Talking Shop with Mike and Kentucky Dave: Episode 136

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.

Folks, welcome to episode 136 of Plastic Model Mojo, kentucky. Dave, I've been looking forward to this one all day, maybe even all week.

Well, good, that's good to hear man.

Man, I've had a hard work week. Dude, we're going to call it baskets, gaskets.

Do you all have a lunch coming up soon?

We did, but maybe not now.

Oh, okay.

But anyway, about a year ago I did a bunch of work and solved a problem we were having and created a job for myself. So I've been cutting and cleaning and making gaskets and flat qualifying these things and getting ready to issue them to the teams and, man, I've been on my feet for five straight days.

Well, that sounds like you need some bench time.

I do, man. I'm looking forward to that coming up, maybe tonight, but definitely tomorrow, definitely Sunday. You get your plumbing worked out, yes.

I did have a C note later.

No five C notes later.

Yes, I'm sorry. Half an M note yeah half an M note. Five C notes later and my plumbing problem was solved. I do a lot of plumbing myself. Same same, you know. Electrical I'll leave to experts. Because you screw up plumbing, all you get is wet. You screw up electrical, all you get is dead. So I tend to leave the electrical to the professionals, and plumbing I'm pretty good at. But this one was above my pay grade. It didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought.

That's always good man.

But I got it resolved.

Don't want to cut into the hobby budget too much. Yeah, well, it hurt. Well, maybe you learned something. Yes, I did, but all this banter reminds me about a little over a year ago we got a negative feedback.

Yeah, I remember that Over one negative feedback.

Maybe two, but the other one's so far down the road. I really don't let any of them get to me, and this one didn't either, but it kind of gets to what we're doing right now and it was too much small talk. Stick to the topic. Well, firstly, last I looked, this was our podcast, so I'll be the kentucky gentleman here, and just leave that right there.

Yeah, that's right. Second, this show is a window into our world, dave, our friendship, our journey and the occasional it's going to include the occasional quick hit on plumbing car troubles, what have you? Because the real Mike and the real Kentucky Dave are dealing with this stuff and it does impact our hobby time, just like it impacts all yours, folks. Yep, stuff gets in the way and we're going to talk about it just a little bit, not much.

Yeah, impacts both hobby time and hobby budget. That's right. Five C-notes lighter means a little bit of my Heritage Con budget just flew out the window, so hopefully I'll find extra special deals.

That said, Dave, what is up in your model sphere?

Well, my model sphere is flying high because I got to have lunch this afternoon with our good friend Stephen Lee. All right, you didn't fly to Delaware to do that, did you? No, I did not. Stephen Lee, who people on here know runs the blog Spru Pie with Fretz, Stephen's wife is in town for a week-long conference. He's in town for a week. He came with her because he works remote and was able to do that. And it turns out the hotel he's in where the conference is is literally a block and a half from where I work, my office downtown.

So I'll go to Third Street and have lunch Jumped over to Fourth Street and had lunch at Gordon Beer's, the micro brewery, and I'll post a photo on the dojo. But it was a great time. You know, any time you can get together with a modeler especially modelers that you don't see that often and spend time talking. And, to be honest with you, it was probably 20% modeling and 80% life and 80% life. Now that'll probably change when, on Monday evening, I take him over to scale reproductions. I suspect there will be a lot more modeling talk then, but just generally talking about modeling, but talking about what's going on in his life, what's going on in our lives, what's going on.

And he lives up in the DC area, so it was interesting to hear from him about what's been going on up there. It's really nice and again, I know I say this like I sound like a broken record, but I'm going to keep saying it and that is, if all you're doing is modeling in your basement and nothing else never going to shows, never getting online and interacting with different modeling communities I mean you can do that to each his own, but in my opinion, if you're not going to shows, if you're not meeting other modelers online, making those lifelong friendships, you're missing out on something really great, and Stephen was at Amps with us in 2024. And that's two, wasn't he? Yes, and that's two, and we spent a little bit of time reminiscing about that and that was kind of fun. So, yeah, no, my model sphere is soaring and probably I'm only going to get better when I get to take him to scale reproductions and watch him spend money.

We'll have to figure out a night. If I can run into town and join you guys? Yes, I vow to see him too, because we don't get these opportunities too often. No, and joining you guys because I vow to see them too, because we don't get these opportunities too often.

No, we don't this is a good one, yep. So what's up in your model sphere other than working too hard?

Nah, I'm not working too hard, I'm just working hard, it's all good. My model sphere really hits on this community aspect, like you alluded to there, dave, that part of the hobby. I'm back on the roster for HeritageCon.

Yay.

Which has me really excited. You know I had to prepare you and the Ottawa gang for the worst.

Yes.

But I took the wait and see, don't give up hope, attitude and crap. Just kind of worked itself out, man.

Yeah.

So I'm hoping our Minnesota friends can make it as well, because we got a fun half day planned in the greater Detroit area involving, hopefully, a big hot breakfast somewhere.

Oh yeah.

And a trip up to Michigan Toy Soldier Company.

Yep.

And that's going to be great and looking forward to seeing our Canadian friends. I got a big ass book to deliver to Evan and in general the camaraderie will be high at HeritageCon.

Yes, yes, and Dr Vitkus is flying in from Salt Lake City, and so we're going to pick him up in Detroit and haul him to HeritageCon.

And a third Minnesotan from their club, steve Remy, is coming in as well, and he may be joining us for our Saturday activities as well. Well, good, it's going to be a big convergence of folks we didn't know too many years ago. Yeah.

Well and to be honest with you, you deserve this break. Karma has handed you since the first of the year. Karma has handed you a series of tough breaks and you know, it's kind of nice to see the world balance out. It is.

The only exit's up man.

Yeah, Well and hey, and not only that, this means I don't have to drive six hours to Detroit by myself. That's right. I got to be honest with you. I wasn't completely looking forward to that.

Yeah, I've done that drive. It's not great, yeah, but the last three hours we're going to have a little extra company in the car. Yes, that'll be great. Looking forward to that. Yes, I'm pleased that that finally worked out.

Me too. So I'm pleased that that finally worked out Me too. So, mike, we're recording, and that means modeling fluid. What modeling fluid do you have in front of you, jack and Coke? Oh my gosh. Well, I'm not Listen, other than the fact that apparently you've gone back to high school or college, depending on when you started. I'm not going to diss that. Jack is a good liquor to make a highball with, and sometimes you just want a highball.

Well, we'll save that till the end. What do you have, my friend?

Well, I am repeating again, which, again, I try and do rarely, but this one has. I'm repeating with a purpose. As you know, I went up to Columbus to the show a couple of weeks ago and I always make it a tradition to stop by Hofbrauhaus and I took a couple of growlers to Hofbrauhaus and had them filled up and I have been waiting a couple of weeks and I broke one open. Tonight I'm having a Hofbrauhaus Hefeweizen.

Can't go wrong there I know you like it.

Yep, it's going to be good, I can guarantee it.

Well, fantastic. Well, we've got some listener mail. Go for it, as always.

I think we got some good ones.

We do. I know, I know the. I'm looking for the DMS this time and don't don't go too fast, cause there's some of those are worthy of some discussion, all right, but that's good, because on my side we've had several folks honoring the last call to action, which we'll get to in a minute. But well, of those up first is a repeat offender, mark Doremus from the greater Seattle area. Yes, and he's given us a question for the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom which is coming up in the next episode. So we're not going to talk about that right now With Mr Barrett, that's right, mr Ed Barrett, and shop organization, because he says plenty of fine benches showing up on the dojo which we talked about a little bit in the 12-Minute Model Sphere.

How do you guys organize Paint kits, decals, tools and this is a pretty big topic and we can hit on a couple of these real quick here for listener mail, paint kits, decals, tools, so paints for me, very little organization actually. I've got some Sterilite, shallow containers about 18 by 12 inches and my Tamiya paints are in there lids up. I've got several other small boxes with the other paints in them. I don't keep a lot of paints Now. The only ones I really have organized are my Vallejo dropper bottles and I got some Ed Tackett's 3D printed racks when he was doing those and I got those up on my workbench with those kind of just facing me but don't do a lot with paints.

Kits are in the furnace room on shelves. They are sort of stacked by kit box size. It kind of gets messed up when I go back there and rummage around. My decals are in a photo archive box because I don't have a lot of decals languishing, unlike you, and you know I've got a lot of typical tool organization. I've got one of my work bench drawers has got like silverware trays in it that rubber made makes some modular ones that you can click together and change the size of of them and I've got a bunch of tools in there. But I tell you it's in a really sad shape, big state of disarray. I really need to pull that drawer, take everything out of it, throw a bunch of crap away and just redo it. So I'm organized-ish most of the time and I suspect Dave.

Organization. What's that? You've been working on it? Yes, I have. Now it's been mostly in my model storage, my stash storage closet, which is a big, long walk-in closet that's attached to my model room.

I am terribly disorganized and it is one of the big reasons I don't get more done. Projects scatter across the bed. I've got a 13-freaking-foot bench and sometimes I find myself modeling in an area smaller than an 8.5 by 11-inch piece of paper, because I've got junk scattered everywhere, and a lot of this is my own fault. I don't. When I use a tool or a paintbrush, I don't put it back each time, so then when I need it again, I find myself spending minutes, precious minutes, rummaging around my bench trying to find out where I put it my paint. Now I've got too much and I need to throw a bunch away.

One of my many vows is to thin out a lot of that stuff, but I have an old tester's paint rack in my model room and I've got paint in the paint rack. I also have a 10-drawer Ikea rolling cart and the top four drawers are model paints. You know Tamiya, white, ensign Models, old Model Master paint, alclad. So I do have some organization on paint, but I've still got too much of my paint scattered out on my bench, and that's one thing I need, one of the many things I need to cure. I'm going to try and thin down to the number of different paint brands I have, just because there's no use in it. You know I picked them up here and there over the years, and I know you do. I know you do too. Yeah, I've got paint that's 25 years old.

I have paint that's older than 25.

Well, I was being gentle. Some of that's neat and some of it is obsolete. Even if the paint is still good, it's obsolete. So that's part of my vow is to organize better. But of course I've been concentrating on the mousserous so I haven't done as much in the organizing as I need to.

Well, again, that could be a whole topic and we probably talked about it quite a bit, but I think Mark was inspired by all the benches on the dojo. I was too Fair question and, if anything, we can't give you all the details in the listener mail segment. But yeah, it's been a head scratcher and certainly makes me rethink a thing or two on my own bench, some of the stuff folks shared.

Yep, me too. I've looked at some of those and I've gotten three or four ideas just looking and going. Oh, that's clever.

Well, up next is Kit Hedley, and he's also from the Seattle area. I wonder if they know each other and Jim and all those other folks out there.

I'm sure they do.

Well, he's the one who sent us the photos of the kilometer posts and he wrote back in to kind of flesh out where that came from. He's a professional model maker working for Microsoft in Seattle, and he was in Germany on a work trip Carbon Germany and on his daily walk from the train platform to the shop for the week he'd walk by a couple of these things and he says, hey, those are those kilometer markers that mike was talking about, and were it not for the show, he'd never thought twice about him. He thanked us for the accidental education, kind of like wheel of accidental wisdom. Well, right, kit, they often say more is caught than taught. So I guess maybe our rambling about that is giving you a little insight and you just happen to notice them. So that's kind of cool.

Yep, and you know several modelers have sent us pictures where you know you've given away some of those things over the years and we've had several modelers send us photographs of tanks. They built on a base and they used the kilometer post on the base and I think it looks really good.

I still want somebody to get one published in a magazine.

There you go. Yeah, that's right, we'll make you a special agent if you manage that feat.

Unless you're, ah, nevermind.

Stop it.

And next is David Mason, who was our guest for the I can't remember what month it was for the model show Spotlight for MidMichigan.

Model Makers Right, and I think that was December, december or January January because their show'sMichigan model makers Right, and I think that was December, december or January January, because their show's first week of February.

Right. He sent us a big thank you for helping promote that show because he had a lot of feedback since the show and at the show, the show on our on plastic model. Mojo and also quite a few members from their club who don't normally do podcast listened and even heard on an automotive youtube channel that the video producer on the channel said he'd heard about the show from the podcast.

So that's kind of cool yes, that's way cool well, they ended up with 512 models from 98 entrants, which nice for a a one dayer in our region is pretty stinking big.

Yeah Well, a one dayer in early, early, early, early February, that is amazing.

Well, he's extended his invitation again to us and you know their their show next year is February 7th, so it's a little later. So you know, maybe we'll get up there, man, I don't know. We appreciate the invite and I'm glad it all worked out for you. He says the show Spotlight is a great service to the hobby and he thinks it works out for everybody. You know we get some listeners and people get to know about the shows and he's going back to work on his Heritage Con entry.

So, dave, yes, come by and see us, we'll be there. Yeah, absolutely Listen, we're happy to do it. We are happy to promote shows because, again, I'm a big believer in shows. It's the place for people to interact.

Well, I'm going to double up here. We've got Eddie Turner from somewhere in the south of England and we've got a longtime listener from the Windy City, hector Colon. Both have sent in a couple of really good questions for the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom. We appreciate that Good and those will definitely go on. Those are going to be fun, so I hope they come up. David Haddiken, and he's a Brit living in Canberra, australia, oh wow, he's taking our advice about attempting to build outside our normal genre to learn new stuff, yep. And he's built a Tamiya 35th scale Tiger II and is working on a bunch of pine trees and some figures to go into an Arden diorama. There you go. He sent some pictures. It's coming along pretty good. He's got some work to do yet, but keep plucking along at it, man, and it's going to come out good.

I guarantee, at the end of the project, no matter what, you'll have come away having learned something new and probably something that you can apply to your regular modeling genre.

Well, he's got some nice things to say about the show and we appreciate that. Glad to have you to listen to her man and good luck on your your Arden diorama, david Pye from the North Somerset Modeler Society in the UK. They have put our our banner link on their club website.

Oh well, that's nice.

That is nice. So thank you for that and much appreciated. Yes, well, my last one, dave, from the listener mail side of things, is one I sent you a little earlier in the week. I hope you thought about it.

Uh-huh, I did Well go ahead and read it Well this is from Rick Baker, aka the model outlier, and it's titled Scale Wars and back at the end of January he blasted out to all the podcasts. He's got a lot here Looks like all of them, I don't know. I have to go through and parse them off and check them out just to make sure everybody's there, but it sure looks like about everybody's there. He has created a fictional scenario in which he's hired us as consultants to his new brand of scale model of manufacturing. He's wanting to shake up the injection mold industry and relying on our knowledge and expertise. And he wants to know, based on that scenario, with time and money not being a consideration, that's a big point.

It is a big point which he says, is the most fictional part of all. Yes, one, we must eliminate a standard or popular scalar genre of our choosing and justify our choice. And two, we got to replace it with something else. And he says uh, in this scenario we are a pool of consultants competing with each other and have to pitch what we're doing here. So bring your A game. So I've thought about this.

I came up with an answer surprisingly quickly. I was I kind of did too.

So you want to go first? No, I want to hear what you're pitching. Okay For number one to eliminate a standard or popular scale. And now let me tell you the way, as a caveat, how I thought about this. This is not change something. And the other one bleeds out and goes away. Right, this is Infinity Wars. Thanos snaps his fingers and it's gone.

Right.

Okay.

That's the way I approached it.

Heads or tails, I don't care and this may surprise you, being that I'm primarily an armor modeler either 35th scale or 32nd scale goes away, one of the two. And for part two, well, no, let me. Let me, let me justify that one.

Yes 35th scale came about because Mr Toomey, back in the sixties, created a model of the German Panther tank with no regard to scale. It was just about going to be this big. Well, when they got it done, well, what scale is it? Well, they measured it and it was one 35th scale. Well, it would make more sense across all of scale modeling If it was either 32nd scale, right and aligned with all that, or all the aircraft was 35th scale, which border models is doing Right and aligned with all that, or all the aircraft was 35th scale, which Border Models is doing Right and aligned with the armor genre.

And 32nd scale really goes back to the 54 millimeter figure Right Genre. I think Maybe there's some other scale connections to, you know, the size up from 72nd and 40. I don't know, maybe, maybe not, but that's just the way I see it. So I'm going to eliminate 35th or 32nd and I'm going to replace it with the other. So everything's either 35th or everything's either 32nd. Now, that's not quite what he asked. He said going to create a new scale, and what is it and why?

Well, he didn't exactly say new scale, yes, he did A new.

you shall replace the eliminated scale by adding a new scale for the Zarn. So, if I replace 35th okay, everything. The new scale for armor is 32nd. If I replace 32nd with 35th, the new scale for aircraft is 35th. You could see it that way, right, but I went a step further and I'm I am creating a new scale. This may be a flop, because it's kind of it gets into modeling adjacent.

Yeah.

And there's only been one kit, a tank, a vehicle released in the scale. But if there were true scale models with true scale model detailing that were one sixth scale to match the one sixth scale action figures, like from dragon, which some folks are out there doing some freaking crazy repaints and dioramas with yep that might be kind of cool. Yeah, maybe I don't know, I probably wouldn't buy it. But yeah, they could have some big old tanks to put their battling barbies on. Yep, that's what I got. What do you?

you got Well amazingly enough, my thought was not in the aircraft genre. My thought was in like you, armor, I'm going to put on the glove with all the infinity stones and I'm going to snap my finger and I'm going to disappear. 16th scale. Okay, now that may be controversial, because 16th is becoming very popular and you know, thanks to Andy's Hobby Headquarters and some companies out there, 16th is becoming popular. But I would disappear it because of two things. One, it's too big. Other than the little tankettes, most 16th scale models you can't build. You know, unless you have a McMansion, you can't build many of them and have room for them anywhere.

Many of them and have room for them anywhere. Well, one further I don't. I've not been to a show or a hobby shop since this thing's kind of kind of started getting legs that people are giving the shelf space to it yes, that's true, cause it burns up a lot of that too. So go ahead.

Yep, no, that's true too. And also, as you and I have commented, because of the size of the scale, it is exponentially harder to make it not have a toy-like appearance, just simply because everything's so large, the palette's so large. So I've snapped my fingers and 16th scale armor has gone away. And what have I replaced it with and this may be real controversial 24th scale military vehicles.

Okay, you didn't move much, but you did Actually. No, you did. That's a pretty for 24 scale.

There are a ton of. You know. 24th is one of the two popular auto scales. Yeah, there are a ton of cars across all time periods that you could work in to armor, dioramas or armor. It would be a good companion to it would be a good companion to the car kits. You'd also get a blending of those genres so you get the armor modelers and the automotive modelers starting to interact with each other, learn from each other, bring the scale and there are actually some not many of them, but some 24th scale aircraft kits. So I would bring, I would Thanos snapped my fingers. 16th scale goes away and is replaced by 24th scale armor.

All right, man, I hope we satisfied the criteria for Rick's scenario. That was interesting. It was. I've listened to a couple others on a couple of other pods. Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting what Border's doing with the 35th scale aircraft.

Yes.

Is it a sea change? I don't know, probably not, but everybody's already entrenched, right, right, and you suggested that as an advantage. Personally, I don't know how much cross-pollination there is. Honestly, unless you want total scale congruency across your collection, I mean it makes sense then, but there's not many diorama scenarios where, like, you're really gonna have a world war ii fighter and world war ii tank on the same stinking right, square feet right, it's just not not something that happened very much.

so I don't, I don't know if know if that's a real reason to do it, but for scale continuity it kind of makes sense. It's probably too late now.

Well, you know, I'm a scale purist. That's why pretty much everything I own is 72nd scale.

You didn't want to get rid of 76th scale.

No, I don't rid of 76th scale. No, I I you know, I don't think about 76 scale. Nobody is real. I mean, 76 scale is a creature of the past. No need, no need to snap it out of existence. It's going the way of the Dodo.

Well, I think you know, like Airfix was one right.

Mm-hmm.

And I think you could find those Airfix armor kits labeled both 72nd and 76th.

They did.

Depending on what era they were reissued in Yep. They did do that Well, dave. That's it from the email side of things. What's going on on Facebook direct message.

We had a lot of DMs. I mean so many that I am and I don't know if you well to feature because there's something interesting or there's a new listener or first time communicator or something like that. So this isn't all the DMs, it's just a selection.

And some of those are conversations that are ongoing with somebody.

Yes.

They're not going to get featured every week or two weeks, but there were some good ones this time.

Yes, there were In no particular order. Our friend and special agent 003, brandon Jacobs, reached out and asked if we were going to be at the indie show, because Brandon, who apparently is like the quokka and shows up at shows all over, is actually going to be in indie and he's actually going to be vending because he and a friend have apparently purchased a collection up there up near there, of about 1,700 kits and so he's going to come buy some of them.

Yeah, he's going to come up and go up, get the kits and then immediately go to Indy and try and sell as many of them as he possibly can. Now he does mention that a significant portion not all, but a significant portion of the collection is older kits. It almost has to be Right exactly. So if there's anybody who is thinking about going to Indy and is looking for that vintage kit the Airfix or Matchbox or Frog or whatever vintage kit he's likely to have it. Now he didn't say it was limited to aircraft or armor or anything like that. So I suspect with 1,700 kits there's going to be a wide variety. But he's going to be up there and our friends from Minnesota are going to be up there, and so I don't know if you and I are going to make it, given the scheduling, but we're sure as heck going to make a try.

We are had a listener, dutch Vosburgh, who's up in Massachusetts. I keep talking about how much joy the podcast and the community has brought to me and this is a perfect example of it. Mr Vosburgh, up in Massachusetts. He's thinning out some reference material and he had some old small Air Forces observer magazines, which was a small self-published magazine by a guy out in California, california, and really great, really great little magazine as far as obscure information on obscure little air forces, and because he listened to the podcast, he just reached out and DMed me and said, hey, I've got these magazines, do you want them? And you know it was very kind. Well, as a matter of fact, I happen to have a complete collection of small air forces observers and communicated with Mr Vosburgh about that and about some other stuff. But it was just a kindness, I mean just an absolute kindness.

A modeler thinking of you know, sitting there going through his stuff, doing some cleaning, doing some organizing, some getting rid of, and he thinks, hey, you might want this. And he reached out. And, man, I can't tell you how wonderful that was. Just the simple act of reaching out, making that offer, it tells you what I have said repeatedly In general modelers are really, really great people. And, mr Vosburgh, I've got something coming in the mail for you and thank you very much for reaching out, making that offer cool. Next I'm going to combine a bunch. We have heard from so many people about heritage con. Are you coming? I'm coming. This is my first time, I mean should I go yeah?

should I go? The Kit masks is going to be there, and so they're actually. Not only are they coming, not only are they bringing their inventory, they're going to give away a harder and steam back airbrush. They're going to have a drawing that you can enter at the show for a hard-earned steam bike airbrush. So I mean, it's just so many people have reached out and interacted with us about Heritage Con and I've got to say I can't tell you how happy I am that your schedule changed so that you could go, because you know as much as I look forward to HeritageCon and as much as I would have gone without you, I can't. I've got to say I'm really pleased you're going.

And we're going to be able to do that. We're going to be able to see all our friends. That's assuming the Canadians. Let us across the border.

And it doesn't snow across the northern Midwest.

Yes, that too. Let's keep fingers crossed. Mike Halliday, our Midwestern correspondent, reached out. He was considering getting an air booth and he knew, because I had mentioned it on the podcast several times, that I've got one of the first pace paint booths and I bought it at the cincinnati show many, many years ago, many, many, many years ago. So many years ago that I was hauling it home in a Toyota Tercel hatchback and I was like how the heck do I get this thing in this car? It barely fit, because I got the biggest one they had, and I highly recommend paint booths.

You can find them online, top quality, mine has lasted forever and just a great addition to your model room. And especially if you have a spouse who is sensitive to odors, modeling odors, flatulence Well, that too, but she married you, so she's kind of used to that anyway. But it absolutely does a fantastic job of taking all of the odor out of the air so you can airbrush and not disturb your spouse or kill yourself Well, that too. Or kill yourself because, because, ladies and gentlemen, you don't want to be airbrushing without using a paint booth and a respirator. Okay, it's just not a good idea. Next, jamie Adamson reached out and asked us if we would mind mentioning that IPMS Houston is having a show May 3rd in Houston, of course, and I asked him if he would consider coming on and being a show spotlight in April. So I haven't heard back from him yet, but again, we love promoting the shows and Jim may have a special interest in this show because their theme is James Bond 007.

All right, so, I'll be interested to see what that produces. So Jim may fly all the way from Seattle to Houston, because Jim's a huge James Bond fan company called SS Models who is doing a 3D print of the catapult and rear section of the FUSO. That's right, I couldn't remember what.

Japanese and they've got a battleship turret one and they've got a tower-mounted one. They got three that are interesting.

Yes, and our friend David Waples reached out and basically said that you know his experience on the quality of the items and kind of suggested that maybe if you did it you were taking a crapshoot and it's a fair amount of money. So it was awfully nice of him to reach out and provide his experience to at least inform you before you made any sort of decision.

I appreciate that too, and I also think that El Presidente or the geeks may have bought one of those catapults and had something not so nice to say about it.

Oh really.

I think we had that conversation at HeritageCon last year. I think he ended up with something shaped more like a banana than a catapult.

Oh.

And with that crap there ain't no running under hot water and straightening it Right. It's a bend toss probably.

Right.

Well, I appreciate that, and golly, it's just so hard man.

Now, if you could get the files from them, yeah, would you buy the. If it was possible, would you buy the files from them on the thought that I can clean this up and make it right? Yes, okay, absolutely All right. Yes, okay, absolutely All right.

Well, I probably couldn't clean up the models themselves, but I could print in an orientation or whatever. That would be advantageous and all that stuff, the post-process, and actually manufacture the thing I could control. So yeah, I'd absolutely take that chance because that would in theory be a lot less coin than buying the models already done.

So you heard it here SS Models. If you want to sell your STL files, mike's willing to purchase them. I am.

Or if you're willing to replace parts that get broken or arrive broken, maybe I'll buy one.

Yeah, anything else, dave, I'll buy one, yeah, anything else, dave.

That's it, mike. Well, dave, we're done with listener mail. Yes, we want to encourage more folks. If you want to write into the show, please do so. We love it. You can do so by emailing us at plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, or you can send a direct message via Facebook's messenger system. We love it. We appreciate it. It's the favorite segment of the night.

And we've got the next episode with Ed Barath coming up for the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom. You all have been doing a good job, sending in suggestions, questions for the wheel. Please keep those coming. We need to load up that wheel so that we have a lot of good questions to choose from for Ed.

It's going to be fun, because Ed's been at this longer than us, dave. Yes, yep, so we may get some accidental wisdom ourselves.

There we go. I'm always looking forward to that. Folks, when you're done listening to this episode, please go to whatever podcasting app you use and rate the podcast. We'd appreciate if you subscribe and you give the podcast the highest rating on whatever app you're using. It helps drive the visibility of the podcast. In addition, if you know another modeler who doesn't listen to the podcast, would you please recommend us to them? I can't tell you how many communications we've gotten from listeners who said you know, my friend so-and-so turned me on to the podcast. So it's the thing that helps the podcast grow best. So please continue to do that.

And once you've done that, please check out the other podcasts out there in the model sphere, and you can do that by going to wwwmodelpodcastcom. That's model podcast plural. It's a consortium website set up with the help of Stuart Clark from the scale model podcast up in Canada, who we're going to see in a couple of weeks. Yes, we are always going to see those guys. Stu took it upon himself to aggregate all the banner links to all the podcasts in the model sphere and you can go there for a one-stop shop and check those all out. We got a lot of blog and YouTube friends. Some of those guys are going to see up in Canada too.

Dave, we're going to see some of those guys, we don't have to wait to Canada to see.

That's right. We got Chris Wallace, model airplane maker, got a great blog and YouTube channel up and coming. There Keeps getting better. We're going to see Chris. He's our primary host in Canada.

Yes.

Evan McCallum, panzermeister 36. I got to make a delivery to that kid, but he's got a great YouTube channel. You're going to want to check that out. Inch High Guy Jeff Groves. The Inch High Guy blog all things 72nd scale and he's burning through all his 72nd scale projects and if you like the scale, that's a good place to go.

Absolutely.

And if that's not enough, you can go see who you just mentioned earlier, dave Steven Lee SpruPi, with frets, primarily 72nd scale, as well, and he's always got some good blog content on there and his projects always under under works. So good stuff, man. And finally, dr Paul Buzik, scale Model Workshop, either for the philosophy or for the craftsmanship. You're going to get something there, I promise you. So check out Scale Model Workshop on Patreon and YouTube.

Take a little bit of a different look at what you're doing. If you are not a member of your national IPMS organization IPMS USA, ipms Canada, whatever country you happen to live in please consider joining. As a matter of fact, one of the conversations Stephen Lee and I had this afternoon was regarding some of the benefits that IPMS USA supplies to local clubs. That is kind of invisible to the general membership, and so these organizations are run by volunteers who give up some of their modeling time to try and make modeling as a hobby better for everybody. Additionally, if you're an armor modeler or post-1900s figure modeler, the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society is a great organization full of modelers dedicated to that particular genre and the hobby. And again, another conversation Steve and I had because you, steve, and I were at the AMP show in South Bend, talking about what a great show it was and why AMPS is such a really good organization.

So if you're not a member, consider joining AMPS if you're not a member, or lacquers, check them out at wwwmodelpaintsolutionscom.

Well, dave, our special segment tonight is Shop Talk with Mike and Kentucky. Dave, this just keeps getting a little more popular and we keep putting a little more effort into it and it keeps getting, hopefully, a little bit better for everybody.

Yes, yep, I think we've got some good ones tonight.

We do. You ready to get into it? I am Well, Dave. Our first topic tonight was submitted by our Finnish listener, Phile Jervainen, and he's hearkening back to our mantra what's our plan for getting better and specifically in 2025. So a powerful question coming right out of the chute from Philae, and it's probably high time, given it's March, that we actually put a little meat on the bone for this one.

Yes, on the bone for this one. Yes, I'm embarrassed to say that I don't have or haven't had a plan, just simply because 2025 arrived so quickly and then being involved in trying to get this Moosaroo item closed out, unfortunately, I haven't put the time in that I should. In thinking about what's my plan for getting better 2024, the thing I focused on was rescribing and engraving, and I've got to say that actually worked. I do feel like I gained in that skill area, but the downside was I only finished one kit and while I don't think finishing is the end all and be all of modeling, I do think finishing is important for motivational reasons is important for motivational reasons, and so I will tell you part of my plan, part of my answer to this question in 2025 is finishing more kits, and by finishing I mean not 90% finishing but going all the way, because that's what happens to a lot of my projects. I get 90% done.

You're piling up a few man. We got to clean your palate off.

I know, hey, you finished one too, so I'm proud of you. So my plan for getting better in 2025 is finishing closing the deal, always be closing, always finishing closing the deal, always be closing. And I'm dedicated to making 2025 the year of the model finish. So how about you?

Well, we're not going to jump to me just yet. We got to chew on what you just said a little bit. Hopefully not chew on you like a coyote with his leg in a trap That'd be appropriate, it might be and and not to not to gig you too much, but you got to watch it, man, cause you've got a couple of things going on that are looking like uh, unfinished build stacks, uh, stack ups. Oh yeah, build stack ups, oh yeah. So we talked the last time about our September's friends and your obligation to the national build for that, for the national convention On off years, for Moose Roo. That's probably not that, I don't know, not as big a deal. I'm going to say it's not a big deal because I think it probably is, because I think you and I are both alike in not liking those timed builds.

Yes, that is right.

But the Moose Roof certainly has added a wrinkle to that. So those two things, once you get past the Nationals, whether you get either one or both done, your time horizon is going to expand a little bit yes, it will. And I think you ought to go back and finish your Crusader and definitely get your Japanese thing done, the SAM yeah.

The SAM may well be done before the Nationals. It's not going to be done in time for Heritage Con, but it may well be done in time for the Nationals.

But you got to get that Crusader done. Yes, I know You're right, you got to get it done, man.

I know, and it's not the only one.

Well, that and the SAM, I think what else you got? It's not done Well.

I've got the BT-7. That's right, I've got the BT-7. That's right, I've got the BT-7. I've got the SAM. I've got the F-8. I got the B-52, all of which deserve to be finished this year. So I'm not sure that all will, but all of them do, in addition to the other stuff. So I would like to set a record. This year We'll see, but I'd like to set a record this year. We'll see, but I'd like to set a record.

I'd like you to set a record too. I think the B-52 is a write-off, but that's my opinion.

No, I can finish that out. I'd like you to set a record for 2025 too. That's a low bar for me. I was going to say what would a record for you be? Three maybe? Okay, just I'm getting you back a little.

You should, that's right. My plan for 2025 is to actually put in the time. Life's full of lots of distractions and I'm already slow, so skill developments come slowly, especially on the paint and weathering phase of things. So I want to make a more dedicated effort to actually put in the time and I've I've been better about that over the last year, but I think still I have my moments where I look up and it's been, you know, 10 days, two weeks, 18 days that I've not done a whole lot.

Yeah.

And you know that's my life, that's my life. But I really, I really need to look into that hard and search for what's the real issue there and whether some of it is just mental lapse and I don't feel like it because of X, y and Z. So how do I, how do I let X, y and Z happen and still and still feel like putting in a little time. I'm getting there? Yeah, in addition to that, I need to at least get something to paint phase before I do this, but I want to. I want to kick off another aircraft kit. I got a lot out of the E-16 build in terms of skill and techniques and I want to capitalize that sooner, not later. So I want to get the next one in the pipe and going Got three or four candidates for that.

Because these skills are perishable. They really are. A lot of them are? You're right? If you don't do, I mean if you don't touch an airbrush in six months it's not like you don't lose some skill, yeah.

There's a little bit of reset there. Yep, it's going to differ between people, but for me certainly there's a little bit of reset there. Yep, it's going to differ between people, but for me certainly there's a little bit of uh, you got to get that finger action feeling back and know where you're at with that. So that's true, dave.

Yep.

I want to pay better attention to detail, and what I mean by that is not detail and add more detail to the model sense, but the fit and finish and the craftsmanship detail. Yeah, does that make sense?

Yep, no, I know exactly what you're talking about, I think, honoring what's there.

Honoring what's there that's a great way to put it and making the best of what's there.

Exactly.

Before I try to change it.

Exactly Before I try to change it Exactly.

And finally, I think I want to keep up the habit of experimentation. If there's one thing that our recurring guest, steve Hustad, has bestowed upon us, is that experimentation is a good thing, man, it is just solid advice. Yes, absolutely. We're always tempted to forge ahead with something, but working through a technique or a solution offline on something else can spare you, as we say, negative modeling and unsatisfactory results.

Yes, and unsatisfactory results and it can also make you more bold that you feel confident if you have experimented on a paint mule or, you know, a model mule of some sort, with whatever technique you're talking about, whether it be attaching tricky small pieces of photo, etch or whatever soldering. In fact, steve recently soldered for the first time ever, soldered brass and basically went out, watched a couple of videos, got the materials and practiced. Watched a couple of videos, got the materials and practiced and because he practiced, then when he went to use it on his model, it came out great. It's amazing. Yes, we'll have to get him on to talk about that, because I thought that was really interesting.

Yeah, we'll talk to him about that in a couple weeks, hopefully, yep Over.

Yep Over a steak.

Anything else in 2020 for getting better Dave? Nope, all right man. Well, our next topic, dave comes from listener John McAvoy, and it is crappy kits or not? And what's our rationale for our position?

Oh, mine is easy and it comes from the fact that you and I are different modelers. You're a modeler, I'm a kit assembler. Did you get my outline?

Yes, I mean the one I've made for myself.

No, oh no, I haven't seen your notes. Your wife isn't sending me pictures. I'm a kit assembler, you're a modeler, and as a kit assembler now I may add resin bits, I may add 3D parts, I may add, you know, aftermarket details or some photo etch or whatever. But I don't get any enjoyment from fundamentally tearing a model kit apart and remaking it in its entirety as a completely new and different kit. I just want to build the model that the model company has given me to the best of my ability to get the best looking finished job that I can. So for me, what I get out of modeling is that. So for me, crappy kits are not because of the amount of extra work required. They just don't bring me the pleasure that a well-done, modern kit does. I've raved endlessly about the Tamiya 72nd scale Z-Rose.

And that kit gets some age on it now.

Yeah, it is. It actually is about 10, 12 years old, but I can tell you I built three of them and I can tell you every one was a complete joy to build. I can tell you, everyone was a complete joy to build.

Probably the most enjoyment I've gone sable stash acquire beyond life expectancy. And yeah, let that go, man that does. I can completely compartmentalize the stash versus my build rate.

It just doesn't matter but I I go into the stash and I look at it and I'm like I know what I want to do with that model. I know what I want to build with that one. I know what markings I'd like to get to some of them. That's fair enough. Fair enough, get to more of them. Yes, I'm not going to build them all. When I die, evan McCallum's going to get a big box with all of my unbuilt kits.

The big box is going to have wheels on it. Yes, exactly, and a motor.

And a motor. But I want to build as many of them as I can and to do that I'm not going to build older kits, even if it's something I want. Like I desperately want a privateer, a 72nd scale privateer. The only kit out there is the ancient matchbox kit and I've seen some beautiful builds of it. I mean just fantastic. But there are enough other great kits that I haven't built yet that I can build those, and the odds are that by the time I build all those, somebody's going to come out with a new privateer kit. So why inflict that pain on myself when if I'm a little bit patient and I build all the other great kits that I want to get to, I'll probably get that kit as?

well, you might. I hope you do, man, because that matchbox kit is categorically awful.

It is indeed so. Now I know you're a different, a completely different modeler than me, so I would suspect your answer to that.

Well, I know your answer is going to be different, because you built an Allen kit. I make a lot of notes and and clearly you've thought about some things, but it gets back to the very front end of this episode and our friendship and and our, our co journey. And you know, we are you mentioned just now we we have completely different build philosophies, yep, and I think that that plays well to the podcast because I think a lot of folks have, you know, a lot of folks have told us they they appreciate that and and it makes it kind of makes it kind of interesting. You know, along that line of completely different build philosophies, I'm certainly less about the finish and more about the journey and the creation than maybe you are.

Yeah.

I think you maybe have you'd like to see this collection in your display case to admire them in that format.

Yep.

But you got to build them to get there. So that's kind of the hurdle, right, right. Rarely do I seek out a bad kit just to slay a dragon. Okay, I've said this many times before For me a kit is a box of parts that might be useful to build a model of quote unquote X. Whatever X is Right, sometimes it's the only game in town. Sometimes the parts breakdown of that quote unquote crappy kit might lend itself better to the build sequence and methodology I have in mind that I've got in my head. I really can't explain it. It's really nuanced, but it's just the way I think about things and the way I process a problem that makes that maybe that crappy kit's a better way in my mind to get there, because I don't have to take a bunch of stuff off to get it to where I want it.

Right, an engineer's mindset. Well, here are my raw materials.

It's, it's that, but I think it's. It's beyond that, it's. It's. It's really. You open up a box, you open up a kit and you're like, okay, you only look at the top sprue, that that than that. Maybe I do that, maybe I don't, but it's, maybe you're right. It's just really hard for me to articulate, but it's just. Again, it's this box of parts that might be useful because I have. I want a model of X and brand Y may make it, but it's going to have things I don't like about it, and maybe go into this ancient kit because of the way the thing goes together makes more sense to me to build it that way and add it all back. Or pick parts from all these other kits and add it to that one is a more straightforward and clear path to what I want in the end than just building this newest version of whatever right. Maybe that doesn't make any sense to anybody, but that's the way I think.

Well, you're clearly not the only person like that. I mean, take a look at Paul Budzig. I think one of the reasons that he speaks to you so eloquently is clearly you and he have a similar philosophy when it comes to making a model.

Maybe, if that's true, I'm flattered because of what he's meant to me in my modeling journey. But I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, me and Paul Bezik are exactly alike, because we're not. But yes, I get a lot from what he he does and I understand what you're saying there. Again, you know that's not easily explained for me and sometimes it is to slay the dragon. Yeah, you know these nostalgia builds to do what I could not do as a kid on a specific kit. That's to me is a challenge. It's kind of fun and that that Bofors thing from Airfix was one I've got. I'm trying to decide on my next one man, I've got a couple in mind, I don't know.

And and I've got a suggestion for you in that regard- and another thing you said that you know I'm going to kind of counter a little bit. I don't really like the modeler versus assembler comparison. I think that's kind of become a meme. Yeah, even a good kit requires skill and craftsmanship.

Oh yeah, no absolutely.

I mean it may get applied differently, it may get applied in different aspects of the build or finish, as opposed to just getting a decent model, a decent looking model, out of it. I mean, if you're gonna you know the quote-unquote modeler side of this you're gonna take a crappy kit and you're gonna make this silk purse out of a salser. Yeah, that's one way to do it, but the other way is you're you're doing your best along the way and at some point the craftsmanship does get applied and in the end, with a modern kit, often the uniqueness is in the finished build, is the paint and finish side of it.

Yes, and I think as kits have gotten better. You and I have discussed this before, but I think as kits have gotten better. You and I have discussed this before, but I think as kits have gotten better. One of the reasons we're seeing so much effort going into weathering and painting and decaling and finishing and techniques, pin washes, filters, all of that stuff I think you're seeing more of that becoming much more to the forefront in modeling because of the fact that the kits have gotten better.

Well, another aspect of that that I made a note here of is you know I say that the uniqueness is in the finished build, or particularly the paint and finish side of it.

But another aspect is the display context. Yes, you know you're going to build this scene, this diorama. You're a dioramist, right, with the better kits you don't quite have to put in the effort to get the convincing model to put into the overall scene that you might have had to in the past. I think you get a better product in the end and you, you can focus more on the overall context of the diorama or the display, and there's there's less work involved in getting just the you know, the the main actor in the thing up to a level that's acceptable. Yeah, because out of the box it is yeah, so that's, that's another way to look at it. So you know, you and I are we. We come at this from different angles and the bottom line is man, we're, we're both enjoying the heck out of the hobby and it in the end, to each his own. It doesn't really matter.

No, absolutely, as long as you're enjoying the hobby. If, if your level of enjoyment is increased by getting the latest Edward 109 kit which are gorgeous, by the way and building it out of the box, good on you. If your idea A fun build is to go get an old Airfix or Matchbox 76 scale kit that you built as a kid and you want to build it again this time and apply all of the skills that you've acquired over the years and you get enjoyment out of that. More power to you Either way. There's no wrong way to mom.

Well, Dave, you're going to like this one.

I love this one. I could go on way too long on this one.

So this final topic, dave, comes to us from Steve Anderson's book, a guided journal for modelers. He mentioned, or he talked about, this book in a past episode and it's gotten a lot of traction. Yes, and we vowed to take this as a topic for these Shop Talk episodes going forward, and they're a lot of fun. So what are the top three resource books in your genre and what would it take to use it more?

I'm going to cheat a little bit and say the first one is not a single book, but a series.

That's fine. That's fine, it's a resource. It's a resource. Yeah, I don't think it's actually books, but it's a resource Modeling resource the detail and scale series.

Oh yeah, I know that if there is a detail and scale available for what my next project is, that is a must-have item, even if I'm not planning on tricking out the model, even if it's a brand-new modern kit out the model, even if it's a brand new modern kit say the P51D by Edward or the P51B by Arma and even if I'm not planning on adding anything or changing anything or doing that, if there's a detail and scale available, I'm going to have that, because I know that as I'm building, I may have some very simple questions what does this look like? What color was this particular part? You know, was the inside of the gear door metallic or was it painted, the underside color? Whatever Things like that? Or what did the general wiring look like in the wheel wells?

I know that if I have a detail and scale on that topic, I can pull it up. I'm going to be able to leaf through it or, better yet, pick up my tablet and scroll through it and blow the picture up, and scroll through it and blow the picture up, and I'm going to have the answer to 95% of my questions. So my number one resource in that regard again, not a single book, but a book series would be the detail and scales. Number two okay, I build a lot of Japanese aircraft and there is a book by Robert Makish called Japanese Aircraft Interiors and all it is is photographs of Japanese aircraft interiors exactly what it describes.

Imagine that.

Fighters again, even if I'm building the kit out of the box, I can go to that resource, open it to the proper page and I will have six to 10 photographs of the interior, and maybe more if it's a multi-engine aircraft six to 10 photographs of the interior and that will give me enough information to pick out the details, to add any details, to use the way I paint the interior to suggest details that aren't there. Which, by the way, particularly in 72nd scale modeling, that aren't there. Which, by the way, particularly in 72nd scale modeling, is important the smaller scale that you build in, the more you use painting techniques to suggest detail that doesn't actually exist. So that book is it's still got its dust jacket on it, but the dust jacket has become worn and I reach for it constantly. The third one I'm going to say is and this one's I don't want to say controversial because it's not controversial there are a lot of modeling technique books out there. They range from anywhere. Here's me building a bunch of pretty models to. Here are detailed, step-by-step instructions of how I do this particular technique or that particular technique.

I do this particular technique or that particular technique and a number of years ago, author named Diego Quiano I think that's how you pronounce it, I'm not sure did a series of books on. It's called the Encyclopedia of Aircraft Modeling and it's like a five book series and they're all softback. You know, each one's probably 80 pages, 90 pages long, of different of modeling techniques. Now, he comes from the Spanish school and so he does the the really I don't want to say exaggerated, because that's almost pejorative, but the really highlighted detail. I mean you know the sharp contrasts, the really stark contrasty builds that are known as the Spanish school, which I'm not particularly a fan of that, but by the same token, the techniques that he.

I've read these books a number of times and I go back and I probably read them at least once a year, and on every single page there is something that I learned about how to do this or how to do that to make an aircraft model look better. And, like I said, even if you don't engage in the high contrast Spanish school, look, even if you don't engage in the high contrast Spanish school, look, 95% of it is still applicable. And they're just, they're wonderful books and they're not cheap, let me tell you. But I don't regret for a minute spending the money that I spent on them.

So how are you going to use them more?

I don't. I'm not sure that I could use them any more than I do, but I am definitely. It's been almost a year since I've read through the series, so I can pretty much guarantee you. In fact, I was talking with another modeler about the fact that I'm not reading enough. I've fallen victim to the phone and the screen and the TV and all of that, and I need to get back to reading more, both generally and hobby related, and I am definitely going to take that. In fact, I'm moving my books as part of my reorganization of my model room. I'm moving some of my bookshelves and I just took those books out to move that particular bookshelf that they were on and I'm going to go through them again. So how about you?

Man. I bought a lot of books in 2024. I might have bought more books than kits.

Oh, I think you did Heck at the Nationals alone.

Well, and then at Chicago I bought a book, and then at Amstow I bought a book, and I bought books via the mail.

Yeah, a big book.

Well, yeah, the big book, the biggest, I don't know, Well, there's a bigger one that's in two parts. Yeah, I bought a lot of books. Okay, so if I got to pick three today and this list would ebb and flow for anybody, right? Sure, exactly, but today the most substantial books, I guess, per the question, it would be KV, technical History and Variance from Jochen Fuller, published by Tango Grad Publishing. He's the owner of that publishing house, right? Oh my God, this is-.

The seminal work on the subject.

It is and the the Neil Stokes book prior was the seminal work and I bought it last year. Right Finally bought it and they're both great. But this case, this tanko grad book is, is huge. It's it's it's an eight pound book. It's an eight-pound book. It absolutely is an eight-pound book Full of I mean there's scores of unpublished photographs in it.

Yeah, because he scours, like me, he's buying photographs off probably German eBay and just buying all these KV photographs because he's putting them in the books. He must own them. There's no way he could publish the photos like scalping them off eBay. So he's buying these. So he's got a pretty good vested interest in this.

But the book is absolutely mind-blowing. If you're into KV tank, I mean it's a quintessential tank from World War II, a big hulking thing with the Absolutely mind blowing. If you're into KV tank, I mean it's quintessential tank from world war two, a big hulking thing with the proportions and all that. It's just it's the quintessential tank. And this book is substantial, it's in depth, it's comprehensive, it's the seminal work, as you said on the subject right now today. And man, there's a couple other Soviet tank series that I hope he is planning on doing the same kind of work with, but that book is incredible. Tanko Grad Publishing. It's not cheap. It may already be sold out, I don't know, but I pre-ordered a copy. I pre-ordered two. I got one for me, one for Evan. It's the real deal, man.

Yeah, now all we got to do is smuggle it across the border.

Not too many months prior to that purchase, I picked up Son of Sherman 2. Yeah, I got both of these books through David Doyle Right, but this one is from Pat Stanzel from Military Models in Review. Fame that magazine, defunct Magazine, Great magazine. Top quality. That's a shame. For sure it's published by M4 Publishing. That's not a coincidence. But it's E-M-F-O-U-R. M4 Publishing. That's not a coincidence. But it's E-M-F-O-U-R. M4 Publishing, delray Beach, florida. So that's self-published, because that's where Pat is.

Well, and that's the thing that makes that book. You know, I talked about the detail and scale on the tablet and you blow it up. This is another thing where technology has made something possible that wasn't possible before, because I think those are now printed on demand.

These are hard bound, two volume set in a cardboard over box. This is pretty impressive If he did this himself. Yep, I mean it's, it's a real book.

Yeah, oh God, yeah, oh, absolutely it, absolutely it is. It is exactly like the original.

And it is for a guy who's not very Sherman savvy. It's almost intimidating.

Yeah.

It's a big bunch of information.

Overload of information. You know you think of the Sherman as all being the same, yeah they're not. Because, they all kind of look the same.

Yeah.

And no the amount of.

So do butterflies right? Yes, exactly.

That's a great example.

So, yeah, son of sherman too, even if you're like not quite into sherman's or right or kind of maybe think you might be right, yeah, I would. If it's available, I would buy that book before it's gone. Yep, because for it to get surpassed is probably not likely. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Third's a little older. It's got some years on it now.

It's Sturmgeschütz III from Peter Mueller and Wolfgang Zimmerman, published by the History Facts, which may again be their own publishing. There's two volumes. One involves the development, production and deployment of the Sturmgeschütz. The second volume is the details of all the Ausf, from A or even before that, up through the late war, versions G and all the G sub variants A. Really kind of eye opening and it's just a really useful reference. It really helps you understand why a company like Dragon would issue a Stug G from some month in 1943 and then another one from some month in 1944 and et cetera, right. What's funny is our friend Evan has actually made a couple observations and has fed back to these guys and shared some things that they didn't quite realize. Yeah, so Sturmgeschütz 3 book again, I don't know if that was in print or not, but if you're into Stug 3 and don't have that one. You're missing out.

Yes, you're missing out. Yes, and let's face it, the Stug 3 is because the assault gun basically got invented in the Stug series. Yeah, and that almost makes it. It makes it a I don't want to say unique, because it's not unique, but it makes it something historical, because that series was the first of that idea.

And they made a lot of them.

Yes, they did.

Well, that's my three, and I would say that using them more is pretty simple. I think You've got to build more. You've just got to pick some projects within the scope of these references, so the K of these references. So the KV is easy, the Stug's easy.

The Sherman for me is I don't know, You've already got a project in mind. Man, I do, but you know you can.

I bought this book not so much for modeling projects in mind, but for the quality of the reference.

Yeah.

And knew it was a must have inclusion in my library.

Yeah.

So if you haven't got son of Sherman, the current one, see if, see if David Doyle's still got a few, and throw the coin down and get it. I would get any of these If I had any interest in any of these KVs. Shermans Sturmgeschütz 3, you can't go wrong.

Right.

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Well, Dave, it's the Benchtop Halftime Report. I hope you've been busy. My Benchtop Halftime.

Report. I hope you've been busy. My Benchtop Halftime Report is going to be very short. Moosaroo, moosaroo, moosaroo. I can't talk about it. You'll see pictures of it in seven days from the date we're recording this. Oh man, it's that close. It's that close. I'm sorry, man. No, I'm okay. I probably should be a little more panicked than I am, but I'm okay and I'm working on it and I'll have tons to say on it once it's done and submitted. But that's all I have been doing when I've been to the bench, and I've been to the bench pretty much at least an hour or two every night for the past week.

Oh, man. So I don't know whether to commend you or what man I know, Because that Sam's got to get done. Yes, it does.

And as soon as the Moose and the Moose-roo's in the way, right as soon as the Moose-roo's done, the Sam, which is right at the finish line, gets wrapped up.

When he's starting the Bearcats.

Those will start immediately after Heritage gone.

Okay, you have a plan.

Yes, I do.

I don't know how good it is, but you've got a plan.

These Bearcats are simple kits.

You've still got to build them and paint them, though. Yeah, we'll get there. They're not going to build themselves.

Well, you never know, who knows, we'll see. So what have you been doing, bench-wise?

I've been trying to get some work done on this KV man I've. I talked about last time that the the fenders are all jacked up Right and I've been prepping the fenders. I've been. They've got a bunch of raised ejection pin marks on them on the bottom side, so I've been shaved. I shaved all those off and I hit them with the mr surfacer 500. Let's see which one port side the left side is that right yep port is left got them all filled, got them all sanded out.

There's some details on them. I took off because I've got some 3d print files to fix those later and the problem was the way they fit on. They've got this friction fit under the blisters on the hull for the turret ring expansion on the KV-85.

Yeah.

And it was making the thing twist and I finally got into it and I took the skippy method man, the scott king method, just sand a little test.

Fit sand a little test sand fit, sand fit sand fit. Yeah, that's skippy.

And that got me to a point. It's like that's not gonna get me there. So I made some mods to the front fenders. I extended them the the vertical sides on them a little bit with some styrene, got all that sanded out and it's like, okay, I think this will work now. So I put the left one on, I glued everything forward of the turret ring, hard glued it, glued it under the turret blister and I let all that set, because that's when it went to crap, man. After that, as you go toward the back of the tank, it just starts twisting to the outside.

Prior to putting them on, I'd put a metal ruler under that turret blister. I'd scribed a line, a horizontal line, where the top of the fender was going to be into the plastic. That's my guide. So I went to the very end of the fender. The very last turned down mud flap. I got it where it's supposed to be. I put the extra thin on there and I glued it and I set it and I let it sit, put some tape on it, actually, bent it down a little more than it was supposed to be because I knew it was going to spring back.

Right.

Took the tape off. Looks great. Back right, took the tape off, looks great. Now I gotta go back and and finish gluing that guy on with probably some like zappa gap, some medium or thick super glue right to make sure it doesn't pop off, and then or doesn't twist over time yeah, and take that knowledge and go do the other side now.

So well, I've got to say I'm proud of you for not taking the cheap way out, which was simply ripping the fenders off the model.

Could have done that, but I'm doing a particular vehicle before it was captured by the Germans, so it ought to be in a little bit better shape than it was when the Germans got it Right. So that's where we're at, so it's moving forward Good, and other than that I'm not doing a whole lot. So my bench is moving, but moving a little bit slow. That's okay, as long as it's moving.

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Well, Mike, speaking of Squadron, what broke your wallet?

You know, I only left this segment in because I was hoping you would have bought something.

I actually have, but not much. You're husbanding your resources for Heritage Con right you?

could say that, but honestly, there's not anything that I've wanted to buy that I haven't, so I'm going to have a lot of money to go to Heritage Con, relatively speaking.

Unless you have a plumbing problem.

Or a car problem. Or a tax problem, or whatever man, yeah, unless life hits me fast.

Yeah, I know, but then karma came around and let you go to Heritage Con, so I'll go up there and spend a bunch of money and I'll come home and something will hit me, that's right, that's right.

So no, I've not spent much at all. I don't think I spent anything last time we did this segment.

Well, I haven't spent much. What I have done because it's Moosaroo is I went to scale reproductions and I purchased two modeling groundwork, modeling projects or products, because, as you know, this year's Moosaroo includes the requirement that the item appear as a vignette, which means it at least has to have a base. In theory it should tell a story I don't know exactly how much story that mine will convey, but it's going to have a finished groundwork base. And that required me to go to scale reproductions and get those products. And I did. And that is the only modeling related expenses I've had in the last, probably the last four weeks. And the reason is I'm A I'm paying a plumber five Cs, but B because I too am husbanding resources for HeritageCon. I want to go up to HeritageCon, I want to take advantage of those low Canadian dollars and enjoy myself. So I haven't spent much other than what I needed to get the Moosaroo done.

Well, next episode where this comes up should be a lot better. Yes, it should be a lot better.

Well, it's going to be a ton better because we'll be back from Heritage Con. So, Mike, how was your trip back to your college years and your Jack and Coke?

Oh man, I feel like I'm at an SEC football game.

There you go. Well, tennessee had a good year SEC-wise, you can't complain it could have been better.

It could have been better. Hopefully this year is going to be even better. We'll see. We'll see, yeah.

This year's going to be even better?

We'll see, we'll see. Yeah, the monetization of college football is, let's just say it's changed things?

Yes, it has, and I'll be honest with you. I think there's going to have to be some adjustments.

So we'll see what those are. They went a little too far, yes. Well, anyway, the Jack and Coke is Jack and Coke. It'll get you through a couple of quarters of football.

Exactly, or recording a podcast. Yes, that's right. Same thing. Well, my Hofbrauhaus Hefeweizen did not disappoint, drinking it in my Hofbrauhaus mug and I'm down to the last few sipsips, and it's been excellent. Is that a liter mug? It's the small, it's the half man. No, I'm, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be awake at the end of this thing if we, if I, had the big one. So, in any event, really, really good, never disappoints, especially fresh from a growler that comes fresh from the brewery. So no, complaints.

So if you've got a Hofbrauhaus in your geography, yes, and there's not many, no.

Check it out. Yep, definitely, mike. Do you have?

a shout out. I got a couple. One of them might be what you're going to do, maybe.

I don't know.

We'll see when we get there. But first off is all our supporters, dave, always Folks. It means a lot when we pump out this podcast and folks think enough about it to support us with their wallet. A couple of the latest have been Mr Chris Miller and Mr Bruce Binkson and man, it's a hard one to say because it's Binkson, binkson, it's not Binkstun the T's before the S, so I hope I said that right. Those guys have helped us out recently and if you'd like to do so, you can. You can do that by going to wwwplasticmodelmojocom and there's a support, the show link on the menu and you can find all the avenues to support the show, and we really appreciate it. It's very humbling and it's going to help us hopefully, in the not too distant future, bring you even more content outside this audio format.

So yes, there you go, we have plans.

We have plans.

And you all are making our big part of making that even possible. Thank you very much. Thank you. My shout out is to Jeff in Chi Groves, to Jeff in Chi groves. I got to see Jeff at Columbus and Jeff got some really good news recently. And because it's good news for him, it's good news for me and for the modeling community at large and just want to say I appreciate Inch, I appreciate his modeling and, even more importantly, I appreciate his friendship and good news. You can't be upset with it. So I'm glad you got good news, jeff.

Well, my other one is our guest from episode 135, mr Mark Copeland. An incredibly well-received episode it was, and we're never really sure when we do a modeling adjacent one how it's going to go, but Mark did a great job. Yes, he's got a great thing going on, a great gig, and we got a lot of good feedback from that. So, mark, we appreciate it and hope you guys get to make it to HeritageCon and we get to meet you in Detroit and have a great Saturday.

Yes, and Mark is one of those people who has never met anyone who wasn't immediately his friend, and that comes across in his personality, that came across in the interview and yeah, absolutely.

Well, Dave, we're at the bloody end of this thing, man.

Yes, we are. Yes, we are, but I had a great time, I enjoyed doing it, and you know that's every time we get to the end of a recording. I'm amazed at how quickly it went by, Cause it's basically you and I talking the way we we have for 30 plus years.

That's right, man. And also in 30 plus years. We've always said so many kids, Dave, so little time, Mike. Take it easy, man, Take it easy. Hopefully we'll see you and Stephen Lee in Louisville.

Yes, you will.