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
2026... New Year, Fresh Bench: Episode 155
A slow start, a full heart, and a clear plan. We kick off 2026 by resetting our modeling habits, sharpening the skills that matter most, and putting dates on the calendar to turn ideas into finished work. HeritageCon is pulling us forward, but it’s the day-to-day that will make the difference: tighter bench time, better canopies, and bases that finish strong instead of phoning it in.
One photo sent us down a rabbit hole—captured Soviet armor at Kummersdorf with mysterious inventory rectangles. We trace similar markings across other vehicles and share why the rectangle’s color might be yellow, then ask armor specialists for hard provenance rather than AI guesses. That curiosity fuels the whole episode. The dojo keeps paying dividends, from canopy wax tips and stencil-cutter know-how to encouragement from modelers solving the same problems. We celebrate KitMask extending mojo30 for 30% off through HeritageCon and spotlight how small breaks in cost and friction can nudge more projects across the line.
We lay out our goals for the year. Aircraft need spotless canopies—polished clear parts, confident masking, and frames that sit sharp and true. Speed is focus: fewer distractions, more finishes without losing joy. Armor projects get a base upgrade with cleaner edges, smarter terrain transitions, and groundwork that complements the model instead of competing with it. On the adjacent front, we commit to mastering a Cameo stencil cutter for crisp markings and layered paint effects, and we push to launch phase two of our website so the community can learn and share even more.
On the bench, the Hellcat weathers the tiny-stencil storm, the Moosaroo rally build earns custom decals and a clever mixed-material interior, and the KV-85 stacks sub-assemblies toward primer. Our 2026 wish list is ambitious but grounded: MiniArt T-34/76 variants, a modern JSU-152, an early D3A1 Val, a 1/72 Privateer, and a 14-meter Daihatsu for Pacific dioramas. If you’ve got insight on Kummersdorf markings or a kit rumor we should track, jump in. Subscribe, share the show with a modeling friend, and leave a quick review—then tell us your top skill goal for 2026.
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Welcome to Plastic Model Mojos, a podcast dedicated to skill modeling as well as to news and events around the hobby. Join Mike in Kentucky Dave as they strive to be informative, entertaining, and help you keep your modeling module alive.
Mike:It's episode 155. We're letting our casualness creep into the new year here, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I know, I know. But we're finally putting out an episode for the new year.
Mike:We are finally after the 12-minute model sphere. It is 14th when we're doing this. So we're two weeks in, man. That's a new low.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well.
Mike:We'll get there, folks. Thanks for bearing with us and not sending us a bunch of hate mail.
Kentucky Dave:Yes. Yeah, we are. We are trying. We we both have had busy, we've hit the ground running work-wise and we have family-wise and all that stuff.
Mike:Well, since we made it here, finally, what is up in your model sphere for the first feature episode of 2026, Dave?
Kentucky Dave:Well, as part of the general theme on 2026, I'm trying to be more intentional about modeling and modeling related stuff. All right. Um so one of the things I've started doing is tracking my time at the bench actually working, not sitting there watching a YouTube video or anything, but actually actually tracking working. And so far, the numbers are shockingly small.
Mike:And I'm not surprised, unfortunately, but better luck as the year rolls out, my friend.
Kentucky Dave:But I'm hoping this will at least give me uh it will give me some accountability. Looking back on it, maybe publishing it on the dojo every like two weeks or so.
Mike:Then some then some of our friends can throw barbs at you.
Kentucky Dave:Oh yeah. Well, they do that already.
Mike:Well, they can um amp it up a little bit.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. Also, while we weren't able to make it down to Tennessee, and we've got HeritageCon coming up, and man, it is mid-January, and I am already looking forward to the end of March. I mean, it's ridiculous. How how much I am looking forward to to seeing our our Canadian friends, seeing the the Minnesota boys. I'm just uh whoever else we see. Exactly. And it is sustaining me through these cold winter months, which had been kind of pleasant until today when we started recording. The weather has has turned on us, and uh heck with that. I want my 50 degrees back.
Mike:Well, we're gonna have a couple of Arctic blasts starting today, and then it's gonna warm back up a little, and then we're gonna get another one.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, yeah. It just it's a and it's gonna make all of us sick.
Mike:So well, let's hope not, man.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. So how about you? What's up in your model sphere?
Mike:Uh it's been a it's been a good week so far, or good well, yeah, I'll just bring it down to this week because I haven't had a lot going on in the model sphere yet. But uh, you know, I was finishing up late the afternoon, was it yesterday or day before, and I was messaging with Evan McCallum. He's working on a a project, uh what is it? T thirty seven Soviet amphibian. I'm not gonna say a whole lot about it because he's he's doing a something on it.
Kentucky Dave:And right, but he seems to be doing a speed run through all the early Soviet armor all of a sudden because he did that BT2 not too long ago.
Mike:Well, it was interesting because he he was there was a a turret marking. He's like he said he wasn't that familiar with Soviet numbering, and and but I looked at it a little bit and it's the vehicle uh in the photo was one from the Kummersdorf Proving Grounds. It was a captured vehicle. Oh, okay. I'm like, man, that looks like maybe it's a an inventory number because the numbers just didn't look like Russian numbers. I mean, they use the same numbers, but they have some stylized well, we call them fonts today, but right. You know, they had some stylized numbers that they typically used. Um not just on tanks in their handwriting and everything. But anyway, I started poking around the net because I had a little bit of free time and I found a couple other captured vehicles that had the same kind of markings on them. But in the photo he had, these vehicles would have like the armor thicknesses and inclinations stenciled on them all around. Right. Just for reference for the it was a proving ground, so they're doing research on captured equipment.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
Mike:Well, the saturation in the image looks like the background of this rectangle that the black numbers are on is yellow, would be my first guess. And it would it looks that way on his photo of the T-37, and I found one of a T-34 model 1940. It also looked like it was possibly yellow on that one. Then I found some British tanks that were uh, you know, kind of added to the confusion. They didn't weren't quite as convincing, but you know, one had glare on it and it kind of was overexposed, and another one was kind of underexposed. And I told him I would ask if if anybody out there in Mojovia of the Armor Ilk has any information on those Kumersdorf inventory numbers, what color the rectangle was, and let us know. We'd appreciate it. Evan would like to know before he gets too far into the painting of this thing. So the sooner the better. And I'll tell you this too. If you could go the AI route and I can get two different answers depending on how I phrase the question. So uh if if you know and you have some some way to know, either through a a period color from the proving grounds or or something like that, we'd love to see it or hear about the the provenance.
Kentucky Dave:You know what? I that is one of the things I love is you'll be sitting there at work or whatever, you know, grinding through, and either on the dojo or again, in this case, Evan texting you or DMing you, you get a question, you'll be, well, that's interesting. And you just start doing research and you look up and it's 45 minutes later, yes. And you are you are three three layers deep into the rabbit hole uh on a question that that 45 minutes ago you didn't even know existed, or or had no concern about it at the moment, yeah. Right. You had no no no reason to to learn anything about it, and then 45 minutes later you've learned a whole bunch of stuff and ended up with like six new questions.
Mike:That is true. Well, in addition to that conversation, we got a really nice email from Janelle at KitMass. Yes, and I want to thank her and Kevin for that, and just has some nice things to say about us and what we got going on with them and and uh the show in general, because we had mentioned KitMass in well, another 12-minute model sphere, but I think maybe in the episode before that, I can't remember exactly when we did, probably every episode a little bit, but uh he'd made her listen to it or requested that she listen to it, and uh I told her I appreciated that ending well and not being a drag for her.
unknown:Yeah.
Mike:But I gotta hand it to her. You know, she's engaged with this business and she's engaged with the community and she's engaged with learning about what all's up. So they're a they're a dynamic duo for sure. Yes. Uh but the net of it is, and which I think prompted the email we had mentioned about the discount code, the mojo 30. Right. They're going to extend that up until the HeritageCon date.
Kentucky Dave:That's great.
Mike:So if you haven't taken advantage of that yet, and they would really like to see some more people take advantage of it. That's a 30% discount on your order if you use the discount or the yeah, the discount code mojo30 with your order, and they'll they'll hook you up with some uh great kit masks or some stencils, whatever they got that you you're interested in, and please take advantage of it. I mean, it's just there's they're just great.
Kentucky Dave:And well, and I'm happy to have them back shipping into the US again.
Mike:Exactly. So if folks didn't get savvy to that in the last episode or last 12-minute model sphere, whenever we announced that, please give them some business. They'd they'd love to interact with the mojo community.
Kentucky Dave:So yeah, and they're they are great people and they go way out of their way to make modelers happy. So you you can't you can't beat that.
Mike:Well, that's been my model sphere. Okay.
Kentucky Dave:Pretty good. Sounds good. Yeah, no, we we're off to a good start in 2026. We are well, Mike, since we're recording the first episode of 2026, I hope you have an appropriate modeling fluid. I do. And what do we have?
Mike:I have a nice little pour of the 14-year Balvini Caribbean cask.
Kentucky Dave:Oh God, that stuff is so good. Oh, oh, that hurt. Oh man, that's killing me.
Mike:Oh, that it's a Scotch night. This was actually my Christmas gift to my wife, one of them.
Kentucky Dave:You you have excellent taste in both wives and liquor.
Mike:And I went up to her, she was lining down for the evening, preparing for comfort and bed and all that. And I took I took the shooter glass back there and I said, Hey, I got a question. And and Noah's perfectly reasonable answer. I said, Can have this much of your scotch to feature on the show tonight. Yeah, she was quite agreeable because I told her I'd stay out of it.
Kentucky Dave:Well, that I don't know how you're gonna stay out of it.
Mike:I'm gonna stay out of it. That's the one and done. I'm gonna enjoy this one.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you should, because that is truly one of the best single malt scotches I've ever had in my life. But I I got introduced to it because modeling friend Skippy, one year for Christmas, I think it was Christmas, gave me a bottle of that. And God, it's so good. And it's not cheap. That stuff is well, it's it's not.
Mike:I mean, for Scotch it is. Yeah, I know.
Kentucky Dave:I mean well, comparatively compared to it.
Mike:Comparatively, yeah. But you know, it's it's a ouchie if you don't like spending that kind of money.
Kentucky Dave:Exactly. But it's worth every penny.
Mike:Hey, and I I don't know if there's any big time Scotch folks out there in in in Mojovia, but this is finished in a rum cask.
Kentucky Dave:Right.
Mike:If this was bourbon, it wouldn't be bourbon anymore.
Kentucky Dave:That's right.
Mike:So is it still Scotch?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I think the the Scotch doesn't have the same they don't have the same stimulus. In fact, I I wonder what the rules are for scotch. Well, I don't know.
Mike:That's neither here nor there. What do you got?
Kentucky Dave:Well, I have, believe it or not, the last of the beers that we got in Hampton in the summer of 2025. This is another one that Bill Moore gave us. It's called 10 T E N N Golden Lager out of Tailgate Brewing in Nashville, Tennessee. Yep. Yep. Gonna work. That one, that one's gonna work. All right. We'll talk about it at the end of the episode, but that one's gonna get us there. Or get me there. You're gonna have no problem.
Mike:I'll have no problem. More on it at the end.
Kentucky Dave:Yes. Just drink it slow.
Mike:I am, because I'm not gonna get any more of it. It's not that much to begin with, so we'll nurse it.
SPEAKER_02:You got it.
Mike:Well, let's not nurse the listener mail.
SPEAKER_02:All right.
Mike:We got a little bit. Got some good ones, I think. Okay. First up, well, two real quick. Michael Aluzi and Frank Blanton have both sent us some right before the holidays. And they're both kind of holiday greetings and then some suggestions. Okay. So emails received, gentlemen, and uh we'll see what can we can do on those. Not gonna disclose the topics.
Kentucky Dave:But but I will say, and we've said this before, if you all out are out there and you have ideas for s for topics, suggestions for how we can change the podcast to make it better, things that you don't like, things that you think we ought to cut out, etc., please send those in. Mike and I, you know, we can't promise that we will take every suggestion or whatever, but we'll at least give it consideration, and we really do appreciate that kind of feedback.
Mike:Well, after that, we've got one from Eric Kenser from Minlo Park, California.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:And he wants to know if I am familiar with AJP Maquettes and their French Marine Catapult Type 3.5T in 70 second scale. I am intimately familiar with this. Well, with this vendor, unfortunately. Yeah. Um he's got my money and I don't have a catapult because that kind of thing happens in the cottage industry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:But then I noticed a link in his email.
SPEAKER_02:Uh-huh.
Mike:And it's to a web store. Oh, really? That shows there's one in stock. So a third party. So I fired them off an email.
unknown:Yeah.
Mike:And if this sucker's in stock, I'm gonna pay for this sucker again, and hopefully I'll get it this time. Because I want it.
Kentucky Dave:I understand. I I there are a number of things I've done just that for. I I get ya. I feel ya.
Mike:And if this pans out, Mr. Kincer might have uh backed into a double O special agent.
Kentucky Dave:Oh yes, absolutely.
Mike:Dino denotation. So uh we appreciate the email. Thank you for putting the link in. This at least gives me a glimmer of hope that I might actually be able to obtain this thing. Else my Loire flying boat will probably never get built.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:Both of them.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Well, there are a whole bunch of them.
Kentucky Dave:There are a whole bunch of great French seaplanes and flying boats that that would work.
Mike:Next is David Mason from the Mid-Michigan Model Makers. He is reminding us of 4M Model Mayhem. Yep. Again coming up. And sent the flyer in. But it reminds me to ask again, folks with shows in February if you would like to get on the model show Spotlight. I won't say it's wide open because I think I'm gonna have MidMiskan back again. Because it sounds like maybe they're doing something different here or could elaborate on some things. So thanks, David, for the reminder. And in addition to that, though, he he is cranking out the 3D print stuff. He's the one that gave us like the the measuring cups and the and the the die cut leaf sorter thing. Yep. At the Nationals.
Kentucky Dave:I remember him. In fact, I've got that leaf uh leaf sorter thing just over my shoulder.
Mike:So he's he's looking to get more than two done this year.
Kentucky Dave:All right. Well that's so am I, buddy. So am I.
Mike:And he says with a 3D print, so now instead of buying a kit, a less than stellar kit and buying a four times the value of an original kit and pee and cash resin, you can waste hours and cab and money uh printing various resin resin stuff.
Kentucky Dave:But you're having fun.
Mike:That's right.
Kentucky Dave:I mean, that you're you're enjoying this hobby, is what it's all about.
Mike:And he alludes to ending up with nice parts on a crappy kit, which has always been a problem with aftermarket for really bad kits, is you end up you you have this dichotomy of detail. Yep. Oh, well, hopefully he'll figure that out. Uh John Allen from Lint Linton, Indiana. Now where's Linton? It's in Indiana, Dave. I just told you.
Kentucky Dave:Well, thank you. Well, considering one of us can talk and chew gum at the same time.
Mike:Well, he got into modeling again during the pandemic, like so many people did, that and every other hobby you can think of. Right. And he came across uh on the bench and us and he started listening, getting motivated, building stuff, learning about stuff. You know, he's listening during his work commutes and at the bench, and you he decided to go to his first show, which is Indy, which we happened to be at in 2021.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:And then he ended up at the Nationals in Vegas. And just to thank you, but I don't I don't want to get into platitudes, but just say, you know, we really appreciate knowing that we've had that kind of reach with folks and and appreciate your email, John. And let us see some of your current work, put it on the dojo if you haven't. Um please do and I'll keep an eye out for it. And hopefully you keep on modeling, man.
Kentucky Dave:Oh, and just FYI Linton is south of Terre Haute. Okay.
Mike:My other email was the one from Janelle Kittenmasters already talked about. But there are a couple more. David Pele, and I don't have a location from him. He'd sent a follow-up. This is, you know, I don't like to do inside information here, but he sent an email or a comment quite a ways back, as you and I know. He made the statement, which inquired me to dig a little bit deeper into why he made that statement. And just wanted to tell Dave that I appreciate the information he gave and it's very insightful and helps us make sure we're uh keeping it between the rails and doing the kind of show we want to do. So thanks for watching.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, we appreciate that feedback. We do really do.
Mike:And then another similar one from uh Joseph Bridges. Joseph also sends us a few topics that we'll we'll we'll take under consideration. And uh he's from uh Yannis, southwest of London, so another listener from the UK, and uh his his message comes to us through the web link in the in the show notes and on the website. So glad to see folks using these other avenues. Uh Patreon, we can get a message through there, and we'll talk about I'll mention all that again in a minute. But emails, keep them coming, folks. Dave, what'd you get from the DM side?
Kentucky Dave:Well, I got a few DMs. I mean, we got, and I'm not gonna mention everybody who sent us DMs for you know, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays, but we got all of those and thank you for them. That'd be too much to too much to list. I did get a DM from our friend Jeff Adair, who was disappointed that we weren't in Tennessee in the first week of January. Yeah, but wanted to know if maybe Amps Atlanta was a possibility. And unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be because I don't know about you, but I'm kind of husbanding my resources for Hamilton, for Amps National and South Bend, and then for the Nationals and Heritage Coming. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff going on.
Mike:Well, I've got a situation into March, into April that's back to back to back. So we're not all modeling, two of them are, but one of them's not. But I'd like to get to all of them in some capacity. So I gotta husband my resources as well. So Chattanooga's just man, it's just a little too early for me.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:That's hard for me to do that.
Kentucky Dave:But yeah, now if you want to call up my employer and talk him into giving me more paid time off, I'm all for that. But other than that, yeah, we we Mike and I both work, and so we deal with the realities of having X amount of time.
Mike:And well, even if I had the PTO to spare, there's you know, just how many weekends can I be gone and get away with it. Exactly. Exactly. It's a lot. It is. Someday, someday.
Kentucky Dave:So thanks, Jeff, for inquiring about Amps Atlanta, but I don't think we're gonna make it this year. But I wouldn't mind making it back down. I love the AMP shows. Christian Gurney, our friends from Bases by Bill, he sent me an article on Hornby, which is the owner of a number of hobby lines. The one that's important to us is Airfix, and talking about some financial difficulties they're going through, just because he knew that I have an interest in the business side of the hobby. And it was very kind of him to think of me when he saw that article and send me a copy of it. And I'll be interested to see what happens to Hornby and by extension airfix in the coming year. Next, George Welch, uh long time, longtime listener, had reached out to me because he had heard me talking about how my tremors seemed to be getting a little worse. And it turns out that George had the same problem, and he actually underwent the medical procedure, the deep brain stimulation procedure, which is now a kind of a cutting-edge procedure for people who deal with these types of essential tremors. And he underwent the procedure and wanted me to know that it eliminated his tremor completely. And I've thought about it. I tend to stay away from hospitals and surgery, but just as a general rule. But I won't I won't rule out, especially if it tends it continues to get worse, that I may go that route. So I appreciate hearing from him that he did he did it and that it was a major success for him. So thank you, George. Uh next, I had two really great DM interactions over the past couple weeks. One of them is uh Carl Barrow. Mr. Barrow is a Yorkshireman who's now living in California modeler, and one of the because Blackburn, the uh aircraft manufacturing company that you mentioned last episode. That that was mentioned, well, that's what caused him to DM is that Paul Gloster mentioned that he had a vacuform of the Blackburn Blackburn, which is just the greatest named aircraft ever. It's also horrendous looking. Uh guys, if you don't know this aircraft, go to go to Google, Google Blackburn, Blackburn, and you'll see what we're talking about.
Mike:Blackburn's aesthetics were the antithesis of the Italian aircraft industry.
Kentucky Dave:Exactly. And there are a lot of their kits that are resin that have been made, some of their lesser aircraft, and he sent in some pictures of some Karia resin kits of different Blackburn aircraft that he had. But we just had a really nice conversation back and forth. And then, you know, I'm like, how does a Yorkshireman end up in California? And it turns out, of course, that a woman was involved, and you know, he found himself a good California girl. And as the Beach Boy said, wish they all could be California girls. He's happily married and happily modeling in California.
Mike:And what were those rising kids? I think it's Kariah. Hang on a second. I can't pariah would probably be a better name. K-A Lemon. Or maybe they're good.
Kentucky Dave:I don't know. Well, actually, I've seen them. They're not awful. Let's see. It's Karai, yeah, K-A-R-A-Y-A, Kariah.
Mike:Okay.
Kentucky Dave:So, and I just wanted to let uh Carl know that it was a very pleasant conversation. And again, I keep talking about how, you know, uh some of my favorite things are the interactions with listeners that pop up out of the blue in the middle of a work day, you know, and kind of adds a bright spot to the day. Finally, I've got another one of those. And I apologize, I I'm gonna butcher this name, Clement Poundonson. And he's he he heard me say that uh one of the things that I wanted to work on for 2026 was canopies, and he wrote in to recommend the Tamiya wax for canopies, which I was not aware of and I'm gonna pick up. But it led into a very nice conversation because he sent a photograph of the Platz T33 that he had finished in Colombian or Peruvian markings, I forget which, just beautiful model. And that led to conversations back and forth. He's in Estonia, he's a Frenchman in Estonia working for a Dutch company selling remanufactured computer servers and switches and such. And I know you you've known a number of people in Estonia over the years. They weren't French, though. Huh? No, they they were yours weren't French. But just a fascinating little conversation that started out with a product recommendation and then went on to talk about Estonia, what a lovely place it is, that he's almost your typical EU guy because he's a French citizen living in Estonia, working for a Dutch company. It just, and then we exchanged some pictures of different models and stuff. It just was a lovely, lovely conversation. And again, another example of these little things that that pop up from listeners that just brighten brighten your day. And Clement, I want to want you to know I really, really enjoyed that conversation.
Mike:And give us some uh info on the modeling scene in Estonia.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, yes, that would be a great thing for the dojo. If you if you're a part of a club there, you know, photos from a club meeting with long. Cool shop or yeah, exactly. Whatever.
Mike:Is he in Tel Inn?
Kentucky Dave:Huh? I I did not ask him what city he's located.
Mike:Okay.
Kentucky Dave:Of course, Estonia's not that large.
Mike:No, it's not. But there's Narva and Estonia and Yeah.
Kentucky Dave:But thank you very much, and I really, really enjoyed that interaction. And Mike, that's all I've got from the DM side.
Mike:Well, folks, I assume you were all busy for the holidays, and that's why the mailbag was a little on the light side. It's good enough to not disappoint me, but I love this segment. I know you like it too, Dave.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, very much.
Mike:Please, folks, write into the show. If you've not written in before, please make it the first time. We'd like to hear from some newer folks all the time. We really like it when you give us your geography, just your country and city or your city and state if you're in the United States. You can email the show at plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com, and I'll usually take those. You can DM us through the Facebook messenger system, and Dave will take those unless they warrant me having a shot at it. And you can also hit us through the feedback link on the website, which also appears in the show notes. And one I've didn't give much thought to before is you can actually message us through Patreon if you're a Patreon contributor or Patreon member. So uh looking forward to more email in January, folks. Let's uh let's knock it out of the park. Dave, it's 2026.
Kentucky Dave:There is a lot on the horizon. It is a beautiful unpainted canvas for us to model on.
Mike:Modelers like instructions, even connect the dots. So just generally, what's your kind of outlook for 2026 without getting too much into the other topic lines we've got going forward in this segment?
Kentucky Dave:Generally, uh and I start every year optimistic. You know, sometimes I end every year a little pessimistic because I didn't get done what I had set out to get done, and then I get hit by the dark time. So the end of every year tends to be a little bit down. But when you come to the beginning of every year, the whole year's laid out in front of you. You've got all these model shows you're planning on going on. In fact, you're probably already conversing with other folks who are going to be at those particular shows. Which we are making making arrangements for lodging and okay, how how are we gonna meet up? Who's gonna fly in? What's the transportation, etc.? That's energizing, that gets the mojo flowing right away because you're anticipating all of that. You're looking at, okay, I didn't meet my goal last year for the number of kits I wanted to complete, but this year's a new year, and by gummit, I'm gonna complete more this year. I'm gonna hit my goal, whatever. Or maybe you've got uh that Magnum Opus project that you finally said, okay, I'm not gonna live forever. If I don't do this now, I won't get it done. It just, I mean, I always like the the first couple of episodes after the new year just simply because it's so full of hope and promise and optimism. And I'm looking forward to the year. To reflect back on 2025, we had a great 2025 as far as the podcast goes. We did. Uh we hit the ground running and we put out a whole lot of bangers. We got to interact a ton with the membership or with the listenership and the folks on the dojo, etc. And if 2025 turned out to be that good, I've got great hope for what 2026 will look like.
Mike:How about you? Well, I was ready to call 2025 worse than 2020 until the holidays. It was pretty bad. And this is not the podcast.
Kentucky Dave:Right. This is this is all the life other than the podcast.
Mike:Though, you know, we we went I went back through and looked at all the guests and stuff we'd had in 2025, and we had some good stuff, no doubt.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:There were a few things that were interesting I discovered that we didn't get done. Uh-huh. One was there was one recurring guest who did not appear at all in 2025. And that was Mr. Hustad.
Kentucky Dave:Yes. We got to get him on.
Mike:Maybe we'll rectify that in 2026 after we sit down and talk to him a little bit. Maybe at Harry's Con if the weather doesn't keep him away.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:Um 2026 is already off to a much better start. By this time last year, we'd already totaled a car and I was nursing the kidney stone.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, oh God, I remember that. Oh God, that was so long ago, I had forgotten about it until you mentioned that.
Mike:So things are looking up. The holiday season was good because my oldest son got some clarity on an internship in our nation's capital in DC, and got a little stipend money for that that was gonna make that a little easier on the family. And uh we got him moved last weekend. That was a slog, but oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:We got him there.
Mike:He's living lards now, and mama's cried and all that great stuff, and uh he's doing what he wants to do.
Kentucky Dave:So it'll be a great experience. I DC is a a great place to visit with all the museums and the history and everything. Living there or in the surrounding areas is very difficult. You know, my wife's family's from Southern Maryland, so I've spent a lot of time in and around DC, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and he's young, and that's the time to do for him to do stuff like that, you know? It is. Well, I'm glad you got him all moved in.
Mike:So all that stuff is making 2026 start look good. So the first thing I did New Year's Day was clean off my bench. I think that's a good start. That is a good start.
Kentucky Dave:I really do.
Mike:And we'll get into where that's going in a little bit. But yeah, just generally, again, like you, positive, excited for the podcast, for the for the building of models, for the seeing of people. Looking forward to this year, man.
Kentucky Dave:You and me both. You and me both.
Mike:Well, we got some bullets on this list. All right. And first up, for you. Mm-hmm. And this is open-ended, so hopefully you thought about it a little bit. Yes, I have. What do you hope to achieve in 2020 what do you hope to achieve in 2026 in terms of skills, techniques, or accomplishments? Well, let me ask first, do you have more than one thing under this?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I do.
Mike:All right, let's go back and forth, and you can go first.
Kentucky Dave:Okay. First is the something I mentioned on the previous episode that uh Mr. Poundinson uh picked up on canopies. We if you're an aircraft modeler, you can do everything else beautifully, but if you do not have a really great clean canopy, it sticks out like a sore thumb. The canopies are the wind, you know how the eyes are are the windows to the soul. Well, canopies are the windows to the to the model soul.
Mike:And the airplane.
Kentucky Dave:Yes. And you know, you look at Steve Hustad, Barry Numerick, any number of modelers that I can mention, and you go and look at their models, the first thing that you notice is that their canopies are flawless.
Mike:And not a jab, but as as a modeler, you probably think it's everybody but you, right?
Kentucky Dave:Oh, it is everybody but me. There's no question. I am the golem of of aircraft canopies. And so 2026 is the year of the canopy. 2025 was the year of rescribing and engraving, and I actually concentrated on that. I learned stuff, I asked people, I experimented, and I got better at it. And I'm gonna give the same dedication in 2026 to canopies that I gave to engraving and rescribing in 2025. And hopefully, I mean, I yeah, I'm not gonna get to a Barry Steve level, etc., but I can step up my game and look make my canopies look a magnitude order better. And so that is my number one goal for 2026.
Mike:How about you? Well, I don't know mine in any order, but I'd mentioned it before, like you did the canopies. I would like to finish three this year. And I know that's not very many. I know we talk a lot about it is for you. It is. We talk a lot about maybe the finish isn't the most important.
unknown:Right.
Mike:So let me rephrase this. I'd like to finish three and have the degree of fun I would like to get out of it, no matter how long it took me to finish it. But get three done by the end of the year.
unknown:Yeah.
Mike:Now, it's front loaded because the KV85 is getting close to primer.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
Mike:Moose roo build is getting close to primer, parts of it anyway. Some of it are already have been. And then there's another one, 2BD, to be determined, and then that's three. And there may be more starts than just the one after I get one of these done.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:So I would really like to see myself find a sweet spot where I can get three done, but not feel rushed, not feel obligated, and and just enjoy it. I'd because, you know, since we started this podcast, my output has gone up, folks. Believe it or not. Believe it or not, it has. But I'd like to maybe get a few more done because uh kick it up a notch. Kick it up a notch. But I want to enjoy it, I want to have fun.
Kentucky Dave:So well, and we'll talk we'll talk about it after March and after HeritageCon. We'll talk about the Musuru. Obviously, it's all under wraps now. But one of the things I love about that is that you're doing something that's going to that you're gonna learn something from.
Mike:Yes.
Kentucky Dave:And it's going to be very valuable in future modeling.
Mike:And that's how I get through that project when it's when it's my turn, is I turn it into something that's useful to me.
Kentucky Dave:Yep. And I'm really excited about it, and we can't talk about it, but we could, but we're just not going to. We're not going to.
Mike:That's how we are.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah. And uh so I am looking forward to that. I will tell you. And that that that will build into picking up something new for 2026. What you got next? Well, my next is actually related to your next. I defined it as speed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Kentucky Dave:Now it's not just speed, it's not just putting parts together quicker or airbrushing quicker or decaling quicker. God knows. But it's a combination of when I'm at the bench not getting distracted, it's focusing on the modeling, it's not finding things. To waste time and it's utilizing available time. When I've got time to model, get down to the bench. Don't find something upstairs in regular life that isn't necessary to do immediately. Because you'll find it. Because you'll find it. Yeah, because the Lord knows, you know, if you go look in your trouble, you're bound to find it. That's right. House, wife, children, pets. There's always something that you can find that needs that that you can occupy yourself with doing. And avoiding doing that, and thereby, therefore avoiding the causing yourself to avoid the bench is a killer. It's already happened some this year this year. There have been one or two times already where I should have been down at the bench and I let myself get sidetracked, distracted, et cetera. So speed, focus, concentration, efficiency for 2026. And I'm hoping the result of that will be more completed models at the end of the year.
Mike:Well, my next one and my last one for this part of the segment.
Kentucky Dave:Well, you got one more than I do, so go ahead.
Mike:Okay. You only have that one?
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, those are my two. Okay.
Mike:We'll both have two. I'm I'm staying focused.
unknown:Okay.
Mike:And there's two other segments here we got to get through. That's okay. I still want to improve my bases further. There's some stuff I still need to tighten up on. There's things that are already a little sideways on the base I've already started for the KV-85 that I'm not real happy about.
Kentucky Dave:Are you talking about, say, groundwork techniques?
Mike:Groundwork, edge finishing, just getting it a little bit tighter. Clean clean cleaning it up because we talked about it, you know, early on on the podcast, 2020 type material about bad, you know, phoned-in bases at the end of a long project, just distract from the all the work you've done for all those months or years or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:It's terrible. I I want to I want to get better at it. Well, I want to get better, but I want to tighten up tighten up some of that stuff because uh there's things I'm I'm dissatisfied with.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha.
Mike:Now there's a lot on that base that I'm already very satisfied with, like the railroad ties and the rails and the ballast and all that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:And the it's I think it's one of my better attempts at varied terrain height that I actually I'm happy with.
unknown:Yeah.
Mike:So that's gone in the right direction, but there's some just some workmanship issues at the interfaces of the the diorama and the edge of the base and just stuff that's just not as clean as I'd like it to be. So on the next one, I'm gonna try to be a little more cognitive of that and do a better job. Get it where I want it.
Kentucky Dave:Sounds great.
Mike:That's what I hope to achieve this coming year, man.
Kentucky Dave:All right. We'll hold each other to that.
Mike:We're gonna step outside the bench now, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah.
Mike:Are there any modeling adjacent topics that might get your attention in 2026?
Kentucky Dave:Yes, there is. There is one that that I need. Uh it I I've got to devote my attention to it. Recent guest Paul Gloster at the Nationals brought his little Red Bull aircraft that was done completely with stencils.
Mike:Four times.
Kentucky Dave:Four times. That's the downside. And I talked with him, and he gave me many pointers because he's got one of these cameo stencil cutters.
Mike:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right.
Kentucky Dave:And he is a fount of information, and I am going to tap that fount hard in 2026 because I bought this stencil cutter year and a half ago. I've used it on one project so far.
Mike:No, you're justified then. You're good.
Kentucky Dave:Well, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Mike:So clearly you've not worked in the space industry.
Kentucky Dave:Right, exactly. But I need to, um it's sitting here. I need to learn it, I need to get better at it, I need to I don't want a second hobby, which is why I didn't pick up a 3D printer and start having you teach me cat because you don't have the time to teach me, and I don't want another hobby. Yeah, well. But I've got this stencil cutter. I think I can avoid making it a second hobby, but I can certainly use it and learn and be able to do a whole bunch of stuff that I'm not currently doing that I think will make my models look better. So 2026 is the year of the stencil cutter. Paul, if you're listening to this, you and I are gonna have so many conversations, you're gonna be sick of me if you're not already. And I am going to learn the stencil cutter so that by the end of 2026, I am regularly designing and cutting stencils and using them on my models.
Mike:How about you? I want to get phase two of our website launched. I really, really admit you to do that. And uh we've already started lining up some help with the content side of that, but that doesn't happen until we actually get the infrastructure of phase two out there on the on the server for us to start using.
Kentucky Dave:So and folks, I'm gonna be honest, the single biggest holdback on doing that is money. You know, uh Mike and I have to justify to our wives spending not only the time to do the podcast, but the money that we spend and the Patreon and other supporters, PayPal, etc., are really, really helping us out in that regard.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Kentucky Dave:But to get this next phase of the project done, we got to come up with some not insignificant money. And I really want to get it done because phase two, I think, is where it really is going to shine, where where people are gonna see all of the things you and I have talked about and imagined down the road.
Mike:So it's certainly possible because it's I think once it's it's implemented, the the what's gonna be put on there is is a lot easier to problem to solve. So yes. Hopefully we'll get there. I'd like to get it done before in the second quarter of this year. We'll see. I don't know. That's just a big goal for this year that didn't get done last year, but uh hey, it's okay. We'll get there one way or the other. We'll get there. Um that's that's uh my first one, man.
Kentucky Dave:Well, I'm gonna go out and buy a lottery ticket.
Mike:There you go. What's uh you got another one?
Kentucky Dave:Nope. That's what stencils is 2026. I'm going to take one modeling adjacent project, devote myself to it. If I if I took on multiples, none of them would get done. So I am going just whole hog on that.
Mike:Well, I guess I'll have to drag you along with my other ones.
Kentucky Dave:Okay, give me your other one.
Mike:I would really like to get down to Chattanooga and visit Brandon and the squadron team at their location before the national convention.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:I think uh that would be a very prudent thing for us to do, and I think it'd be a very enjoyable little uh overnight two-day or day and a half trip that we could do.
Kentucky Dave:And I was gonna say we ought because of the location and our closeness to it. I mean, we can do that in a day, day and a half.
Mike:So sometime this this first half of the year we need to talk about doing that with Brandon and Road Trip. Road trip. And you know, it'll it won't be tied to a model show. So uh No.
Kentucky Dave:We can devote our whole time to that.
Mike:The other one, which would also involve you, is is just the stuff around the podcast and the community, other than the phase two launch of the website. You know, we did a giveaway in 2024. We talked about another one, but we didn't do it in 2025.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, but we're gonna do it. I've got an airbrush.
Mike:We got an airbrush to give away and uh we'll we'll kick that off here, hopefully before too long. You know, I want to refresh the show a little, maybe some new segment formats, maybe change the music and some new bumps. Some of our helpers along the way might get some requests from me about some of those things. And then I mentioned adding another double O special agent. I think I'd like to formalize uh our appreciation to the ones who we've already given that title to somehow. I don't know how.
Kentucky Dave:I have ideas.
Mike:Okay, we'll need to talk about that. So for the for the podcast, that's in the community. I just want to double down on some of those things and keep that moving in the right direction.
Kentucky Dave:2025 was for all of the things that were great about 2025, to me, the single greatest part was the fact that the dojo really took off. And we got huge membership increase. We got the fact that now almost every day there are 20 plus new posts on the dojo, and not only just sheer volume, but the interactions the people saying, Hey, I I got stuff from this 3D print company and their stuff is great, or their stuff isn't great, or hey, you know, if you're looking to improve your canopies, try this to me a canopy wax or to me a wax, whatever it is, the interactions are really helping. And if you are like me concentrating on something you want to improve in 2026 in your modeling, one of the best things you can do is go post in the dojo and say, I want to improve X, or this is how I've been doing X. How do other people do it? Or have you learned anything? Is there something I should know, etc.? It is a fount of knowledge out there. And we have people posting in the dojo who are really, really talented modelers, and therefore they're there willing to share. So take advantage of that.
Mike:All right, a fun one to wrap this up.
SPEAKER_02:I like this one.
Mike:What kit releases or announcements would you most welcome in 2026? So this is all this is something new that we haven't heard yet.
Kentucky Dave:So yeah, and now these keep in mind these aren't ones that have already been announced. These are things that I would be thrilled or Mike would be thrilled to hear announced in 2026. I've got three, Mike. How many have?
Mike:Well, I got two and a I hope it's not released.
unknown:Okay.
Kentucky Dave:Go first, man. All right, I'll go first. And Lord knows I've said this till I'm blue in the face. 72nd scale needs a new kit of the privateer. Uh still, the still, the the matchbox kit is out there. It's so old now that it's not funny. And what it takes to turn that into a really good model, and I've seen guys do it, it's just too much. And a new modern tool kit would really fill a hole in 70 second scale. So I would be thrilled to see that.
Mike:How about you? I hope you get it, man. You and me both again this year.
Kentucky Dave:Yep.
Mike:Well, I'm not going to mention the BT5 or the late model T26 because nobody's listening. At least I'm in plastic and I maybe if I don't mention it, it'll actually get it'll actually happen. This one I may have mentioned before, but I would really love to see MiniArt start ripping through the T3476s.
Kentucky Dave:Yes.
Mike:That would be very painful on my modeling economy.
Kentucky Dave:Well, they should do it for that reason, if nothing else.
Mike:You know, if I if I if I could do it, they've already released a bunch of wheel sets. Yeah. And some of those wheel sets they've released, well, they've used them on like the the SU 122 and 85 and those.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
Mike:But some of them aren't applicable to anything they've kitted. Which makes you think. Makes you think they were at least thinking about it. Yeah. Boy, wouldn't it be cool though, if they did they got their wheel sets and their track sets. If they did a couple of three different hull kits that lets you build X, Y, and Z from this kit, or A, B, and C from this kit, or an S T Z from this kit. And then add a bunch of turrets.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:Man, that'd be cool. Mix and match or whatever.
Kentucky Dave:Well, and and let's face it, the T34 lends itself to that almost more than maybe anything. The only thing I can think that what might be equivalent to that would be the Sherman.
Mike:Yeah. I I think they would, you know, no, they're not gonna do it that way. They're gonna box full kits, and that's fine too. But would like to see them in in some capacity besides their wheel sets start to start down that path.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, that would be cool.
Mike:What yeah, what else you got?
Kentucky Dave:In 2025, Wingsy is a model company, they released a 72nd scale Val D3A2, which is the later model valve. It is the post-Pearl Harbor Valve.
Mike:Okay.
Kentucky Dave:And I'm hoping that in 2026 we will see them do the early valve. I would like that. We are in need of an early valve. And if I'm gonna do my Pearl Harbor aircraft, I need an uh a new mold early valve. So they're they're 90% of the way there with their late model valve. It's just gonna take a different canopy and you leave off the spinner and a couple other minor changes, and you got a D3A1. So here's hoping that 2026 brings us a D3A1 valve.
Mike:Well, we saw the release from Ryefield of the uh JSU2 or the JS2, the tank. I would really like to see them do the 152 self-propelled gun, assault gun on that platform. One because I don't have one in the stash from Tamiya, and I would just give it to Skip. If they did it, I'd just give it to Skip and go straight to theirs. I like their kits, at least in the box. I need to build one so I can make a really informed uh comment about that. But uh I I I suspect they'll probably do it. It would kind of make sense, but we'll see. I would really like to see that.
Kentucky Dave:And there are there are a number of famous pictures.
Mike:Oh, yeah, there's tons.
Kentucky Dave:In late 44 and early 45 of those things. And they were just beasts on the side.
Mike:Yeah, huge, huge things. So would love to see that. So hopefully from Ryefield we'll maybe go that route. What what you got next?
Kentucky Dave:My final one is a long shot. In 72nd scale, I would like to see a kit manufacturer do a 14-meter Dihotsu. And what that is, is that's a Japanese landing craft. And these things were ubiquitous all over the South Pacific.
Mike:Is that the one in 35th skill that was scratch billed at the Nationals?
Kentucky Dave:Yeah. Okay. Exactly. That's that with the person that scratch billed. You're right, one with the field gun like in a river type canal or whatever. I would like to see an actual kit in uh heck, I will take a 3D printed kit of that thing in 70 second scale. And I'm here to tell you if somebody does one, I will buy more than one because I have ideas. I've had ideas for 15 years, and I I've even thought about scratch building one that desperate, but there are too many other kits to go ahead and build, and while I build those, I can wait for somebody to finally get around to it. But I want them to get around to it in 2026.
Mike:All right. How about you? Well, I don't have another welcome 2026 kit, but in 2025, Dragon put out the line penciled sketch of their of a uh Panzerware for 42 on the Mall Tier as a future release. Man, I hate to say this, but I hope I hope that's a pipe dream. How come? Because it's gonna cut into my kind of Magnum Opus wanna build.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:Really, it was on the short list we made of three for the coming year, a couple episodes back.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
Mike:And I don't know. It'd be real tempting to to just chuck all the stuff I've got and buy the new one and go from there.
Kentucky Dave:But uh Oh, but I know you you would still you'd buy the new kit and then you'd still go through all the stuff you have and end up promising.
Mike:I'm being a little facetious, you know. A lot of people would welcome that kit, but uh I've never really gotten stung too bad on the on kit announced after I started something.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
Mike:But this this one could be wading right into it, willfully.
Kentucky Dave:Well, this is your year.
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Mike:Well, those guys always got something on their bench. Yes, they do, man. And hopefully we got something on ours.
Kentucky Dave:Well, yeah, I got stuff on my bench, and I've actually I've actually been modeling. I got a good running start. The first week of January was pretty darn good for me. All right. Concentrating on getting this Hellcat done. I'm in this phase where I'm putting these fiddly little stencil decals on, and they are a pain in the butt. And given my limitations, I can only get about five or six of them on the model before I have to walk away, just simply because they are so fiddly and with my tremors and all, it's a lot of work to get one down and where I want it, etc. So I did a lot the first week of January and got a fair amount of those done. I'm over halfway done on those, I think. But the second week of January, which we're in currently, I haven't gotten diddly squat. I haven't gotten to the bench. Now, this is almost all work-related, and this happens to all lawyers. January is when everybody who's been putting off every legal issue that they have suddenly decides it's the new year and they not need to get this, get this stuff resolved. And I come home from work exhausted because I've been working non-stop the entire time. So so far, the second week hasn't been good, but I have hope. And I'm gonna get to it, and I'm going to focus, I'm gonna get faster, and I'm not gonna get distracted. It's 2026 and and things are looking up. So how about you?
Mike:Well, I mentioned last episode that I didn't really have a dark time, I had a dim time.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, yeah, you made some progress.
Mike:So at at at this point on the KV-85, all the fuel retainer straps are done. I may have mentioned that before, but I'll mention it again. Those are all done and waiting in the Chesterfield tin to be put on the model. Mm-hmm. The rear hull grab irons are all done. And I'm just still popping the popcorn, man. I'm trying to get all these little pesky things done that can be added at the end. So like there's you know, I've got it all in my little Chesterfield cigarette tin. There's a bunch of the the toe clevises for the front and back that are three, three more of those need to be cleaned up. There's some parts that need to be cleaned up for the turret. Uh the latch on the loader's hatch. Those detail and the hinge for that needs to be finished up and added to the turret so I can prime the turret. Just chipping away at it. But it's been kinda on pause because the the Musuru cup build, the little rally racer thing.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
Mike:Needs to get done.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, it does.
Mike:And I've got the body assembled, I got all the the gaps from all the trim pieces and body trim that went on it. It's really not that great a kit, honestly. But I got all that assembled, got it all filled, got it all smoothed out. It's looking good, so I'm gonna prime it and see what I missed, and then it'll be ready for paint. Hopefully soon. The bad thing that happened was uh the span across the top of the windshield had two uh two mold fill points kinda on the first and third third of the length, right? So it had a knit line in the middle of it, which is a weak point. When I cracked it, it broke right there. So I've got it glued up. I gotta get it primed and see if I've got that filled enough, or I need to go back and fix it or if it's even fixable. But you know, oh well. Can't can't do much about it now except fix it the best way I can. Again, the body's ready for primer, so that'll get taken care of then. I've started the interior painting. I've got some base colors down on all the interior parts. I'm getting ready to do a little bit of I'm kind of making the seats look like a mixed material. So Right. The cloth and leather. Cloth and leather, so the the center sections are gonna get a color. Well, all the base, all the interior's been paid in painted one color. I'm gonna get a clear coat on some of those parts, and they're gonna get masked, then a darker color is gonna get sprayed on them for a little bit of uh material look contrast. So that's I guess that's something I'm trying on this. That's not the main thing.
Kentucky Dave:It's learning. It's learning. No, the what what I'm looking forward to is that one thing that you're that you're going to that you're doing on this project that really will have benefit not only on this project, but will definitely provide us with useful information information, which we will then share widely with the with the dojo.
Mike:We will. So that's where I'm at. So things are moving. I didn't have a lot. I've not touched it this week because you know, we drove to Washington, DC and back in a weekend and a day. So that was rough. Did you go up and down the Shenandoah? No, we went that way going, but we came back through Western Maryland and down through West Virginia, so which is the quicker route, actually.
Kentucky Dave:It is it is about 30 minutes quicker.
Mike:But anyway, it's you know, it cut into my modeling time because it cut into my my rested situation. So hopefully this weekend I'll get some stuff done.
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Kentucky Dave:Well, Mike, have you been spending any mo any Christmas money on modeling stuff?
Mike:I spent my Christmas money, but not on modeling stuff. But I have spent some modeling money. Okay. The thing you keep alluding to with the Moose Root Cup is a custom decal sheet. Yeah. That I've designed and I'm having printed. And we'll get into that a little bit later once those arrive and once the moose root cup is disclosed.
unknown:Yeah.
Mike:But for now, I've finalized the artwork, approved the artwork, and made the payment. And they are free to print those and get them back to me. So looking forward to that. What's the ETA on that? I don't know yet. I need a touch base with them. It shouldn't be long.
Kentucky Dave:No, I wouldn't think so either.
Mike:Other than that, man, I bought some gloss black paint to undercoat some metallic parts for the Miss Roo Cup.
Kentucky Dave:Well, that's okay. Yeah. That's okay. Well, for me, I haven't spent a ton for a number of reasons, but I did go out and buy a pair of these are called weighted gloves. And basically they're fingerless gloves with a weight on them on the back. And what it's supposed to do is for people with tremors, it's supposed to deaden the tremor. And they're not very expensive. I don't know if they'll work or not. I don't know, but it was a very small amount of money, and it's worth the experiment to see if they work. So I went ahead and bought those, and I'm gonna try them out probably in the next day or two, and I will report on the dojo to everybody what, if any, I anything I think about them. Additionally, our friend Scott King, Skippy, is having a birthday in a day or two, probably about the time this episode drops. And so there was a book that has just come out that is right up his alley. And so I bought it, and it's going to be his God, I don't know how old Skippy is now. 68, 69, something like that. It's going to be his birthday present. All right.
Mike:So you like that.
Kentucky Dave:That's what I spent my modeling related money on.
Mike:Oh, you're very generous, Dave.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, no, I'm not that generous. It was it was at a deep discount. I caught it on sale. You don't tell that part. Folks, when you're done with this episode, you would go to the app that you use to listen to the podcast and rate the the podcast. Give us five stars. Make sure you're subscribed. We appreciate it. It helps raise the visibility of the podcast. Additionally, the best way for us to grow is for current listeners to recommend us to people who aren't currently listening. You've all got model friends out there. I know you do. Please recommend to them if they're not listening to Plastic Model Mojo. Please recommend that they do. Help them out if they need help. We continue to grow and we want to continue to grow. We don't know where the limit is, but there are a lot of modelers out there. And I can tell you all of them are not currently listening to our podcast. And we'd like to get them all. So if you'd please help by recommending us, we'd appreciate it.
Mike:In addition to that, please check out the other podcasts out in the model sphere. You can do that by going to www.modelpodcasts.com. That's model podcastplural.com. It's a consortium website set up by our friend Stuart Clark from the Skill Model Podcast. I sure hope things are going well for him in his situation. So uh Stu, we're thinking about you. Hopefully we get to hear you come back here soon. Check it out. He's aggregated all the banner links to the podcast in the model sphere there for one-stop shop. So you can go there and dive into all those podcasts and listen to them all, find the ones you like best, whatever you want to do. But uh they're all there and you can take them all in. In addition, we got a lot of blog and YouTube friends out in the model sphere. We got Mr. Chris Wallace at Model Airplane Maker. Great blog, great YouTube channel. We mentioned Evan McCallum earlier, Panzermeister36 on YouTube. Looking forward to seeing where he goes with this T37 he's building. And he's had a pretty recent drop as well, so you're gonna want to check that out if you're if you're into armor modeling and armor weathering. He just does a great job with his videos. Stephen Lee, Sprue Pie with Fretz. He's been kicking out some railroad stuff of late and looking forward look forward to getting into that article he wrote for a real model craftsman. But anyway, he's got a great long short form blog, 72nd scale centric and HO scale, which is close. But uh that's what you're gonna find there. Good content, some great reads on there all the time. The N Chai guy, Jeff Groves, our friend up in Indiana, another 76 second scale centric blog. He he man, he built a lot of models last year.
Kentucky Dave:God, he did. And he just cranked out a series of Italian aircraft and tanks. Right. And he's now working on World War II Russian aircraft, and he's just doing some great stuff with not so great kits. So it's definitely worth going over and taking a look.
Mike:And finally, Dr. Paul Budzik at the Scale Model Workshop. You can find him on YouTube and you can subscribe to a little bit more content through Patreon. He doesn't ask for much and it's worth every penny.
SPEAKER_03:So it is.
Mike:Please support Dr. Paul. He's retired now, and uh hopefully we're gonna see more from him.
Kentucky Dave:I was gonna say, hopefully, we're gonna get him on the podcast more now than now that he has time. Looking forward to what he's got going on. Yes. If you're not a member of IPMS USA, IPMS Canada, IPMS Mexico, your national IPMS organization, please join. As I've said before, I'm the recrent retention and recruitment secretary for IPMS USA. And this is my last term. I'll be retiring at the end of the term. And I'd like to see, we've had phenomenal growth over my tenure in this position. And I would like to go out with a bang. So I would consider it a personal favor if you would join or rejoin IPMS USA and help me help the organization achieve a level that it has not previously achieved. Additionally, if you are an armor or post-1900 figures modeler, AMPS, the Armor Modeling Preservation Society, is the group for you. They are a bunch of dedicated guys who really, really care about not just armor modeling, but the art of armor modeling. And the stuff is fantastic. Mike and I are lucky that the AMS National is this year back in South Bend, and it's only what, two and a half, three hours from us, Mike. Something like that. And so we are going to be there. We had a blast the last time that we went, and I have zero doubt we're going to have a blast again.
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Kentucky Dave:We're almost at the end of the episode. I'm at the end of my beer. Hopefully, you still have a little bit of that single malt scotch left.
Mike:Oh no, no. I finished it up during uh the special segment.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah. That that that stuff is good. I'm not I could ask you, hey Mike, how was it? So I'll go ahead and ask, but I know the answer.
Mike:Well, it's the Balvini Caribbean cask. It's a 14-year scotch that's finished in a rum cast, so it's got a little different flavor profile than a standard scotch.
Kentucky Dave:It's got really, really great flavor profile profile.
Mike:If a lot of people love scotch, a lot of people don't like scotch. If you're one of those who think you don't like it and don't mind spending a little bit, it's probably gonna be about$80,$85 a bottle. Yeah. Um give it a shot. It's just sublime. It's just really good. I I really like it.
Kentucky Dave:I would recommend that particular scotch as a great introduction to scotch for people who've never done it before. Because it doesn't, it doesn't have a lot of the peat. Exactly. Um, exactly. And it's got some of the the sweet notes from the rum case.
Mike:It does, so it's a good one. Well, how's the beer, man?
Kentucky Dave:The beer is good. I mean, it it's your classic lager, light, refreshing, not heavy, low in alcohol. I think this is 4.5%. So it's uh it's about what you get from your your classic mass market commercial beers, Budweiser or or Coors or something like that. An excellent beer. I I can see particularly a summertime beer. So we thank Bill Moore for it. It's a great way to end up all the beers that we got from folks at the Nationals. Now we truly are at the end of the episode. Do you have any shout-outs?
Mike:As customary, Dave, I want to shout out all the folks who've contributed to Plastic Model Mojo through their generosity. It's all been a great help. And you mentioned earlier in the episode about uh phase two of the website and how a lot of that depends on how things go with uh contributions this year. Just a fact of our lives and uh the way this thing's being run right now. But if you'd like to contribute to the show and be like folks like Mr. Dave Brown or Mr. Steve Trazewitz, both these gentlemen have joined the growing list of contributors to Plastic Model Mojo. We've made that as easy as possible. You can contribute through a number of avenues, and those avenues are all spelled out on the show notes of this in each and every episode, or there's a support to show tab on the website at www.plasticmodelmojo.com. If you would like to do that, we'd greatly appreciate it. And you can find the avenues there. So thank you to these gentlemen and thank you to everyone who's helped us along the way for all these years.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, very much so. My first shout out is a sympathy and extended condolences to our friend Warren Dickinson, a modeler in southern Kentucky. His wife passed very quickly, right around Christmas New Year's time, and they've been married forever, and this was kind of a sudden occurrence, and Warren was up at our show, and I got to have dinner with him in September, along with Inch and Skippy. And I just want him to know that we are thinking about him, and uh he he's in our thoughts and prayers. Two more, real quick. One, I mentioned it already, but happy birthday, Skippy. I don't know what year what number it is, but you're a great modeling friend, and uh I am happy to see you complete another circuit around the sun. And then our good friend, the Podfather, is in Europe right now, traveling with his lovely wife, posting to Facebook. He's bouncing all around Europe and leading the good life, and he's gonna be in the US later in the year because he's going to the nationals with us.
Mike:So I want some of that Australian State Emergency Services uh PTO, man.
Kentucky Dave:Yeah, I know. He he's got some good PTO. We got to talk to him about how we can get some of that. I think it probably will involve moving to Australia. But I just want to give him a shout-out and let him know that I've been enjoying following his adventures across Europe with his lovely bride and look forward to seeing him in the summer of 2026.
Mike:Is that all your shout-outs, Dave? That's that's it, brother. Well, man, let's get this 2026 down the road. Let's get some models finished, let's start some new ones and let's meet meet some new people and uh hang out with the ones we know.
Kentucky Dave:That all sounds great. You know what they say, Mike. So many kits, Dave.
Mike:So little time. All right, man. I'll see you soon. I'm gonna be in town a week or so.
Kentucky Dave:Yes, I know. We're gonna get together for lunch.
