Plastic Model Mojo
Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby
Plastic Model Mojo
From Bench Zen To Stash Reality: Episode 151
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Adding to the stash since 1968
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Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to skill modeling, as well as to news and events around the public. Join Mike in Kentucky Davis to subscribe to be informative, entertaining, and help you to keep your modeling module alive.
Mike:All right, Kentucky Dave, we are on the backside of our second hundred.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:We're heading into our second hundred.
Kentucky Dave:Well, wait a minute. That would imply this is 101. This is 151.
Mike:The back side. Oh, the back side. Since 100. Since 100.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:Gotcha. Of our second hundred.
Kentucky Dave:Uh-huh. So, in other words, it's episode 151.
Mike:It's it's episode 151 once we get the semantics squared away, yes. And that's a lot, man. It is. It is, but it does God, it it seems like it was just yesterday. Yeah, we've been busy. We get a little late getting this one to print.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, well, that uh life life intervenes, and we'll talk about that.
Mike:Well, what's up in your model sphere, my friend?
Kentucky Dave:My model sphere has been fantastic. Well, good. Went to the Cincinnati show, had a great time there. Yesterday, you and I got to do Squadron TV, and that was a new experience for both of us. And I'm here to tell you, I had a great time. Having a little trouble getting back to the bench. Some life stuff and dad stuff and you know, family stuff has intervened, but I am getting back, and I'm also already starting to look forward to 2026. So my model sphere is high. My mojo is I've got a raging mojo, man. My mojo is raging. How about you?
Mike:I'm not too bad. I've I really enjoyed uh joining Brandon and Jeff for Squadron TV last night, maybe Wednesday the 12th, that episode. Folks want to go check that out if you haven't already. That was that was a lot of fun. I think I was on a long oh, quite a ways back. Yeah. It was right, it was before the the national convention because Jeff hadn't joined Squadron yet, and he was on there pitching the pitching the national convention. So it was sometime sometime last year. I can't remember exactly when, but uh it's it's it's a fun thing. It was a good time.
Kentucky Dave:I have to make a note my calendar for two weeks from Wednesday from yesterday, because Brandon's gonna have Dana Bell on, and I'll watch the heck out of that one.
Mike:Ellie's had better luck than us for getting it.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I know. Well, in time we're we're gonna talk to Brandon about that.
Mike:Yeah, that'll be a good one. I knew when he said that, your eyes probably lit up and uh Oh, they did. You're pretty excited about that. So yes. Yeah. I I guess in the model sphere, that's been the big thing. Um other than that, it's been work, work, work. And uh I'm actually thinking about taking the E16 into work with me tomorrow. Oh, good. Well, that would be cool. And because I've been doing a lot of tedious stuff at work that's not unlike work I did at my own bench, like I I told Brandon before we started recording, maybe even before you joined, we were talking there before we started the thing. And I don't know. They'd when they were outlining the tasks for what we're doing right now, uh they picked two or three unbeknownst to me that they knew I might be the only person that had the precision and patience to to do.
Kentucky Dave:So well, what you need to do is you need to get a Lexan case. You need to put that paw in that Lexan case and take it to work and put it on your desk. I could do that. Yeah.
Mike:Or I could just take it in the box tomorrow and put it in the uh Laminar flow hood and turn the overhead light on, just let it sit in there. Speaking of there you go.
Kentucky Dave:Speaking of speaking of your work and space stuff, you saw Blue Origin had a successful launch today.
Mike:I don't think you I didn't get I didn't get to see it. I was traveling out to a machine shop to pick up some parts.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah. I didn't think you all had anything on that because it was a satellite launch.
Mike:No, it was we weren't there.
Kentucky Dave:So, Mike, since we're doing episode 151, I assume you have a modeling fluid in front of you. I do. What do you have?
Mike:I have some basil Haydns. I hadn't had that in a little while. Oh, you lucky dog. And I got a little of that. It's uh it's a little lighter than some of the others. Yeah, it is. It's not pairing well with the white cheddar popcorn I had it a minute ago. Well, yeah, I don't think that's a recommended bourbon pairing.
Kentucky Dave:We got to get that out of my mouth. Okay, well, another couple of swigs of basil Hayden, and that'll all be gone. Well, what about you? I got another beer tonight. This one is Wizards Order Juice Box Wizard Juicy IPA from Tailgate Brewing in Nashville, Tennessee, courtesy of our good friend Bill Moore, who I'm gonna see on Saturday. So I'm drinking this one in his honor.
Mike:Yeah, I talked to Bill about you coming down there, so you better keep your guard up, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:I I am, man. I am. Well, listen, believe me, we're gonna we're we're gonna make the point that you weren't didn't didn't make it. And so uh you you are gonna come in for some righteous scorn.
Mike:I guess.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I can promise it.
Mike:When you all break off conversation, you might want to back up facing them five or six steps before you turn around. That's all I'm saying. Okay. Well, the modeling fluid's all in good fun, and the listener mail's all in good fun. All right. And what do we got? Well, the drought's over, that's for sure. Well, that's good. We got a lot. All right, let's get into them. Well, Dave, first up, Will Edwards from Down Under and the 70 Second Scale guys you created the international incident with.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:Hey, they sent me the missing comma.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, they sent you just a comma?
Mike:Just a comma. Yep. I got an email, and that is the only thing in it is a comma.
Kentucky Dave:So you know what? Aussies truly do have the best sense of humor, man.
Mike:Well, so that's all done and dusted, wrapped in bowed. So hopefully uh you learned your lesson, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, there there is peace among 72nd scale World War I modelers.
Mike:Well, one of our favorite Chicagoans is is written in again, Hector Cologne. Oh, yes. Who brought us some really nice beer at the Nationals. And he says it's medallion, not medallia. Okay. It's Spanish. Gotcha. Okay, so there you go. Thank you, Hector. You've got Dave corrected now, Hector, and he appreciated us running into us at Hampton.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. I was thrilled with all the people we saw at Hampton this year. It it every year it seems like more and more listeners stop by our table, and that's just great.
Mike:If I'm not mistaken, he was there with his son. He was. That's right. And he says he's on your bandwagon now, and he believes the National Convention is the best four days in his modeling year, too. There you go. And like hoping to see us, we hope to see him in Fort Wayne in 26.
Kentucky Dave:Absolutely. And he's got no excuse given where he's located.
Mike:That's a lot shorter trip than uh Hampton. Yeah, for him for sure. Unless he flew, then it probably wouldn't wasn't too bad. Yeah. Just hop a jet in Chicago and go straight there. I suspect he drove.
Kentucky Dave:I suspect he did too.
Mike:Well, the boys at Detail and Scale have been cranking out the stuff again.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, they have.
Mike:Rock Rozak informs us they have a new one.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:Uh A7 Color and Markings book has been published now.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:And it's gonna be part one of an ongoing series on A7. It's U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet Squadrons and Test and Evaluation Facilities aircraft.
Kentucky Dave:So uh you just you just have to love the U.S. Navy in the 60s and 70s when the when the aircraft were just all sorts of colorful.
Mike:Some crazy stuff in here, and this is just getting started, part one. So I'm sure there's a Pacific Fleet and other stuff coming. So Oh, I'm sure. And it's volume nine in the colors and marking series, so there you go. Support them, folks. They got some good reference books, and uh, we appreciate all Rock does for us. And uh Absolutely. Please patronize uh detail and scale. This is an interesting one, Dave. It's from Michael Pye in North Somerset in the UK. Okay. Something he's been playing around with. At his place of employment, they've uh signed up for Copilot, which is an AI function.
Kentucky Dave:I know, believe me, I know what co-pilot is.
Mike:And he often often builds small-scale dioramas around his aircraft. And he's been finding it really helpful to lean on AI a little bit for the initial base design. Really? Yeah, this is interesting. He he likes this ability to call on real history and and uh it can allow for access to knowledge that he hasn't simply built up yet. And then he says he knows you know what it kicks out is not a hundred percent accurate accurate, but it's he thinks it's a helpful tool to at least get, you know, if you got a little brain freeze going on to get a starting point. Hmm. So Mike, I I'm really curious, and and other listeners too, if you've you've tried this, but for for Mike specifically, I'd like to know kind of what kind of prompts he's using to get get what he wants, because that's kind of that's that's the secret sauce is getting getting it right on the front end.
Kentucky Dave:And you can you can curate it as you go along and make it more and more, you know, when it's yeah, and the more you the more you do it, the more the the better you get at writing the prompts that'll get you what you're looking for.
Mike:So it's interesting. I'm I'm gonna give it a shot. Uh we don't have copilot, but I'll use something else and uh see what happens. Could be fun.
Kentucky Dave:Yes. Keep us updated.
Mike:Andrew Armstrong from Center Point, New York, Dave, is uh feeling your pain. Uh-oh.
Kentucky Dave:What about?
Mike:Well, he recently kicked out Edward's 72nd scale MiG-15.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, beautiful kit.
Mike:And he tried a bare metal finish and he he struggled a bit, but expected that. That's not what got him. Right. Uh you know, he he knew how difficult it could be and what to expect. And what he did not expect was was after he got through that part of it, just the ability to glue on the simple bits at the end of the build and dropping parts and marring this paint and uh just making a general mess of things and jacking up the panel line wash and finally just pulled the plug and said, that's good enough. On to on to the next one.
Kentucky Dave:It's a learning experience. And listen, that is I feel his pain because the closer you get to the completion of the model, the more that you worry that those last few things are going to be what causes you a problem. And it's so disheartening to be adding an antenna or a pedotube or or you know a missile or or something like that, and jack it up to the point where not only do you not get that right, but you experience what we hear in the do in the mojo dojo call negative modeling. And there is nothing more disheartening than negative modeling. To the point where, with that uh recent F-8F kit, I negative modeled it right into the trash can.
Mike:It's I'm curious, and you can comment on this after I explain it, but I had a minor epiphany, it was at work this week, doing some of this delicate work, and it's it's something I'd never really thought about, but it's something I've noticed happening, oh gosh, I think probably since I've been an adult modeler, to kind of tie this into where he was with this project. He already had the bare metal finish on. So anything after that that you're gluing on, you know, it's it's the risk is a little higher versus some other kind of finish, right?
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:So when I'm doing really delicate work, I tend to hold the work and the tool kind of gingerly.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:And I tend to drop things with a higher frequency because of that. You know, I did it on the E16, I did it on some of the silly things I was doing at work this week. It's just something I catch myself doing, and and I wonder if if your mistake frequency kind of goes up because maybe you almost drop the model or you do drop it or it slips out of your hand in a position that breaks something and all that kind of thing.
Kentucky Dave:It's a natural tendency when you're doing delicate stuff to try and do it delicately. But you're right, if you're holding the tool or holding the model, the one thing you don't want to be doing is holding both of the darn things. You don't want both of them, especially if you got the shakes that I do. You do not want both of them moving in three axes when you're trying to put them together. So put one of them down and use attach with it already resting on like a build cradle or something like that. But uh yeah, no, I can see that whole a tendency to underhold. I will tell you that finding a good pair of tweezers is really, really, really important. I mean, you and I've had this discussion many episodes back, that cheap tweezers where the jaws don't meet, or there's a bow at the end, or or something like that, it it just leads to parts dropping or pinging off into space. And it is worth, you know, 12, 15, 20 dollars for a really finely machined pair of tweezers.
Mike:And you could get good ones for in that kind of price range. Exactly. Now, it used to not used to be kind of tough. Usually you're 35, 40, 50 bucks. And you know, some of the ones I buy for the lab at work are are that expensive. So I gotta remind people not to use them for pry bars and stuff.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, that's right. If you get a really good pair of tweezers, do not use it for anything but really fine parts handling or or whatever.
Mike:So we've digressed a little, but I was just wondering if if if this was the use of light hands, and especially for me, if if I'm wearing like nitrile gloves at work, yeah. Maybe the work dictates it just for fingerprints or keeping skin oil off something. Yeah, just that just that kind of magnifies the problem.
Kentucky Dave:Speaking of nitrile gloves, not to digress yet again, I've switched from 5 mil to 3 mil, and it makes a world of difference regarding the sensation that you get through the gloves. And I'm to the point now, I am so sold on the three mil that I don't think I'll ever use anything else.
Mike:There's a tip. There you go. Next is uh Tom Carron from Cairns, Utah. Okay, and he just finished our last episode with Dr. Paul Budzik. And first off, he'd like to wish the good doctor a happy retirement. As we all do. And he says this episode was most helpful for him because he has one hell of a shelf of doom. He says it's more of a storage rack full of kids he screwed up or lost interest in, and he's just tired of looking at them. So he threw them in the trash while he was listening to the podcast.
Kentucky Dave:Good. And you know what? Hopefully, Paul is listening to this, and I know that Paul would be greatly pleased that that that that he had that effect to help help it help the modeler unburden themselves from the shelf of doom. And we all have shelves of doom, but when it builds up too much and you look at stuff that's been there for years and you know you're not gonna finish it, throw it away. Unburden yourself. Great advice from Dr. Budzig.
Mike:Well, he's on the threshold of retirement himself, and he's been thinning things down, and he may actually move to Costa Rica in retirement, so he's gotta keep things in check. Uh he's got to ship it all down there. And uh sounds good, man. I'm glad uh glad you enjoyed the episode and got something out of it.
Kentucky Dave:And retiring to Costa Rica sounds like an awfully fine, uh fine way to go into retirement.
Mike:Well, from Richmond, Virginia, Dave, it's Frank Blanton.
Kentucky Dave:Good.
Mike:Who we saw modeling with Ben Pluth at the uh national convention.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:And uh he's uh been a long time listener, and we appreciate that. He also enjoyed episode 150, and it says it spoke exactly to his situation. He retired early at age 59, along with his wife. He doesn't he doesn't model the deadlines and he doesn't model the obligations, and he thought it was all just brilliant.
Kentucky Dave:Well, good. Again, I he really does have some great insights, in addition to picking up all sorts of tips and and and modeling techniques and stuff like that, but he has some deeper insight into the hobby. He's actually thought about the hobby and what he wants out of it and what he wants to put into it. And not everybody thinks that deeply on the subject, and I do think it helps to do so.
Mike:Well, Frank, they went they downsized their their home to a one-bedroom condominium in downtown Richmond. That that might be a fun way to live, too.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:Down the thick of it. And he had to downsize his collection of built and unbuilt model kits, and like uh Paul did, he gave a lot of stuff away to fellow modelers, donated kits to shows and raffles, sold books he didn't have room for, all the same stuff. And he keeps keeps a smaller stash now. Another thing he does is he he he doesn't do many long build kits or difficult things these days. Troubles troublesome kits, we'll call them that.
Kentucky Dave:Gotcha. Life's too short to build crappy kits.
Mike:Unless you like doing it.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, unless you liked it. Unless you're doing a nostalgia build of an old air fix kit that you remember doing as a kid.
Mike:Man, the the email for episode 150 just keeps coming. Oh, from Paul's home state, too, is uh Ed Bareth. Yes. And uh Ed just wanted to say how much he enjoyed the episode with Paul and his thoughts on retirement, including stash and motivation and what to do next and simple happiness, just amazingly echoed his own thoughts after six months of chemotherapy.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:And just as simple as that. And he's too warning about his stash and stuff he'll never get to. Ed's got a good prognosis, but that kind of thing makes you look at life differently, and uh it does. Especially in terms of what to do with one's time. So he really appreciated the insight in that episode.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and I want Ed to know that uh everybody in the plastic model mojo family is thinking of him, and we're happy that he's got such a good prognosis, and we look forward to seeing Ed at many, many future nationals.
Mike:I hope so. He's planned on setting up a vendor table with some of his next shows and asked if we needed any kids, he'll send us a list.
Kentucky Dave:Great.
Mike:Well, from Cleveland, Ohio, is Jeff Adanich. He started out modeling in high school and junior high and left the hobby for about three days and picked it up again during the pandemic. Well, that's we haven't heard that story in a little while, but we sure heard it a lot during the pandemic and immediately after. Yep. And he thinks it's a fantastic way to detach from all the other stuff going on in his job in healthcare. It's really true for anything.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, I agree.
Mike:So we may we may touch on stuff like that in our special segments. Yes.
Kentucky Dave:For our shop talk.
Mike:And he's gone back through the archives and looking to get to some shows, plan on going to Fort Wayne. He just kind of builds everything, and he's he's just picked up Steve Anderson's guide to uh the modeling journal. Good. So he's uh he's really got on board. So Jeff glad to hear it.
Kentucky Dave:Welcome back to post some pictures on the dojo of your work, Jeff.
Mike:Well, he's got an Academy B 17 he's working on and hopes to do that. Hopes to do that. He mentioned that as well. Good. Thanks, Jeff. I'm glad to have you as a listener. Well, if you're following the advice in episode 150, Michael Aluzi from the Jack Wiselig Polis Kochwashers in Peoria, Illinois has a suggestion for you. Every well, how often do they do this? I guess at all their club meetings, they have a supermodelers quiz. Uh-huh. And everybody brings stuff they don't want or can no longer use, and they have a big prize bin. And they make up this 10-questioned quiz that all the attendees take, and whoever gets the most right gets their first pick of the prize bin, and so on and so forth down the line. So uh that's cool. Kind of put a fun twist on getting rid of stuff by making a making a game out of it.
Kentucky Dave:And you know what? That brings up something that you and I need to think about for future episodes. You know, we do all of these show spotlights and we ask people what they do, you what's unique about your show and what's different, and what are you all proud of, et cetera, et cetera. We need to do the same thing for club meetings. We need to get people to send in information on their local club, how many people attend, you know, what's the frequency, et cetera, and what you do, what goes on at the meeting, and what unique things you all do, like that price box thing. That would be a really good idea. So, listeners, I want you to start thinking about that and start flooding Mike with emails on that subject.
Mike:Well, Charles Rice from South Carolina, who attended the uh the regional show in Raleigh, has written in with some some stats from the show. And remember there's some concern about the uh the after five models entry fee. Right. I'm gonna call on Bob Bear to reach back out to us because I want to make sure these numbers are are right and then see what he's got to say about it, because uh it seemed to impact things. Okay. And if these numbers are right, it was kind of severe. Be really curious.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:Like on the order of 50% versus the region they put on in 23.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah. So of course now regionals are are always outsized shows.
Mike:No, you missed what I said.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said the regional in 23.
Mike:Right. This show they just had was a regional.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, okay. I'm sorry.
Mike:And based on the numbers given, it's it it looked significantly smaller. Gotcha. So Bob, reach out to Mike. That's right. I'm curious. Curious about that one. Sounds like it's a good show, though. Great vendors and saw plenty of friends, and he sent me a picture of the ruffian he ran into there, which is none other than Bob Bear, Voice of Bob.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:So real curious how that went down. And another one for episode 150. And my and my final email. Okay. Bruce Binkson from I think he's from Sandy or San Francisco, yes. Greetings from San Francisco. And he also he also wants to add his voice to the course of appreciation for Paul Budzik's appearance in episode 150. He says this guy's got a lot of insight, and it's always deserves an attentive listen. So uh he's glad he finally retired. So congrats to Dr. Paul again for that. Wants to say that his wife and I are experiencing some of their best moments having both retired, and it's largely through their hobbies.
Kentucky Dave:So good.
Mike:There's hope, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. There's hope. Well, I'm not sure. As I've told you many times, I'm not sure I'll ever retire. We'll see.
Mike:Well, I hope you do, man. Yep. Well, again, that's all I've got from the email side of things. What have the direct messages been looking like?
Kentucky Dave:Well, we've gotten a few of them. First one, our friend out of England, Neil Gilborne, reached out, a friend of his, recently entered Car Model at Telford, won a first place award. He sent me some pictures, and he suggested this friend as a possible future guest or somebody we might want to talk to. Okay. So I made a note that I'm going to talk to you about that, and then you and I can talk to Neil and we'll we'll go from there. But I just wanted to mention that. And by the way, that is the reason I wanted to mention that is that any listeners out there, if there's some modeler that you know that you think there's uh would would be a particularly good interview subject, we're always looking for people, particularly people who may not be well known in the hobby, but have particular insights. We're always looking for interview subjects. So please don't hesitate to reach out and say, hey, I know this guy. He does X, Y, and Z, and he might really be somebody you'd want to talk to. We appreciate that. Next DM is Bill Moore in regard to the Murphesboro show. Bill did us a solid in getting us a last minute table down at Murphysboro, and I'm looking forward to seeing Bill on Saturday. The next one just goes to show how unusual life is now. Saturday morning, I'm laying on my couch watching, getting ready to watch college football, and I get a Facebook call through the DM feature, but a phone call. And it's Paul Gloster on his 12-hour drive up the east coast of Australia to go to scale ACT, I think is the show that they were headed to. And it's just really weird to be on your couch on a Saturday morning and get a phone call from literally half a world away from a fellow modeler driving 12 hours to a show. And and it was just it was just really fun to hear from Paul. He also sent me a picture of a huntsman spider in a toilet, which convinces me I'm never going to the bathroom in Australia. And then as I shared with you, once he got to scale ACT, a rather rude photo. Yeah, he found Dr. He found the Podfather, and we got a rather interesting photo, or I got, and I shared it with you and Steve. And and again, I I love it. It was it was fantastic. So thank you, Paul. You really did make my day doing that. You've mentioned Mike Aluzi, and Mr. Aluzi sent me a DM because at the model show he recently went to, he found a whole bunch of Tommy Azeros, and he purchased the same. And so he sent me a pat a picture with a stack of four Tamiya Zeros that he had purchased at the show. So good for him. Glad somebody else is buying them too. Our friend, Agent 003, Brandon Jacobs, reached out. As you know, or as we've discussed, Brandon and a friend of his are buying up collections of deceased modelers or modelers who are thinning down their stash and whatever, and are just kind of as a side hobby, doing buying them up and then liquidating them out back out. And he re while he was out deer hunting in a deer stand that he painted in Mickey Mouse camouflage, World War II German camouflage. British camouflage. Is that British? Okay, I'm sorry. It's armor. I don't know. Okay, thank you. But it's really cool looking. But while he was out deer hunting, his partner in crime came across a stash of a deceased modeler that Nobody knew about the guy was never associated with any clubs. Nobody knew him in Brandon's and his friend's modeling universe. And the guy had like 350 models, including 45 Wingnuts wings kits. So any listener out there who's into wingnut wings, reach out to Brandon Jacobs, Agent 003. And if you're looking for a particular wings nut wingnuts kit, he may be able to make you a good deal. He was amazed by coming across this stash from a modeler nobody was even aware of. And I suspect there are more modelers out there like that than any of us know. And finally, one of our Facebook users, who's actually, I can't put a name to it because it was it was not an identified individual, but they reached out to let us know that the Plastic Model Mojo merch store, the website was down. And we're gonna we are transitioning to another vendor for merchandise. So right now that site's down, and we're going to bring it up with another vendor with hopefully higher quality.
Mike:Yeah, that's the big thing. Now the fact that it's down is just one more thing to make us do that. It's it's not down because we've already turned it off.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:Uh it's down because something's broken about it on their end. So we've had a couple of service level issues with them with with listeners, and then a couple of folks have have uh had some dodgy quality on some t-shirts. So yeah, we're gonna replace that. So if it's something you want, just just hold off and let us make an announcement that we've got a new improv new and improved option for you because we certainly don't don't want folks uh getting something substandard in their efforts to support the show. That's that's not cool.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. So just wanted to let you all know. Hold off a little bit. We'll have new and better up soon. Mike, that's all the DMs I've got.
Mike:Well, we had a lot this time, but that's okay because we like listener mail. We do. So if you want to write into the show, you can do so by writing into plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com. That's the primary email. You can use the Facebook direct message to send a DM to us. Dave's been handling that. And there's also uh a way in the show notes. There's a contact link in the show notes that you can use to also send uh it's kind of an email thing too, but uh you can use the link in the show notes, and it's just a different, different avenue to get to us. But uh we appreciate it no matter how you send it to us, and keep it coming, folks. Dave, the listener mail is not the only thing that was full of comments from episode 150.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:It's been a lot going on by between my ears as well since that. And just uh I don't know. I thought for this shop talk we might touch on a couple of those. Sounds like a plan. And I don't know, just explore that a little bit, see what uh what we've gotten out of modeling in the last year or or whatever. Well, the first one is is for us both to answer, and you get to go first because I asked the question. That's fine. You know, it's it's a hobby that's a lot of time solitary. We we've talked about that before. The the m usually the act of actually doing the work for most people most of the time. Now, we have a club workshop, but there's a lot of people on Saturdays, and we have our build nights, and people do the you know the online stuff, but but primarily most folks do their modeling in solitude. And to you know, an outsider, it might look like a silly thing for grown men to be doing or grown women to be doing or whoever. But it's it's certainly like any hobby has certain benefits, but what do you get out of it primarily? What do you get out of modeling? And what will and what would you like, what more would you like to get out of it?
Kentucky Dave:What I get out of modeling is multifaceted. Number one, my my job as an attorney is kind of fast-paced, it's high pressure, it's very mentally draining. And so one of the things that I get out of my hobby is to be able to come down, sit down at the bench, and kind of, I don't want to say turn my brain off because that's not what you do, but instead of doing a lot of high-level analysis and the legal type work in the brain, I can sit down with a kid and sand or paint or mask and kind of turn my brain off from all of the pressures of the rest of my life. I can come down, it's quiet, I'm I'm alone, I can turn on some music or a video or whatever, and I can model, and there's almost a zen-like quality to it, and it's relaxation. So probably the biggest single thing I get from it is relaxation, an ability to distance myself from the rest of life and just come and enjoy being alone and not having to think about all of the things that have to be done around the house or at work or whatever. In addition, it helps it allows me to combine my interest in history and particularly military history, and take it from simply an interest in either reading or watching movies or videos or documentaries, and translate that in some way into 3D art and have a concrete representation of something that I was interested in from history. What I'd like to get more of it, more from it, what more would I like to get from it is just more of everything. We've talked about time and organization and stuff like that, but my life is constantly balls in the air, juggling balls in the air. And I would like to be able to find more time to come down to the place that's quiet where all the noise goes away, and I can simply sit and be with myself and get the enjoyment of modeling out of it. And what keeps me from getting that is two things. One, internally, I am way too disorganized. I I have terrible time management skills, which by the way is something almost all lawyers have. They are terrible at time management. And in addition, externally, just life. I mean, two teenage daughters, a wife, a house, a yard, pets, etc. And it just those things aren't going away, nor should I put them at a lower priority than my hobby. But if I get better at getting all that stuff done, that should benefit me by giving me more time in my hobby.
Mike:Yeah. So how about you? Uh I think it's a lot of similar things. I think it's different aspects of it have come to light depending on life circumstances and and where I'm at. So generally it it's it's like you allude to there, it it's relaxation because it it it goes into a bucket I call escapism. Yes. And you know, there was a before my current position I'm in, I was in a a period of a low job satisfaction, to put it nicely. It was nice then to come home from all the things I didn't like about that and do something I liked doing. Again, once all the other household stuff was managed and taken care of. And it's just a a great way to keep your brain moving and your hands.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:And I just uh it's it's a it it's again, it's you said it, it's the it's the zen of it. You can just focus on something right in front of you. If there's any external stimulation coming in, it's maybe you've got music on or something like that. It's you know, you that's intentional as well. It's not something you don't want coming into your head.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:You've you've purposely done it for relaxation. Another thing is it it no, I had it on the tip of my tongue. It it uh well it gets back to the just the the problem solving and and the and the brain stimulation. And I think at the end of all that, there's a a sense of accomplishment, even in the smallest thing you've managed to get done. Yeah. Especially if there was, you know, uh a a higher degree of difficulty to it, and you kind of weren't sure how it was gonna go, so it I don't know how you do it, but yeah, I may think about it for quite a while.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:Uh formulate a plan, a path through, and then execute on that. And when when you get there, and most of the time it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but uh as you get more modeling skills and you you get better at things, and you get the skill of actually thinking things through instead of trying to do it on the fly, success is higher than failure by a pretty wide margin, I think. And and with that though, it's just a sense of satisfaction. And you know, you get that certainly when you get something done. But you know, I don't I don't get that very often, but I get the incremental problem-solving satisfaction, get those accomplishments done uh all the time. It's especially when you've you've thought really hard about something and and uh you can uh you actually pull it off. Sometimes you surprise yourself.
Kentucky Dave:And that is one of the things you do when you model is as you're doing a big project, you tend to treat many parts of it as little mini projects in and among themselves. How am I going to do this particular feature on the model? Or, you know, how am I going to represent the fuel drum holders or whatever it is? And and so you do get, while you might not finish a model every week or month, or year, or you well, I wasn't gonna go with that.
Mike:We might as well be honest, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Uh but you do you do get those mini completions, completions inside a yet completed model.
Mike:And I'm always looking to get more of that. Yep. And I think uh, you know, modeling more certainly gets more of that.
Kentucky Dave:I think it's just the sheer sheer amount of modeling will get you more of those, just definitionally.
Mike:Now what more would I like to get from it and what keeps me from getting what I would like to get out of it or kind of hand in glove, I think. Some of it is skills I don't have yet. Certainly the time at the bench, you know, time in the game, right? Right. That certainly gets you there. But I I think one thing I've had to learn, I still strive to get better, and I want to do the the best I can. And but I I've kind of removed some of the stakes, made the stakes lower. I've kind of removed some of the the obligations I put on myself for like contest modeling and those kind of things.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:And I think contentment to some degree can or lack of contentment can keep you from getting what you like out of it.
Kentucky Dave:I agree.
Mike:If you're completely satisfied with where you are, you're probably not gonna get better. So I I I don't think that's a place I I personally would ever want to be. Right. But this not doing things because you don't know how, or not well, never doing them because you don't know how. Right. I think is that's gonna keep you from getting where you're getting stuff out of it you want because uh ultimately those are just problems you gotta solve too. Yeah, some of them are harder than others, you know. I've like figure painting for me, I just don't put the time in, but it's kept me from doing a lot of things. So that's maybe we'll come up again later here, but just being content and where you're at and just being happy in the hobby. I think it's a lot of fun for me. I just would like more time doing it. And I just uh I gotta avoid the temptation to to s slip back into those old ways I used to do it because that's certainly gonna make me not get what I want out of it for sure. Sure. Keeping the obligations at bay and and uh doing what I want to do on my own time and not worry about what other people think about it or or you know thinking I've got to get to point A to point B in an X amount of time. So just gonna get there.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:Well, my next one, Dave, is in the last year in 2025, what have you given the most thought to in the hobby? And I'm not looking for a year in review, we'll save all that stuff for December, right? Uh, but is there some kind of technique or subject or anything you've been moved to consider as a as a project or a I don't know, even a philosophical bent change or something like that? I don't know.
Kentucky Dave:Absolutely, and we've talked about it repeatedly since March. Going up with Inch to that widow's house and seeing that fantastic collection of books that this person had collected over their life, and that had become such a burden to his widow really, really hit me hard. I don't want to leave my family with any of that type of burden. It made me reevaluate organization, it made me reevaluate the size of my stash, the size of my library, the way it's organized, what arrangements that I can make now for the future, so that, among other things, that when that time comes, whenever it may come, that there is already a system in place where my wife does not have to give the first thought to any of the stuff in my hobby room or library. That I will have a group of people, modelers, friends who are modelers, who will come in, will have instructions already as to what to do, how to do it, what to do, so that literally my wife will not have to think about any of it. That whatever she'll be going through and my children will be going through, it will not be a burden to them. And I would urge everybody to take a good hard look and to have a plan. And not just a plan in your head, but one that is written out and that the people you are counting on know the plan and are prepared to execute it on a moment's notice. Because we never know when it's going to be our time. I hope I've got 20 more good years of modeling in me, if not more. But I can't count on that. And that was really a wake-up call in my hobby in a way that I had not. I mean, I mean, I knew vaguely that there was some issue there, but it's not something you want to think about, therefore it's not something you do think about. And so it it really has affected it it's affected me greatly this year, probably more than anything else in anything else in the hobby in the past year.
Mike:Hmm. That's a good one. How about you? I think for me so far this year, it's been it's related. I've I've been back in my stash quite a bit. I've got to put some more shelving up at some point and move some things around. I've got to do that too. I I see these projects that either I've accumulated lots of stuff for them, I have this grandiose plan. Yet, you know, it'd be a kit I bought when it just came out, and I look at the look at the release date on the side of the box, and it's like 1994 or something like that, and I'm like, why? Why have I not built that one? We've all got stuff in our stashes like, yeah, that's a cool subject. I might want to build that sometime. And we go ahead and buy it, right? Yeah, you could justify it a million different ways. But the point is we all we and I've said it before, the all but the most disciplined among us keep this stash thing at bay, or manage to keep it at bay. They're the ones who keep it at bay. We smear mortals do not. Yeah. And it's kind of been part of the hobby, but at least this problem that you're talking about. But it's we're coming up on the end of the year and we we do the list thing all the time. We're gonna do it again. And I don't know, I think looking at those projects and and just piddling around and the years roll off and it doesn't go anywhere. Yet there's still things I I'm really pretty feeling passionate that I I want to get to.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, I am too. I agree. In fact, you talk about the list thing. Steve and I were texting back and forth, I think like Sunday while we were watching football, and talking about what would you like to do, what kits do you want to build in the next year? And that's always you and I have done that every year at the end of the year, and that's always a great mental exercise. And it really does. When you make the list, A, you realize how unrealistic you're being. But it does, but at the same time, it also is motivating. It's like, heck yeah, I want to get these things done.
Mike:Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because I was actually going to mention it as well. Uh, and think maybe we should change it the way we do it this year. Okay. I'm open to that. How many have we put on the list before? I think we used to do 10. Okay, that's way too many. Of course it is. Let's pick a top three this year. Okay. And the next thing we start after our next finish has to be one of those three things. I I'm all for that. All right. That's what we're going to do, folks. Okay. That's how we're going to look for that in an upcoming episode. That's right. Probably next month sometime.
Kentucky Dave:Mm-hmm.
Mike:Well, Dave, this final topic for Shop Talk comes from Steve Anderson's A Guided Journal for Modelers.
Kentucky Dave:Mm-hmm.
Mike:And it's gonna be the next to the last one of these we do. We're gonna we're gonna finish this up in December. We will have done it every month since I think January. Yep. We've done a lot of these. Yes, we have. Well, the subject is, or the question is, do you prefer short bursts at the bench or longer sessions? And what are the pros and cons of your way?
Kentucky Dave:And and this has changed for me. Okay, when I was a younger modeler, I I would do four and five six-hour sessions at the bench. And in fact, when I built the MiG-17 that I took to the Indianapolis Nationals in 1985, when I was in law school, I built that kit in seven days from beginning to end, from starting the kit to finishing it. And I I think I I modeled, I think in the seven days I got like nine hours of sleep in those seven days. And I'm not exaggerating. You don't need much still to this day. Well, but I mean, that was it was unhealthy, but that's neither here nor there. But I could model for five and six hours at a at a go sitting in a bench. I can't do that anymore. Combination of eyesight weakening and my, you know, uh aches and pains. I'm my ideal modeling session now is about an hour and a half. And after that, I have to get up and take a break. And sometimes I can take like a 30 or 45 minute break and come back and do another 45 minutes.
Mike:Yeah.
Kentucky Dave:But there is just no way I can sit down at the bench and model for three or four hours like I used to be able to do. I just can't. It's a physical limitation for me. It's getting older. And you know what? There's part of me that's sad that I can't do that. I can't do a four or five-hour session. But to be utterly realistic, the number of chances I get to do a four or five hour session are vanishingly small simply because I have husbandly obligations, and those come first. I I can't sit in the basement for six hours and just model. So that's that's the long and short of it. That's the reason for it, and I accept it for what it is. How about you?
Mike:I don't know. I think I don't have an ideal session. I think uh parse my tasks out to where I'm kind of in both those lanes. In the evening, I can be down here for three or four hours, no problem. Now let me let me qualify that a little bit. If it's a a problem I'm working through, it may not actually be building anything. Right. It may be staring at it and arranging things and thinking, okay, I do this, what happens then? And how do I have to how do I make the next step work if I do this now? And and that sort of thing. So, you know, that's not that taxing really on on your physically. But physical modeling, if I'm doing a lot of stuff, typically the thing that that starts bothering me first is is my hand strength. And just if especially if you're using a lot of pinching kind of grips and things like that, man, after about three hours of that, I gotta stop and take a break. And you know, I'll go wash my hands in cool water and go do something else for a little while. And and you know, I I get that at work this week too. And that's it's been kind of a problem because I get my hands fatigued at work. You know, I'll do the stuff I need to do before lunch, get fatigued. Over lunch, I've recovered, and you know, the the afternoon work, I can't go quite as long before they start feeling tired again. I start dropping things or just breaking stuff.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:And like if I'm at the model bench. So I don't know. A three-hour session for me is is is pretty good. I think I can get a lot done if I am working in three hours. But to to to back up and give a little contrast, if if there's something small I know that I can do, sometimes I'll come down here in the morning after breakfast and on a weekday, and if it's something I can do in like less than 20 minutes, yeah, I'll do it. I'll knock that out, I'll get something staged for when I come back. It could be trimming something off a sprue, it could be moving a 3D print from the printer to the wash tank, yeah, to the to the cure, post-cure. It could be just small tasks like that. Setting my bench up for what I'm gonna do that evening. That's something I do a lot in the morning. With fair fairly regularly, I'll come down and I'll I'll clear up any mess I've made the night before to to get ready for a next step. If it's if it's a largely different kind of task, I might do that in the morning. So, you know, that's those are typically you know 15, 20 minute kind of things I do, but it gets me down here.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. And I do think there is a value in being in your modeling room, even if you're not actively building, painting, whatever. I think your presence in the room itself helps motivate.
Mike:Well, here's here's a different here's a a twist on it. Okay. How much quote unquote modeling time? I think you'd have to broaden the circle to call it hobby time. Do you spend just scrolling through reference books and stuff like that?
Kentucky Dave:Plenty, but not as much as I used to, and probably not as much as I should. I have I will tell you that in general, I have become more and more of an out-of-the-boxer where, you know, I may I may pull out my detail and scale on the F6F and flip through it quickly to see how the wheel wells are painted and what the struts are painted like, just to just to get reference for that. But I'm not going over it for hours and hours because I'm going to do a mega project where I open everything up and I super detail an engine and all that. I'm doing less and less of that. Now, there are some projects I still have in mind where I want to do the full-on gonzo, but more and more I am simply wanting to assemble what God and Edward have given me and come out with a completed model.
Mike:I understand. I don't I don't know if I've gotten there yet, but well, I don't think that that's not the way you model.
Kentucky Dave:I don't know, I'm not sure you'll ever get that. Well, because that's not modeling for you. Really, I don't think that's that's you and I in some ways don't practice the same hobby.
Mike:Ah, yeah, we do. Or we couldn't do this show, man.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I may exaggerate, but there's a point there.
Mike:Well, Steve, thanks for the thoughtful questions, and we've enjoyed those, and we'll we'll get one more in before the year's out. But folks, if you got anything to say on any of these questions, write into the show. Use it as a call to action to uh let us know how you know what do you get out of modeling or or what's been what's been in your ear or your eyes this year in 2025 as far as how you approach the hobby or maybe something you want to build or whatever, and let us know about it.
Kentucky Dave:Yep, please do.
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Mike:Well, folks, it's time to put up or shut up. It's the Bench Top Halftime Report.
Kentucky Dave:Well luckily, I've got a little little to report. Well, good. Um glad to hear it. It's the F mostly the F6F. It's in overall glossy blue. I've started to mask and do some panel differential. Glossy blue, though those aircraft, if you look at color pictures of them, there's not a lot of variation. But I'm gonna kind of I'm going to do some stuff that may not be completely 100% accurate, but I think will give a good looking model. And you know what? You don't care. I don't care. I really don't. I'm going to I'm gonna play with it. I'm gonna do some things. I'm gonna see if I can get in a neat, cool, varied finish to the thing, and and see where see where it comes out, but I'm having fun with it. I've also got the Sam back on the model stand and I've got it upside down and I've started to do the oil detail wash on the underside, which is really frankly the major thing left to do before I put the bits and bobs together, like our our correspondent putting together the MiG-15.
Mike:Well, back up a minute to the uh to the uh Hellcat. The Hellcat. Yep. In the scale U model, f is a personal preference for for that that scheme, that glossy blue. Yep. I don't really like the ones that are really reflective.
Kentucky Dave:No, I don't either.
Mike:That are really shiny. So I'm just curious what you're doing. I think I've asked you this before when you're doing the start of the group build, what you were gonna do.
Kentucky Dave:Right. Because I did the glossy blue on the on the bear cat. Now that one has a little more of a glossy finish because those were post-World War II birds, usually. In fact, the one I built was in a reserve unit in Norfolk, and so those airplane airplanes tended to be cleaner, tended to be shinier. So I didn't do as much. With this Hellcat, I am definitely, it will not be a high gloss blue, it will be not matte, but what I guess you would describe as a satin finish. Frankly, maybe even some panels flatten down a little bit. That'd look cool. One of the things I may try on this, because I've got a theory in the back of my head that I've had for like four or five years, and I've never tried it, that you can get a really interesting and realistic looking finish by varying not only panel color, but the gloss or flat of particular panels. And this thing is the perfect mule for that because it's all one color. It's you know, that that glossy blue. Don't have to worry about camouflage or anything like that. So it's really kind of the perfect bird to experiment with that on. And that's what I'm gonna try and do. We'll see. But I'm having fun with it and I'm enjoying it. I'm getting a lot out of it as a hobby project. And as we know, that's what this is all about.
Mike:I'm glad to see the stuff moving forward.
Kentucky Dave:Me too. Now, is anything moving forward on your bench?
Mike:Yeah, it is. The uh the KV-85. Where'd I leave off? I was like, I was making them I I made the saddles for the fuel drive. Right. And that was kind of a it's one of these deals where trying to I it's a tendency I have to use the medium that I think's gonna help me get there the easiest. Or each like the whole thing's not 3D printed. I've got some STL files for those fuel drums and the brackets that are you can 3D print, but there's some aspects about them that I didn't like when they printed. And I went back and I the the saddles, the the you know, the semicircular blocks that the thing sits in, redid those in in NuCAD, and then I printed those, I cleaned them up, and then there's a detail on those that was very fine that I've I've scratched but I had to make eight of them, these little cleats, and I actually cut those out of styrene, and those have been glued onto these 3D printed blocks, and then now I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the actual straps that hold the drums to the saddle, and and what these things were was a metal band. Just imagine a flat metal band of just a sheet metal, thin sheet metal, and that at the very ends, the last several inches, it was formed into a a C channel.
Kentucky Dave:Gotcha.
Mike:So it transitions from a C channel to a flat strip, and then inside that C channel was welded a piece of uh threaded rod.
Kentucky Dave:Gotcha.
Mike:So there were nuts on the threaded rod that went under the cleats on the saddle, and you just tightened them up and drew the you draw the the retaining band down on the drum. And I wanted to make the the the straps out of styrene, and the cleats on the outside of the fenders are styrene, and the cleats I made for the back side of the saddles I made from styrene, so I can use styrene cement and have the ability to have all the properties of gluing styrene to styrene instead of using super glue on a 3D printed part to make this thing work. And I've been working through that this week. I've spent a lot of time without much fruit for my for my labors, trying to make those straps and figuring out the best way to do it. So the biggest part was working out the dimensions, what I need to get it in the cleats and then get it around the drum and not have it be too long or too short. So I've got that figured out, and I gotta figure out how to do the C channels on the ends. Still working on that, man. It's it's kind of a tough one. I'm not real sure how to do it, but uh I'll figure something out.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, I'm sure you will. I got I got all weekend. There you go. And now I take it in the KV85. There were, you know, you said there were only a couple hundred built. Did they all use the round fuel drums? None of them ever use the rectangular ones.
Mike:Yeah, it's basically the same ones that are on all the late KVs.
Kentucky Dave:Gotcha.
Mike:So it's and I'm I'm doing two of them unpopulated and two of them with the drums. So I I gotta figure this out because I need I need eight straps. Yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:So it's gonna be fun.
Kentucky Dave:I'm sure it will be, and I'm sure you'll come up with a great solution.
Mike:Well, the Moosuru Cup car kit has been stagnant for a while, primarily because I had some painting to do. And uh last time I reported my CO2 tank had gone gone empty, and it it was pretty, pretty close. I took it up to the garage and opened the garage door and vented it, and it boy, it didn't it didn't blow out for much. I mean, just a maybe 20 seconds came out of it, and then it was done. So it was it was empty. Uh it was wise to not try to get a painting session in on that. So I uh I got that refilled, I got my cylinder back in the basement, I got the regulator back on it. Now just uh maybe this weekend I'll do some painting.
Kentucky Dave:Well, good. That would be cool.
Mike:Other than that, always fighting urge to start something new. I gotta get something done.
Kentucky Dave:I have promised myself that this uh the Sam and the F6F will both be done before I uh cut on any more plastic.
Mike:Got anything else? That's all I've really worked on.
Kentucky Dave:That's it.
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Kentucky Dave:Mike, I'm gonna let you go first on what broke your wallet, cuz my list is both long and distinguished.
Mike:Yeah, folks, this is where Dave contradicts everything you said about stash management in the last segment.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I I understand. I I I I am not unaware of the irony. So tell me, Mike, did you buy anything recently? I did.
Mike:I did buy some stuff, Dave. Okay, what did you buy? I bought two things I've been yammering on about for a long time and finally just pulled the trigger and got them. The first was I picked up a Tomia JS2. Cool kit. Oh, it's a good kit. I I thought I was buying it to cabbage some parts out of. Yeah, honestly, so I needed to find a really good deal on one. I did. But after I got into it, I started looking and it's like, you know, the the kits in my aftermarket turret for this KV-85 aren't as bad as I thought they were. And I'm not going to use the machine gun barrel anyway. So I don't think I need to cabbage this kit. Which means you need to build it. So it means I need to build it as a JS2.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, nice out-of-the-box build.
Mike:You know, it's not a new kit by any means anymore, but it's it's a modern kit, though. But it's it's a really nice one. And about time I added that one to the stash, because I remember when that kit came out, it was like I was kind of really that was kind of my thing, that those Soviet heavy tank. Oh, yeah, the big Soviet tank. And I just never did get it. That was during my I can get it on eBay whenever I want it, phase. Right. And I was selling stuff down, is why I never bought it, I think. But the other thing I bought, you talk about a whiplash and genre change. I finally bought that 30 second scale TIE Fighter from AMT. Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. I did. Oh man. It's a pretty big model when it's all said and done. It is. It's not that complicated. It doesn't have a lot of parts, but I mean they're big though. The parts are big. Right. Looking forward to that at some point. I don't know when, but uh it led me down the rabbit hole to how how do I want to finish it? Because if if if you get into that, there's uh there's a color that they were painted by ILM. Right. And then how that color actually appeared on screen with the lighting, and they're very far apart. Right. Yeah, the the uh the the color that the the the folks in that genre have figured out that they were painted was an old Pactra color. I can't remember the name of it. It's like st stormy seas, or it was a is a like a a fairly dark bluish gray color. Right. Well, those things look like light gray on the screen.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:But you know, so there's the people who make that color, you know, there's there's custom paint and aftermarket part in every genre. So the Star Wars crowds got their own people making paints to match some of those old paint lines that don't exist anymore that the actual studio models were painted in. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. We don't want to do, we don't want to go there. So I'm gonna paint it probably like it appeared on the screen. Uh gotcha. Primarily because I want to try some painting stuff on it that I've not done before, and and the lighter color will lend itself to that more than a darker color. But a big, big kit. The thing's like 13 inches tall when you get it done.
Kentucky Dave:So wow.
Mike:It's it's pretty big. It's a good scale for that model.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:I think of the stuff I've you know, already talked about the stuff we got at the MMCL show. So I really think that's it, Dave. Oh my two kits.
Kentucky Dave:Amateur.
Mike:Lay it on me, brother.
Kentucky Dave:Let me take a deep breath before I start. Okay. We'll start with the Pacific Profiles, volume 18 on the Dutch East Indies. These are series of books done. The author is Michael Claringbold, who is a historian who really has studied the Japanese naval air forces and the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific. And volume 18, fallen in love with the whole series, and I'll eventually end up with all of them.
Mike:You've bought stuff from that theater at many shows we've been at together.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, yeah, absolutely. And this book is on the Dutch East Indies, and so it has a lot of the Dutch, British, and American aircraft that were in the Dutch East Indies area and Western Australia and Burma. And it's it's a particular uh fascination of mine, so I picked that up and it's awesome.
Mike:I wouldn't be surprised if you put yellow triangles on your car doors.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, there you go.
Mike:Or orange triangles.
Kentucky Dave:Orange triangles. I placed an order with ASK out of Ukraine. If you'll remember at the MMCL show, Warren Dickinson brought one of these 3D printed engines for the Tamiya Zeros. And oh my god, these things are unbelievable. And so I placed an order for four of them. And when I did, I placed the order for four of those. I also ordered a set of Edward Zero Stencil Decals, and I ordered the Great Wall Hobbies MiG-29 SMT, the Hunchback MiG-29. And I'm here to tell you inside the box that MiG-29 kit is one of the most beautiful models I have ever seen. Now, hopefully it goes together as good as it looks in the box. I mean, it could be an engineering nightmare, who knows? But oh my god, that's a beautiful, beautiful kit. I mean, uh the urge to just drop everything and build it is is near near overwhelming. But I'm not gonna do it. I recently purchased the Arma Hawk 75 and the Arma KI43. These are two Arma kits that I wanted that I just haven't added to the stash. And so, yes, I understand what I just said about stashes and sizes and getting to what you're building, but I wanted these kits, so I bought them.
Mike:You probably have 20, 20 hawks you could throw away.
Kentucky Dave:I do. I've got a whole bunch of hawks that are going out the door. I Skippy and I went to Cincinnati and we met inch there, and we had vendor tables side by side, and we vended, and I managed to find new homes for a lot of those books from that widow's collection, which put some money in my hand. And one of the things about the Cincinnati show is it has a lot of second-hand vendors, and the prices are really, really good. And with a little bit of money in my hand and some really, really good prices, I ended up buying four kits. I bought an AirFix C47. I have one, but I needed a spare because that's a project that I'm gonna be starting in 2026.
Mike:I assume it's the new one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, it's the new one, not the old one.
Mike:Not the golf ball covered one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, no, no, no. I bought an A models SA3. I have a fascination with anti-aircraft missiles, and so I picked that kit up, 70 second scale. I picked up a for an amazing price, a fine molds F-14A. And the Fine Molds A is a beautiful, beautiful kit. It will make a great companion to the Tamilla F-14D. And then I picked up an Edward ME110 G4 Night Fighter. That is also a kit that I actually already have one of, but again, it was at a price that was so dirt cheap that it was almost like they were giving it away. And so I'm sure I will find a use for that kit as well. So when I counted up, that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight model kits, one decal sheet, four aftermarket 3D printed engines, and one book.
Mike:You've been busy.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah. And I'm also now officially broke.
Mike:Again, I have to get busy to get some of that done.
Kentucky Dave:That's right. Uh I listen, if I can complete both the F6F and the SAM by the end of the year, that will be four for me this year. And if I can do four this year, then I'm gonna do a stretch goal of six for 2026.
Mike:Well, be good, Murfreesboro. Don't buy kits. Buy Bill Moore some lunch or something.
Kentucky Dave:That's right. That's that's right. This is the point in the episode where I ask all of the listeners when you're done with the episode, please rate the episode, please rate the podcast on whatever podcasting app you're listening on. Also, if you have a friend who doesn't listen to the podcast, please encourage them to listen. Show them how to get the podcast, walk them through that. Podcast continues to grow listeners. The best way for us to get new listeners is to have recommendations from current listeners. So please, please go ahead and recommend us to your friends who aren't listening.
Mike:And don't forget, you can also rate and review the podcast through the link in the show notes of each and every episode. So there's another way you can do that if your podcast app doesn't support such. In addition to Plastic Model Mojo, there's a lot of other podcasts out in the model sphere, and you can check those out by going to modelpodcasts.com. That's model podcastplural. It's a consortium website set up by Stuart Clark, our friend up in Canada at Scale Model Podcasts. They're on Hiatus right now, but hopefully Stu comes back. You can go to that site and find the banner links to all the current podcasts in the model sphere. So it's a one-stop shop. You can go there, follow the links, listen to what you want to, subscribe to all of them, however you want to do it. You can do it there. In addition, we got a lot of blog and YouTube friends in the model sphere. You've mentioned Jeff Inch High Grove's got a great blog on the internet, primarily about 70 seconds scale. Sprue Pie with Fred, Stephen Lee, another good blog, another good 70 second scale. He sent some photos of some rail cars he's been working on for uh Rail Model Craftsman magazine. So really looking to uh to check that out. Get me to buy another train magazine unless somebody wants to send me their uh manuscript so I don't have to. Hint hint. Hint hint. Chris Wallace, model airplane maker, great blog, great YouTube channel. Really looking forward to seeing Chris in March at HeritageCon and hopefully again at the National Convention in in Fort Wayne. Yep. Panzermeister 36, Evan McCallum, Mr. Married Man. He's a big shot now. Yep. And he just dropped a new video. He did, so you're gonna check that out on YouTube at Panzermeister36. That's good. And we've mentioned him all through the episode. Dr. Paul Buzzick recently retired, but hopefully going to devote a little more time to his hobbies and his video production. And check that out at the Scale Model Workshop on YouTube and on Patreon. And if you go to Patreon, please subscribe to his channel. It's not very much and it's worth everything. So check them all out, folks. That's what we got.
Kentucky Dave:Finally, if you're not a member of IPMS, the USA chapter for those of us in the U.S. or actually people from overseas can also join IPMS USA. Please join. I'm the current recruitment and retention secretary. This is the last term I intend to serve in that role. My goal is to get the membership to 6,000 members when I leave. IPMS USA has never had that many members. So I'd like to go out with the organization being at the highest membership it's ever had. Please join. Join your local or your national branch, wherever you may be located. And if you're an armor modeler or post-1900 figures modeler, please consider joining the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society, AMPS. Great group of guys who are very dedicated to advancing the art of armor modeling. Mike, we're almost at the end of the episode. I'm at the end of my beer. I want to thank Bill Moore. It was a really good beer. Again, it's Tailgate Brewing out of Nashville, a Wizard's Order, Juice Box Wizard, uh Juicy IPA. It's 6% alcohol by volume. It's a classic juicy IPA. You get the citrus, you get a little hop, but the hop is not too, it's not too much. And it was great beer, and I really appreciate uh Bill bringing it to us.
Mike:If you're good, it'll give you some more.
Kentucky Dave:I know. I'm hoping. How about you? Tell me you got a bad bottle of basil Hayden.
Mike:No, I can't tell you that.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I know you can't.
Mike:Once I got the uh cheese popcorn out of my mouth, it got back to being really, really, really nice. Sure. You know, basil's a lighter one, it's 80-proof.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:I've said it before, I think, on the podcast. It's a good if if you've never been a bourbon person. It's a good start bourbon. It's a good place to start because it's uh it's not too hot, it's fairly smooth, it's got a good flavor. Um, you'll enjoy it. I think so.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. Yep. It's it's light, very smooth going down. So if you're it's if you need an introduction to bourbon, that's a good one to that's that's where that's where I'd start. Well, we now are truly at the end of the episode. I've got a couple of shout-outs. Number one is to all of the folks who've chosen to support the podcast. Your financial support really does help. Mike and I have put a lot into this, and we've got plans to grow it even more. And the folks, there's nothing that is more gratifying to Mike and I than having people value the podcast enough to kick in a little money to uh support the podcast. So if you listen to us regularly and you find value in it, please, we appreciate it. Thank you for those of you who have supported us, and we look forward to your continued support. Absolutely. So you got another shout out?
Mike:Well, that's you stole my normal one. I'll guess I'll come up with one. Okay. Well, I got one more if you want a minute to think. No, I'm gonna shout out Brandon and company at Squadron. That's a great one. It's just been really fun working with those guys, and it has. We're gonna continue to do that as long as they'll let us, as long as they'll have us. It was fun being on Squadron TV. So we we hope to get another chance at that. He continues to grow that business, keeps adding line and manufacturing of his own to his business. And it's just great to see that brand back.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, it is.
Mike:But what's your other one?
Kentucky Dave:Uh I want to shout out Bill Moore. Like I said, he was able to get a table for us for the Murphy's Borough show at the last minute, and he's really rolled out the red carpet for us, and I appreciate that. Bill, your your efforts do not go unnoticed.
Mike:You don't want to think the table's in the men's room or something?
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, hopefully not. Well, I'll update you next episode.
Mike:Please do. Well, Dave, we're at the end of this, and it's been fun as usual, but as we always say.
Kentucky Dave:So many kids. So little time, Dave. Have fun in Murfreesboro. I'm going to. I'll send pictures.
