Superabundance In Plastic Modeling: Episode 166

The hobby is drowning in great choices right now, and that’s both a gift and a trap. We talk through what “superabundance” really looks like in modern scale modeling: a flood of high-quality plastic model kits, aftermarket decals, 3D printed parts, and specialized paint and weathering products that would’ve felt impossible a couple decades ago. Using examples like the suddenly crowded field of 1/72 P-40B kits, we dig into why the golden age of modeling is real, and how it can still leave you stuck staring at options instead of making progress. 

We also share listener-driven updates and community news as the IPMS Nationals get closer, including travel plans, meetups, and the behind-the-scenes effort it takes to host fellow modelers while your house and hobby room are mid-remodel. On the community side, we’re pushing toward a better home for long-term reference content, so great builds and tips don’t disappear into the Facebook timeline. If you’ve been following the Dojo build content, we also talk about improving visibility and inviting more Q and A with builders. 

Then we go hands-on with one of the most common problem areas in aircraft modeling: clear parts and canopies. We cover practical techniques like using a micro razor saw to avoid cracking brittle clear plastic, choosing the right adhesive (and why some “clear” glues can still be tricky), and how careful sanding and test fitting before you glue can prevent gaps you’ll hate later. We also debate the big workflow question: when to attach the canopy, and how the answer changes depending on the kit and whether it’s posed open or closed. 

If you enjoy these kinds of deep-dive shop talks, subscribe, share the show with a modeling friend, and leave a quick rating or review. What’s your best tip for avoiding choice paralysis and keeping your mojo on the bench?

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Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 0:11

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

Kentucky Dave 0:46

Well, I am busy. How about you?

Mike 0:49

Uh not too bad. I was busy at work this week. One of my new hires started and uh had to do all that stuff.

Kentucky Dave 0:57

Well, I've been busy at work, but then I've also been busy getting ready for guests to come in for the gnats.

Mike 1:08

So I'm trying to get

Nationals Prep And House Chaos

Mike 1:10

won't you tell us what's up in your model sphere then? Because that sounds like if that's what that is.

Kentucky Dave 1:14

That is a big part of the model sphere, is the Nats are, I guess, three and a half weeks away right now.

Mike 1:23

Sounds about right.

Kentucky Dave 1:24

And we've got some modeling guests coming in. The Podfathers flying in from Australia, and then Dr. Geldmacher's coming up from Alabama, and it's possible that Evan might come down to Louisville.

Mike 1:43

Oh, okay.

Kentucky Dave 1:44

So we're not a hundred percent sure about that. So what that means is I've got to get all the guest rooms ready, clean. And the problem is we are in the well, I won't say the middle. We're toward the very, very end of our main bathroom remodel.

Mike 2:06

Gee, it's taking a while, man.

Kentucky Dave 2:08

It has, which is okay. I'm perfectly fine with that. They've done a great job, it's wonderful. So we've had a lot of shots stuff stuff shoved into the guest rooms while all this has been going on. So now I'm trying to get it all back rearranged, ready so that when people show up, I'll be able to feed them. I'll be able to have a place for them to sleep and a pool to sit out and drink beer by.

Mike 2:39

All right. Sounds like the pool's the easy part of this.

Kentucky Dave 2:41

Well, yeah, except my motorized floats, three of my four motors died. So okay. Yeah, that's that's not great.

Mike 2:49

But back to Timu.

Kentucky Dave 2:51

That's that's okay. We'll we'll be we'll we'll be ready when you show up, hopefully, and hang out at the at the house.

Mike 3:01

Yeah.

Kentucky Dave 3:03

At least one day before we head up toward Fort Wayne.

Mike 3:06

I hope so. I hope so. So anything else?

Kentucky Dave 3:09

Well, the model room remodel continues. I finally got the computer swing arm thing figured out. It only took me four different attempts.

Mike 3:21

Yeah, you talked about that last time.

Kentucky Dave 3:22

Yeah, to get it to it work, where it worked. And so I've got that going. I'm moving in books and other stuff, and I'm making room, and I've got a table that, speaking of Timu, I've got a table that I need to put together and bring into the model room while everything else moves out. I've continued to reorganize my paints. I'm getting lots of great suggestions from listeners, and they've been really helpful.

Mike 3:52

And I've you can get into that in a special segment.

Kentucky Dave 3:55

Yeah, I will. And I've really enjoyed all the help, and I need a lot more because I really need to get just get them to come over and do the heavy lifting. Yeah, there you go. Maybe I'm getting listeners to volunteer and come and just do the remodel for I don't think that's happening. I really don't. So, what's up in your model sphere?

Mike 4:14

Well,

Dojo Builds And Website Upgrade

Mike 4:15

a lot, finally. Good. First off, I want to mention again, we had the short segment announcing the 98th book giveaway. Oh, yes. We're we're getting entries for that. And again, we've asked listeners to submit an email or direct message to us with uh shop talk questions or things that might be appropriate for the wheel of accidental wisdom. Again, you can do that via email or direct message, and uh we'll be taking those those uh suggestions and emails and DMs through the entire month of July and shut that off after the 31st, and then we'll draw a name and give this book away.

Kentucky Dave 4:51

And maybe the winner, hopefully, the winner will be at the nationals, and we'll be able to take a picture with the winner uh at the at the show.

Mike 5:01

That's right, with the with the uh signatory to the book.

Kentucky Dave 5:04

Yes, that's right. He'll be there too.

Mike 5:07

In addition, I wanted to remind folks that we've been dropping chapters to Ed Barrett's 132nd scale dauntless build on the dojo.

Kentucky Dave 5:15

Yes, and those things have been amazing.

Mike 5:18

They have, and Ed's put a lot of effort not only into the build, but in into the sharing aspect of this.

Kentucky Dave 5:23

He has.

Mike 5:23

And and I dropped the ball a little bit, well, more than a little bit, just some too much was going on.

Kentucky Dave 5:29

Well, you have a car blow up in the middle of things, yeah.

Mike 5:32

Yeah, among other things. It just wasn't comparable to the work you'd put into it. So we're we've got a few more chapters to go, and uh we're gonna change that. And another part of the problem is is it is on Facebook.

Kentucky Dave 5:46

Right.

Mike 5:46

So I can make an announcement, and unless I like promote it every other day, it's just gonna roll off.

Kentucky Dave 5:52

Right. Which which we have a solution for.

Mike 5:56

We do, we do coming up to get to the point. He he'd he'd like to interact more with the community regarding this build. So if folks got comments or questions, go ahead and send those in. And if we get enough, we're gonna get Ed back and uh kind of do a topic round table with Ed about this build.

Kentucky Dave 6:14

And that would be neat because I mean there's so much to it, both what he did, construction, painting, etc. wise, but also just related to the Dauntless as well. I mean, that's uh you you could talk endlessly about it.

Mike 6:31

Go check out what on the dojo, what's already there in the files section, and there'll be some new ones, and you'll see an announcement for those. And uh, we're gonna do a better job of pro promoting this. And as Dave alluded to, we have a solution for this, and uh hopefully some of this content will be moving to a new place that's a little more permanent, a little more accessible for everybody.

Kentucky Dave 6:48

And a lot easier to find.

Mike 6:50

And a lot easier to find, which is my third bullet on my outline for what's up in my model sphere. Our website update is in review phase. We've been getting some preliminary content up in this, and nobody can see it yet, but uh to just kind of get get a feel for the thing work, how it works, and how it's gonna look, any changes we might want to make to it before we go live. Uh the developers got to get me trained on the the management side of it, and and I'll I'll do the same for you, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 7:16

Yes.

Mike 7:16

And we're hoping to go live with this this month. It's gonna be tight, but it looks possible. We'll see. It's gonna depend on a few things, but uh we're really close. That's the that's the bottom line, is we're really close. So looking forward to getting that out there.

Kentucky Dave 7:29

And then and we're we're real excited about this, folks, because really I love the dojo and I love all of the stuff on the dojo, but by the nature of Facebook, the there's no object permanence to it, and it's just so hard to find something that you saw previously. Yeah, unless you save it. And there's so much good content that we are getting on the dojo. We want to, we wanted to come up with a solution to to make it more permanent, to make it easier to find, to turn it into a a useful reference for the listeners, because you all have done so much for us, and you by contributing all this really good stuff. We want to we want to honor that.

Mike 8:23

That's my model sphere, man. I got that's plenty. That's plenty.

Kentucky Dave 8:26

That's that's good. That's good.

Mike 8:28

It's better than the last two episodes.

Modeling Fluids And Beer Talk

Mike 8:30

Well, maybe maybe three. There you go. Hadn't heard that in a while. Is that a fresca?

Kentucky Dave 8:37

No, it is not a fresca, nor is it a tap. I have been cleared to to resume modeling fluid consumption, and so tonight I am having from Mendoza Brewing Company out of Indianapolis Mortal Wombat. And this is part of a series of beers we were given at Amps. Yep. And I we were given it by the father of the man who is the brew the master brewer at Mendoza, and I don't remember. I apologize, I don't remember your name. It it I had it and I lost it, and it's my fault. So if you're listening, please reach out, send a DM, send an email, and we'll mention it. I appreciate it. The other neat thing about these beers is they benefit an animal care society. They did a series of these different beers and different styles with different names, and part of the proceeds from the sales of the beers go to an animal care charity. So hang on. Oh, that's good. That is very good.

Mike 10:01

It's uh Yeah, I thought they're all pretty good.

Kentucky Dave 10:04

Yep, so that's good. Well, it'll get me to the end of the episode for sure.

Mike 10:09

Those are pint cans. It's been a while for you.

Kentucky Dave 10:11

I know, I know. I'm diving back into the deep end of the pool.

Mike 10:15

Yeah, let me text Ruthie just when you fall when you fall out to take a picture before she scoops you up and takes you to bed.

Kentucky Dave 10:22

Yeah.

Mike 10:24

So uh, do you have a modeling fluid, Mike? I do, Dave. What do you got? It's also in a pint can. Okay. And it's red, white, and blue. Oh, that's gotta be a molson. No. It's not a Molson.

Kentucky Dave 10:39

It was a joke. Come on.

Mike 10:41

It's not a modello especial either. It's a Paps Blue Ribbon beer, man. I'm on the I'm on the uh I'm on the bottom rung tonight.

Kentucky Dave 10:50

Oh my lord. Is this leftover from July 4th?

Mike 10:54

Yes, it is. Yes.

Kentucky Dave 10:55

Okay, because I know you have a kind of masochistic tradition on July 4th of drinking PBR due to due to its red, white, and blue nature.

Mike 11:08

That's it. That is correct.

Kentucky Dave 11:10

And and I wouldn't be surprised if the beer actually tastes red, white, and blue. Because it certainly doesn't taste like beer.

Mike 11:19

We'll talk about it later.

Kentucky Dave 11:21

All right.

Listener Mail On Tools And Events

Mike 11:23

Yeah, we got some listener mail to talk about. Good. First up, Bob Bear, the voice of Bob, the voice of Plastic Model Mojo, sent us an email. He's from Charlotte, North Carolina, in case everybody forgot, about AI. He appreciated our discussion. I can't remember which episode he was referring to, because this is well, it could have been one of many. And he he talks a lot about it being a tool, and and a lot of similar comments have been made, but I'm going to skip down here. He's used AI for all sorts of things to create PowerShell scripts, create research paper outlines. If you did your research paper on that, Bobby won't tell anybody. Even reword voiceover work he's done, and even modeling. And for the modeling example, he says he's terrible with knowing where to start with paints. So you gotta give in color or something, and you're you're trying to replicate it where to start. Sometimes it's easier than others, but sometimes it's kind of hard. For a recent project, he wanted to know where to start with the color of the tires on his SR71. And he saw some suggestions, but he decided to see what the AI would do for him. So he dumped a bunch of good photos into Gemini, told him what paints he had, and asked it how to replicate the color, and it spit out some suggestions. And he proceeded to start there, and he was able to get a color that he was satisfied with rather quickly, even though he still had to do all the work and fine-tune it himself with his old eyeballs. At least he had a starting point. So he's got a new protocol for starting paint matches using AI.

Kentucky Dave 12:52

That's a that, you know, and the thing is I never would have thought of that as an AI use, but it makes perfect sense.

Mike 13:00

I guess, I guess so. I I've not I've not done anything like that, but uh there's another another thing for folks to try.

Kentucky Dave 13:07

As far as AI goes with this stuff, I think you're only limited by your imagination.

Mike 13:14

Up next, I think Blacksburg, Virginia, Rock Rozak.

Kentucky Dave 13:20

Yeah.

Mike 13:20

Is that is that right? Is he in the Hokie Hokie country? He is he is hooky hookie. So, of course, Detail of Scale has another book. Yes, on the A7. A7 Corsair II Part 2. Yeah. Color and Markings of the A7 Corsair II, U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet Squadron and Test and Evaluation Facilities, and Color and Marking Series, Volume 10. This is going to be $16.99 for the digital version on Amazon, Apple, Google, and Kobo. And the print edition can be had for $25.99. Covers 17 active duty fleet squadrons and three Naval Reserve units and VAQ 34, the Pacific Coast Test and Evaluation Facility.

Kentucky Dave 14:03

Yeah.

Mike 14:04

Squadron historical summaries and unit marketing evolutions and more than 300 color photographs and illustrations. So looking forward to that one, Rock.

Kentucky Dave 14:13

And there are a lot of people that really have a soft spot, a soft spot in their heart for the A7.

Mike 14:24

Yeah, I'm one of them.

Kentucky Dave 14:25

It just, I don't know what it is. There's something about that aircraft that a lot of people just really, really like.

Mike 14:33

I think it's it's the proportions of it. It's it's it's it's uh I don't know.

Kentucky Dave 14:39

I can't being an F-8 fan, the A7 always looked wrong to me. But I think that has to do with me being an F-8 fan.

Mike 14:49

Probably.

Kentucky Dave 14:50

But uh yeah, no, there are a lot of people with the same opinion as you, man.

Mike 14:54

Will Woods from York to Saskatchewan is written in again, Dave, and uh he wants to say he finds YouTube to be extremely useful and has saved his butt on many occasions, and even playing around with a channel of his own, which is something to do in a winter in Saskatchewan, that's probably a good idea.

Kentucky Dave 15:09

Yeah, and you know, it's only nine months long, right?

Mike 15:12

That's right. He said, however, nothing beats a seminar that allows for the exchange of ideas and meeting new and old friends. So it's uh basically it's a note skewed toward our uh conversations of late uh regarding seminars and helping beat the drum for those at some of these various shows we've covered in the model show spotlight.

Kentucky Dave 15:29

Yep, I agree. I mean, I I I am a huge fan of them.

Mike 15:34

Well, Will, if you launch a YouTube channel, surely let us know, please. Yes, absolutely. You've written in quite a bit, and the least we could do is help kickstart that thing and point people in the right direction. Well, we talked about bucket list travel, Dave. Yeah. David Pye in North Somerset, UK, has written, and they have excess accommodations for in Telford for the next scale model world. Oh my. And he has offered us accommodations, which is very nice of him. One excuse, Gone.

Kentucky Dave 16:07

Yeah, I know. I know. It's we've gotta go. I mean, there's just literally there is no excuse for us not going.

Mike 16:17

And airport shuttle to and from. He's not offering to pay for the flights, though, but uh I can even ID 90 the flights. Well, David, thank you, thank you for the for the overture there. And uh, I don't know, we'll let you know, but this year's probably gonna be tough, a tough call for me.

Kentucky Dave 16:35

But uh Yeah, well Ted to I think you and I have both had some expected and unexpected expenses this year.

Mike 16:44

Uh we have, but this just goes to show the generosity of the community. Yes, no, no, and uh willingness to uh maybe he feels like he knows us. He's been listening to the show for a long time, but we've never met face to face, so that just makes this all that more special.

Kentucky Dave 16:59

Yes, it does.

Mike 17:00

Now Ron Smith has written back in. Uh, he was the guy, the retiree from a NASA and GF GSCF, uh GSFC, let me get that right, down in uh Huntsville metro area, which we got to talk about that too.

Kentucky Dave 17:13

Yeah.

Mike 17:14

Basically, the second one was it was from my private reply back to him. All that stuff I said about O.D. Green, the Marine Corps, and all that last episode.

Kentucky Dave 17:25

Yep.

Mike 17:25

Yeah, just everybody just forget all that. I was enunciating out my posterior a little bit. I thought I'd looked up enough to give some general guidance, but probably not the best advice I've ever given. And I apologize for that, and I'll do better next time. But you know, one thing, I mentioned some FS colors, which actually didn't exist till 1957, so um the referencing that was just a total gaff.

Kentucky Dave 17:52

Um Well, I'm that that we there that there are plenty of modelers, and there's plenty of modeling where now we reference World War II colors by their closest FS equivalent, even though at the time that didn't exist.

Mike 18:09

And the source I was looking at probably had probably done that as well. And that's that's that's what set set me down that path. Yeah. Um he goes on, and and it's gonna get to seminars as well. I can't remember, but he he mentions the uh OD seminar that was put on at the NAS last year.

Kentucky Dave 18:25

I don't know if I don't think I saw that.

Mike 18:27

I don't know if it's gonna happen at at Fort Wayne again. See if it gets repeated. Yeah. Um it just just kind of crazy.

Kentucky Dave 18:35

You know, the seminar list is out there. I know It is.

Mike 18:38

I need to look too.

Kentucky Dave 18:39

I need to print it off and and start circling.

Mike 18:42

Well, the the short of it is that uh there's lots of color systems out there, and even during World War II, OD was a little more complicated than I was giving it credit for. So good advice on the seminar. I don't know if that's out on the web anywhere that somebody could find. I may dig into that. That's a great question. Because now I'm curious myself. And he he uh also recommends we check with Jeff Hearn through Squadron, and then also the guy at Hampton who to do the seminar, so which wasn't which wasn't Jeff Hearn, right? But with someone else. I can't I can go back and look at the the Hampton information, see if I still have that.

Kentucky Dave 19:16

But uh Oh, I'm sure I've got it somewhere.

Mike 19:19

I will talk within my authority next time. How about that?

Kentucky Dave 19:22

It's all right.

Mike 19:24

Thanks, Ron. I appreciate the the information. We've asked people to chime in if they're gonna go be it Nats.

Kentucky Dave 19:31

Oh god, I've got a lot of those in the DMs.

Mike 19:34

Yeah, I do. So Scott Huber's one of those, but he also sent in a really interesting suggestion for something for us to for something uh something for us to do at the national convention. I like the idea. We can talk about that in the coming week, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 19:47

All right.

Mike 19:47

But Scott, thanks for letting us know. Oh, you'll like this one. Okay. It's from the Dixie Flyer, man, Warren Dickinson.

Kentucky Dave 19:54

I like them all, man.

Mike 19:56

So what what's Warren up to now? Well, Warren heard you to mention about Clearprop's 72nd scale D3A2 Val. Right. And the the availability. Because you you kind of thought it'd kind of gone away for some reason. Or did there's no information? It's not out yet. It's not out yet, but he actually emailed ClearProp.

Kentucky Dave 20:16

Mm-hmm.

Mike 20:17

And they're telling him it's gonna be launched on the website late summer, early autumn kind of time frame. There's gonna be two kits, two different boxings of that kit. So uh I'm gonna want one of those probably.

Kentucky Dave 20:29

Yep. And then I want them to go back and do the D3A1.

Mike 20:33

So when we get a little closer to autumn, be on the on the lookout for a new 70 second scale kit, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 20:39

Yeah, because you know what? I need more models. I really do.

Mike 20:43

Well, if you got one of these, how many could you throw away?

Kentucky Dave 20:45

At least two Fujimi kits I would probably get rid of.

Mike 20:49

Ah, okay. All right. So not two.

Kentucky Dave 20:50

And then when the D3A1 shows up, I can get rid of like six.

Mike 20:54

Okay. Uh who else can be? Nats. Hector Cologne's gonna be there coming down from uh Chicagoland.

Kentucky Dave 21:02

Hector, are you gonna bring us some more beer, man?

Mike 21:05

Uh he says he may have a small token of our of of his appreciation.

Kentucky Dave 21:09

So because I enjoyed that beer last time. So maybe, maybe he brought us a good one.

Mike 21:14

He says his basement got hit with water and a little bit to the modeling room, but not too much damage. But uh God. But now he gets to reorganize his modeling room. It's contagious. It's contagious, man. It is. What else we got? And then finally, it's from Terry Measley from the Scale Model Podcast.

Kentucky Dave 21:31

Okay.

Mike 21:31

He hit me up this afternoon. Uh Did he tell you how No, he did not. He he he is there's another Nat I'm gonna be at Nat's email. Okay. He's gonna be there s Saturday, Sunday, because he doesn't have that far to go either, really, because he's near in the Chicagoland area there as well. Or nearby, not too far. He's just wondering if there's gonna be a dinner or breakfast or something with all the with the other podcasters who are gonna who are gonna be there. That's a good question. Well, it's a good idea because I don't think they're Is it at present?

Kentucky Dave 22:01

No, we did that once in Vegas.

Mike 22:04

Yeah, the very first time.

Kentucky Dave 22:05

The very first time we did it in Vegas and had a really great time. So who knows? Maybe we'll see if we can organize. There's so much social stuff that we got for the Nats to go going on. And then we have to wedge the actual show in there somewhere. So I don't know. We'll see what we can do.

Mike 22:27

Well, we'll even if that doesn't come to fruition, we've got some goins on ourselves and uh got no problem with Terry coming along. And we'll have some people coming to and from the hotel to where we're staying, so that shouldn't be too hard to arrange us. So he wants to help him out there. And Terry, I'll keep you posted. Yes, we will. If if I fail at that, hit me up a little before the gnats and we'll touch base again. But uh we'll make sure you got somebody to hang out with. I'm sure you got your own friends though.

Kentucky Dave 22:52

Oh yeah. Well, and I'm I want to talk to him about Stu and get an update and all that. So yeah. All right.

Mike 22:59

Well, Dave, that's all I've got on the email side of things. What's been happening on the Facebook direct message side?

DMs, Hobby Humor, And Nats Plans

Kentucky Dave 23:05

A lot of similar stuff. A lot of stuff about the Nats. You mentioned Rock. He had DM'd me about the A7 book as well. Bob, the voice of Bob, wanted to make sure that I was registered for the Nats. He was really, really good at keeping on me to make sure that I got registered in time. So, Bob, I appreciate that.

Mike 23:30

Well, the irony of you not of you failing to do that after after beating the skin off that drum would have been would have been hilarious.

Kentucky Dave 23:39

No, it would not have been because I don't want to stand. Again, we just talked about how our time is is already getting pulled in a bunch of directions. Me standing in line to to regular register at the show would have wasted some serious time that I could have better spent elsewhere.

Mike 24:01

We'll see what the line looks like Wednesday afternoon. That's true.

Kentucky Dave 24:04

May not be too bad. Bob, by the way, also mentioned in regard to our conversation regarding post-it notes and post-it note tape and all. Bob actually credited Chris Wallace with showing him the one of Chris's videos using the post-it notes as masking. So, Chris, if you're out there listening, just uh people are getting stuff out of your videos. Please put more out.

Mike 24:35

Well, I was looking for that stuff because I've got an application at uh at work that that might come in handy, the tape. Yep. Really, with the 3M post-it branded stuff, I couldn't find a very wide selection of width, but in in the infinite world of Amazon, a bunch of other stuff came up that was similar tapes out of Japan and places that uh were a lot wider, like three, four inches wider. Yep. I may be giving some of that a try.

Kentucky Dave 25:04

Well, and if you do, let us all know how it works and give us your recommendations because Lord knows I'm always looking for stuff like that. You're right, the actual 3M branded stuff really only comes in like one or two widths. And so if there's stuff out there that is similar that has more variety, I want to know about it. Again, we got a lot of interactions of people coming up on the Nats and all Christian Gurney at Bases by Bill reached out and uh wanted to make sure that we were all set to go and that we were gonna be able to meet up with them. Of course, we're looking forward to that. The Pod Father coming in from Australia. He's apparently bringing us some OTB swag. So we're gonna have to have to wear it be seen wearing OTB shirts at some point. These next two people who DM'd me, I want to I want to mention together because they both did the exact the same thing. And you know, I keep talking about how, you know, I'm a lawyer, I'm practicing law, I'm in the office, or when I'm not working, I'm at home and you know, doing a thousand different things, and how much I enjoy getting a DM out of the blue from a listener. And both Kevin Sage and Craig Everston DM'd me little short videos. Uh, they were joke funny videos, and I will send you to the link to both of them, Mike, because we need to put these in the in the show notes. One of them was what happens to modelers when they when the a part goes flying off onto the floor, yeah, and you see it, and then you go and try and find it. And the other one was an idea for a hobby shop where the hobby shop gives you two different receipts. One is the actual receipt for the item you paid for, and the other is a special receipt that you can put in the box for your significant other to find that has a completely different set of information on it. And both of these videos, again, I'm at work in the middle of the day, I get these, and you know, it's it's a two-minute laugh. And guys, I want to tell both of you I really enjoyed it. Like I said, we'll we'll share in the show notes, but there's a lot of good hobby humor out there, and I love seeing it. So thank you for doing that, and please continue to do it. It's really enjoyable. Next, listener Winston Gould sent me a book suggestion that would be a really good book suggestion to get Mike for Christmas. So I've already got your your Christmas present.

Mike 28:14

I think I saw that one.

Kentucky Dave 28:16

Darn it, you weren't supposed to see it.

Mike 28:18

Well, I'm on the DMs too. I know you are.

Kentucky Dave 28:22

And finally, our friend Scott Stakawiak. He was in my favorite place in the world. He was at the Naval Air Museum down in Pensacola. And he sent me some photographs, both their their George, and then they've apparently just gotten well, not just gotten, it's been years, a number of years since I've been down there. But they've also got an ME-262 that they're displaying in a new area more prominently. He sent me the DM, and I was immediately green with envy because there is no place on earth I would rather be than in Pensacola, Florida, and particularly at the Naval Air Museum. And so I was major jealous, and I gotta find a way to get back down there.

Mike 29:21

Well, good. So that's it from the DM side.

How To Reach The Hosts

Mike 29:25

All right. Well, folks, if you want to write in the show, and we hope you do, and we encourage you to do it. You can send us an email at plasticmodelmojo at gmail.com, or you can send us a Facebook message through the direct messaging system. Or you can use the link in the show notes of each and every episode, or on the website. You can go there and find a feedback link that'll let you type a message. And once I get it, we can it'll kind of revert to normal email after that. But I like getting those too. We like getting all of them. So, folks, uh, some good mails this time. We appreciate it. Let's keep them coming. We got some interesting topics, Dave. I agree. I've got some stuff to say on all of them. Hopefully, you did your homework. Well, again, I'll encourage the folks to send in suggestions for these segments. This one's gotten to be a pretty regular thing on plastic model mojo and uh helps us get a little more content or actual hobby-related content in the episode, uh, especially when we don't have a guest. So uh we appreciate it. And let's get into it, man.

Kentucky Dave 30:47

All right.

Superabundance And The Modeling Boom

Mike 30:53

Well, Dave, this was your idea.

Kentucky Dave 30:56

Yep.

Mike 30:57

So I hope you got a lot to say about it.

Kentucky Dave 30:59

Well, I've got some things to say about it.

Mike 31:02

The topic is the condition we we are in, I suspect, is where you're going with this, of superabundance.

Kentucky Dave 31:09

Yes. Also known as we live in the golden age of modeling. Yes. But in fact, I was talking with Scott King about this today because we were discussing the new announcement that Arma is gonna do a P40B in 70 second scale.

Mike 31:29

Yep, I saw that.

Kentucky Dave 31:30

And not that long ago, maybe 15 years ago, your only 70 second scale choices for a P40B were a really marginal academy kit and a 1960s frog kit. And that was it.

Mike 31:54

Which is probably B-ish. B-ish.

Kentucky Dave 31:57

Well, yeah, so is the Academy, to be honest with you. And that that was the state of play from the beginning of plastic modeling to 15 years ago. And then bang, bang, bang, we get Trumpeter does one, we get Airfix doing one, and now we get Arma doing one. And not only do we have a good P40 kit, we're going to have our choice of several good P40B kits. And it makes the point that we truly are living in the golden age of modeling. It used to be, in fact, you and I were talking about this not long ago. It used to be back in the say late 80s, early 90s, I knew every 72nd scale kit that was available that had ever been made.

Mike 32:53

Probably.

Kentucky Dave 32:55

Because there, I mean, it was a limited number, and you know, that was my area of interest, and and it wasn't that hard to learn them all because there weren't that many of them.

Mike 33:07

Now they're sneaking up on you.

Kentucky Dave 33:08

Now there's stuff that I see come across the dojo or come across Facebook or come, and I'm like, really? Somebody did that, and just completely out of the to the point where and where this really is true, is aftermarket decals and 3D parts.

Mike 33:34

Yeah, it's done crazy.

Kentucky Dave 33:36

No, no human being can remember it all. And and you you'd have to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the internet looking at all this stuff and finding it, because it's spread out everywhere.

Mike 33:52

Yeah, to get the AI to do it, man.

Kentucky Dave 33:54

Exactly. By the way, that is one nice use of AI is if you need something, you know, instead of searching around or whatever, you just go to the AI and say, does anybody make this in 70 seconds scale? And you get pretty good answers. Not perfect, but you get pretty good answers out of it. Another area we're talking about superabundance. I'm building the T33 for the Indy Air International Air Air National Guard display. And this T-33 needs the early T33 seats, not the later Martin Baker Mark V seats. And I would not have thought that there was aftermarket, because that's a kind of unique seat.

Mike 34:45

Yeah.

Kentucky Dave 34:46

It's like, you know, nobody, I mean, something else, isn't it? I don't I don't know that it was used in anything else. I could be wrong, but I don't think it was used in anything else. But the funny thing is there's a really good I posted on the dojo, Wolfpack makes a really great 3D printed early T33 seat, and it's gorgeous. Not only do we have super abundance, but we have superabundance of quality.

Mike 35:22

Yeah, good stuff.

Kentucky Dave 35:23

Good stuff, great stuff. Yeah. In fact, Christian Gurney and I were talking on DMs not too long ago about the ME 163 from Gaspatch. Yeah. And that's another there's another part of superabundance. It used to be I had every 70-second scale model that I wanted back when there were a limited number of 70-second scale aircraft models. Now there are tons of models I don't have just because I don't have the money, the time, and I've got too many kits already.

Mike 36:02

Would you have that gas batch kit?

Kentucky Dave 36:03

No, I don't. And that's the thing's that's the thing that Christian and it's gonna be obsolete. I know, but it's gonna go out of production or something, although it's a 3D print. So I imagine it'll it'll stay, it'll be available uh continuously. By the way, there's another place where superabundance leads into our technology discussion. Yeah, the the 3D printing stuff is only getting better and better. And my God, the quality is great now. I cannot imagine what, say, a generation from now, which is 18 months from now, what it's gonna look like. I mean, I assume you see the same thing in armor.

Mike 36:51

You see it in everything. Like you get on scalemates any given day, and there there may be 15, 20 new aircraft things from some manufacturer who just did a dump on on there, but but you go back in in an hour or three days or a week from then, and it's all 350th ship stuff. Yep. Or armor stuff or figures or or whatever. And I tell you, in that regard, I think I've seen a little bit of a trend or tendency for this to it seems like we're starting to get less of the easy stuff that everybody kept doing because it was easy.

Kentucky Dave 37:26

Yeah, I agree.

Mike 37:28

And the stuff's just starting to get a little more complex, and and folks are getting a little more creative, and they're doing a little bit more sophisticated work with their CAD. So uh the stuff that's coming out is is a lot more interesting than it was a year ago.

Kentucky Dave 37:46

I do think the cream is gonna rise to the top in that regard. Yeah. That you've got a lot of companies out there that they come onto the market and, like you say, they do a bunch of easy stuff and and get it out there.

Mike 38:00

Bunch of Me Too slop, and it's just right.

Kentucky Dave 38:03

Whereas now, I think that what you're seeing is maybe a little less of that and a little more of the true artists, the the folks who really put the time in to make complex. Go back to to our friend Chris Maddings and inside the Armor 3, ITA 3, the quality of the CAD that he does. I mean, he puts a lot of time and effort into it, and it really shows. And and I think that you're gonna have, you know, there's gonna be bunches of 3D aftermarket makers, but there's going to be a band of top quality of maybe 10, 20 manufacturers who are consistently putting in that extra effort.

Mike 39:02

I think so. Well, kind of on uh I won't say a counterpoint, but in the super abundance, the breadth of products has never been larger, it's never been easier to find, it's never been easier to uh to acquire.

Kentucky Dave 39:15

And their quality.

Mike 39:16

And the quality is is in many, many instances is is as good as it's ever been. Right. So we want for very little in the hobby today, really. But that said, we all still have wish lists. In fact, the the Mollyeks was this their last episode was uh what they'd like to see. So everything's not out there yet.

Kentucky Dave 39:37

No, it's not, but I suspect if you go back, you and I have done a wish list episode.

Mike 39:44

Yeah.

Kentucky Dave 39:44

Or two way back. And I bet you if we go back and look, a number of those things actually have been done.

Mike 39:51

We should do that. We should go look.

Kentucky Dave 39:53

And and where I think this is going with the superabundance is that instead of waiting five years for your wish to be to be filled. Like five months. Well, I was gonna say 18 months, but yeah. Yeah, that that you know, the stuff is coming out so much quicker, getting announced. So the the technology has made things easier to produce at higher quality and produce more, be able to be produced more rapidly. We could do maybe maybe at the end of the year you and I'll do a wish list episode and see how long it takes to get those wishes filled.

Mike 40:37

Yeah, that's a good idea. We'll do that in December.

Kentucky Dave 40:40

That's a great idea.

Mike 40:41

Start the clock on J1.

Kentucky Dave 40:42

Write that write that down.

Mike 40:45

Not only kits in aftermarket is in superabundance, but paint and finish products are in superabundance.

Kentucky Dave 40:51

Oh my god, you and I keep joking about the fact that you get a new paint line every two weeks.

Mike 40:58

And it's slowed down a little bit. It has in the last couple years, but uh I I think that in in this realm it's a little different. I think for a lot of people, myself included, there is a can be a little bit of paralysis from too many choices.

Kentucky Dave 41:17

Yes. I do think that that that is a real thing.

Mike 41:21

It's like trying to pick jelly at the grocery store. Or whatever, right?

Kentucky Dave 41:27

I don't have a problem with that. It's grape and orange marmalade.

Mike 41:31

That's eat that's easy. Yeah, there's like eight brands of each.

Kentucky Dave 41:33

Yeah, well, that's true.

Mike 41:35

You can get the crap from here in Lexington or you can get the fancy French stuff. So yeah, try it. I don't know. But you know what I'm saying. Yeah, how it's from the the modeling journey I've had, I I grew up pretty much in a couple of paint lines.

Kentucky Dave 41:50

Right.

Mike 41:51

And we tend to stick to them and and have some loyalty, whether it's intentional or not, you can argue, but a lot of times it's whatever your shop had. But now we got all these paint lines, and not only, you know, especially like MiG and AK Interactive, all the all the pre-mixed and pre-proportioned weathering and finishing supplies are just over the top. I mean, those racks like at the vendors at the various shows, it's just it's it's mind-boggling. Well, it it it it actually at least Then they got been they got bins of other brands that are like discounted because nobody wants it.

Kentucky Dave 42:26

And and I'll tell you what, when I walk into one of those vendor areas where they've got all of the AK products or all of the MIG ammo products, it's almost like your your eyes can't focus on it. There is so much there that you really can't focus on actually looking at anything.

Mike 42:50

And every time you pick up a magazine article, they're using a different subset of all that stuff for everything. It's like, man. Used to be a lot, used to be a little bit easier than this.

Kentucky Dave 43:00

Yes, it did.

Mike 43:01

Maybe the results are better now, but it doesn't matter.

Kentucky Dave 43:03

Oh, I I think both of those things are true.

Mike 43:05

But the the the one, two, three on how to how to get there was was easier.

Kentucky Dave 43:11

Yep, I agree. So yeah, there can be downsides to superabundance. I agree with that. But I think the upsides outweigh the downsides considerably.

Mike 43:23

I think you're right. Anything else on that one? No.

Clear Parts Tips And Canopy Timing

Mike 43:31

Well, this is a fresh shop talk. Yes, it is. Based on our call for the the book giveaway. It's from Dr. Gelmacher. Yes, it is. And he was curious how weeds deal with clear parts badly. That's not helpful, Dave.

Kentucky Dave 43:49

Yeah, I know. That's kind of a truthful answer. It is the part that it is still the part I have the most even with thank gosh for. Pre-cut masks. Thank you, Lord. Yeah. Etc.

Mike 44:03

Well, let me start this one. Let me let me let me because I just built that I finished that E16 last year. And up until that point, being uh almost exclusively an armor guy, other than the occasional windshield or headlight, I didn't have a lot of clear parts. So I had to I had to come up the curve pretty quick. And with the E16 project, I I learned a few things.

Kentucky Dave 44:31

Well, and you dove into the deep end of the pool with the E16 because that's a greenhouse canopy, which it is, which is about as tough as it gets.

Mike 44:41

There's worse greenhouses than that one.

Kentucky Dave 44:43

Yes, there are, but usually those are multi-engine aircraft.

Mike 44:48

Yes, that's true. It wasn't long into that that I started using my micro razor saw to get the parts off the sprue instead of my nippers. Oh, yeah. Clear plastic is so brittle versus colored plastic because there's no color in it, primarily. Sometimes those parts can fracture when you're you're cutting with the cutters. Even good cutters.

Kentucky Dave 45:09

Even even god hand cutters.

Mike 45:10

Yeah, I think my god hands actually fractured one of my canopy edges.

Kentucky Dave 45:14

Yeah. Uh just no, I do the I take everything off with a razor saw.

Mike 45:19

And then I come back and clean it up later.

Kentucky Dave 45:22

Exactly.

Mike 45:23

Another thing was how to attach how to attach it once you get it, however, whatever you want to do to it before you put it on the model, right?

Kentucky Dave 45:31

Right.

Mike 45:32

Uh Steve Hustad put us on this clear gorilla glue from home improvement stores like Lowe's and Home Depot here in the US.

Kentucky Dave 45:38

Yep.

Mike 45:38

I like that on the E16, but a little less so on that Musuru Cup Miata built. And it's Steve warned us ahead of time, said this stuff's pretty mobile before it cures. I I would argue it's almost like grease before it cures. For the E16, where I had gravity helping me out, I could put it on the edge and set that on there and get it positioned and then walk away, right? Right. For something larger like a car windshield, yeah, it became pretty apparent that uh this stuff was uh pretty mobile once uh once you got it on the plastic. And I think I managed to not get any on the on the glass on the visible sides by the time it was all said and done. But uh man, it was just didn't take much to get that sucker to float around. So uh the gorilla glu glue does give a good bond and it's and it's again it's clear, so there's not much to worry about being visible after you're done. Uh was good. Now I'm trying to decide if what I bought has turned amber since I bought it or if it was always that color. I can't remember. I need to go to the home next time at the home store, I'm gonna look.

Kentucky Dave 46:43

Yeah.

Mike 46:44

Because if but even still, I don't think it's a concern because of where you're putting this stuff.

Kentucky Dave 46:49

Right. Now, speaking going back to our super abundance topic previously, just recently, either VMS or AK has come out with a new product. Yep. And I can't remember which one it was. Again, it used to be, I could tell you what was out there. There's so much stuff out there I don't remember. This was on a video, it was on one of Night Shift's videos not too long ago. And yet I still don't remember it now, the name of the product or whose uh who with the manufacturer was.

Mike 47:27

He put the windshield in that logging truck with it.

Kentucky Dave 47:29

Exactly. Yeah, that was it.

Mike 47:32

So now we can go find it.

Kentucky Dave 47:33

Yeah, now we can go find it. But uh, and I I I want to get some of that stuff and try it out. And again, going back to combining both superabundance and our technology topics, I imagine there are going to be more and more developments like this, where it's an area where there's not yet a perfect solution. Yeah, and you know, there's white glue. I tend to use deluxe materials, glue, and glaze for for a lot of mine attachments. People use white glue, there uh you there's all sorts of gator grip, there are all sorts of different types of there's watch crystal cement, yeah, there's a lot of different solutions, but not one perfect solution yet. So I'm I suspect that we're gonna get more and more of these new products until we get one that is as close to being the answer to the answer.

Mike 48:42

Well, we got any wisdom for Dr. Dave on this? Well, that we haven't already said here.

Kentucky Dave 48:48

Well, uh a couple of things.

Mike 48:49

The way you do it again.

Kentucky Dave 48:51

I right now my particular favorite is glue and glaze, but I do want to to try out the new product, the night shift reference. And this is wisdom that I've gotten from from Scott King, and that is that a big key to getting the canopy to look right is everything you do before you attach the canopy because there are mismatches between the canopy surface and the the model body itself. And if you can eliminate those with careful sanding, to you get to the point where you get a really good solid seat for the canopy parts, it solves a whole lot of your problems. Because then you don't have to try and fill between a kit part and a canopy part. That's almost imp I mean that's not fun. That's that's not fun, and it doesn't you really have to work to get something that's even minimally acceptable. So I I I watch Skippy when he's working on a model and he takes on Vallone's special hobby, kits where the canopy and the kit might be acquainted with each other, but they're not really they're not finely molded together. And he spends an inordinate amount of time sanding, fitting, sanding, fitting, sanding, fitting, where he is playing with, okay, I'm gonna take a little bit off the kit part, I'm gonna take a little bit off the canopy part here, going to sand a little here, I'm going to round this. Where when he finally commits to gluing the canopy on the kit, there are no gaps, and he has every canopy surface edge part touching every part of the body of the model kit. Well, here's something I've got a question for Dr. Geldmacher and, of course, all the other listeners about it's also about canopies and clear parts. When do you put them on your model? Now, there are some times when I've built the model where I've attached the canopy as I've built the model, then you know, masked it and I primed everything. The canopy was on the model, et cetera, et cetera, through the whole painting and decaling process. Then you peel the masks off. There are other times where I have masked off the canopy, the cockpit area with tape or whatever, painted the model, decaled the model, painted the canopies, masked and painted the canopy separately, and then mounted the canopy as one of the last things I've done to the model. And for me, that's kit depend. It's it's dependent on a couple things. One, whether the canopy is going to be open or closed. Two, it's kit dependent. Some canopies tend to sit pr, you know, sit up on a model. So leaving them off and mounting them at the end is easier, whereas some canopies are fared into a fuselage, and those you kind of want to have built and in place and masked before you ever start painting.

Mike 52:47

Yeah.

Kentucky Dave 52:48

And I think it varies model to model, but I would love to hear what either Dr. Geldmacher andor all the other listeners have to say about when they do that.

Mike 53:00

I know on the E16 I put it on after I'd done most of the undercoating shading on the fuselage.

Kentucky Dave 53:07

Mm-hmm.

Mike 53:07

When I was about to go to the real colors, that's when I put it on.

Kentucky Dave 53:12

Yeah. And see, and that's one of those canopies that sits uh on the model.

Mike 53:17

But it was it was semi-open. The the back end was open, but I I left the I remember how I masked that off. It's it's got the it's got the little the the tail tailmost piece on it, the the the little turtle deck piece.

Kentucky Dave 53:30

Yeah.

Mike 53:30

But the the section over the radio operator gunner's compartment is slid open and I had foam in there, I think. I I don't remember at this point, but I got it all masked off. And it it and to get back to the canopy masks, that sure made my first canopy in 30-some years easy.

Kentucky Dave 53:49

Yeah, boy, you saw a lot fewer models with greenhouse canopies at contests prior to canopy masks becoming widely available, simply because can you imagine hand masking that greenhouse canopy on that pall?

Mike 54:08

Could you imagine taking the Faraday canopy on a Sally and masking it, masking it over with bare metal foil and cutting out every window with a sky?

Kentucky Dave 54:17

Every one of the 130, just I happen to know this that the the ICM Sally has 103 separate windows to be masked, window print uh panes to be masked.

Mike 54:32

Yeah, that's a lot.

Kentucky Dave 54:33

So I cannot imagine doing that in the absence of a canopy mask, a pre-cut canopy mask. It's the single biggest, greatest innovation that I think we've had in modeling in my lifetime. Although 3D printing may well change my opinion of it.

Mike 54:53

Another thing that's kind of on the out because it's not it's becoming not available anymore, and there's other products out there that can do the job, but you know, I I did the old future dip on my canopy, and I know you do that sometimes. Yeah, I do that almost every time. And Hustad does not, remember? I know. He goes back and does his with a brush, I think.

Kentucky Dave 55:14

Which which he and he uses his he uses future as much as I do, and so much so that I had to give him one of my spare bottles.

Mike 55:26

Um it makes me wonder what what else out there today that's kind of more in the in the real modeling vein of things, a product that's from a scale modeling type company that would uh offer the same thing where you could you could dip it or even spray it, and that's gonna give you the it's gonna take all the micro scratches out of it and bump the clarity up a little bit. So that's the big advantage.

Kentucky Dave 55:51

Right. And and Alclad Aqua Gloss, I think, is probably the other product currently out there that I can think of that you might be able to do that with. But then again, I have three bottles of future, so I probably at my at my building pace, I think I'm pretty sure.

Mike 56:12

You can leave two of them to somebody.

Kentucky Dave 56:14

That's right. Evan McCon McCallum's gonna have Evan McCallum's gonna have to sneak those across the border at my death.

Mike 56:21

So a question for the listeners is is there anything out there, a current gloss code or whatever, that you could actually do this dip technique on on canopies? Be real curious.

Kentucky Dave 56:33

I know I had one listener recommend the Tamiya polishing putty for use on canopies. Oh, just yeah, as a as a final polishing clear. In fact, it was the it was the guy in one of the Baltic countries, Estonia, I think, Frenchman who lives there. And I think he was the one who mentioned the the to mea wax or polishing compound or whatever you it's called. And he highly recommended that. In fact, I I need to pick some up because I want to test that out myself.

Mike 57:10

And then you look up to your supply shelf and you have $400 worth of product going back.

Kentucky Dave 57:16

You do not want to talk.

Mike 57:18

Hey, I got the same thing.

Kentucky Dave 57:19

I mean, this is I was gonna say, do you know how many decal setting solutions I have?

Mike 57:23

Superabundance, man.

Kentucky Dave 57:25

Yes. Yeah, super abundance.

Mike 57:28

Nickel and dime your way into a small fortune and product you're never gonna finish using the single only bottle you've ever bought.

Kentucky Dave 57:35

Yep. Yep.

Mike 57:37

They're getting a lot of our hobby money in this.

Kentucky Dave 57:39

Yes, yes, they are. We are stimulating the economy, man.

Hobby Room Remodel And Ergonomics

Kentucky Dave 57:48

Now, this is my current favorite topic: hobby room remodel.

Mike 57:53

Oh boy.

Kentucky Dave 57:54

Well, here's here's the problem. Well, there are a bunch of related problems. I have 13 feet of modeling bench, and I end up modeling in the space that is an eight and a half by 11-inch piece of paper. I have a superabundance of modeling product, and the problem is it is neither organized, nor is do when I use things, do I put them away. And that I think that's a real problem, is everything a place for everything and everything in its place. I do think that you're in the middle of a project, you need a pair of nippers or a file or whatever, you get it, you use it, and you just lay it down instead of putting it back where you got it from. And if you do that enough times, your modeling bench is so full that you're modeling on an eight and a half by 11-inch sheet of paper. The organization thing is a me thing, okay? Yeah, it is that is a me problem. That's I I need a better attention span, I need to be more organized, more thoughtful, more intentional when dealing with putting the using things and putting them away and getting them organized. And and the problem with organizing is I organize something one way, and then halfway through it, I'm like, no, it I need to do it this way.

Mike 59:37

And so I made an Olympic sport out of organizing.

Kentucky Dave 59:41

I make an Olympic sport out of organizing. And then, like with the swing arm for my computer, which has turned out to be, by the way, a really great solution. That really, really worked out well. But the only but the problem was it took me three or four versions to get it right. Now, it's right now, and it's it's what I want, and it it served its purpose of getting the computer out from be in the center of my hobby room and the center of my model table. So it served its purpose, but getting it to the point where it worked the way I wanted it meant that, you know, I'm sure you could, you being the engineer, you would have sat and thought about it for a week. You would have drawn detailed schematics, and then you would have gotten it right the first time. Maybe, which I didn't do. I got an idea in my head. I said, okay, well, I'm gonna do this, and I did that, and it's like, well, that kind of worked, but didn't work, so let me try version two, and then I did version two, which was better than version one, but still, and it took me four iterations to the point where it is now where it actually actually works, and so that sucks up hobby time, yeah. It really does. This hobby room remodel is sucking up time. There is no question about it, but I think the sacrifice is worth it in the long run because I do think it will make me more productive in the long run.

Mike 1:01:29

Well, do you have a plan or are you making it up as you go along?

Kentucky Dave 1:01:34

I'm kind of making it up as I go along.

Mike 1:01:36

That's why it's taking so long.

Kentucky Dave 1:01:38

Yeah, that's that's that's right. Again, Mike the engineer would have had a binder. Well, what do you want?

Mike 1:01:45

What do you want other than the organization? That's just one aspect of it.

Kentucky Dave 1:01:49

I want organization, I want more space, I want, and by more space, I mean more clear, unobstructed. You've been in my hobby room. Yeah, I've filled it to the point where it's almost claustrophobic. And I I'm I'm curing that problem. So I need space in the it's more comfortable to be in the hobby room type thing.

Mike 1:02:15

Okay.

Kentucky Dave 1:02:15

You know what I'm talking about.

Mike 1:02:17

I do.

Kentucky Dave 1:02:17

I need to, in addition to the organizational part of it, I need to have the discipline to put things away every time. Steve Hustad and I have a running series where he sends me pictures of his uh hobby bench. Yep. You could eat off this thing. It is the cleanest, most organized, and he's constantly building. I mean, the guy is productive in ways that I never will be. Okay, but his hobby bench is always completely clean and everything, there's nothing cluttering it. There are not six half-finished product projects hanging out in different parts of the of the bench, which is definitely part of my problem. That's a different problem.

Mike 1:03:17

But I well, you you're ahead of me, but I got plans. I know exactly what I want to do in this footprint of a room. But my problem at present is I'm trying to get the floor space cleared down here, and because we got transient children right now, it keeps getting filled back up with crap. Yeah. Because there's nowhere else to put it, and yeah, it's just driving me nuts. I was hoping to have this thing in pretty good shape this summer before Nets, in case we had a house guest. And I don't know, man. It's not looking good. I gotta get cracking on this. Um you mentioned computer, which is one of my biggest conundrums in in in re I want to say organizing, but in restructuring my my workspace and getting this thing the the way I've envisioned it for all these years and have yet to execute on it. The biggest conundrum has become my computer. It has become a more integral part of my entire workspace. Yep. It has also become a huge distraction. Yeah. Because the pushers have figured out how to keep us addicted to crap. And even if I removed it completely, I I I'll have to remove my phone too, because it does 90% of the same time wasting crap my computer does.

Kentucky Dave 1:04:34

Yes.

Mike 1:04:35

So I'm really thinking about uh how to get this thing. If I got it completely out of my workspace or put it where I actually had to physically get up and walk across the room.

Kentucky Dave 1:04:46

Well, and here's my Well, waste as much time on it. And that's part of my conundrum is that yes, the computer was dominating my hobby space, and that's a problem. But by the same token, my computer for me is a hobby tool.

Mike 1:05:08

I agree with that.

Kentucky Dave 1:05:09

Just as much as my airbrush and compressor and and everything else, it's a hobby tool, and I need it at least close so that I can actually. If I moved, because I consider different though. Yes, it is.

Mike 1:05:35

I mean, your your airbrush is a tool as well, but you don't sit around for hours with the compressor on making fart noises between your closed fingers with your airbrush, right? For hours on end.

Kentucky Dave 1:05:46

Well, hey, to each as I'm but I actually consider moving my computer, which mine happens to be a laptop, so it's a little easier to mount on this arm and move it out of the way. I considered moving it into the other room, but I think that would interrupt my modeling flow in a completely different way because I I utilize it a whole lot.

Mike 1:06:15

I just think back to when I first got out of school and moved up here. There was no internet.

Kentucky Dave 1:06:20

Yep.

Mike 1:06:21

There I didn't even own a computer.

Kentucky Dave 1:06:23

And I've owned I've owned one from the very early days. I was a very early adopter.

Mike 1:06:29

Of course I wasn't married. I didn't have kids either. There's a lot of other a lot of other things, but I guess my point was I used to spend if I had nothing else going on on a particular evening, a weekend or something.

Kentucky Dave 1:06:40

Right.

Mike 1:06:40

I'd go get a six pack at the grocery store and after dinner I would cozy up to the bench and it might be midnight.

Kentucky Dave 1:06:49

Yep.

Mike 1:06:50

And I'd been there for six hours.

Kentucky Dave 1:06:53

Yep.

Mike 1:06:54

And that can still happen, but not not like that.

Kentucky Dave 1:06:57

And see, that doesn't happen with me much at all anymore because and this is I think has everything to do with getting older. And and by the way, this is part of the hobby room remodel is making the the room more comfortable because as I've gotten older, I used to pull an all-nighter. I mean I I modeled five, six, seven hours straight. There were times when I was much younger.

Mike 1:07:34

Yeah, me too.

Kentucky Dave 1:07:35

Right out of law school, where I would start modeling at 10 at night and I would stop at six the next morning. I did stuff like I can't do that anymore. In fact, I'm to the point where in fact Scott King and I were discussing this not too long ago. I can't model continuously for more than about an hour and a half. And if I take a break, I can usually get another 30 to 45 minutes in. But after about two or two and a half hours total, I'm done. I I my eyes are shot, my back hurts, my everything else hurts. And now that's part of trying to make the hobby room more comfortable and accessible. Working with the lighting to be easier on the eyes. Yeah. Um better chair. I did as part of the hobby room remodel.

Mike 1:08:37

I went out on Amazon and I spent a couple of hundred dollars on a chair that is a world of difference.

Kentucky Dave 1:08:51

It makes a ton of difference. And one of the big things about the chair that I got, in addition to being much more comfortable, over it's adjustable in so many ways. You can adjust the back, the the seat, the height, the armrest, everything's adjustable. And that makes a huge difference in getting comfortable.

Mike 1:09:18

So good chair, folks.

Kentucky Dave 1:09:20

Yeah, good chair. Spend the money. Just like buying a really good harder and steam back airbrush. Yeah. Might be a little expensive. Well worth it in the end for the fact that you get so much more out of it. I'm sitting here in this chair recording with you, and it is much more comfortable than any previous chair I've had.

Mike 1:09:51

Working on a plan to slowly finish, hang on this slat wall I've got over the next few months. I don't, I'm about halfway done. And uh then that'll clear up about 16 square feet of floor space.

Kentucky Dave 1:10:02

Well, see, that's what you need to do is you need if you've got if you've got kids transiting in and out of your house, put them to work. Yeah. A, you get the labor out of them, and B, the more you work them, the less they're gonna be around.

Mike 1:10:16

Unfortunately, most of this stuff down here is theirs.

Kentucky Dave 1:10:19

Yeah, well.

Mike 1:10:24

Yeah, and then I don't want to get serious about finding the cabinet styles I'm I'm looking for.

Kentucky Dave 1:10:27

So Yeah, well, and that's I'm working on some storage solutions, as a matter of fact, that I was my youngest daughter's going to be attending the University of Cincinnati, and we were up there the other day and we went to IKEA. Sorry. Walking around, well, yeah, I I I I understand why you say that, but walking around IKEA will give you tons of ideas for organization. Yep, it will. It it really and there's some of their some of their cabinets and display, their display cabinets and their uh storage solutions are actually pretty good. So, or at least gives you an idea, and then you can go shop on Amazon or or something.

Mike 1:11:15

Well, I think we've beat stores to death, and this remodel thing's becoming a saga, but I would like to inquire or impose on our uh our listeners again to I I'm at this point I'm more interested in in arrangement of your workstations and and that sort of thing. Your room your room layout. That's what I'd be really interested in at this point, because I've got I've got my plan. I hope you've got yours. If not, you'll get one soon. But uh send us uh send us a some description or map of what you've got going on in your own workspace. I'd be real curious to see what other folks are doing there.

Kentucky Dave 1:11:49

And how you've got it laid out and and how you deal with your computer compared to your hobby room.

Mike 1:11:55

Yep. All right, man. Anything else?

Kentucky Dave 1:11:57

That's it.

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Bench Time Updates And Motivation

Mike 1:13:14

Dave, it's the bench top halftime reports, and I hope you've done something. You've been saying you've been getting some bench time in. Let's hear about it.

Kentucky Dave 1:13:20

I have. Beautifully done, beautifully printed. Um the technology's amazing. Um and not only did they provide really good seats, they provided just in in like a blister pack. They had a backing card where they showed the product unpainted, and then two of the seats painted up. And it provided now. I had other references, so I knew what it looked like, but it had a really nice picture of the product, you know, removed and and primed and painted. And it really provided a nice guide to painting their product up. And I gotta say, I really like the way they came out, and I enjoyed the heck out of that. In addition, I was doing a little bit more work on the T33 and a little bit on the F6F. The Hellcat is really close to it, it's decals are on it, the oils are on it. It's it's very, very close to being done.

Mike 1:14:59

I just need to knock that one out, man.

Kentucky Dave 1:15:01

I need to I need to do that. I really do. So, but I'm feeling pulled in a couple of directions, as always happens to me, and that's that's why projects stall out or take way too long to get finished. But I did get bench top halftime or get bench top in work in, and like I said in the dojo, I really enjoyed it. That was the thing that the last week for me modeling at the bench, I was really enjoying what I was doing. Yeah, it wasn't exactly getting a model finished across the line, but when I walked away from the bench, I'd had a good time and and enjoyed it. So, I mean, for me, the last week of modeling has been great. And if I can get that level of enjoyment out of it, the hobby all the time, I'm gonna be wildly happy. Have you been to the bench or you've been shooting stuff into space?

Mike 1:16:09

Keep saying that. Well, you do from time to time. No, not this week. I had the KV 85 dial base out this past week. Do a little repair painting. No disasters, but before this thing kind of went stagnant, I brushed a tool across one of the railroad rails or something.

Kentucky Dave 1:16:29

Gotcha.

Mike 1:16:30

And uh finally got around to fixing that. And then in addition, I gosh, how many episodes back it was at this point, I don't know, but uh I I didn't get the edges transitions for where the the scenery ends and the edge of the base is very clean. I was really trying to figure out what I want to do there to clean it up. I think it's gonna be okay. Got the my Four Bio paint mixed up for my my custom mix that I came up with. And uh so you're about ready to I'm gonna start shooting paint. It's uh take another look at anything else that I might need to do before I committed to putting color on this thing, and I think there's nothing left to do.

Kentucky Dave 1:17:12

So time for you to pull the trigger, as it were.

Mike 1:17:15

That's right, to literally pull the trigger and spray some paint. Uh, and once that thing gets committed into paint, I'm I may start something new. I don't know yet. It's really the only thing I got going right now, except that little flak panzer, and that's just not something I'm gonna be chomping it to bit to finish out just. Just playing around with that thing. So we'll see, man. It's probably gonna have wings. That's all I'll say.

Kentucky Dave 1:17:38

All right. That's eight that that warms my heart as long as it's in 70 seconds scale.

Mike 1:17:44

Uh, I gotta get at it, man. I've had some some weak weak modeling mojo here last several months.

Kentucky Dave 1:17:50

And uh well, again, life has hit us both pretty hard from here and there, but you know, that's that's okay. We're we're gonna model, and as we model and if we get enjoyment out of it, that's the thing that counts.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:18:06

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Kentucky Dave 1:18:43

Um,

Recent Purchases And Kit Temptations

Kentucky Dave 1:18:44

Mike, um, have you been buying anything lately?

Mike 1:18:47

Not much. We put in a squadron order, coincidentally.

Kentucky Dave 1:18:50

Yes. Uh and I kind of broke my wallet a little bit.

Mike 1:18:55

Well, I picked up not just one Tamiya M24 chaffy. Yeah. Maybe one of those will be for me. Maybe zero will be for me, but I got about three of those. I got one of them earmarked for somebody else. But we'll see. Maybe we'll give one of them away and I'll keep one or maybe not. Maybe we'll give two away.

Kentucky Dave 1:19:12

See, I like the chaffy. Now, is the version they did, the World War II version? Yes, yes, yes. Okay.

Mike 1:19:19

So after a torrid history of chaffy tank kits, finally got one that maybe it has the right details for the World War II tank and has got some doesn't have any buildability issues or requiring a bunch of resin aftermarket. So if you spent money on anything else, one of them's the same thing you spent money on. I've doubled the quantity on the Arma ME262.

Kentucky Dave 1:19:42

Yes. So that is one of the items that broke my wallet. That's what I got.

Mike 1:19:47

So Okay. Well what'd you get? Your list is longer than mine.

Kentucky Dave 1:19:50

Yes, my list is longer than yours. I got Arma ME262, which was the that uh was kind of the impetus to to build the order, because I I wanted that, and I missed the first round at Squadron when they were in, so I went ahead and they were back in, and I wanted one, so that was the start of it. Then Armas F4, F3, Wildcat. Yeah. Uh again, the the version of the Wildcat that I think many of us wanted. And if you're doing, you know, 1941, 1942, 19, early 1943 Wildcats, you want the F4, F3. And so I I was anxious for that now that they finally released it after promising it to us for several years. I had to hop on that. I got the Clearprop MiG-19. Let's see, what else did I order? The ClearProp uh Val isn't out yet, so I had wanted to order that, but it wasn't out. Trying to think of what else I ordered. There's at least those three, and I know there I know there was something else. An IBG kit or something.

Mike 1:21:13

Oh, there was yeah, there was another IAR IAR80. AR81 or whatever.

Kentucky Dave 1:21:19

Right. The the mid IR IAR80.

Mike 1:21:22

Stalingrad boxing, I think, is the one you picked up.

Kentucky Dave 1:21:25

Yeah. With the with the nationals coming up, it was probably a little foolish of me to go ahead and order a bunch of model kits, but I wanted them. At this point, I'm not justifying my my modeling purchases to anybody. So I wanted them. I went ahead, I got them. It may probably mean that I'll spend a little bit less at the nationals.

Mike 1:21:51

Or you'll buy more aftermarket and decals.

Kentucky Dave 1:21:54

Or that I'll buy more aftermarket and books and decals. Yeah. Hard to believe me buying decals. Oh, speaking of decals, our friend Steve Rui was over in England and dropped up by Hannett's, and he picked me up a deep decal sheet of ME 109Ks to go with the latest Edward release. And they had a decal sheet over there that had just come out. It's a little bit hard to get. And he was very kind in picking that up and sending it to me. And we'll see Steve at the Nationals, and I'll have to buy him a beer for sure. All right. Let me see. I think oh, well, this is kind of modeling related. I bought on your recommendation a pair of Bose headphones. You know, I'd gotten those cheap Chinese headphones to test out using for recording the podcast. And I wanted to test out using them wirelessly, using wired different things. As everybody who's seen the post on the dojo knows, my old headphones um gave up the ghosts. Well, they were worn down to the point where every time I used them, I ended up with black plastic on my shoulders because it was coming off everywhere. So those are finally dead and buried. And I after talking to you, and you use a set of Bose headphones. And I went ahead and picked up a set, and I'm not using them yet. We're in my next the next podcast recording you and I do will be the first ones where I use them. So we'll see how they go.

The Voice of Bob (Bair) 1:23:49

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Reviews, Recommendations, And Clubs

Kentucky Dave 1:24:15

This is the point in the episode where I ask you to rate the podcast on whatever app you're using. Please give us the highest rating. It helps drive up our visibility. Also, if you have a friend who doesn't, a modeling friend who doesn't listen to this podcast or any podcast for that matter, please recommend Plastic Model Mojo. The single biggest way we continue to get new listeners. And amazingly enough, we are continuing to get new listeners every time, is a recommendation from a current listener. So please recommend us to your friends.

Mike 1:24:57

In addition to that, please check out all the other podcasts out in the model sphere. And you can do that by going to www.modelpodcast.com. That's Model Podcast Plural. It's a consortium website set up by Stuart Clark of the Skill Model Podcast up in London, Ontario, in Canada. And there Stuart has aggregated all the current and past podcasts that have been in the Model Sphere. I still have active uh access to their content. And you can go there, one stop shop and check them all out and find them super easy. In addition to that, we've got a lot of blog and YouTube friends out there. We've got uh we mentioned Chris Wallace, model airplane maker, great blog, great YouTube channel. Same with Evan McCallum, great YouTube channel, Panzermeister36. Stephen Lee, Sprew Pie with Fretz. I hadn't heard from Steven this week. I need to reach out to him, see what's going on with him. Yeah, hopefully we'll see him at Nats too. But he's got a great 72nd scale centric blog, uh, a little railroad thrown in for some variety. And if if if you like that 70 second scale stuff, you're gonna check want to check out the Inshai Guy, Jeff Groves blog, all things 70 seconds scale. And who else we got? We got Paul Buzzick Scale Model Workshop, and you can find him on Patreon and some of it on YouTube as well. But subscribe to his Patreon page and get the full access. He doesn't charge very much at all, and the wisdom is worth every penny.

Kentucky Dave 1:26:11

It is. Also, if you are not a member of IPMS USA, please consider joining. IPMS USA is an organization of volunteers who give up some of their time to try and make modeling better for everybody. It's that time of year where the nationals is coming up. So there's been a lot of behind the scenes work going on by the national organization so that you all will all have a great time if you come to the nationals. And believe me, if you come to the nationals, you will have a great time. In addition, if you are an armor modeler or a post-1900 figures modeler, please consider joining the Armor Modeling Preservation Society, AMPS, a really good group of guys dedicated to really taking armor modeling to an art form.

Final Shout Outs And Closing

Kentucky Dave 1:27:20

We're at the end of the episode, and for my first actual modeling fluid back, this Mortal Wombat has been really good. It's a German-style Pilsner, 5.4% alcohol by volume. It's a little hoppier than I would have expected, but it is extremely drinkable. Very, very nice. This is one that I would definitely drink again. This is one that would be great if you were having either a German dinner like a Jägerschnitzel or some Setzel or potato pancake. This would also be good with cheese. Chili. I highly recommend it. That's Mendoza Brewing Company. I'm sorry. MetaZoa Brewing Company out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Metazoa Brewing Company. This is Mortal Wombat, German-style Pilsner. And you can't go wrong, guys.

Mike 1:28:22

I remember that one. It was good.

Kentucky Dave 1:28:24

Yep.

Mike 1:28:25

So how about you? I got the PBR down. Actually, um I grabbed another one when I went upstairs. We took a little break and uh about halfway through this one.

Kentucky Dave 1:28:34

You live in Fayette County, so you you may know this. That if you get a ticket for jaywalking in Fayette County, the punishment is they give you a PBR. If you do it twice, they give you two.

Mike 1:28:50

I guess, man.

Kentucky Dave 1:28:50

It's American classic, Dave. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike 1:28:55

Sorry if it offends your bourgeoisie taste, but there you go.

Kentucky Dave 1:28:58

Yeah, it's right. I'm I'm better than that.

Mike 1:29:00

It's delightfully horrible.

Kentucky Dave 1:29:03

It's not the worst thing you could be drinking.

Mike 1:29:05

No, because it's not made by Anheuser Busch. I've enjoyed it to the maximum capacity I can.

Kentucky Dave 1:29:12

Yep. Uh, Mike, uh, we now are truly at the end of the episode. I've got a shout out. How about you?

Mike 1:29:24

I got a couple. Okay. I'll I'll start with one because it's the it's our boilerplate. Thank you for all our contributors, the folks who've chosen to contribute contribute to Plastic Model Mojo through the generosity. It goes a great way to help us uh get the show out to you and a lot of different avenues. And uh there's a lot of avenues you can you can support the show, and you can find all those in the show notes of this episode or the support the show link at www.plasticmodelmojo.com. We appreciate it every month that rolls up and it just makes me happy that folks think enough of our show to uh to uh crack open their wall a little bit. So it goes a long way, folks, and we really do appreciate it.

Kentucky Dave 1:30:02

I've got a specific shout out and a general shout out. My general shout out is to our listener base. You all have been wonderful. You've been great in responding to Mike and my call for wheel questions and and topics. You've been very generous with your time and with suggestions and with the you know, sending me funny videos to make me laugh during the day. And I want to tell you, we really appreciate you, the listener, taking your time to to not only listen, but to interact with us.

Mike 1:30:46

Well, my other one will be short, but I want to thank Dr. David Morris for his help on a personal issue. And he knows what that is, and I know what that is, but everybody else does not need to know what that is.

Kentucky Dave 1:30:57

That's right.

Mike 1:30:58

He's very, very generous to offer me his his counsel on that. So uh really appreciate it.

Kentucky Dave 1:31:04

We've got nothing but a really, really great set of listeners. My individual shout out is to our previous guest, Mark Copeland. He was very generous, not only with his time to come on and talk to us about the Museum of the Mighty Eight and the tours, but he was super generous in obtaining a book for us to give away to the listeners. And Mark's a great guy. I mean, we get to hang out with him at the Nationals and a couple of times a year at different shows, and it's always a fun time. Thank you, Mark. That's all I got, man. That's all I got, man.

Mike 1:31:49

All right, Dave. As we always say, so many kids, so little time, and uh, we'll see uh they get a model show spotlight out or something. Yep, and another feature episode.

Kentucky Dave 1:32:01

Yep. We got a lot to do before it's gonna happen.

Mike 1:32:04

That's right. We'll see you soon. See ya.