PMM Twelve Minute Modelsphere: May 2026

We zoom out to the bigger modeling hobby community. We recap our trip to the AMPS International Convention in South Bend, Indiana, from standout vendors to the simple joy of photographing great models without hovering too close with a phone. We also look ahead to Wonderfest at the end of May, including the added buzz around the 60th anniversary of Star Trek and what that could mean for sci-fi modeling, vendors, and themed builds on the tables.

We close with what keeps the momentum going between shows: the Dojo. With thousands of members and growing daily, the best part is watching shop talk turn into practical, tested advice, like super glue discussions and new acrylic metallic paint tips for a convincing bare metal finish. Listen through, then subscribe, share the episode with a modeling friend, and leave a review so more builders can find the show.

Don't forget MOJO15 gets you 15% off your order with KitMasx!

Model Paint Solutions
Your source for Harder & Steenbeck Airbrushes, Mixing supplies, and great advice!

SQUADRON
Adding to the stash since 1968

Model Podcasts
Please check out the other pods in the modelsphere!

KitMasx
Custom Canopy Masks for the Scale Modeler

Bases By Bill
Your source for custom display bases, laser engraved airfield and carrier decks.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Give us your Feedback!
Rate the Show!

Support the Show!
Patreon
Buy Me a Beer
Paypal

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

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

Transcript

KitMasx Origin And Promise

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:00

Kev, tell everyone why you started Kit Mask.

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:02

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

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:09

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

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:14

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

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:16

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

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:21

We do.

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:22

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

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:28

Several times.

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:29

Yeah. Precision is kind of his thing.

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:31

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

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:37

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

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:41

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

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:46

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

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:51

Kitmask, made by a modeler for modelers.

Janelle (KitMasx) 0:54

Hey, what about me?

Kevin (KITMASX) 0:55

You're not a modeler.

Mike 1:09

It is indeed.

Kentucky Dave 1:14

I'm telling you, it is amazing.

Mike 1:18

Had a little tight travel to do at the first of the month, so I'm back now. Exhausted, but uh that's what's going on, man.

AMPS South Bend Highlights

Kentucky Dave 1:30

Honest to gosh, it seems like just a week ago it was January, and I was looking forward to HeritageCon. And here we are. It's the beginning of May, and I'm looking forward to Wonderfest. Well, we've been some places, we've been a place. Yes, we have.

Mike 1:49

In in April, we went to the Armor Modeling Preservation Society's International Convention in South Bend, Indiana.

Kentucky Dave 1:56

Yep. And I'd like to thank John Sharvott and all of the all of the guys who were responsible for putting that show on. It was, as usual, a really good show with really good vendors in a really good space with some amazing models. I got to take my new DSLR camera up there and trying to get the hang of it and got to shoot a lot of models with that instead of the cell phone.

Mike 2:26

Yeah, you can not be so close to the table and risk dropping your phone on something.

Kentucky Dave 2:30

Exactly. That's one of the major motivations, my friend, because with my uh with my essential tremor, I live in fear of a mo of a phone slipping out of my hands.

Mike 2:42

I would hate to have to say, man, I don't even I don't know who that guy is.

Kentucky Dave 2:46

And you would. I know you you'd do that in a second. Although since I'm wearing the checkerboard PMM shirt, it'd be kind of hard to deny. I don't know where he got it. I don't know. Yeah, right.

Mike 2:59

We lost one a couple years ago.

Kentucky Dave 3:00

He he stole that from my table. Get him.

Mike 3:04

Well, that's where we've been. And you know, that facility is nice, but man, it can swallow a crowd. So I'm I'm need to go back and look and just see how good a show it was for those guys because uh it's a good time. It's a good town to have a show in. I I kind of like it there.

Kentucky Dave 3:19

And man, this year with the synergy that they had a tabletop gaming convention and an esports tournament going on inside the same facility. That was way cool. I ducked into both of those things to watch them, to watch a little bit and uh to walk walk through the different uh groups, and it was really cool.

Wonderfest Plans And Star Trek 60

Mike 3:42

That was a good attend for us. That was in April. We are gonna try to get to a show here locally to us, but not a small one here in in uh Louisville, Kentucky, Dave. Yep. Wonderfest is coming up at the very, very end of the month, the last weekend of the month, the 30th and 31st of May.

Kentucky Dave 4:00

Which is the week after Memorial Day, which is good.

Mike 4:04

I think they told us one time they made that mistake one time.

Kentucky Dave 4:08

Yes.

Mike 4:09

That was probably tough. That said, this one's a little special.

Kentucky Dave 4:13

It is because it's the 60th anniversary of Star Trek.

Mike 4:18

So I imagine it's gonna be a little final frontier heavy, which is cool.

Kentucky Dave 4:23

Yeah.

Mike 4:24

So I'm really hoping to be able to make it out there for the Saturday.

Kentucky Dave 4:27

They always have a good contingent of Star Trek merchandise, Star Trek vendors, yeah, lots of Star Trek themed models, and I suspect that this year is going to be off the hook in that regard.

Mike 4:45

Well, I've not looked at the the website in too much detail yet to see if they're doing anything special in that regard. I s I would not be surprised if they are, but I don't know off the top of my head. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Kentucky Dave 4:59

We will.

Mike 4:59

Be good to see you there, man. We'll try to make a day of it.

Kentucky Dave 5:02

Yeah, that's right. Come over, we can roast some burgers and some chicken legs. In fact, they they came and opened the or took the cover off my pool today.

Mike 5:12

Okay.

Kentucky Dave 5:13

You wouldn't you wouldn't want to go swimming in it yet.

Mike 5:16

It's a little brown.

Kentucky Dave 5:18

Uh a little brown.

Mike 5:20

Okay, well, I'm sure you'll take care of that, Kentucky.

Kentucky Dave 5:23

Not a code brown, but just leaf brown.

Mike 5:26

Got some tannins in the water.

Kentucky Dave 5:28

Yes, some tannins in the water, got some cleanup to do, but it's it should be by the time you get here at the end of May, clear water and warm.

Mike 6:01

Well, Dave, we got two feature episodes coming up in May. It'll be giving you one sixty-three and one sixty-four. And we've gotten a lot of listener input over the last, I don't know, a couple months, I guess. And we're gonna do two kind of shop talkie episodes this month for both of those, 163 and 164, and probably gonna have somebody in third chair for 164.

Kentucky Dave 6:26

Yeah.

Mike 6:27

We'll surprise folks. I think 163 is pretty solid for the content. But listeners, if you got something you'd like us to to expound on in 164, uh get us some listener mail and get that in before mid-month, and uh we can work that one into the content if it looks looks uh promising. So you can do that at plasticmile mojo at gmail.com or send them to uh Dave through the direct messaging system with Facebook, and uh we'll appreciate any input you guys have for uh shop talk topics.

Kentucky Dave 6:57

And Mike and I really do want to talk about stuff you want to hear. So it's really important to us for to hear from you all and to hear you tell us, hey, talk about this or what about that, or what do you think of this question, whatever it is. We appreciate that kind of feedback because we were doing this in no small part for the listeners, and we want you to feel part ownership in the podcast, and that's one way you can do it.

Dojo Growth And Technical Sharing

Mike 7:32

It is so we look forward to putting those together, and that should be a couple of fun episodes, Dave. Yes, it should. I know the dojo has been ramping up, man.

Kentucky Dave 7:47

Uh yes, it has.

Mike 7:49

What are we looking at there right now?

Kentucky Dave 7:51

Well, it as of this recording, we are at 5,770 members. We're adding one to two members a day. You have the occasional dropout from a bot or something, but uh steady upward growth. I'm just amazed. I I look back and honest to gosh, it was less than six, seven months ago. And I was telling you, man, if we could get 10 or 12 good posts a day on the dojo, that would just be fantastic. And now hardly a day goes by where we don't have 20, 25 posts, and some particular, usually weekends, you know, we can have upwards of 30, 35 posts, not to mention all the people interacting back and forth on the topics, commenting, sharing. We've had some great technical posts lately. The one about super glue. I think you you might have actually started that one.

Mike 8:58

No, I didn't start it. Somebody posted that in I think in response to the topic on the on the podcast, which is something I want to bring up. It's really cool the the carryover from a a podcast topic making its way onto the dojo and then back and forth. And that's really kind of the way I envisioned the thing, hopefully working at some point. So we seem to be getting there. Really appreciate those technical posts. In fact, there was one from a listener, I can't recall the name, that was posted uh in the last few days about a a new acrylic metallic paint. Yes. Being used for a bare metal finish. So uh I think it had a YouTube video posted with it, or video was coming soon from this person. I'm gonna be looking for that one to come up. So that one's certainly interesting. But uh really liking the fact that folks are uh piling on a little bit onto some of these topics we've been had on the on the uh on the podcast. And it's I think it's helping us get a lot of information around a you know a specific topic and hopefully helping some people.

Kentucky Dave 9:58

Yeah, you know, that kind of technical information. I mean, I love to see completed builds, I love to see in progress, I love to see all of that. But sometimes the the information regarding a new product, uh a new paint, uh new super glue, a new PVA glue, different things. When that gets posted and people start trying it, and then they say, Well, I've tried this or this worked for me, etc. That's the kind of interaction that I, not only as you and I doing this podcast, but I as a model and a reader want to see. I really like that stuff. I will find myself at the dojo going through posts, and I'll go, oh, I need to write a write, I've got that little notepad with me, that little reporter's notebook, and I will literally write down a note because it's the the downside of Facebook is that stuff streams by and it's hard to re-find it.

Mike 11:00

If you forget to you can save a post now, or you could do that for a long time, but I've got so many of those now, it's kind of hard even to it's hard to look through them.

Kentucky Dave 11:08

But uh yeah, so I mean I'll find myself doing that, uh jotting down. Oh, I want to I want to look at this or I want to try this, or I've got three or four things in the notebook right now that I need to go back and revisit.

Mike 11:21

Well, folks, we thank you for the interaction there. Let's keep it up and hopefully it'll keep growing, Dave, and people will get a lot of use out of it. Yep, that's what we want. All right, folks. Well, that's gonna be May. We look forward to bringing you the content and keep on modeling, keep on sending us emails, and let's get on with it, man. Yep, let's go model.