find something else to do. You have to boil it down and and and you start thinking about different layers, you know. Here's a an idea that I had. When you're creating, when you're really creating and you're in that energy of inspiration, that thing that you're creating is really a reflection of you. Now, if for whatever reason you take a little break from that, you set it aside for a week or so, but you're still inspired about it, but when you come back and look at it, you're looking at it with little different eyes. You pick up from there and you're still in that energy zone, but you're it's a little different. So if you had a vision at the beginning, let's say you were starting a model and you had this vision of just how you were going to finish it, but it changed over a period of time. That's okay. You don't have to stick with what you started out with. And when it gets to the end, it's gonna be a reflection of the journey, which is really cool because it but it was always in a positive energy, not I had to get it finished for a show. I had to get it finished because I just gotta finish it. Because my wife says I never finish anything. You know, whatever it is, forget about it. We were over at another couple's house, and they're both very accomplished artists and just a wide variety of different media. And I put out the question, when is your your piece finished? When do you consider it finished? And the the answers were kind of nebulous in a way. It's like I don't you get to a point and you just decide, and one of them, the she paints in she does water one of her mediums is watercolors. She had a beautiful one on the wall. She says, you know, I've kind of looked at that and I think maybe like she wanted to add something to it. Like she'd take it out of the frame, and maybe she might add something to it because it didn't quite strike her as right. I found that kind of interesting. You know, most of the time when you get to that stage and you put it up, I would think they would be finished. But let's just say maybe you got to the point where your model's in primer, and you've enjoyed the shape. You just enjoy what you've created. You've finished. You've finished with the fun that you're gonna get out of it. You don't need to go any further. It's okay. Nobody's caring about this but you. I mean, really.

Kentucky Dave: 46:06

Right.

Paul Budzik: 46:06

Unless you're gonna complain about it on social media or something, which is not doing you any good.

Kentucky Dave: 46:12

Yes, a whole lot less of that uh in all of our lives would be better.

Paul Budzik: 46:17

So I just think part of it has to do with uh a lot of it changes your perspective when you get older and you realize it doesn't really set in till it really sets in, till you're really facing it, that it's only gonna be so much longer. And that's just nature. I mean, you know, nobody comes into this world with a guarantee. I used to tell I when I was younger, and I was kind of an earnest young lad, and my dad would say, you know, what's the hurry? What's the hurry? I'd say, Well, I'm not gonna live past 40. Well, 15 years old, and I'm already thinking about that. And he goes, Jesus, Paul, you can't do that. If you're gonna sit around thinking about that stuff all the time, you're not gonna be able to get up and eat your Wheaties in the morning. It's gonna happen to everybody. Just it's a fact of life. This can't be the your primary focus. And and that, and that's pretty much how I I mean that cured it. And I always kind of laugh at that, that I I I want to be able to eat my Wheaties, so I don't want to worry about. So when it happens, you know, it's gonna happen. And that's just the way it is. But I want to go down having fun. I look around and I see, oh, there's more stuff here. I need more space. I bring in some stuff home from the office that I want to I need to keep. And I've got, oh no, come on, don't give yourself a break. You're never gonna build that, really, honestly. And I've got more stuff now, I know. There's no way I'm gonna build it between now and whenever I can't build anymore, plus scratch built projects that I'd like to do. So we'll just see what happens, but that's what it is. I just feel like what retiring is going to afford me to do is to stay in that focus zone of having inspiration of what I'm doing and keeping that as the focus rather than you know, and and that's why I say I'm looking forward to having solutions just happen. And and so it's going to be easier to present those things. I set up a little permanent sound booth for myself so I can do things more on the spur of the moment. So it isn't such a big deal to, you know, set stuff up and get good audio. Yeah. So I can just come in, do things more on a kind of an update, and keep things flowing that way. And that's what I hope to contribute to the Patreon channel. My channel is really devoted to solving problems and developing what I consider skills, and that broaches something else that isn't quite rub some people the wrong way.

Mike: 49:04

Let me go back and ask this. We've talked about it on the show, and I think it's true for most modelers, except those with the most logic and discipline in their lives, that we all tend to accumulate beyond our capacity. And to some regard, at least up until a point where you realize, oh crap, and you're trying to solve do I have too much stuff or not enough space problem. It's it's kind of part of the hobby for a lot of us to just do it that way. So when you're shedding this stuff off, how'd that make you feel? And then what kind of methodology did you use to pick and choose and and how'd that go?

Paul Budzik: 49:46

I'm telling you, I would lug out a stack of stuff because I'd parted out some of it, but the thing was mostly intact, but I knew if I handed it off to someone, it it they're not going to be happy because it's gonna be missing some stuff or whatever.

Mike: 50:00

I think I probably have that problem too.

Paul Budzik: 50:02

So I it would just get chucked in a bin. I mean, I would fill the recycle thing up to the top, and every time I brought something out, it just felt like a loadoff. A loadoff. And it got to be habit forming. What else can I throw away? What else is I'm really not going to use? Like I say, with the tools, it's like either fix the thing and use it or or pass it on. You know, I had a couple of airbrushes that now it's they're they're very fashionable, but I don't like them. They don't fit me. And so I passed them off to a friend of mine down in LA. Here, I I he likes it, I don't use it. And so you take it, you know, or a or a machine or a tool that I know I'm not gonna use, give it away, you know, let somebody else get use out of it, and it just feels like a loadoff.

Kentucky Dave: 50:56

That's really interesting that that as you're reducing your your stash and you're getting you're shedding things either you know you're not gonna build, or you've already used the parts you need out of them, and and it's just sitting around collecting dust, or it's a tool that you know somebody else could use, but you're not gonna use it. The fact that getting rid of those things, giving them away or throwing them away, is unburdening. I think most people would think in their mind before they did it that it was going to be a sad thing to throw something away or to give it away. And it turns out that it's just the opposite of that. It gives you more energy.

Paul Budzik: 51:51

Yeah, I was surprised that when I started doing it, like I say, it actually got habit for me. And and I might start out sitting down at the bench and working on something, and then I would start rummaging through things to look and I went, what it what is this stuff you're rummaging through? You you rummage through this this the same crap every time you open the drawer, then you never use it. You know, you're just moving these tools aside to get to the ones that you used, gather them up, get rid of them, give them on to someone else, or like like I say, I I got hooked on well, that airbrush thing that I put up about the pache the V. Right, the VL. VL. I always had my painting routine was I could run out, my I do my painting and always been in like in a garage area or where I have really good ventilation because I'm always using solvents. So I never would ever think about doing it in the house. Spray booth, no spray booth, forget it. It's going outside. So I always had kind of a junker or airbrushes. They were fine, they were plenty serviceable, but I didn't care about them that much. They weren't they weren't my Sunday go-to-meat and airbrushes. So I I could go outside, grab the airbrush, shoot some color on because I'm at a certain stage. And that's the other thing about having the time. I don't want to have to gather up a bunch of stuff just so I can paint all the same color at one time. I can't keep that straight. I don't work that way. I work in a linear fashion. I'm building this.

Kentucky Dave: 53:29

I'm like that too.

Paul Budzik: 53:30

This has to be finished, and I'll go on to the next thing. And if it means I dirty an airbrush, okay, so the answer to that is to be able to clean it up and to be able to have the paint mixed up easy. And the way it worked out was I I always had no problem using a siphon feed. That was fine. I I mean I got contest winners, best of shows, they're all painted with siphon feet. I never did like the balance of gravity feed. And think about it, all the little Greebels in there that clog your airbrush, they sink to the bottom with gravity, right? Well, if it's an unsiphon feed, they're sitting at the bottom with gravity, and the siphon tube is up above that. So you're probably getting I never had clog problems before, but when I go to gravity feed, occasionally I'll get something that'll stuff up the needle, and it's like, no, I don't need that. I want to go out, snap on, I I can put the put it in a jar, or up I've got a huge col a huge supply of old film canisters.

Kentucky Dave: 54:35

Yes, I love that on the video.

Paul Budzik: 54:38

Yeah, well, I had a friend that was in photo finishing, and so he used to save me all these. I mean, I have boxes of them. I can make my mixes because I never use I very rarely use a stock color out of a bottle. I always mix something that's a little different, so the OD is always a little different or whatever. And I can mix it up and it can stay in that film canister for the life of the project, and then I can just chuck it. Because it's thinned and it's probably not it's probably would contaminate the regular bottle of paint. I can just snap on the the siphon feed one that I've converted. I can just snap that one on, shoot the color, put the lid back on, and I could just run some thinner through it. I'm I pull the needle, but I don't need to I would do that, but that's as far as it would go. They never collected paint. And what I was using in the beginning was the one that I chide people about is the pash AH. That is so convenient, and you can clean that in two seconds. So I was using that as my junker just to get on color in like a cockpit or inside of a cowling or someplace where it doesn't really matter. And I would use that fast, clean it up, back in. Sometimes it would be three times in a night because, especially like when I'm doing one of those engine projects like on the 12-scale cars, I could only go so far in a mock-up stage, stuff had to be assembled to fit the next part. And the only way it could be assembled was to paint it and actually put it on. So it had to be painted, then come back, and then, oh, wait a minute, I need to paint this thing. And so in a linear fashion, I have to go out and paint it. Well, I got to the point where I could do things at about 15, 20 minutes, go out, paint it, come, clean it up, and get back in. And and here's the other part of that. If you're in that stage of inspiration where the juices are flowing, things that would seem inconvenient, problems that let's say something doesn't work quite right, it's just you take it in stride. You don't even think about, oh, I got to go out and paint something and I'm gonna clean it up. If you're in that state of obligation, you go, oh man, I don't want to go out there and paint anything. I got to clean the airbrush, I gotta mount it.

Kentucky Dave: 56:58

That is a really good point. That if you are inspired by your project, nothing about what you're doing is a burden or a drudgery. And if you're not inspired by the project, no matter what you're doing, it's going to be a burden or a drudgery because you really don't want to do it.

Paul Budzik: 57:22

And it won't come out as well.

Kentucky Dave: 57:24

Yes.

Paul Budzik: 57:26

You know what I found this this is kind of interesting because a lot of what I do is sculpt, I mean, I spend a lot of time sculpting wax, setting teeth, sculpting wax. It's all technique sensitive. If the wax, you're in a hot environment and the wax isn't cooling and a thing doesn't carve right and it's sticky and it's it can be a mess, or maybe you get little flecks of acrylic dust in the in the pick picked up in the wax or something when you go to flame it, it it isn't as smooth as you'd like it. Once I made the decision it was time to go and this wasn't fun anymore, nothing worked. I'm going, this isn't working. Everything that would just happen just without even thinking about it, always worked and always looked great. All of a sudden this material isn't working right. This isn't working right. It's probably not that, it's probably me. And I didn't want to be doing it. So everything just isn't right.

Mike: 58:25

Yeah.

Paul Budzik: 58:26

Use that as your indicator that you're probably on the wrong track. Put the model aside, and if you're not gonna and if you see it and you and time goes by, it's like leftovers in the fridge, you know you're not gonna eat it, just get rid of it. And go on to something and stay with it. And one way to stay with the project, and I learned this back when I was doing street rods, I had a guy in my office that was a he nobody really knew him. He had had a number of magazine covers with rods that he'd built. Guys like George Barris and Ed Ross would stop by his shop. He had a a kind of a it was in some place in like, I don't know where it was, in a smaller suburb in Colorado. And his idea was parts of parts. He'd take anything and he'd build up street rod, you know, it was no big deal. But he said, Look, even if you don't knock if you're not gonna do anything for real on the car that day, go out and sit with it for 20 minutes, half an hour. Just go sit with it. You don't have to do anything, but stay connected. And he said, You'll get it done. Over a period of time, the car will get done. It'll be something you want to do, but don't lose the connection. And I think that's a good method, even for our hobby, is to just I mean, you sit down in the shop and pretty next thing you know you've picked up something and you're whittling on it.

Kentucky Dave: 59:55

Exactly. I think that's a great insight. Even when you're not in. Inspired to do anything particular, go down, sit at the bench, and you may find it come to you.

Paul Budzik: 1:00:09

Well, if you're thinking about the finish all the time, then you're not enjoying the step that you're on. If you're going, I got all this to do and this to do and this to no, this is just way too much. Better that you just pick up the thing and go, well, let's see, what do I got to do to make this part fit a little bit better? Or maybe I need to grab some styrene rod or I need to do wait a minute, you know, and you kinker around with something, and by the time you're through, an hour and a half have gone by, you've got something really nice that you created, but it it doesn't, it's not it's not got you that much further down the line, but you had the fun. And that's what I'm after is staying in that zone the whole as much as possible without getting distracted, and learn how to do it because uh again, because at one point I would seem like I was able to do it, but I don't know, life does what it does, and you kind of lose a little bit of that. So I'm like I say, I'm happy to get back to the siphon feed. I've solved my problem, getting I can get in and out of my paint area really fast. And so I rebuilt a number of those VLs. They're just so simple, they're built like a tank, and I I learned a lot about what makes those things work.

Kentucky Dave: 1:01:31

Let me ask you a quick airbrush question about that. Do you think that part because I've got a theory on this? Do you think part of the reason you like the VL is you've used the VL so much that the fit of it in your hand and your ability to do things with it is just a result of hours and hours of doing? Because I've got a theory that if you have one main airbrush and you use it 95% of the time, you're gonna be a better airbrusher than if you are constantly switching back and forth between three br three or four brushes.

Paul Budzik: 1:02:23

I've never used a VL. This whole exercise is the first time I've ever really used it. Really. I've never I have never relied on a VL to paint anything. I bought a couple, I bought a pair of them, I don't know, ten years ago, and I thought I would use them for what I'm using them for now. It had the same sloppy machine work that I'm sorry. Pashe's an American company. I grew up with an F and then an H. But their machine stuff is just not very precise. It's pretty old school. And I looked and I go, okay, it works, but I don't I don't actually like self-centering nozzles. I hate them. They always have seal problems. I was surprised that David Coast Airbrush, when he was talking about how to service an eclipse, he said you all he always puts something on there to seal it. The compression fit never, and it doesn't. It's just enough to not quite seal and things sputter and you know it so you gotta put something on it. What I like about it is it's really durable and they're cheap. I get them off, I'm using the old ones, I got them off of eBay. I got a flock of them now, and uh it was fun to modify them to get a spray pattern that I wanted. And so I, you know, it was kind of a fun exercise, and I I never had any experience with them, but I'm gonna use the heck out of them because I've got them all working like a gem, and I've got them, they're all a couple of different nozzle sizes, a couple patterns that I've created that I like, and and it gets me to the point of either if I need something finer, I'll grab one of my other airbrushes, or if I got something that's bigger and I really want great atomization, I'm gonna grab one of my mini, one of my LPH guns, you know, or maybe the RG3, depending on if it's lacquer that needs a little bit more air pressure to atomize. The LPH is kind of tricky that way.

Kentucky Dave: 1:04:30

Well, it sounds like you found some modeling from some hobby joy just in the process of taking those VLs and and playing with them and tuning them and getting them the way you want. It sounds like that's not building a model, but it sounds like you got some real enjoyment out of that.

Paul Budzik: 1:04:53

Oh, yeah, I love modifying. My dad used to gripe about that. He can make things work, grab a, you know, like an instrument or whatever, because he's working in the lab. He goes, You did this, didn't you? And he'd look at something that I modified the tool. And I went, Yeah, I did that. I like it better this way. So I have no problem modifying stuff. If it doesn't work just the way I want it to, I I don't know, I like re-engineering it. You know, it's okay.

Mike: 1:05:22

Well, that's like our machine is to work. I was helping him one time, and he's like, hand me what like a pair of pliers out of this drawer in his in his tool locker, and he's like, No, not those. Those have been modified. Look at the jaws. And he'd taken, you know, at arm's length, they look like a standard pair of pliers of whatever kind of variety. But they've got some crazy slot machined in the in the jaws to hold this one thing he was doing this one time because that was the way he was going to do it. But uh, yeah, that's that's pretty interesting that modifying these airbrushes. You've you've pared down the collection, you've pared down the tools, you've got rid of stuff, fixed the stuff that wasn't working, etc. Projects going forward, what established what made the cut, and what's the plan for kind of project uh management going forward?

Paul Budzik: 1:06:12

Well, right now I'm gonna be focusing on ships. I'm I'm going back. It was either model railroading or ships, was generally what I preferred to do. And I got into the Grand Prix cars because I wanted I wanted to get access to the actual Grand Prix, which I I managed to accomplish that. But the aircraft came about, I mean, they were always just like something to build kind of quick and hang up, which is in the process of hanging up all this old stuff that had been hanging up in the lab and everything, I realized how badly some of these were built, you know. And and that's what the purpose was. They were basically thrown together just because I was kind of taking a little bit of a break and I wanted to paint something. And I don't quite have that urge to paint anymore. It's not the mystery of throwing on color is gone. Now it's a lot more it's just part of the building process, and it's not all that much fun a lot of the time to paint something. But it used to be great. I loved masking and pulling the masking off and seeing what I could create, but you love pulling the masking off when it worked. Well, it the thing is, is it always worked, you know, because I I but you're practicing it all the time, you know, you're always trying something. It's kind of like what you were saying, you if you do a lot of it, and so they would just be something to to practice finishing on so that when you did your Magnum Opus project, you had a a kit bag full of tools that would work that you know you could employ to get a a nice finish. But there's something about in real life, and I and I don't have never had any space to have a layout, so that unfortunately was a bucket list thing that's never gonna happen. But and I've never been afraid to fly. But standing on a ship or being out at sea scares the crap out of me sometimes. If you've ever been on a flight deck of an aircraft carrier, you're not gonna get me close to the edge of that deck for nothing. It's like how many stories down, and I can't believe that you'd be working on that deck in rolling seas, aircraft coming in and all this other activity. I there's no way. I don't know, there's just something that's so it's not a tr it it's just so interesting to me that I I I just like sea. I just like the ocean. That's why I built amphibians or the seaplanes. There's something about the air and the water together that's very looks very aesthetic. So I'm just gonna start building some ships and see where it goes. And I'm I may get tired of it, but right now I've got a I've had a laundry list, I've collected a number of kits over the years. They're just sitting there, and it's like, when are you gonna get to these? Be honest with yourself. You want to do them. You're just like waiting, waiting, waiting for what? It's time to get rid of the rest of the stuff. Grab some of these things. I spent yesterday, I should have been down at the office throwing more stuff away and bringing home that I'm supposed to be doing. And I spent yesterday creating the I like to do all my ships on a on keel blocks.

Mike: 1:09:34

Right.

Paul Budzik: 1:09:34

I don't I don't like the pedestals, they look like toys to me. I would prefer to have them sitting on something, and keel blocks to me have always looked more attractive. But you need the base to glue the blocks to. So I I had created this molding that I this particular shape that I like that I used on the PT boat, and it it's a matter of using some cutter, uh a cutter on the on the router table, and then a lot of it's how you manipulate the piece and use a saw on a table saw. You don't do woodwork with a micrometer, but I'm using my digital calipers to try to recreate the same shape that I did around the base on this other thing. So I spent I wound up spending all day to create four bases for that, because I'm gonna be doing I want to right now I want to do some cruisers. And so they're all gonna be similar shape sizes, ones are a little shorter than the others. I'll set the the bases, they'll get they can go in the kits, and the one that I'm gonna start working on as soon as I retire, that base stays out, and I'll put the keel blocks on that and I'll work on that way up. But it's such a mess, sawdust going everywhere and chips flying and everything. I don't it's like clean it up one time. And once you've got the table set and you're gonna run one, you might as well run a few more. If I stay with doing that, that's probably gonna be how many years worth of work? So I'm good for a while, you know, unless I get the bug to build a bigger capital ship or something. But I forgot who it was. I think it may have been someone on your show, or maybe I heard it somewhere else. I've been working in 48th scale. I have to get back to 350th. I have to live in that world for a while. I don't know what's exactly possible, and I don't really care. I'm not going to be using any 3D aftermarket parts and stuff. I don't want to offend anyone, but I'm sorry. 350th scale to me is nothing but an oversized identification model. I mean, it's a little bit better than 1700, but railing and all that other stuff is oversized. You can make it as fine as you want, but when you take a picture of a ship, you don't see any of the railing. As far as you can, there's nothing there. And so I know it looks wonderful, you've got all this other stuff on there. I don't need it. I don't like doing it, I'm not gonna do it. And that's part of my do what I like to do. I'd like to be able to set one cruiser next to the other and say, look, this you can see in the profile, this is this way, this arrangement of stuff is this way, this is what was developed. You can see the evolution, that sort of thing, the general shapes of it. And I would just as soon talk about the geopolitics of how some of this stuff was used and the thinking behind creating this thing this particular way, the treaty that was like said, no, you can't do this because you're gonna be oversized. Stuff like that to me is just as interesting, all the history behind it. And so I get immersed in all that while I'm doing something, and I don't need to be fussing over how am I going to create a 40 millimeter barrel in 350 a scale. That I don't care about. If you you can look at oversized models in a museum, I mean what a fellow that I knew sent me a bunch of pictures of an enterprise model. The the barrels on the f on the five-inch guns were nothing but almost like a dow. But it was so big, you know, and it it did its job. It showed and the aircraft that were on the deck were nicely done, but nothing about it said super refined, everything machined perfectly, and it did its job. It looked impressive. So I'm gonna be doing that. I'm gonna have fun with it and get used to the 350th scale. The first thing I'm gonna build is basically a kit, and may I've got another kit or so that I want to do, and then I'm gonna I got some stuff that's gonna be modified. I'll know I'll have a good feel for what it's like living in that 350th scale world. And then all of a sudden, things become a little bit more possible because you're used to working small. Right now it's like, oh, come on, man, nobody can see this. Some guy made a comment why he switched from one seven hundredth to three fiftieth scale when he was in college. He put the model up on the window in his dorm room and the wind blew it off. And he said, I'm not working on a scale so small that when I fart, the thing falls off the you know. So he decided to go bigger. But I'm still 350th is, you know, it's honestly it's not very big, right?

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:35

Mm-hmm.

Mike: 1:14:36

Uh yeah. Well, I've got some ships in the in the the plan somewhere, but they're all 70 seconds scale, but they're all small boats.

Paul Budzik: 1:14:42

So looking forward to at least that that's it, you know, that's just basically a little bit bigger than HO scale, and you can do a lot in H O yeah.

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:53

Yeah, so what okay, just just so we all get a window. What is the first 350th project?

Paul Budzik: 1:15:01

This is all part of the historical research. I was originally going to just build the trumpeter San Francisco.

Kentucky Dave: 1:15:06

Gotcha.

Paul Budzik: 1:15:07

But I am at a loss. See, I think about this kind of stuff. In government, they do things like co-optation, where they you make a mistake and they elevate it to a positive and they give you an award. And the San Francisco was a screw up at Guadalcanal. It virtually sank the Atlanta by itself. At Tasaferengo, it makes the wrong turn and takes everybody in the wrong direction except the lead ship, which did San Francisco missed the turn, led it into a disaster. Not only did they kill a bunch of people on the Atlanta and virtually sink the cruiser, then they turn around and and and I don't know whether it's a Callahan or that was on the bridge on the San Francisco and he's killed and they just have to destroy the ship. I said, okay, I get it. They gave it all these battle stars. They should have given them Japanese battle stars for what happened at Guadalcanal. If you really be honest about it, they were it was not an asset. In fact, I there's a very interesting thing. I don't know what it's called, some kind of history channel. They've done all these historical things. It's anyway, they did they did uh if you put it all together, it's a two-hour presentation of each individual battle of the uh Solomon campaign, you know, Guadalcanal. And it said San Francisco had problems. It was one of the problem ships. And so I it's like, okay, maybe they got it straightened out later, but I don't that history doesn't fascinate me so much. Now the Minneapolis wound up with the same number of battle stars, and the only thing that at Guadalcanal, thanks to the mistakes of San Francisco, they got their bows shot off. Now I don't know if that would have happened if the initial plan of how they were gonna go into battle would have been executed, but things went awry when San Francisco made the turn wrong. Minneapolis always seemed to do its job, and it served out the rest of the war being there all the time, doing what's supposed to be done. So I thought there they look virtually the same. Both were rebuilt at Mayor Island, and the Minneapolis was there sooner because of the bow problems, and San Francisco got there a month later, but they it looks like they virtually used the same blueprint to restore the ship. And I'm looking at the 44 San Francisco kit and the 43 uh late 43 Minneapolis kit, and for all intents and purposes, they look virtually the same. So I can put the name on it of something that I like better, and I'll just stick basically with doing the kit without not much modification. Then after that, I'm probably gonna do I'm gonna do the San Diego. What it's gonna be interesting to me is I want to try one of these newer kits, and I want to see what this verifier stuff is, because the I I've started trumpeter kits before, and they've been like I was I started to do a lot of work on the on the on the Washington years ago, and there was nothing on that kit that was in the right place. The deck heights, I mean, the level heights were wrong, the turrets were in the wrong place, the stacks were crazy small. There was nothing in there that you didn't have to rebuild. And that's part to me is an example of trumpeters sometimes not even getting close to what they're supposed to be.

Mike: 1:18:55

Yep.

Paul Budzik: 1:18:56

I want to see if the verifier's better, and if that's something that just goes together easier, I don't know. But I kind of want to get used to the what what's supposed to be considered a more up-to-date execution. In my eye, the Atlanta class cruisers are probably one of the most beautiful cruisers that we ever built. There's now talk about symmetry, and I I just think they're uh it's a really gorgeous looking ship. And the Atlanta was just like I say, it was cremated by the San Francisco at Guava Canal. But the San Diego went on, it was one of those ships that you don't see photographed very much. It was just always there. It just always did what it was supposed to do, and it was at sea so much that you don't see a lot of photographs of it. And so I'm gonna do the San Diego, and Fairy Fire actually did the San Diego because I think there's I don't I think they there's a f difference in where they mounted some 40 millimeters or something. I don't know. But they I think they incorporated the changes, and so I would build that one straight out of the box, and then I'm probably gonna do Portland, and that means modifying the Academy kit, not super significantly, but there's quite a bit different between the Portland and Salt Lake. No, not Salt Lake, but oh, Indianapolis. Indianapolis w had a different the structure of the um uh four. Things were narrower. I mean they were wider actually, because I think it was designed as more of a flagship, and Portland wasn't, so things were a little narrower in spots. And so if if I want to be more accurate, I've I've kind of rebuilt the forward structure. And then other there's been other changes and stuff. And I I so I thought I would do Portland. And then I'm gonna do if my things go to plan, kind of when I'm looking out ahead, if I again if I don't get distracted, because if I get inspired by something else, but I'm kind of looking that way, I want to do the very fire Cleveland and do that as the Santa Fe, which doesn't require much difference. But then I want to do I never liked the look of them, but the St. Louis was one of those cruisers that had the three forward six-inch turrets, you know, with the the third the third aft one faces the structure where it really isn't that functional. But the St. Louis was very successful during World War II and had such a to me it's kind of a goofy design, but the Japanese had them. I I don't know if the English have. But I thought that would be an interesting thing to do. And really what it amounts to is just eliminating that the forward 40 millimeter and making room to put that other turret in there. And so it it looks like a major change, and it changes the profile significantly, but it's not that much of a change. So I could be sidetracked and I promise hopefully he's not listening, but I promise someone a ship model. I'm not gonna say who and I'm not gonna say what it is. And that I I kind of want to do, and so I gotta work that in sometime before you know the big kahuna.

Kentucky Dave: 1:22:19

Well, it sounds like you've been planning ahead.

Paul Budzik: 1:22:22

Right, but again, it's like if I don't I it's I already know I've been through it, maybe it's gonna happen, maybe it's not, but I'm just gonna enjoy staying in the one project at a time. And I may get back to grabbing one of either the A20 or the A26 and painting them, but for now they're placed in an area where they're not gonna get dusty and I don't have to look at them. And I may just pick it up and decide, yeah, let's gonna finish it. I'm gonna do so, I'm gonna check something out because both those things are scribed in the paint. This is just to throw something out if anybody's listening and they want to try it. I'm gonna order some and try it. One of the things I get on Facebook that shows up is shorts from Dave Coast Airbrush. He's always demonstrating some new product. And I just saw a demo on FBS called Guide Tape. And what this stuff is, is it's got a thick edge to it. I don't know if it's just the edge or the tape itself is thicker. But you you can reuse it. He says, like this strip of tape, he said we've used it 30 times. It's got an adhesive that just lets you keep putting it down. And you could and he says, this tape is thick enough to where you can run your fingernail up against the edge so that it would help you do your pen striping. I just thought about it later on in the afternoon after I said, I wonder what it'd be like to scribe against. I wonder if it's solid enough to where you could put a scribe against it and it didn't give. Because what would be what could be easier than having something that you could reuse over and over again that has a thick edge that you could scribe against? I think that'd be pretty convenient. So I'm kind of wanting to give that a try. Anyb listening that maybe wants to look it up, that um I I don't know if this is true. He says the FBS is standing for find better solutions. I don't know if that's really what the FBS stands for, but but they handle FBS, so I'm I think I'm gonna order some and give it a try.

Kentucky Dave: 1:24:31

I'm looking forward to your video on that.

Mike: 1:24:34

That's a good segue, Dave, and and kind of we can wrap this up. But with all this streamlined kit stash and workshop and plans for your next build, what what is the plan for incorporating this work into your channel? And you do you hope to see kind of the same solution-based videos coming out of these projects?

Paul Budzik: 1:24:56

Yeah, I I hope that as I'm working through these things, if there's some little jig that I make or some way that I can put something together more accurately or maybe modify something, that I can just do a short on that. It's easy for me. Trying to make production a little easier, put that stuff up, and I want to put more time into actually creating a better textural supplement on my website to make sure that's more complete, that actually offers some more research stuff or whatever. Tighten that connection up a little bit so that it's a it becomes more of a whole package. And I do want to say this. Now I'm gonna step on some toes, but it's what I do on my channel. And I don't want to get into an argument about this because there's pros and cons and I have no I have no animosity bit between someone wants to model using a different tool. But there is a difference in skill versus knowledge. If I'm working in a CAD program and I don't know how to do something, I can watch a YouTube video on it. And I will know how to do it, and I can do it. If you're watching one of my videos and you see how I handle a blade, like I had the way I handle a blade when I'm masking a canopy is to push and follow the tip of the blade so I know where I'm going. I had a surgeon write me and ask that he could use my video to demonstrate this for his resident students because he'd never seen anybody use a blade that way, and it worked in surgery. And I said, Help yourself, that's what it's there for. Use it all you want. It's like I've seen this guy on say, well, you can't mask that way, you can't you because he's pulling on the blade. And all that's going to show you is where you've been. But if you take the blade and you angle it, like I've shown it in one of my videos, so that it just makes contact just in back of the tip, you can guide that blade just perfectly along where you want it to go. Now, I can tell you how to do it, you can watch me how to do it, watch me do it, but you can't do it till you practice it. And that's the skill part of what I want to stress is that there's an element of fun and accomplishment in that, and a link to what you're doing manually with your hands, that I think, for me anyway, gets lost in a in sitting at a computer. And it doesn't work for everyone. And those are going to be the people that are going to be attracted to my channel because that's what I want to stress. I want to stress how do you look at something? How do you reason it out? So I get people that send me emails. Paul, how do I solve this problem? Oh, gee, yeah, I got lots of time. Let me think about this. You know, and they send me this grainy old crappy photograph that you can't see anything in it that I need to create this detail. How do you it's not my job to tell you how to do it, it's my job to teach you how to think so that you can solve it. If you learn how to think and analyze, go back from what the objective is and work back. I don't know who it was. Some he's a a physician, but he's a modeler. I think he's in in the Netherlands. He said, you know, you've come up with these solutions. I usually overthink and I get there, but it's a lot more complicated. And you keep well, that's because it doesn't happen right away. Us I'll back off and I'll I gotta do this and I'll think about it for a couple days and I'll go, oh wait a minute. You could easily do it this way, and you don't need all this, but if you go at it head on, you think you need to make all this and this and this and this and it's gotta go. Then you go, wait a minute. No, the objective is this. You could do it much simpler. And that thought process is what I'd like to encourage people. I had a I I'd gone back to school when I things looked like they were going south in in the health professions, I thought I'd learn accounting. So I went back and got a degree in accounting. And I had a tax instructor who was also a JD, and I took I took individual and corporate tax from him, and he would run it like uh Dave, you would know. He ran it like paper chase. He he had a he had a seating chart and he would go down the list. And if you were a Dunson, you couldn't answer the question, he would just move on to the next person, and you'd look like a fool. And I don't know if you'd make a demarabile or whatever.

Kentucky Dave: 1:29:35

The two worst classes I took in law school were corporate tax and individual tax.

Paul Budzik: 1:29:42

He always said that he called it the blue topic approach. He said, You have to learn this and be able to explain it to your relatives at a party when they ask you a tax question. You need to be able to explain if you can't explain it to me, then you don't understand it. Well, his tax. Teaching method was so good, I stopped by later on when he became head of the department. This was years later. And it's funny how some of these teachers well, I was older, so we used to once in a while uh walk around bullshitting or something. And I told him, I said, you know, your yours was the most I learned the most from your class. I thanked him because, you know, instructors don't have to be that way. They can just be sliding on through. But he really worked at it and I appreciated it. And he said, you know, you were different. You always thought about things. And I I didn't really I didn't think about that too much till later, and I went, wait a minute. Isn't that what being at university is about? Learning how to think? And why should that be different? Uh you could go through accounting by just cookbooking, but why he would say you were different, you thought about stuff. And so I wanna I want to kind of convey that to other people and have people think, create solutions, and have that be the enjoyment. Part of the creativity is to just be able to think of solutions to things and have it move on through. Have the magic just happen and stay in that inspiration space all the time. That's the energy that I want to create with my channel. I think if I'm working on a project that lets me concoct those sorts of solutions that I can share, demonstrating well, Mike, you fell into this one time when you said about that article about the McLaren. It wasn't just about the model, it was how I solved the problems, creating the parts for it.

Mike: 1:31:42

Yeah.

Paul Budzik: 1:31:42

That's where the meat, that's where the meat of the article was. And a lot of people don't do that. They just look at the finished model. And and that's the reason that I I usually pick a subject, you know, or I I might pick something up and just show you how to solve a problem and never have any intention of finishing the model. And people will go, well, when are you going to finish the project? I didn't do it. I picked the thing out just to demonstrate this, to show you. And uh luckily I had the resources I could do that and just throw it away. But there's only so much of that because you're always thinking of the technique that you want to use rather than letting the technique happen in the space of inspiration and then demonstrating that, and then maybe in the process also conveying some of that energy. I don't know how it's going to happen. It's kind of nebulous the way I'm expressing it. I'm just hoping that with the time, extra time, that I can do that. And, you know, the people that are interested will subscribe, and the and the and the people that doesn't speak to, that's okay. So skin off my notes. Everybody's got something that turns their crank, and that's that's the space I live in.

Kentucky Dave: 1:32:50

So Paul, I'm gonna ask you a silly question to end up, but it's one that interests me. In your hobby logic video, is the intro and outro music the Vince Giraldi trio? Or who is the okay, who is it? Because it's really great old school jazz type music.

Paul Budzik: 1:33:16

It uh it's actually just piano. And I I I don't want to get dinged for copyright or whatever. But I don't know if there's any album that has it on there. When uh a movie that I really like is the Fabulous Baker Boys.

Kentucky Dave: 1:33:33

I gotcha.

Paul Budzik: 1:33:34

Uh the if that scene where they've had the New Year's celebration, and he's sitting there with the dog is at the piano, and he's he's he's doing that Bill Evans imitation with his head down, you know, he's into the sounds, and he's playing that tune, and she walks in and she goes, Well, I had to I had to cut out the part where she says that's nice or whatever. I forgot what she says, but I managed to kind of get most of that out. That was difficult. So it made a longer segment that I could use for the intro. But that's where that comes from.

Kentucky Dave: 1:34:10

Okay, because it man, it's really nice.

Paul Budzik: 1:34:13

Yeah, thanks. There's been a few people that have recognized that. I was surprised, you know, that I didn't I didn't think it was that popular of a movie, but oh, I think it was Dave Grusom that plays the piano part for that. I think there's parts of that where Jeff Bridges is actually playing the piano, but I don't think that's one. I think I think the credit goes to Dave Grusom. See, now I went and rambled on about a bunch of stuff.

Kentucky Dave: 1:34:41

Well, the night nice thing is we get to do this again. See, if you leave stuff on the table, it gives us an excuse to come back and do a whole nother session with you.

Paul Budzik: 1:34:54

Yeah, I know, but it's like, how long can you listen to a guy bang on about what what questions have I left unanswered? You can you can piece this together, Mike. You're a great editor.

Mike: 1:35:07

Thank you. It it's it's always fun, it always works out. Congratulations on the retirement and the successful career. Um it's been interesting to watch you scale back and get some new direction and just wish you the best and uh be looking forward to whatever videos come out of this because uh Yes, I'm I am. I've been following you since the fine scale days, and it was it was absolutely all about not the model that was being finished, but how you were getting there and what you were doing to solve your problems. That was always things that that uh tickled my innards if you take that expression and kept me kept me coming back for more. So I'm really glad uh to see you continue to do that sort of thing.

Paul Budzik: 1:35:44

Yeah, and I I'm hoping to provide that on the like I say on the channel. That that would that would be a very rewarding to me if I could convey that. And you know, and and I'll just see how successful it will be when I can put more time into that. And if it catches on, if there's enough people that that feel like that's a value to them, then as long as it kind of pays the for itself.

Mike: 1:36:09

Yeah, understand. All right, we'll let you go and get back to your uh California life there, Dr. Paul. Yep. Thanks for thanks for joining us again.

Paul Budzik: 1:36:18

Yeah, thank you so much.

Mike: 1:36:20

We appreciate you taking the time. You're very welcome. Well, I wish him the best in retirement.

Kentucky Dave: 1:36:29

Yeah, every time we talk with him, you know, the listeners just listen to the to the interview, but I mean, we could go on for a couple of hours, endlessly fascinating discussions, and it flows from topic to topic, and I just love it every time we have him on, and we shouldn't wait quite so long until we get him on again.

Mike: 1:36:54

My interest in what he has had to say goes all the way back to the 80s in fine skill modeling. It's just been a joy to get to know him and uh have me part of our show.

Kentucky Dave: 1:37:03

Yes, absolutely.

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Mike: 1:37:53

Well, folks, it's the Bench Top Halftime Reports. Hopefully I mushed up a few things to talk about, but we're gonna start we're gonna start with you, Dave.

Kentucky Dave: 1:38:00

Well, as I mentioned at the top of the show, I've been going through a little bit of um a modeling funk where I just I don't know. In fact, I'd love to hear from the listeners. Do you ever have a phase where you go to the bench two or three times straight, and each time it's like you've lost modeling skill? I mean, to the point where I couldn't put two parts together correctly, and it was super frustrating. And I don't know why it happened, it just happened to me all of a sudden. I had a couple of modeling sessions over a week where I could not get anything to work right, and it was very frustrating. And luckily, I've got some good modeling friends, Jim Bates, Steve Eustad, who worked to talk me through the problem. And what really seems to have fixed it for me was an attitude adjustment in my own attitude. Don't don't put pressure on yourself to model, and don't put your pre don't put pressure on yourself when modeling, combined with a trip to the Cincinnati show where I got to hang out with good modeling friends. I got to see some incredible models, got to talk with a lot of listeners and a lot of friends, and I got fired up. And with my attitude adjusted and some mojo juice in the tank, I was able to come back and start modeling again and not feel like I was all thumbs. And so I've been making progress on the F6F, which was supposed to be done when my wife and daughter were out of town. There's a story behind all that that I will post at some point on the dojo, but it's coming along. You did pretty good though. I did, I did, and it's not, I mean, it's gonna get there and get there soon. It's gonna be a this year completion. In addition, I've started back with work on the SAM, which is 95% done. I'm in the oil weathering stage, and even then, I'm on the oil weathering stage on the bottom of the aircraft. Then it's a matter of some other things, some chipping and stuff like that, and then that will be done.

Mike: 1:40:36

You got to get it done because you've talked about that like the last three Benz Top halftime reports.

Kentucky Dave: 1:40:40

Yeah, I know, I know.

Mike: 1:40:42

I also on the pot calling the kettle black, though.

Kentucky Dave: 1:40:46

Yeah. Uh uh a guy know printed up Soviet kilometer posts and started doing them in 70 second scale. And he was kind enough to give me one, and I painted it up so that I can put it with my BT7 kit when I finish it. And man, I'm telling you what, I think I like it better in 70 second scale than 35th. It's because you can use it. It look well, that too, but it looks really good. It ru it really looks good. So I'll post a picture on the dojo, and then that's that's gonna be part of my impetus to get the the BT7 done.

Mike: 1:41:29

Well, you're you're getting out of your funk kind of gets back to our interview. Yes. One of his main themes of what he's doing is shedding obligations because it it's a joy killer.

Kentucky Dave: 1:41:42

Yes. Yep. So yeah, you don't want your modeling to turn into an obligation, and that that really can be a joy. I do think that he had two points that I really liked. One, completion of the model for him, not necessary for him to get the joy out of what he was doing. And I think that's a great attitude. And B, taking those models that are sitting around that are half-built, that you know that you're not going to get back to, or you've done what you wanted to do with it and get rid of it, I do think that lifts a burden off of Marbler, because the shelf of doom can become a burden. And I like both of those attitudes that that he mentioned. You've got a bench.

Mike: 1:42:34

I do. Still back there.

Kentucky Dave: 1:42:36

And there are things on it, aren't there? Yeah, they ain't gone anywhere. Okay. Hey, I'm not gonna give you too much crap. Listen, I understand life. We we all have hands, not only do we have jobs, we have families, and sometimes those families have needs, and those needs come first. Keep it all in perspective, guys. Out there, don't beat yourself up because you're devoting time to what you need to devote to before you engage in your hobby.

Mike: 1:43:10

Well, we'll start with the musaru. Okay. I'd been working through the chassis of that car kit, and I didn't get much further because I was at a paint phase. And I get over there, even had paint diluted, and I look over at the tank pressure gauge on my CO2 cylinder. Oh, and it's like 50 PSI. Yeah, that's about when I just vent it off and go get a new one because, right, that's when it can just crap out right in the middle of something. So I failed to get that done this week. So I gotta remember to do that. I need to disconnect it and go carry it up to the garage so I can take it over to the welding place and get it filled up.

Kentucky Dave: 1:43:52

And this is the one downside of a tank. There are many upsides to a tank: cost, convenience. I mean, I I understand, you know, no need for a water trap and stuff like that. But the one downside is I know when I go over and switch my compressor on, at least for the next 20 years, it's gonna kick on, fill the tank, and I'm gonna have air. And it always seems inevitable that you're you're you're all prep prepped up for a spray session, and you look down and the tank is is dry.

Mike: 1:44:31

Well, I'm kind of in a dilemma because the value proposition is is not it's not as uh attractive as it used to be.

Kentucky Dave: 1:44:38

Really? The costs have gone up?

Mike: 1:44:40

Yeah, just because all the environmental stuff, it's uh a 20-pound CO2 refill right now at our place is it's north of $100. Wow. So if I don't do something stupid and leave it the valve open overnight, right, which happened about four months ago, as long as it stays above 500 psi, you can't really tell how much was vented off, but it gets to a point where it's it comes down really quick after that, the gauge on the tank pressure gauge. Somewhere between five and six refills on that sucker. And you bought a silent Air 28. You bought one of the finest uh silent compressors you can get for your little workshop space. Yep. And if I was kicking out, you know, a half dozen models a year and was refilling that thing more than once every couple, three years, yeah, I'd be a no-brainer just buy the compressor.

Kentucky Dave: 1:45:38

But but right now I don't know. Considering that you are going to increase your model output by a factor of three over this coming year, uh you may want to consider that.

Mike: 1:45:51

I'm probably gonna I'm probably gonna refill it one more time because I'm I'm not too keen on going and dropping six bills on a silent air next week. So maybe maybe Santa will bring you something special for Christmas. Probably not, but maybe 2026 is the year I actually switched my air supply.

Kentucky Dave: 1:46:10

Hey, air supply. There's a musical reference.

Mike: 1:46:13

Yes, not a very good one.

Kentucky Dave: 1:46:15

I know.

Mike: 1:46:17

The KV-85 is creeping along still. I have made a little progress on it. Last time I'd put all those fuel cell cleats back on the front edges of the fenders. Right. Well, now I'm actually working on the bracketry because I actually ordered from who makes them PanzerArt resin cast fuel cells with the and the handles or photo edge that go on the ends. So they're they're they're not bad. There's some funkiness on the end caps on the ends that are gonna have to be cleaned up.

unknown: 1:46:52

Yeah.

Mike: 1:46:53

This was a little disappointing. Kind of about 50-50 with PanzerArt.

Kentucky Dave: 1:46:57

You know, there are a number of manufacturers like that who who seem to be hit or miss. And this is true of major manufacturers putting out injection kits all the way down to the little small cottage industries. You know, there's some manufacturers that you know you can order from, and everything's gonna be the same level of quality. And then there are those manufacturers where sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's not bad, but not to the same level. And you kind of wonder about that.

Mike: 1:47:35

Yeah, I think the the the first thing that was amiss was uh it was easy to fix, but the I used their mantlet resin casting and the aluminum barrel for the KV85. Well, the the vertical edges sides of that mantlet are torch cut. Yeah, they got all the striated lines on the sides. Well, it's completely missing on one side. It was beautifully textured and cast, but it was completely missing on the other side. They didn't put it in the master.

Kentucky Dave: 1:48:03

Right. You you wonder why, well, wait a minute, you guys did it on one side, so you know it's there. Did did somebody just have a brain fart?

Mike: 1:48:12

Yeah. Probably.

Kentucky Dave: 1:48:14

And that's probably the answer. And then once they cast it, they're like, oh, and they decide it's not worth going back and fixing.

Mike: 1:48:23

Now these these fuel cells, the issue with them is the the end caps, the end plates on the ends, the round discs on the ends. It's like whatever they made that with cracked. So there's it's not a flat disc, it's a disc with a split in it. It's got an offset, it's got a step in it now.

Kentucky Dave: 1:48:39

Oh. And that's hard to that's in a hard spot to sand out, too.

Mike: 1:48:44

So it's hard to sand out because there's a little tiny lip because it's recessed in the end of the fuel cell just a little bit. So, you know, it's those, it's those things that maybe maybe these should have been easier than building up the plastic ones, or certainly easier than forming up photo eshed ones. And they're just, they're just they have work to do still yet on them.

Kentucky Dave: 1:49:04

Is this another job for the Mike Basket prosciutto plastic?

Mike: 1:49:12

Probably it's probably too thin for this, but yeah, okay. That's a thought.

Kentucky Dave: 1:49:17

Because I don't know if you saw it. Our friend Paul Gloster gave you credit in the Doge. I saw that. Where he has used some of that on his recent IBG Spitfire build.

Mike: 1:49:31

I'm still trying to find a source for that stuff.

Kentucky Dave: 1:49:33

Yes, and I want you to find it because I want I want some more. I mean, not that I mind going out and buying prosciutto all the time, but still. Yeah, I'll find it eventually.

Mike: 1:49:44

And I'll probably have to buy eight miles of it on a roll.

Kentucky Dave: 1:49:46

That that's okay.

Mike: 1:49:48

I think that's the way it is. Well, other than that, I've been doing a little research on uh possibly starting that vintage air fix 17-pound anti-tank gun I bought at the Nationals. There's a photograph from a Nijmegan bridge of one of those guns firing across the river.

Kentucky Dave: 1:50:05

So oh, and it's a great photo.

Mike: 1:50:07

It is a great photo, and there's a bicycle and sidewalk sign, road sign, and uh I got a little help with that on the dojo. I think we got that sorted out. So the folks who helped me out there appreciate it very much.

Kentucky Dave: 1:50:19

I want to point out how times have changed. When I knew younger Mike Basquette, younger Mike Basquet was all about the latest and greatest. In fact, he got the nickname Mr. Goons because of the fact that he was pursuing those cutting-edge Gunsanio kit armor kits. And now here we are many years later, and you're turned on by nostalgia builds of old kits and turning them into beautiful, beautiful models. But one to my credit so far. Well, but you're you'll work. I I have no doubt that you'll do that, and it'll be gorgeous. But it's funny how things change in in that regard.

Mike: 1:51:10

Well, that's that's what's up on my bench. Hopefully we make a little more progress over the weekend. I I got uh not a lot else ahead of me for the weekend, so I think I can do it, man. Well, that's good. So watch the dojo, folks. We'll we'll put something up.

"The Voice of Bob" Bair: 1:51:27

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by Squadron. Head on over to squadron.com for the latest in kits and accessories, all at a great price and with great service. Squadron adding to the stash since 1968.

Kentucky Dave: 1:51:45

This is a faves and yawns episode, and there's a lot to choose from. I'll tell you what I'm gonna, since I have a number of them, I'm gonna start.

Mike: 1:51:55

Okay.

Kentucky Dave: 1:51:56

Tomia has finally announced that they are downscaling their beautiful F-14 kit, and that we are going to get a 72nd scale Tomia F14D, and I can't wait to see it. When Tomia came out with their 48 scale kit, everybody wanted them to scale it down, and for years and years and years they didn't, and I have no idea why now is the time they've decided to do it, but they have.

Mike: 1:52:42

Okay, did I not see in one of the photographs you sent from Cincinnati a Fine Mold 70 second scale F 14?

Kentucky Dave: 1:52:49

Yes, you did. Now that was an A model. Okay. That just checking. That that I paid that is a great kit. Don't get me wrong. Those kits are are fairly new themselves. And yes, when we get to what broke your wallet in some future episode, that will get a mention.

Mike: 1:53:08

Just checking. All right. This one is of interest. They're not all faves, they're not yawns either, but some modern armor folk folks will probably like this one. Umby Japan and 35th scale. So it's one of the newer plastic kit companies. Well, it's the Swedish Stridzwagen 103, the S Tank.

Kentucky Dave: 1:53:28

The S Tank.

Mike: 1:53:29

So they're doing, I think, a C model. I don't know the differences in the models.

Kentucky Dave: 1:53:34

Right.

Mike: 1:53:35

But maybe they're doing more than one. Interesting because the Trumpeter did one, but when I look back when this kit came out to see what was out there, that I think that's a really early Trumpeter 35th skill.

Kentucky Dave: 1:53:48

Yes, I my my recollection is that it is one of the earlier, less successful trumpeter productions. And so I I would suspect, and we would have to talk to the fans of the of the Swedish S Tank to know, but I suspect that this will be a welcome edition.

Mike: 1:54:10

What you got next?

Kentucky Dave: 1:54:12

Okay, I don't have a particular kit. I want to point out a phenomenon on scalemates and a related and some related stuff about that. On scalemates, a brand new, well, a new company to scalemates dumped out an entire catalog listing figures, kits, accessories, architectural pieces, all in 72nd scale, although I suspect they also are doing them in other scales because it's 3D print. The companies called EMP 3D. There must have been a hundred plus listings on Scalemates all over the course of a day or two. And this is exactly what makes me anxious about new 3D print companies. They burst on the scene with a huge catalog. Nobody's ever seen the stuff before. So this is why I'm begging our dojo members when you buy something from a 3D print company, please post photos of it along with your commentary on the dojo so that the rest of us know, hey, this company's great, you can buy with confidence. Or I bought from this company and their stuff looks good in the 3D scans, but it in what you get, it's not great or not worth it. And and this is really brought home to me when a company suddenly bursts on the scene with 200 different items.

Mike: 1:56:06

Well, my next one, I think it's probably a 3D print. Okay. I didn't verify. It's from a company called Four Star Miniatures.

Kentucky Dave: 1:56:15

Okay.

Mike: 1:56:16

And they are doing, I think, currently in 72nd scale and 48th scale, I believe, the Fat Man atomic bomb and the carriage. Yes, I saw that. And the carriage. So if you want to do a B-29 diorama of the Enola Gay or Boxcar, well, you gotta do Enola Gay.

Kentucky Dave: 1:56:36

Right. Black Dog does that in resin as well. Okay. In fact, they do both of them, little boy and fat man.

Mike: 1:56:43

So it's not it's not unique in the market.

Kentucky Dave: 1:56:46

No, no. There they there have been 72nd scale atom bombs before. But yes, I think that's 3D.

Mike: 1:56:54

With the carriage?

Kentucky Dave: 1:56:56

Yes, with the carriage.

Mike: 1:56:58

What's your next one?

Kentucky Dave: 1:56:59

Because what would you do if you didn't have the carriage? It would kind of roll around on the table.

Mike: 1:57:04

What's your next one, Dave?

Kentucky Dave: 1:57:06

My next one is from our friends at AirFix. A couple of years ago, AirFix released the mosquito, and I think it was the B the Mark B20, which was a very in-demand mosquito because of the fact that it had the later two-stage Merlin engines. And there's a whole family of mosquitoes, the later mosquitoes, and Lord knows there were, I forget, like four 45 or 50 different marks of mosquito. There are really a bunch of them, and they all have very devoted fans. Well, AirFix released this B Mark 20 or Mark 20B or whatever a couple of years ago, and they've taken advantage of the fact that they have those molds, and they've released a Airfix Mosquito B35. Now, I don't know exactly all the differences between the B20 and the B35, but it's a nice example of a company who has a basic mold and it has the possibilities to do additional versions and them taking advantage of that and doing it. And this was not ever announced. They just suddenly came out and said, Hey, we've got this out of the blue. And it was nice to see, and I think it probably gives fans of the mosquito hope that they're going to get many more versions of the mosquito in the future.

Mike: 1:58:52

Dave, my next one's from Blast Models out of France. Okay. They've just come out with uh an H39 interior and a separate engine kit for the Tamiya Hoskiss H39.

Kentucky Dave: 1:59:03

Oh, that would be cool. You can do a lot with that.

Mike: 1:59:07

Yeah, that's pretty cool. And because of the big rear turret hatch and the the front hatch, and then you could really open one up if you wanted to.

Kentucky Dave: 1:59:14

Yeah, yeah. And and given that it's such a small tank, I mean, you could make it amazingly open.

Mike: 1:59:24

You know, I've got some of their other French armor things. They're usually pretty good.

Kentucky Dave: 1:59:29

Oh, yeah, there's some quality, they do quality stuff. You got another one? Yes, I do, and this is not at all a new kit. This came out quite a number of years ago, but I'm gonna mention it anyway. Great Wall Hobbies did a MiG 29 series, and I recently picked up their MiG 29 SMT, also known as the model 9.19 or 9.17. And I'd never seen one before. I've got other Great Wall hobby kits. They're very nice. I'd never seen one of these before, but I ordered it kind of on a whim. And I got it. And I will tell you, no bull, this is the most beautiful kit in the box, I think I've ever seen. Just absolutely beautiful. Now I'm gonna have to build it. Hopefully, things fit together as good as they look together, but oh my lord, this thing is engineered to within an inch of its life. It's all done with very complex slide molds. It's it's just super impressive. And I can tell you that one of the things it's gonna make me do is go out and get their other MiG-29 kits, which I need I need like I need a hole in the head.

Mike: 2:01:02

That's it for me. This one is a fave, and I've got I won't call it a yawn, but it's a it's a caveat folks need to be aware of. The one I like is from Lanmo models. So they're they came out with a the Soviet BA64 armored car. Oh, I love that vehicle. A while back. And when when they first announced it, I was assuming they were gonna pick up the plastic from the Vision Models kit, but it's not. So I'm curious. Lanmo is coming out with the SDKFZ 222, the little four-wheeled reconnaissance car. They're doing one as the first production series version, and they're doing one that I don't know if it's unique to the export, but it's a Chinese one. Oh from the early part of well, it's really pre-war World War II. Yeah, but it's got some small differences, but I, you know, are they is this one gonna be uh a new tooled 222 or are they gonna pick up the old TriStar one and use it? I don't know. It's interesting. Have to see when it comes out.

Kentucky Dave: 2:02:09

I love what they're doing with these small armored cars because to me those are just really, really neat.

Mike: 2:02:16

Well, you know, they're they're taking the base plastic and they're augmenting it with a bunch of 3D printed engine and interior stuff. So it's pretty cool. Yep. Yep. Now, my yawn, it's really not a yawn, but it's uh something folks be aware of if they're not paying attention. It's a company called Pig Models. And they've done well on Scalemates right now, there's there's two releases. There's a Soviet PT3 Mine Roller. You know, the ones that look like a big cluster of I-beam sections welded onto a wheel. That one World War II one.

unknown: 2:02:48

Yeah.

Mike: 2:02:49

As a standalone thing, which is new for them, but also not unique in the marketplace. There's been others made various ways. But they also kitted one T3476 with this PT3 mine roller, also listed as a new tool. But that's not exactly true.

Kentucky Dave: 2:03:07

Okay.

Mike: 2:03:08

It's just like when they did the big disc mine roller with the Sherman. Yep. The Sherman was the Asuka and he was the company before them, Tasca. Tasca. M4 Sherman. Well, this is the an Academy T34.

Kentucky Dave: 2:03:24

Gotcha. So it's so basically what they mean by new is the mine roller parts.

Mike: 2:03:29

But they but they sell that separately as new.

Kentucky Dave: 2:03:32

Right.

Mike: 2:03:32

So Scalemate has this combo kit listed as new tool as well, which is it's a little misleading. But now folks know. It's on the fine print on the box art, but it's not it's not all new tool. So folks folks be aware.

Kentucky Dave: 2:03:48

As the old ABC thing used to or NBC thing used to say, the more you know. That's right.

Mike: 2:03:56

Well, that's all I know for Faves and Yawns, Dave.

"The Voice of Bob" Bair: 2:03:59

All right. Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by Model Paint Solutions, your source for hard-earned steam back 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 lacquerers. Check them out at www.modelpaint solutions.com.

Kentucky Dave: 2:04:27

Mike, uh, this is the point in the podcast where we ask everybody who has is listening and hasn't rated the podcast on whatever podcast listening app that they're listening on, please rate the podcast, give it the highest rating. It helps drive uh listeners to us, it drives our visibility. More importantly, if you have a modeling friend that isn't listening to either modeling podcasts at all or plastic model mojo, please recommend it us to them. Um a recommendation from a friend is the best way for us to grow the podcast. And the podcast continues to grow. I've got good news. Mike and I watch those numbers, and we continue to grow, and we are thrilled about that. And it is up to you to help us continue to grow.

Mike: 2:05:24

And once you've rated the podcast, you can uh check out the other podcasts out in the model sphere by going to www.modelpodcasts.com. That's model podcastplural. It's a consortium website set up by Stuart Clark of the Scale Model Podcast, and he's up in Canada. And there you can see all the banner links to all the variety of podcasts that are out there now in the model sphere. And Stu just posted a heads up recently on Facebook and dealing with his wife's health issues, and she's going to go back into surgery, he said, and uh reverse some of the things they had to do initially for her health. So we wish Stu and his wife the best, and hopefully he can get back into modeling and podcasting real soon.

Kentucky Dave: 2:06:05

Yeah. And Stu has done a fantastic job of stepping up and helping his wife through this difficult time. And that's that's behavior you want to see modeled from people who are married. You step up and you you help your spouse when they need that help.

Mike: 2:06:23

And also check out all our blog and YouTube friends in the model sphere. We got Stephen Lee, Sprue Pie with Fretz, has got a great blog. Yeah, he's been doing some good stuff lately. Jeff Groves, the Inch High Guy, an Inch High Guy blog, 70 second scale stuff there, always good.

Kentucky Dave: 2:06:38

Got to spend a whole bunch of time with him at Cincinnati, and man, it's it's a joy. And we've got a standing invitation to go up to the Inch High Manor.

Mike: 2:06:50

Chris Wallace, my airplaymaker, blog and YouTube channel. Keeps cranking out good stuff. He does. Evan McCallum, Panzermeister 36 on YouTube. Check him out when you get a chance and send him some wedding well wishes there as well if you if you're friends with him.

Kentucky Dave: 2:07:07

Yep.

Mike: 2:07:08

And finally, our guest tonight, Dr. Paul Budzik, Scale Model Workshop. And hopefully we're going to see a lot more coming from Paul after his retirement starts.

Kentucky Dave: 2:07:16

I was thrilled to hear as part of his revamp that he set up a mini studio in a permanent spot where he can just jump over and do a recording. So that gives me hope that we're going to get to see more videos out of him. Finally, if you are not a member of the IPMS national organization, IPMS USA, please consider joining. This is my last tenure or my last term of service as the retention and recruitment secretary. My goal is to get IPMS USA to 6,000 members. We're at about 5,200 now. I would consider it a personal favor if everyone listening to me now, no matter where you are located, would join IPMS USA and help me go out with a bang by having 6,000 members for us when my term is up 18 months from now. Also, if you're not a member of the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society and you are an armor modeler or post-1900s figure modeler, they are a great organization, great group of guys who are dedicated to the craft of armor modeling. If you're not a member, consider joining AMPS. I'll go first. Hoffbrow House Hefeweizen, especially when purchased from Hoffbrow House in the Growler form, the beer is so fresh. I can't emphasize to people enough what a difference the freshness of beer makes. That if you are getting it on site, it makes all the difference in the world as far as drinkability goes. This stuff is fantastic. I literally could drink it morning, noon, and night every day and never get tired of it. No complaints whatsoever. Well, mine's good too, Dave.

Mike: 2:09:38

The juicy IPA lives up to its name. It's got a pretty good citrus on it.

Kentucky Dave: 2:09:45

I love citrus IPAs.

Mike: 2:09:47

So Bill Moore, thanks for that. It's it's pretty good. 6% out of Nashville, Tennessee. I'd certainly drink more of it. Maybe we can pick some up or Murphy's.

Kentucky Dave: 2:09:56

Maybe we can pick some up or down in Murphy's Boro. That's right.

Mike: 2:09:59

And it didn't kick off my allergies. So uh whatever variety of hops it is is doing that to me with those beers. It's it must not be in that one, at least not in any quantity.

Kentucky Dave: 2:10:12

We are now truly at the end of the show. So do you have a shout out?

Mike: 2:10:19

Well, I want to shout out all the folks who have chosen to support Plastic Model Mojo with their generosity. Uh, we really appreciate that. It helps us bring you these episodes and keeps us current with our uh various subscriptions to keep this going, and we appreciate it very much. If you'd like to contribute to Plastic Model Mojo, we've set up several avenues you can do that. You can do it through Patreon, PayPal, buy me a coffee. Those are those are the main avenues, and you can find those at Plasticmodel Mojo.com or in the links to the show notes. You'll find links in both places to get to those areas that will specifically get to us. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much for all the support.

Kentucky Dave: 2:10:55

My shout out this episode. I've got a shout out and a Dave Rec Dave recommends. My shout out is to the guys at Cincy. You all put on a heck of a show. Uh you have the plastic model mojo seal of approval. I highly recommend to anybody who can get to the Cincinnati show, go to it. You know, it's not every day that you park your car under the wing of an HU16 albatross and unload directly into the hangar from there. It was way cool. And I'm already looking forward to next year.

Mike: 2:11:34

Well, hopefully I can make it next year. Hopefully I can make it to Murfreesboro too. I need to get your show again.

Kentucky Dave: 2:11:39

Yes, you do.

Mike: 2:11:40

Well, I think we're done. Go ahead.

Kentucky Dave: 2:11:42

No, I've got my Dave's recommends.

Mike: 2:11:44

Oh, it's not the Cincy show.

Kentucky Dave: 2:11:46

No, the that's the my shout-out. My Dave's recommends is I've mentioned on here before the podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Al Murray and and James Holland, a couple of World War II historians who do a podcast. They recently did a six-part series on the Battle of Britain to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. And it was a really well-constructed, well-thought-out overview of the battle and the different details and the things that mattered. And it was a pleasure to listen to. So if you're out there, once you're completely caught up on plastic model mojo episodes and you're looking for something else to listen to, the We Have Ways episode, six parts on the Battle of Britain is Dave recommended.

Mike: 2:12:47

All right. Too bad your yard doesn't eat much mowing anymore.

Kentucky Dave: 2:12:50

Yeah, I know. Well, I got to pick up some leaves. I'm going to go out there this weekend and go get start getting the leaves up before they get bad. All right, my friend.

Mike: 2:13:00

I think we're at the end. I think we are. As we always say. So many kids. So little time, Dave. We'll catch you next time.

Kentucky Dave: 2:13:08

You take it easy, Mike.