What If Your Next Build Started At The Museum, Or On A Tour: Episode 165

A tiny paint question can turn into a big lesson about how the hobby actually works. We start with the everyday reality of scale modeling: reorganizing the model room, fighting distractions, and trying to protect bench time while life keeps piling on. Then we jump into listener mail that gets surprisingly deep, including how to choose an olive drab or Marine green for a Pacific Theater Sherman in 1/144 without getting trapped chasing a single “correct” shade.

From there, the conversation widens into what makes a model show truly successful. We argue that the best shows are not defined by trophy counts or vendor tables, but by the interactions they create between builders: the conversations, the techniques shared, the new friendships, and the seminars where you can ask questions in real time. Along the way we swap practical technique talk, from using small test plaques to develop skills, to mixing a workable Tamiya 4BO green, to why a gloss base coat can make or break a natural metal finish with paints like Alclad.

Our main guest is Mark Copeland, Director of Educational Travel for the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. Mark updates us on major museum expansion news, rare artifacts, and the excitement of preserving historic aircraft, then walks us through upcoming WWII history tours across the UK and Europe. If you’ve ever built a B-17, B-24, or Battle of Britain subject, you’ll understand why standing on the ground where history happened can change the way you build and the meaning your finished model carries.

If you enjoy thoughtful modeling talk with real takeaways, subscribe, share the show with a modeling friend, and leave us a five-star rating and review so more builders can find us.

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

Welcome And The Schedule Reset

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 0:11

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

Mike 0:56

Hey, we're recording it even a little early. We are. We got a few days to get this out. But uh it's refreshing to try to or to hopefully be back on track.

Kentucky Dave 1:07

Yep. Yes, it is.

Model Room Fixes And Nationals Prep

Kentucky Dave 1:10

Again, we apologize and we are trying to do better. We are trying to do better.

Mike 1:15

And in trying to do better, Dave, what is up in your model sphere?

Kentucky Dave 1:19

Well, my model sphere is mostly been devoted to trying to make my model room better.

Mike 1:28

Yeah.

Kentucky Dave 1:29

The wife's been out of town, and so that gave me some time that I hoped I was gonna get to do a lot of modeling and a lot of rearranging. And I've gotten some rearranging done and not as much modeling as I was hoping. But I do have one piece of news for everybody. I may be a mediocre modeler, but I am a really crappy carpenter.

Mike 2:01

Honesty. I like your honesty, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 2:03

Yes. As people who saw the dojo post know I I have the computer has been front and center of my model room, and that's been a problem. And so as part of my model sphere and model room rearrangement, I bought a swing arm that I needed to mount low to be able to swing my laptop out when I needed it, but fold it up and push it up against the wall. It's a really great solution. But the first shelf that I built to hold the swing arm attachment point, there were fifth-grade Boy Scout projects that looked better. The second version was a little bit better, but still not perfect. The third version worked out really well and is just what I needed. But the fact that it took me three versions and almost almost a week is sad. So my model room rearranging is is going along not as quickly as I want. In other model sphere news, I am prepping for the nationals. I still need to register. I got to get on that tonight after we record. When's it close? Uh, I think like the end of this month. They close it or closing it early.

Mike 3:34

Oh.

Kentucky Dave 3:35

So we need to get I need to get on it. Um so do I. Anybody else who hasn't get on it now. In addition, we'll be having guests come in for the Nationals, Dr. Geldmacher and the Podfather. And so I've been communicating and making arrangements with all of those folks. And so it's a and also trying to get accommodation set up. So it's been a whirlwind for me. And but it's all good. Nothing to complain about other than I haven't gotten as much time actually modeling at the bench as I wanted to. But even there I got some time. So that's my model sphere. How about yours?

Mike 4:20

Well, I've I've been it's funny you mentioned your computer because I I've been thinking about moving all my computer stuff into the other room in the basement.

Kentucky Dave 4:29

For the it's for the same reason.

Mike 4:33

I I just I don't know. I've had a a bad stint of YouTube watching and other dumb stuff, and I'm I'm getting tired of it.

Kentucky Dave 4:43

Yeah. And that's that was the logic behind it for me too. It really was. That I find that because it was front and center in my model room at my bench.

Mike 4:55

It was front and center in your shop time.

Kentucky Dave 4:57

Exactly. Whereas now with the swing arm, maybe that's the solution for you. I don't know.

Mike 5:03

But mine's 180 degrees behind my workbench. I mean, I gotta turn my chair completely around, but it's not that hard on a swivel chair.

Kentucky Dave 5:12

Maybe you need to put a wall in between or something. But in any event, the this solution for me is working because anytime I'm not actively using it, I close it, I fold it down, and I push it up against the wall. And in doing so, I have tons of extra space and it keeps it from being the center of my modeling universe.

Mike 5:37

Well, in addition to that, I've got to go preview the work our web guys have done that's ready to look at. Uh-huh. I just took a quick glance, but I haven't really dug into it yet. So I sent those guys an email today saying I was going to do that over the next few days because during the next week I'm going to be on vacation. So there's not going to be much model sphere in the coming week either.

Kentucky Dave 6:00

So you're going to take a modeling tackle box with you and a kit, right?

Mike 6:05

No. But I will be I will be taking my uh my laptop.

Kentucky Dave 6:09

Okay.

Mike 6:10

Well because this this this will not get edited on the road.

Kentucky Dave 6:13

Oh, okay. Well that's that's model sphere. That's modeling adjacent.

Mike 6:18

But I tell you, uh we I just been busy. Work has been keeping me busy because I've been hiring a couple people. Yeah. And we had like 90 applicants for the position two positions. So Wow. It was a lot. It's been a lot. But our best two both accepted as of today. So that's done.

Kentucky Dave 6:38

So I got that monkey off my back and uh Nobody likes doing hiring and firing. Either one.

Mike 6:46

I wasn't excited about this. I really hope I don't have to fire anybody.

Kentucky Dave 6:50

Yeah.

Mike 6:51

But it'd be my first two, so we'll see. See how it goes, man.

Kentucky Dave 6:54

Yeah.

Mike 6:55

Other than that, man, that's the model sphere.

Kentucky Dave 6:57

Well, good. Since we're recording an actual episode that requires us to have an actual modeling

Modeling Fluids And A Health Detour

Kentucky Dave 7:05

fluid, I'll start. All right. My modeling fluid tonight is Dr. Pepper. Over the last month and a half, I've undergone an MRI, a life scan, more blood and chemical tests than you could possibly imagine. All for a result of we're not really sure what happened. And if it happens again, we can test for some more stuff while it happens. But other than that, good luck.

Mike 7:39

Gee, thanks.

Kentucky Dave 7:41

Really? But so that's a way to say that I I have not had any adult beverages for about, oh, I guess we're looking at six, eight weeks now. And I will hopefully slowly be able to reintroduce some modeling fluid. But for tonight, Dr. Pepper, which is just to let everybody know, one of Mike and I Mike and my road when we go on road trips, uh tends to show up. Yeah, the cooler tends to be packed. It may be packed with beer for when we get to the dojo, but on the road, Mike and I are drinking Dr. Pepper. How's your how about your modeling fluid?

Mike 8:29

Since I'm going on vacay, we're in full uh clean out the fridge mode.

Kentucky Dave 8:33

Oh, okay.

Mike 8:34

This is a all-play ready to drink mojito.

Kentucky Dave 8:40

Oh wow. So just a pre-mixed mojito. What's is it like one of those five percent alcohol drinks?

Mike 8:52

I don't know. I haven't looked.

Kentucky Dave 8:53

Okay. Well, you'll have to tell us at the end of the day.

Mike 8:55

We'll tell us at the end of the time to look while you're running your mouth. You like mojitos?

Kentucky Dave 9:00

I like good ones, so we'll see if we see if we'll see if this is a good one. I'm I'm I kind of wonder about anything that's pre-mixed.

Mike 9:08

Yes. So we'll we'll we'll uh dissect it at the end.

Kentucky Dave 9:13

All right. So why don't we get into some mail?

Mike 9:16

We do. We got we got some good ones, a little lighter, but you know, we

Sherman Olive Drab In Tiny Scale

Mike 9:20

haven't had as many weeks to accumulate. So maybe this is maybe we're back to the normal amount. I don't know.

Kentucky Dave 9:25

Yeah.

Mike 9:28

First up is from Daniel Brewer. And he wants to know. Do we know where Daniel's from? We do not.

Kentucky Dave 9:37

Okay. Folks, be sure to tell us your geography.

Mike 9:41

But Daniel Brewer wants to know what color version manufacture of OD green do you recommend for a one to one hundred and forty-fourth scale Sherman doing Pacific War, a Marine Corps Sherman?

Kentucky Dave 9:54

You could do almost any color that is anywhere near OD, just simply because, especially in the Pacific, those things are subjected to salt and sun and sand and there are actually though, I'll tell you what, there are a lot of color films of Pacific Sherman. So, you know, now you're again you're going off of color film from 80 years ago or 70 years ago, but you know, that'll give you at least the idea of the fact that there were so many variations of the color. I don't know that there's one right OD. What OD do you tend to use for U.S. military vehicles?

Mike 10:48

I haven't built one in ages, but if you want a technical answer here, all the Shermans that rolled off the factory line in the United States were in the standard OD green. Right. Which has an FS number, and I don't know how consistent the color was, but it's gonna deviate and say it's it's for a new vehicle, it's not quite anything goes. It was probably it is a federal standard number. The Marine Corps, when they took possession of their Shermans, sometimes, and I don't know what percentage, and I don't know how often, but they were repainted in a darker color, a forest green, Marine Corps forest green. Sometimes it's called lusterless forest green, lusterless or flat Marine Corps green. It's a it's a different federal standard number. I have no idea what percentage of the vehicles were repainted between delivery and deployment or after. I I don't know. But to your point, uh depending on what kind of weathering you're gonna do, unless you're doing a new one on a deck of a landing ship or something.

Kentucky Dave 11:51

Right.

Mike 11:51

I don't know. I if you want to start with a darker color, maybe, but then again, you're you're you're in such a small scale, I don't know that's gonna matter too much. But if you if you want to go after this color, I know it exists in the AK real color line. And I suspect it it exists elsewhere as there. I bet Vallejo has one.

Kentucky Dave 12:11

I would bet too.

Mike 12:13

But it's just a little bit different color. I don't know how different.

Kentucky Dave 12:16

I've never seen them side by side, but uh see no, I did I had no clue that that the Marine Corps repainted some percentage. Was that just for their sermons, or did they work? I don't know. I don't know all their vehicles.

Mike 12:30

Maybe in all their vehicles.

Kentucky Dave 12:32

Okay.

Mike 12:32

Somebody may know better than me. I may be off base, but uh that's the way I understand it.

Kentucky Dave 12:37

Post that question on the dojo. I guarantee you you'll have somebody who knows backwards, forwards, sideways, and upside down everything the Marine Corps was doing to their sermons in World War II. So post it on the dojo, and I'm gonna I guarantee you you'll get a good answer.

Mike 12:57

At least one. Well, I asked uh John McAvoy for some clarification on the topic he thought we ought to consider. I'm still not gonna divulge it, but uh he had a little scale confusion. That was the that was the source of my disconnect from what he was asking.

Kentucky Dave 13:10

Oh, okay.

Mike 13:11

So we're gonna take this under advisement. It's an interesting one. We can talk about it offline, but we got to find somebody who actually does this. Okay. Would be the way to go. But thank you, John, for uh heeding my request to get back with me and help me out, help me understand. Now I do. So all clear. James Mirando has written in again. Uh he's remember he was the chairman and president of the Wine Country Model Club and their expo out there.

Kentucky Dave 13:37

Right.

Mike 13:38

And I guess we talked a little bit about better shows for modelers in episode 164.

Kentucky Dave 13:44

Mm-hmm.

Mike 13:45

And he was in he was struck particularly by uh you said it in 164, and I think one of us had said it before, but we never really anticipated the model show spotlights to become a vehicle for exploring what makes model shows worthwhile or different or memorable or whatever.

Kentucky Dave 14:02

Yep.

Mike 14:03

You know, it started his way just to promote shows with hope of driving a little bit of attendance, but uh that was probably a little presumptuous on our reach. Maybe not, but this new take is is a lot different, though. I think uh he says it deserves significant credit for helping drive the conversation. Well, we appreciate that.

Kentucky Dave 14:21

And and even though that was not our original intent, it's become a feature of the of the show Spotlight, where now we actually intentionally look for shows that may be a little different or shows that are doing something different, or even with the shows that we that we're familiar with, we always go out of our way to ask the the guys putting on the show, what are you doing? What have you changed? If you've changed something, why have you changed it? And like I said, not our original intention, but we are really pleased that it has gone in that direction.

Mike 15:07

Well, then especially in the last year or so, uh, we've been very intentional about seeking out shows that were run in alternate formats.

Kentucky Dave 15:15

Yep. And we're doing that uh as we speak.

Mike 15:19

We are. He also says, I made the comment about the whole point is the betterment and further furthering of the hobby. Yep. He liked that as well. And he says if that's truly the goal, then perhaps one way to evaluate a model show is not by tenants or vendor count or even a number of models on the table, but how meaningful the interactions it creates between modelers are. I I completely agree. How many conversations happened otherwise wouldn't have, how many techniques were shared, how many new friends or connections were made. And he says those things are probably difficult to measure, but they may be among the most important outcomes of attending a show.

Kentucky Dave 15:57

Yeah, I was gonna say that obviously it's much tougher to measure that, but I would I would also agree that that's probably a good metric for calling a show a success. Now somebody can just figure out how to how to quantify that.

Mike 16:18

I guess the slow roll would be more more shows adopting this kind of format. Yeah. If it gets popular, then there's your answer. He wants to appreciate your comments, Dave, about uh about seminars and their importance. Mm-hmm. That was a significant a significant part of the Wine Country Model Expo. And for exactly the reasons you mentioned, Dave, and there's still something uniquely valuable about being able to speak with or ask questions directly with another modeler in real time. So your point there was well taken.

Kentucky Dave 16:49

I am a big fan of the seminars, always have been, always will be. And like I said, YouTube, podcasts, all of that have been great for modeling, but there is nothing

What Makes A Model Show Matter

Kentucky Dave 17:05

quite as good as actually attending a seminar, learning from somebody in real time, and interacting in real time.

Mike 17:16

And finally, we'll say something about the our comments on the, especially the social aspects of this exhibition style style format. He says one thing they've observed is even small changes, such as name badges or grouping all the builders modelers together, can have an outsized effect on encouraging conversation.

Kentucky Dave 17:33

Yep, I agree. And and making name badges larger and getting them up toward people's faces. One of the criticisms I've had of the nationals, and you for that matter, Wonderfest as well, they use the lanyards, and so the names are hanging down around the belt buckle. And whereas, and and people who put on sales conventions and things like that will tell you you want a big name tag up by the neck and face so that you see the name as you're interacting with the with the person.

Mike 18:15

Better not pass out in the dojo, I'm gonna write Dave on your forehead.

Kentucky Dave 18:18

There you go.

Mike 18:19

That's okay. That's okay. Well, that was nice. And we didn't suggest you guys put on the show that way. You want you guys went and did all the work. We're just commenting on it and and and uh recognizing the value in it and trying to spread the word and and help pump it up a little bit because it's uh it's uh clearly working out well for for both Wine Country and uh Scott's group out in Rocky Mountain Expos.

Kentucky Dave 18:48

Well, and uh the other nice thing is getting this feedback. Oh, yeah. So not only are we promoting, hey, we really like the ideas, but then to have them come back after the show and say, this was really a success, this was really a success, you know, and then we go back to them the next year and say, What are you doing different this year?

Mike 19:11

Yep, that's true. Well, Jeff Adanich has written in again, he's from Cleveland, Ohio. Okay.

Kentucky Dave 19:18

Thank you for the geography, folks.

Mike 19:20

He he was the the B-17 family plane potential builder that kind of spawned your comment about building one, then you know how it went down.

Kentucky Dave 19:30

Right.

Mike 19:30

I remember a practice one, and then we had to a listener think that maybe wasn't that wasn't the greatest idea, and we had a conversation about that in the last episode. It was his grandfather who was a mechanic at an air depot in England. Um I guess where they they bring the planes in before they go to the go to the squadrons, probably.

Kentucky Dave 19:50

Right. He needs to have a conversation with our guests tonight.

Mike 19:54

Yes, that would be good.

Kentucky Dave 19:56

Well we'll have to hook those two people up.

Mike 20:00

Well, his experience in conquering these fear targets uh weaves a little into our conversation, he says, whether you should just jump right into a kit or practice first. And that was kind of the advice to give to the listener who was looking to ret or or who was returning to the hobby a couple episodes before that, because his his first email was in response to that conversation.

Kentucky Dave 20:19

Right.

Mike 20:20

This thing's got a life of its own, man. Just keep going. That's what we want. He says he just just has to jump into a kit, and uh jumping in is what will let you know what you're good at and what skills you need to work on. From that point, you have the opportunity to work on those skills on the kit itself or some kind of side quest, which kind of messes with maybe a practice a little bit.

Kentucky Dave 20:41

Right.

Mike 20:42

You can simulate and practice what you need to work on before getting the kit totally complete, which kind of gets into Steve Hustad's experimentation too.

Kentucky Dave 20:50

Right.

Mike 20:50

And he kind of uses both these methods. He says, Think Mark Watney and the Martian.

Kentucky Dave 20:55

Uh-huh.

Mike 20:56

Solve one problem, then move on to the next one and keep solving them long enough. And you get to come home. And yes, and you get to come home where you have a pretty nice model.

Kentucky Dave 21:05

Right.

Mike 21:05

He's working on some water and ground effects for a sci-fi unit he's doing, and a small scale 28 millimeter Continental Army dioram he's working on.

Kentucky Dave 21:15

Oh, cool. I love revolutionary war stuff.

Mike 21:18

So textured water and land bases haven't haven't been something he's done a lot of. And what he does is he breaks these down in like little two by two inch test plaques, does a little bit, see what he likes, and when he gets something he likes, he makes it a little bigger. See if it uh scales.

Kentucky Dave 21:34

Yeah.

Mike 21:35

And then just kind of goes from there. Rinse and repeat is needed. Failure is a part of skill development. You need to keep solving problems, and you say to yourself, I think this is going to work. Or as the engineer would say, That's good enough. That's good enough. That's right. He says the success does make modeling a heck of a lot of fun. So well, Jeff, thanks for writing back in and and giving us your your take on that. And uh all good. Stuff. I think we probably fall into the practice camp at this point.

Kentucky Dave 22:03

Yes. We're trying I'm trying more and more.

Mike 22:06

And I I did a lot of these little about two by two test plaques. When I was doing the groundwork for that little air fixed Bofers and Morris tractor I built.

Kentucky Dave 22:17

It's about time for you to do another one of those.

Mike 22:19

It is. Where did I get those things? There were four mica samples. Yeah. And they were on one of those beaded chains, you know, like a ceiling fan chain, that kind of that kind of chain. And there must have been 400 of them on there. Yep. And I got them out of a dumpster at one of my apartments I used to live in years ago. And I still have just scores of those things. But I made up a bunch of little I, you know, I've I tried a lot of

Practice Plaques And Learning By Failing

Mike 22:45

stuff before I got to where I wanted to go on that. So it's kind of kind of what Jeff was saying there. Yep. Well, my last email is from Orion Campbell, and he's from Kamloops, British Columbia.

Kentucky Dave 22:56

Okay.

Mike 22:57

That's a new one for me. I know where it is. Couple of things from episode 164. Tomia paints, the XF line are the best option for where he lives. And we all know they don't have a specific Four Bio paint in their line because it's a very limited selection in the Tommy line as far as paint lines go. It's on the small side. And he heard me talking about doing the color match and some bulk mix-up in the last episode that had come up with a good 4BO using equal parts of Tomia Paints. Wants to know if it's a top secret if I would divulge it. Well, I'll divulge it. And I'm also writing an article, short article on it that's gonna appear on the website eventually. But it's more about how I arrived there and the ratio is just kind of happy, just was just uh, I don't know, happy accident or happenstance. I don't know. It just kind of kinda worked out. So this color will get you in the ballpark. I would say this color will get you in the grass of the infield to make a baseball analogy. So you're gonna want equal parts one-to-one to one of uh XF4, which is yellow-green, XF-49, which is khaki, and XF58, which is olive green. And you're gonna mix those up, you're gonna get a a medium to light green color that's pretty vibrant. It's got a it's kind of skewed toward the yellow side of the spectrum. Uh and it uh it's a really good match for what I was trying to uh to accomplish. So I'll explain more of that in the article. And when that's out there and available, everybody will know about it.

Kentucky Dave 24:37

Yeah, and you've you happen to uh because of your other hobby, you actually have a number of items that have been painted in that particular paint color.

Mike 24:50

And I would say they're all closer more closer together than they are far apart. So if that makes any sense.

Kentucky Dave 24:58

Yes.

Mike 24:58

Well, and then you you had something else in that episode uh about undercoating your bare metal and future. Future, yes. And I guess the our our friends over on the Model Geeks had had a similar conversation at some point. Oh for natural metal finishes, and I guess they're using gloss black.

Kentucky Dave 25:18

Yeah, you could do that.

Mike 25:20

And he uh also can't remember if it's on an old sprue cutters union or on on Will Pattison's uh YouTube channel, but uh he had talked about I think gloss black or any gloss under natural metal. And I don't know if some colors will shift the the metal colors over them, I don't know. It depends on how opaque they are, I guess. But uh I guess these all let the metal particles kind of settle down on a flat, smooth surface, and you're gonna get a lot more metallized effect out of it.

Kentucky Dave 25:44

Right. And the the benefit that I see from it is that because anytime you put down a metallic surface, it shows every scratch and every flaw in the plastic and what the gloss either future or gloss black. In fact, I think Alclad actually makes a gloss black base for using under their their products. The the benefit of the future for me is it goes on the model, it's self-leveling. So what it does is it settles into those scratches and fills them, which means that when you go to put on the actual metal finish, you don't see nearly as much of the underlying sanding and filling work that that might have had to have been done on the kit.

Mike 26:46

And he mentions that too, and and I guess the point is that really the the technique shouldn't necessarily have to be married to future as a product, that any any any properly reduced gloss is going to do that leveling and filling.

Kentucky Dave 26:59

Exactly.

Mike 27:00

And all that. So other options out there, and I guess he makes the final point is why he's kind of curious. And the the colored undercoats is he's thinking about doing some kind of panel variations using different colors of gloss under the under the bare metal, natural metal colors, see what that does. I don't know what it'll do, if it'll do anything. It's gonna depend on the opacity of the of the metal finishes.

Kentucky Dave 27:22

Well, and that's kind of on the same theme as what you did with the not Cake, not Rouge. Paul. Paul, thank you. Get to that. Japanese float plane, yeah. Just couldn't get to Paul. You you did something similar with undercoating various panels in various colors to try and get some tonal variation on and break up the green.

Mike 27:50

And they were all I'd actually used, they were all to me of clear colors. Right. Which are really, really glossy in the end, but I wasn't doing a bare metal finish, so it wouldn't get that effect. But uh Yeah, it it worked pretty well. I think if I do it again, I'll I'll back off the top coat a little bit more and not obscure as much. But uh you can still see it. I mean, I I'm really, really pleased with the way that model came out. But uh again, that's not natural metal. Yeah. All right, man. Well, that is everything that's come in this this installment via email. What do you got from direct messages, man?

Kentucky Dave 28:24

Well, we've got f fewer direct messages just simply because we're recording so quickly after the other one. But our friend Warren Dickinson down in southern Kentucky,

Mixing A Tamiya 4BO Match

Kentucky Dave 28:35

who I got to go to Wonderfest with, emailed me. I put out the plea for organizational tips, and particularly organizational tips for strip styrene and tube metal and plastic tubing. We got a couple I got a couple of responses on that. One was Warren, who talked about making some dividers to stick in drawers like a custom-made flatware organizing tray that would go in a drawer that, you know, but instead of knives and forks and spoons, it's strip styrene, brass tube, et cetera, et cetera. And he also reminded me that he was the person who took me over to that booth and told me I had to see those glasses. So I should have given him credit for that. So and he gave me a little bit of heck about that. But thank you, Warren, for responding to that. And again, I'm gonna put that plea out there again. Model room organizational tips. A couple of people have sent stuff to me. Please keep sending it. I'll try and cull out the best stuff, I'll try different things and I'll report back on the dojo or or on the podcast or wherever. So please keep that up. Dave Goldfinch reached out to me because in an episode of On the Bench a while ago, he made a musical reference and I sent him an email, which he read on his last episode, tongue-in-cheek, go listen to the OTB episode to listen for the email. We had a little bit of fun back and forth, and then

Gloss Bases For Natural Metal Finishes

Kentucky Dave 30:35

he was he was DMing me, carrying it on even further, accusing you me of using five-dollar lawyer words. So I just said Aussie dollars. I just well, I just said he didn't have a very big vocabulary, but you know, hey. Two things. One, he said, yes, your pronunciation that you told me is indeed how his name is pronounced. So score one for you. Number two, he also sent me a series of DMs on organization. And I gotta say, both he and Warren and Steve Hustad are all much more organized than I am, and it shows, and it also shows in their modeling. So I do think there is something to being more organized equals being more productive. So I want to thank Michael for the tips. Again, folks, keep sending them in. I'm gonna do some of this stuff. I'm gonna experiment and I'll report back and hopefully we can all benefit out of this. Finally, on the DM side, Ethan Eidenmill sent us a very nice DM talking about, been talking about AI and technology and all of the changes in the hobby that are coming from various, not just AI, but various technologies. And Ethan sent in a really nice, uh, thoughtful DM at some length talking about, well, saying very nice things to us about how we handled the subject, but then talking about his view that AI is neither good nor bad. It is simply another tool. And how that tool ends up being integrated into the into the hobby will have pluses and minuses, but it isn't the AI, it's what what it's used for and what the result is that dictates whether it's a plus or a minus for the hobby. It was a very nice, very thoughtful DM. And I really, I really appreciated somebody who not only listened to the episodes and heard what you and I were saying, but actually put some thought, and you could really tell. I mean, like I said, this was this was not a quick DM, it was a thoughtful response. Somebody who took the time to actually think a little deeply on the subject. And and I've got to say, I very much liked his take, and I agree with it.

Mike 33:44

Y'all done?

Kentucky Dave 33:45

That was the last one, my man.

Mike 33:47

Well, that wasn't so bad. That was that was plenty, man. There were some good ones in there this time. No, there were. Well, folks, if you want to write into the show, please do so. You can send us an email at plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com, or you can send a direct message via the Facebook Messenger system, or you can use the feedback web link on the website or in the show notes for each and every episode. So keep them coming, folks.

Kentucky Dave 34:09

Um we really like them. And those particularly those organization ones. I'm really liking those things. Please keep those coming.

Mike 34:39

Well,

Mark Copeland Returns To The Show

Mike 34:40

hey, we got our old friend Mark Copeland, our new old friend, I guess, yes, back with us. Mark is the director of educational travel with the Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force down in Savannah, Georgia area. And he's gonna come tell us about the next season's worth of uh tours and travel he's got going on.

Kentucky Dave 34:59

And I can't wait to hear about it.

Mike 35:06

Well, Dave, we got an old friend with us tonight. Uh our booking agent for our show travel. And tonight we're gonna discuss how to make accommodations at major model shows. There you go.

Kentucky Dave 35:19

Actually, we're not. We have Mr.

Mike 35:22

Mark Copeland with us again tonight, who is the tell us what you are, Mark.

Mark Copeland 35:27

I'm the uh director of educational travel with the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force located in Pooler, Georgia.

Mike 35:34

Which is down near Savannah.

Mark Copeland 35:36

Correct. But I actually, uh truth be told, I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I work remotely.

Mike 35:42

I thought that was a South Carolina accent you had.

Mark Copeland 35:45

Oh no, no, no. No, I'm a I'm a Yankee. No, it's great, it's great to be with you guys.

Mike 35:54

It's it's uh we miss you, and it's it's been a few months since we've seen you, and we're not gonna see you until the national convention, but we'll get to that at the end of this. But uh well, you mentioned the uh Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. What's going on down there these days?

Mark Copeland 36:06

Well, thanks for asking, guys. Again, thank you for the opportunity to be on the program here tonight. And uh yeah, it's kind of almost a point now where it's what's not happening at

Museum Expansion And A Rare B-24

Mark Copeland 36:15

the museum. We were under a capital funding campaign for the last few years to uh put on a major, major extension and expansion project to the tune of just over $15 million. We've reached that goal and construction is underway. I was just in Savannah about uh about two weeks ago and had a full tour of the place, and it's absolutely amazing. Just uh really, really gonna be a special um uh you know expansion edition. And the museum is now celebrating its 30th year, and it's gonna get basically a complete facelift. Um, I'm gonna be involved in some of the uh the curatorial things on some of the displays and some of the content at the museum, and it's it's gonna be really something. So that's really the big thing going on. Uh we also we also just received we found a 1920s or early 30s vintage that's actually a German-built 48 boxcar that just was was brought over, came up the Savannah River in a container from Europe, and uh we are gonna put that in into an addition. We actually have we have documentation that it did carry at one time Allied airmen to trans in some sort of a transportation capacity, whether they carried eight Air Force crewmen to a style uh, you know, a loof stalog or something along that line, but it was basically used in in terms of transport uh of Allied airmen. That's gonna be obviously put into the museum and it's gonna be part of our our POW exhibit, which will be very powerful. Well, it's uh it's it's it's seen better days, but we're gonna leave it as is. It's not gonna be restored. We just wanted to leave it in the condition that it's uh that it that we found it. Uh the biggest thing though was we worked for probably close to eight years in and we were in competition with about uh seven or eight other museums throughout the United States down at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreeport, Louisiana. If anybody's been there, there's a there's the gate guards or the airplanes outside. And there was a uh a consolidated B-24J. It is the last surviving Ford-built Ypsilani, Michigan, will-ow-run, straight consolidated B-24J liberator left in the world, out of the over 13,000 that they built. The problem was that it was sitting out in the Louisiana sunshine and the uh the conditions down there and it was showing its age. So the Air Force decided that they they wanted to get it inside. So we uh we were the only the the only museum that that guaranteed that we could put the airplane inside our new expansion and and do it properly. So they signed off on it, and we're getting a B-24 Liberator, which kind of is like trying to find unicorn teeth. There's not a lot of them out there. And so uh we're really excited that we're we're getting a liberator to to join uh the city of Savannah, the beautiful B-17 G that we have.

Kentucky Dave 39:20

Well, my brother, I've got tons of pictures of that bird sitting out at Barksdale because my brother was stationed, he was B-52 Bombardier Navigator, stationed at Barksdale his almost his entire career. So I know the birds are talking about, and I am really glad it's gonna be restored and preserved inside because I mean it's such a pretty airplane.

Mark Copeland 39:46

It is. It's a it's a uh, like I mentioned, a straight B-24J. I can divulge that I think it's gonna be just uh an interesting visual contrast, in my opinion. Our B-17, of course, the city of Savannah, is in natural metal. Um it's a it's a uh late B-17G with the Cheyenne turret, stagger waist positions, etc. It's probably in terms of the interior and what we've done to restore it over the last 10 years, it's probably the most complete B-17 that's non-flyable in the world. All the turrets work. You know, it's an astounding restoration. And the B-24 is actually gonna be a contrast to that, and it's gonna be painted in a in an olive drab and neutral gray paint scheme. We're we're still you know kind of under debate on on what group we're gonna represent or the aircraft that we're gonna represent. There's there's a lot of different opinions, but we're doing a lot of research with some historians over in uh in England, and we'll we'll you know certainly you know that that'll be uh obviously a topic of social media, you know, when when the airplane is actually painted. So the airplane is going to be brought up to Savannah in parts, of course. We're literally gonna take one side off of the museum, the north side of the museum, uh to get the airplane in, and then it'll be a reassembled once the uh once you know the the restoration is is uh put to that point. So it's um if anybody's ever been to our museum, there's a thing called the combat experience where you basically go in and and fly a simulated mission, and it's very powerful. And once the you have this mission experience, you come out, the the two airplanes will be parked nose to nose, a B-17 Flying Fortress and a consolidated B-24 J Liberator. And that'll be really powerful. Really, really powerful.

Kentucky Dave 41:40

When is the museum gonna break ground on the explosion?

Mark Copeland 41:44

Or he has. Travel program. So they asked me to uh to basically compose this, and in their words, to compose it and make a dream trip. And so we start off with an Eighth Air Force tour, and that's been quite successful. That's our obviously our forte, but we've really kind of expanded. And just to go back to the original point, I mean our 2026 tour schedule, I mean in early October, actually the 4th through the

Behind The Wire And UK Tours

Mark Copeland 44:25

15th, we're examining something that nobody's ever done before. And it's such an important, important part of Eighth Air Force history. You know, not to not to get into statistics, but there was 26,000 Eighth Air Force Airmen killed in action during World War II. However, there were also 28,000 Eighth Air Force Airmen that were shot down or or went down and were captured by the Germans and the were put into Luft Stalags. So we're doing a tour to examine that journey called the behind the wire tour. And that's going to be in early October, the 4th through the 15th. We're starting in Berlin and just some of the highlights. We're going to Stalag Luft 1. We're going to Piedamunda, where the vengeance weapons were done. We're doing an extensive tour of Berlin, both World War II history and the Cold War. We're going to be going up to Rostock after that, and then those two sites that I mentioned earlier. Then down to Dresden. We're going to go to Colit's Castle, which is really cool. And then we're also going to a museum inside of the Czech Republic. On the 11th of September 44, the 100th bomb group lost 12 B-17s in and around that area in a really fierce air battle. And there's a museum dedicated to that battle and the history of it in a little town called Kolvaska in the Czech Republic. And then the last one that we're going to kind of crescendo with is we're going to Stala Guv 3. And of course, that's the site of the Great Escape, which is just unbelievable. Great curator, excellent museum. We're taking a lot of people that had had either a father or a relative that was there. I mean, they they have it so well documented. Of course, all the huts are gone. They've been gone for years. But the structures, as if you if anyone remembers like watching Masters of the Air or even The Great Escape, all the huts were elevated off the off the ground, except for the wash basins, the shower basins, those had to be on terra firma. But he's the they have such document, excellent documentation in terms of their records. If somebody you know mentions a name, my father was such and such, he can say, Oh, they were in hut number 118, bunk number seven. And I asked him, how can you get that detailed? He said, German records.

Kentucky Dave 46:43

Oh, yeah.

Mark Copeland 46:44

So um so that's really exciting. We also have another tour coming up called the Echoes of East Anglia, uh, which is immediately following that, the 21st through the 28th. And that is our kind of our patented tried and true Eighth Air Force tour. We actually start in London. We actually have a property at Windsor. We take you out to High Wickham, which is very hard to get into. It's a private girls' school. The significance of that is that it was Pine Tree. That was Eighth Air Force headquarters during World War II. And we actually take you to the point where you come in and you stand in the very office of Ira Akre and Jimmy Doolittle, and uh we explore the history of that and some other sites. We go up, we stay in Bury St. Edmunds, and we do what is it, a total of four four B-17 bases, two fighter group bases, and two B-24 bases in that time frame. And uh so that's that's what we got going for the fall of 2026. And then uh in 2027, to celebrate the fact that we're getting a B a B-24, and also to caveat on, I don't know if your listeners know about a biopic movie that's coming out actually specifically on November the 6th. It's a uh it's a movie called Jimmy. And what it is, it's a biopic about the life of the uh famous Hollywood movie actor, Jimmy Stewart. And so if anybody knows a little bit about that, he he enlisted in the air corps. He already had 400 hours of time by the time that he he went into flight training, and he he did 20 real combat missions with the 445th bomb group at Tibbeton and the 453rd bomb group at Old Buckingham. And anyway, after the war, Jimmy came home and he wasn't he really just didn't know how he was gonna jumpstart his his Hollywood career. And you know, he was at the top of the top of his game after winning the Best Actor Academy Award for the Philadelphia story when he enlisted. So he had been gone out of the out of the Hollywood spotlight, you know, for a good four years. So he was just kind of lost and really didn't know you know how he was gonna you know kind of kind of get back into the limelight or get get back into acting. And then along came Frank Capra, and he came up to Jimmy and said, Hey, I've got this script. I think you'd be perfect for the lead part. The character's name is George Bailey, and the movies called It's a Wonderful Life, and that's how he started his career again.

Kentucky Dave 49:12

And what's funny about that is that George Bailey plays the character of George Bailey is because of a disability unable to go into the military at the end of the day.

Mark Copeland 49:25

That's right. Yeah, yeah, there is kind of some irony there. Well, getting back to the tours, we're we're composing a thing where we're highlighting the B-24, and we're doing a thing called the second to none tour. And we're basing it once again in London, and we're gonna be staying in Norwich and exploring a lot of the B-24 bases in and around the area. Ketteringham Hall, which was Second Air Division headquarters, living in a very, very nice hotel in in uh in Norwich, and then we work our way back down to down to London and such. And then the other one that I'm really, really excited about, my I advocated to do this because I just thought nobody is doing this in the United States, and it's such an incredibly important time, not only in in world history, but certainly in World War II. We're doing a tour, this is next September 10th through the uh the 21st. We're doing a tour called a salute to the few. And it's a Battle of Britain tour. And once again, we're gonna start in London and we're gonna work our way down south, just the high points. We're going to Biggin Hill. Uh, we're going to Tangmir. We're going on Battle of Britain Day, which is the 15th of September. We're going to be at the Battle of Britain Memorial at Cap La Fern and attending that ceremony, the remembrance ceremony. And then we're going to Hawking, and then all the way up, we'll circle around London. We're going to stop at Hornchurch, and then upwards, uh, we'll be staying in Cambridge at this ridiculously nice hotel called the University Arms. And we're going to do, and we're going to Debden, which of course has a lineage to the to the 8th Air Force. Uh, it was a principal base for 11th group, uh, protecting the north side of London during the Battle of Britain, but it was eventually turned over to the Americans in late September of 1942 and was the home of the Fourth Fighter Group. The following day, which is probably the high point of the one of the high points of the tour, I've secured and got us gold VIP access and seating at the Saturday of the Ducksford Air Show weekend, which is going to be spectacular. So you're in a marquee, um, you've got special seating, and uh behind you is a full bar and buffet, and you can sit down and enjoy a nice pint and watch Spitfires and hurricanes fly around all afternoon. That's not a bad day. And plus that, you got the best seats in the house. There's no obstructions whatsoever in front of you. So it's a photographer's dream. And then we'll go back with once we finish that, we'll make a stop at Northwield. And we're also in in uh in London doing a couple Battle of Britain related sites. We'll go to Bentley Priory, which was Dowing's headquarters, the Battle of Britain bunker at Uxbridge. We'll be visiting Northwood Cemetery, where there's a section where it's all the Polish Battle of Britain pilots that were killed during during that time, including Yossi Franisek, who was the highest scoring uh Acer pilot in the Battle of Britain. Yep. And then after that, we're doing another of our eighth Air Force tours in 27. And then tentatively for 2028 in the spring, we're gonna do a thing called a 13th Combat Bomb wing tour. And if you if you loved Masters of the Air, like I sure did, like everybody did, this will be highlighting and featuring three major bases. The 95th Bomb Group at Horam, the 390th Bomb Group at Framlingham, and lastly, we'll spend a copious amount of time at the 100th Bomb Group Museum, uh Memorial Museum at Thorpe Abbotts. Out of all the tour groups that that go to that place, and obviously they've had a significant rise in popularity, we're their favorite group. They're the they recommend our our group the the most simply because as they put it, you guys get it. We we really make it, they they really roll out the red carpet. So if anybody wanted to really, really get into you know the the history of Masters of the Air and the Hundredth, but the bloody hundredth, you will get a better tour than what we provide. They actually take us over to some places that they normally don't allow other tour groups tour groups to go to. And there's a lot of kind of before and after experiences on it, and it's just great. And then afterwards, that when we visit that base, we uh we go to a pub that was kind of the local during the war. That's where a lot of the airmen and and the the the uh ground crewmen and so forth would go up and and and uh have a pint and visit with the local the local establishment and and then usually ride back to the base in the dark on a bicycle. And many times that was probably more dangerous than flying a mission over Berlin. So yeah, so that's our tour schedule, and it's it's really exciting. I I'm really proud of the of the things that we that we're doing and some of the things that are really out of the box, like the Battle of Britain tour, the the the second second to none tour, the POW tour that we have coming up this October. So it's uh it's pretty exciting.

Kentucky Dave 54:33

Now you mentioned that a lot of the people who take these tours are the children and grandchildren and other relatives of people who actually were involved, but they're actually open to anybody, right? I mean, anybody can can sign up. You don't have to be anything. We have uh an interest in the in the subject.

Mark Copeland 54:59

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, going back to our hobby, you know, just as far as the you know, the the uh path to liberation tour, the Normandy tour, which goes October 28th till November 5th, that's a Thursday. And I don't know how this happened, but it's just such a coincidence that you know, right after that tour's finished, your your tour leader was going to be heading north, and I'm gonna go to Telford. What a good idea. Isn't that funny?

Kentucky Dave 55:30

What a coincidence. Isn't that amazing? And I am certain that if any modeler happened to be on that tour, I think they would follow you to Telford or uh join me or what may have you. In fact, uh you would lead the way.

Mark Copeland 55:43

I've done that a couple times

What Makes These Tours Different

Mark Copeland 55:45

with folks, good friends in Wisconsin that came came on a tour, and then I I I actually, well, I don't mess around, I just rent a car and go. And uh we went up to uh we went up to Telford, but yeah, there's there's trains and ways to get up there. But if you if you've ever had a dream of going to that that show, I love the IPMS Nationals here in the U.S. It's fantastic. It's one of the things I look forward to the most out of the year. But going to Telford is it's the IPMS Nationals on steroids. It's it's incredible. Incredible. And they really celebrate the hobby, I think a lot more than what we do here in the United States. They they aren't so f fixated on competition and the contest and things on that nature. They they really have a lot of things where you know groups will display like special interest groups and particular clubs, and it's really a it's really just a really positive, almost kind of a party atmosphere, and it it's just a whole different, a whole different vibe. And of course, the vendors, well, needless to say, those are deadly. So anyway, yeah.

Mike 56:52

Well, you mentioned it, and I think we need to go back. You actually missed the Path to Liberation tour when you're talking about 2026.

Mark Copeland 56:59

Yes. Did I mention? Oh, yeah, that's our that's our oh gosh, thank you very much. I apologize. Yeah, going back to uh this fall, um a path to liberation is our Normandy tour. And we don't start the the tour in Paris or anything in France. We actually start that tour in England, and here's the reason why. It's it's not easy to get into, and I'm sure because of the popularity right now, it's it's a little bit more difficult, but we've got great friends. So we start off our Normandy trip by we have a property in Windsor that's about 20 minutes outside of London, and we stayed there for the first night. The next day we get up, we load up the bus, and we head down south and we go to Portsmouth, and we go in to Southwick House. And if anybody has seen the recent movie Pressure, if you've seen the movie, that's great, but we take you there. It's not easy to get into, but we actually go into the actual place where the the map room is is still located. It hasn't been touched since 1944, and we have a fantastic curator that does a great lecture, and then uh we actually go into the the room where the actual decision was made by Eisenhower, and we start our D-Day tour by having a champagne reception in that room. And then we leave and we head down towards Kent and down towards Dover in a beautiful manor house that we stay at for the night. Then the next morning we get up, we do, we're going under the channel, we take the channel over to the Padakalais, drive down to a chateau that is ridiculous called the Chateau Saint-Gilles outside of Bayou, and you'll get an experience where you'll go to all five beaches. We do the airborne museum at Saint Marglies, then we go to Lafir Bridge, we go to the Normandy Institute, we go to Pegasus Bridge, we do the D-Day experience, the Overlord Museum, probably in my favorite out of that trip, and the most special thing is when you walk into the cemetery, the American cemetery at Colaville Samir, if you let it, it'll it'll change your life. It's just unbelievable. And they allow our group in regards to not only just all the servicemen and women that that lie in rest there, but sp more specifically, you know, the eighth Air Force veterans that lie there, and they allow us to do a special reflaying ceremony, which is very, very obviously very emotional, very meaningful, and very powerful. And so, and then once the tour is concluded, we'll we'll go right back the way we came. And we we are going actually up to the pad of Calais, and just for the experience, we're gonna go over and take the ferry across so you can get a really nice panoramic view of the of the White Cliffs at Dover and the like. And then we actually go right back to Windsor where we started and and then folks go home from there. So a lot of people or go to Telford. Or go to Telford, exactly. And a lot of our a lot of our uh guests come in a couple days early, or they want to stay a couple days late to goof around in London. Uh, we can guarantee getting the group rate at that at that hotel, or we'll make arrangements to get you into into central London to take a few days to see the city a little bit more completely. We also, you know, in regards to our visits to London, I'm good friends with the uh retired director of the Churchill War Rooms, and we do a thing, we don't do just a normal tour off the street, so to speak. We have a specially guided tour by one of the museum specialists, and they do a thing called a behind the glass tour, and they open up the doors and we actually go inside the cabinet room. Uh-huh. Uh, the broadcast room, when actually we're which was Churchill's, that was Churchill's bed uh or his bedroom there. He only slept there like four times during the war. He didn't he didn't like sleeping there. Uh he liked to stay stay up in uh kind of where the action was, so to speak. But yet, and then we also go into the communications room, but just going in into those those amazing pieces of history, and not only visually do you see it, but what what what the smell is like and and you know what it what it sounds like. And you know, it's just it's just an incredible experience. And then our last thing that we do, we go to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is obviously one of the most famous buildings in the world, let alone one of the most, you know, you know, obviously the most well-known churches in the world. Behind the high altar in in St. Paul's is the American the American chapel. And guys, I have no idea how this happened, and I can't guarantee it, but it's happened on our last, I think our last five tours. We go back into the American chapel on our tour, and contained in that in that little area is this thing called the American Roll of Honor. It's this enormous book that was commissioned by Dwight Eisenhower and presented to the church in 1946. And what it is, it's this a big book that alphabetically names all those Americans killed in action in defense of Britain during World War II. And they have it in this massive, massive glass case. So when I first started to develop this tour, I said, I I've got to have a knockout punch. You know, we we live in four and five-star hotels. We eat and drink very well and and uh live the high life. But when it really comes down to looking at all this history, what was what was the cost? And I could think of no other place to go than St. Paul's. Every day since 1958, when that book was dedicated, except for Christmas and Easter, they open up the top of the glass case and they turn a page. And you know, all those names on those pages was it was a human being, was a human life. It was certainly this a son, a husband, you know, a cousin, a nephew. It was a human life, and and probably the reason in there in that book is they their their life ended way too short, and they they gave everything in regard to regards to the ultimate sacrifice. It's very emotional for our folks. And so we started off to where the verger that that does it um uh uh just turned a page and we got a chance to witness that. Now it's gotten to the point where they allow each of our tour participants, if they wish, to turn a page in the American Roll of Honor in St. Paul's Cathedral. How that happens, I I don't know. Um I have no idea, but it's every good tour or gana. Yeah, or well, we've just made great friends there, and you know, they they understand the sincerity and the passion that we have, or I I I at least try to emulate that to them, and uh we've just made great friends, and it's an experience. You know, they they actually take the the book and they they push it all the way to the front and open up the cover, and there it's signed by Dwight Eisenhower. It's crazy, it's nuts. And like I said, it's it's just a really special moment and certainly a lasting memory for a tour participants.

Kentucky Dave 1:04:08

If somebody wants to take one of these tours, yeah, how do how do they go about doing that?

Mike 1:04:14

Well, let's back up a little further than that. You you mentioned some good things here, but uh including what Dave just asked. You mentioned the behind the glass tour and Churchill's War Room, St. Paul's Cathedral. There is a host of companies, large companies, all the way down to some individual boutique service providing tours like this. What makes the tours from the Museum of the Mighty Eighth different than the rest? Why should you take your tour?

Mark Copeland 1:04:45

Um Yeah, I'm very proud to answer that. I think we can go back a little bit in regards to, I know there's a lot of listeners that, oh, I had a my my grandpa flew in the 8th Air Force, my dad flew in the 8th Air Force, things on that nature. And one of the things that sets our tour apart, and I'm very proud of this, I'm very, very proud of this. We have to remember that in the timeframe that we have in terms of the scope of the tour, there were 40 heavy bombardment groups at the peak of the 8th Air Force. 40 heavy bombardment groups, 15 fighter groups, two reconnaissance groups, and they all had their own airfield. And some of them, you know, switched airfields two or three or four times. So it's just virtually impossible for our tour to, you know, to go to all of them unless we did it 24 hours a day and looked at a lot of the air bases at night. We just can't do it. But I know how important it is for some of our tour participants to say, you know, my my dad flew out of in the four forty seventh bomb group at Rattleston. And we have certain times in our in our schedule where I've I've I've you know put in uh you know, like a free morning or or you know, you certainly can't, you know, do do tours, you know, for ten hours a day because after about three days you're gonna lose the interest of of the tour participants. You gotta give some leeway and some alone time, especially you know, you know, when you want to explore a city or something like that. I guess the point I'm making is that we have enough latitude in our our tours where I can make through friends or contacts or I'll just do it myself. We have a bus available like say as an example when we're at Duxford and oh my dad served at the 303rd bomb group at Molesworth. Well I've got a tour bus sitting there and a driver and he's sitting there for about four and a half hours you're not going to get a chance to see all of Duxford maybe that you wanted to but what's more important you want to go see where your dad your dad's airbase or look at old airplanes. So I take a lot of pride in the fact that we can take some time to personalize it and if it works if it doesn't work out any other way I just rent a car in Bree St. Edmunds or rent a car in church in uh in Cambridge and then and then go from there. So every single every single time that we've had a tour and we've had a tour participant that had a a loved one that served at airbase or served a bomb group or fighter group that's not on our itinerary I've gotten them there. One way or another I've gotten them there.

Kentucky Dave 1:07:19

Do you now do you when people sign up for the tour do you actively quiz them to say yes do you did you have a relative who was it?

Mark Copeland 1:07:30

And and do you tell them where their relative was exactly okay and most of the time they they they will will you know answer that question and when I contact them I'd said you know I I don't know if you know you have an interest in this but would you like to go to your father's airbase? Well that's not on the tour. Yeah I know but would do you want to go to your father's airbase because I can make arrangements and make it work. And yeah I mean it's it's really I just take like I said a lot of pride in that because it's important. You're you're you're in the neighborhood you spent all this money to come all this way and you're not going to get a chance to see where your your dad or your or your relative served in the 8th Air Force that's that's almost criminal. So um we we take a lot of pride in doing that. And what makes our tours different is we just really you know places like I mentioned like Debden the Churchill war rooms St. Paul's Pine Tree no other tour operators doing anything like that. And the when I sat down I and and composed this I thought how what would I really really like to do if I was in a you had an interest in the 8th Air Force and it's just kind of grown this you know kind of organically kind of grown over the over the uh the span of the tours and they just keep getting better and better and uh it's it's great. You know we stay in very, very nice hotels four and five star properties there's beer and wine that's served with all the lunches yeah you're responsible for very few dinners or very few lunches all the breakfasts of course are included in the morning and I actually the very few I don't want to call them complaints I'll still I'll say comments that we've had one of the comments that that I guess would be kind of put into a negative tone was the comment was we eat too much. Oh okay all right yeah I guess we'll we'll on vacation you're supposed to eat and we also get you get a chance to meet you know it's not a it's not a look through the the bus window type of tour you get out and we we have a a great uh great friends that are guest historians and then of course when you visit the bases I I I like to call them the flame keepers because they they literally keep the flames and the memories of of the airmen of the eighth air force and and and uh that served you you get a m a chance to meet with the English locals and and that's a great experience and also you know I won't go into prices you know you can you can find out that all that stuff on our website but what to make it affordable we actually we just ask for like a thousand dollars down and then you can pay in increments or basically make your own payment plan. The only thing we ask is that the tour is fully paid for before you walk down on the concourse to board the airplane that's fair you know so we can make it really affordable for people and then we also can make accommodations that I mentioned earlier you know for post-tour options to extend the tour or to come in early and we also when you you know a lot of a lot of concern for people is how do I get from the airport to the hotel well we don't do the thing where you know everybody has to arrive and then we get on a bus and go to the hotel we just make it simple for folks our the hotel when you arrive is only 20 minutes away it's directly across the street from Windsor Castle and you're right in the high street of Windsor it's a beautiful city and the the hotel that we have called the McDonald Windsor Hotel it's a really nice boutique hotel and like I mentioned it's about 20 minutes away and what we do is that you'll come out in arrivals and there's Marks with a with a sign with your surname on it and then we line you up with a private car and a private driver and you kind of feel like a rock star welcome to England and you're sitting in the back of a Mercedes E class driving on the other side of the road so um it's a nice it's an it just takes all that all that stress or anxiety out of it and people love it. And we do the same thing going back to the airport we just make sure that you you'll get there about three hours prior to your departure time just in case there's any any hiccups or any delays with security or anything like that and we've never had a problem. So that it just takes the like I said it just makes it easier for folks. So I guess to answer your question that's that's kind of what makes our our tours

How To Sign Up And Nationals Plans

Mark Copeland 1:11:56

a little bit different.

Kentucky Dave 1:11:57

Now I'm assuming since you're dealing with a lot I mean obviously we're getting fewer and fewer veterans given the ages but a lot of children of veterans so you're dealing with a wide age range.

Mark Copeland 1:12:11

I assume that your tours are very accommodating to older folks who might not have quite the if you say oh you know I can't walk that far or do anything I mean we we don't take you on you know you know there's no there's no calisthenics in the morning or anything like that. No we uh uh we we're very aware of that and if you just obviously give us a heads up ahead of time that you've got some mobility issues or some challenges we'll do whatever whatever it takes we we always carry a wheelchair on board just in case we need it right there's no really major walking involved when you go to the Battle of Britain bunker at Uxbridge you have to go down about 76 stairs and unfortunately you got to climb up 76 stairs but it's not a it's not a sprint it's a it's a it's a nice slow run if you will um there you you go up 10 steps there's a plateau you go up another 15 steps there's a plateau you know if you got to catch your breath um we've never had an issue with anybody saying you know I need to go to the hospital and get uh resuscitated from from that experience and you know that most of the places are there's some uneven ground some grass and things like that that you have to walk on but for the most part everything is flat and we we pretty much give door to door service you know on on most of the sites and things on that nature. So it works out great. And we have all ages uh we've had grandchildren great grandchildren families that's really fun when they make it a you know a a real memory a family memory in in honor of their their late father or grandfather or what may have you that's really special because you know when you're when you're standing in an airbase and and that's where your dad went to war and you know that that was his youth and it certainly affected his life and he he served our country and uh gave us everything that we have today and you stand there obviously it's very emotional for people and you know that's that that makes my job really really special I love it.

Mike 1:14:18

All right man well that's a lot of information.

Mark Copeland 1:14:22

Well thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell folks about it. You know how do how why why are we talking about tours on a on a on a model a plastic scale plastic modeling web you know podcast I think there's such a correlation. I mean all of us you know in terms of if you're if you're a modeler you know more than likely you've built military models and we're all trying to create something in a 3D miniature but also we're also trying to recreate accuracy and and and and kind of more or less preserve history and if you're if you're working on a you know a HK B 17 and you're doing the hundredth bomb group and you can actually pick an airplane and then go you know to the to the actual area where that airplane was parked on a hard stand and it just make to me it just makes the modeling s experience so so much more expansive and so much more enjoyable just because you know you've you've stood there and it just you know when you when that model is finished it just to me it just has a lot more significance because you've reached out and you've touched the history of that aircraft or the or that pilot or that crew. And in a way you're kind of honoring them by building that model. And so that's the you know that's why I think it's just important that that people are aware of these things and and they have this this incredible opportunity to to not only just uh get a chance to to understand and and view history but then also bring it back to the model bench. So there you go.

Kentucky Dave 1:16:01

If somebody's interested in one of these tours how do they find out more how do they sign up how do they inquire?

Mark Copeland 1:16:08

Well the our website is www.mighty eighth that's mighty as in like Mighty Mouse Mighty 8th which is a plural e-i-g dot or g but you can look you can google it National Museum of the Mighty 8th Air Force and then it's under educational travel programs and before she passed away I asked the widow of Roger Freeman to preserve his memory and our tours are named in his honor they're called the Roger A Freeman tours and uh you can look under that and then they have great itineraries very visual doesn't really hold back any secrets and and you can actually see you know what we're doing and then most importantly look at our reviews look what people say about us. We've never had anything short of a of a five star review people really love our product and we get a lot of a lot of people that are they come back you know for a for a repeat or go on a different tour. You can certainly reach out to me my telephone number is area code 912981842 that's on the website or email me at mcopeland at mighty8.org so I'll be happy to answer any questions. Also going to talk about what's coming up here in about six weeks I think we're going to Fort Wayne boys aren't we yeah we are and it's no coincidence that we let you make our accommodation arrangement. Yeah again well we have a professional we know how to tap those skills I don't know how difficult that is but the uh you've all tell me how much I oh yeah yeah exactly yeah we're we're gonna be sharing a room uh with my dear friend Steve Hewstead from here in the Twin Cities and I'm sure if you're a a regular at IPMS conventions you know his name by now because he's a phenomenal modeler and then we've got a gentleman coming in from Melbourne Australia Mr. Paul Gloster who's been a guest on on the program he's actually flying into Minneapolis and we're gonna drive down to Fort Wayne and meet up with you guys and then you're bringing Mr Goldfinch the pod father um he's coming into town so we both uh as you put it we both have our Australian trunk monkeys that's right so yeah I just hope that I just hope this year you'll let you'll let Gloucester ride in the car instead of making him ride on top of the car. He's he's the best I love the guy so much and uh we we just met chance on a chance meeting I was in England at a uh at a show in uh Milton Keynes and we just got to talking over a paint rack of mr mr hobby aqueous and one thing led to another and we met each other in Omaha and then down in San Marcos and he's kind of joined the family and as you've put it so many times you know we we haven't known we have not known one another for a very long time but I uh I consider you guys as dear dear friends as I do Paul and Steve and it's just such a joy that we we all share this wonderful passion of this hobby but we also just have a lot of fun together. It's it's the best year the it's the best time of the year like you say Dave.

Kentucky Dave 1:19:26

It is and you know the funny thing is we met we met Gloucester the exact same way it was at Roscoe Turner and Mike and I I think it might have been the first year Mike and I went to well maybe with the podcast and we just ran into him and you know he's one of those people that you meet him and you're immediately his friend.

Mark Copeland 1:19:48

I mean it I knew that the second I met him I'm gonna have you're you you and I are gonna be friends for life. And and yeah we we build plastic models but he's like you like like you gentlemen and and uh aforementioned Steve and and Paul there you all are just very quality human beings and they're just people that that I want to have in my life. And so we're very very lucky. Yeah we're very very lucky.

Kentucky Dave 1:20:12

So we we appreciate it and I'm gonna start to cry yeah there you go don't don't don't do that man I can't wait it's six or seven weeks and we're gonna all together it's gonna be fantastic oh my gosh how am I gonna I hope I just have enough to get through Edward that's all and for everybody who's listening if you have not pre-registered for the convention time is running out please go to the website please pre-register for the nationals right now.

Mark Copeland 1:20:44

Yep yeah it's at the I believe it ends at the end of the month I think you were saying right David then you uh yeah then you got to show up and stand in line while your buddies are cleaning out Edward exactly why waste good modeling time that's right exactly yeah or good vendor time yeah no doubt exactly so well guys thank you so much for the opportunity and to all to all the listeners I I really appreciate your time and listening to this you can tell that I'm obviously very passionate about what I do for a living and I I I thank God every day that I have this opportunity because I think he that's kind of one of the reasons he put me on the earth was to share my passion and my knowledge about the Eighth Air Force and take people to these amazing historic uh places and and honor those 2600 eighth Air Force airmen that never came home.

Mike 1:21:37

Thank you very much. Well Mark thank you for joining us again it's been a pleasure having you back and man we had a great time with you and Steve and the gang at at HeritageCon we look forward to seeing you again here in a few weeks at Fort Wayne Indiana from National Convention and we're just gonna have a have a grand old time man.

Mark Copeland 1:21:53

Yes we are absolutely boys and thanks again for the opportunity and I'll look forward to seeing you uh very very soon here I love you guys that all sounds great I wish you could go on all of them.

Kentucky Dave 1:22:07

Me too yes I my my wife

Giveaway Tease And Sponsor Notes

Kentucky Dave 1:22:11

has actually suggested we go on one so that's that's kind of created a permission structure that's right that's created a permission structure for me so I may end up having to do that. I always love having Mark on. He's just uh you look up Gregarius in the dictionary you find a picture of Mark always a pleasure to talk to very well informed always has great stories and you know it's a good cause anything for any of these museums anything we can do to get the word out for them I'm more than happy to do.

Mike 1:22:50

Well there's a little more and folks will get more information on what I'm about to tell you in an upcoming short I don't know when we'll get it out but Mark's segment has spawned a uh a giveaway opportunity for us.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:23:02

Yay uh Mark had some involvement on a kind of a coffee table book capsule history kind of thing on on the men and machines of the eighth air force and uh we're gonna be giving away a copy of this book so stay tuned folks we're gonna get a a a short episode out kind of like we did with the uh the B-24 kit giveaway yeah and remember our first giveaway of of the year hopefully when we last we're kind of behind on these yes we need to get this rolling so stay tuned for that we got a a real nice book we're gonna give away 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 check out their wide selection of kits and supplies including a growing range of squadron's own line of paints and 3D printed kits and accessories mark your calendar for April 2nd through April 4th 2027 and join squadron and the Chattanooga Scale Modelers at the Chattanooga Model

Bench Updates And Smarter Masking

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:24:06

Con Eagle Quest 2027.

Kentucky Dave 1:24:08

Squadron adding to the stack since 1968 well Dave I can smell the paint fumes through the microphone I know you've been doing something well good I can smell them and I don't even have to get to smell them through the microphone. Yes I have been I've been painting I took the T33 I applied future on it and laid down the base coat of bare metal which it's gonna be an Indiana Air National Guard bird from the 1950s as you can imagine at the time bare metal I used a dull aluminum Alclad dull aluminum is the base coat and now I'm gonna start paneling one of the listeners quite a while ago and I don't remember who it was so if you're out there listening email or DM and say it was me it was me but in in some interaction quite a while ago somebody turned me on to the fact that you know post-it notes yeah and people use post-it notes for masking all the time yeah did you know that 3M actually makes tape that is nothing but post-it note adhesive no I didn't know that neither did I until whoever it was DM'd me or emailed me or interacted on the JoJo and said hey try this because I think I talked about using post-it notes to mask something and you know post-it notes you're always cutting them or they're getting it away because they're you know never they're they're always the wrong shape or whatever or the wrong size and so I picked up some of this 3M post-it note tape and I guess it's about an inch inch and a half wide it comes in various widths as you would imagine and so I'm going to be using that to to start the paneling process. So I'll report back and again if you're the person who told me about it please DM me or or email me to let me know that it was you and I'll give you proper credit.

Mike 1:26:34

Now is it adhesive back to edge to edge or is it just got a strip along one edge of it like a post it note edge to edge to edge. Okay so it's solid adhesive on the back.

Kentucky Dave 1:26:45

Exactly okay that could be contagious exactly my thought because you don't have to worry about flo a post-it note flopping or not being down covering and getting some spray up under or so I haven't used it yet I'm just about to where'd you get it? God I think I got it off Amazon.

Mike 1:27:07

Okay.

Kentucky Dave 1:27:08

Which is easy enough it's a space Lord Bezos gets more of my money than I I care to think about. So oh and in addition to the T33 I have been I think I mentioned the Ukrainian company Art Scale Kits ASK makes these resin Japanese zero engines in 72nd scale that are insanely finely detailed. Yep and I I got several a number of months ago and I primed one and was just stunned at it. And so the other day when I was sitting here on the bench and I didn't feel like doing anything else I pulled it out and I started painting it. Detail painted and it's a real challenge. It's a kind of a good practice for me and my tremors and all of that because it is insanely detailed, and you are painting very tiny details. But I started painting it and I'm having fun, and boy, it looks good. It looks good. I cannot wait. I'm gonna have to do another Japanese Zero just because of this. Just because of this engine. So the Zero has moved up my build list yet again. Frankly, I need to be like Barry Numeric and have a Zero in production at all times. So and other than that, the Hellcat is completely oiled and it's ready for bits and bobs and a satin coat and peeling off the canopy masks, and it'll be done. So it should definitely be done for nationals.

Mike 1:29:03

We'll see. You say that every year, man.

Kentucky Dave 1:29:05

Yeah, I know. I know. We'll see. We'll see. Hey, don't pick on me. What's your bench been like?

Mike 1:29:13

Uh I got my little fuel drum strap repaired that I was needing to get fixed on the KV-85. And what else did I do? I did some cleanup work on the tow cable ends. I got to looking at those again and wasn't too happy. They're who made those? Eureka made those. They're like copper wire and then they've got resin cast loops on the end of them. Mm-hmm. Well, there's bad mold seam on the inside of those things. So I I was working on that with some Mr. Surfacer, trying to get that cleaned out. And also tried to use some blackening fluid on the copper, see what that would do.

Kentucky Dave 1:29:49

Mm-hmm.

Mike 1:29:50

Yeah, I didn't I didn't like the results of that.

Kentucky Dave 1:29:53

So you think you're probably just gonna go in and I'll just paint them, yeah. Paint it steel and then go back and I don't know.

Mike 1:29:59

I'll I'll figure something out.

Kentucky Dave 1:30:00

But uh Where do you know were the tow cables left unpainted or were did they just spray them?

Mike 1:30:08

Probably sprayed them once barely and went from there.

Kentucky Dave 1:30:12

And then every time they got used, the paint got rubbed off or it started rust, started rusting.

Mike 1:30:20

And they may have been oiled to keep them from rusting. I don't I don't recall, but I did do a little work there. I think I touched up the primer and resprayed a few areas. I think I talked about that last time, but that's about it. It's been it's been slow. It's been a lot going on around there still, but uh slowly getting it getting it back to the bench and knocking out a few things.

Kentucky Dave 1:30:42

Well, be between cars and launching things into space and recovering things from space and hiring people and hiring people. You've you've had you've got you've got and uh getting prepared to move your youngest out. I'm going through that same thing too. I I'm I sympathize, I completely sympathize.

Mike 1:31:07

And you know, it's that warm weather time of year, so it tends to tail off in the summer for a lot of folks, me included.

Kentucky Dave 1:31:15

Yeah.

Mike 1:31:16

But I'm plucking away at it. I need to get on it, man. I need to do some more work. I've managed to not start anything new.

Kentucky Dave 1:31:24

Well, that's good.

Mike 1:31:25

That's good. So uh I need to get some green paint on the KV before I even think about that.

Kentucky Dave 1:31:32

Yeah. Yep. You've at least got to get into base color before you're allowed to start something new.

Mike 1:31:38

Well, that's all I got.

Kentucky Dave 1:31:40

Okay. Better than nothing.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:31:46

Model builders know bases by Bill for innovative display solutions for any scale model project. Bases by Bill creates custom hardwood bases with engraved or full-color placards that include text, unit emblems, and national insignia for the perfect finishing touch on your next aircraft, armor, or ship. And when your aircraft project is complete, show it off in style. Choose from aircraft carrier decks from World War II to the modern era or airfield style bases that showcase any aircraft. With contest and show season

New Kits And 3D Print Surprises

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:32:21

here, Faces by Bill can also craft your club's major awards, plus 123, or gold silver bronze. A wide range of styles and options are perfect for clubs of any size and budget. Visit basesbybill.com because there's always something new at Faces by Bill.

Kentucky Dave 1:32:45

Lots of new kits and accessories are coming out. It's the summer, but the new kit announcements and the detail parts and all that, they're coming in hot and heavy. So what have you seen that you've liked or has made you scratch your head?

Mike 1:33:04

These are all kind of in between this time, man. They're all kind of just fill in blanks for information that if we've been curious about with some of these makers, and some of them are just novel, even though they're not something I I might want to build. First up for me is a a company going under the name YARK Y A R K Yet another resin kit.

Kentucky Dave 1:33:27

Right.

Mike 1:33:28

They've come out with some Cheyenne tail turrets for uh both the Hong Kong models and the monogram B-17s.

Kentucky Dave 1:33:37

Yeah.

Mike 1:33:38

And what I found interesting about these, because I'd never I've never really looked. This one was put right in front of me because it's at the top of the list on uh Scalemates recently. At the top of that turret is one piece of clear 3D printed resin. So you mask the windows and after you got it installed, right? Right. I just thought it was really interesting that uh it was a 3D printed piece.

Kentucky Dave 1:34:07

Clear 3D printed.

Mike 1:34:08

Clear 3D printed. Yep. Uh because I've I've yet to lay my eyes on first person something that's printed with the current state-of-the-art printing uh in a clear resin. I'm just curious uh if anybody else has, because I think I've at least known something about some of these being in some other kits, some other makers' aircraft kits in particular. But this looks like a good solution if the clarity's there. Now, granted, some of those things had a really thick glass in them anyway.

Kentucky Dave 1:34:40

Right.

Mike 1:34:40

Well, they did, armored glass, essentially. So I don't I'm not sure how how clear it looked from the outside looking in at a distance anyway.

Kentucky Dave 1:34:49

Well, and that's an area of evolving technology. You and I have talked about 3D printing before. In fact, I I know a new 3D printer is somewhere on your list, maybe not up as high as it used to be.

Mike 1:35:03

No, not as high as it was for the car crap, but uh I don't know, we'll see.

Kentucky Dave 1:35:08

We'll see. But uh the the evolving the evolution that's taking place, a in 3D printers, but b in the chemicals that make up the resin. I mean, we've seen leaps and bounds just in the last four or five years. I have to assume that's gonna continue.

Mike 1:35:30

Oh, it'll continue for sure.

Kentucky Dave 1:35:32

Even if it's not quite there now, I would bet that clear 3D print resin is gonna be pretty dang good a year or two from now. And it may be uh perfectly adequate today. I don't know. And it might. What you got? Well, this is one I've kind of previously mentioned. One of our favorite manufacturers, SBS out of Hungary.

Mike 1:35:56

Yeah, I wonder if they're doing this.

Kentucky Dave 1:35:58

They're doing could Hasegawa has done several versions of the in 70 second scale of the F2A Buffalo. Well, SBS is doing upgrades for the Hasegawa kit. They did one to do one version and announced it a number of months ago. Well, now they've just announced two other conversions for two other versions of the Buffalo. And I I I just know from uh having a number of SBS items, yeah, the quality that is involved. And so I cannot wait to see these in person, and I know as soon as I see them, I will buy them. I mean, it's inevitable.

Mike 1:36:53

Well, my next one's from Blast out of France. Okay. They've made a lot of armor accessories and stuff in the past, traditional mastering and resin casting up until recently, apparently. This is one of those we're in the golden age of modeling kind of kits. Now it's a 3D print this time from Blast.

Kentucky Dave 1:37:14

Uh-huh.

Mike 1:37:15

But it is a Killinger and Freund streamlined motorcycle in 35th scale. Okay.

Kentucky Dave 1:37:24

What is that?

Mike 1:37:25

It is a front wheel drive motorcycle that was developed in Germany in the 20s into the early 30s. Again, it's front wheel drive, so that makes it really unique.

Kentucky Dave 1:37:40

Right.

Mike 1:37:41

Uh what makes it crazy is it's it's got streamlined Art Deco design. So it's got big swooping fender skirts on it, and the the whole chassis got a very fluid shape to it. There's a real famous photograph of a GI sitting on this thing when they found it.

Kentucky Dave 1:37:59

Now, were those were they actually used by the German military?

Mike 1:38:03

No, it was a civilian civilian.

Kentucky Dave 1:38:05

Civilian gotcha.

Mike 1:38:06

And I don't know that it ever went into serial production.

Kentucky Dave 1:38:10

Gotcha.

Mike 1:38:10

But it's just this crazy, crazy motorcycle. It looks like a Buck Rogers motorcycle. That's what it looks like. But I I was just thinking that was golden age, man, because I don't this is something that would probably not have been kitted in 35th scale. Now, you could maybe see it had been kitted in some motorcycle scale, but I don't I think I looked at the the history on the subject on scale mates, and this is the only kit that they had they had a record of ever being kitted of this thing. So kind of crazy.

Kentucky Dave 1:38:43

That is interesting. I'll have to look at that.

Mike 1:38:46

Yeah. Got another one?

Kentucky Dave 1:38:48

Yes, I do. Now this one's kind of interesting. I like the HE177. I have a number of the kits of the Revell kits, which is a really good kit, and I have a lot of accessories for it. And CMK many years ago made HE177 wheels. And I have a set, they're very nice resin wheels. Well, they have announced new, which they show as new, not repop. They've apparently remastered the HE177 wheels and have re-released them or released a new version. And so I'm interested in these because I want to pick them up and compare them to the resin ones that I have that are at least 10 years old. So I kind of want to see how they compare side to side. Yeah.

Mike 1:39:51

How about you? Well, I was gonna say, are you sure the CMK wheels you bought originally are still the same dimer they were when you bought them?

Kentucky Dave 1:39:57

We'll we'll see that. Yes. They were very good. I have them. I know right where they were. I've actually painted them.

Mike 1:40:05

Are they still around?

Kentucky Dave 1:40:06

Yes, I they are still.

Mike 1:40:08

I've had some of their armor stuff in the past and uh Right.

Kentucky Dave 1:40:12

Resin over time seemed to be an issue.

Mike 1:40:14

Yeah. Something uh had changed by the time I got around to thinking about using it.

Kentucky Dave 1:40:19

Yep.

Mike 1:40:20

Uh my next one, we we talked, I don't know, last episode of the time before that, all that vague dragon announcement. Right. And then it was put out that Zimi models had taken possession of some of their tooling.

Kentucky Dave 1:40:35

Right.

Mike 1:40:36

And they then there was that one kit that was released under this name Drami, which was the apparently the name they were going to market these X Dragon things through. Well, they've dropped seven, seven models, I think. Seven or eight of these new acquisitions, and and looks like the first tranche of these are the all the King Tiger kits.

Kentucky Dave 1:40:58

Oh well, okay.

Mike 1:40:59

And then Hanumag SDKFZ 251 Type C, and then one of the American half-tracks. I can't remember which one, but they're you know, they're the still dragon, they're the dragon kits.

Kentucky Dave 1:41:09

Right.

Mike 1:41:10

But we'll see where this goes, which ones they actually got. But the first seven or eight are are on announcement now. So if folks were fans of these, there you go. You got them back.

Kentucky Dave 1:41:21

Well, it'll be interesting to see what upgrades slash changes that they've done.

Mike 1:41:26

Yeah, it will be. I I didn't even think of that. I didn't dig into them too deep, but I you know, I just saw all the box art and it's like, oh great, King Tigers.

Kentucky Dave 1:41:36

Ooh, Panthers. Uh my next one is a company I've never heard of. As you know, I'm an armored car fan. Yeah. And I gotta say I like the Russian armored cars particularly. There's a company called Lancer Model that I have never heard of in 72nd scale, has announced a BA3.

Mike 1:42:03

Okay.

Kentucky Dave 1:42:04

And looks really interesting. Now I've got to think in 70 second scale, that's gonna be not that big.

Mike 1:42:14

No, it's gonna be not not much smaller than that fly hog BT7.

Kentucky Dave 1:42:19

Exactly. So interested to see it. I like the subject. I've never heard of the company before. If anybody, by the way, has a kit from the company called Lancer.

Mike 1:42:33

Where are they from?

Kentucky Dave 1:42:34

That is a great question to which I do not know the answer. I just assumed Easter or Ukraine or or somewhere in Eastern Europe, but I don't know for sure. Okay.

Mike 1:42:50

Well, my last one kind of throws an interesting light on this whole Dragon Zimmy Drammy thing. Okay. I think it was before the Zimi models sell-off was announced. Dragon, under that last branding thing they did, that Mono X. Yeah. They re-released a few of their kits.

Kentucky Dave 1:43:14

Yep.

Mike 1:43:15

Announced they were redoing that type 2 Kami amphibious tank, the one that drops the front and back end once it gets to shore.

Kentucky Dave 1:43:22

Mm-hmm.

Mike 1:43:23

Coming out from Dragon.

Kentucky Dave 1:43:25

Yeah. So I saw that.

Mike 1:43:28

What's going on? I if if if that one gets in front of me, I'm probably gonna buy that one. That one interests me. That one's kind of cool. But uh are they in or are they out? I don't know. Maybe the answer is yes.

Kentucky Dave 1:43:41

Yeah, right. Well, it's a developing story. We're not going on unlike some people, we're not gonna speculate. We're just gonna say it's out there, let people know, and as the story develops and facts come in, we'll tell you what we find out.

Mike 1:43:59

Or we'll all learn together on Scalemates. What's going on?

Kentucky Dave 1:44:03

Well, you got any more? I got one more. By the way, Lancer is out of Russia.

Mike 1:44:08

Oh, and one out of Russia too. I'm not even gonna use it.

Kentucky Dave 1:44:12

Yeah, well. Oh well. Um, finally, and this is kind of a twofer, Arma has released their ME262. I've mentioned it previously. They just announced a new version of the ME262 with the GR21 air-to-air mortars under the nose. So we're getting that version, which is great because I want to see all the ME262 versions released. And on that subject, IBG has just recently announced that they're doing the ME262B trainers and night fighters. And so again, yay! So can't wait. And I'm the those are definite faves for me. I'll be picking up all of those.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:45:08

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by Model Paint Solutions, your source for harder and steambeck airbrushes, David Union power tools, and laboratory grade mixing, measuring, and storage tools for use

Ratings, Clubs, And Model Sphere Links

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:45:21

with all your model paints, be they acrylic, enamels, or lacquerers. Check them out at www.modelpaint solutions.com.

Kentucky Dave 1:45:33

This is the point in the episode where I ask you when you're done with the episode, please rate us on whatever podcasting app you're listening. Give us five stars. It helps us to drive growth. Additionally, if you have modeling friends that don't listen to Plastic Model Mojo, please tell them about it. Tell them that you like us and encourage them to listen. And if they need a little help, learning how to listen to podcasts, please show them. We appreciate it. It's the best way for us to get new listeners. Thank you.

Mike 1:46:11

And check out the other podcast out there in the model sphere. And you can do that by going to www.modelpodcast.com. That's model podcastplural. It's a consortium website set up with the help of Stuart Clark from the Scale Model Podcast up in Canada. And man, I hope we can hear more from them sometime.

Kentucky Dave 1:46:25

I need to reach out to Stuart.

Mike 1:46:28

Stuart has uh aggregated all the banner links to the active and inactive, I think, podcasts out in the model sphere. And you can go to modelpodcast.com and find them all. One stop shop. And we've got a lot of blog and YouTube friends out there in the model sphere as well. We got folks like Panzermeister36, Evan McCallum, who hope we see at Nationals.

Kentucky Dave 1:46:48

Yep.

Mike 1:46:48

He's got a great YouTube channel. Stephen Lee, Sprue Pie with Fretz, great blog, great long and short form content there. You're gonna really like what he's got going on, a lot of 70-second sale content. And if you if you don't get enough there, visit the Jeff Groves, the Inch High Guy blog. Almost entirely 70 seconds scale. He just finished that little Polish uh riverboat. Yes, he did. And I I did look at his Russian batch build.

Kentucky Dave 1:47:12

Yep. And he also just posted today the Kriegs fish cutter. Uh oh, that's right. I saw that. 70 second scale uh uh German trawler, and that thing is just a pallet waiting for people to do things with it. So it was nice to see him build it up, and I can't wait to see what else he does with it. Well, I happen to know some of the things he's doing with it, so you'll you'll just have to keep looking at his blog.

Mike 1:47:44

Speaking of blogs, we got Chris Wallace, model airplane maker. He's got a blog and he's got a YouTube channel and does a real good job. So go get your bare metal finish information there, Dave. There you go. And finally, Dr. Paul Budzik Scale Model Workshop. You can check out the latest from Dr. Paul on Patreon and some of it on YouTube, but you should subscribe to his Patreon channel. It's it's worth it.

Kentucky Dave 1:48:06

If you are not a member of IPMes USA, please join. Join your national organization in whatever country you happen to live in. They're a great organization made up of volunteers who give up some of their time to try and make the modeling experience better for everybody. Also, if you are into armor or post-1900 figure modeling, the Armor Modeling Preservation Society is for you. It's a great group of guys who are dedicated to the art of armor and post-1900 figure modeling. Check them out. My Dr. Pepper didn't disappoint. Of course, it never does. The alcohol by volume on on my Dr. Pepper is 0.0. We don't want to talk about the sugars and carbs, but it's good. And if you want to do something really interesting, put a little in a pan and heat it up and taste it heated. You'd be interested to see what you think it is or what it tastes like.

Mike 1:49:21

They used to advertise it that way back in the did they really?

Kentucky Dave 1:49:24

I didn't know that.

Mike 1:49:25

Or whenever it came out.

Kentucky Dave 1:49:28

I did not know that. I'll have checked that out. I'll have check the history out a little more. So how was your mojito? This is carbonated ditch water. So what's the ABV on the ditch water?

Mike 1:49:41

Five. Five percent.

Kentucky Dave 1:49:43

I think those things are limited to five percent, though, so they can be sold.

Mike 1:49:47

And I bet the sugars are not far off your Dr. Pepper.

Kentucky Dave 1:49:51

Probably not.

Mike 1:49:52

I'm gonna need a need some fillings after this. Are you too? I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna finish this.

Kentucky Dave 1:49:56

Okay, I was gonna say, you are you telling me that this is a A quality mojito?

Mike 1:50:02

No.

Kentucky Dave 1:50:02

Okay.

Mike 1:50:03

I bet it's not. I bet if you line up all the canned mojitos, this one's probably bottom. Probably near the bottom, I guess. I don't know.

Kentucky Dave 1:50:11

Okay. Well, okay, listeners, if you want Mike to do a canned mojito taste test in the future.

Mike 1:50:18

No.

Kentucky Dave 1:50:19

Right? Darn it. No, not doing it.

Mike 1:50:22

No, this was uh going on vacay, clean out the fridge. What have I got?

Kentucky Dave 1:50:26

Okay. Well, darn it. I thought I guys, I thought I thought I could get

Final Drinks And Shout Outs

Kentucky Dave 1:50:31

him to do something. Apparently he's cut me off at the past.

Mike 1:50:35

So, you know, I was trying to lock step with you till you get to the point where you can have a little modeling fluid again. Next episode. Okay, well, I'm gonna get something good because uh I tried to cheat and it didn't work out. Oh well karmic.

Kentucky Dave 1:50:50

Okay. So now say the brand again so people don't go out and buy this thing. All play.

Mike 1:50:58

All play. Whatever, man. All right. Not good.

Kentucky Dave 1:51:08

Mike, we're at the end of the episode. Do you have any shout-outs you want to shout out?

Mike 1:51:15

Well, I want to shout out Mark for coming back on and giving us a spiel on all the tours. That was a lot of fun. And uh for being our travel agent for nationals.

Kentucky Dave 1:51:24

Yes. And not only for nationals, he did it for HeritageCon as well.

Mike 1:51:29

That's right. Well, for his for his entourage. Yes. Other than that, we just got to shout out all the fine folks who've uh contributed to Plastic Model Mojo through their generosity. Folks continue to do that, and it's much appreciated. If you'd like to join the ranks of the contributors, you can go to the support the show link on the website, and you'll find all the Patreon, PayPal, buy me a coffee links there. Several avenues that you can do that.

Kentucky Dave 1:51:53

And uh I'd like to also shout out Mark. Thank you for coming on. Mark, you did a great job. I'd also like him, like to thank him for promoting the museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. Mike and I, in addition to supporting shows, we want to support museums, particularly less well-known museums. We obviously do we we do the one with Winter Blitz, the Museum of the American GI that hosts Winter Blitz. Obviously, we have Mark on to talk about the Eighth Air Force Museum and the tours. If you are associated with a museum, particularly if uh you're associated with a museum that supports a model club or whatever, please reach out. Mike and I would we'd love to support and advertise the museum to help help people know more about them. Additionally, I want to thank everybody who has responded with organizational tips. Please keep those coming in. Thank you very much. All right, man. That's all I got. That's all I got, too. Why don't you get on to vacation? You know what they say. So many kids, Dave. So little time, Mike.