The F-16 That Refused To Fit and More: Episode 169

Welcome And Labor Day Updates

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

Welcome to episode 169. Kentucky Dave, how was that the Labor Day weekend for you?

It was good. I have no right to complain. Uh, didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to get done, but then again, that's the way it always works out. And I don't know about you, I am stoked.

Well, that's good. So let's see what's got you stoked, man. What's up in your model sphere, Dave?

Well, things are humming along. Again, didn't get as much done as I wanted over the Labor Day weekend, but I bought a number of books at the Nationals. And it made me look back at my I tracked my book reading with an app called Goodreads. Um just like I tracked my beer consumption with an app called Untapped. There's an app for everything. But it made me realize that I have fallen down on my model reading. I am getting all these books and I'm actually reading less. So I have made a positive rededication to dedicate 30 minutes a night to read doing model-related reading. And I started with one of the books I picked up at the Nationals, and uh it's going good.

Well, for the listening audience, explain what you mean by that. I know I don't think it means you're going through some cover-to-cover somebody's memoir or some history. This is all more technical kind of reading. What you got going on?

Well, I've got a I've got a wide selection. Lord knows I've got a library, which I've as part of my model room reno, has been moving around into my in my basement. Okay.

And it's not good for me. Well, t tangentially, that's gonna come up in the listener mail.

Well, that's good because uh and it's not good for me, and I may delete some apps off my phone or put time limits on them or something, but I realized that time that I would have devoted to model reading. And modeling. And model and modeling too, but not so much modeling. I'm doom scrolling on my phone. So I have may I have dedicated

Model Reading Versus Doomscrolling

myself to carving out a certain time period right before I go to bed to spend 20 to 30 minutes a night reading model-related stuff. And like I said, I track it in Goodreads, and it's going along well, and I'm happy to I'm making progress, and that's what I want to do.

Are you getting ideas?

I'm getting ideas.

Well, good, good.

In addition to books in my model sphere, what another thing I picked up at the Nationals was a 1700 scale ship with a photo etch set because I really do want to learn the art of soldering photoetch. And so I'm acquiring the necessary tools. I went and re-watched for either the second or third time Dr. Budzig's uh video on soldering photoetch.

Okay.

Man, you could not there are if you go into to YouTube and and put in soldering photoetch, yeah, you will get dozens and dozens of videos. Oh yeah. But and I've watched a number of them, but by far his is the clearest and best explanation of the process and what you what you want to look to do and what you want to avoid. So that is a skill for the coming year. This this coming year, soldering photoetch will be a skill that I add to my toolbox.

Well, because I don't know what aspects of ship photo etch are going to lend themselves to this process. Uh there's because I I I I think when it when I think about what it is, it's all seaplane gantries and railing.

Well, the the railings you don't solder sometimes. I know.

Although they're although they're not gantries either.

Right. Well oh, antenna masts and radars.

Okay.

Are the are the two big things on a 700-scale ship. I'm doing one of the little Japanese light carriers as well.

Well, is there any that the you know the the the superstructure's got, I don't know.

Some of them some of the pieces I think replaced some of that to get the number of windows right and and and uh this one I don't think does that, but I'm gonna have to look back at it when I get to that point. But I've got some models to finish before I can get to that point.

That's why this I wasn't gonna mention that.

Uh yeah, yes, you were. At some point you were. Uh, but in in addition, that's why this is a skill for the coming year. So that means late 26 on into 27.

Hold him accountable, folks. He didn't listen to that.

Yes, that's right. And finally, the model room renovation continues. Stuff can continue. You'll hear a little bit more about that in the Facebook Messenger discussions, but I've picked up a number of things for the Reno, and it's continuing. It it's continuing, and I hope to have a much better model room situation by the end of the year. We'll see. Well, do you find the next sucker for the retail paint racks, or did you just No, uh no, uh those things are gonna when I get it out of here, which is a little job in and of itself, uh uh that one's that one's going away away.

So good for you, man. Take pictures.

Yeah, that's right. You okay, you just one brought that up because you want me to point out you were right. And you were, and I acknowledge that.

But I was I was so certain in that fact. I don't need acknowledgement of the fact.

Listen to you.

That that was that was uh foregone conclusion there, but enough of this.

Uh how how how are things in your model sphere? Interesting. Okay. That's good. That's a Chinese curse. May you live in interesting times.

Well I don't know if it's interesting times. It's just uh a lot of a lot of good stuff going on. Okay. So we're in a oh, what would you call it? A refinement situation with the the web upgrade. Wasn't exactly happy. That's that's a little harsh. Uh what they came back to us with the first time was not quite what I was wanting.

Okay.

So we've gone back for another revision. So we're late now, though.

So I gotta I gotta see what's going on with those guys because um has

Learning Photo-Etch Soldering

there ever been a website rollout that's been early?

No, but you know, we've gotten some help along the way with this, and I'd like this for those folks to see the fruits of their generosity at some point, just because it's it's gonna get a little embarrassing if we go too long.

Yeah, it's true.

So that's going on. That's still in the works, and uh we're gonna get there. It's just uh it didn't happen in July, and now we're at the end of August, so and into September, but we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. So that wouldn't be terrible. Hopefully, I'm not gonna venture a guest. They're working on my revisions, and we'll go from there. In addition to that, though, you know, we've we've mentioned how we spent our time at the national convention as far as plastic model mojo was concerned. We did good there. I like the way that worked out for us. And between that and some conversations I'd started before Nats, we got some good stuff coming up, folks. And it it makes me happy because we we've in this is our seventh year, right? Yep. We have not taken a full break since we started this thing. And some other some of the other shows have, and I I'm this that's not a criticism, but it makes me wonder maybe if we should, but we just never did. Instead, we we tend to pare things down to make it easy on me and you when things get tight and tough. And but we still put something out, at least we try to.

Yeah.

And because of the way things were this time, it ended up being really show heavy and not so much and that's not the guy who plays for the Dodgers. Funny. A little show heavy in the content, and a little less uh, you know, technical nuts and bolts kind of modeling tips and techniques and projects and all that. Because of what we did at the National Convention, and because those conversations before the National Convention are bearing fruit now, it's it's gonna be gonna be a hard pivot here for the fourth quarter, Dave. Yep. Uh I just hope we can fit it all in. We got some good stuff coming up, folks.

We have we have an embarrassment of riches.

We do. And it's it's all gonna be kind of technical. Eh, maybe not the wrong word. It's all gonna be more modeling as far as the actual physical aspects of the hobby are concerned. Yeah. There may be some vendor stuff in there, talking to folks about their businesses and things like that. But the shows are gonna be limited, I guess, to the the model show spotlights and any any sidebar comments we have about stuff we attend, which is a great segue into my next point. We do have a show coming up, the Military Modelers Club of Louisville here coming up at the end of September. And uh we're gonna generate even more modeling content, Dave, because uh I I I think I'm good to attend, and I've already booked a room for us in Shepherdsville. So I was gonna say there's plenty of room there, so you better come down.

I'm coming down. I I I am here to I am here to commit on on the podcast. I will be even though it's less than 40 minutes from my house, I'm gonna drive down on Friday. You and I are gonna go over, we're gonna have a nice steak dinner. Although there's a really good seafood place down there.

And then you just confused the crap out of me, man.

Why?

Uh well, is this like you get the steak at the seafood place, or are we going like cattleman's road here?

There's a good steak place, okay, a good cattleman's, and then there's a really good seafood place. There's a couple others. So we'll find something nice for dinner, not some McDonald's drive-thru fast food junk. You and I will go out. We'll have to do it.

Whoever else, I think Bill Moore might come up early.

Bill Moore's gonna says he's gonna be there, and I know some other people are coming in from out of town and they're gonna get there Friday night. And if they do, they are all welcome to come and sit and eat dinner and hang out and just have and the rooms are sweet, so we got we got a couch and chair area.

Yeah, and uh a little mini dojo, and hopefully you don't get kicked out of

Renovating The Model Room

the hotel.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't I don't think it will escalate to that to that level.

Well, it's a country and in suites, and they used to have like rocking chairs down on the first floor uh outside, so we might could do that too. So we'll get it going. Well, anyway, folks, that's the model sphere from my side, and anything else is gonna be in the bench top halftime report later because uh that's where all the real action is.

There's some stuff happening. So, Mike, we're recording an episode. You know what that means. It means modeling fluid. It does. What modeling fluid do you have, my brother?

Uh we're digging into the the hall from the national convention. Good. I don't know if I wrote the name on the bottle or the the giver of the gift uh wrote the name on the bottle. If I get this wrong, I'm sorry. It's from Mr. Jerry Barker, I think. Yeah from Bonbrecker, which is German kind of for trailblazer, pathfinder. Hefeweiss and whiskey.

A hefe a a wheat whiskey, okay.

I assume that's a weeded whiskey. Yeah, that would be a good guess, Dave. You're right. Okay. German's getting better.

So it's not a bourbon, it's a whiskey.

It's a whiskey. It's a yeah. A Hefeweissen whiskey, which means it's got some infused stuff in it, and we'll get to that at the end. Okay. It's lemon peel and clove for the most part. Kind of like a hefeweizen. So beer. What do you got, man?

Well, as a matter of fact, I've got you if you'll remember from the 2020 or the Nationals in Hampton in 2025, Don Gilman from Texas.

Well, this is from Texas, too. We'll get to that in a minute. But it's not from Don. Go ahead.

Hang on, hang on, I'm grabbing a paper towel. Hold on. I'm back.

A little foamy.

It was a little foamy. Uh Don Gilman at Hampton brought me the best homebrewed beer I have ever tried. I forget if it was a lavender or an elderflower beer, but it was a homebrew beer and it was fantastic. All right. And this year he doubled up and brought, sorry, I'm cleaning up the foam. Brought two. And this one, he said, is a is in the style of yellow rose. And it's looks to be like pretty good movie. Like a slightly dark beer.

Okay.

And hang on. Oh, that's good. No, it's got a wore.

She wore a yellow ribbon. Never mind.

Yeah, that's she wore that's one of my favorite movies, by the way. But this is Yellow Rose, which I assume means there's some beer down in Texas somewhere

Website Upgrade And Upcoming Content

called Yellow Rose, uh, named after the song. But in any event, Don was kind enough to bring me two of his new home brews, and this one's Yellow Rose, and I've opened it and I've had I've had to clean up a little bit of foam because it foamed a little bit. Tastes great, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it. We will know at the end of the episode.

All right. Well, the listener mail bag is overflowing with foam. Almost. We've had more, but not many, many times. Okay. So let's get to it. We got some good stuff tonight, so folks, uh, we we appreciate it. And I gotta expand my window here so I'll make sure I get the right ones. First up, Mr. Tim Nelson from the Pacific Northwest, who we saw at the National Convention. We did, and we used him as a mule. We did. We did use him as a mule. He says he's been traveling a lot, but was catching up on episodes. Now he sent this before the national convention. It's in regard to our discussion about air quality and particularly the air quality monitors on Amazon. A listener had written in about that. Mr. Wapels did. That's right. And, you know, he's like, Do I need to be concerned about VOCs? Mm-hmm. And actually the eye opener for for him has been CO2 levels. He he's a CO2 tank user like I am.

Okay.

And not surprisingly, there's a when he when he airbrushes, there's a CO2 bloom in his hobby room per the uh air quality monitor. And he says what shocked him was the level. He's seen kind of baseline atmospheric levels of about 430 parts per million. Uh jump to 2,500 to 3,000 parts per million. Wow. When he's airbrushing CO2. Uh he'll have to clarify for us because so so he's running the exhaust fan basically all the time during paint sessions now, even with water-based acrylics. So I wonder if he was painting water-based acrylics with no ventilation. Really, Tim? Were you doing that? I don't think so, but maybe. I don't know. And he was getting this bloom because he was pumping the CO2 out. I don't know how big your room is. My basement's pretty big, and I'm I'm I don't know. I'd I'd be curious. Maybe I need to get one of these. Or it may be one of those, I don't want to know the answer. I don't know. I think if you were getting to our to severe levels of CO2, you'd you'd know it.

Well, that's that's dangerous because if you are quickly, you your your wife will find you on the floor, yeah. Exactly. So we'll have to get more information from Tim, but yes, I've got some talk about the air quality meters later on.

So this is a growing topic of conversation. Yes.

Yes, it is.

We'll keep on it. And in regard to our saving extinct subjects, he wants to nominate the Boeing 314. Okay. No known, no survivors. There's a reproduction somewhere.

Right.

Foines, where's that? Uh Flying Boat Museum. Ireland. There it is. He's got it right there. I didn't see it, and I probably said that wrong. But anyway, he's been badgering air fixing revell at every opportunity to produce a new tool. 72nd scale kit, which would be flip flipping huge. Yep. Yeah, it's uh it's it's big. So far without success, but anyway, that's what he's got. Keep after him, Tim. That's what he wants. That's right. Thanks, Tim. Ah, and I mentioned uh you mentioned Doom Scrolling. Yes. Well, chastise the listening audience about the crickets we'd gotten on computers in the workspace.

Mm-hmm.

Spurred a couple people on, one of them being Christian Gurney at Bases by Bill.

Uh-huh.

There is no computer or TV in his modeling space. He'll listen to music through earbuds or through his phone. It's the shared space with the Bases by Bill workshop. He says his computer is in an adjacent office space, but it's essentially in another room physically because he's worked in tech and he's also does design work for Bases by Bill, and he's got large monitor in that space. And the vinyl cutter for masks is in there, and laser printer and bookshelves, completed models are shoehorned in there as well. He can't say that this layout is purposeful, but based on his experience using having home offices in the past, that he says the separation allows for focus on relevant tasks.

I'm unwilling to move my model or my computer out of my model room, but I'm not sure that that isn't the best solution if you really truly have the discipline, is to have neither uh TV nor a computer in your model room. I think it would probably make you more productive. Maybe. But the thing is, I like watching foot. I get a lot of modeling done with football game on or with the hockey game on. And so I just don't think I can do it. I I do think it's probably the better solution. I just don't think I willing will let me put that correctly. I don't think I'm willing to do it.

Well, he thinks this arrangement in philosophy comes from uh learning a hard lesson early in life. He's led businesses, he's uh where he's worked all the time, you know.

Yeah.

No matter where he was. And later in life he learned he could be just as productive, if not more, if he put a hard line between work and non-work. So that's where his separation comes from. It's not so much getting more done on his hobby, it's it's just getting the rest of his life out of non-work time.

Yeah. I I think that's words of wisdom.

And he says if you susp suspect you're getting distracted from the hobby, take a hard look at why and see if you can create a dedicated spaces, no matter how small, that'll allow you to focus on what you choose to focus on.

Yep.

Good stuff. Yep. We'll see what happens, Dave.

Hey, the model room is still renoing, man. Everything can change.

Well, another one from those West Coast guys, Mark Dramas is written in again.

Okay.

And he was in Singapore again. I can't remember what he does. Mark, tell us what you do while you're in in Singapore all the time. Well, he he likes it when he's traveling, he sees us there's a new mojo episode on Spotify, and he fired it up and he says he went full Martin Drayton on a couple of kits he'd bought with him while uh he was there just for such an occasion. He's glad for it, man. He uh likes to bring a piece of America with him back to his life after several days of a strange language, broken English, uh people driving on the wrong side of the road or exotic food that burns his innards.

Yep.

It's nice to find something he's similar to. And he has visited one hobby shop while he's there in Singapore, Hobby Bounties. Hobby Bounties. That's a great name. He said it's a small shop run by a kindly older guy. And uh he says it's been featured on YouTube. He sent me a link. Maybe we'll put that in the show notes. Says a tiny shop, but it's just chock full of airfix kits, and most of them are recent vintage. He said he put the details in the dojo. He's got a question about that in the future regarding the website. So, you know, just nice to hear from from Mark and know that uh we bring him some comforts at home when he's when he's on his extended travels because I've done those extended travels and I know exactly how it can be.

And I I've told the story that one of the best scale modelers I ever knew was a guy named Carter Scales, who was a traveling salesman and did a huge percentage of his modeling in hotel rooms on the road.

So it can be done. It can be done. Well, Martin shows it can be done. Yeah.

Oh yeah. Martin, Martin does.

Drew Savage is next. No computer in his build room, Dave.

Yeah, I'm telling you, I think that's that's a smart move.

I'm just he says he uses his iPhone for research in the build room when he's needed and wants in a blue moon on the iPad. I guess when he's bigger, a bigger screen.

Yep.

Drew feels that a full computer in there would be a distraction, like a TV, which he doesn't have either.

Yeah. Again, these are wise people. And I think if you're setting up a model room, you would be well to lit, you would do well to listen to them.

I think so, man. Gus Guyer from uh the Netherlands, Dave, has written in. He hadn't written in a long time. He's the guy that wrote in about the Carl Dorman in Dry Dock a long time ago, like two years ago now. Yep. Ah, he was thanking us for the Eighth Air Force stuff from Mark Copeland.

Yep.

He's been on vacation to uh Terschelling, which is one of the northern islands in the Netherlands. And on that island is the German bunker complex, Tigerstellung, which was the primary, I think the primary radar station used to for early interdiction of bombers coming out of England. Just a huge sprawling complex of bunkers. You should you should look into it. And I bet Mark can tell us all about it too sometime next time we're with him.

But uh I wonder if Mark's thought about that as a as a tour spot stop. I don't know. When he dosed Germany.

Well, it's in the Netherlands, Dave.

I I know, but I mean It's right next door.

It's right next door.

He'd be he'd be on the continent.

He would be on the continent, yeah. That that helps a lot just to be that close. This place has a special exhibit about uh all the shotdown and crash planes around the island, and there's a bunch. There's a ton. Hundreds, actually. And there's one that kind of pulled him toward Mark's Eighth Air Force hook with the uh the tours and stuff when he was a guest. Right near their vacation home that they rented. There was a B-17F, the Texas Bronco, which took fighter and flak damage and made it a crash landed on the beach, essentially right there on the island on the 4th of February 1943. Two crewmen didn't make it, and the other eight became POWs, but it was part of the Eighth Air Force. So they can there's a a marker, uh a beach pole there where the plane went down. He and his son had walked there to the crash location, and uh he said it was just difficult to picture a crippled B-17 laying there in the sand.

Yeah.

Uh and what's now a peaceful beach.

Well, and and the thing is, I'm uh, you know, you watch the news and the

Listener Mail Begins And Air Quality

Dutch are constantly reclaiming land from the sea. And quite often, when they're doing part of those types of projects, they end up coming across a British or American bomber that crashed into either marshland or shallow water and then is rediscovered when they when they reclaim land from the from the ocean.

Well, he brings us all together and says this is all why he thinks modeling is more than just gluing plastic together. It's also keeping history alive. It's a good point. Completely agree. And he wants to know if we have a good suggestion for a B-17F kit and 70 second scale.

Uh, right now it's the Academy is your choice, but we are all hoping. In fact, in fact, Mark Copeland himself is working on trying to blackmail, cajole several different model companies into producing a new B-17 series. And having done a really nice B-17G a number of years ago, everyone has been hoping that AirFix would go ahead and backdate that to an EF, but so far they haven't done so. So right now you're stuck with the Academy kit. Fingers crossed, we're gonna get something new and better.

All right. Then up next, Joseph Domansky. And well, let's post these pictures in the dojo, Dave. He he uh talks about his model room reno.

Mm-hmm.

And he's got some uh some interesting photographs.

Well, I want to see those because again, all of you who have posted or DM'd me or posted in the dojo photos of what you've done. I'm I'm getting ideas constantly from that. And so my my particular plan is constantly changing as I see new new things and new ideas.

And we just we missed him at NAT somehow. He didn't get a chance to stop by and say, but he was there. It's his second one.

So that means you got to come to Huntsville and Eagle Quest. Okay, you got to do both.

I don't know where he resides from. It might be a stretch or it might be next door. I don't know.

If you can get to Fort Wayne, you can get to both Eagle Quest and Huntsville. So come on, man. We're we'll we'll roll out the red carpet for you.

From the East Coast of Canada is uh David Roach, and he has sent us an interview idea, which I like a lot. I wish I I want to encourage folks to keep doing this. I'm not gonna divulge it because uh we'll end up listening to somebody else do the interview.

Right.

But it's a great idea, and it's kind of in keeping with another interview I'm I'm interested in doing. It's kind of along a similar vein. It's kind of somebody working a niche and they've got an interesting business model to do that. So that's kind of some of the content in the future, talking to some of these kind of people. So, David, thank you for the suggestion. I'm gonna be in contact with this person. I don't know if I can get it done when you thought I should get it done, but in the end, I'm not sure it'll matter. Appreciate the suggestion. It's a really, really good one. Thank you. Leo Posner from the City of Brotherly Love, Dave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He wants to know, or he doesn't want to know, he wants to concur that what he frequently hears us saying that we're in the golden age of modeling. He tends to agree with that between all the better engineered kits, the 3D printing, and all this glut of aftermarket decals, detail sets, whatever, man. Yeah. Probably probably never been a better time to be a modeler.

Never.

But there's an area where he's definitely not seeing a golden age, and that is the local brick and mortar hobby shop.

Yeah.

Last month he says that AAA hobbies in Magnolia, New Jersey finally closed its doors as the owner was headed into a well-deserved retirement. They had a great sale, and he's he's happy about that, but you know, he laments the closing of the shop. It's just the latest one to disappear. He's watched, you know, shop after shop close. Shops like the Northern Pen Hobby Shop and Broad Street Hobbies close their doors as well. And this is just another one. And he says during his final visit to AAA for their sale, he came across a Pegasus Hobbies chemical plant kit. Now, Leo is a chemical engineer by education, and the box art caught his attention. And he thought, now that looks like something different. So in the shopping cart it went, especially, especially given the sale that was going on.

Right.

He thought it'd be a fun change of pace and work on his weathering and diorama techniques. So that's that's a good angle. That's a good uh that kind of gets in the whole genre shift to learn those kind of things. But his point is he seriously doubts he would ever come across this kit because he's never gone out and looked for a chemical plant model or even an industrial model. And the only reason this happened was he was hanging out in a hobby shop and saw it.

Yeah.

Which I think is kind of the the golden ticket for the hobby shop. I mean, that's just kind of the way it used it works or used to work.

Well, there's a real transition going on where a lot of the old line hobby shops, the owners are getting to be our age, well, older than us and moving into retirement. There's, you know, there's limited interest in usually the family taking over the next generation, etc. Although that does happen sometimes. And so the shops end up having a big blowout sale and then closing. And yeah, that's that's sad and all. But by the same token, there are new shops opening, they're just different. Talk about the number of Warhammer and Games Workshop shops opening up, shops with a lot of anime or Gundam in them. Yeah. And those are usually run by a number a younger generation. They're just different than what we're used to. We're used to an old-line brick and mortar hobby shop that's filled with military kids. And yes, some of that may be going away. But then again, even down in Texas, uh oh gosh, I can't remember his name, is opening a shop. Stan Spooner. Stan Spooner. Thank you. So it it is happening. I just think it's a transition. And I think because we and our generation of modelers are tied to these older shops, I think we may see the closings more vividly when then we see the openings. Probably.

But I just think, you know, I used to go in when I was in high school, even my first year of college, I went to the local university, and I would I would be on that side of town when classes were done. I'd go hang out at the model shop. Yep. And I'd spend two or two, three hours down there sometimes. Yeah. Or on a Saturday. And that was just the that's just how you did it, right?

Well, I got I I never drank co drank coffee until I started hanging out at Oly Dub's Model Master Hobbies in Louisville. And he had that free pot of coffee going all the time. And I'd go in there and drink coffee and hang out. And, you know, I'd hang out there three or four hours sometime.

It's interesting, you know. I've mentioned a time or two that I'm also kind of into into vintage sports cards. It came up in kind of the YouTube community community around that, but it it's it's generic because it's it's a statistic, it's an economic statistic that is not specific to what type of hobby you're in. But during the COVID lockdowns and all that, worldwide and in the United States, most hobbies increased dramatically.

Yep.

Many of them, almost all of them, have retracted somewhat. But in the United States, and I suspect it's not probably different, it's probably not a different trend in the rest of the world. It may be a differing degree of personal income, you know, in other geographies. But in in the United States specifically, how many years? We're we're what, six years post-pandemic now?

Right.

And the increase has retracted. But prior to COVID, 3% of the American income, disposable, well, the income period, three three percent of of the household income was spent on hobbies.

Yeah.

In the retraction here, six years after COVID, it's at six percent.

Yep.

So so it's doubled. Yep. So COVID changed a lot of mindsets in a lot of people.

A lot of habits.

And there's a lot of information out there about that, especially about Gen Xers like me retiring early and stuff like that, or changing jobs. People got fed up and they had a lot of time to think about how to get out of their fed upness, right?

Um I like that fed uppedness.

And increase in hobbies is is has stuck. It's stuck, you know. And and I think it's interesting that these shops are closing. A little surprised they'd you would think there'd be potential buyers for these.

And I think that the problem is that most hobby shop owners, you know, they've been doing this for four, 30, 40 years. Nobody ever thought, well, if my, you know, their only thought was, well, if my kids want it, I'll give it to them. But nobody ever thought this is a business and I'm going to sell it as a business.

Yeah.

I I just think that's interesting because I thought there's certainly a market for an arguable market for it.

Who would have thought that after the dawn of the internet that we would be 2x the nominal household income being spent on hobbies? Yeah. You you'd think it'd be prime time to keep a successful shop going.

Yep. Yep. No, I agree.

Now, a lot of that money's being spent online as well, but not all of it.

No. Maybe, maybe we'll maybe we'll find a local hobby shop owner to talk to at one point.

We might, we might. Well, we've talked about that and we can talk about that at our show in September, man. Exactly. Frank Blanton, Frank Tank. Yes. Recently moved to South Carolina, Low Country. Mm-hmm. Down near Savannah, I think he's actually going. So he went a little further south than uh I was I was thinking. He wants to uh thank the community for all the solutions that came out of his CA glue conundrum. He's switched over to Deluxe Materials Photo Edge Glue based on feedback from our listenership and how several months down the road and things are great. I guess that means his allergic reaction kind of situation is is gone. He says it's game been a game changer. So right there is the value of the community.

Exactly.

We help Frank enjoy his modeling more and glad to hear that, Frank. So uh good luck with your move. You're pretty prolific on the dojo and letting us know what's going on. So please keep that up. And uh I'm glad uh you're not suffering the CA allergies anymore. That's a good thing. Yep. Finally, Dave from the email side of things, Michael Reese from Germany. Mm-hmm. YouTuber, Hamilkar Barkas.

Yep.

Compadres with Evan McCallum, Panzerminister 36.

Yes.

Has sent us a long email, Dave.

Uh-oh.

I'm gonna pare this down because it's it's an interesting topic. He apologizes for the length. Don't need to apologize, Michael. I just this makes my job just a little bit harder.

Okay.

Hobby Spaces Without Screens

For the last since 2015, he's been doing something that's part of the his community's holiday activity program. And he's been introducing kids and adolescents, I guess he means teenagers, preteens and teenagers here in his village to the hobby of scale modeling. Now, there's all sorts of activities in this holiday activity program, but that's what he's doing. Uh just something so they learn something new, aren't bored, and he's in a picture. It's also for opportunity for him to wear his plastic model mojo shirt.

We always like that.

I appreciate that. So again, he's been doing this for 2015, so 10, 11, 12, 10 years, 11 years he's been doing this. Good on you, man. He's exposing kids to the hobby. Most of them have never heard of it before. He says used to be a world we lived in where model kits were everywhere. You know, all the stores had them. Yep. Just it was just omnipresent, it seemed like. But now you kind of have to be purposeful to go to go find this hobby. And they're getting by on donations and things like that. They use in the craft rooms at their local primary schools, lots of donation donated kits. He collects through the year for this, and uh the kids can pick out what they want to build, and he just thinks it's a great opportunity for folks to to uh donate their unwanted kits or the raffle wins for this purpose, and it's just getting new new kids, new folks, new, new young people into the hobby. And he says he'd be surprised what these people kick out and how fast they adapt to it. And a little messy at times, but he's really enjoyed it. I guess you have enjoyed it, Michael. We've been doing it since 2015, and and this is just a really, really good thing. I uh we're gonna have something about youth in the hobby coming up in our in our uh model show spotlight a little later in the month. So this is kind of timely. Yeah, he's introducing the next generation to this hobby, and it's it's a good thing, man. What do you think, Dave?

Uh well, it it it's interesting that we hear from him on this subject, having just recently encountered the youth program going on up in Cincinnati that we'll talk about sometime in the future. I do think that we're starting to see more and more attempts to involve the youth in the hobby. And I do think Michael's absolutely correct. When we all were growing up, you just encountered the hobby. I went to Kmart, and there were there was more than one row of model kits. Yeah, and so every time every time my mom went to Kmart, I'd go over and peruse the model, the Bandai model kits with the dioramas on the sheets and oh man, that got my juices flowing. Kids today don't encounter that. And so much up to us to to think of ways to at least try and let the kids know that this hobby is out there. And obviously, Michael's doing a good job at it.

He is, he needs to keep it up. We might need we might need to talk to him about it.

We might need to.

Man, they just keep coming.

I know.

Well, you mentioned Kmart. I remember Kmart, like you know, tons of Ravel and the monogram and MPC and AMT there.

Yep.

And I remember in our shopping mall, there was a craft store that in the very back. They had just about every it's when Mini Craft was importing the Hazie kits in the black boxes.

Yep.

And just had all those kits with all that great artwork, box art. And then we had uh McCrory's, it's kind of a five and dime store that was actually in the mall that they even have they had a lunch counter and everything.

Yep.

And it was like just after Christmas, they would get these pallet loads of like Ravel Italary kits or Tycho Mile Railroad kits of all their buildings and stuff for for train sets and stuff that people had gotten for Christmas.

Yep.

And they would be so cheap. I mean, they were just discounted beyond belief. I mean, even in the 70s as a kid in the 70s, I was like buying these things a stack at a time because they were just about giving them away. And I don't I don't think they were lost leaders for the store, but to your point, it was just this stuff was everywhere.

Yeah.

And not to mention the the the hobby shop downtown where you could get the you know the the Tamiya and and the Fujimi and all that stuff, but just the stuff was just in every store, kind of general five and dime or disc department store, it was just everywhere. Hill's department store had all the matchbox kids. And uh I yeah, I get what he's saying. It's just it's not that way anymore. And this is kind of the program that's gonna get kids into the hobby, and uh good on him for doing it. I look forward to hearing more about this at some point. Well, again, that's the last email, Dave. What's the uh direct messages looking like?

They're they've been good. I've trimmed them down to try and uh keep this from becoming a three-hour episode. Um first up, Dave Waples. You know, we've had that discussion with him over the last number of episodes, talking about his attempts to determine the air quality in his hobby room, being shocked by some of the results and starting to take precautions. I've as I've gotten older, I hit the big six five this year. I've become more cognizant of health-related issues. And so I actually reached out to Dave and I said, you know, what did you get? Are you happy with it as far as an air quality meter? And he said that what he did was he went to Consumer Reports and looked at their reports and their recommendations, and he purchased what they recommended. And he sent was kind enough to send me the link to it. And so as part of my hobby room reno, I now have a air quality, a Dave Wapels approved air quality meter, which I've run off and on in the room. And my air quality seems to be decent. Uh funny enough, I took it down to my office downtown in the in the big skyscraper. And believe it or not, the air quality in my office in the big skyscraper downtown was a little bit worse than it is here in my hobby room. So that was that was kind of interesting and eye-opening.

With all them Saburate hot dogs you've been eating from the street vendor, man.

There you go. There you go. So I did dig get that, and I got a new cartridge filter mask to go along because I am being more cognizant, more dedicated over the health of my lungs and my general health. So I'll send pictures of the setup. I will be more than thrilled to talk to people or direct them to Mr. Waples to talk about it. And I'm sure this isn't the last time the subject will come up on our podcast. Next is Mr. Bill Moore, who we saw at the Nationals. Bill just sent me a DM to remind me that the Murphy's Borough show is on November 14th this year. I went down last year and met Dr. Gelbacher there. But yes, I've got uh I've got Murphy's Borough on the calendar and I'm planning to go. Next, Gary Sclut, S-K-L-O-O-T, modeler who DM'd us. He got back into the hobby. He's in his 70s. And uh I don't know where where he's from. So if you, Mr. Scloot, if you're hearing this, DM me and let me know where where you're from. But he mentioned that he has a lung condition that prevents him from airbrushing. So he's been brush painting. And we talked about there's

Modeling As Living History

some very fine brush painters and brush painting techniques and videos out there for that. But that kind of leads back to the entire health discussion about protecting your lungs while modeling. And so there are all there are alternatives. The alternative he's gone with is brush painting, but there are other alternatives as well. Our friend from down under, Paul Gloster, has DM'd me to I think convince me that he has lost his mind entirely.

I saw what he was building.

He's building a couple of boomerangs which are Indigenous uh Indigenous Australian fighters built during World War II. And he's not using the decent special hobby kit. He is using some short-run injection. I don't know whose kit they are, but they are god-awful. And it's like at this point, he'd be better off starting with a block of plastic and carving to shape. But you know what he's gonna produce is gonna be gorgeous when he finishes.

I mean, it just is, but man, there's one between special hobby and those. There's an airfix kit.

Yes, there's a you're right, there's an old airfix kit that he could he's not even doing that.

He he's been cobbling on those, what is the biplane he's been working on, the the groups, he's got like a set of them he's working on. What's that one?

The Avro 504K.

Yeah, I mean I think you finished that one. Come on, Paul.

Yeah.

He's got to tell us why he went this route.

Yes, he does. In fact, uh who knows? Maybe we'll get him on to talk about it.

And it maybe it's the if by the time you carve our way all the flash, it's the only one that's actually the right shape.

Might be.

I don't know, but it it did look like he was working on soap in those photographs.

He's yes, Paul, Paul, we need to hear more from you. And hopefully they'll let you out of the strait jacket long enough to type a message to us. Finally, our old friend Stephen Lee, sprue pie with Fred, came across something and DM'd me, and this is now a super common occurrence in the modeling world. He comes across a M551 Sheridan and 72nd scale by a company, the JX Scale Models that you've never heard of anything. And he's like, is this the S kit or is this, you know, somebody else? And of course, he ends up ordering it and gets it. And once he gets it and unboxes it, he determines it's the SNS kit with additional 3D parts. And I think this is going to become a more and more and more common occurrence in our hobby, and it's already common where these new companies pop up and they have they release something. And you know, unless you're investigating ahead of time or you find some review or something, you don't know if it's new tool stuff, 3D print stuff, somebody else's spruce with some additional stuff. I think this is just gonna become more and more common as as we go on in the hobby. And I thank Steven for letting us know that that was the case with that particular kit.

Because that would be a cool subject if it was all, you know, a brand new like flyhawk injection molding kit.

Exactly. Exactly. Well, that's the last DM I have, Mike.

All right. Well, folks, we appreciate it. It's been a while since we've done it. We've just burned a bunch of time getting through all these. Hopefully they'll let it down to something not too obscene. But we want more, we want more email, we want more DMs, and you can do so by sending the emails to Plasticmodel Mojo at gmail.com. Or you can direct message us through the Facebook Messenger system or leave a feedback message in the feedback web link in the show notes of each and every episode and on the website at Plasticmodel Mojo.com. So uh keep them coming, folks, and we'll be a little bit more timely and not have such a backlog here going forward.

Yep.

Dave, at the National Convention, you know, we give out they give out a lot of best of.

Yeah.

I was surprised, pleasantly surprised, to see that the best aircraft went again to somebody we knew. It's been Houston at a time, maybe maybe maybe more than once. Yep. But this time it was uh Dr. Michael Poland from Knoxville, Tennessee, and his F-16 and 48 scale. Just an incredible model. Oh, it was. And uh I pinned him down as the folks were gathering their models out of the showroom the night after the awards ceremony. And just nice to catch up with him and listen to his uh his little Magnum opus project. I say little, but it sure wasn't.

It wasn't. It was beautiful. It was it was one of those models you sit and stare at for 10 minutes from different angles.

Let's get into it, man.

You got it.

Well, Dave, I lied a little bit in the uh 12-minute model sphere saying uh we're kind of done with Nat's content, but we do have one more thing.

Uh well, it's an important thing.

Well, we the three of us will think

Best Aircraft Winner Joins Us

so. Yeah. Tonight with us is uh Dr. Michael Poland from Knoxville, Tennessee. And Michael had the the honor of receiving the Best Aircraft Award at the 2026 uh IPMS National Convention in Fort Wayne, which we're all at, obviously. And Michael, how are you doing, man?

I'm doing great. I really appreciate y'all inviting me to be on and excited to be here and talk about it because it's uh a humbling honor to get it.

Well, I'll tell you what, for some reason I was thinking you were an armor guy.

I'm a little bit of everything.

Well, clearly the moniker Jack of All Trades, Master of None, does not apply because uh uh your F-16, it was a just a stunning build, and it was just so nice to get to see someone that we had some connection with actually win best aircraft whose name wasn't Steve Husted.

That's right.

So just give us the kind of the uh the the basics of why that subject and and what your goal was. Did you did you come into it hoping to do something like this, or did you just decide to to dissect an F-16? And I don't know, I'll just let you let you kind of roll with that.

Yeah, the F-16 I've always loved, just been one of my favorite planes, and I had throughout some of my education lived in Terre Haute, Indiana for a couple years, and I lived in some apartments right at the end of the runway of the airport, and so the F-16s went off every morning and it would be like clockwork, and I'd go out on my porch to the apartment and watch them go off, and so I always wanted to build the Terre Haute F-16 uh from the Air National Guard there, and then I saw the Black Dog resin set for it and just other resin sets over time over the years, and decided that you know that was kind of gonna be my Magnum opus bucket list build. It was something I wanted to do, and you know, as you guys talk about, it's one of those things I was waiting until I got better to do it and finally just decided that who knows, you know, I I I never know when I'll be good enough to do it or give it a try. And so decided after uh Nat uh decided after Nat last year on the way home that I was like, this is the year to do it. Nationals is gonna be in Indiana, and so it only makes sense to tackle that build and try to get it done for Indiana for that reason, and decided to go for it.

You provide us all a great example of not continuing to put it off, but deciding, yeah, I'm gonna actually go ahead and do it rather than oh, let me get a little bit better, let me get a little bit better. So, I mean, clearly you got you got better. You got good. So is the the base kit was the Tamiya kit?

Yeah, the base kit was the Tamiya F-16, the 48th scale, obviously.

Right.

I used the aggressor boxing of it because that had kind of components for the most part for the the block 30, which is what the Air National Guard flew for the plane I was gonna build, and then just had to get update sets for make it block 30 specific and then all the resin for the avionics bays and engine and engine bays and all that.

Now was were all of the all of the details resin sets, or did you do any scratch building or or did you just try and I mean usually when you get these resin sets and they all look good and then sometimes you come to figure out this doesn't exactly quite fit. How was the how was the build process for you?

Yeah, the the fit was not good to say the least. So it was it's all resin stuff. There's no real scratch building outside of the modification of the kit parts, and so all the major fuselage pieces had to be cut up pretty significantly. And then lots of test fitting with the resin, and even when I thought I had it pretty good, once things started to come together, it did not come together well. And you can look at the company website and they have pictures of the resin parts within the kit parts, and you can see where a lot of the gaps are gonna be and a lot of the fit issues are gonna be. And there were a couple of builds I'd seen online that gave me some sense of where a lot of the problems were gonna be fit-wise, and so just started cutting and went to it. I had two boxings of the kit, so that way if I screwed it up, I had another part I could pull out and it would not be a big deal.

That sounds like something I would do.

Did you actually have to do that? I did not. I made it all three with the one boxing, so the other one was there, but it was after I had it all cut and I was starting to get the fuselage together, I hit a point where the whole front half of the fuselage is a resin block and the fuselage behind it's the plastic, and then the nose section is about half plastic and half resin. And the fit was so bad it was probably five millimeters or more off on each side on the top and bottom, and and I called a buddy of mine and I was like, Man, there's uh y this isn't it can't be done, it just fits too bad for it. And I was like, I think I'm just gonna bin it. And he's like, Well don't bin it, just yeah, I mean it was kind of the point of no return. You it was either gonna go in the garbage because it was so bad, or I was gonna sand it and work on it to the point it it was gonna go in the garbage because it was so messed up, and so I just lots of super glue and sanding and the the base part of the the nose section, the plastic was like transparent thin by the time I finished sanding it, and so had to reinforce that to rescribe the panels down there, but it it came together and so once I was past that I felt like it this can happen.

How much how much in the way of of similar p modifications did you have before you tackled this kind of major hack and saw job?

Uh none.

I was hoping you weren't gonna say that, but I was ready.

It was none. I had I I had a Abrams I did for Amps Nationals a few years ago, and that had a little bit of resin on it, but it was just some some of the sign armor panels. It wasn't major conversion, it was more just kind of add-on resin parts, and so I'd I'd done that, and then the other thing which you know as we get to with the finishing side of it, I'd always been scared of the paintbrush, and so I actually spent all of the year before doing figures because I wanted to learn how to work well with the paintbrush and learn how to paint with a paintbrush, and so I spent that whole year doing figures, and what I predominantly entered in nationals in 25 was figure stuff. So I'd done some work on that end from the finishing side with getting getting familiar with uh a paintbrush rather than just an airbrush. But from the standpoint of resin conversion, this was the first big project I've ever done.

You said that you decided after nationals last year that this was the year to do this Magnum opus build that you did it take you all year for the one model, or did you have other builds in in between or in there as well in that year?

It was just that one all year. That's all I did the entire year.

And you didn't have any problem of burn well, maybe you did you burn out at any point? Did you walk away for any significant period of time or no?

Not really. I mean the you know, life happens. I've like career-wise busy, I've got two kids, and so you know, it has its ups and downs. And times you get to the bench, and so there were times I I got to work more than other times, and so there may be a few weeks or months here and there I didn't get as much work done, but for the most part it was just pretty steady all year. I didn't hit a lot of burnout because to Mike's point I'd never done any big resin conversions, and so it was all new, so there was a lot of troubleshooting that I wasn't used to, and so I went through the build process and had to put a lot of thought into that and ran into problems I hadn't had to or hadn't run into before and had to work through those, and so that kind of kept me pretty engaged. And then once the build was done and I I was moving on to the finishing side, then it was the excitement of the fact that hey, this is this is actually gonna happen, I can actually do this and finish it. And so I had that motivation. So, you know, I typically do have interest at wax and weighing and builds, and and this time I really didn't. It's the first time I've had that, and I think some of it's probably the Magnum Opus, the big thing I wanted to do, and then some of it was just new troubleshooting and problems that I hadn't faced before that I had to work through.

You talk about all the resin that's in this thing. I assume it weighs a decent amount. Did you have to do any reinforcing of the landing gear, or did you swap it out for metal gear, or what did you do on the landing gear to make sure that this thing doesn't collapse at some point?

Yeah, I did I did not. So it's the kit gear on there with the resin wheels, but obviously that doesn't provide a lot of structural integrity. And I I think the nice thing about the F-16 is that main strut is so well braced that it can hold a fair bit of weight. I if anything, I was more worried about the nose section, but even that held pretty well. I I fortunately didn't have issues in that regard.

Let's talk a little bit about since you had not done anything like this before to this kind of uh scale as far as part conversion

Resin Fit Fights And Build Strategy

and multimedia integrations and things like that. What ended up being your go-to approach once you started figuring out how this was gonna go together and and gave you the results you wanted?

Yeah, I mean, through working through the build process, it was uh I've never used as much super glue as I did, and it was the first time I've used a lot of that black super glue, which was super helpful in seeing where it was going and sanding it and finishing it out and being able to see I was getting a smooth finish with the sanding and then going back to scribing. So working through that aspect of the build was new and helpful and then a lot of the finishing was similar to what I've done on past things in terms of I always use Camilla paints because I can trust them, I know how they perform and I don't have issues with them out of the airbrush and so felt pretty comfortable working with those and weathering wise I used a mix of oils and clay washes and things and had used those on builds before and then for a lot of the detail stuff I used a lot of Citadel color because I'd used that for my figure painting stuff the year before and so felt pretty comfortable with using those and could work those colors pretty well to get what I wanted out of them.

The whose decals did you use and did you you you wanted to do a specific unit, obviously. Was there a sheet already for that unit, or do did you have to cobble it together from several sets, or how did that work?

Yeah, I used the super scale, was the markings for the Terre Hot Air National Guard. And so they had the markings for the tail and the other unit specific stuff on the aircraft, and then the stencils for that, the colors on the superscale were a little off on the of the grays and things for the stars and bars and the stencil work, and so I used after I started to put them down and I was like, well, these are kind of white and not really what they should be. I used the afterburner stencil set, afterburner decal stencil set, uh, for most of the stencils and the markings that weren't unit specific. And those worked out pretty well. I I did not really use any of the Tommy decals, it was it was all the aftermarket decals.

Sure. That was probably why I tend to find the Tomia ones a little thick on their armor kits anyway. I I've I don't know if I ever used Tommy decals on any of my builds.

Yeah, yeah, that's uh that was one of my worries with it. I did use the one new thing that I had I'd used on some armor, but I hadn't used on aircraft, and it worked out. Pretty well was the VMS clear coats. And so the clear coats were the VMS. And I was pretty happy with how that finished out. I kind of did a mixture of the satin and the flat to get the finish I wanted on that. That was one newer thing paint-wise I did that worked out well, fortunately.

Whose black super glue did you use?

I used the Bob Smith industry.

Okay. I didn't know whether because everybody seems to make uh a black super glue these days, and I I didn't know what which one you'd use.

Yeah, a lot of the a lot of the black super glue, and then a lot of the real thin super glue that runs on almost like the to me a cement it's so thin.

Yeah, I use a lot of that myself. I'm trying to think what the uh well it's one of the Bob Smiths, I think. Or maybe the Zap Super Thin. I can't remember, but that certainly comes in handy.

Yeah, I think mine's like just the one from Hobby Lobby, or I just have a needle like cut the eye off so it's forked at the top, and you can just control it real well with that.

You didn't do a traditional brag book. Well, it's what they call them in the US. Apparently, they called them something different in Australia. But you know, the book that goes next to the model that you know shows the construction phase and all. You had a QR code, right?

Yeah.

Where did you get that idea and how'd you go about doing that?

Yeah, I'm not sure where I got it from. I probably heard it from somewhere. Or, you know, you go to any restaurant these days and you scan a QR code to get the menu, and so it may have been something from that or something I heard, or a a mixture thereof that that put the idea together. But I I felt like I needed pictures to kind of show what I had to do through the build process, and I couldn't just describe it. And so I put together a PowerPoint and started doing some research online about how you do QR codes and link them, and so created a PowerPoint, converted it to a PDF, and then you can just upload them to Google Drive, and then Google Drive can give you specific URLs for the files that you want to share on your Google Drive, and then you can get a free QR code creator to create a QR code specific for that URL that you put in then for the Google Drive document. And so I just plugged plugged that all in and then printed the QR code and stuck it on the base I had created for the model, and it worked out pretty well. I I thought I was happy with how that came out.

Yeah, I thought that was a great idea. I noticed uh several models at Fort Wayne had had done that as well. How long did it take you to build the PowerPoint, convert it, upload it, and do all that stuff? How much time did you put into that?

Yeah, not long. That was kind of a last minute thing, I think, the Friday or Saturday night before uh nationals of getting that put together and so it it was pretty quick. It wasn't too hard to do. I'd had some photos on my phone and threw those together, and it may not have been as detailed as some can be, but it it worked out for what I needed.

Well, it's a great idea. I I predict that we'll we will see much more of that in the future.

Yeah, going uh going back to the the timeline of things, uh, this this build went all the way up until like right before I left for Nationals. I I had it was Saturday night. I was I had the canopy left to put on, and I used an aftermarket canopy frame, and then I had the the horizontal stabilizers on the the the tail area to put on, and everything else was done. It was just like those those two things left to go in addition to getting the kind of custom foam case I was gonna have to transport it up to Indiana, and then I go to put the canopy on with the aftermarket canopy frame that's trying to plug into what is a hybrid of the plastic and resin area that the canopy inserts into, and I realized that didn't fit. And so that was that was a last minute, uh oh, this is a big problem. And you know, you I'm like working with it and trying to get it lined up to make sure it's even and straight. And after like 15-20 minutes, it like somehow gets into the position it needs to, and then I'm like, how am I gonna get it back in that once I have glue in place? And I think it was, you know, sometimes you just get lucky and things line up, and so I took it out and got glue situated, and then somehow got it back into that position, and then just didn't touch it, and lots of thin super glue to get it to hold there. And then the other thing that happened was the left horizontal stabilizer, if you're familiar with the Tumiya kit, that those plug in and they have little pegs on them that insert into little like grommets within the fuselage, and I put the one in on the left side and the one in on the right side, and then I'm turning them to get them like situated so they're even and angled slightly like I want them. And the one on the left, the peg breaks off at the insertion point, so the peg's still in the fuselage and then the other parts in my hand. And I was like, oh, that's a problem. And so I'm I'm trying to get super glue and trying to get it so it lines up perfect because I can't I can't move it once it's super glued in place. And so I get it glued and I'm like, ah, perfect. All right, don't touch it, don't mess it up. And then I put it down into the foam as I'm cutting the foam to create the transport case for it, and it falls off in the foam. I was like, oh boy.

And so Yeah, now you gotta you gotta re-glue something you've just glued once, and so now it's gonna be even harder to glue back.

Yeah, so yeah, and and you know, uh if it if it didn't work once, it's not gonna work again. So it was I gotta get the drill out, so now I'm drilling into the side of the finished fuselage where the grommet is, and I'm drilling it, drilling into the side of the horizontal stabilizer so I can put a pin in there to get it. And nonetheless, it worked out, but I was like, this is stuff I was not planning for, you know, 72 hours before I leave.

I was gonna say nothing like waiting to the last minute.

Yeah. Um well hang on, let's let's back up a minute to the the the canopy stuff. Okay. I don't know a lot about modern jets, but I do know like the F-16. The canopy is I won't say it's unique, but it's it's uh certainly unlike uh canopies on on other modern fighters. So like the left and right edges of the fuselage either side of the cockpit. So as the canopy rises from that, it actually gets wider than the fuselage on the F-16. Is that right?

Yeah, the canopy is a bubble.

Yeah.

Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, absolutely. It bubbles out relative to it, correct. Yeah.

So I you know, there's there's uh molding issues with the the clear plastic parts sometimes with that. And I can imagine that any kind of aftermarket changes from the kit design are gonna be fraught with fit issues. So when you're in the throes of that, tell us a little bit about that. I mean, uh clearly it all worked out in the end, but I'm sure that's a little because the stakes are so much higher with the clear parts.

Yeah, and

Finishing Choices And Brush Skills

they the way the Tamiya engineering is on it, so there's the clear part that includes the glass of the canopy and the frame part of it, and then it has separate pieces, plastic pieces that you put on the inside of the canopy, on the clear part that's the frame portion. And so the resin, it was the Mini Craft Collection canopy frame, the the resin piece that they make just replaces those plastic parts in there. And then they have the tabs that go back and down that you ideally put into the holes within the the fuselage that holds the canopy in place. The problem I ran into, which I ran into in a lot of times, when you put all the internal components in, so like I put the whole engine bay in and then aftermarket full engine, and then that whole central area with the avionic space is. When all that goes in, all your your like connectors for all the pieces go away. So like the part that the tail goes into, you lose that space for the tail to go into because you now have the engine bay there, and the same goes with the fuselage parts that connect in with the avionic space open, then all the the the kind of male-female connector pieces go away, and so you're working with a lot of flush edges, and so that was a unique problem to work through with everything and getting it to line up as well when when you lose those guides. It's kind of like a short run kit would be for like a sword kit on if you built a sword kit, I both sword kit for the 2019 Nationals in Chattanooga, and uh and that was one where I was like, Oh, this has has no no guide marks for where you put put things.

Yeah, no positive location whatsoever. You said the it was all aftermarket, and I think you said all resin. So there were no 3D printed parts?

Uh there were a few. So the the engine that I got, there was it's called Raymoko. It's I think a guy that's like kind of a garage company, and he's up in Canada, and he does 3D printed engines for more modern jets primarily. I I think I I'd have to look more at his website, but he had the F-16 engine, and he even did the engine Dolly too, if you wanted to put the engine out on that. And so that was 3D printed, and I put that in there. Um, that was another unique problem because I used the I used the Black Dog engine set, which had the engine bay uh resin, and then they had the engine for the Pratt and Whitney, but I needed the GE engine, so that's where the Remoco engine came in because it was the GE, but then it didn't fit into the engine bay for the that Black Dog made, and so I had to sand that out in order to be able to fit the engine in from that to kind of modify that resin part within the fuselage. Uh but the but that engine was 3D printed, and then the Mini Craft collection, the canopy frame and the injection seat I used were 3D printed. Um but outside of that, the Black Dog was all resin for the the nose avionics, the avionics within the fuselage, and then on the underside around the intake. And then the Edward I use the Edward uh brass and radar. And you know, I don't know if that's 3D printed or if that's resin, because I I don't know with brass and where that change occurred and if that was one of their 3D printed versions or the Edward or the resin.

Because they're swamped, they they changed over at some point.

Yeah. And then the air brakes too, they were the air brakes were Edward as well. The Edward Brass and air brakes, and I I those may have been no, those those were resin. Those weren't 3D printed, those were resin.

Now was there any photo etch in the build?

Yeah, some of the so the the some of the Edward stuff, so the air brakes and the radar had photo etch in it. Uh and then the cockpit I used to quintess set, it wasn't, so it wasn't photoetch, it was just 3D printed stuff. But I did a little painting on that too, though, because their colors don't always line up with what you need. And so I painted some of that as well. But you know, you talk about negative modeling and those the air brakes in particular, I think of, then I did a lot of I built a lot of things on that kit like three times because I'd get them built and then I'd be working somewhere else and then I would break it, and so then I'd go back and redo it. And so there were there were certain parts that that got built numerous times.

So how many times during the build did you consider binning it?

Just the primary fitting, like just the origin like the main fuselage assembly. Because once I was past that, you know, like I felt like that was the biggest hurdle I had to get past. And once I was past, I felt like I could get it done. But it was really close to the garbage can.

At least it was at the front end.

Yeah.

Yeah. My garbage can't close to the bench, too.

Now you talked about transporting this thing. You I take it you used some sort of foam to create a container protector for the model? Or what how how did you go about making making it so that you could transport it reasonably safely?

Yeah, I just there was only one way you could essentially pick it up. So I could pick it up by holding the sides back by kind of between the wings and the tail section, and then like a finger under the the nose section just in front of the intake. And you couldn't like hold it, pinch it there because of all the panels that were opened and the doors for the panels that were opened in the area, but you could kind of support it there. And so those were the two touch points you could utilize, and so I I just I got I use that like pillow foam, the stuff that's like what Night Shift uses for their bases, but it's softer. You can get it at most craft stores. Um and and I just used that and I I essentially cut out the center section that the gears would be able to hang into and then came back and just cut strips for bracing, and then there were only a couple points on the sides and that I could kind of secure it front to back and left to right so it didn't slide, and and I just you know hot glue and scissors and foam and made this Frankenstein foam holder for it. And I was I was nervous on the ride up, uh, but once we got there, I was like that was the first thing I checked and it made it, no issues, and and I was extremely relieved, but there was some lost sleep uh at least the night before, thinking about the car ride and how it was gonna

QR Code Build Log And Deadline Drama

get there. But not to get too tangential, but I I was talking to a guy at Matt this year, Pat was his name, I forget his last name. He was from Texas, he had like 20-some entries, super nice guy, and I was talking to him and I was like, Well, how did you get that many builds here from Texas? And he flew. And he's like, Oh, I carry some on and I check them. I was like, You check your models? He's like, Yeah, what I do is I package them up, put them into the tote, and then hold the tote up and drop it. And then I look to make sure nothing broke, and if it didn't, I know I'm good to go. And I was like, Man, how much nerve did it take the first time you did that to be able to do that with your your models and trust yourself. But he's like, Yeah, and he and he said they all got there, none of them broke.

There's a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon I I can think of about along those veins, about how they know how to rate a bridge, the signs on a bridge say rated to whatever ton is. They're like, oh, you drive a truck over it, you keep making the truck bigger until the bridge falls down, then you rebuild it.

Yeah, we have our friend Paul Gloucester comes in from Australia and he'll bring six or seven or eight models halfway around the world. And I don't check them. No, he does not. He keeps them in his carry-on, but I'm still amazed that he's able to transport them that kind of distance without breakage, and he doesn't seem to have much of any.

I I've flown once and it was just with figures. I I with my figure painting year being last year, and I was like, well, I need to go to MMSI if I'm gonna do figures, and so I went up there and flew up there, but that was a figure in a plinth base, and you can secure that and feel pretty comfortable with it. But I couldn't imagine anything other than that.

MMSI is a great show.

Yeah, we gave that one a skip last year just to personal issues. Uh what'd you think of that show?

I I had a great time. It's amazing work. Obviously, super heavy in the figures, which is what I was after, but they have a little bit of everything, aircraft armor on the tables as well. But just, I mean, world-class figure painting work, and it's it's amazing to see and something to aspire to as you see the work that they do. Um so I would highly recommend it if anybody has the chance. It was it was worth the trip for me.

Well, uh your your figure painting kind of sidebar is we've we've talked at times about working outside your primary genre just for skill advancement. So w what would you say you you mentioned the learning the brush paint, was there was there that's pretty high level. Is there is there anything specifically you think you got from from doing that kind of thing?

Yeah, I mean I got a lot in the sense of when it came to like on the F-16 build, painting all those avionic spays, because that was all brush painted. And so learning just two blends, kind of how they do highlights with things, where to put some of the accent on, you know, on different aspects of things uh helped how to do not really washes, but just the what are in the Citadel color range, some of the shades and the contrast paints and how to utilize those with the regular paints to help delineate detail and certain things that you want to stand out. And so um that that played in for sure.

So what's your kind of for brush painting, your kind of favorite recipe? You mentioned some of the Citadel effects paints, but from from raw plastic or primer, when you start putting paint on with brush, take us through that. What's going on first and what do you like to work up to?

Well, the thing I learned is the thin coats is a is a real part of success when it comes to brush painting. I was when I started out way too heavy on the paints. I probably feel like I'm still too heavy on the paints compared to what some people do with their thin coats, but just multiple thin coats to get the smooth, nice finish, and then coming along and within some of like the Warhammer painting, kind of what they call the the edge highlighting. So taking lighter colors along the edges to kind of accentuate the edges, but it's not overwhelming when you look at it, but it helps to to kind of r refine the details of what you're working on, and then from there just kind of bringing the lighter shades on upper aspects of what it is you're working on, whether it's a figure, the the the component to the face or in the sense of the F-16 build, like different things within the avionics phase, and then coming back once I get the base colors down and using shades to the shade colors to kind of adjust the I don't know, tone's the right word. I'm not as good on color three as I should be, but just to create subtle differences in what is a similar color using those shades and then also using those to not as like a wash in the sense that you just totally put it over all the color, but kind of going around things deeper that you want more shadows in to help them stand out from kind of the man mechanical side of what the F-16 was with the avionic space.

I think that's a great example of something Mike and I talk about when we talk about modeling outside your genre is you're doing something completely different, yet it has application for what you do more regularly.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there was a lot I pulled from that, and and then you know, I I I do some armor work as well, as Mike said, and so some of the weathering techniques that I use with that, and some of the way I do the wash is there, kind of carrying it over to the aircraft and just kind of creating my own own way of kind of hybridizing each of those processes to what in my mind works for an aircraft build in this instance.

It clearly does work and other people clearly think so.

Well, I'm curious. So, like for an avionics bay, are you are you are you shooting a primary color in with a more traditional skill modeling paint that's not more geared for the you mean citadel colors, which are clearly made for the gaming community or primary, that's their target audience, right? So are you working from a base coat from a more traditional paint or are you brush painting the whole thing from primer?

No, after I after I primed it, then I masked it all off and airbrushed the base color with the Tamiya paints.

Okay.

And did a little bit of a mixture to get the color I wanted with those, or a few different paints and a few different layers, and then went back to once that base color was down for what were kind of that the the white and that interior greenish color of the walls of the avionics bays, and then just picked out all the components individually with the with the paintbrush then for for the detail work. And the the the one challenge uh that I faced was that that is all like the central part of the fuselage with all the avionics phase was all one cast resin piece. So that all had to be painted within those phase. It wasn't stuff I painted and then put in. And so kind of learning to work the brush through that, and that's where some of the figure painting stuff came in and was beneficial with just the the brush manipulation and work there. And then also learning uh, and I I probably should have pointed out earlier when we were talking about kind of painting technique, but kind of learning when you put paints down and they're super thin, you have some time to work with them briefly so that if you get paint somewhere you don't want it, you can quickly wet your brush and go in and kind of absorb up. And if it's thin enough, you don't see that paint after you kind of absorb it out with a wet. brush and so in working in those tight spaces invariably sometimes the brush hits a spot you don't want to but you could quickly correct that almost just like erasing it by cleaning your brush or having a separate brush that was soaked in water to go in and quickly kind of clear clean out the paint where you didn't want it to and so that avoided having to do a lot of repaint and areas you you you got paint you didn't want it.

Is is most of your detail brush painting with the Citadel line?

Largely a l it was for the most part. Some of it was there was a little bit of Alejo uh model color in there but I I use a lot of the Citadel colors because you know they're they're weird names and it's hard to know but you can see the color you want and you can adapt it over. And so a lot of the colors are the same. It's just named really bizarrely.

So for folks not in the know Citadel color is Citadel I I guess they're they're the the maker of the whole Warhammer 40k and there's another game on Warhammer different epic or something like that where it's even it's smaller scale but it's larger battles. So these these figures are all or these paints are all kind of geared for to go with what they're doing as far as these smaller scale gaming figures go. How did in in a market like Knoxville I guess I would consider that a I don't know a medium to medium large community. Where are you going to get those? Does your I don't I don't know the hobby shop scene in Knoxville right now. When I was in college there there was a shop out on the highway out going to Oak Ridge that's no longer there and there was a hobbytown USA out on the West End and that was pretty much it. So for Citadel Colors in in your community what are you what are you doing? Are you are you mail ordering them? Are you can you got you got a local source there for those?

Now we've got a pretty good hobby shop scene for I guess relatively for what you see in the United States. We have a hobby town that's that's really really well stocked and they have a a lot of model kits they have a lot of different paint lines and so they they carry Tamiya they carry AK they color carry uh the the Citadel paint line and then we also have a Warhammer store and they have the paint line as well and they're all in the same shopping center on the west side of town.

Hmm yeah we've we've got a Warhammer shop here and then there's a in the mall here in in Lexington there's a I don't I don't think it's chained. I think it's a an independent gaming store and they carry they carry all that as well and a lot of the AK stuff I learned not too long ago. So I have a local source for that. But I like the the Citadel stuff I don't use a lot of it but I've I've learned to like a lot of their

Transporting Contest Models Safely

metallics and a lot of their their shaders are really interesting colors so I assume based on this award-winning model that you've had pretty good luck with them yourself.

Yeah I I I I echo your like of the metallics they're they're actually my favorite metallics to work with um in terms of their base and and layer colors and then the shades work so well to just alter that base color of the metallic and so you can get quite a bit of variation within one metallic color using the different shades. You know noln oil is kind of the classic but that's actually the one I use the least they've got some other ones one called Agrax Earth shade and one called Rykelin Flush Shade that just gives some nice kind of brownish tones to the the metals beyond like the black that noln oil does.

Well that's the null the nolen oil is the one I'm looking at right now over on my shelf. Yes it's one I use quite a bit actually well that's interesting that you got there through the through through the figure painting experience. So Dave I guess revalidated a little bit on cross genre pollination I guess you would say exactly we'll get into finishing just a just a little bit here but I I'm just curious just it made all this has made me think when you when you decide you're going to build this thing was it was this a goal of this award you've received was it a a goal of yours or are you just trying to get this Magnum opus out to a degree that satisfy satisfied you personally and you were just ready to see what happened with it? How how'd that kind of go down?

Yeah the the never in my wildest imagination would I ever thought this I mean this I mean that just humbled by the award there are there was there were great models on the table. There was a ton of stuff there that was worthy of of the award I was fortunate enough to get and you know I think sometimes it just things fall your way and you get lucky and that's really what it boiled down to for me that day because the you know very fortunate but a a lot of stuff out there that was deserving of it as well. And and so when I this was just I wanted to build it it's the project I wanted to do. I I don't build for a show in the sense of I build for the show because I want an award from it. I like building for nationals just because it's a big audience to share your work and it's fun to walk around and show people what you have and see what they have and kind of do that whole show experience. And so I really just wanted it done more for that to have it on the table to talk to people about it to share the experience that I had with it with them and and and so that was the the driving force and you know I was going there and one of my buddies I had a bet with him I was like I bet it doesn't win anything and so I I ended up I ended up buying a a a fair number of drinks after those lost bets.

I hate I missed out on that.

Yeah really you never know and it's it's super exciting and it's awesome but it was it was the last thing I I thought when I started the build I was just doing it because I I wanted to have it done and wanted to share it with people.

Well I'll tell you I mean every year the Nationals is impressive but this year particularly the all the categories but especially the aircraft categories the quality top to bottom of the entries was just flat amazing to me.

Yeah it was the whole show every year it's just inspiring to see what what people bring and put out and it's amazing work and there was a number of builds I really liked and you know one one thing that was super cool for me this year was I d I don't know if you guys are familiar with Kelly Cork or his work, but Oh yeah. Um back when I went through kind of the the dark time quote unquote kind of built as a kid and then didn't build through college and education and early adulthood and then got back into it. And but I I would always follow the aircraft resource center back when that website was kind of more mainstream and he would always post and I always love seeing his builds and I saw his fifty three on the table this year and I didn't realize it was his and and and that that was one that really stood out to me and I really liked and then when he won the award for it he was sitting by me at the awards thing and so I was really excited to get to meet him um just because he was like somebody I always looked up to sure when I wasn't building just seeing his work.

Well and that award show what a great way to do the awards I mean that was just really enjoyable. Yeah. Well I'm sure a little more enjoyable for you than maybe for me but still enjoyable for all of us.

Yeah yeah they really hit it out of the park so they did a great job with the the whole show and the award ceremony was just it was a great way to do it. Sit sit there watch watch it with everybody it it went fast i i it uh the it did PowerPoint went quicker than I thought it would have when you told me hey we're gonna go through all the categories and we had fun with the group I was with watching all that and I felt like time flew.

So exactly when Saturday morning did you find out? I mean you know they put the the little markers out after the judging for the best of did you walk in right away and see it or did somebody come tell you? How'd you find out?

Yeah I I I saw it so I went in I think I went by one of the vendors first when things opened and then then I went into the the model room and saw it and yeah I was just just kind of taken aback by it. So it was it was it was a cool feeling.

Lovely built absolutely fantastic. I mean well deserved impressive model.

Well I I really appreciate it thank you very much.

So how are you gonna top it?

Yeah I I I I I've I have no idea um I've I've started uh started the project for next year's Nats and it's it's gonna be diorama going for that so back to some armor and figures and buildings and and doing a a diorama is what I'm gonna do I think for next year.

So I can't wait to see what you do man.

Yeah mix it up a little bit so I'm looking forward to it. But Huntsville's our neck of the woods so it'll be a good show and and um I'm excited for it.

Yeah you won't have to transport the model nearly as far.

Yeah a lot closer but uh you know the the one nice thing you guys uh you get a little bit of this at least Mike but uh total tangential side note I love skyline chili and so anytime I go through the Cincinnati area or even Lexington now I always gotta grab some skyline chili so it worked out going up to Fort Wayne. Yeah won't have that this year.

No. No we'll have to find something else in Huntsville.

Well you can get well you there I'm sure in Huntsville there's a crystal somewhere.

I don't do crystal Well listen man it's been a pleasure talking to you.

Yeah it's been great talking with y'all and thank you again for having me on and letting me go through it with y'all.

Well MMCL's having a show at the end of September so if you come on up bring the F-16 up to to let people who didn't get to go to the national see it.

Yeah yeah well um I'm not sure I gotta look at the calendar and see if I'll be able to sneak up that's a show I've wanted to get to the last couple years and it's just it's not worked out schedule wise but maybe this year.

Well I hope you can make it that that's kind of on the gotta think about it distance for a day trip from Knoxville. That's about three and a half hours probably on a good day. Yeah but we'd love to have you man yeah yeah I appreciate it it'd be fun seeing y'all and hanging out yes we have a great time all right well folks we'll get some stuff up on in the show notes and on the dojo to show Phil Mike's model because we've been talking about a lot of stuff that you folks can't see. But Michael thanks again it was impressive to see the model and it was just such a pleasure to to to see you see win that one because it's uh man when you see a a jet like that it's all can open or open and you just know there's a lot of work because that's just the way it is and to be honest I went back in there to to see it a second time. I can't remember when it was but I was over there and I actually went to the 30 second scale category looking for it because I just had it in my head this thing was bigger than it was because it was it was just so well detailed. So well detailed 30 second yeah I just had in my mind it was 30 second scale so you got me there so you fooled me. I appreciate it. Oh you're welcome well listen man we'll catch up again soon and it's been a pleasure having you on and congratulations on the on the big prize and can't wait to see what you do next man. Yep looking forward to that diorama yeah thank you all again oh you're welcome sound like a lot of work man it it it did but you you gotta give the guy credit for pushing through yeah it sounded like he could have gone south there a time or two and uh to to get the results he got he certainly persevered. He did and they they are beautiful and he he mentioned maybe a diorama coming up for his next kind of big project so be curious what he's gonna pump out for that one. So good to hear from him and I'd like to get back down to their show sometime it's right around Memorial Day weekend in May we'll see it's it's usually a pretty good show.

And I'm sure we'll see him at Eagle Quest I would hope so plastic model mojo is brought to you by Squadron. Head on over to squadron.com for the latest and accessories all at a great price and with a great surface check out their wide selection of kits and supplies including a growing

Interview Wrap And What’s Next

range of squadrons outline of paints and 3D fit fits and accessories mark your calendar for April 2nd through April 4th 2027 and joint squadron and scale model at the new model five quest 2027 squadron adding to the stack since 1968 we're in the nitty gritty now we are there's activity happening on our benches bench top halftime report folks Dave what's going on is is the Hellcat almost done the Hellcat is actually almost done and some additional work was done to the point where I just need to stick on some all the bits and bobs and that thing's and well and remove stick them on already man I will and remove the freaking paint mask or the canopy mask.

That's the thing that always man you sweat when you do that. But it's close real close but the majority of my time on the bench has been taken up with well the same

Benchtop Updates And Arma Hawk 81A

thing that your bench has been taken up with we were we were gifted the pre-production Hawk 81A's from Arma very kindly and there was no way that I was going to let something like that be gifted and not immediately tear into it because among other things these folks wanted our feedback. You and I have both been building we're about at the same place we've been posting our progress and I've got to say I've been super impressed with this kit so far. The engineering is fantastic the thought that went into it the level of detail in 70 second scale you do not often see model kits that have a ton of decals for the cockpit interior you know you usually just get if you're lucky maybe you get an instrument panel and maybe a side panel but these guys really have done the research and are were dedicated to giving you decals for the placards that actually existed in the cockpit to really give you even just out of the box a really nice interior and so far I am very very impressed. Where are you at? I am between step let's see I am between well step seven eight nine and ten Scott King recommended to me that I do step 10 before step nine and I think he was correct so I went ahead and did that and so I'm about I'm very close to closing up the fuselage. Ah okay I I'm a little bit ahead of you I think you're you are you're just about to put the decals into the cock a cockpit interior. I will tell you I could not have been more impressed with the quality of those decals. The the instrument panel decal went down better and was more spot on to the molded relief than any instrument panel decal I've ever encountered well good I'll have that to look forward to yes well and I gave you a little advice as to how I did it so you did you did so what's your bench top look like how's that KV coming it's not it's uh got a little burnout on that one man. Okay well you'll get back to it.

I did a bunch of work and pushed that thing and it's all primed and I'm painted the road wheels haven't touched it thinking about having Kevin make me a mask for the turret numbers which means I can't do any more painting on the turret till I do that and he would he would get it done and back to me. I may go ahead and spray the the hull the 4BO but I don't know man I just we got these hawk kits and they're really nice. Oh man I I just I dove in like you not quite at the same pace I'm a little behind you. I've been trying to see how much I can get out of the detail in the cockpit.

Yes. They certainly have provided you a palette they have from which to go nuts.

So with their palette for me to go nuts on I've loaded up the wet palette with a bunch of my favorite paints and I've been it's all small. I airbrushed the the basic green which was surprisingly close to the custom to me a 4BO I'd mixed up.

Well and that's the nice thing when you consider what you know you're gonna weather it you're gonna wash it you're gonna so so as long as you're kind of close on the basic color it's just that's a starting point.

So it was close and then I got it really where I wanted it by overspraying the 4BO mixture I'd used with to me a clear yellow. Yeah it kind of it kind of brought out the gaudiness you know of that that green color gave me a nice surface to do washes and stuff on. Yep and hopefully the decals as well I've brush painted all the details I've used a pretty you know I've used to me a panel line washer to to to wash the the the framework and stuff on the inside and I've gone back with a a a damp brush and cut that all in real nice looks really good. Yep. I made sure I did a real good job with the you know the the knob tops or some of them are white some of them are black one of them's red. Yep just trying to get all that in there. It's ready for the decals now. Yeah um looking forward to adding those and then I don't know I had the wing section masked off to paint the cockpit floor. Yeah and then I was like eh I don't want those sticks and levers on that part when I'm trying to finish out the front edge the leading edge seam because I've got a little seam work to do on the leading edge on my kit.

Gotcha.

I didn't quite pinch it hard enough when I was gluing it together so I've got a gap along most of the leading edge of the wing.

I I went I went ahead and put mine on it wasn't a problem.

Well I think if I went ahead and went so far as to marry the cockpit halves and glue it to the wings that would eliminate that risk.

Exactly and that's David's thinking.

Okay. I should probably do it a different way for variety well you can't doesn't matter anyway cool kit cool little kit it's interesting that we this came out and and then you know we got these because I was really thinking about building a P40 and I was going to have to go buy one from somebody else.

So well here's something that I want to ask you. Yeah okay and you're kind of a blank slate from the standpoint that in modern times you've built exactly one 70 second scale which wasn't modern well that's what I was going to point out. That kit's not ancient it's 1990s mid to late nineties 30 years old at this point yeah right the pall that you built and so you were building a good 1990s kit when you built that kit. And now with this Hawk you are building a cutting edge state of the art model I mean the the pinnacle of the the design and molding art form yeah in injection. Do you notice a difference?

There's a ton of difference I mean well you know with the Paul there's not a lot of information. So you they can almost get a pass with that one. Right. But I suspect the the Fujimi Jake of it's probably not exactly contemporary but it's probably not a whole lot older I don't think I bet the interior on that kit is not any better than the E16.

Oh no the the the in the 90s that's they they didn't really make an effort to replicate an interior.

So yeah it's a lot different and you know I'm going the extra mile here and I don't know how much it's gonna be I'm I'm banking on the the quality of the clear parts.

Well I was going to ask you if you've looked at them because again you want to talk about something that's a generational change from a 1990s Fujimi kit to look at the clear parts that come with this model because they are gorgeous.

Yeah well the E16s were clunky with soft frames and they end up okay but you know it'd been nice to have something else. Yeah. Anyway I don't know what kind of pace this is on. I'm just this is a learning experience for me because I'm trying to take what I learned on the E16, port it over this one and you know the E16 was it went from getting a good model, a basic model. As my skills adapted to that type of model, it ended up being a yeah, I don't want to screw this up. This is actually turning out kind of cool and I'm pretty pleased with it. And I just don't want to throw this thing together and and and just for an evow. I I wanted I want a good model of a freaking flying tigers uh P40B. That's what I want.

That's my kind of motivation was you know since I didn't plan to open the cockpit up you know I could have just spray spray a green in there and go on. But to be honest with you when I saw the level of effort and detail these people have put into this kit I kind of felt bad that if I was going to just out of box it slap it together and not take the time even if it I don't know again the clear parts are of great quality and even if you close it up I'm not so sure that you're still not going to see more than you might think you would. But even if you don't I wanted to honor their effort by making the effort to show what you can do with the detail that they have provided. I mean I think it's the least I can do.

Yeah and you know I I think what helps this one out a lot there's there's an add-on part to both the right and left uselog halves to the cockpit interior that on kits prior a lot of that junk would have been molded into the molded in and you don't get the 3D effect. And it would have been really really crappy.

Yep.

This gives you some separation on on a two chunks of the major components that go on. And a lot of it is molded on but you some of the the thicker and heavier stuff more more uh more complicated things you get a separate part and it kind of goes on there ones I think's I don't I don't know what they are. One's switches and levers and throttles and things like that. The other it looks like maybe radio. I don't know. Yeah I'm not familiar to that degree with with aircraft in general much less this this one in particular but when you get it all together and you paint it it looks really nice and I'm just hoping my strategy here is is to get as much garish I guess is probably the right word in this case exaggeration in the highlights and shadows that should I choose to close the cockpit which appears to be a very quality clear part that some of the stuff will still be you can differ differentiate and and appreciate the detail it's on the on the fuselage walls through the glass I'll evaluate that when I get to that point. I may actually have the canopy retracted. I may do it. We'll see so that's that's my benchtop halftime report the KV1 okay excuse me the KV85 is stagnant at the moment I'm enjoying this little thing because uh it's letting me do some new stuff. And you know one thing worth mentioning again I've mentioned it before on the podcast I just got it's probably been two years ago at this point or more. Aircraft is kind of build paint build whereas armor's kind of build build paint yeah you know what I mean? I know exactly what you mean this one's you know I get to think about I'm gonna master mating edges on these parts before I spray this green in here and stuff like that and then I'm gonna have fun painting this up and detailing it and washing it and highlighting it and detail painting it. Then I'll close it up now I gotta worry about the seams now I'm now I'm doing construction again and at some point I'll be doing painting again. But it's a neat little kit. It's a it's a favorite plane of mine the favorite version of the plane of mine. Yep and just look look forward to keeping on trucking on it man it's a it's a good kit. You and me both anything else on that one? Nope.

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New Releases Faves And Yawns

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Visit facesbybill.com because there's always something new at Facesby Bill Mike uh you despite the fact that I have no money left after the Nationals done the hobby room reno for some reason model companies continue to release kits and detail parts and decals etc so have you looked lately and found any faves or yawns I you know if this keeps up we may have to rename this segment because I just I just felt like in the last 30 days 31 days that Scalemates has just been a dumpster fire.

Yeah so much stuff and so much of it is no I don't even know what to say. Let's start with a fave okay and and so it's a fave because I know it's gonna be popular it's not for me it's just not not what a model but T TACOM has kind of doubled down on their M113 variants. I think those are going to be immensely popular with the modern armor crowd.

Oh there's no question because I mean it's it's the MiG-21 of of armor. Everybody used it every third world country got some M113s used a bunch of them I was going to say the you you there's there is you a number of US conflicts where they were used then of course the Israelis used them then it's kind of like the T-55 if you're you're watching the news and some conflict has broken out somewhere you are not surprised to see either a T55 roll by or an M113. So the the it's almost endless the uses for it.

So they got a winner there I think uh you know there's the older Tamiya kits and they're they're they're yeah 40 years old at this point.

Exactly so technology alone is going to mean an improvement.

So those are going to be popular so we'll start seeing those on the show tables man. Yep got a fave or a yawn?

Yes I do I've got a fave A Models has announced the XF11. Yeah I saw that if if you've seen the Howard the Leonardo DiCaprio Howard Hughes movie this is the aircraft that Howard Hughes was flying later in the movie that he crashes into a house it's just a beautiful aircraft very similar looking to a P-61 but much sleeker and just was a gorgeous airplane never ended up getting into real production just because of the timing of the end of the war and all but an amazing aircraft and I already know that Dr. Geldmacher's gonna want one simply because he he has a reconnaissance aircraft fetish and these things were built among other things as recon aircraft.

Well good that's uh that one caught my eye too I didn't put them on list though. Yep so what's next? Oh man another fave okay again not for me well I don't know man I I could actually see me buying this one. Okay. Tamia has announced a Volkswagen which's essentially known in the United States as a 23 window bus. Yes which is the one with the wraparounds and it's got the eight skylights.

Yep they got two boxings of this thing just a really cool Volkswagen derivative man I think uh it was the ultimate Volkswagen bus derivative and those things go for a fortune do you are you know do you know the comedian Gabriel Iglesias? Yeah he collects these and Beatles and he's kind of a mini J Leno in that he has some warehouse garage full of these things restored man and they are just wildly popular on the secondary market. Well I hope this kit comes with the windshield masks and window masks you got a lot of man if if not kit masks can accommodate you.

You ought to look into this one but it's a new kit and I don't know after the Moose Roo Cup I was like eh in the car for a while but I didn't know a 23 window bus was going to be happening.

Yep.

What do you got next?

Well next I've got another fave our friends from Hungary SBS a quality manufacturer I will pay attention when SBS announces anything simply because the quality of their kits are so unbelievable and they're aftermarket they as you know Arma has just come out with an F4F3 which we've been wanting forever and we have yes we have this the 72nd scale community has lusted after a true F4F3 forever and they now SBS have announced three sets one for F4F3 seats one for a detailed drop in landing gear bay replacement and one for an F4F3 engine and I have zero doubt given the quality of SBS's work up to now that these are all going to be gorgeous and the F4F3 is one of those things I would love to build a number of a number of different kits of and so I can certainly see taking one of them going all out and getting those they're definitely on my list I'll be buying those you got something else my next two are going to be kind of perplexing uncertain okay from modern armies in miniature okay these are advertised in 35th scale they've they've announced a series of Stalingrad building ruins.

Okay and these things are all just huge three four five story structures just really big and I I'm not sure what media they're made in they advertise as there's some AI component to their to their their mastering yeah so I don't know if they're printed or or what but I don't know I'm just real curious because they're they're all really really big dominating kind of structures.

Well and when you think about it okay if you were to do that in a a four five story structure in a resin cast resin or plaster you start to really work with a very heavy structure whereas if these the the these things are 3D printed you might be working with a a much lighter structure maybe if they're if they're hollow.

Exactly much more manageable yeah I don't know so I'm kind of wondering if that's where they're going I don't know it's just my problem is they're all so big so you know four stories and 35th scale you're you're talking it's like 18 inches tall.

Right.

And all of them are there's like four or five of them they're they're kind of all that big yeah so I I don't know what they're doing. It I'll be curious to see them.

All right somebody out there who buys one please post on the dojo and show us what it is let us know your opinion okay yeah got another one yes this one's not exactly a fave but not a yawn either it's just interesting Flyhawk has announced an 70 second scale an SBDT a float plane version of the Dauntless that apparently must come from some anime show.

Okay.

I don't know anything about it but I do know that the Flyhawk SBD is a gorgeous kit so the base kit is gorgeous. I don't know anything about the conversion or mythical conversion because I don't think this was ever actually done in real life it's just an interesting choice and and and not only that but interesting that they think there's a market for it. Yeah I don't know man and that just talks about us not having visibility into the Japanese market. Well if it is if it's an anime thing that explains a lot right but I mean but how how popular is that outside of the island right and and does it make it worth right but does it make it worth it because this thing has enough of a following even in the home market to make it worth it. Uh apparently somebody thought so yeah well I got one more yeah dude I got one more too this falls in the category of I really wish somebody else would have made it yeah I know that feeling yeah how many times have you looked at a kid's announcement and gone yay and then saw the manufacturer and went oh hell oh crap yeah so it's from FC Model Trends which I ordered some things to poke around and see what they were doing years ago.

It was kind of it's kind of a mixed bag honestly it is a Zis42 conversion for a Zis5 ZIS 6 truck which is it's it basically turns it into a half track. Gotcha now there's a Eastern Express injection molded version of this say no more say no more but you know it it could be better than this it could be I I don't know it's got some really clunky vinyl tracks so so this one's honestly I'd had a a fleeting thought once that this would not be that hard of a CAD project right to print yourself but I don't know I'll I'm gonna keep an eye on this one because this one interests me but I'm not gonna just throw my money down on the table and and order one. That's not happening. I hear you they've got a lot of dubious stuff in my opinion and there's there's all over the place. They're one of those 3D print companies who's putting out stuff just shotgun man just right every scale every subject all over the place how good can it be I don't know right so we'll see that's my last one and it's a it's a it's a wait and see well my last one is actually a fave OKB Grigorov which is out of I think Bulgaria we determined I think so they have announced in 72nd scale an SAN3 which is a naval anti-aircraft missile that was used on many Soviet ships and as far as I know may still be used on Russian ships.

I have a thing for all the Soviet anti-aircraft missiles and so anything that helps fill out the potential collection is okay with me. And I do know having seen some I think I've got one or two OKB Grigorov kits they're actually good kits so I have a reasonable confidence that this would be a good kit.

So yeah that's that's a that's a one I'll keep an eye on well sounds like we turned that into a a lot of stuff yes we did mixed bag man yeah uh so some stuff to keep our eye on some stuff we like yep yeah that Howard Hughes XF11 XF11 I guess failed contract military reconnaissance plane is actually what it was I think yes interesting looking bird man oh it is it's gorgeous looking plastic model mojo is brought to you by Model Paint Solutions your source for harder and steambeck airbrushes David Union power tools and laboratory grade mixing measuring and storage tools for use with all your model paints be they acrylic enamels or lacquered check them out at www.modelpaint solutions.com

Modeling Fluid Verdicts

we're here almost at the end of the episode and I'm almost at the end of my modeling fluid and I gotta say Mr.

Gilman does not disappoint I don't know what the ABV is obviously but it doesn't doesn't come across as particularly you're not slurring your words I'm not slurring my word it's got a little bit of a heavier malt content which some of the dark some darker beers do which in some cases like when you get into a Scottish ale I don't like but this is quite nice. Let's put it this way it got me through the episode no problem at all.

Don away to go well the Bon Brecker Hefeweisen whiskey is is good I'll be honest it's a little clove heavy for me. Gotcha now tonight's not the first time I've had this I've been I had some not too long after we got home from the national convention even then I at the my first impression was it was a little clove heavy it's like man it's almost like a clove cigarette you need to break out the patchouli oil nah well clove oil is pretty intense not quite patchouli. Patchouli stinks clove smells good in my opinion I agree this this is you know it says lightly lightly infused but a little clove goes a long way folks it's good where I end up liking I'm drinking it sipping it tonight on on on the rocks that's where I started but between when I first had it and now I've also experimented with a little bit this in ginger ale I can believe that clove and ginger ale just enough to cut the clove back a little bit best uh whiskey ginger I've I've ever had made with this stuff so I don't know if that was their intent for it to be a bar mix kind of blend but uh for me it's a bit much it's a bit much on the clove but it's it's good I can drink it that said if you want to cut it back and and make a essentially a highball with ginger ale it's a good option that came out really good so it's a plus chip I I can I I as I've done tonight I can I can sip it on the rocks it's it's it's not terrible it's just the the clove is a little much for me. That's a personal taste if you if you love clove you might love this stuff. Gotcha. But I appreciate it it was a it was a unique experience and yeah I'd do it again I'd I'd take another another bottle of that anything else on the modeling fluid Dave? No, sir.

We now truly are at the end of the episode do you have a shout out?

Well I'm gonna shout out uh

Support Shoutouts And Closing

the normal shout out the folks who have chosen to contribute to plastic modeled mojo through their generosity we got a couple of new folks in the last well one of them's pretty new the other one is not so much but I don't think we mentioned names in a while but uh Ryan LaRoe and Chaz Watson have both chosen to contribute to Plastic Model Mojo through either Patreon or or buy me a coffee or something like that. If you'd like to be like Ryan and Chaz there's several avenues you can use to contribute to Plastic Model Mojo. And all those can be found in the show notes of each and every episode or on the support the show link at Plasticmodelmojo.com and whether it's a one time PayPal or a buy me a coffee or or whatever or a recurring contribution through through Patreon or self-managing PayPal all those links are there and folks we really appreciate the help we get along the way it goes a long way to defer the cost produce this podcast and helps us keep bringing the content to you and uh we thank you immensely for that so thank you to those folks who have chosen to do that.

Well I want to second that thank you shout out in addition I want to kind of pre-shout out and pre-thank all the people who we've contacted who've agreed to be guests on upcoming episodes. The we've got a between suggestions from listeners between people that we encountered at the nationals and people that have we're in contact with one way or another we got a lot of really good episodes coming up so hang with us folks I think you really are going to enjoy these well Dave we need to wrap this up man I know man we're in danger of going long well folks thanks for joining us for episode 169 and come out to the MMCL show at the end of the month yes you'll hear from us a couple times before then Dave as we always say so many kids so little time man and let's get these B 40s done you got it brother