Plastic Model Mojo

PMM Twelve Minute Modelsphere:December 2025

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Show sponsor KitMasx has big news—they solved their US shipping headache so hobbyists can actually get the product they want. To sweeten the return, there’s a December-only Mojo30 code for 30% off. Please support Kevin and Janelle at KitMasx.

From there we zoom out to a  trade stories from the Murfreesboro show, celebrate friends old and new, and tentatively circle Chattanooga in January, weather willing. The plan for December is intentionally lighter but richer: a shop-talk year in review with practical takeaways, followed by a visit from our friend Paul Gloster, fresh from travels and sunny Australian skies while we shovel through winter.

The real engine is community. The dojo just crossed 5,500 members, with deeper engagement around first-time subjects, bare metal finishes, helicopters, and kit-specific tips that save hours at the bench. We’re asking for raw WIP all month—cut styrene, taped canopies, test fits, problem-solving notes—because shared progress beats polished perfection every time. If you’ve been stuck, this is your nudge: grab a mask set, line up the frames, and get paint down while the motivation’s hot.

Tap the Mojo30 discount at kitmask.com, post your work-in-progress in the dojo, and help a fellow modeler finish strong. If this conversation sparks ideas, follow the show, share it with a club mate, and drop a quick review—your support helps more builders find their way back to the bench.

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Bump Riffs Graciously Provided by Ed Baroth
Ad Reads Generously Provided by Bob "The Voice of Bob" Bair

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

KitMasx (Janelle):

Kev, tell everyone why you started Kit Mask.

KitMasx (Kevin):

Well, manually masking canopies sucks, and somebody had to step in to save those countless kits from the shelf of Doom.

KitMasx (Janelle):

And now we've got over 400 sets and counting. We've got old kits, new kits, forgotten kits, you name it.

KitMasx (Kevin):

Yeah. And if we don't have it, just ask.

KitMasx (Janelle):

Yeah, people don't realize we take custom requests and we even have a service that gets you canopy masks for free.

KitMasx (Kevin):

We do.

KitMasx (Janelle):

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

KitMasx (Kevin):

Several times.

KitMasx (Janelle):

Yeah. Precision is kind of his thing.

KitMasx (Kevin):

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

KitMasx (Janelle):

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

KitMasx (Kevin):

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

KitMasx (Janelle):

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

KitMasx (Kevin):

Kitmask, made by a modeler for modelers.

KitMasx (Janelle):

Hey, what about me?

KitMasx (Kevin):

You're not a modeler.

Kentucky Dave:

I am too, man. For all the smaller cottage type companies, I know how much of a hassle all these changes have been. And Janelle and Kevin are great people, and they do such a quality product. Not being able to get it or being able to get it only with difficulty, just it it wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And I'm so happy that Janelle put the time in to figure out how to get it done so that they can start shipping back into the U.S.

Mike:

Well, to encourage Americans to get back on the Kit and Mass bandwagon, remember for the month of December, they're running a discount code for plastic model mojo listeners, and that is Mojo30 for 30% off your order. So that's not bad, Dave. No, it isn't. You just can't get one of them. Kentucky Dave, it's December, first week of, and there is snow on the ground in the bluegrass state.

Kentucky Dave:

How did we get to December 2025 already, man? I don't know. This year has gone by so quickly. I mean, I know part of that's me getting old, but man, I cannot believe we are three and a half weeks away from a new year. I'm like, wait a minute, I got goals. That's right. That's my other problem. It's like, oh, I had all the I had all these goals at the beginning of the year. What happened?

Mike:

Well, it's evaporated, my friend, and we are putting the final book in on our sixth year doing this. Yeah. Is that right?

Kentucky Dave:

Yeah. We started in January 2020.

Mike:

I think that's so, man. That's a lot. That's a long time.

Kentucky Dave:

I know. I know. I never thought we'd be doing doing this. And I've had no concept of what it's grown into.

Mike:

But I'm happy. I am too. And as long as it's fun, we'll keep doing it. And part of fun is uh having places we've been and places we're going. Well, I've not been really anywhere since the last, well, gosh, since the October or September TMM, our show. That's been was about it for me. Uh but you have, so we we've mentioned it before, but go ahead and and let's make mention of it again and thank anybody we want to thank because you had a good time. At least half of us did.

Kentucky Dave:

Just real briefly, as I mentioned previously, I went to the Murphreesboro show, which is the first time I've been to Murphy'sboro since you and I went probably 18 years ago, or at least 15.

Mike:

Uh no, you're you're closer the first time.

Kentucky Dave:

Well, it could be.

Mike:

But let me let me tell you how I know. Okay. Because it was either 2001 or 2002, because the club had an issue with the number of prize trophies they had. Mm-hmm. And if you got one and they didn't have one to give, they gave you the option of using that money to donate to an NYC firefighters program. After 2000 after So it's been it's been more than 20 years, Dave.

Kentucky Dave:

Wow.

unknown:

God.

Kentucky Dave:

Oh, that hurt. I just I just I just felt a little arthritis there. But in any event, it was a great show. Got to see a friend of the show, Bill Moore, who treated me w very nicely as everyone did down at the show. It was a good show. Got to hang out with Dr. Geldmacher, who came up from Birmingham. Got to go have a nice steak dinner afterwards. Uh got to do my first stop at a Bucky's, which, man, yeah, if if you have an opportunity, you have to see it because it's kind of unreal. But it was a great time. And if I can shoehorn it in again next year, I will definitely do so. Just had a great time. Now, obviously, in December, we're not gonna be going anywhere because they're really not much in the way of contests in December.

Mike:

It's I'm going home for the holidays, man. I'm gonna kick back and uh relax a little.

Kentucky Dave:

Well, I would like to, but there's a lot of holiday to pack in.

Mike:

You'll you'll get there. You got to guard against the dark side, man. Yeah, I got it. I got faith in you.

Kentucky Dave:

Uh well, uh date. Did you get your Christmas tree up yet?

Mike:

It is up, yes.

Kentucky Dave:

It is mine is up and decorated, so that's at least one thing I can check off the box.

Mike:

And that day after Thanksgiving when the holiday lights were already up because we cashed it on that warm day the weekend prior.

Kentucky Dave:

Yep.

Mike:

Yeah, I was really liking that.

Kentucky Dave:

I'll bet you were. Because I haven't put a Christmas light out yet, and now there's snow on the ground.

Mike:

Well, you better be careful. You you know, you you push the timeline on that pool painting in the summer. You might not want to be too late getting the Christmas lights up.

Kentucky Dave:

Yeah, yeah, that's the truth.

Mike:

I'd be a slow start to the new year day.

Kentucky Dave:

That is true. But in any event, there is a show that we are at least looking at trying to make. It's in January at Chattanooga.

Mike:

Yeah. They canceled either snow or threat of snow last year, move their show to the summer. So they're like coming up barely six months on their prior show. They're keeping their time slot, which is probably a wise move, actually.

Kentucky Dave:

It is. It is. And weather permitting and our schedules permitting, we're at least trying to wedge that into our travel schedule. I like Chattanooga. It's a lovely place. There's the squadrons not far away, and uh, we know a lot of people down in that area. So if we can do it, we're looking at least to make the attempt. No promises at this point, but we're looking to make the attempt.

Mike:

Well, Dave, December is a month that is busy always, yeah, for just about everybody. And we got a couple episodes to kick out and maybe a short. And I don't know. We're gonna kind of do it a little more casual through December because we're both gonna be busy. But yeah, we're gonna bring folks two feature episodes and possibly another short. I hope we get that in. But uh the first one's gonna come up is gonna be feature episode 153. And you know, we're gonna do kind of in the shop talk vein a a year in review and throw a couple of our other little perennial nuggets in there, like maybe our list of what we hope to do in the coming year and uh how the last year went, etc. And then from down under in episode 154, our great friend Paul Glosser is gonna come back on the show and I don't know what we'll talk about. He's been to a lot of places.

Kentucky Dave:

We'll talk about his Spitfire. We'll talk we'll talk about scale ACT. We'll talk about how beautiful a summer he's experiencing, meanwhile, we're up here freezing our butts off.

Mike:

That's right. And then hopefully we'll get around to kicking out this local club's short. We we had promised for November, but had a little change of events with KitMass, so we want to get those folks on to let folks know they've got their shipping issue to the United States figured out. So we appreciate everybody who submitted information about their local club activities, and uh we encourage other others to keep doing that. We'll maybe we'll get another one on a little later.

Kentucky Dave:

Yeah.

Mike:

Especially during the slow club show season, and uh give us something to talk about and let you guys promote your clubs because you know we had one listener who was looking for a club. Where was he? Terre Haute area. Yeah. Hopefully he's made some headway into finding some folks up that way. I would hope so. Well, Dave, the dojo continues to grow. Lots going on there, man. Give us a give us an update on the dojo. The dojo continues to grow.

Kentucky Dave:

Uh, there's almost 5,600 members in the dojo. Right now is 5569 is the count as of this evening when you and I, right before you and I started to record, we're gaining about 60 members a month. What I'm really encouraged about is the activity on the dojo. Not only the the number of posts that we're getting, which is almost 500 a month and has grown substantially over the last few months, but also the quality and variety. We're getting everything from show reports, which I expect to slow down now, now that we're out of show season. But you all have done a great job of when you go to a show posting on the dojo. So those of us who aren't close enough to go to that show can actually get some experience from it. We're getting posts of flyers for upcoming shows. Mike and I, as you all know, we're big, big supporters of shows, particularly local shows, and getting modelers to go out and even if you're not into contests, go to shows, interact, shop in the vendor room, meet meet your fellow modelers. In addition to show contest reports, show flyers, upcoming shows, etc. One of the things I'm seeing on the dojo that I'm absolutely loving is people posting. Here, here's my build progress on my first helicopter ever. Here's my build progress on my first wing nuts wing kit. Here's the first time I'm trying a bare metal finish. Absolutely loving the fact that people are trying new things and posting it on the dojo and letting people see what they're doing so that not only can they get encouragement, but they can also get input. Hey, you want to watch out for this on Wing Nuts kits, or hey, on helicopters, I found X or Y or bare metal finishes, whatever it is. So many of the modelers posting in the dojo are not only building, which you and I are building slowly, they are putting us to shame. And we did this for accountability, so you and I both need to step up and get better and faster. But in addition to that, we are getting a lot of building out there, and people are stretching their skills, stretching their comfort zones, stretching their boundaries. And man, I am super encouraged by that. I'm loving that. Please keep doing it. We're getting a lot of encouraging and helpful comments on the post. So if you've got constructive input for somebody, please feel free to give to give it because modelers helping modelers is one of the main things that we can accomplish with the dojo.

Mike:

Man, it's like we've been friends for 30 years, Dave.

Kentucky Dave:

You really it does. Speaking of which, we need to go out for Mexican again sometime.

Mike:

We do. Yeah. Aside though, my call to action for this last segment of the 12-minute models for Dave was folks for the month of December, please show us your in-progress stuff. Yes. The the more raw the better. Show us to the whatever you're doing, cutting styrene, fitting parts, scratch building something. Let us see it in the month of December. You know, we don't do the formal group build things here, but we like what Dave's been talking about there on the dojo. And I would just like to see some some more in progress stuff because it's really ramped up here lately, and we really appreciate it.

Kentucky Dave:

And it's cold outside, and we all have plenty of times now to get to our bench and do some building. So Mike has posted a few photos. I've posted a few photos. We're both doing in progress. Hopefully, we're both going to move a little faster. But please post what you're working on.

Mike:

All right, Dave. We'll see you in episode 153.

Kentucky Dave:

Looking forward to it. Looking forward to happy holidays.

Contributor

Mike Baskette

Host
Contributor

David Knights

Co-host