Finding Joy At The Bench Again: Episode 156

What happens when the hobby you love starts feeling like a chore? We go straight at that question with Jim Bates, exploring how burnout creeps in, why favorite subjects can become fear targets, and what it takes to rediscover honest joy at the bench. Jim shares how a demanding year pushed modeling to the margins, why armor felt freer than aircraft, and the simple mindset shift that turned “perfect or quit” into “finish and learn.” Along the way, we unpack airbrush avoidance, photoetch dread, and the tiny victories that rebuild momentum—like stripping a botched primer, repainting, and choosing progress over paralysis.

We also get practical. You’ll hear how keeping short journal notes, and accepting weekend-only bench time can remove friction and make modeling sustainable again. We talk about the limits of step-by-step boilerplate articles, why video excels at teaching technique, and how personal writing can spark creativity in ways a camera can’t. Jim’s revived blog, A Scale Canadian, is his sandbox for that approach: short, thoughtful posts that value honesty over hype.

There’s fresh inspiration too. We walk through Model Mania at the Museum of Flight—a display-only, public-forward event with seminars, demos from Rick Lawler, and zero contest pressure—plus a quick tour of new kit announcements that caught our eye, from Airfix’s Canberra and JU 52 to MiniArt’s Opel Maultier. To close, we share bench updates: Shermans and Cromwells, a Hellcat edging toward weathering, a T-33 off the shelf of doom, and a KV-85 waiting on brass.

If you’ve been stuck, second-guessing, or saving “the good kit” for a better version of yourself that never seems to arrive, this conversation is your nudge. Build for you. Finish something small. Protect your joy. Then tell us what you’re tackling next. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs the push, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Opens, Warm Drinks, Guest Intro
• 1:52 Model Spheres And Motivation Check
• 5:33 Modeling Fluids And Warm-Up Banter
• 6:21 Listener Mail: Moves, Stashes, Started Kits
• 18:45 Getting Back To Modeling: Joy Over Perfection
• 33:20 Fear Targets, Airbrush Avoidance, Note-Taking
• 45:02 Blogging Over Video And Creative Writing
• 57:24 Model Mania At The Museum Of Flight
• 1:02:27 Benchtop Halftime: Current Builds And Goals
• 1:12:07 New Kit Announcements: Hits And Misses

Transcript

The Voice of Bob (Bair): 0:11

Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to skill modeling, as well as to news and events around the hobby. Join Mike in Kentucky Days as they strive to be informative, entertaining, and help you to keep your modeling mojo alive.

Kentucky Dave: 0:52

Amen, man.

Mike: 0:53

I'm telling you what. It's nice to be warm. I hope our guest is warm tonight out on the West Coast, Mr. Jim Bates. Jim, long time. How's it going?

Jim Bates: 1:01

It's going great because I moved somewhere that rarely has snow.

Mike: 1:08

Well, good. I'm glad somebody's warm-ish. I don't know if it's warm there, but it's probably not like it is here.

Jim Bates: 1:15

It's cold for us. It's not as cold as you guys have.

Mike: 1:19

Well, I talked to Mr. Wallace today up in Ottawa and he told me to shut up. In fact, he said it would probably be balmy when we get to HeritageCon. We'd all step outside and go, What are you complaining about? This isn't so bad. I'm taking that as a promise, man. I hope it's balmy. Me too. Well, Jim, we're gonna start with you, man. What is up in your model sphere?

Jim Bates: 1:45

You know, it's amazing. I'm actually working on models again, which is kind of nice, but I think we'll talk about that later. Okay. Working on planning the February show in Seattle and getting excited for HeritageCon because I'm there and I am really hoping we don't have a massive snowstorm that weekend because I don't want to be stranded in Detroit for three days.

Mike: 2:06

Or anyone else. Nobody does, Jim. Nobody does. Not even the Lions. True.

Jim Bates: 2:14

I I have this un this ridiculous fear that if I spend too much time in Detroit, I'll get turned into Robocop, and I don't want that.

Mike: 2:21

Well, glad things are on the up and up, and we will talk about some of those things a little later. Dave, what about you?

Kentucky Dave: 2:26

You know, my model sphere is kind of meh. I'm having trouble getting to the bench. Part of that is life, but part of it's also motivation, plus a few other things. But uh, you know, I'm trying I'm trying to struggle to really get off to a good start here in in 2026. So we'll see if recording with Jim tonight can make that a little better.

Mike: 2:53

Maybe it'll inspire us all, Dave. Maybe. That's right. There you go, Jim. How about how about you, Mike? Trying to get this ship righted, not that it was off course, but I think the holidays kind of kept us busy with other things. And I guess I didn't realize just how much forward planning I was doing. So when we took kind of a month and change off, it's kind of made us have to scramble to get things populated out a little further. And we still got some work to do there. But we're getting there. I don't know. There's a lot going on in my model sphere. Unfortunately, I can't talk about much of it tonight. But uh yeah, pretty much trying to get things planned out for the next few months, you know, especially with the the model show spotlights and then our future episodes. So it's filling up, it's filling up pretty good now. So I'm feeling a little better about it. We got to get our cadence back. We talked about that offline. We just kind of same thing, same reasons. We just kind of stammered a little bit, and now the holidays are over and we're trying to trying to get our stride back in lockstep.

Kentucky Dave: 3:51

We'll do it. Well, since we're recording with Jim tonight, I assume everybody has a modeling fluid in hand. Jim, do you have a modeling fluid in hand?

Jim Bates: 4:02

I don't know, Dave. Let's listen. I want to edge, I want to be like you.

Kentucky Dave: 4:07

There you go.

Jim Bates: 4:08

Yes, I I'm slumming it today. I am having a, you know, I'm not high-end like you guys, so I've got a raspberry twisted tea.

Kentucky Dave: 4:17

Okay. Whatever floats your boat as far as modeling fluid goes. We're not we're not enforcing any any orthodoxy here. So raspberry twisted tea.

Mike: 4:30

Mike? Well, I think uh we're high-end if if you kind of think the bow of the Titanic was high end there for a few minutes.

Kentucky Dave: 4:38

There you go.

Mike: 4:38

So I don't think we're high end, Jim. We fake it. Fake it till you make it. Uh beer for me. Pilsner Raquel. I've got some. We made one last run to the grocery store before uh the white stuff started falling out of the sky, and I picked up some beer and uh gonna finish off the six-pack tonight. Smart move, smart move. Now, not all of it during this episode. I've been working on it for two, two and a half days now. We understood what you meant. Well, not everybody might. I think I'm going for a new record on the podcast.

Jim Bates: 5:09

Come on, Mike. Knock back the whole six-pack.

Mike: 5:13

What's Dave got?

Kentucky Dave: 5:14

I've got, and this may be a repeat for me. I've got Voodoo Ranger Juice Force IPA. I don't know. I'm not sure if I've had, I mean, I know I've had this one before. I'm not sure it's been on podcasts before. So I already know what to expect, but we'll get to that at the end of the episode.

Mike: 5:33

Well, I think we're all well within our comfort zone tonight. Yes, we are. Well, let's get some more comfort and take on some listener mail. Sounds good. Well, first up tonight is uh Larry Donovan from New Brighton, Minnesota. So he's up in Minnesota Twins country. Yep. And he wants to feel the pain about moving. So I guess we talked to Paul Glosser there back before Christmas. And uh Larry moved right before Christmas. Ooh. He's been shuttling back and forth between the new digs and the old digs since just the last 10 days or so. He's the winner's just stalled him, and his wife's been sick, and he just has a couple more boxes he needs to bring over to the new place where he can finally start working on a temporary bench location, kind of like Mr. Gloucester was doing. So he can empathize with that. So he followed up again with a second email and uh wanted us to know that uh, like you, Dave, the only way he will ever move again is when they pry his uh rigor mortis hands off his Swann and Morton scalpel and his gallery airbrush.

Kentucky Dave: 6:40

I I I'm I'm there with you. I am not moving again.

Jim Bates: 6:45

Jim, you stay in put for a while. You know, that's a good question. I I might be moving this year, I might not be moving this year. I don't know what's going on.

Mike: 6:53

Get a bigger place.

Jim Bates: 6:55

Yeah, that's you know, this is probably jumping ahead, but I'd like to add another hobby to the list that I don't do, which is called 3D printing, and I cannot do that in the location I'm in. So I'm trying to find a little bit more space.

Mike: 7:10

All right. Well, we'll look forward to that. Damn. Well, our next email is from uh your neck of the woods, Jim.

Jim Bates: 7:19

All right, who's that?

Mike: 7:20

Do you know this Mark Dramus guy?

Jim Bates: 7:21

I I think I've heard this guy once or twice. Yeah, I think I've met this guy. He writes in all right.

Mike: 7:26

I wonder if we're a stalker. Maybe we need to get the authorities involved. I don't know.

Jim Bates: 7:30

No, Mark is a great guy. That's all I can say.

Mike: 7:32

Well, that's what I gather from his from his emails. And uh he was loving our 150 to 153 stretch. Yeah, those are those are interesting. I'm glad folks like those. Even old hats like Mark. So uh he's got some comments on inspiration, and he got there by Spotify making him go all the way back to episode one, two, and three. And he does say that we've grown into the job since we started this thing. I don't disagree with that. I assume you mean we've gotten better at this.

Kentucky Dave: 8:01

Yeah, I kind of hesitate to go back to listen to those early episodes. Yeah.

Mike: 8:06

Gotta start somewhere, man. I know. Well, I guess part of those episodes was, you know, stash reduction, focusing on building what you really want to build and maybe getting rid of some of the rest. Well, he had his entire stash and scalemates. And not only was his stash and scalemates, he had done the pull downs or checkboxes to say something's in the stash that's completed or started or whatever.

Kentucky Dave: 8:29

Right.

Mike: 8:30

And when he merged all the files to download them to Excel to take stock of what he had on looking at it all in one place, he had an embarrassing number of kits in the started category.

Kentucky Dave: 8:41

I I feel your pain, Mark.

Mike: 8:44

He says to be fair, he's got a lot of secondhand kits, and if there's any damage or missing parts, he'll mark them on the box. So that said, though, he's got like 80 out of 600 that are started. That's that's Vidkus territory. Yeah, I know. And his plan for the New Year's to pull one from the started pile whenever he puts a new one on his desk to start or to work on. He says at least that's uh more honest than not pull uh than pulling a new one until all the started ones are done. I'd have misread that, didn't I? Hang on. He says his plan for the new year is to pull one from the started pile whenever he pulls a new one onto the desk as well. So he's gonna pull them two at a time. And he thinks that's more honest than just pulling and not pulling a new one to all the started ones are done. Because you know, the the second hand ones that were started before you get them are that those don't count. We won't count those. I'm gonna ask why you bought one that way, because I could never do that personally unless I needed all the other parts for something else.

Kentucky Dave: 9:39

That said, Well, it's funny he mentions that because our Ottawa modeling friend Ian McCauley over the last like year and a half did an intentional thing where he cleared his entire back stash of in-progress kits. And I think he found that very rewarding.

Mike: 10:02

I guess what I was gonna say before I forgot was that things were started and stopped for a reason. And I guess some of those, if I had those, I would not feel completely obligated to finish all of them. Some of them might go somewhere else. We've talked about that before, too. Sure. Jim, what's your started pile look like?

Jim Bates: 10:21

My started pile is ridiculous, and and this fits into what we were going to talk, which we'll talk about of finding my way back to modeling. I I have two problems. Problem number one is the started pile then becomes the parts lost pile. So I'm trying to finish things off before I lose parts on them, but I also had some that disappear down the trash recycle chute that I finally realized the reason they never got forward is I was never going to finish them. So some are back in the queue and some have disappeared into the ether.

Mike: 10:53

Well, that's probably being honest with yourself. So uh that's okay.

Kentucky Dave: 10:58

I I I think it's perfectly acceptable if you're in a project and you realize this kit just isn't very good, and I don't want to put the time in to make it even acceptable. There is no there is no shame in saying I want to move on with my life. This thing's going to the trash pile, and I'm gonna go build something that I really actually will enjoy.

Mike: 11:30

I've done it. I think we all have.

Jim Bates: 11:33

Yep. Life is too short for crappy kits, and life is too short for poorly started part started models.

Kentucky Dave: 11:40

Yep.

Mike: 11:41

Well, I'm outnumbered now. You both live by that mantra.

Kentucky Dave: 11:46

I try to. I'm trying to get better at doing that.

Jim Bates: 11:50

I can't believe you just got uh accused the guy who owns half the matchbox aircraft catalog of not building crappy kits.

Mike: 12:00

Oh, there's crappy and there's nostalgia crappy. Maybe those aren't the same. Maybe they are, I don't know. All in perspective. Well, moving on. Up next, Rock Rozak. Detail and Scale has a new book.

Kentucky Dave: 12:13

Yes, they do.

Mike: 12:14

They have released part three of the P51 Mustang in Detail and Scale. This one's gonna cover the P51Ds and all the subsequent variants, developmental history, all the later Merlin engine birds, all the experimental birds, widespread use of color photos. Detailed chapters cover all aspects of the aircraft with 215 photos in total, 205 in color, so it's gonna be a lot of color in this one. Extensive scale modeling section also with a lot of color photos, and seven color profiles, courtesy of Rock Rozak, and nine scale drawings and illustrations. The digital edition can be had for Amazon, Apple, Kindle, and Kobo for $14.99 and the print edition for $21.99. I guess this one's gonna round out the P51 series, Dave.

Kentucky Dave: 12:57

Yeah, well, we've gotten a lot of good P51 kits in 72nd scale recently. So this is gonna be a welcome addition to go along with all those.

Mike: 13:07

Well, this is book number 23 in the Detail and Scale series, and it's their 38th book since rebooting the brand in 2014. So good on you guys. Glad it's working out.

Kentucky Dave: 13:17

Yep, absolutely.

Mike: 13:19

Well, finally, from the email side of things, Dave, Don Gilman from he's down near College Station, Texas.

Kentucky Dave: 13:25

Yep.

Mike: 13:26

And he sent an email with a bunch of ideas. So, you know, I didn't make it to Louisville as I had planned, at least under the circumstances I had planned this weekend. So uh we still got a planning meeting to get off, buddy. And yeah, Don sent some interesting things that actually they weren't exactly the lot of stuff we've been doing or thinking about doing, but a lot of them are kind of adjacent. So I thought it was really cool. So uh I've talked to Don a little bit. And Don, we appreciate all this stuff. We appreciate folks sending suggestions like this. So keep it coming, folks. We do appreciate it.

Kentucky Dave: 13:59

Yes, we do very much so.

Mike: 14:01

Well, Dave, that's the end of the email side of things. What's going on on the direct message side?

Kentucky Dave: 14:08

Well, I've got a few on the Facebook side, the direct message side. First, we got a ton of people reaching out, checking on us regarding the recent snowmageddon, people from as far away as our friend the Podfather, Dave Goldfinch, out in in Australia, and people just all over. So thank all of you who were thinking of us and reached out to to check on us. That was very, very kind. Warren Dickinson reached out to thank us for mentioning him and his recent difficulties with having lost his wife to sudden and unexpected illness. He was very appreciative of our our thinking of him and and wanted to say thank you not only to us, but to all the other modelers who have reached out and said something. So that, you know, it's nice to have that support group in time of need. Dr. David Geldmacher also reached out. Dr. Geldmacher had a scheduled surgery come up, and we were all waiting with bated breath, and he came through it great and was in the recovery room doing reading reference, modeling reference material as soon as they moved him out of ICU. So it's good to hear that he's on the road to recovery. And although he's not going to make it to HeritageCon this year, we're hoping we'll get to see him at HeritageCon next year.

Mike: 15:46

Well, we'll see him before HeritageCon next year, I hope.

Kentucky Dave: 15:49

Well, we'll see him at the Nats, but uh, yeah, he wants to go to HeritageCon, and he would have this year were it not for the surgery and recovery.

Mike: 15:59

Well, maybe he'll be the modeling tornado now. He's gonna have all this rediscovered energy, his condition slowly robbed him of that he didn't realize.

Kentucky Dave: 16:07

That's possible.

Mike: 16:09

I hope so.

Kentucky Dave: 16:10

Um next, listener Carl Barrow, our Yorkshireman who's out in California, just reached out to to thank us for mentioning the previous interaction. And we got to have a further interaction with uh discussing those Karia kits, particularly ones in his collection that are related to Blackburn Aircraft Company. And it was uh just a really nice exchange, and one of those things, like I said, that's that's one of those pleasures that uh that that has come from this community. Finally, on the Facebook side, our good friend Bob Bear, who is Agent O four.

Mike: 17:00

I think so.

Kentucky Dave: 17:00

I think he's number four. Agent O. Well, I have to go back and listen. We need to write this crap. I did. Keep going. Okay, good. That Bob reached out to just simply let us know that he was available to help us. He has been a great help to the podcast in the in the past, recording intros and stuff like that and ads. And he just wanted us to know that he was available to do that for anything we had. And I told him that you and I were gonna, we've been thinking along those lines and that we're gonna take advantage of his generous offer here in 2026 to do some changes and refreshes.

Mike: 17:45

You got any more, Dave? That's it. Well, folks, if you'd like to write into the show, you can do so by sending us an email at plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com, or you can use the Facebook direct message system to uh send us a direct message via Facebook Messenger. And there's also a feedback link on the web page and in the show notes of each and every episode. So we got lots of avenues for folks to write into the show. Let's see some more. Let's see some new folks. We need to have a question, Dave. We need to have a question. We'll have to do that next time to spark some interest in getting some new folks to write into the show. We appreciate them all, but really like to hear from the new folks. We're gonna stick to this format, which means we're gonna get to the main segment at the front end of the episode. And we got a few things to talk about here. And Jim, one of these was was your suggestion because you're you're getting back into modeling after a situation I guess you're gonna tell us about how you got out of modeling.

Jim Bates: 19:03

Absolutely. I don't know. A couple years ago, I realized I spend more time talking about modeling or reading about modeling than actually modeling. And it kind of sent me down this rabbit hole of do I even like to do this? Do I want to do it? And then 2025 hit, and 2025 had a lot of outside issues that that really took a bite out of my life. I decided to merge my law firm with another, we bought a building, it's it's just been a lot of work and a lot of time at the office. And I found myself really just not sitting at the bench, combined with this realization that I do love airplanes, but I'm not sure I really love modeling airplanes. And and that was something I I've kind of stepped away for a while, and I was doing more photography, and I got Got in more to visit aviation museums and do aviation events and go to air shows. And I was doing that more than modeling contests. And I just stepped away for a while. And it took me, you know, I kind of spent some time late last year thinking, do I just want to be done? Like, should I just get rid of all the kits and move on and find something else to do? Is this fun? Is this joyful? And I think there were a lot of issues that play into that. One being it's taken me a long time to realize that probably during the week, there's not much modeling going on in my life. I tend to work a lot of hours. And when I get home, I'm exhausted and I just don't want to sit at the bench. So the first thing I had to become comfortable with is modeling time might be Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and that might all be it, all that it is. And then the other thing was just this general thing of, yeah, I do love planes, but I don't really like building them. They I don't finish them. Like I get to a certain point on every plane and give up. And why is that? And is it just it isn't fun for me? I think I progress a little bit better with tanks, and that made me realize maybe the problem is I know too much about the airplanes I love, so it becomes analysis paralysis. This model won't be perfect. And I think the last thing is you take a couple years off of this stuff and your skills deteriorate. So here I am with diminishing skills, and everything is going wrong all the time. So it took me a long time to realize how can we fix that? Like I've still been listening to you guys. I've still, you know, I'm still looking at the modeling news, but I'm just not sitting at the bench. So is it time to walk away and do something else, or is it time to figure out what the problems are and solve those problems? So that's a lot of what I've been thinking about over the last four or five months as things have slowed down.

Kentucky Dave: 21:53

You mentioned moving to armor kits. Have you found that building armor is more relaxing?

Jim Bates: 22:02

Yes and no. I love building the armor. And then when I hit weathering, I don't my models don't turn out with night shift. So if at first you don't succeed, quit. Um, so I have a lot of armor that's painted that just stops. I think the reality of what the problem was is I've just allowed myself in my own head, because nobody's ever said this, that I think my models really suck and they're not worth showing anybody, and they're not worth doing. And combine that with a temption deficit disorder and this weird feedback loop in my head of, well, if I start something new, this one will be perfect, which of course isn't the case. So I ended up with a whole lot of unfinished projects. And one of the things I kind of decide to do this year was to just sit down and say, okay, I've all these 172 armor kits, mostly Sherman's and Sherman variants. Maybe I should just build them because they're gonna be better sitting on the, you know, in the display cabin that they're gonna look better there than sitting at my desk waiting for me to become, you know, the best weatherer ever without doing it. And, you know, I know Mr. Nelson likes to say, what are your plans for getting better? And I don't have any, and that's kind of the problem. And then the other person that is kind of inspirational to me is is I I follow Rick Lawler, and it amazes me that Lawler will just do this stuff, he'll just build it because he has to, because it's part of his job, but he'll just put something out, and if it isn't perfect, well, you move on to the next one. And his stuff always is perfect. So it made me maybe re-evaluate what I'm doing and why am I doing it. And and the question I sometimes ask, and this is kind of a scary question to ask on this podcast, is what do you do when something that used to be your identity becomes just something you do? And that's what I've been thinking about is is I just build models sometimes when I feel like it. It's not my sole focus. And for a long time it was, and it feels a little bit empty sometimes that that it isn't the way it used to be, and change is okay.

Kentucky Dave: 24:14

One of the things I think to to uh focus on in all this is it's a hobby. Hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable, and if making a change and you know, moving from aircraft to armor, building armor kits with the acceptance of I'm just gonna build it and put it together and paint it and and weather it as best I can. And you know what? I know it's not gonna be night shift, I know it's not going to be, but if I end up enjoying it while I'm doing it, that's that's the reason you have a hobby. Otherwise, it's a job.

Jim Bates: 25:03

I I agree. And you said an interesting phrase that has inspired me as I've contemplated this was you're putting it together. Doesn't that sound simple? Like I got the new Tamiya kit, I'm putting it together. As opposed to what happens in my head is this needs to be perfect, this needs to be the greatest model, it it you know, it's gotta be better than Night Shift or Plasmo or whoever, you know, Joe Youngerman, whoever the great aircraft modelers are. And instead of just putting it together and having a good time, and I think I just got all wound around the axle of perfection. And I am gonna misremember the quote, but you know, perfection is the enemy of the good. And I think what it took me a long time to do is this this isn't a my job. This isn't the most important thing in the world. It's just putting a kit together for fun on a Friday or Saturday night or something to paint. And I think the one thing I've looked at this a little bit is I think one of the problems that we have, and and I see this in my profession especially, is we don't have time, and I'm using this very loosely, but we don't have time for art in today's society. Everything is about almighty dollar, and you know, if if I build the greatest model airplane ever, I'm not gonna magically become a millionaire. So why am I putting so much pressure on myself? You know, winning best to show at at NATS or AMPS or Scale Model World or SMC or whatever you want. It doesn't come with a cash prize. Like, why are you putting so much emotional focus into something that, and and I hate to go down the road as something you guys have talked about in the past, but something that when I am gone will go in the trash, you know? None of this stuff really matters. And in some ways, that was a little bit freeing, if it will allow me to say, like one of the things I've got a couple model cases in my living room. I'm sort of looking at them now. I don't really look at my models once they're done. So why do I get so torqued off if they're not perfect? And then the corollary to that is two years later, when I go look at the one I hated when it went in the case, now I kind of look at it. I'm like, that looks pretty good. Like, why am I why was I so negative when I finished it? I think a little bit combined with one of the negatives was building models for the museum for the display case. And I think that a little bit burned me out. I know some people take it as an inspiration, but to me it felt like another job. And realizing none of this is a job, none of this matters, I got a job, I got the place, I have to focus on all that, and maybe I can just find some fun or find some joy instead of it being here's all the things that's wrong with it. Hey, I finished this. Or I finished this and I'm not happy, but the next one will be better, or I finished this one and it looks pretty good. Like I think it was just rebooting how I evaluated what I'm doing, combined with, you know, none of us are getting any younger. And, you know, I've got, you know, I'm gonna say 40,000 kits, which is a complete exaggeration. And at 53, I think I am, 52 or 53, you can't save it till you get better because those days are gone. You know, I'm not 21 anymore. So why not just build the stuff I love? I I also, you know, as much as I just said, I don't really look at my cases. It's amazing to me. The other day I was I was looking at things like I my favorite planes are you know, the Hurricane, the Avenger. I don't have any of those in my case, but I sure have a lot of P40s because I like P40s, but I'm not as obsessed with P40s as I am hurricanes. So apparently I can build P40s. And I was actually uh talking with Steve Sove one day and realized I've built most of the 70-second scale P-40s, but I haven't built very many of the hurricanes, and I've sure got a lot of armor hurricanes, and none of those ever got finished. So once I put something into it's it's an aircraft I love, it just seems to disappear. And kind of the last draw, Dave, was when you and I were doing that Hellcat, and I just it wasn't fun. Like I know the Edward Hellcat's a good kit, there's nothing wrong with it. I should love it. I like the Hellcat, and I just didn't really want to sit down at the bench and build that anymore. Um, so it went in the box, and that was kind of the the the deal breaker, for lack of a better word, the of why am I not enjoying this? What is the problem here? I realized just because somebody asked me this, I didn't use my airbrush in 2025 at all. Like just never did it, never got anywhere close. I glued some stuff together, but that was kind of the end of it. Oh man.

Kentucky Dave: 29:49

One of the things you've you mentioned that that I'll be honest with you, I'm coming to experience or realize that I have been experiencing is the bench time thing, accepting that during the week because of the fact that uh work and have a family, and when I get home, it's tough to go down to the bench sometimes. Just not because I don't enjoy modeling, but I'm tired. I'm 64, I'm tired. And the that makes it a little tougher. And then you can find yourself beating yourself up because you didn't go down to the bench, and that just makes it worse. And and again, it starts not being a hobby and it starts becoming a chore. And when you find that happening, you've got to figure out okay, what what's gone wrong? Because something has gone wrong when your hobby feels like a chore.

Mike: 30:54

Well, let me jump in here for my list. Go for it. In reverse order. Jim, you mentioned that when you put it in the the the new thing in the case, you think it doesn't look so great, and you come back to it later, and hey, that looks pretty good. I I think you're on to something there. We're we're our own worst critics. And I think when you step back and come back later, when you're walking back up to it, you're seeing the forest first, not the trees. You're seeing the the complete picture and not the flaws. And I think that's a real important thing to realize. Now, how do you get there to get be able to experience that immediately when you're done instead of you know four months later when you finally wander over to your display case and look at it? I don't have a a good answer for that. That's something we're all working on, I think. And then another thing I want to touch on before we get too much further is Tim Nelson's what's your plan for for getting better. I think there were two conversations on in the model sphere fairly recently about challenging the idea that striving to get better should even be a priority. And uh I always come back to thinking that maybe that's rooted in in our phrase, because Dave and I used to utter it quite a bit, what's your plan for getting better? And and I don't I I think that's being misunderstood a little bit. I see it as a it's a it's a it's a smart ass answer, really, in a way, to folks who are procrastinating because they think they lack something they need to finish a project, but the paradox is if they don't finish projects, they're never gonna get anywhere. Right. So you just need to do it, whether you are trying to get better or not. The point is you're not doing anything, or you're not building those things you want to build, or you're not enjoying the hobby at all. And then thirdly, you mentioned this emptiness about the modeling just being something you do now when it used to be this bigger part of your identity. And I think honestly, it's an interesting place to be. I've been there, but you you're on the right track because I think you're turning a corner when you dip down in that hole for a little while, because when it when it was clearly part of my identity, it was part of the the whole contest thing and the competition and uh climbing up through the amps ladder and uh winning goals there and best of national categories or or whatever. And then, you know, there was a whole shift in the hobby kind of philosophy of weathering and all that, and I and I just didn't adapt and I just realized this wasn't any fun anymore. And I didn't model for a long time, much as you are. I'm reading modeling books, I'm I'm I'm still buying stuff, thumbing around every now and then, but I just had too much wrapped into what I thought I was getting out of that. And then if you can't if you can't attain the thing, or even feel like you can't attain the thing that you want at the end, then it makes it even trying to do it at all seem not not any fun anymore. So I think you're on the right track that if if this just becomes something you do and it's for you and it's for your own entertainment, I think you're gonna you're gonna get some of this back, Jim. I think it's uh I think that's a natural progression through maybe overthinking the hobby or or having it like you say, it's too much of your identity. Yeah, you can be this guy who's an attorney who also builds models, or do you want to be known out in the community this like this super duper model guy? And I think me coming back down and realizing that you know, if I was gonna enjoy this, it's gonna have to be for myself and and chasing these aspirations that really in the end aren't worth much. Like you said, you're not gonna become a millionaire because uh you cranked out this great model. So maybe maybe you need to chill like you're chilling and just uh figure out what you do like about the hobby and and and do it for those reasons. Does that make any sense?

Jim Bates: 34:44

Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense, and I think that's kind of where I've been is you know, I used to do my scale Canadian TV. I used to well, I used to blog, but that's we'll talk about that later. You know, I always used to be thinking, well, can I turn this into an article? Can I do this? And I think it just puts me in a place that it became. I think Dave's got a good point. It became a chore. It became something that I didn't love. And I think that's what I'm trying to get back to is I think joy is a good word. Is there's a Lucinda Williams song, I don't want you anymore, you stole my joy. And that kind of felt where I was. I, you know, you stole my joy, I want it back. And it, but it wasn't, you know, her song is directed to a third party, but it was me. I stole my own joy. And how sad is that, you know? So I'm trying to work my way back of finding what do I really love. And what I kind of keep going back to is there is a nostalgia component to this, but it's probably not the way people think. I don't realistically want to go back and build those match, excuse me, those matchbox kits I loved as a kid. But I do kind of want to have that feeling of just sitting down and making something and being excited about it. And that was gone for a long time. There was no excitement. I'm like, I'm like, oh man, I had this deadline, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. And and you know, standing out on airfields watching airplanes fly and thinking, oh, I want to model that. And I'm like, well, I don't really want to model that, do I? I want to think about modeling that, but I really just want to enjoy watching the P47 or the mosquitoes fly. And, you know, it's it's really weird to me how little of my favorite airplanes are in my display case, but they're sure in my stash, and I need to change some of that. And switching over to tanks is easy because I'm never gonna be night shift. I'm you know, I'm never gonna build these great armor models, but I can build some green things that sit in my display case and they look okay.

Mike: 36:45

Well, maybe they'll teach you to take the same approach with your aircraft.

Jim Bates: 36:48

Maybe. And you know, I I even listening to you guys, Mike, you have all these great, you know, you are very detail oriented. You approach this as an engineer. That's not me. I, you know, I don't want to worry about that my you know, Sherman tank is really it's an M4A3, but it's pretending to be an M4A2. Who cares? Like just build a Sherman and slap some decals on it that I want to represent. And I think it took me a long time to be okay with that, to just accept accept my limitations. Because there's sure a lot of kits kicking around here, and there's been a lot of kits kicking around here. And as I said, you've either got a fish or cut bait. It's either time to just walk away or just have some fun. And I've decided 2026 will be look for the fun and figure out what I like. And and so far this year, I've been at the bench more in the last couple weekends than I did all the last year or so. It seems to be working.

Kentucky Dave: 37:38

Hey, 2026, look for the fun. That's a great motto. There we go.

Jim Bates: 37:43

There we go. And and you know, I agree, I agree with what you said that that Tim is being Tim is being a little bit saying, you know, if if I sit here and say, and as I said, I'm 52 or 53, I never know how old I am, if I'm gonna wait till I get better, is that gonna be when I'm 96? Because I'm probably not gonna be here, you know, there's a finite period of time. And we could all joke that we're gonna be alive till we're 260 to finish our stash, but realistically, how many years do we have? And, you know, are we at a point where skills are gonna start to disminish? So instead of worrying about it, instead of worrying about what the contest thinks, just build something because my stuff doesn't go to contests, my stuff just sits here and nobody really looks at it. And anybody who looks at it probably thinks they're amazing because they don't know any better. So I think just build what I want to build, build how I want to build it. It's easy to say that, it's harder to do it.

Mike: 38:43

I pulled this next one because I think it gets into at least part of what you're going through, and it's fear targets and distractions. Now, I don't know who coined this word fear targets. It came up. I I think I used the AI option with Google. Actually, I heard it somewhere. But anyway, it's it's all these things that keep us from getting stuff done because we're uh on some level we're scared about it.

Kentucky Dave: 39:09

Well, I think what what Jim mentioned in the last segment applies here. You don't build your favorite aircraft because you're really so much more invested in them that you are putting a whole lot more pressure on yourself to if you're gonna build one of those, it's gotta be perfect or great, and therefore you never build it, and you never have your favorite aircraft in your collection. And that's kind of sad. They're your favorite aircraft. There you there's a fear there that you have to overcome.

Mike: 39:50

Well, I closed the window this first came up. That's kind of funny sometimes. Fear targets. It says it's not a standard technical term, however, the concept typically refers to higher. Areas of difficult assembly steps that cause modelers block or anxiety due to high potential of ruining your your kit. So there you go. So it gets kind of into that you can't do it perfect. You don't want to do it. And you know, I that reminds me, you know, you mentioned Ian McAuley earlier. Um I don't know if, but he was working in the local hobby shop up there after he retired from his primary job. And we talk about those customers that come in and buy like $250 worth of all these products they've seen all the scale model rock stars use on YouTube and then thinking that their models are just gonna look like that out of the chute. Right. I guess you just ring up the register and smile and say thank you. Because it's probably not gonna end that way. Right. Jim, is there typically something that would stall out these projects years? In the build sequence, or where where was it? Did it is there a theme there where they all kind of run off the rails at the same place?

Jim Bates: 41:01

No, but I can identify very easily one that's happening right now is I have a Churchill on my bench. No, sorry, Cromwell on my bench, the air fix kit in 135th. And I don't know what the term is. I'm kind of I'm kind of a heathen when it comes to armor. The the things on the front, you see them on Russian and British tanks, they're like strips on the on the glaciers. I think that's the right term. I don't know what they're there for. I assume they have something to do with the armor. And in this kit, they're two pieces of photo etch. And I've now been procrastinating two or three weeks because I'm gonna have to cut out and glue some photo etch. And that is a perfect example to me of a fear target is if I see photo etch and it's not just a flat thing that I gotta put you know on a cockpit combing or something, I I just procrastinate away. At times I'll do it with my airbrush. I have I kind of have mixed feelings when it comes to airbrushing. One, it's it's kind of a pain in the butt. This kind of relates all back to what uh you started out with is I'd like a little bit more space that I could not be airbrushing in my bedroom, because that's where my model desk is set up. That nothing sounds more fun than airbrushing and then going to bed and you know, inhaling all those chemicals all night, even with the spray booth and the mast and stuff. So it would be nice to have a little bit more space, but even just like you know, the leftover junk that goes in the trash smells the place up. So I love my lacquers, but it sometimes I hate them, and I think that's why I don't airbrush. I don't find that a fear target, but that's one that I will just disappear. I just won't airbrush for four or five or six months, and that is not a way to get better because then you're kind of relearning it. I had an interesting experience the other day. I'm building this tiny Sherman, and it's a crappy $10 Sherman kit. And I go to paint it, and I find this little vial of you know, some sort of S SCC 15 olive drab green sitting on my desk. I have no idea what paint it is. I have no idea what color it is. Like it's just sitting there. I didn't label it, I didn't take any notes. So I just threw it on the on the uh Sherman and it looks okay, but still to this day, everybody said, What color did you paint it? And I'm like, I got no clue. It was just a random file sitting on my desk. So I think the one thing Dave likes to talk about, I think organization and note-taking is something I've kind of been doing this year. You know, I used to write a lot, and I think a combination of factors, one being my job, have really made me lose interest in writing because I write all day long sometimes. Uh and and and as Dave David knows well, legal writing and real life writing are two different things. Um and if all you do is legal write all day long, you're not the best writer for non-legal things. You might be a really good legal writer. So that's why I I kind of have thought I want to, you know, sit down. Like one of the things I decided last year to do a little bit was just sit down, and I guess journaling is the word, but sit down and start writing with my fountain pen and notebooks instead of doing everything on the computer and find that thing. Because I used to love doing that, and and it got to a point then you did everything on the computer, and that just doesn't seem as much fun as you know, pen and paper and and do that. So I've kind of put that in my journey as well. I did buy that scale modeling journal. It's interesting, it's not quite what I was hoping for in some ways, and in some ways it's got a lot of interesting questions. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do my note-taking for scale modeling, and I haven't got the answer yet. And and it's hard, it's hard, you know, to work all these things in together. I notice in in non-scale modeling, I'm much it's much easier to sit down and write a page or two or three than it was six months ago when I started this project.

Mike: 44:57

That's interesting about the writing, because it's a it's a known thing that writing on the computer, even for journaling, does not carry the same cathartic weight that actually putting pen to paper does.

Kentucky Dave: 45:10

So I agree completely.

Mike: 45:12

So what you need to do, Jim, is you need to print. I don't know if you write in cursive or if you print, but if you print, you can get you a program to scan all that crap in and put it in the computer for you. Then you can edit it easy, and you'll you'll have it written by hand and edit it on the computer and uh go from there, maybe. I don't know. I'm putting ideas in your head.

Jim Bates: 45:30

Well, usually like I and I know we're gonna talk about this in a little bit. I've started doing more blogging again just because I can give myself, and I'm doing a little bit like an assignment. I can give myself an assignment to say, okay, an example I did recently is I I got a little jar of what I think Spencer Pollard said was Chrome. Okay, write some words about this. It's an assignment. How can you make this interesting? How can you, you know, hey, this is Chrome, Chrome is fun, paint Chrome, you know, and not just do that. And and that was one of my recent blogs was just to try to be more creative in how I present my ideas. I you know, I've long said, and and I don't have the answers for this, but I do find a lot of the modeling journalism exceedingly rote, and I think there is a way to make it more creative, but I don't see it in many magazines or many even blogs. Like I think blogs are a little bit better. But if you pick up most modeling magazines, be it tanks, airplanes, everything, you can pretty much guess what the article's gonna say in many ways. Like you can kind of plot it out in your head, and is there a more creative way to do this? And kind of my thought process is make it a little bit more personal of what are your thoughts and experiences while you're doing this, rather than I glued, you know, part 23 and part 26 together according to the instructions, and the first thing I did was assemble the cockpit. And and that's what I'm kind of go for is is there a way to make this writing, and and I don't think this is the exact correct term, but less journalistic and more creative? Because I think it's very rote how people write about what we're doing.

Kentucky Dave: 47:13

I I agree with you. I understand what you're saying.

Jim Bates: 47:16

And and it was a little bit what I was trying to do with the Scale Canadian TV back when I did that is how how can you talk about this in a different way than everybody else is talking about it? And that was completely unsuccessful, but that's okay. I had fun doing it for a while, and then I decided to do something else. So I'm trying to figure out with words, and what's great about it is nobody wants to read more than eight words, you know? So again, I'm bucking against what's kind of what the trends are. But like one of the things that a little bit drives me crazy since like maybe the 2000s, but you get you get modeling books or you get modeling articles, and there's a lot of pretty pictures, and there's not a whole lot of words. And with a video, that might be a great thing because with a video you can watch how Night Shift does something, but just a picture of a model and a paintbrush doesn't tell me all that much. Like, I do not believe a picture paints a thousand words, but sure a lot of editors think that. Um, and I'm not I'm not here to to to you know I'm not trying to be negative, I'm just saying, is there a different way to look at this? Is there a more creative way to write about the pursuit we all enjoy instead of being wrote and predictable?

Mike: 48:28

Well, I would agree there's within certain limits, there seems to be kind of a boilerplate format to a lot of the published articles. Right. And it's I think it probably just builds on itself, right? Those I kind of think back, you know, for instance the a lot of the articles in uh the old MM MMIR magazine, the the uh military models in review, kind of started the whole heavily captioned photos with the with, like you said, a picture of a model and a paintbrush, but it'd be this model, the paintbrush and you know the nine jars of paint they used in this step. And uh not to say a ways right or wrong, but that kind of format seems to be pretty pervasive through a lot of the hobby journalism at this point. And you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And uh I don't know, I'd be really interested what you're gonna what you're gonna attempt because I think you're I think you're kind of right on that one.

Jim Bates: 49:18

Well, and I think in today, I don't think anybody wants to see words, but all all of the model journalism of my youth was amazing because it's all we had. And today it feels like, but we have video and we have YouTube, and I I will tell you, I learn a lot more from a well-done YouTube video than I do a very well-done article. So what I'm looking for more is maybe inspiration or or a different way to express yourself. Because if I really want to learn, I'm gonna turn on the YouTube or turn on a video, because that's really where you figure out. Like you say, oh, he's doing that with his brush. I never would have thought that. Or, you know, one that that I learned a long time ago. But an example of this is with video, you can see how guys, how close these guys have their airbrushed to their models. For the longest time, I you know, I was airbrushing from six feet away because I thought that's how you did it. And and and that's just a really easy example to look at. But I think we're in an interesting world. And and I really love, you know, one of my favorite things used to be modeling magazines. It's really weird to me. You know, back in the day when the scale aircraft modeling, when that brown envelope showed up in my, you know, my uh mailbox, it's like, okay, day's done, I'm doing this. And now I don't subscribe to any of these. And I don't think they've changed. I think that's more me. I just use my content differently than I used to, and I don't find it the same inspiration. And maybe what I'm just trying to do is find a way to express my creativity, to express myself and inspire myself. Like I at this point, I don't I think what I'm learning is the older I get is I don't really care what anybody thinks. Combined with, you know, I always think my models suck, but nobody's ever flat out said, hey, Bates, your models suck. You should quit this hobby.

Mike: 51:06

Hey Dave, remind me at the HeritageCon.

Jim Bates: 51:10

Okay. Yeah, please do. Your models suck. Why do you even do this? Like, go home.

Kentucky Dave: 51:14

Um, Jim, that means you gotta finish a model by HeritageCon and bring it.

Jim Bates: 51:20

Man, we're it's not the finish, it's can I bring it? But I think the community is is is very positive, mostly positive, but it doesn't mean that your internal voice is as positive as everybody else would be. And I think what I'm trying to do is write my internal voice so that I'm not, for lack of a better word, psyching myself out before I start. Because, you know, I I've got the new uh to me a F-14, and and going in, my F-14's not gonna look like Lufty's F-14, you know. Yeah. But on the other hand, it'd be nice to have an F-14 sitting on my shelf. Neither do the navies. You know, I only quote Top Gun every day, so you know, I should have that there. And I think it's bad standards of comparing yourself to others. And I I don't know if this has become more inward focused or just writing letting letting my brain, letting the negative voices tell me I'm not good enough when there's no evidence to support that.

Mike: 52:24

Yeah, I think that's uh that's where you gotta get to, man. And I think you will, you just gotta stick it out.

Kentucky Dave: 52:30

Yep. That's a big big part of it is not when when you have those times where you're not feeling it or feeling down is getting through those and working through those.

Jim Bates: 52:45

Well, an example on the little Sherman I just did. So I was all excited Friday night. What does Friday night mean? Hey, it's time to throw some Mr. Surfacer on a model. You know, that's what Friday nights are for. Um, and so I woke up and you know, I get up pretty early. I take the dog for a walk. I realize, well, there's about eight feet of dust on this little Sherman kit, so I better wash it off. So I threw it under the tap and put it out on a paper towel, and I'm gone for 12, 14 hours at the office. I get home at, you know, seven, eight o'clock at night. I'm like, this is awesome. I'm gonna, you know, start spraying the Mr. Surfacer, mix up, sorry, Mr. Surfacer. I, you know, I mix up my Mr. Surfacer. I am all excited, throw it in the airbrush, start spraying, and then I'm like, why is there water all over this model? And then I realize, oh man, Doofus, you didn't make sure there's no water inside the model. So clearly, some water had got trapped inside the model. It's now, as soon as I'm putting on the paint, leaching its way out, ruining my paint job. And in the past, that would probably make me quit, throw it away, and move on to something else. And I just put it aside, let it dry, realized, well, I can strip this paint and start over again, which I did. And now I have a green tiny tank. So instead of just letting myself get psyched out, I just moved on. And this tank isn't going to win any awards, but it'll be in my display case and it'll be better than sitting on my bench in bare plastic.

Mike: 54:13

And you're not building it to win any awards.

Jim Bates: 54:15

Right. Yeah, that's not the goal. This was just a $10 little thing that I bought for fun that, you know.

Mike: 54:22

I also don't don't gloss over that because it's important. It's you're not building it to win an award. Right, right. Because if you were, you would have quit, right?

Jim Bates: 54:29

Right. I would have quit. And is this going to be perfect? No. Can you see where I screwed it up? Not really. I'm sure if you really look real hard. But I also, one of the things I like about approaching armor is I don't know about as much about armor. So I I kind of approach it a little bit like science fiction is oh, I got three pictures of Canadian Shermans that have this, this, and this. Well, I can put that into my model. I don't have to slavishly recreate a certain photo. I can if I want, but I don't have to. And that's been really freeing for me because in aircraft, I slavishly need to create a photo and then I spin out of control. Well, I've only got the left side of the airplane. How am I going to model this now? I don't have the right side. Instead of just guessing, then I just spin out of control and give up. So that's a lot of what I'm trying to do is find that centered place. Try to, you know, Zen and the art of scale modeling. I want to write that book someday. How do you just learn to do this, have a good time, have fun, and find your happy place as opposed to making it another job or chore. Actually, Dave, chore is a really good word. I never thought about it that way. That's a really good way to look at it.

Mike: 55:44

Well, we kind of went from fear targets back into Jim's blogging. Jim, once you say anything else you would like to say about your blog, I know you've fired it back up again and you're trying there, but folks are gonna know where to find it and then kind of segue into this show you do have coming up.

Jim Bates: 56:00

All right. Well, the blog is www.ascalecanadian.com. There's no TV in that. What kind of happened is for a long time I did this blog. I started out way back when. And then I started doing the video and I just lost interest in blogging. And then I decided, you know, the video actually was done for a specific reason. I did it because I wanted to prove my skills professionally, which is weird to say because nothing I did was overly professional, but it was a way to get better about talking to a camera, get better about talking to people. And I figured out that I'd accomplished my goals, and then I just disappeared for a while. And nowadays, I just realized that I like words more than video. I'm never going to be a guy who can do like Kovach or Plasma and make these amazing, you know, hands-on videos. More power to anybody who can do that, even our buddy Panzer, Panzer Evan. You know, that I think that's a skill set I don't have. And I always wanted to do that, but it was hard work. And, you know, I'm basically lazy. So I like my words. So I kicked the blog off again, the first of the year. I think they've got three posts up. Nothing earth-shattering, but I'm just trying to work through my creativity and and how to do that. And I'm not gonna be, you know, I'm not gonna be inch and say, I'm gonna blog every day. Uh you'll probably see it around weekends. I've been thinking a lot about what Stephen Lee used to do with with more in-depth stuff, and I'm thinking about that a lot. Of is there stuff there I can, is there anything I can contribute? I also understand one of the other reasons I stopped doing the the scale Canadian TV is there's a lot of people out there doing a lot of content creation about scale modeling, and then I realized does anybody care what Jim Bates has to say? And I'm not really doing this for anybody else. Again, I'm doing it for me to try to create a more creative approach to writing. So that's that's the blog. As opposed to the other thing we want to talk about. So if you're free on Valentine's Day and you got nothing to do, we're having a show the 14th and 15th of February at the Museum of Flight. I've been on here many times before talking about it. It's Model Mania. We do things a little bit different here. We take over the Great Gallery, the Museum of Flight, and try to get a thousand or two thousand models on the table. This is a display-only show. We've got a couple of awards, both picked by the curator, which I think sometimes drives people crazy because the curator picks things he likes. It's not necessarily saying this is the best built model. This fits the ethos of what he's looking for or the shows. So that's that's the first thing. This year we've got a couple interesting things doing. We're really lucky. I'd mentioned it before, Rick Lawler's gonna do his AK lab. I know for sure on Saturday, I think Saturday and Sunday, where he's just gonna be sitting at a table and trying to show everybody how AK products work. I will absolutely be there looking for instruction on gouaches. We've got a full slate of seminars on everything from Gundams to some research stuff to why volunteer at the Museum of Flight. And I guess this year we're gonna have Aoshima with a small table. I guess they've got some 130 second scale cars that they're looking for some feedback on. So you can come look at those and give them their, give them some feedback of if these things would be popular with car modelers. I don't know much about cars. I did notice they have a Lamborghini Kountash, and I remember that as from a kid. I don't know if that was Cannonball Run or what movie that was in, but I remember that in a movie. So we just get together, there's modelers working, we're gonna have some club tables, no contest. Basically, it's just two days of introducing the hobby to the people, the civilians who come through the museum of flight, maybe expose a few people and just celebrate the joy of our hobby and have a good time, and not have to worry about judging and not have to worry about all these other things. And sometimes we've one year they almost had they had over 3,000 models on display. We will never do that again. But usually we hover. Between one and two thousand models. And it's just seeing you'll see people have tables of the first thing they built to the last thing they built. And it's kind of fun to watch their journey. And it's all genres, it's all everything. Our special displays are project canceled, which is aircraft that didn't quite make it. And we always have the Gundam clubs that come out and do a good display of their Gundam models. And that really seems to inspire the public.

Kentucky Dave: 1:00:24

Well, you know, Jim, I can't tell you the number of times I've heard women say, what I really want for Valentine's Day is for my significant other to take me to an aviation museum and see a model display. So you all are doing a valuable service.

Jim Bates: 1:00:45

You know, I would say, Dave, that's probably why I'm single, because I think that sounds like a good idea. But uh we won't go down that road.

Kentucky Dave: 1:00:54

Well, I'll tell you what, uh I I'm not making it this year, but one year I am going to make it out to that show. You and I are gonna go hang out, maybe catch a Kraken game and go to that show because it sounds fantastic.

Jim Bates: 1:01:10

Well, and I know, Dave, your big complaint is we don't have vendors, but I would like to point out that Skyway model shop in Renton is about 10 minutes away and they'll be having a 20% off sale all weekend.

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Mike: 1:02:27

Well, folks, it's the bench top halftime report. Jim, you've given us bits and pieces what you got going on, trying to get going on. Why don't you tie that back back together for us and uh let us know what is happening on your bench and what you're trying to what you're where you're going with it.

Jim Bates: 1:02:42

Right now I've got a Airfix 70 second scale Sherman Firefly on my bench that needs a flat coat, put the log armor on, paint up the stowage, and get it off my desk. I'm probably not gonna try to weather this one. I've got a little the the the tiny tank, the cheap uh M4A1 that I do wanna it it's served in Italy, so I kind of want to dust that one up. We'll see how that goes. And then I've got a larger 135th scale Cromwell that if I can get over my phobia photo etch is pretty much ready for paint. And unfortunately, I've got to build an Ordoon Norseman for the Museum of Flight Next display case on celebrity aircraft. Some guy, some of you guys might have heard of this guy named Glenn Miller, so I'm building the Norseman that he was lost in over the channel. So those are the four things, which is about three too many, but hopefully I'll get that Sherman off the bench or the Firefly off the bench this month. It's kind of my goal.

Mike: 1:03:42

Now that that's a newer air fix one, isn't it? That's not from their vintage classic one. That's a new newer kit.

Jim Bates: 1:03:50

It's probably five, ten years old. They did it as a real kit, which I know some people claim it's a it's a little probably a little lacking in detail compared to a dragon kit, but and certainly compared to like a Vespid or who's the who makes the other amazing 76 on scale armor? Vespid and Flyhawk. Flyhawk. It's nothing compared to those, but it's a nice kit. And the tiny, the the M408 one is some company like called Forces of Valor. I don't even know who these are for, but I picked it up from one of your sponsors, Squadron for like 10 bucks, and it's not terrible, other than unfortunately the uh rubber band track snapped when I was trying to clean them up, so gotta find some new tracks for it. But I had a Heller kit handy and I think it'll solve that problem. Anything else? No, that's about it. That's more than enough, eh?

Mike: 1:04:42

Yeah, I think so. Dave, what about you?

Kentucky Dave: 1:04:45

Well, like I said, I I have not been to the bench as much as I had wanted to. I am trying to push this Hellcat over the finish line. Unfortunately, the those it's it's been nearly a month decaling this aircraft. And that's ridiculous. It is, but it is, I mean, given the combo of the amount of time I have to model in a given week, and given certain limitations that I face that make decaling a little harder than it might be for some people, you know, it is what it is. And I I like it. I like what it looks like. I like it. I'm happy with the results so far. Now, what I don't want to do is what Jim mentioned is I don't want to hit one of those points where I hit it and there's let's say weathering, because Jim mentioned weathering with his armor models. That I don't want to get all the decals on and then just stop because I'm too afraid to move forward with weathering. The Hellcat isn't one of my favorite aircraft. And so one of the things that's been a little freeing here is I don't care quite as much, and that may actually help me get this thing finished. We'll see. But that's that's pretty much all I've been working on. And then I have dragged one off the shelf of Doom, the Plattz T33, which I had, and I I thought back, I think this this project is pre-PML.

Mike: 1:06:35

I think it is too, because I don't ever remember you talking about that plane.

Kentucky Dave: 1:06:40

It is at least six years old, probably eight years.

Jim Bates: 1:06:45

Hey, hey Dave, that project was in the state I last saw it, and the last time I visited your house. When was that? 1986?

Kentucky Dave: 1:06:53

Yeah, no, not that old, but it was it's about eight years ago, I think. It's and I got this thing. It's a the Platz kit is a really good kit. I got it all the way to primer and then stopped. Well, now I have a use for it, and so I dragged it off the shelf of Doom, and I am hopeful that I'm gonna be able to get this thing finished and finally get a get it done and get it displayed. And I'm happy to have a reason to pull one off the shelf of Doom.

Mike: 1:07:33

What's the reason?

Kentucky Dave: 1:07:35

It it fits into the Septemberist group build for the Nationals up in Fort Wayne. I have a really great picture, uh actually, thanks to Dr. Geldmacher, several really great pictures of an Indiana Air National Guard T-33 in bare metal, no less. Okay.

Mike: 1:07:58

So uh we'll see. Okay. It makes sense all of a sudden.

Kentucky Dave: 1:08:03

Yes.

Mike: 1:08:05

How about you? Uh KV 85 is still kind of in a holding pattern. Do I get a little more work done on this Musaru thing? I did order some brass barrels that I need for the turret MG. I decided not to rob that JS2 I bought because I started cleaning up the resin copies of those parts that are in this aftermarket turret I got, and they're, you know, they're equivalent, so no need to go there and and just completely waste a kit. Because I was just trying to buy the turret sprue for the longest time. And to me, I didn't have it when I wanted to order it, and they didn't know when they'd have it. So now we're where we're at. So that stuff's coming from uh Burbank House of Hobby, along with some paints I ordered. So next break our wallet segment, we can talk about that again. But uh that's that's kind of holding fast. Haven't done any work on that. Tell you, during the snow to snowden weekend, man, I've been going like gangbusters trying to get this Musaru Cup subassemblies finished up so I can pull it together as quickly as possible when it's done. Well, when the decals arrive, which are in transit, by the way. So looking forward to the custom decals arriving from India. Company come came under recommendation, so the whole proofing process was kind of what I would expect. So that all went well and uh looking forward to getting these in and give them give them a shot.

Kentucky Dave: 1:09:27

So uh yeah, you know, when this whole thing is done and finished, assuming everything works out, I think you're gonna be able to have a story to tell to modelers that really may open up an avenue for them that up to now really hasn't been available.

Mike: 1:09:47

No, I think you're right. That's not been available. Used to the the custom decal options, at least in North America, were you know 50 hundred set minimums, even you know. I I was having some railroad ones printed back in my model railroad days, and yeah, you had to order a lot.

Kentucky Dave: 1:10:05

Yep, this is this is a a really interesting development, and if it pans out, I think it's gonna, it's going to represent a real a real change that many modelers will be able to take advantage of.

Mike: 1:10:22

Well, that's it for my benchtop halftime report. Has anybody got anything they want to add?

Kentucky Dave: 1:10:27

Nope.

The Voice of Bob (Bair): 1:10:30

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

Kentucky Dave: 1:10:47

It's the first of the year. We're starting to get kit announcements. Jim, I'll go to you first. Do you have some faves or yawns?

Jim Bates: 1:10:57

Well, you know this. This isn't exactly brand new, but Fine Molds has started to issue a F-104 J series, and the F-104J is an analog for the C F-104 Starfighter, and I want one of those kits so bad.

Kentucky Dave: 1:11:13

And man, do they look good?

Jim Bates: 1:11:15

Yeah, they they look pretty.

Kentucky Dave: 1:11:17

Yes. I that was on my list too, Jim. I I I'm right there with you. And and I I could see myself doing a Japanese 104 too, because they have some really great color schemes for them. So, Mike, how about you?

Mike: 1:11:34

You know, I had a hard time with this one this month. I don't know why. Oh, really? You know, it seems like a huge percentage of stuff is falls into two buckets. It's either 3D print stuff.

Kentucky Dave: 1:11:49

Oh god, there's so much 3D printing. Which is so good.

Mike: 1:11:52

We beat that to death, so I don't want to go down that road. But and I beat this one to death too. Or the stuff's really great, but it's from Russia.

Kentucky Dave: 1:11:58

Yeah.

Mike: 1:11:59

So what are we gonna do?

Kentucky Dave: 1:12:01

Well, we'll wait, wait out.

Mike: 1:12:03

Wait it out, I guess, and it won't be available, or maybe some more cool stuff will come, or who knows what. But uh or both. So outside of those two buckets, this dynamo models out of France has got some more figures. You know, they I still need to order that anti-tank gun that we talked about a couple episodes back, but they've got a figure set. It's it's a French tanker extricating one of his crew members through the back turret hatch on a you know, the APX turret that's on a lot of those French tanks through that big door on the back. And uh looks really good. All their stuff looks really, really good. So I'm trying to get some information on it as far as true quality. And you know, they've got they've got three anti-tank guns. You know, they've done the the little pop gun that Heller did years ago. Then they've got a 45 millimeter and I think it's 75 millimeter gun.

Kentucky Dave: 1:12:55

Yeah.

Mike: 1:12:56

Some you know, some of those are kind of obscure just because the modelers mostly at large only knew about the the 20 or 25 millimeter one, the little gun that Heller had done. Yep. Simply because Heller had kitted it before. So that's my first one. You got you got one?

Kentucky Dave: 1:13:12

Oh, yes, I do. Our friends at Airfix surprised us by announcing a new tool, JU 52. And this was, I think Jim would agree, this was a kit that was needed. The JU 52 kits that are available are all long in the tooth.

Mike: 1:13:35

I'd imagine.

Kentucky Dave: 1:13:36

And and I mean, again, you're just going by renders and things like that, but what AirFix has shown us has some real promise, and a modern new tool, 72nd scale JU-52, just has a world of possibilities. Everything from you know German World War II Luftwaffe stuff to the Manchuco Air Force or South African JU-52s. I mean, there's just a world of possibilities for that aircraft.

Mike: 1:14:17

Did they sell any to nationalist China?

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:19

No, they did sell uh there might have been some civil ones in the Chinese airlines. The Nationalist Chinese Airlines. But I know they so sold one to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.

Mike: 1:14:35

I know it's gonna be better than the original airfix one from the 60s. Oh, god, yes. That wouldn't be hard at all. And then I built a Heller one as a kid in 70 second scale. Yeah, we did much better.

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:47

And is still out there.

Mike: 1:14:49

I'm sure. It is there another one?

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:52

Revell Germany has one in their catalog.

Mike: 1:14:55

And it's not a Heller, it's not the Heller kit.

Kentucky Dave: 1:14:58

I can't remember whose molds it is.

Mike: 1:15:00

I have to look on scalemates.

Kentucky Dave: 1:15:01

It's Hellieri, maybe it could be the Eatelary kit.

Mike: 1:15:05

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, this is a this this should be a popular one, that's for sure.

Kentucky Dave: 1:15:10

Mm-hmm. Jim, you got another one?

Jim Bates: 1:15:13

Well, first I'm gonna disagree with you, and I'm gonna go off on a tangent for a minute or two. You know, we don't really need a new JU-52. Okay, maybe you're right, but I would have preferred a Ford Tri-Motor or a privateer. But that being said, agreed.

Kentucky Dave: 1:15:29

I wouldn't argue with either of those.

Jim Bates: 1:15:31

That being said, now I uh please write in in a postcard, and I know the kit's not out yet, but one of my longtime goals is to build the single-aid engine JU 52 that flew in Canada in the bush, and it didn't have a radial, it had some Jumo, it had some inline engine on the front. But what's always put me back, talk about fear, is how to take the engines off the wing and reskin them so they look okay. I still fear this kit will come out, and I still will not buy one, and I will not do the Yunkers JU 52 I've wanted to do forever. My second one is again airfix. Forget that JU 52, they're doing a new tool, 70 second scale Canberra Bomber. Yes. Which I don't know how they haven't done a new tool of that since the 70s. Like it that just to be screams air fix. So I'm very excited about that one.

Kentucky Dave: 1:16:26

That was another one that was on my list, Jim.

Jim Bates: 1:16:30

I'm sorry. Uh that's okay.

Mike: 1:16:32

No, I'm you blocked your JE-52 and stole one of your others. I'm I'm man.

Kentucky Dave: 1:16:37

I am I am happy that uh there's people other than me that are excited for these kits.

Jim Bates: 1:16:44

I don't know if you'll swing back to me, but I'm I I live in utter hope that someday somebody will do a 135th scale Canadian-built Grizzly Sherman. Come on, Tacom. You know you want to, you're damn close. Do a real grizzly in in 135th. Heck, I'll even take a border grizzly.

Mike: 1:17:03

Mike? Well, before I put out another one, you um I don't know if you guys will mention it because it's the wrong scale, but they're kicking out Earthie's kicking out a another 48 skill phantom.

Kentucky Dave: 1:17:14

Yes.

Mike: 1:17:15

That's a British phantom. That's a big kit for them. It is. But many arts also are kicking out an opal maltier. Yes, they are. Which is interesting because the dragon one wasn't too terrible. And I'm curious what they're gonna do here with this one because it seems like they always do something they can get a lot of mileage out of. Right. And you know, after I put out the kits on my list of hopeful projects for the coming year, that uh Panzerworth for 42 on the Opal Maltier. Dragon put out some line art that I was hoping was a joke until last week, and then Ron Volstad published something on Facebook about uh tightening up the line drawing a little bit before he starts painting it. So looks like that's a real deal. At least uh the box art's in the works. I wonder if MiniArt's gonna go that route, or they could do workshops, ambulances, flak bedded mall tears.

Kentucky Dave: 1:18:13

Yeah, or all of the above.

Mike: 1:18:15

Or all of the above. And it it could be interesting because they have probably 80% of the running gear from a universal carrier if they do the Opal Maltier. Because that's where all that mess came from.

Kentucky Dave: 1:18:31

Yep.

Mike: 1:18:32

Those were Dunkirk captured vehicles that were repurposed. So I don't know, that'd be cool. It would. Or they could do a Panzerworth for 42 that's got 9,000 parts. How about that?

Kentucky Dave: 1:18:45

And you'd like that.

Mike: 1:18:46

I don't know if I would or not. You got another one, Dave?

Kentucky Dave: 1:18:50

Yes. Hobby Boss has announced a PLAN, which is the Chinese Communist Navy, Type 93 Shang class SSN. I like 700 scale submarines, particularly modern 700-scale submarines, and the communist Chinese Navy is an underserved area in that regard. So I'm happy to see this now. It's hobby boss, so it will probably be way more expensive than it should be. I don't care. And yeah, I'll pick one up.

Mike: 1:19:33

The road to completion on those things is short.

Kentucky Dave: 1:19:36

That's the night one of the nice things I like about them.

Mike: 1:19:40

All right, Jim, you got another one? I am all tapped out, eh?

Kentucky Dave: 1:19:43

All right, Mike, you got another one?

Mike: 1:19:45

Yeah, I'm gonna jump on the air fix train here. All right, chuggy chuggy, choo choo. Yeah, 35th scale uh F V six oh three Saracen armored car.

Kentucky Dave: 1:19:55

Mm-hmm.

Mike: 1:19:56

Interesting. Those were on the news a lot growing up. Up as a kid with all the mess going on in Northern Ireland during uh during my childhood. So it's probably gonna be a popular subject amongst the uh the UK crowd, and it's interesting vehicle. It's not very pretty, but interesting nonetheless.

Jim Bates: 1:20:17

It certainly has character. It does.

Mike: 1:20:20

It looks like a hog.

Kentucky Dave: 1:20:22

It looks British.

Mike: 1:20:25

They did a lot with they did a lot of armored cars. Yes, they did. Um and they're all they're all really interesting. This one's interesting. I I assume this is probably um you know, a lot of their armor, their unique armor kits, they're not their acquired kits are academy tools.

Kentucky Dave: 1:20:40

Right.

Mike: 1:20:41

So we'll see. Like their, what is it, their Cromwell?

Kentucky Dave: 1:20:44

Yeah.

Mike: 1:20:45

Yeah. So I assume this one probably is too, but uh really looking forward to seeing what this one's all about when it when it finally hits the shelves.

Kentucky Dave: 1:20:53

Well, I've got one more. Okay, and that is the S model out of China in 70 seconds scale, is going to release a Matilda 2. I I just like the Matildas.

Mike: 1:21:08

I'm I'm it's not gonna be very big in that scale. No, it is not, but how many come in a box?

Kentucky Dave: 1:21:15

Apparently just one. No, just one. But you know, I like the Matildas. I'm I was happy to see the Matildas get in the love, and and I'm I'll I'll get it. I'll get it when it comes out.

Mike: 1:21:34

While it's the Matilda.

Kentucky Dave: 1:21:36

Exactly.

The Voice of Bob (Bair): 1:21:37

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by Model Paint Solutions, your source for hard-earned steam back airbrushes, David Union Power Tools, and laboratory grade mixing, measuring, and storage tools for use with all your model paints, be they acrylic, enamels, or lacquer. Check them out at www.modelpaint solutions.com.

Kentucky Dave: 1:22:03

Folks, you know the drill. When you're done listening to this episode, if you would please rate us on whatever podcasting app you're listening on. Give us the highest rating. It helps drive the visibility of the show. Also, if you've got a modeling friend who isn't listening to this podcast, please recommend us. It's the best way for us to find new listeners. And we continue to find new listeners, and we'd like to continue that into the future. So recommend us to your modeling friends.

Mike: 1:22:36

And check out all the podcasts out in the model sphere by going to www.modelpodcast.com. That's model podcastplural. It's a consortium website set up with the help of our friend Stuart Clark from the Skill Model Podcast up in Canada. You know, I reached out to him today to see what's up with him right now, and uh I'll let everybody know what I hear back when he gets back with me. But you can go to his website there that he's created and find the banner links to all the other podcasts and uh pick and choose. Or it's a good place to go find them all in one in one view. So check it out. In addition, we got a lot of friends out in the model sphere doing blogs and YouTube stuff and some of those. Well, one's our guest tonight, Jim Bates, a scale Canadian. You can check out his blog that's recently reconstituted, just to add water. Thank you very much. Good luck with that. We hope you have some longevity there.

Jim Bates: 1:23:27

Yep. I'm getting tens of hits.

Mike: 1:23:29

All right. Check out Panzermeister 36, Mr. Evan McCallum, on YouTube. He's got a great YouTube channel. Armor modeling and some railroad modeling is gonna help you help you get your models weathered. So, Jim, you can go check those out when you can go dust up the Italian uh Sherman you got, Italian campaign. Uh, what else we got, Dave? We got Stephen Lee, Sprue Pie with Frets. Great long and short form blog. He's been cranking out some railroad stuff lately. But he's got uh proclivities towards 70 second scale. So if you like the small scale stuff, you're gonna want to check out his Sprue Pie with Frets. And you can really double down on 70 second scale because you're gonna want to check out our friend Jeff Groves, the inch eye guy. He's always cranking out the content. 70 second scale centric uh modeler, our friend up in Indiana. So check out all those. And finally, Dr. Paul Budzik, scale model workshop. Just put out one on uh using machinist rules at the workbench. And I really like that one. So I let him let him know.

Kentucky Dave: 1:24:25

In fact, I mentioned that to you how much I I mean, it's not a very long video, but it makes some really interesting and important points and has some recommendations for different manufacturers, and I think that's really important. You know, you're getting just an honest take on the products based on somebody who actually uses them.

Mike: 1:24:52

And we almost forgot Chris Wallace, model airplane maker.

Kentucky Dave: 1:24:56

Yeah, you can't forget him. We wouldn't have any place to stay in Hamilton if it wasn't for him.

Mike: 1:25:01

That's right. So check out his blog and YouTube channels, Model Airplane Maker, on YouTube and his blog. So check out all these folks. A lot of great content.

Kentucky Dave: 1:25:11

If you are not a member of IPMesh USA, please consider joining the national organization. It's a great group of modelers who volunteer their time to serve their fellow modeler and help keep clubs and contests and displays all running and running smoothly. In addition, if you are an armor modeler or post-1900 figures modeler, the armor modeling and preservation society, AMPS, a good organization of guys who are dedicated to advancing the art of armor modeling. And I know Mike and I are looking forward to going to the nationals for AMPS up in South Bend this year. It's funny that both AMPS and IPMS are having their national shows in Indiana this year. So I'm not sure that's ever happened before, and I don't know when it'll ever happen again, but uh it's interesting that both are having them in the great state of Indiana this year. Hey Jim, we're at the end of the episode. How's that Raspberry Twisted T doing?

Jim Bates: 1:26:31

It's doing great. I would say it's amazing, other than I was at a Mariners game this summer, because that's one of the things I filled my space with is I got back into baseball and they had it on tap. And much like beer, man, everything on tap is better. But this is pretty damn good.

Kentucky Dave: 1:26:49

It it just is.

Jim Bates: 1:26:50

It just is.

Kentucky Dave: 1:26:51

What is that? Is that about five percent alcohol by volume?

Jim Bates: 1:26:55

It is five, exactly five percent alcohol by volume.

Kentucky Dave: 1:26:58

Yeah, I thought it was. I thought it was. So, Mike, uh, how's your well I I know your pilsner or kel is gonna be good.

Mike: 1:27:05

The six pack is gone. The beer was good, easy on the palate. It won't mess you over. It's pretty, it's pretty mild too.

Kentucky Dave: 1:27:11

The voodoo ranger, I've got just, or I'm sorry, the juice force IPA, voodoo ranger juice force IPA. I've got a little bit left. It's great, particularly if you like a beer with a little bit of a citrus forward element. This is very citrus forward. I will tell you that my wife really enjoys this particular beer because of that. Now it's it's 9.5% alcohol, so you have to watch out because it'll sneak up and hit you in the back of the head. But other than that, great beer, no complaints. We are at the end of the episode now, and uh, so all that's left are the shout-outs. Mike, you want to do a shout out?

Mike: 1:28:02

Yeah, I want to shout out all the folks who have chosen to contribute to Plastic Model Mojo through their generosity. Folks like Rob Willis, our most recent donor. We really appreciate this. We've set up several avenues to do this, and all those avenues can be found on the website under support the show tab at www.plasticmodelmojo.com. Uh, we got a lot of plans this year, and all this helps. So check into it. If it's something you think you want to might want to do, we'd sure appreciate it. And of course, we're not charging anybody for anything here and we don't expect it, but uh it is truly appreciated, and it's really helping us get this out to you folks. So thank you very much.

Kentucky Dave: 1:28:35

It is.

Jim Bates: 1:28:36

Uh Jim, do you have a shout out? You know, I'm I'm gonna go off the reservation here. I'm gonna shout out the Montreal Canadians so they beat the Las Vegas Golden Knights tomorrow night and make Dave sad.

Kentucky Dave: 1:28:50

Well, we'll see. The Golden Knights did lose to the Ottawa Senators, and I know that made Ian McAuley very happy.

Jim Bates: 1:28:59

So uh Yeah, so there's no chance they're gonna lose to Montreal too the same week. Just not gonna happen. But I can live in my delusion land.

Kentucky Dave: 1:29:06

I I hey you don't care, you're a Kraken fan.

Jim Bates: 1:29:09

You could say that all you want. It doesn't make it true.

Kentucky Dave: 1:29:12

I know. Well, my shout out this month is to someone we've already mentioned, our friend Chris Wallace. Chris is a great guy, a great modeler, who has a great YouTube channel. But for us, he's more than that. He's a friend, and he also does yeoman-like work every year obtaining lodging for us in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, so that we can go to HeritageCon, confident that we will have a good place to stay. And it looks like he may have topped himself this year. And I am really looking forward to the dojo experience at Hamilton this year. Thank you, Chris. Thank you for putting in the work.

Mike: 1:30:06

Well, I'll pile on that one just a little bit before we close out here. You gotta throw Mark Copeland in there too from Minnesota. Yes. Our little entourage has picked up a few new folks, and it's getting hard to find a single location via via Verbo or Airbnb that's gonna house us all that doesn't want like a full week's rental, which is understandable, but unfortunate for us. But, you know, so we kind of had to split up a little bit, and these guys work together behind the scenes and have found two two places in close proximity together, so it's just really not gonna be a problem. It's gonna be a lot of fun. So thanks to Mark and thanks to Chris for uh taking care of that again this year.

Kentucky Dave: 1:30:46

Yeah, and finally, I'd like to on that same theme, shout out Jim Bates, who is actually gonna make the the journey from the Pacific Northwest to Detroit, where we are going to pick him up and drag him to Hamilton with us. Because Jim, how many years has it been since you've been to HeritageCon?

Jim Bates: 1:31:11

Last time I was at HeritageCon was 2014 before you guys even knew what it was. So that's 12 years, isn't it? Wow, it's been a long time, yeah. Um, I think as I've said on here, you know, Hamilton, Mount Hope Airport is my ancestral aviation home. Um, I think my love of aviation happened there. Um, so I'm really excited to go back. It's been a long time since I've been to Canadian Warplane Heritage and a long time uh since I've been to HeritageCon.

Kentucky Dave: 1:31:38

I think you will be very impressed by what they've done with the museum in the last 12 years.

Jim Bates: 1:31:44

Looking forward to it.

Kentucky Dave: 1:31:45

Um looking forward, looking forward to seeing you, man. Yep, I haven't seen each other in person.

Jim Bates: 1:31:50

Yeah, it's been it's been what a n it's been since the nationals. Um I I want to add two more shout-outs. One is you've already mentioned them, but I just want to say get well, Dr. Geldmacher. Looking forward to seeing you soon. And of course, I want to shout out you guys, thanks for having me on. It's been a while.

Mike: 1:32:06

All right, we better wrap it up, guys. You got it. As we always say, Dave, so many kits, so little time. Jim, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. No problem, Dave. I'll see you soon.