Twelve Minute Modelsphere: March 2026

Ready to watch text turn into tiny people you can actually paint? We kick off March with big plans, bigger shows, and a hands-on look at a workflow that converts AI prompts into resin-ready 3D figures for your next diorama. It started with a listener asking how to crowd a Union Pacific Big Boy display, and it grew into a full pipeline: prompt, generate, refine, export, print, and paint. 

Beyond the bench, we mention HeritageCon plans and flag open registration for the US nationals. Our lineup continues with a shop talk episode focused on motivation—what keeps us building when time is short—and show spotlights for April, including Roscoe Turner in Indianapolis and the Wine Country Model Expo in California. The Dojo on Facebook just cleared 5,700 members, and daily posts now deliver show reports, 3D previews, and jaw-dropping builds that make you want to prime something tonight.

If you love scale modeling, resin printing, or just the thrill of learning a new trick, press play and join us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s eyeing a new printer, and leave a review telling us what figure you want to generate next.

Email us at  plasticmodelmojo@gmail.com

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Transcript

KitMask Sponsor Spotlight

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Mike 1:11

Well, folks, welcome to the March edition of the 12-minute model sphere. Dave, how you doing? Mike, I'm doing good. How about you? Uh, we got the in like a lion part down here. Well, man, do we? Weather wise, I hope it's out like a lamb, but I hope the podcast goes out like a lion too. There you go. We're getting a good start. Yep. And uh we got some good stuff coming up in March, too.

Kentucky Dave 1:34

Yes, we do. God, can you believe it's already March?

Mike 1:37

No, it is. It's already March, man.

Kentucky Dave 1:40

Unfortunately, we still haven't made it anywhere. No, we haven't. I was hoping to get to Columbus, but unfortunately, some family stuff and some weather stuff combined, and just I wasn't able to make it. But the good news is we got HeritageCon coming up.

Mike 2:00

That's right. We're gonna be at HeritageCon on Sunday, March 29th at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. And we bam, we're looking forward to this.

Kentucky Dave 2:10

I gotta tell you, my anticipation of this show is second only to the nationals. It's a great show in a great location with great vendors and great models. But my real anticipation is we get to see a whole lot of our close friends, and the the social aspect is every bit as much fun, if not more, than the show itself.

Mike 2:38

So, folks, if you can make that show, if it's in your possibilities, you might give it some strong consideration and remember the online registration. Looking forward to it.

Kentucky Dave 2:46

Speaking of online registration, the registration has opened up for the U.S. nationals as well. Oh, yeah. In fact, uh probably in the next day or two, I gotta knock registration for both those shows out. Well, I'll be right behind you.

Mike 3:22

Well, folks, we got two episodes coming up in March. We've got episode 159 and 160. Uh, 159 is gonna be really interesting, I think. It's gonna be going from AI to 3D print with our friend Jake McKee from Austin.

Kentucky Dave 3:37

This is real interesting. Why don't you give people a little preview of how this came about?

From AI To 3D Printed Figures

Mike 3:44

Well, it's a culmination of a few things. We got an email some time ago. It was from Eric Kenser, who we mentioned in listener mail in the last episode, was wondering if this was possible. He had uh been to some railroad function and bought the revell static model of the UP Big Boy and was trying to get some figures to build a basically a little small diorama of the thing on display with all these people around it. He was wondering if he could use AI prompts to generate these figures without any indication that he'd actually tried it yet. Well then not long after that, I got online, I gave it a a quick consideration, a little quick investigation, and uh just with some really basic knocking around with some AI prompts, I got some things that were probably 75, 80 percent there. Maybe not quite that much, 60%, 70% maybe. But given the amount of the time I'd put into it, it was pretty impressive how far the first pass actually went. Fast forward to now, we were I was talking to Jake not too long ago and talking about one of his projects, and he's got something going on now, and he's just one of the most tech forward modelers I've had any kind of real substantive interaction with. He's put a lot of things into practice. He's doing some laser cutting, he's doing 3D print in a couple different forms, and now he's doing this. And it looks like Jake is actually pulling this off, and I think 35th scale. And we're gonna go into how he's doing this and the tools he's using and then you know the scope of the results he's getting. And uh just really curious about this.

Kentucky Dave 5:16

Yeah, this is fascinating to me. When you and I started talking about this behind the scenes, I was all for getting him on, and and I want to hear about this. I think there's a lot of 3D print stuff coming down the pike, and that's weird to say, considering how much has already come down the pike, but I think it's nothing compared to what's coming.

Mike 5:39

Well, this is not the print aspect of it. He's going from from right from a a human form from from nothing, essentially. Yep, to an STL file that he can print and paint.

Kentucky Dave 5:48

Yep. I can't wait to hear.

Shop Talk And Listener Ideas

Mike 5:50

All right. Well, episode after that is gonna be 160, and it's gonna be a shop talk episode. Most of the topics are to be determined, but uh, we had a listener uh suggest we talk about our motivations again. Maybe they hadn't heard us talk about them before, maybe they're a newer listener, but I think that will be one of the three is we're gonna get into get a fresh take on what's motivating us in in current day here.

Kentucky Dave 6:13

Well, we've had a couple of suggestions from listeners, so I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about on that one.

Mike 6:19

In addition to that, we've already got the model show spotlight for the April shows lined up. We're gonna be talking to folks from the Roscoe Turner show in Indianapolis, which is one near and dear to our heart. Had a little schedule shift that puts it really close after HeritageCon. So maybe they get blizzarded in up in Canada, we can uh have a shot at India again, or maybe that's somebody's date will move. Who knows? But uh looking forward to hearing what they got in store this year.

Kentucky Dave 6:42

Yeah.

Mike 6:43

And then we got uh the Wine Country Model Expo out in California, who are doing some really innovative things given the current state of affairs of most model shows. So we're really looking forward to that one too.

April Show Spotlights

Kentucky Dave 6:55

You know, I really do like hearing from shows out on the West Coast because I mean, given our geography, we're not getting to shows out there, hope to eventually, once I hit the super lottery, and you know, you and I can take the private plastic model mojo jet out to out to a show in California. But until that time, we kind of have to live vicariously. So I'm I really enjoy hearing about shows in the places you and I don't normally get to.

Mike 7:29

And finally, on content for March, we're hoping to sneak in on an update from one of our favorite sponsors. So uh stay tuned for all this, folks, and uh watch it roll out in March.

Kentucky Dave 7:45

Mike, the dojo is hopping, man.

Mike 7:48

It has. It seems like in the last, I don't know, six, seven months. Yep. I don't know if we've like leveled up or something, but it seems to a lot of people are are posting a lot of really cool stuff.

Dojo Growth And Community Posts

Kentucky Dave 7:59

Well, that's one of the things I was still mentioned. First of all, we're now over 5,700 members. Right now it's 5,707 as of the time of this recording. The thing that really that you noticed and mentioned, and that's one of the things that I monitor is the number of posts per day. And we're getting somewhere between 22 and 30 posts per day. I remember it was not that long ago where you and I were in the car, and I was going, now if we can just get 10 posts a day, we can get some synergy going. We can really get it as a a place to come and check out regularly because there'll be enough content. And so to be somewhere between 22 and 30 every day in the last month is just awesome. And not only is it content, it's good content. We got people previewing 3D products, which we've asked them, you know, because there's so many manufacturers out there and so much stuff. We've got builds. Some of the builds are just absolutely stunning. We got show reports.

Mike 9:17

We do. I've been watching Winter Blitz like crazy, man. That is a good show.

Kentucky Dave 9:22

That was a good show that you and I have talking about trying to find a way to get down there. Old Dominion Open, the Columbus. I mean, lots of good show reports. So when we can't make a show, we end up getting to at least experience a little bit of it by seeing what members post. And I really appreciate that.

Mike 9:47

Ricardo Salome from the Hamilton group up in Ottawa has been posting a lot of information uh to get folks registered and all the information for HeritageCon. So if you got a show, throw it up there. It's all good with us.

Join The Dojo And Closing CTA

Kentucky Dave 9:59

Yes, it is. As much as the posting, I'm thrilled with the interactions. People are asking questions and they're getting their questions answered. People are are talking technique, and every time I go on there, I see something new and interesting. So I'm just thrilled.

Mike 10:18

All right, folks. So if you're not part of the Plastic Model Dojo on Facebook, you might want to cruise on over there and send your uh join request.

Kentucky Dave 10:26

Absolutely. Please do.

Mike 10:32

Any closing comments for March, Dave?

Kentucky Dave 10:34

I'm just jazzed. I really am. Between Hamilton, between getting a little more time to model the the dojo hopping and all of that stuff. I'm I'm really thrilled. I I think 2026 is gonna be a good year.

Mike 10:51

Well, if we have three more quarters like the first one, we'll be doing pretty good.

Kentucky Dave 10:54

Yes, we will.

Mike 10:56

Well, folks, I'm gonna close by saying please keep the listener mail coming. You can do that by sending it to plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com or through Facebook's instant messaging system. So uh look forward to those emails. Keep them coming, folks.

Kentucky Dave 11:09

Please do. It's the heart of the show. All right. We'll see you in March, Dave. Let's go model, Mike.