Talking Shop with Mike and Kentucky Dave: Episode 130

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.

All right, Kentucky, Dave. December is evaporating quickly 2024 is evaporating quickly. 2024 is evaporating quickly. It is so as we're clinging to the ether of 2024,. My friend, what's up in your model sphere?

I have many mixed thoughts. One, as far as my direct model sphere, I am fighting the dark time. I can't say it's winning. I can't say I'm winning Right now. It's a draw because I'm getting things done. I'm just not getting to model as often as I'd like to, simply because it's that time between Thanksgiving and the new year when you have to go out and get Christmas presents, when you have to hang lights, or when you have to fix the lights you already hung, or when you have to take the Christmas tree that's already up and decorated out of its stand, because your wife found a new motorized stand that rotates the tree and she wants to have the tree on that stand for the year. So you know things.

Things yeah.

Things. I should be grateful I should not complain. I am getting things, some modeling things, done, and when I'm sitting down to model I'm making progress and you can't complain about that. Plus, there's a lot of modeling adjacent stuff going on, talking to a lot of people, which we'll get into, and 2024 is going out as strong as 2024 came in, and I'm happy about that. How about you?

Oh, a lot of the same on the holiday front, but you know I get to the shop pretty regularly. I've had a couple three good sessions here lately. We'll talk about that later. Other than that man, I've been itching to get this long delayed workshop renovation started.

Now that Wallace is finished, you're ready to do yours, huh.

Well yeah, and I've got some ideas. I've deliberately not put any of the Christmas decoration storage boxes back in the furnace room storage area yeah, because I got a bunch of permanent shelves to build back there after the holidays my.

Would a stash go on those?

the stash is already on the shelf, but I need a little bit of an annex space. You know how that goes oh god, do I? And there's a bunch of crap out here on the floor in my quote-unquote shop.

That really needs to go somewhere else yeah, and I'm familiar with that problem with a little creativity back there and some permanent shelving built along the perimeter walls of that room, like I can get everything stash included in there and still have some space left over. So that's the plan, and then my woefully full bookcase has seen better days.

There's no such thing as woefully full. A bookcase is happily full. Now the bookcase itself may be woeful.

The shelves are sagging and I gave up aesthetics for durability. So not only are the shelves bowed, but they have drywall screws running the ends to the outside uprights of the bookcase, Because they have sagged enough that if they're not anchored into the sides, they'll slip off the little posts. Gotcha.

And there's no more room on it. Yeah room on it. Yeah, so one thing in my grand workshop plan is I've got a, I want to have a. You know I want cabinets along my long wall get to that in a second but I always wanted a big table down here that I could get to all four sides yeah right, just a big table.

Well, I was like you know what I could get this one big ikea bookcase and these two smaller ones, and I could fasten them all together and have a countertop made to put on top of it. Boom, now I've got a table that's got a knee nook on one side that you could actually sit at it and work as well if you wanted to. So hopefully that's also going to be in the works over the holidays.

Well, unlike some of us, you don't work through the holidays. You've got a fair, significant piece of free time coming up, don't you?

I've got a solid week and two weekends. That's nice, man, Twelve days something like that it's going to be good man.

I always say that. But you know, yeah, I know it's going to be good man, I always say that.

But you know, yeah, I know it all goes away and I'm like man, I had all these great plans.

Yeah, wait until the lights on the Christmas tree die.

Well, we may have some surplus cabinets at work in the lab after the new year, oh that's nice. And it's about 14 running feet worth, which happens to be exactly what Nicky said.

Well, isn't that a coincidence? I saw you were playing with the laser at work cutting plastic. We'll get to that later too. I can't wait to hear about that.

So that's what's up in my model sphere Workspace planning.

Good, good, you're moving. Hey, if it's not modeling, it's modeling adjacent, that's great. Well, since we're recording and we've been doing this for almost five years do you happen to have a modeling fluid tonight?

I do. I lucked into a bottle of Buffalo Trace here locally. Oh my gosh, how'd you find that I just walked in the door at the right time?

The rest of the US, who are used to walking into their liquor stores and seeing Buffalo Trace all the time, don't realize that here in Kentucky, where it's made, that's a rare occurrence to walk into the liquor store and actually find some Buffalo Trace on the shelf.

Yeah, I don't know why it just is. I have no idea. But tonight I don't care, because I have mine.

That's right, you're going to enjoy it. I guarantee you're going to enjoy that.

Well, what do you got going on?

I've got another one from the brewery nearby your work in Lexington.

Oh, another mirror twin.

Mirror twin. This is called Wilhe Nelson, west Coast IPA that ought to be hoppy, We'll see Hang on. Oh yeah, it's hoppy Now. It's not nearly as good as, but do you know what it reminds me of? Very much reminds me of Gumball Head. Yeah, you're going to have to go by that brewery and try this stuff on tap.

Well, our holiday party next Thursday happens to be at Mirror Twins.

Oh, does it really Get?

a flight.

Get a flight so that you can taste all their beers.

You can tell us all about that at the end I will. Man, Santa's got to bring us a new mailbag for Christmas. Ours is getting a little seam stretched here.

All right. Well, that's always good news.

We ought to get into that. Yep. Well, up first in the mailbag is our friend Mr Bill Moore, down in Murfreesboro.

Now, Well up first in the mailbag is our friend, mr Bill.

Moore down in Murfreesboro. Now he's got a good one, dave. Okay, and I think you probably have the answer for this. I'm not the person to answer this question. Okay, well, maybe We'll see. Bill says when he was at the Nationals in Madison this year he bought some of the Zuki Mura brushes. Yeah, the one with the number one tip, he really likes it. The one with the number one tip he really likes it's really fine. He likes it for his 35th scale figures and other fine line kind of stuff. But here's his deal, man. Yeah, he's painted maybe four figures and did some fine lines and detail work with it and the tip's already curving.

What's he doing wrong? Well, a, maybe nothing, but maybe nothing. Nothing but maybe nothing, because again brushes.

Really, if you're doing a lot of really fine work, brushes can go very quickly. I don't think he's done a lot.

He's like Right, what you should do is get yourself a jar I don't know if you'd call it a jar or a container or whatever A tin, a tin Well, it's like a tin of B&J original B&J the master's brush cleaner and preservative. And when you're done with your painting session, you clean the brush thoroughly. Remember, don't get any paint or thinner down on the furrow, the part where the bristles attach to the brush. It's usually metal. Don't get any paint or solvent down there. But once you're done painting, you clean your brush with whatever solvent. If it's an acrylic, you use obviously water acrylic thinner. If it's enamel, you use enamel thinner, whatever.

But once you're done with that, this stuff is called the B&J the Master's Brush Cleaner and Preservative and it's like a soap. And what you do is you take your brush, you dip it in water and then you rub it on this cake that's in this little. It's not a tin because it's plastic, but it looks like a tin. You clean your brush thoroughly with that, rinse it out, clean it thoroughly and then at the end you point the brush. And the way most artists do this is after you've rinsed all the soap and all out of the brush is, most artists will put it in their mouth and lick it, and lick it to a point so that it restores the point.

I haven't ever used the Tsukimori brushes, but I will tell you, god Hand, the company out of Japan makes these little palm brushes. They're very small brushes, usually like a zero or a one, and they have very fine points on them. And they're not cheap. You can find these things and they are 15 bucks or more, but boy do they work and they hold their point really, really well. The other thing to do is, if the brush comes with a point protector you know one of those plastic clear sleeves be sure to always carefully put that back on the brush when you're done. What was?

the product again.

It's got. Oh, the soap, the brush soap. It's called B&J, original B&J, the master's brush cleaner and preservative, and it cleans all type of paint brushes, whether you're using an acrylic or an enamel or an oil or a stain. It's basically, like I said, it resembles a soap more than anything, but it keeps the bristles very supple. It keeps the bristles very supple and you know, I've talked to a number of actual artist artists, people who use brushes to paint for a living, and every one of them uses this for their brushes.

Well, there you go, Bill Moore.

Give that a try and take a look at those God Hand brushes. Man, I tell you I love the heck out of those things.

And if you don't use this soap, don't be putting your brushes in your mouth.

Yeah, well, that's true too. Yeah, a mouthful of enamel thinner is not a good thing.

Yeah, or xylene or something like that.

Well, there you go.

Well, last episode's guest, jake McKckee, wrote in, said he loved the last show, not just because he was in it. He's commenting about you know, we were talking about skippy's future shop he's wanting to do in the shed in fact, I just talked to skippy the other day about that and he's been scoping out sheds.

Uh, he's got his eye on one with a porch.

I would say get the biggest one that'll fit in your backyard and fit down the property line. Man, yep, it's the last yard to mow, yep. Well, jake has a short version of what he's done. He's converted four different garages and various houses he's owned over the years. And the short version he says to make a remarkable space. He recommends five things Drywall, lighting, epoxy flooring That'd be, if you're on a concrete floor garage, obviously Mini split HVAC, yeah, and again for a garage, an insulated garage door. Now, skip, you might want to figure out if he can insulate his shit.

Well, in fact that's what he's looking at. They come, of course, uninsulated, but they're all built in, or at least the ones he's looking at are built in such a way that they've got the studs and you could put in insulation and then drywall.

Again, that's a short version, but Jake actually has a blog entry on his buildjakemckeecom site and we'll put that link in the show notes. So Skippy and anybody else converting their garage space, or really anything, will be interested in that. So thanks, jake, appreciate it. Up next, michael Uzi from Peoria, illinois. Now we saw Mike at MMSI.

Yes, we did, and this was short and sweet. He was glad the modeling fluid he gave us at MMSI was not a drain pour and happy Thanksgiving. That's nice. We appreciate it, mike, and look forward to the next time we are in your company. Yep, next one, dave is from Gordon Wiebe and he's another truck driver. Okay, I think we hit on that last time. Yes yes, oh, our giveaway winner was a truck driver.

Yes, that's right, and I had a DM, the last episode, where the individual was a truck driver as well.

Well, he's up in the kind of mid upper Midwest area because he does a five nights a week overnight run between Indy and Chicago, so hopefully he lives in one of those two places.

Well, hopefully it's not Chicago, or at least not the bad parts of Chicago.

Well, he, like most of these truckers man, he listens to the podcast to help the miles go by and he started modeling when he was 10, and at 55, he's still gluing plastic together. He says he got his start helping quote unquote his dad with his models and his dad finally got tired of fixing his helping and gave him a couple of Matchbox 72nd scale kits to get him off on his own.

Was a good way to start back in the day.

It was because they're kind of big and clunky even in 72nd scale Exactly. Thick parts. Yeah. He builds primarily cars and trucks, but he started branching out into other genre and he's kind of modeled or tried about anything to see how it goes and just wanted to say he's enjoying the show. Thank you. He sent some pictures. It's all cars and trucks, like he says. All right, All right. Well, be safe on the road man, especially in the winter.

Remember shiny side up, dirty side down.

That's right. Our next one, dave, comes from Michael Pye from North Somerset in the UK, and he wanted to know if we or our listeners had seen that Arma is now publishing out some of their 3D files to download and print at home.

I did not realize that.

I got a feeling I'm going to get a request folks.

Yes, I think you are, and I predict you're going to see a lot of changes in the next couple of years, and I think one of those changes is more companies either. Instead of selling you 3D printed items, they're going to be selling you the files, and I think more of some of these major manufacturers who have 3D add-ons are going to be making those files available as well. I think you're going to see a huge sea change compared to what goes on now.

Well, I think that's a pretty easy bet.

Yeah, change is always something to bet on.

Well, he's working on Airfix B17G with loads of aftermarket. He picked up at Telford last month, nice, and he hopes you get through the dark times.

I'm working on it, man, working on it.

The next one, Dave, is from the freezing state of Wisconsin.

All right, eli Van Helvoyert, that's a Wisconsin name, if I've ever heard one.

Hopefully I got that right, eli. Eli is 12 years old and he started modeling about four years ago, so that would make him eight when he started.

That's about my time.

He found out about our show at the 2024 Nats.

That's great.

That is great. Now he has a very broad question. Okay. How do you do weathering, specifically chipping in oil stains? Well, I do it, not very well. I think there's a lot here. It's a good question, but I think it's going to be beyond the scope of just answering it on here. But I tell you what I will do, eli, if you haven't already, is you need to jump on YouTube and check out Panzermeister36. Yes.

Evan McCallum's YouTube channel will help you understand a lot of this stuff, and it'll do it in a way that you can actually understand what's going on.

Yep, absolutely, evan is, and I've told him this to his face on several occasions. Evan is a natural teacher. He really, for some reason, his personality is such that he naturally has the ability to communicate information, particularly how to do things. And, yeah, I can't recommend his videos highly enough.

Well, I'd check that out and if you're not already on YouTube searching around, there's a lot out there to see. But I would start with Evan, if you're wanting to get a clear understanding of some of those basic things. Yep, next up from down under, mr Lincoln Brown, from Melbourne, where our other friends are. Yeah, Watch your mail. Gold where our other?

friends are yeah, Watch your mail, Goldfinch, I sent you something. Well, we haven't gotten one like this in a while. Dave, it's his new-ish listener. He's been listening a while, but he's come back to modeling two times. So he modeled when he was a kid, Right. Well, he dropped out in his later teens. But he was a kid Right. Well, he dropped out in his later teens. But he first came back after that in the early 2000s. Now that was kind of he says in the MIG Jimenez and Adam Wilder kind of heyday Right. A lot of accessories and stuff like we enjoy now etch metal resin, resin details.

Individual tracks were becoming mainstream during that time, but 3d printing in the early 2000s was pretty much still not a thing for most people, sure, if any really yeah, and what there was, wasn't that good I tell you I think the first kind of sla or resin 3d printed thing I ever saw, offered for a very short period of time, is right at the end of VLS Harper, harper's casting, dave Harper, they're doing all those LVT kits, accessories and he had. They did a set of LVT tracks for a short period of time and that's really about it. Yeah.

Well then, he fell out of it again again, but luckily he kept all his tools and his airbrushes. That's good and lucky for him.

Bna models is in melbourne, so he gets next day from them oh man and he's had a few in his stash that had been started, but when he hung it up for a little while again he didn't finish them, so he's's got an old Dragon Ferdinand from that period. He's finishing up and he's working on a brand new border Panzer. Jaeger 4 L70. Threatens to post pictures on the dojo soon, so please do Well. Welcome aboard Lincoln. He says he's burning through the back catalog. Glad to have his listener. Keep us informed on your projects and, yeah, post on the dojo projects and, yeah, post on the dojo.

And if you any of you all out there who are burning through the whole back catalog, if you hear something in one of those episodes, don't be afraid to send us an email or a DM. If you've got a comment, a suggestion or a question, just cause the episode was recorded a couple of years ago, there's no, no reason to hesitate to bring up whatever your question or comment is now, because there are a lot of people who are doing the same thing you are.

Next up is Norman Stubbe, from the City of Brotherly Love, philadelphia, pa, yep, and he's been researching shows to attend, having never been to an IPMAS show or any show outside of one held at a local shop, and he would like some clarification on a few things.

Okay, well, first of all, you're going to have a really great show not far from you this year. You definitely need to look at going to the Amps National in Pennsylvania. Need to look at going to the Amps National in Pennsylvania. Don't sleep on that. If you can possibly get to it, make a point of going to that show.

And I would think the IPMS Nationals for him isn't terribly far either.

No, hampton's, not that far.

Anyway, he wants to know, based on your reminder to make sure everyone's membership was up the date before attending the nationals, must you be an IPMS member to attend or to compete Now in the national convention to actually enter the contest? Yes, you do.

Right, right. Well, you have to be either a current IPMS USA national member or a current member of another country's national. So the folks who come down from Canada who are IPMS Canada nationals, they don't have to join IPMS USA. Join IPMS USA. Their IPMS Canada national membership will get them entry into the. Allow them to actually enter the contest.

But for your regional shows and your local shows, ipms shows? No, you don't.

No, you usually get a discount Now most regionals and some invitationals. If you are an IPMS national member, there is a discounted entry fee.

Yeah, it won't be enough to buy lunch.

Well, no, but every little bit helps. You know the couple of dollars you save or the couple of dollars that you spend on the things in the box under the vendor's table.

Yeah.

That you go through at the middle late end of the show and you find that gem that you've been looking for.

You are correct. You don't need to be a member to attend or compete in those local and regional shows, right? And then also, most shows have a theme. Some seem very specific. What effect does the theme have on the whole of the show? Does it need consideration when entering a contest?

only thing the theme is is that there's usually a theme award. So if the model, if one or more of the models that you built, fits into the theme of the show, the theme that they've declared for the show, then usually when you're entering there will be a special sticker or a checkbox on the form or whatever, and your model will also be judged not only for whatever category it's in but will also be judged on whether it receives the theme award. And shows do this just because they're trying to stimulate interest in a particular moment in time or a particular historical event or trend. It can be as narrow as D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge or Pearl Harbor, or it can be as wide as the 1950s anything from 1950 to 1959. It's just a way for a club to try and add a little something extra to the show and have another award to recognize a deserving modeler.

So in regard to the whole of the show it really does not have much effect on everything else. It's mostly kind of extracurricular to that.

Yes, exactly.

Christian Gurney from Wisconsin, again Bases by Bill. They use a laser cutter and engraver. Yeah.

And he has a suggestion which we'll get to in our special segment, but I want to go ahead and acknowledge that he did write in listener mail and appreciate it. I got to set this one off to the right instead of the left so I can come back to it. Steve Anderson, and he has a response for Steve, the airline pilot or airplane pilot frustrated at spinning his wheels, and he also has, at the same time, a new product for us to consider okay steve has pinned available on amazon a guided journal for modelers making the most of our of the hobby, and he's got a what's the isbn number yeah

for that and it's available on amazon and he says it's not the dear diary type of journaling. But I guess each segment of this thing has a a question about modeling for you to consider and we're gonna get to take a look at this, dave, so I'll let you know how that goes. Okay, and I'm really curious because maybe somebody won't to talk to in the future. Okay, after we see what this is all about. But it's something you can do 10 to 15 minutes and hopefully get benefit out of the journaling. That will also help spur your modeling along.

Anything to spur your modeling along man. Keep the mojo alive.

Along Anything to spur your modeling along, man, keep the mojo alive. And my last one tonight, from the email side of things, is from Drew Savage. We hear from Drew quite a bit and we see him at shows too. Yes, yeah, he's president of IPMS Silver Wings in Sacramento, california. And this one's a way out Silvercon 2025. The theme's the Vietnam War and it's on May 17th, so we'll probably come back to this one a little later in the year or later.

Well, early in the coming year.

It's late in the year now.

Yes, reach out to us and we'll be sure to mention the show again when it's closer to an actual the time for the show.

And that could end up being our show shout-out short for the month of April. So, drew, if I forget, don't let me Yep, keep in touch with us Drew. That's right. Again, ipms Silver Wings, sacramento, california, on May 17th. But we'll have more details on that in the future. Again, that's the end of the emails. What do you got, dave?

Well, I've got a few. Number one is one that listener you've already mentioned. Mike Elusi mentioned that I wanted to see people who had family members who had been in the military, and particularly if they've been involved in the past conflicts for the country, post pictures, post stories, and we've had a couple of really good posts from different members doing that. I want to continue to encourage that. Mike, as it turns out, his mother and father met. They were both Marines in World War II. She was actually an officer and he was an enlisted man, uh-oh.

And so Mr Alusi is the child of two United States Marines and, as I told him when we were DMing back and forth, that's something you got to live up to, because I'm here to tell you, if both mom and dad were Marines, you better be high achieving because you come from great stock. And he posted pictures of both his mom and his dad and that's just. I mean you just can't get much better story than that for how your mom and dad met during the war and they were both Marines at Camp Lejeune. It was awesome and he posted some really nice photos. Well, I've got a couple I need to put together and put up.

Yes, I know I'm trying to encourage you to do that as well. Second, Martin Hulst reached out because I had mentioned white Stort models out of Poland who are doing some really interesting figures, and I had wondered about the quality. He contacted me and showed me a couple of pictures of stuff that he had done with some of their figures and I found it very encouraging and we'll hear more about that later. But yeah, I appreciate again when I ask people for their input. If they've got experience with something, I really appreciate a DM or an email to let us know, because that really helps us.

Mr Budzig has been tearing it up on Patreon. Tearing it up on Patreon he posted a video on how to do wing fillets, get those blended wing body fillets done on aircraft models, and again he's just tearing it up on Patreon. If you're not a subscriber to the Scale Model Workshop on Patreon, it's well worth it to follow along with the intense level of modeling that he's doing. Our friend, Mark Doremus. Mark is traveling. In fact, about the time he said that he would be listening to episode 130, he should be in Taipei, Taiwan, and so he's been scoping out ahead of time some hobby shops in Taipei, some posts on the dojo and some reporting about what the good hobby shops are in Taipei, Taiwan.

So I'm really looking forward to that. Yeah, that ought to be a target-rich environment there.

That was my thought exactly. So we'll see. We'll get a report from him. But now this next DM I absolutely love. We got a DM from a person on Facebook who goes by Keller Modeler, which is German for cellar modeler.

Yes.

Or basement modeler.

The guy's name is Christian and he lives in Hamm, germany, h-a-m-m, and the reason he contacted us was, depending on what app you use to listen to podcasts, a lot of them at the end of the year will send you an email and tell you what podcast you've listened to the most, or like your top five podcasts, and he sent a screenshot of the one he got because we were his top podcast for 2024, which thrilled the heck out of me.

But even more interesting was that another one of the podcasts he listens to is a modeling podcast and it's in German, and I guess I knew that there had to be modeling podcasts out there in languages other than English. Of course, the ones you and I are all familiar with and the ones we generally interact with are English-speaking podcasts scale model podcasts or on. Asked him a few questions about it and it's apparently very similar to what we do at Plastic Model Mojo. I know it's in German and listening to it wouldn't do me any good because I don't speak a lick of German. Do me any good because I don't speak a lick of German, but I would love to hear a translated version of that, just to hear what a non-English speaking modeling podcast is like Cool, well, we had that.

There's one in Sweden, right. Right, that's now on modelpodcastcom. Yes, again, it's in Swedish.

So yeah, right. Oh, by the way, christian also had a really good suggestion for potential guests. Christian, I appreciate that suggestion, I agree with it wholeheartedly and I will reach out to see if we can get that individual as a guest. So thank you for that suggestion as well. Finally and I may have mentioned this last episode, but I'm not sure. But I'm going to mention it anyway because it doesn't hurt, even if I'm repeating Kevin Hedrick of Kit Masks DM'd us to tell us that he confirmed he has got tables at Heritage Con.

He will be at Heritage Con and he will be vending at Heritage Con, and that's really great to hear. I think it will be fantastic for the folks in eastern Canada and all of the United States that goes to HeritageCon to be able to be exposed directly to his products. So I'm looking forward to seeing him there. I'm looking forward to sharing a coffee and some Timbits or maybe a beer. And I just wanted to alert people. If you're planning to go to HeritageCon or if you need another reason to go to HeritageCon, kit Masks is going to be there.

Well, is that it? That's it, man. Well, folks, you can tell by our enthusiasm. Hopefully we really like this segment. Oh yes, and for folks to write in either via email or Facebook Messenger if you want to send an email, you can do that by sending it to plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, or use the Facebook messaging system to send us a direct message and look forward to hearing from you.

Folks, if you already haven't done so, please rate Plastic Model Mojo on whatever podcasting app you listen to. Give us five stars. It helps us become more visible. More importantly, if you know a modeling friend who isn't listening to the podcast, please recommend Plastic Model Mojo to them. It is the best way for us to continue to grow is to have current listeners recommend us to other modelers, so please do that.

And once you've done that also, we'd like you to check out our fellow podcasts and bloggers and YouTube friends out there in the model sphere. We've got a few of those. We like to plug every episode. We've already mentioned a couple Panzermeister 36, evan McCallum his YouTube channel is fantastic and still need to finish his Booker video. I haven't finished that one yet, oh it's good. Sorry, Evan.

And we already mentioned Paul Budzik Scale Model Workshop. You're going to want to go to Patreon to find that and again I'll second it's well worth it to get subscribed to that one SpruPie with Fred Stephen Lee Great long and short form blog. Always got something interesting to say about the hobby and he shares a lot of great builds. The Inch High Guy, jeff Groves, all things 72nd scale. What's Inch up to? Oh?

Inch is up to a lot of things, man. We'll hear more about Inch later in this podcast. I wonder why you're laughing there.

Yeah, you'll find out. And finally, chris Wallace, a model airplane maker, another blogger and YouTube friend of ours, from Ottawa.

And he's got a giveaway going on.

Oh, he does have a giveaway Keychains, I think.

Well, keychains and his latest video is a model engine, but it's not a plastic model, it is an actual working engine and it's cool. If you haven't watched it, guys, go and check out Model Airplane Maker on YouTube and watch that video. Finally, if you are not a member of IPMS USA, ipms Canada, ipms Mexico or wherever you are, whatever nation you're in, if you're not a member of the IPMS national organization, please join your national IPMS. They're run by volunteers who are giving up modeling time to try and make your modeling experience better. So please, if you haven't joined, join your national IPMS organization. Also, if you're an armor modeler or post-1900 figures modeler, amps, the Armor Modeling Preservation Society, is a great organization of like-minded guys and gals who have an interest in all things armor and armor related, and a more talented group of individuals you will not ever meet and I highly recommend joining that organization.

Before we jump to our sponsor, ad Dave, I want to crawl back to one of the emails because that just reminded me of something Norman Stubbe was researching shows to go to. You mentioned the Amps International show. It's not too far from him and we gave some generalities about the other IPMS shows Mentioned. The Nats was not really too far from him either, coming up this summer. It may be too late for this year but it's sure it's coming up. But yeah, it may be too late for this year but it sure is coming up. But if I'm not mistaken, In Philadelphia is one of the other premier figure shows.

No, that may be the case, I don't know.

I have to look into that. Okay, norm, you might want to check that out too. If that is in fact the case, you want to probably go to that at some point too, whether you enter or not, just to go see it. You want to probably go to that at some point too, whether you enter or not, just to go see it.

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Check them out at wwwmodelpaintsolutionscom well folks, another shop talk episode and we got a few things to touch on tonight, and all right, let's get through it. Pretty good, dave, we've both been doing a lot of decaling of late. Yes, we have. And I think we've both got some comments Now. We covered decaling once before. Maybe it was Dr Strangebrush yeah, I think so, but this is going to be more our take on. Well, I don't know what, let's see where it goes. All right.

Under decaling. I got a few bullet points and we can kind of shape the conversation around. Those you've got first off, based on my recent experience, is on the e16 I'm building. I've drawn from four different sources for the markings for that aircraft. Yeah, I've got the fujimi kit decals that of course came with the kit right, I've got the Aviology tail code numbers and characters that Jeff Groves loaned me and I've got the TechMod Hinamaru that Jeff Groves gave me. Yeah. And then I've been using some micro-scale trim film for some striping and stuff.

Well, and you also have used. Oh yeah, I did Ennies Honest Honest Spell it.

A-N-Y-Z, a-n-y-z. Yeah, I used some kind of micro striping from him too. So, manabar, that's five, that's five, yeah. And I tell you, man decals are all over the map. Yes, they are. I think there's more higher quality decals now than there used to be.

There's no question, and a lot of that is due to cartograph, because cartograph is so many of the decals that you get today, no matter whose decal it is, no matter whose decal it is I don't want to say the majority, but a large portion of them are printed by cartograph and their quality has just gone through the roof, and I imagine a lot of it has to do with improvements in technology.

You know how we say or I say that in modeling that the last 20 years we've seen just a sea change in the improvement in the quality of models, the engineering, the fit, the design, all of that. I think that same thing applies to decals. Decals that were 20 years old and were considered good decals then are below average decals today and just the. If you're working on a model and you can possibly use brand new modern decals, do that because that guarantees you well, I don't want to say guarantees that almost guarantees you a near flawless decal experience. A near flawless decal experience, whereas anytime you're using older decals, be they 10, 15, or the fine molds decals that I'm using for the SAM are almost 30 years old and they're not bad decals and for the time that they were made, I'm sure they were pretty close to top of the line, but today they pale in comparison to what is currently on the market.

Well, I went to all these aftermarket decals for this project for a reason, on the sheet, unapplied. The Fujimi decals were clearly on the thicker end of this, yes, and I just did not know how they were going to respond to setting solutions. And even if they did respond to setting solutions, were they still so thick that at the right angle they're going to be visible right, right?

And I did end up using the dive inclination marks from the Fujimi kit and the numbers that are on the very tip ends of the pontoons, and they did respond to micro scale set and saw. I was surprised they went down good, I think the inclination marks, the clear film on that's probably in the right lighting at the right angle, is going to show and I'm just going to have to live with that wart because I was thinking about doing those individually with the honest striping, but god, they were just too small and yeah, there's no way you'd drive yourself insane it was going to be.

you could see them both looking down from the top or from the front of the aircraft. You were going to be able to see the right and left side at the same time, and they were just going to have to be all at the same angle, all in the same position on the fuselage, and I was just like man, I don't have it in me.

Although on the real aircraft they may not have been.

Well, they may not have been, but in 72nd scale they all fade to something pretty uniform. Now all the other decals, the honest striping, the micro-scale trim film, the Tecmod Henamaru and the Aviology tail numbers, man, all those were just brilliant. They almost, I mean, I think when it's clear-coated there's going to be nothing showing but the color on those. Right.

Well, I've got to tell you and this isn't to tell tails out of school. As you can imagine, mike and I communicate probably pretty much every day, particularly when we're modeling at our bench and Mike was applying the big white stripe decals on the pontoons and he had put the micro -sol on them. Put the micro-sol on them and, as all decals do, when you apply micro-sol to them, they wrinkle up. And the key thing not to do when you see the decal you just put down, all of a sudden get a whole bunch of wrinkles in it.

Yeah, it looks like crumpled aluminum foil. Yeah, exactly.

Walk away. Do of wrinkles in it. Looks like crumpled aluminum foil. Yeah, exactly, walk away. Do not look at it. Do not keep coming back to it. Walk away and do something else, because when you come back, when it's dry five or six hours later, it's smooth as a baby's bottom smooth as a baby's bottom. But that picture that you sent me when that decal was just almost looked like it had been crumpled in a ball and laid on the model just it was.

It was hilarious when it did it. You know, I remember from all my railroad decaling like yeah I just knew what it was I just I gotta not touch it as much as I want to.

I can't, Because if you touch it while it's wrinkled, you will ruin it. It is an iron law. You need to walk away from it while the micro-sol takes effect Now the four aftermarket brands I've used on this thing.

They have something I really really like in a decal set or sheet that the clear carrier film is spot printed along with the color. The Fujimi kit is too Right, but not to the same level of technology that these other decals are yeah, same level of technology that these other decals are yeah, these other aftermarket that the the clear film is has a. I suspect if you could cross section it would be tapered.

It would taper down to next to nothing and the edge is really irregular and and I think that has to do with the technology you know how I talked about the technology increase. That is, I think, probably where we've seen the big gain in the last 20 years.

And what that'll facilitate is you don't want to trim inside of that Right, because that tapered, irregular edge on those spot-printed clear film decals just melts away. Yeah.

And the tailcoats look great, the stripes look great, the henamaroos look great. Now, where this didn't happen so I misspoke a little bit, I'm cutting the stripes out of solid micro scale trim film, right, and that stuff, even two layers I. The problem with the, the kit decals, was that everything that had red and white on it was like grossly out of register right, like it was like a stripe that's got white borders on a red center stripe. You know, think of it. It should be ratioed like 50 50, right, the white should be equal on both sides. So these things are like 90 10, so there's almost no white on one side. So they look, they looked absolutely terrible. So I use this trim film to put the white on first and then the, then the red on top of that and even two layers of trim film. After microsaw you can barely feel it with your finger rubbing over it. It's just not there. Yeah, came out great. So, yep, you know, decal quality certainly improved. A lot of these sets are great it's interesting.

You talked about micro set, micro saw, which is what I've used on all the decals on the sam and those are my go-to decal setting solutions. Now I have I'm pretty sure every decal setting solution currently made and I've used some of them occasionally, but I do find myself returning to micro set and micro saw for 90% of the decal work I do, and I take it that you've not used anything else on the paw.

No, I haven't had to yeah and you know, even the Fujimi, the hardest decals to apply from a contour standpoint was those bullet noses on the front of the pontoons.

Right, the little numbers on the.

Yeah, the little numbers there, you know there's like a tiny little micro wrinkle on one edge. It's not going to show once it's clear-coated, right. You know even the Fujimi decals conformed, but you know they're just too thick that they're not going to, or the material they're made of is just not going to melt away like the clear film almost on these other decals. Yeah. Well, enough about the decals proper. We've all got some favorite tools. What's your typical lineup for decaling?

look like 90% of what I use is small. Well, I can look at them because they're sitting right here on my bench Are a couple. Well, one's a zero and one's a 10-0 brushes, and I use those pretty much exclusively to move and micro-adjust the decal when I've got it on the model, when I'm trying to position it to where I want it. Also, if there's a wrinkle or there's something that I want to press into the model, I'll use the brush to do so. The other big thing that I use when decaling is paper towels rolled up, torn off an edge and rolled up to a really fine point. And what I do when I've got the decal positioned where I want it, I will take that and touch it to the decal and use it to wick off all of the excess liquid so that now it stays where it is, so that when I apply the micro-sol on top of it then I'm not going to refloat or move the decal. So I always have little pieces of rolled up paper towel rolled into a point to wick off liquid. That's 95% 99% of what I use when applying a decal.

When applying a decal, the one other thing I have very, very occasionally used is a small silicone brush, and that's a real specialty item when maybe you're trying to contour a decal over a complex surface and you use the point of the little silicone brush to try and press the decal in or press it around to get it to conform the, which has a very, very fine hypodermic needle point. And if you've got a decal that has bubbles or air bubbles, or you've got some silvering in the decal trim film around the decal, I will go back once it's dry and I will take that hypodermic needle and I will poke the area of the decal and then I'll reapply micro-sol to get it to settle down, and it never fails to do it. The advantage of the hypodermic needle is because its point is so fine it doesn't rip the decal, whereas if you're using a regular sewing pin needle or an airbrush needle or something else like that, they tend to be blunter and therefore more prone to actually rip the decal while you're trying to poke holes in it. How about you?

we'll get to more of the techniques in a little bit. We can talk about more about that. But for for the, for the tool side of things, you know, scalpel or a new knife blade essential yeah I use a number three sable brush, so I use a lot bigger brush than you're using.

Now, do you have it loaded with liquid?

Oh, I use it for two things. It's both to deliver and remove the excess setting solution. Okay, and now two things I've come into well really since we started the podcast, so I've been using these well. One of them is fairly, it was really new. The other is I've been using probably since 2020. And that one would be one of these microfiber lens cloths. Yeah.

They all you know. Usually the edge is pinked. You know it's got the pinked edge on it. The one I'm using now I got at the IPMS National Convention. It's the one that Black Widow Model Disposal Company was giving away.

I've got it in my hand as we speak.

Yeah, I remember you cruised up in front of their table and you started talking to somebody and saw all your crap on their table, blocked their table because you were talking in front of it. We had a laugh with the ladies behind the table. The reason I like those? They don't have any lint. Man do they Laugh with the ladies behind the table? Yeah, and the reason I like those? They don't have any lint. Right, and man do they absorb stuff really, really quick? Oh, absolutely. And they're soft so they're not going to scratch anything.

Right, they are just ideal for doing decal work and I always have one I keep clean because I also use one painting. I got a different one I use for painting. That's a whole different topic, but different one I use for painting. That's a whole different topic. But yeah, these microfiber lens cloths are great for decal work.

The newer thing I'm using is one of these embossing tools. Now I got one that I was using for masking a lot right, which is what you know. I got it from dr strange brush, john miller, right, model paint solutions that's typically what he's he's selling them for is for burnishing down masking tape. Right, because it's like a small bead on the end of a stick right, essentially, is what it is. Well, he sent me another one. That's the original one.

I got from him had a. It's smaller than a bb but it's it's a round one right on one end. The other end has a bullet shape, more of a bullet shaped one. Well, this one has two round ends and one of them is really small. You know it's not sharp, it's still a ball. So it's still, you know, still really blunt, but it's it's a lot smaller than the other one. And sometimes when I'm adjusting decals I don't like a brush because it's it's in it's flexible right, and sometimes the decal won't move. And then by time you harder, you end up with the bristles under the decal and you fold it.

True, that can happen.

But for me, this these things are great for adjusting decals, because you're always tempted to use the tip of your knife or or tweezers, and that's that can work most of the time, but my experience is when it doesn't work, it doesn't work catastrophically. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So that's kind of what I'm using. So I've got a couple of things that might not be in the orthodoxy right now for a lot of modelers.

Whatever works for you, man. I mean, that is the key to this is if you're using something and in fact we'd love to hear from the listeners what do you do when you decal? Is there something you use to move the decal or wick away moisture or whatever? Not only do we want to tell you what we're doing, but we want to hear what you're doing.

Well, we can get into what we're doing with a little of the technique side of this. Okay, you know, for this part I'm going to assume we've already done our favorite. Finish up to this point, right? You know? Gloss, no gloss, whatever, right, I'm not, I'm not gonna die on that hill. If you do, that's great. You know, bugle up f troop and get on up there right assume we're already there.

You're doing whatever you do as far as prepping with a clear coat or not, yep, we're putting decals on Yep Now, once I've got them what I want, separated from the sheet which by the way can be.

Depending on the decal can be a challenge.

Yeah, the one you need out of eight zillion letters is right in the middle of the sheet. Well, not only that, but getting it to come off the backing sheet, well, yeah, sometimes you, but then you know that's kind of the first thing. You know, what are you doing there? I'm a, I'm a floater, but not, not in the main water dish yeah, I, in general I I do a wet palette.

I use a, a sponge soaked in hot water and I lay the decal on the backing sheet on the palette and let the sponge the water from that.

You can then pick up the backing paper with tweezers and move it to the model and move the decal off. Now I will tell you, I tried that with these fine molds decals and it didn't work. I mean, what these decals, it turned out, needed and I don't know if it's because of age or because of technology, because these decals are almost 30 years old. These decals not only needed to be put in water I mean actually dunked in water but that water needed to be fairly hot. I mean just the south side of well, I don't want to say just the south side of boiling but it needed to be hot enough that you didn't want to stick your finger in there and leave it in there for any long period of time. It needed to be tea or coffee hot, and that was the only thing that would get these decals to release from the backing film. And it was just. It's the first time I've experienced that and again.

I don't That'd be the last time too. And again, I don't know what caused it, but luckily, quickly I tested a decal or two that I didn't need to use and learned that lesson very quickly Using a decal sheet before you start actually decaling. If you've got a spare decal on that sheet, cut it out and try it out. Dunk it in water, put it on your wet palette, see how it behaves. Put it on your paint mule, see how the decal is going to conform, especially how it reacts with micro-saw is going to conform, especially how it reacts with micro-saw. Steve Husted keeps preaching experiment, experiment, experiment, and he is not wrong about that.

Well, I said I float them, but not in the main water dish. Typically what I do is I'll dunk them in my main dish. They'll curl because when the paper starts soaking through on one side. Right, I use like a polypropylene, like a tub off some kind of food product or something. Yeah, what I've been using lately. I've got a bunch of these. I love them. Whenever we burn through a stack of petri dishes at work, agar plates for doing effluent on biological experience, make sure stuff sterilized, essentially right. These things come in these plastic tubes with. They got these purple end caps on them and they'll just set them out to be thrown away. And I'll pull all the end caps off and throw them in my backpack before I take the trash out. I got a bunch of these, so I'll put the wet decal on that and then I'll come back with a little more water, with an eyedropper and create a pretty good-sized puddle. Yep.

And sometimes it's just water. Sometimes it's about water and 50% water and microsol.

Microsol or microset.

Well, let me look which is the vinegar one Blue is the set?

Yeah, microset, sorry.

If that's not what I said, it'd be the microset, the mild one Right, and I'll let that come completely off the paper yeah now that may be seem unorthodox to a lot of folks.

I wouldn't want to do it in the main dish because it'll you'll chase it around, it'll sink to the bottom and probably get it half the time. But in this little little puddle of water on this four inch diameter piece of plastic, they're not going anywhere. The reason I got into this is because it's from my railroad days and typically I got out. I got out of the habit of relying on the decal adhesive, so I was not in the mode of taking the decal to the model while I was still on the paper. But but mobile right.

And and the reason I got there is because I was using a lot of old school decals, like from champ or walthers yeah and the the adhesive on those decals sometimes could leave an amber tinted stain on your model if you were like putting it over a light gray or white or something. Yep, and I just got out of the habit of even having to even worry about it. I was going to set that thing so hard with the setting solutions and and clear coats over that that you know I didn't really need any adhesive other than that. So and I I kind of still do it that way now to get it from there to the model a lot of times I'm just using some like paddle tip tweezers yeah something blunt, like stamp tweezers almost, but not quite so big, and I'll bring it to the model with lots of liquid on it, with complete disregard to positioning.

I'd get it. You know basically where it goes, but I don't care if it's straight or crooked or rotated wrong or whatever, as long as it's right side up. That's really all I care about.

Yeah, you don't want to make that mistake.

Mistake, and you can with the white decal yeah, and, and then what I'll typically do is and I'll dampen that number three sable brush with either water or micro set. Yeah, and my favorite thing to do with that brush is to take in your case to be a paper towel.

With me it'll be this microfiber cloth after I've got it dunked in the liquid yeah is to squeeze it flat between my fingers, yeah, and it'll get most of the liquid out of it, but it'll still be like primed wet and just you can start touching around the perimeter of the decal and it'll pull all that excess solution off of it. And that's that's why that's and I flatten it out, because it I can get a broader area that way and if you flatten out a round brush, you get a lot more dense set of bristles even in that flattened configuration than if you would use like a fan brush. Right, I like the way it works. Yeah.

And for me there's this sweet spot when you're going for your final positioning. There's a sweet spot between an excess of solution, yeah, not enough, yep, absolutely. You know, if you got too much on there, you'll get it where you think you want. As soon as you let go of it, it'll it'll move.

It'll move a quarter of an inch to the right or to the left yeah, or even an eighth of an inch or less than that, like a half a millimeter if you're trying to get the registration. Yeah, or even an eighth of an inch or less than that, like a half a millimeter if you're trying to get the registration yeah on two different colors and using this brush I'll have to go back and forth sometimes to get this sweet spot.

You add a little, get it moving again, or subtract it to get it to not move so much. And when I hit that sweet spot, that's when this embossing tool comes in, because then I can move it to its final position and it's not going to move at that point without some fair amount of aggression on it. Really, yeah.

A little bit of force. Usually a brush won't move it at that point. So once I get it where I want it, I'll dampen and dry out that brush and flatten it out again and brush over it one last time and at that point I'll let that dry, at least to the touch, before I ever hit it with the setting solution. That's kind of what I do, and it looks pretty good on the paw.

Well, you can't argue with success, and so far the paw looks pretty darn good. I've been enjoying what you've been posting on the dojo.

It's been a while since I've done that. That level of eventually is like riding a bicycle. I got right back to where. That's why I sent you that picture that wrinkled decal. Well, the next thing, though, is, unless you got another technique you want to talk about, no, I was going to tell, tell you you talked about those stealing those end.

I'm sorry, not stealing recycling those end caps from those things at work. Yeah, do you know what I use to to put to float my decals if I'm if I'm not using a wet palette and a sponge, but I'm actually using water in a container as those 8 million ketchup cups you stole from.

Arby's, that is exactly Arby's or Jimmy John's or whatever. Actually, if you go to Mexican restaurants they have them for containers of the different salsas. That's exactly what I do is when I go and I purchase food, so I'm patronizing the establishment, but I will heist. Four or five of those cups and those things are because they are so small. I mean, the base is probably not more than an inch and a half in diameter, they are just per, unless you've got a really massive decal and I'm working in 72nd scale. I can drop a Heinemarou in there, I can drop tail codes or whatever in there, and it is the perfect size and the decal, if for some reason it floats off, isn't going to run away while you're chasing it and it's a nice contained area to dunk the decal if you need to soak it to get it off the backing sheet.

Well, you're going to be the expert on this one, all right, and not because you're a bad modeler, right, you had a recent on your current project. You had a mishap, mistakes, man Removal. If it hasn't happened in the application, if you come back and find it later, what's your recovery plan?

Well, I'll tell you what I think was a little too much microsol and did not bring off enough of the liquid, and it actually melted part of the decal, and that may have been at least partly due to the decal's age. But that decal was not fixable so so I had to remove it. The way I removed it was I started with tape. I started with very gentle tape, tamiya tape, and I used it to pull off as much of the decal as I could. Then I went to a more aggressive tape, scotch tape, which has a much more aggressive adhesive. Then I use that to pull off more of the decal.

Then at that point there's a little bit of the decal left, and what I did was I got 6,000 or 8,000 grit sanding cloth you know the fabric-backed sanding, micro-sanding cloths where they sell them in kits, they're used, auto modelers use them to get the really, really nice finishes and I used a 6,000 or 8,000 grit with plenty of water and sanded where the remaining bits of decal were and that it was able to pull off the in essence all of the decal without ever eating into the finish, without ever affecting the underlying finish. Part of what helps there was I had a good gloss coat under that, and that is if I don't want to get onto the hill about do you gloss coat or do you not gloss coat. But one of the advantages of having a gloss coat there was that if you have a decal that goes bad, you are much more likely to be able to remove the decal without affecting the underlying paint finish that you've worked so hard to achieve.

I've avoided that. Looks like on the paw.

So hey, wait a minute. Are all the decals on? They're all on. Okay, you can say that I was going to say otherwise. You just cursed yourself.

One thing that I have experienced that I'm going to have to go back and touch up is particularly on the Hinamaru's from Tegmod, particularly the underside wing ones that are just red. Yep, they seem to be a lot more fragile than the the red with the white border. Yeah, because I think the red with the white border started out with a white disc with the red disc printed in the middle right, exactly, it's actually got two layers two layers of color or ink or whatever.

It is right. I went back on this. Everywhere they crossed panel lines. I was coming back with the scalpel after they'd completely set and I slitting those and then hitting it with the solvent again. Right, and sometimes because of the probably the oversized panel lines on this kit, you get some flaking. Yeah, and what I did was spent some time to get a proper color match. Yeah, didn't do that on the fly. I guess if you knew what to expect, you get some experience from a particular decal brand. You're going to know, okay, this, this might happen with these. You could maybe even do this work up front. But I would invest in some color matches as soon as possible, particularly if you know a particular brand or type of decal is going to be likely to flake or chip and give you some problems.

Yeah, and I had a little bit of that on mine too, and again I suspect it had to do with the age of the decals, and it's not going to be anything that I can't either touch up with some acrylic paint and some color matching, or can be handled with weathering and chipping. So, luckily, what happened and where it happened?

it's not going to be overly difficult to deal with, but yeah, that does happen sometimes. Well, folks, what do you do for decaling, what's your pet peeves, what are your challenges and what are your tools and solutions in particular situations? We want to hear what you got to say. So send us an email or a DM and let us know what's going on in your decaling. Us an email or a DM and let us know what's going on in your decaling. Well, dave, we got two more topics to touch on a little bit. I don't think they'll be quite as long as decaling.

All right, you know we talked about laser cutting with Jake last episode and of course I had to bring up the topic of styrene really quick in that, because that's kind of. You know, I don't build a lot of dioramas. I get the use for building facades and bridge girders and all that. That's all great too. But can I cut flat model parts out of this and glue it together and use that as a you know, a scratch building tool Right Along those lines? And you know I dug through the box and took a pack of evergreen to work last week early this week I guess it was and we meant to talk about it last weekend over video, but we were both too busy to do any video chatting last week it's all that damn christmas stuff.

Last weekend and it's kind of gets back to christian gurney's email because he sent a suggestion about tuning to get the best cut in styrene or really any material. In fact he sent me a link to a crafter's video that I'll put in the show notes that this person creates these test grids where you're cutting or engraving these squares and as you go from on one axis you're going left to right, you're increasing the laser power and then on the grid up and down, you're increasing the tracking speed of the laser. And he says, some lasers, the driving, the user interface software may allow this automatically. Now ours at work does not. But it was funny. He sent me this because that's essentially what I did.

I made this little how big was it? 10 millimeter square and I kept changing these parameters and moving it over, cutting it again, and moving it over, cutting it again until I got something to look like it's going to work. And at least, for how thick is the styrene? I cut 30,000, 20,000, something like that. I got that thickness dialed in, but it's going to change for the next thickness I'll have to go back and revisit it. So, yes, I can cut styrene. Now what I'm going to do with that yet I don't know. But that answered my underlying question. I'd messed around with, like I mentioned, last episode, I'd messed around with it before, but I really just picked a setting that I knew would work and it did it and the results were the results. But I really tried to fine tune this because the problem is the laser has a cutting curve just like a saw blade.

Right, but wait a minute. Explain cutting curve to people who don't know what you mean.

The curve of a cut is the width of material removed by the actual act of cutting. Thank you. You know you got a saw blade that's like I don't know, 32nd of an inch or 16th of an inch thick. When you make a cut in wood or something, you're losing that much material. So you have to position the saw blade edge on the line you want to cut or you're going to get something shorter than what you were anticipating if you ran it right down the center of the line.

Right, that's, that's the curve. But unlike wood, the laser has this heat effective zone and depending how much power you're putting into that zone and how long you're dwelling there, you're gonna have a minimum curve and then it's. Anything else is going to be bigger than that because you're just dumping too much energy into that heat affected zone. And that's what I'm trying to do by finding the sweet spot to cut this stuff, to get the kerf as small as you can, because once you have it as small as you can get it and it's predictable, then you can adjust your CAD to account for that, so you can split the kerf in half and take that much off each end and just run the laser down the center line, like it's going to anyway. Right.

And get a part that's pretty dang close to what you wanted it to be, and it seems to me the key to this is you've got a laser. Most guys like Jake, he's got this home laser setup, you've got a more industrial setup. But it seems like the key to this is experimentation and note-taking, that you experiment with this to learn to dial it in and you're taking notes about. Okay, with this thickness of plastic, I want the laser moving at this speed, with this intensity, and this will give me this much of a curve and those change based on both the thickness of the plastic and the speed of the laser and the intensity the power put into the laser, so that it's not one set of settings but it's a notebook full of different sets where one of the variables changes. You then get a slightly different result. Exactly right, yeah, so what you don't want to do is hop between different machines.

And you have to be cognizant if you're hopping between different material thicknesses, right? So another thing it does, and I don't know how much of an interest this is to most of our lasers. Most of them don't have lasers or have access to one, but if you do Although it's coming. It's coming, guys, it's coming. Maybe you've got a makerspace in your geography that will let you come use their laser.

Yep, there's one here in Louisville down at UofL. What?

happens with particular materials that are insulative, and I think I may have mentioned this on the dojo that heat affected zone. If you're cutting plastic, you know the heat's building up in it Right. So the curve is kind of counterintuitive. You would think the entry side would be exposed to the laser the longest right, mm-hmm, but it's not. Once you get through the material it's not exposed to the laser anymore, but the heat from cutting that first surface of the plastic is getting loaded into that and it's getting, it's building up in the plastic right, essentially so as it's cutting through the material.

As you get deeper into the material that heat affected zone gets wider and the curve actually on the exit side is bigger than it is on the entry side. So you don't get a straight edge, you don't get a square edge if you're not careful, and that's another thing you got to fight with thicker material. So I think what I'm going to do next and I'll put this all in the dojo is I think I cut 20 or 30 thousandths. I'm going to go a lot thicker than that just to see what happens 60 or 80 thousands right, and now you were using white plastic.

Yeah, I assume that if you used black or blue, or now I'm assuming your your late, your lasers, a red laser. It would be interesting to see what the effects are when the color of the styrene is different, because that should affect heat absorption, right, yeah, but this stuff is so thin that, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know, I can't answer that. I don't know what it'll do.

I've only cut white. I was going to say most of the plastic you're going to cut is going to be white anyway.

Yes, it is. So I'll post the link to the video that Christian sent in If anybody else is using one of these Glowforge craft-centric kind of lasers. Yeah. The person who made the video the woman in the video also mentioned some other brands, so you know there's several of these out there. Now I'm curious how affordable some of the others are.

Yeah, Well, and you know that 12 to 18 months from now you're going to have better quality at half the price. Yeah, maybe We'll see. I mean, you know, that's just the way those things work.

Well, this one was your suggestion. I'm curious as to where you're going to go with this Black Friday sales. This may have to take place of our what Broke your Wallet.

Well, no, it actually won't Okay, but it's what Broke your Wallet adjacent. Of course everybody knows the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, there's all these sales and then it creeps into Cyber Monday More than I think I've ever known before. Hobby retailers have really dived into the Black quote-unquote Black Friday sale. A lot of the big companies Edward Arma, pretty sure Squadron was doing it they had specific Black Friday sales and two things A, I did resist direct Black Friday sales. I did not make any Black Friday purchases directly and we'll get into what directly means in the next segment. Curious about is I heard from a fair number of listeners and modeling friends who really dived into the deep end of the Black Friday sales.

Christmas shopping for themselves Right.

Including some numbers, that I mean people were buying and the prices were attractive enough that they were really spending money. And what I want to know from the listeners is did you go for Black Friday modeling-wise? Did you dive into any of these Black Friday modeling sales? If you did, what particular vendor or vendors did you find the sale that was irresistible? What did you buy? You know? Just, I'd like the details from all of the listeners about whether or not they fell to the temptation of Black Friday and, if so, who they bought from and what they bought. Did you fall for Black Friday?

I did not. But I was traveling that weekend and I was kind of removed from the equation. I knew some were going on but I really didn't get in on anything.

Well, I did not directly, and in the next segment we'll talk about what that means, or a little bit later we'll talk about what that means.

Yeah Well, did anything tempt you crazy? I mean, did you have to really fend anything off in particular?

Oh yes, Arma was having a particularly aggressive Black Friday sale. Particularly aggressive Black Friday sale and I will tell you that I actively had to resist going to look at the Arma site because if I had, I'm pretty sure it would not have ended pretty and I've got plenty of Arma kits, I don't need more Arma kits. But if I had gone I'm pretty sure I would have hurt myself. So I just actively avoided going to look at it.

Well, like Dave said, folks, what were the best ones and what did you get? Let us know. Yeah.

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I hope Squadron's Black Friday was good for them.

I hope so too.

Well, dave, we covered a little bit of it in our decaling segment, right, what's up on your bench.

Well, the SAM is done, decaling, and I have started the oil weathering process that Steve Hustad discussed with us about what two, three episodes back. So I've started that and I'm well into it and I really like the way it's going so far. Now, again, my problem is I'm not getting enough bench time because of everything else that's going on in life, so it's not moving as quickly as I want. But I like it so far and I'll continue to post updates on the dojo as it moves along. What I will not post updates on the dojo on is the Musaru, which is moving forward, but it's moving forward slowly, simply because the SAM is close to the finish line and I want to get it done. It would be ideal if I get it finished by the end of the year, but the Moosaroo is moving and I've got to have this thing done by March 10th and photographs taken. So I really have to get my butt in gear and that is going to be my whole focus, especially come the new year.

That's proud man.

I'm working on it, man, I'm working on it. How about you? We know we've been watching you with the Paul, but have you been doing any other modeling? Because, again, this is something you and I commented on to each other about. This is, with decaling a model, particularly an aircraft model, you can apply a couple of decals and then you have to walk away from the model for half a day, so that at least allows you time to do something else at the bench. Have you been doing something else at the bench?

You know the other two, the tank projects, haven't gotten any any love in the last couple weeks. But boy, after those two marathon decaling sessions last weekend I was thinking I would really wanting to get get back to those, because I've got some some fun stuff to do, both the kv-85 and the little 3d printed flak panzer. I've got some epoxy putty weld seam work to do on them. I mentioned that last time but I'm really anxious to I like doing that, so I I think that those will. Those will see some attention, I'm sure over the over my time off here during the holidays well, you did the flame cuts on the on the kv85.

So now you're to the point where you need to make to reference Night Shift. You need to make little ribbons of epoxy, stuff them into grooves and then make little weld seams out of them.

Yeah, there's, Now what do?

you use to do that? Do you do what he does and use the?

I'll use epoxy, sculpt or something. Okay, those things are all similar, okay. So yeah, looking forward to that. The E16, like we mentioned, all the decals are on it. There's some. The next thing on that there's some touch-up to do. There's some brush touch-up to do on a couple of the decals. Touch up to do on a couple of the decals and then those forward, the propeller zone warning stripes on the fronts of the, on the fronts of the pontoons.

I cheated a little bit. There's a essentially a panel line groove that runs around the entire perimeter of the top and bottom of the pontoon. Now that's not where the color demarcation is. There's a little green below that panel line still before it transitions to the underside gray. It was really easy to cheat that a little bit and use that panel line as a cut groove to square up the ends of these trim film stripes I was putting on there. So all those aren't exactly perfect.

So I got to come back in with the Japanese Navy green and touch those up. Now that's going to be Tamiya paint that I've got already mixed. So I got to come back in with the the japanese navy green and and touch those up. Now it's going to be tamiya paint that I've got already mixed so I got to be careful there. But it's such small areas I don't think it'll be much of a problem.

There's some bumps and bruises just from handling that I need to touch up with the airbrush with that same green and then what else. There's a few panel line areas on the henamaroos that need a little touch with the red and I've already gone through a. I mentioned it in a past episode. I've already gone through a color match exercise to get that pretty stinking close. I don't think it looks going to show at all, unless I just get too much paint on there or something paint on there or something. After that I'll probably I'll probably seal them in with with another light gloss coat over over everything and do then do the uh, do the panel line wash on it well good, well good.

I cannot wait to see you get that one across the finish line, because I'm sure the listeners are tired of hearing both of us talk about these.

I want to start something new yeah, I want to start a new military vehicle project and another airplane Yep. One thing I got to not forget, and when I start talking about airbrushing, gloss coats or even my touch-up colors, don't let me forget the masking tape covering the end, the trailing end of the front part of the canopy came off.

Oh yeah, yeah, Do not put gloss coat on without putting that back on.

Yeah, I got to put a new piece on there because I just did adhesive. Yeah, that happens. It just fell off. I was like it's stuck to the bottom of my the building jig. Yeah. I was like looking through it, like, oh man, by the way.

Steve Husted says you don't have enough paint on that building jig. Oh, I won't paint on it.

I'll never paint on that thing.

Oh see, I paint on mine.

I put mine on a skewer and put it in my extra hands thing and paint it that way.

I paint on it Because you know you can clean them off Well that won't be my metric for progress.

how much paint's on my acrylic aircraft stand? Yeah, I think that's where everything's at. So stuff's coming along, man.

All right, okay, mike, we both resisted the Black Friday sales. Well, I kind of resisted what broke your wallet in the last month or so.

Christmas Dave. Christmas is breaking my wallet?

Yeah, I know, and maybe the IRS? Yeah, well, we won't even talk about that. Yeah.

IRS yeah well, we won't even talk about that. Yeah, I have not bought a single model or model adjacent item since the last time we had this segment.

All right. Well then you're leaving it up to me to carry the weight Now. I did not engage directly in Black Friday purchases. I didn't. I resisted, I was good. So you got a straw buyer, however. Okay, I've got some really great modeling friends that's one way to say it. And those okay pushers, whatever. And those okay pushers, whatever.

I ended up buying three decal sheets because Inch High and Jim Bates both were placing orders One was placing an order with Hannitz and the other was placing an order with CTA Decals and both of them contacted me and said hey, I'm about to place this order. Do you want anything? Do you want to throw something in? And of course I can't resist that. So I threw two additional decal sheets in with Jim's order. I threw one additional decal sheet in with Inch's order and then, to rub salt in the wound, inch decided to place an order with White Stork out of Poland for some of these 3D printed figures and, being the great friend that he is, he reached out and said hey, I'm going to place an order, you want anything? And of course I couldn't resist it. So I put in a request for three different figure sets from White Stork. So I'll be getting those.

And then the one other thing and this was before Black Friday, so it doesn't count as Black Friday but Casemate Publishing had a and they do this maybe four or five times a year a really deeply discounted book sale and I get their emails whenever they do this. I'm on their email list but again, inch never fails when one of these sale emails comes out, never fails to email me and say hey, did you see this? And of course he did that, and I ended up purchasing Images of War Schnellboot Wafa and Terrence Kelly's Hurricane versus Zeros, air Battles Over Singapore, sumatra and Java. So I ended up with two books and the prices on these books were ridiculously cheap. They were so deeply discounted it is not funny and so I got them and I feel really good about getting them. But yeah, I've been breaking the wallet, at least a little bit, but I didn't make any direct Black Friday purchases.

I suspect after Christmas, if I've got some bonus money of some kind from somewhere, I might amp things up a little bit.

I suspect the same. I usually get some Christmas money from a couple of family members who aren't going to try buying me models or model-related stuff. So I suspect I'm going to have a little bit of money to spend and I am definitely looking forward to maybe some of those January white sales that you get and we'll see what comes along.

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Mike, we're almost to the end of the episode. I'm assuming you're almost to the end of your glass of buffalo trays.

It's yummy man. I wish I could find it more often.

Again, I never thought that that would be anything other than the report you would make, but yeah, I agree with you. It would be nice if it was available more readily for those of us here in Kentucky, considering it's made halfway between where you live and where I live.

You know, I tell you, if it were more available, I still don't think it would displace that Russell's tin for me.

Well, you found a bourbon that you really like and, luckily, is at a good price point and is readily available here.

You can't beat that I'm not gonna refuse the buffalo trace oh god, no, god, no, in fact I'm not sure?

I'm not sure that wouldn't get you kicked out of kentucky, if you did it might well.

How's the hoppy beer from lexington?

hoppy. That is true, wilkie Nelson. It's 7% alcohol by volume, which isn't bad. I mean it's stronger than mass market beer, but it's not bad for a microbrewery. It is hoppy. It is probably a little too hoppy for me to be a beer I would regularly drink, but it's not bad and given the right, particularly if you paired it with the right food I'll bet you, with wings or pizza, this would be a particularly good beer. I enjoyed it. It's just not. Again, because of the level of hop. It's probably not something that I would choose if I was given multiple options, but not a bad beer. And when you go to Mirror Twin for your Christmas party, definitely get a beer flight and let me know what you think of all their beers. Okay, mike, we're now truly at the end of the episode. Uh, do you have any shout outs?

well, I want to shout out our latest patron on patreon.

Good, got a little anonymity here okay the handle came through, as the commissar made me do it I like it alice clara here, commissar oh, good reference if you'd like to be like the commissar and do it, you can do so by using any of the avenues for a contribution to plastic model mojo we offer and you can find those avenues in the show notes of this and most of the episodes for the latter part of this year patreon, paypal, buy me a coffee, the merchandise store all those help us a lot to bring plastic model mojo to you, and we appreciate all you folks out there contributing to us through your generosity. Thank you very much and we appreciate it.

We do and I want to echo those thanks. We really appreciate that people think enough of what we're doing to help contribute financially to help us offset those costs. In addition, my shout out is a YouTube channel. There's a channel out there by the name of Greg's Models and the guy is out of the United Kingdom I think he might actually be out of Scotland and he does build videos and what he does is build videos a lot of times of older kits older Airfix and older Matchbox, and it's really, really nice. His latest video is a buildup. Is it a Nashorn or a Wesp?

It's the Vespa from Matchbox.

The Matchbox Vespa and you know there's a 176 scale kit from the late 60s or early 70s and it is really, really great to see somebody invest the time in taking one of these old kits and building it to its full potential, not necessarily going crazy, trying to scratch, build or correct or add aftermarket, but just to take the kit as it's presented and just do a great job with it. And his videos are really interesting and really entertaining and if you don't subscribe to the YouTube channel, greg's Models, I highly recommend that you do it. It's well worth watching his videos as they come out.

Got any more. That's it, brother Buddy. We better get it down the road and get our Japanese airplanes done.

Yep, we got to get these suckers finished. Move on, people get tired of hearing about it.

Well, as we always say Dave, so many kids, so little time, and we'll see you next time.

See ya, bye.