Nats Warmup with "The Voice of Bob" Bair & Panzermeister36: Episode 119

Welcome to Plastic Model Mojo, a podcast dedicated to scale modeling, as well as the news and events around the hobby. Let's join Mike and Kentucky Dave as they strive to be informative, entertaining and help you keep your modeling mojo alive, Dave we're up to 119.

This is our last episode before the big dance.

man I know, I know I'm ready to jump out of my skin.

Well, don't do that, because people look at you weird at the show.

Yeah, that's right.

Well, man, what's up in your model sphere?

Well, at this point it is all packing prep. As you know, I've got house guests coming in to make the ride up with us, so I've got packing to do, I've got house prep to do. I'm trying to make my model room look presentable. So when, when you goldfinch and geldmacher walk into it, you're not going to be completely horrified by the mess, it just I'm I'm jazzed. It's the, it's the best time of the year. How about you?

I thought that was Christmas.

No, God, this is much better than Christmas.

Well, good, I'm glad you're excited, because I am too, all that as well. But I'm also at the front end of this platform change we've been alluding to over the last couple episodes, and I got to talk to those guys on Friday, see how that's going. So I'm excited about that. So I can't say a whole lot about that yet, but it's going to be fun and it's be more to come a little, a little later in the year. This is a kind of a longer project and there's a lot of work involved, but we're going to get there, man, it's going to be good.

No doubt, no doubt, since we're recording, I assume you have a modeling fluid. I do, I do.

What are we? What are we drinking? I'm drinking a Guinness out of a Guinness glass and I'm almost done with it and I got another one on deck over here in a cup of ice.

Okay, okay, a good, solid beer. I don't think you'll have any complaints when we get to the end of the episode. What do you got going on? I've got Josef Brau Hefeweizen, joseph Brow Hefeweizen. This is Trader Joe's House Hefeweizen beer brewed by Joseph Brow Brewing in San Jose, california.

I wonder who it really is.

Yeah, lord knows, I'm sure they contracted out to somebody, so we'll see how it goes. This is another one brought to me by the lovely model wife, so we'll see how it goes down.

Well, I hope it goes down good. And while you're figuring it out, the listener mail still at high tide. Man, these folks keep writing in Good. We got a little bit different show format tonight, so we're going to skip the Facebook Messenger part of it.

We'll just save them up for next time.

We'll save them up. I don't know that. There were a whole lot anyway, Not a ton. So let's get into this man before we get too far along. Up first is Dave Kinsey from Ipswich, Massachusetts, and he says he nearly fell out of his chair at the bench, and the reason for that is that during his junior and senior years of college he shared a flat with two other Daves and a Mike.

I hope it worked out well, because we're about to find out.

Yeah, in his case, for differentiation they either used their last names or the initial of their first and then their last name Said. It was fun, interesting and sometimes confusing. So I guess in the whole scheme of modeling banter we've got nicknames yes, well, I don't have one because I'm the only Mike, but we have Kentucky Dave, obviously. Yes, well, I don't have one because I'm the only Mike, but we have Kentucky Dave, obviously, yeah. And we have Dr Dave Geldmacher because he's a physician, medical doctor, and we have Digger Dave.

Yes, also known as the Podfather.

Yeah, from On the Bench. Hopefully we can keep us all straight.

I think we'll manage it. The bigger question will we make it from Louisville to Madison in one piece?

So we'll see how that goes.

I do too.

It's not that bad a drive. We've certainly driven further.

Oh gosh, yes, this is going to be easy compared to San Marcos.

I should probably check the road construction forecasts. Yeah, up next, dave, we've got a request from the Baltimore IPMS. Saturday, october 19th is MarauderCon 2024. And this is going to be held by the Baltimore IPMS, obviously, and it's going to be at the Level Volunteer Fire Department located at 3633 Level Village road in hover, to grace maryland sound oh wow, we know where that is yeah, we sure do.

All the show information can be found at the wwwipms baltimore marauder concom. That's ipms baltimore marauder concom. All one word there standard, fair here. Trophy packages purchased and vendor table purchases can all be handled through the website and he wants us to share this information with our club members and our listening audience. So there you go, folks.

Listen, go to Harv DeGrasse and then go down to the bars along the waterfront and get yourself some Old Bay wings. You won't regret it. That's a good idea, yep.

Well, past guest, mr Mike McCoskey. He's one of the real space mafia from the IPMS there. Yeah, along with uh Robert, sorry, and Mike, I had a cabbage Yep. Well, he's just released volume 10 and his space of miniature series, you know he does reference books.

This one's on the Saturn V. Again, it's the 10th installment of his series 61-page softcover book describing the Apollo program Saturn V Moon Rocket, focusing on the hardware details that are most important to the scale modeler. Most of the text, he says, is written by a noted Saturn V historian, John Duncan, with line drawings provided by the award-winning modeler David Weeks. So the book's in two sections a historical reference section, primarily with lots of photos and drawings and the text from the aforementioned historian, and the second part covers a comprehensive kit list and reviews for the most commonly available Saturn V kits.

Yeah, and all the Saturn V kits out there can do with some tender loving care, because many of them are older molds and even the newer ones miss things. So, yeah, anything like that that can help you polish your Saturn V well worth looking into. Well, this Saturn V well worth looking into.

Well, this Saturn V book sells hard copy for $12 plus shipping. There's a PDF download available for 10, or you can get them both for 15. Wwwspaceinminiaturecom or an email to mike at spaceinminiaturecom and you can pick up a reference book on the Saturn V.

There you go.

This next email is from a longtime listener and voice of the show, bob Bear. Voice of Bob and Bob's with us tonight. Bob, how are you doing?

I'm doing all right. It's fun being here for once, really live, being able to interact. This is fun. I did, of course, mute the beginning because I don't want to hear my own voice but you don't hear your own voice.

Yeah, Well, you're going to hear, you're going to hear your own voice throughout, throughout this podcast man, you've you've done a lot of work for us which is most appreciated we yes it's all been a lot of fun.

Absolutely. It has been fun on my end too.

Well, I'm glad you got a laugh out of my GNI railroad joke about our little fit of food poisoning while we were in Montana.

Yeah, that sounded like that. I love the line. I mean, it just reminded me so much about my dad had because he was a railroad modeler, ho you know and so forth because he was a railroad modeler, ho and so forth and he had a layout and he had this something and something railroad that he just made up and for some reason my mind went right to that.

Well, and you did get the musical reference right All the Worlds of Stage. Yes, that is Shakespeare, and you're correct that it's off Rush rush's album, there, song limelight, which is actually an homage, because the line in the song is actually all the world is indeed a stage, which is not shakespeare direct quote. But uh, we all know that's where it came from. But uh, you're a music guy, bob.

So I do, I do love a little music. I do love a little bit Yep, probably a little rush too. I imagine, yeah, I, I think I've seen them 22 times.

Okay, yeah, that's a kind of moderate fan there. Well, bob, you know you wrote in with that and it just. There was another topic that this kind of fed into because we got another email from one of our Mojovian special agents, mr Brandon Jacob, out in Texas, and he had written in because, like you coming back from I guess it was the last nationals which was San Marcos, you had a little TSA incident with your atomic bomb model.

Yeah, we didn't use that word in the airport, but yeah, yes, you're not allowed to use the B word in the airport.

Well, the reason Brandon had written in and we'll get to his questions. We can discuss this here in a minute. Jake McKee from Austin, also from Texas, from the Austin area, was going up to Scott Gentry's show. They had I guess it was the 1st of July, end of June, it wasn't long ago a week or so ago, rocky Mountain Model Expo.

Yeah.

And he had intended to take his Battlestar Galactica hangar bay with the Cylon Raider diorama up there. Oh yeah, and I guess this happened at the Austin airport. It's happened at the front end of his trip. Like you, he got TS'd in the A as well and it was not pretty and it really sucked, because that build was kind of the impetus for us to even have him on the show is the main discussion point that we discussed and it just kind of went on from there. All the new stuff he had tried and learned and all really you know pulled off successfully and it was just really sad to see that thing had gotten stuck in the x-ray machine and then the TSA agent uses fricking fish gaff to get it.

Get it out of there, man why don't you just use a sledgehammer?

He's got some work to do to get that fixed and I hope he fixes it. He was encouraged to get it fixed. Yeah, and he can get it fixed. But man, do-overs are just not fun at any point.

No, they aren't. It's like it's rework, man yeah.

Yeah, no, you don't want to do that. Getting back to Brandon Jacob, he was traveling over 4th of July weekend. He'll have to tell us about this trip because he was coming through LaGuardia airport with basically fly fishing in a hard case and then a backpack. That's all he had and it was 4th of July, so I mean it was the day 4th of July, so the airport was kind of empty. He was moved to have a discussion with the TSA agent there at LaGuardia about fragile items going through security, because you know you had your A-bomb messed up and then Jake's had his diorama damn near destroyed. And then, gosh, who was it? Ian Bonner? Was it Ian Bonner Not that long ago got something trashed as well?

Might well have been. There's not a national that goes by without somebody having this experience.

I know, but gosh, it just seems we know too many of them.

Yes, that's right.

Well, anyway, he asked this guy a few questions and I don't know. We can talk about this a little bit. The first one was is it, is it normal to ask for a hand check with tsa? And the response from the agent was absolutely. And you'd be surprised at what people carry on airlines, including live pet fish yep so that's kind of interesting, so wait a minute.

How does that work with the limited amount of liquid you're allowed to carry?

I do not know, that's a very good question.

Just enough to keep the fish alive, I guess.

I got to shake the bag and aerate it, yeah right, and maybe a little vodka in there or something, I don't know Well.

and then the second question you asked do they have to touch the fragile item? And he didn't get 100% yes on this, but it sounded like they might want to swab it for explosives and this might be a problem for modelers not because they're building their models out of explosives, but you got fragile finishes right. I don't know if that's a dry swab or some kind of indicator that they're wiping on there. Probably is, and it's going to wipe your pigment off or whatever, but it was interesting. And then he asked what happens if you don't want anybody touching the item because it's very fragile. And the answer was if you're uncomfortable, just ask the TSA agent to get a supervisor so you can have the next level discussion on this. And then he offers the caveat that he was flying on the afternoon, july 4th. Again, the airport was dead. Pulling this stunt on a Monday morning might not result in a happy supervisor magically appearing. You know. I wonder if you could call ahead and figure something out.

That's a good question.

That is a good question, yeah.

Now I will tell you the few times I've transported a model by air flying. You know I have it in a Tupperware container, that is clear. And when I go up, right before I put it on the conveyor to go through the X-ray, I open it up and show it to the person and say you know, this is fragile, I just want to. And then I put it on the thing to go through the machine. Now again, as our friend recently found out, the going through the machine carries its own risks, and then you just hope that you can get to the other side before some helpful person shoves it down the carrier, down the landing area.

Well, that's interesting because his fourth question was if there was any tips from TSA about these machines that seem to like to eat things, any tips from TSA about these machines that seem to like to eat things. And I don't think this is going to be valid at all airports. But the suggestion was if, if, if you're at a place that has an older machine, you might pick that line, because the newer machines don't have a straight path through. It may look like a straight path through, but it's not.

Oh, it actually jags or zigs into a scan area, then zags back out onto the through line oh, I did not know that and then bob we discussed this before we went live tonight that the actual x-ray compartment in there has got lead curtains on the front and tailing into that, so things that are not severely bottom heavy can get tipped over. That's what happened to me in louisville on the way to the las vegas nationals, but my box was light and it just got tipped over. Then the kind lady behind me in line tried to help me without yeah, you know they.

they had me put the boxes in each in separate bins, and what was really puzzling was when there was two empty bins that came through. I'm like what?

Wait a minute.

Yeah, then your heart sank. Yeah, did your models come out of the bins?

One did Fat, man did the second bomb.

So you screamed at the top of your lungs oh no, my atomic bomb right.

Yes, that's it. Wait, wait, yes, stop it. Can't you see? The plugs are in.

It's armed. Yeah, yeah, that would get a lot of attention.

I was. I was desperately containing myself because I knew that nothing good comes out of making a scene in airports.

So, yeah.

So I just went ahead and, you know, just held it in, and then you know, picked up some pieces and put them all in, and then you know, I was there with, you know, a couple other guys Evan was there and Bruce was there and I just kind of walked away and just went by myself for a little while and then, and then everything was fine. And then that's when you realize okay, it's, this is after the show, and they can be fixed, and just just let it go.

Brandon concludes by saying he didn't want to suggest that Jake did anything particularly wrong, but he just wanted to reiterate that it's not weird or unusual to ask TSA agents to check their awareness and to maybe get a hand check. They're not going to care what your fragile item is, necessarily, but it's okay to ask. It's possible to get a supervisor to get the next level of decision-making on it. Maybe you can bypass the x-ray and, of course, always give yourself extra time at the airport. Of course he says the best choice is to contract with one of your club members who's actually driving to the show. There you go To carry your wares. Yeah Well, bob, you mentioned your dad and HO scale railroading. That's kind of what the next email is about. Oh no, kidding, it's from Eric Kintzer from Menlo Park, california. He's a scale modeler, not a model railroader, but recently he was building the Airfix 176 scale cattle wagon. For quote unquote reasons.

Yeah, airfix 176 scale cattle wagon for quote unquote reasons. Yep, and in the course of watching YouTube videos on freight cars weathering, including those by a friend of the show, panzermeister36, he was struck by the following questions. And before we get into his questions, we have Panzermeister36 waiting in the lobby. Evan, how are you doing tonight? Hello, hello, I'm doing good.

You ready for the show? Yeah, I'm here, I'm ready. No, he meant the Nats man. Yeah, right next to me is the model I am doing my weathering presentation on still being weathered, but I've got a few more days.

Now you don't have the option that you did in San Marcos to finish your presentation in the vehicle while it was traveling to San Marcos, right, yeah, because I'm driving the vehicle this time.

Yeah.

Well, since he mentioned you in this email and since Bob mentioned his dad being a model railroader, Eric has some questions. Kind of a high-level question Do model railroaders look down on the mirror scale modeler? After all, it seems to him that a model railroader has to master everything. A scale modeler does kit assembly, scratch, building, research, painting and weathering and, in addition, systems engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, large to very large scale dioramas, backdrop, scenery, painting, carpentry, et cetera, et cetera. Our scale model is really just the junior varsity Interesting. I'm going to say no, I don't think so and here's my take Cause I was in the local when I was a founding member and then I was in it until I started having kids and the hobby had to go.

I was in the local nmra chapter here in town and spent a lot of time in model railroading.

I kind of considered myself a railroad modeler because I never had a layout but I was modeling stuff and just kind of putting in boxes and putting it away. But being being in the NMRA, I knew all these guys that were getting their NMRA Master, Model Railroader credentials, which is a systematic process you go through and you have to learn, you have to demonstrate a predetermined level of competency in all this stuff X, Y and Z, A lot of the stuff he's mentioned here. Watching that process with a few of those guys and then just seeing all the other people who were not pursuing that credential and the way they approached the hobby, I tend to think that for most of them and I'm really not trying to be insulting here, but it was a situation where it's the jack of all trades, master of none. I don't think there are many model railroaders out there on average that model individual components of what they're doing to the level of fidelity that the average static, traditional scale modeler does. That's my opinion.

You think that simply comes from the fact that your traditional model railroader is trying to do a layout, and so each individual piece is not as important as the grand layout is.

You can't afford to put in as much focus into every individual area, because there's just so much of it.

Exactly.

And tell me, have you ever met a model railroader that said their layout was done Exactly?

I have not.

Well, I've got some kits that that might apply to, but we won't talk about that right now.

Well, it's tougher to bend one of those big. You know a layout, but yeah.

Yeah, true, they do it, though, oh man, people switch scales and all that. But you know there's a whole Proto 87, like subgroup of model railroaders where, like the scale fidelity of all the track work and the wheel flange widths and all that, is actually 187 scale. It's not, they're not wide, they're not wider to accommodate.

Like they're cutting their own ties out and their own little spikes and they're driving it all in as if they were actually building the rail.

And there's, there's Pr proto 48 for the O scalers. Bob, what kind of take did your, your dad, have? I mean, what was what? What do you have going on?

For a long time he didn't even have a layout but he loved building the, the engines. Well, you would, you know, get the brass engines and he would do all the things you know, add on accessories and so forth, you know, sharpen them up. He would take plastic and you know, dip it in brake fluid and you know, repaint it and add details, and so it was all pretty much HO. But he did lay track, he did the spikes, the ballast. I don't think he did it for the whole layout, but I know he did it for a little bit just to be able to do it. Once he, you know, he did get that layout but he did HO. And then he did a narrow gauge, ho in for that layout that he had to kind of had like a mining section for that. That narrow gauge, yeah, it was a, it was a nice little setup, it really was.

It's. It's still there, it's still at mom's house, you know. But you know we, but we've kind of divvied up some of the end. I've got a couple of his engines and we've kind of dispersed some of the buildings around since he's been gone. But yeah, that layout's still there.

Well, Evan, you're the exception of the rule.

Well, back to your question. Back to your question. I've been a member recently of one of those modular railway groups at the local place here where everyone has like a six-foot module and they bring them over and they bolt them together in a different configuration every month and then you have a very large layout, bigger than any one person could reasonably have. So I get a lot of exposure to the wide range of model Raritors in my city there and I don't think there's really any looking down upon the armor modelers as being simpletons or anything like that, because they don't also do all the electrical and all that stuff, because I don't think the average model Raritor thinks about the average plastic modeler very much.

To begin with, no, that's probably true.

In my opinion and experience, it's almost like model rariting is much more separated than the rest of plastic modeling, be it if you're doing Gundams or aircraft or cars, even though the skills in general are very similar. It's almost like a whole separate hobby because I think it is seen as like its own thing, where you're focusing more on this whole scene and you're constantly improving it. You're going back to areas you worked on before and you're upgrading them and everything like that, Whereas if you're building models, usually you just build and you're finished and you move on and you progress that, Whereas if you're building models, usually you just build it and you're finished and you move on and you progress that way.

Okay, evan, I have to ask a practical question. Yes, how do you move a six-foot section?

Oh, you just put it in the back of your car. They're lightweight. They're usually like hollow core door-style setups. There's standards for all this. I think it's HO track is also n track as well, but there's these standards that the club has so that all the modules are the same size and they're all super lightweight. They all could take the same detachable legs. They're all interchangeable and they're not heavy. You just need two people to move it around and and a level to make sure it's it's flat yeah, I was going to add that was part of.

What I was asking is not only the size, but the fact that it's so cumbersome. I couldn't imagine just one person being able to move a section.

Yeah, my dad did one of those too. He did the same thing. The club, the local club he was with, he built one of the sections. You know, everyone had a section and they built that. Yeah, that was kind of a neat thing to do, just kind of see what everyone else can do. But again, I it's. It certainly isn't to the fidelity that we do and and they're fine with it, you know, and and we're fine with what we do.

And again there's there's some out there that absolutely do and I don't't. I don't know how they get it all done, but there's a few that do, but but but in general most I don't think do. Now one thing when I was in the mra and I was, I was doing a lot of paint and decal seminar type stuff and and it's changed a little now because I know like probably both ak and mig are courting that segment of the, of the, you know the greater hobby space, yeah, with the, with books and targeted paint sets and all that, uh, weathering sets etc. But I remember doing a, a paint and decal seminar on like a box car and I was like doing a bunch of pre-shading and and panel fading and all that and they looked at me like I was from Mars. Yeah, I get.

I get similar questions on my YouTube videos. People are impressed by the level of effort and work that I put into a single rail car, and that's because I don't have very many, because my layout's fairly small and I like to focus on, kind of like my armor models, you know, putting a lot of work into each one, whereas if you have a layout with 300 rail cars which is not that uncommon you just you can't afford to do that. Essentially, you would run out of time.

Well, finally, for the email listener, mail from New York City. Mr Michael Karnalka has got his biweekly question and we can all chime in here and I'm going to kind of limit the scope of this question. So think about this in terms of your, I guess, adult hobby experience. Now, Evan, you're one of those guys who started young like me, and you never really quit. I had a pause in here, but so far you're running pretty hot with this. But his question is have you ever thought of leaving the hobby or have you ever taken a long pause? So, Bob, how about you go first?

The hobby being basically Scale modeling. Yeah, Scale modeling.

Now the first eight seconds after your models didn't come out of the X-ray machine in San Marcos doesn't count, as wanting to get out of the hobby.

But no, I, you know, I I built models a long, long time ago, you know, as a kid, and I think I stopped, I don't know, maybe in the in my late teens, my probably early 20s. No, actually I remember moving and still having a b29 to build. But then I just I just started switching into some other hobbies rc racing, you know, high power, rocketry, you all that kind of stuff and then only within the last five, six years have I come back into it. So I guess you could say that was quite a hiatus from that, dave.

Well, I can tell you pretty succinctly my first model was probably eight years old. I built models up until I was 14 or 15. I stopped from age 15 to age 21. So for about six years, which was basically most of high school, basically most of high school, most of high school, most of undergraduate college, and I got back into modeling just at the end of undergraduate and the beginning of law school. And I've I've built slowly at times, but I've never gotten out of the hobby and have never thought outside the occasional modeling bench failure where you're just utterly frustrated at something. I have never seriously thought of getting out of the hobby. This is too much fun. I enjoy it, much fun, I enjoy it. It's relaxing, even when it's stressful and, boy, when it's going right. There is just nothing more fun and relaxing in the world. I love it. And so I've never seriously considered getting out of it.

Evan, we're going to see in those videos. We just say I'm out of here. Screw you guys, I'm done with this crap.

No, I'm like Dave, I'm institutionalized, I can't get out.

Institutionalized. That's a great way to put it.

I'm sitting on my bench right now and I can see thousands of dollars worth of paints and tools and kits and everything Yep, I'm invested.

That's worth about a hundred bucks collective on the secondary market. That's true. Let me know how much you get for that when you try and resell it.

Yeah, no, I love the hobby. I don't have kids or anything that's taking my time away yet, so there's no reason for me to need to quit the hobby and I'm not frustrated by it yet. So we'll see. Every project could be the mojo killer, I guess. Usually I just open a new one when I get frustrated.

That's the smart move, yeah.

It's like the Jim Bates plan.

Yeah, true.

Oh, you pick on, jim. Well, I've told my story numerous times but I guess I'll tell it again, since Mike asked the question. I got really into building for shows and contests and competitions and was doing it that way for a while and to make a long story short, it was 2002 amps. There was a model there that was just to use a chintzy corporate buzzword was a paradigm shift in in the scale modeling. It was like when all this chipping and more deliberate kind of weathering techniques were just at the forefront and it was like, wow, I just got to the top of my game doing it the old way, the old Shep Payne, francois Verlinden way.

And now there's this and I was like I don't know how to do that. I don't think I even want to learn how to do that. So I, like, was relegated to armchair modeling for better part of a decade. I remember like, right when we started the podcast, the first model I finished once we started the podcast was that Trumpeter PT-76, pt-76. And I'd started that at the old house in my old workshop as a kind of a paint mule to try some of this new stuff. And, gosh, that model had a lot of birthdays where I finally got it done.

That model had a lot of birthdays where I finally got it done. It took a lot of Mexican lunches at Jalapenos in Lexington to get you back in the game, but it worked, it worked, I'm back.

I've kind of gotten slow again here of late, but that's because you're learning new things and experimenting. I am doing new stuff. Well, evan, I know you can't stay with us all night tonight, but we want to give you an opportunity to tell us your plans for the National Convention coming up, what you got going on while you're there, and then I guess you got a special guest traveling with you.

Absolutely so. At the Nats itself I will have a weathering presentation, like I did last year. It's Friday at 10 am. Weathering presentation like I did last year, it's Friday at 10 am. It's just about my process and mentality towards weathering armor models and trying to make it a little bit more. I think I'm calling it again armor weathering with confidence. So it's trying to get confident and not getting stuck at certain points where you're not sure what to do next or you're worried about doing something that might ruin your model. So just kind of a bunch of examples about how I weather and I'll go through a full step by step.

So it's a revision on what you've had prior.

Well, I've got new models to show as examples.

Okay, well, that'll be good.

Yeah, and yes, I'm having another YouTube celebrity with me there. So my friend from Germany, hamilcar Barkas, who is one of the old guard YouTube's godmothers and one of the guys who inspired me to start my channel up about 10 years ago now he's flying into Chicago and I'll be picking him up and we'll be hanging out at the Nats with our other youtube buddy, adam man, so we'll be having a great time. I'm happy to finally meet michael hemker barkus and also hang out with my buddy, adam again, so this is going to be probably one of the best nats ever, I'm hoping well, what day you're arriving on I'll be there early wednesday okay, all right.

Well, we'll have to all get caught up there and look forward to getting introduced to your two friends.

Yeah, we can't wait. I look forward to the dojo as much as I do the show itself.

All right, well, I got a couple of shirts for Michael, and I got one for you too, but it's stuck in customs in Chicago, so if they don't crap that thing out here soon, you just pick it up on the way.

Now, Evan, your seminar is open to the public, free to anybody. It's not a ticketed event.

Well, you can stand at the door and ask for dollar bills.

He's not that good Dave.

That's a great idea. We'll look forward to seeing it.

Your presentation in San Marcos was fantastic, so I'm looking forward to this one and storage tools for use with all your model paints, be they acrylic, enamels or lacquers. Check them out at wwwmodelpaintsolutionscom.

That guy sounded familiar.

Yeah, really so many mistakes. You too it sounds perfect to me, man. It's just like a model, you know.

Yes, you know where all your errors are, yep.

Well, bob, you're going to be at Nationals too, yes, and you're emceeing a little event there that we've gotten pretty acquainted with.

But why don't you tell us what you're going to be doing at the National Convention? Well, one of the things is going to be the podcast get-together, the podcast roundtable kind of thing. We've done it the past couple of years. It's going to be on Thursday at 1 o'clock. Again, it's not going to be no cost, unless someone wants to take something at the door Donations, we might put a tip jar out, but yeah it's going to be a.

it's going to be a get together, you know getting some of the the people with podcasts. You guys will be there and we've got, you know, people from you know actually got one of the guys from sanity Geeks will be there. Of course, the pod father will be there, and so we're going to have a good time just to get people to come out, chat about things, ask questions that you haven't thought of, or just come on in and just enjoy the fun, because it's going to be fun.

Oh yes, the last couple that we've done have just been very interesting and entertaining and the feedback is fantastic, and I promise you we will get the podfather there in one piece.

That's, that's good Thanks.

Well, what else are you looking forward to at the show man? Just honestly, it's just seeing everybody. I mean just getting together and just talking about you know, talking with everyone, getting you know the dojo is obviously, you know, is obviously number one on the list, just enjoying it. The vendor rooms I mean how can you not enjoy those? I'm bringing a few models just for fun.

You're driving right.

No flying again.

So you're bringing. Even after the San Marcos experience, you are willing to go through TSA again.

I am hoping that I've learned and that I'm taking additional steps to make sure that it doesn't there isn't a repeat of some woman holding up the bomb with her fingers saying what's this? And you know, went to the container store, got big, you know nicer containers, pickup parts, I'm going to. I'm going to try and do it all to try and get them there.

Well, good luck this year. Hope you make it. Make it in one piece.

Both there and back.

Yes, yeah, At least there. But you're right there and back would be would be sweet.

Yeah Well, there and back would be would be sweet. Yeah, well, that's, that was the, the, uh, the, the cherry on top of the whipped cream of of suck, that was your trip out of san marcos, because you'd actually done pretty well with those models yeah, yeah, I mean, you know that the, the little boy, did bring, bring home a gold which you know I was really happy with.

probably more importantly was when Rick Lawler said hey, who, who built these? He helped them when they originally made those. He built the first ones. The picture on the front of the cover is the ones that he built and he loved them and after that it really didn't matter. That was it.

Well, that just goes to show. Ultimately, it's exactly what you said it's the experience and the people.

Yeah, and getting to really sit down and chat with people like Rick Unfortunately, rick, and Speedy Recovery for Rick. There's always some great seminars going on. I hear Evan might do one, but you might have to stop in and see what that's all about. But yeah, you know, you meet, you learn things, you have a great time, you see people and you might have some bourbon.

Well, if you come to the dojo, we'll have some for you.

Yes, we can guarantee you a little, a wee little drop.

Oh good, that's all I really need. Classic Model Mojo is brought to you by Squadron. Head on over to squadroncom for the latest in kits and accessories, all at a great price and with great service. Are you a modeler on the go? Check out the Squadron mobile app for your Apple or Android device for easy shopping from just about anywhere. Squadron adding to the stash since 1968.

Just a voice of Bob special tonight.

That's right, man.

Well, we always put that ad ahead of the benchtop halftime reports, which we're going to talk about what we got going on. And, bob, since you're the guest here tonight, you get to go first. What are you working on?

Well, at the moment I am working on the base for the Proteus submarine from Fantastic Voyage that I'll be bringing to the Nationals.

How many times have you watched that movie now?

to the nationals. How many times have you watched that movie? Now, I've watched several little segments of it numerous times. Just to kind of pick up on things the color of this, what does that look like? Yeah yeah, I've seen it a few times. And then the you know there's some other scenes, but you know it. Those really didn't help my modeling, but it helped my attitude.

Yes, rick, raquel was lovely.

Yes, yes. So then, that's really been my focus at the moment, just, and then, you know, figuring out good ways to, you know, get them, get them through TSA. I've, I've got this P38 that I've been talking about. I needed to get started and I'm one of those guys that was like I want to, I want to make sure I have time to do all this other stuff before nationals, before I kick into that. So I've that's been sitting on another bench and as soon as I come back, then that's I'm all in on that one. So that to me, at p38, I I'll enjoy that one.

Dave, what do you got going on?

Well, again, the main thing that I've been doing while I did do a little more on the A7M2, I've been concentrating on the seams and rescribing. Rescribing is an area that I I feel deficient in, so I really, really focused on it and I like where I'm coming out. I've primed the seams and worked them a couple of times. It's ready for overall priming. But I had to stop because, again, guests arrive soon and I've got to get my model room looking presentable because I can't have the podfather, dr Geldmacher and you all in my model room and it be the hoarder's den that it normally looks like. So we'll see, we'll see. I'm working on it. In fact, when we're done recording tonight, I am going to spend some more time getting stuff where it needs to go.

See, Bob, he says where it needs to go, but I promise you have to get back from that and he's all fired up and building stuff. There's gonna be a litany of this stuff he can't find, oh yes.

Oh yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely, I confess. Yeah, that's going to happen. Now, where did I put that? Although I do have a label maker and I'm putting labels on drawers, so hopefully that will help me a little bit.

We'll see, and that'll be a matter of whether you remember. Okay, now, what did I consider that when I threw it away? Was that a finishing thing? Was that a paint? Was that a yeah?

Yeah Well, I actually got something done this time, Dave.

Yeah, I know you put us to shame. You made modeling progress.

I don't know how to put anybody to shame, but most of the green is on the E16 now, including the floats. If folks were paying attention on the dojo.

they saw the Tamiya tape monster I was creating.

Oh man, but tell me peeling off all that tape after you painted.

Isn't that just immensely satisfying? Yes, because it all worked out. Yes, that's right. Yeah, there's nothing more disappointing than peeling the tape and then seeing where something got through.

But I wouldn't call it cheating, but I took care of a couple of potential gaffes before I peeled the tape off. There were a couple of holes in the tape where I was like, well, I just won't spray that direction. Well, of course, when I painted the green on the pontoons I painted in that direction, right, right. So a couple of things going for me there I was. The paint was so dilute that, yeah, there was overspray and it would have probably shown had I pulled the tape off, cause it was going to the green, was going to hit the gray. So when I got all the green done and set up, I went mixed up a little of the Imperial Japanese Navy gray and diluted it way out, and then I went back and blew it across those openings in the tape again.

Yeah.

And then let that set up, start taking the tape off, and the more I took off, the better it got and there's like there's, there's no, there's no gaps that are like bleed under or anything like that, or overspray.

Right.

There's a couple of places on some of the curves that I didn't quite get as smooth a curve as I might have liked. You know it's a little more faceted looking maybe a little bit, but but you know, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't look that bad really. Uh. And then once I put the national insignia on the fuselage it's going to cover up the most of the major offender there and again it's not so bad. But the net is I was really pleased. So now I've got to go back and mask up the front pontoon struts again and the undersides of the wings in those areas and the tops of the pontoon ahead of that strut and just behind it. And there's a narrow stripe of green right up the very leading edge of the main pontoon struts. And then I've got to mask off the yellow leading edge marks. You know, typical Japanese airplane, right yeah?

Yellow IG band Right, so I got to get that done edge marks. You know, typical Japanese airplane, right yeah, the yellow ID bands Right.

So I got to get that done and I you know that's I'm going to base coat those in something. I know you've done a pink, and I think we picked up the pink idea from uh, I think we pick up that pink idea from Brian Dinklow.

Yeah Well, I will tell you I am sold on it. I did, speaking of the A7M2, I did the stripes on the prop tips and I did the exact same thing. I painted the tips pink first, then painted them yellow and then masked the yellow lines to paint the body color.

I didn't on my prop, but the yellow went over light gray primer there and it's just such a small, small little areas. I don't know that, I don't know. For me it didn't make much sense. But these front ID bands are a lot bigger and the big problem is not what's going to give me the best yellow. The problem is the top side of that's going over the dark green and the bottom side of it's going over the gray. So that's got to be homogenized some way before I paint that yellow over there. It's not going to show through.

Well, let me tell you, Tamiya X17 Pink is a really good pink to put down before you put down yellow.

Interesting. I don't know why it works, but some folks swear by it. Oh, I see why. So it's not going to be done for Nats, but I'm confident I can actually get it done now. Other than that, I'm not really working on anything else too hard at the moment. I would like to get this plane done before I touch much else. Gotcha, I mean, it's pretty close. I mean I don't know, there's still a lot to do on it. But it's all that 90% prep work, 10% actually doing. Yeah Well, prep and clean up.

Yeah.

It's just little areas have to be painted, just that kind of stuff, and by the way, when you and I were texting back and forth right before you were going to paint, you said something that is absolutely true and I don't know why it's true. But more than any other area of modeling, you've got to be in a certain mind frame to airbrush. There's just sometimes that you feel it and sometimes that you don't, and you may have a project that's ready for airbrushing, but finding not only the time to do that because you want a certain amount of uninterrupted modeling time but more than anything else, you got to be in the right headspace. At least I do, and I think that's interesting.

How about you, Bob? How do you feel about that?

I really agree. I have to feel just, you know, I have to have everything laid out. I got to clean the brush always ahead of time, because it's been a while since I've used it, so it's sticky and I just, I need to be not bothered for a while. Yes, need to be not bothered for a while. Yes, before I can, before I can, just I feel like I can do this, I can have the time to you know, test to you know, test this paint, see, see how the consistency is, and do all those little things before you actually paint. I, yeah, I, I need to and I need to feel it too.

I just, uh, I don't feel like pain today yep, well, that Well, I think that's kind of where I was when I even said that that was Saturday night this past weekend. I said that, and it was just you know, I'd gotten up the gumption, I guess, to paint those pontoon floats. I'd spent probably three or four sessions masking that sucker up to even just paint the pontoons and peeled the tape off. It all looked pretty dang good as far as I'm concerned, and I just I knew I needed to mask up parts of it again and paint those, those leading edges of the of the front struts for the floats. And I was man. I just need to sit here and enjoy the, the the pucker release of peeling all that masking tape off and having it be, having it be okay.

Yeah, you got to revel in that, that victory yes.

I took, took a little victory lap, had a little victory drink and then I started laying out my plan of attack to finish that up.

And and you know that's again you you gotta be in the right head space to go airbrush. By the same token, finishing up a session of airbrushing where everything goes right is one of the best feelings. As far as modeling, it's one of the biggest feelings of accomplishment is when you put the airbrush down after you're done cleaning it. You know if you've got masking to peel off the model. You peel it off. Or you go back and look at the paint that you put down and it looks great and that's just such a feeling of accomplishment.

Especially if it's a canopy. Well, I haven't unmasked that yet. I go back. Every time I've had the green out, I hit it a little bit more to make sure I've got all those frames covered. Just a little bit, it's going to look great.

It will.

Well, guys, I don't know if anybody's had time to look. I have a little bit, but we're due for a faves and yawns segment. I don't know, bob, have you seen anything out there that's got you excited? New kit release, or one that makes you go? What the heck.

I guess I'm anticipating the Ornithopters coming out. Those are the ones that I have. I've already pre-ordered both of the ones, the 172nd scale. That's, that's kind of what I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to, so that's that's. My thing right now is, just to you know, waiting for those to show up at the door who makes those?

are those from dune right.

Yes, definitely from dune yes, and there's a minket they're the ones.

Yeah, they're the ones that are the 172nd. They had another grouping of you know, both of those and one of the extractors. They're on for the surface, but these are going to be pretty big size, I think, with the wings.

You got anything, dave?

Yes, I do. I'm looking forward to and this is not in my scale what Is this a bizarro version of the podcast?

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Copper State Models. You know, copper State does World War I aircraft and they do World War I armored cars. Well, they've announced a series of figures with motorcycles. They're dispatch riders, is what they're calling them. There's guys on various early motorcycles. One of them even has a pigeon coop on his back. There's a German dispatch rider, british dispatch rider, and these things are just cool looking. I don't know what it is. I've become more and more interested in World War I, not from the aircraft side, but really from the artillery and armored cars and stuff like that. And this is just. These all look way cool and I'll have to look. I don't know if they're going to be out yet. I'll have to look at the nationals and see, see if any of them are there mike.

Yeah, what I'm interested in is tacom. Looks like they're prepping up to rip through the sdkfc 250 series that the smaller half tracks and their 250 slash one is. I don't know if it's available yet, but it's. It's the first one out of the shoot and you know, the dragon kits of those aren't too bad. But I like Tac-On and I'm really curious to see what they're going to do with those.

I don't know what it is. I love the 251. It looks right. The 250, because it looks so similar, but smaller. It looks like somebody that washed a 251 in hot water and it shrank.

Anybody else got another one.

Yeah, I want to bring one to everybody's attention. There is a company and I suspect this must be just from the name. I'm betting this is out of the Netherlands name. I'm betting this is out of the Netherlands. There's a company that's announced some 72nd scale World War II items, a FAMO tractor, a Horsch 853 staff car and an MB4500 truck and it's not the items that interest me at all, but the boxing, because this company has just flat ripped off the logo and the typeface for the late 60s or early 70s Matchbox kids.

Oh, I've seen those.

And it's funny, it's neat. I wonder if they the matchbox is still around, as far as the all of that, all of that stuff is owned by a company, I can't imagine that. Maybe they can get away with it, I don't know but it. But it's kind of funny to see because when you first see the items it just really catches your eye.

Anything else, Bob.

No, that's about it for me. Right now I'm just focusing on the gnats and, yeah, having a good time.

We'll see what you buy at gnats. Yeah, that's the other part of it well, I got a yawner.

Okay, ah, you know many art has chosen to go down the sdkfc 234 eight-wheeled armored car series. Right and they're. They're coming out with a boxing sFC 234 slash 2. Now, this isn't the slash 2 that most people are familiar with. This one actually has a Lux light tank turret on it, which I can't imagine there were many of these at all. In fact, I'm not even sure I was familiar with this one until the box art showed up.

Yeah, I had never seen that before until I saw that box art.

So I'm real curious about the reference, reference, the source material on this one, because I was really not familiar with this at all yeah and I don't purport to know everything about these, but there's so much stuff you know well. They've got the slash 4 with the long 75 pack, 40 it, which was no surprise, because they kit the Pac-40 as well.

Right.

And then they have two versions with a 50-millimeter gun, and then they've got this thing. I'm like, well, why did they do that one? But they did, and I don't know I won't be getting that one. A little strange. Anything else for you, Dave? I've?

got one more fave, and this one is just interesting because it's newsworthy. Magic Factory is releasing a 1-700 scale model of the third Chinese aircraft carrier. This is their CV-18 Fujian F-U-J-I-A-N and this is the first carrier that is the near equivalent of a US carrier in size and aircraft complement the CV-16 and the CV-17,. The two previous carriers that are both now launched and more or less operational were smaller carriers the first one based around Russian carrier, and this one is a new, basically a new generation. It's their step up into a true blue water carrier and you know it's been manufactured, it's fitting out, it's not yet operational but it will be in the next year or so and I just think the kit is interesting from that standpoint that it is of the latest Chinese operational aircraft carrier. Mike, we're here toward the end of the episode, which means that our modeling fluid should be fairly well finished. I know mine is. I wouldn't expect that your Guinness was anything other than enjoyable.

You know I'm kind of meh on Guinness. It was okay, but it's what was in the fridge. We were using it to spritz beef ribs on the 4th of July, so we had some leftover. Well, you know, bob, you didn't get in on the front end of this, did you have anything?

tonight I did. Actually I had Eagle Rare. Oh man, and that's only because I am. I drank all the rest of the what I had and that was the only bourbon I had left.

The voice of Bob comes out over the top rope with the elbow. That is a good choice, eagle.

Rare Good choice, yes, good choice.

Eagle Rare is a fine, fine bourbon.

How's your Trader Joe's beer, Dave?

Very good choice. Surprisingly enough for a Hefeweizen it has almost a malt taste to it and kind of a front note that's a little bit off-putting the first few sips. So while it's perfectly acceptable, that's about all it is is perfectly acceptable, and you know it got me through the episode. But I'm not going to be. Even if I can get it at a discount, which I can, I'm probably not going to be getting any more of that one.

Well, Bob, you win the bonus round. Yes, you do.

I get an extra glass.

There you go, have one for Dave and I each glass. There you go, have one for dave and I each.

There you go um, mike. We now truly are at the end of the episode. Do you have some shout?

outs. Well, I'm going to shout out both bob voice of bob, bob Bear and Evan McCallum for stepping up and giving us a little help with this episode. We said we were going to do a little something different because we were kind of busy with the run-up to the national convention and we knew both these guys were going. So Evan already had to step away. But, bob, thanks for joining us tonight, man.

Oh man, this was great. I loved it. It really was a good time.

I'm really glad you got to come and sit down and do a full episode. I mean, we run into you at shows and we sit down and sometimes we record little 15-minute segments. But this was really enjoyable getting you to sit down and third chair most of the episode with us.

It was for me too, it really was. Yeah, you guys, you guys are great. Thank you you as well.

What about you, Dave? You got a shout out.

Yes, I do. I've got a shout out to the following individuals who I am looking forward to seeing at the Nats and this list is not all inclusive by far, because I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the Podfather, to seeing Dr Geldmacher, who drives, his driving companions, mr Copeland and Mr Hustad, bob and Evan, and looking forward to meeting Hamilcar. We say it and we say it, but it's true of the IPMS nationals. What I'm really looking forward to is seeing all my friends and seeing all of the people that I interact with online all the time but only managed to see in person once or twice a year. So I just can't wait for this.

Bobby's shouting out Buffalo Tr for instilling that fine eagle rare yeah, and, and, and, hoping that maybe they would you know, get more of their stuff here in charlotte. But uh, you know, I want to. I want to shout out jeff hearn, for as much as he's had to go through, uh, he is, he is ready to like, just be done with it and be done with it.

Yep and listen. It is for anybody who steps up and takes on that job. They deserve our thanks and our praise, because there's no upside to this job. It's not like you're getting paid to do any of this and you know you spend a year and a half of your life sweating everything that could possibly go wrong and it just it really. We all owe Jeff and his entire team a big thank you for making this possible.

Well, I'll double down on that one and encourage folks to go listen to Jeff's segment on the bench of late. Yes, one of their most recent episodes. I just thought I thought he did a real good job. Yep, well, guys, we're at the end. Bob, thanks again for joining us.

Thanks, thanks for inviting me, guys.

You're welcome. We'll see you in Wisconsin and just have a grand old time. You bet, dave, as we always say, man so many kids, so little time and I'll see you Tuesday. You got it.