The Golden Age Of Modeling And 44 Pounds Of Cheese: Episode 160

HeritageCon Countdown And Travel Plans

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

160 Kentucky Dave. 160 and less than a week to heritage card. Oh man. Well, I'm sure that was gonna come in and out of this conversation tonight, but uh really looking forward to it. I got a text message from Steve Rui, who's a who's a Delta pilot who gave us the long or the extended forecast. Yeah. And I'm sure he's looking at better stuff than we're looking at, given his uh advocation, so or his vocation.

Yeah.

I get those confused. That's okay. When your hobby is like your job, it's easy to do. It is. But anyway, he said it's uh gonna be smooth sailing, so that's good. Smooth sailing for us is better than well, our bar for smooth sailing may not be as uh high as theirs.

Yeah, yeah.

Well coming from Minnesota trying to crawl out of two feet of snow.

So yeah, exactly. So it doesn't look like they're gonna have that problem. And so and then Jim Bates has got his flights all lined up. So what's not to like? I'm I'm enthused, I'm fired up.

Other than there's no teleport machine like in Star Trek, just to take us to Detroit like in a blink of an eye. Nothing not much, but uh we're gonna have to enjoy the enjoy that five and change drive up there.

And uh and and let's face it, you know what? You and I always have a great time on those drives. We end up we end up getting a lot done, we end up talking, making plans, outlining stuff for the episodes we want to do in the future, and it always works out. Well, if that wasn't it, man, what's up in your model sphere? Well, that is my model sphere right now.

Uh it is single tracking.

That's right. That's right. Well, plus I'm getting packages in every day. Uh young Evan is shipping things to my house for us to carry up to him, and it just I and I don't know about you, but I started packing for that trip probably four or five days ago. I got a big container, and then I've got the cooler, I got the beer, I got the hot sauce, I got it, I just have all that stuff. Cheese. And the well, the cheese I'm gonna go get probably probably Wednesday or Thursday.

Yeah, we're rolling with some contraband.

Exactly. Exactly Air America. I checked the rules, dude. I can take 44 pounds of cheese into Canada duty free.

You'll be duty free after consuming 40 pounds of cheese.

I knew that's where you were going. But yeah, I know my model sphere is all consuming with HeritageCon. I did finally get registered. Um that's good.

You don't have to wait in a car.

Yeah, it would have been bad to be sitting out there. I'm sorry, you can't come in.

Let's mention that. If you don't register for HeritageCon via the electronic means, there's none day of. Right. I don't mean register your models, I mean get in the museum. You may or may not get a ticket in the museum day of. So, folks, if you haven't done it yet, you've got a few days and you really need to get on it because I'll if you're local, it'd be one thing. It'd be bad enough. But if if you if you had uh a plurality of hours in the car to get there and found out that you gotta turn around and go home, yeah, that'd dad That'd be bad. That'd be bad.

So what's up in your model sphere, Mike?

We were like right before St. Patrick's Day last episode. And yeah. I had a really bad dad joke, but I just I you know the the the the Louisville St. Patty's Day parade was marred by a tragic incident and it's not gonna go there, but that was bad.

It was. In fact, my wife and I were actually in attendance at the parade, and that it anytime everybody gets together for something like that, and you know, tragedy occurs and somebody loses their life, it just it's it's sad on what otherwise should be a very happy occasion.

So we'll save that till next St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, there you go. Other than that, you know, it's it's modeling, but it's not bench top halftime report. This is this BT5 project that uh you mentioned Young Evan.

Yes.

Uh has got me hot for, and we're gonna do some kind of buddy build. Uh we can talk about it at HeritageCon.

Yep.

I hope.

Yep. Maybe even record it. We'll see.

Yeah, we'll see. You know, I was grousing about last time how I'd ordered the wrong BT five kit. Right. Or BT seven kit to cabbage the turret out of, which wasn't my intent. I I I should have just I ordered the kit I wanted to build of the BT series first. And I should have thought, oh, I should have bought the one that had the turret I could take out of. But I didn't. And then our friend Steve Reed down in the low country there of South Carolina and Georgia, where is he? He's near Savannah. He's near the power plant.

Okay.

Down near Savannah. He chimed in and said, Hey, I might have one if you want it. And he dug around and found one. And, you know, I I don't know if I'll take him up on that or not, because I've got all the other stinking T26 kits from Hobby Boss in my stash. I mean, the turret's right in there behind that door, I can see from this microphone. Uh is the part I need. So crisis averted, a lot of worrying about nothing. So that's that's the BT5. So we'll see where that goes. So need to not do that. Worry about stuff like that.

Are you registered for HeritageCon?

Uh I am registered for HeritageCon. I need to print out my stinking tickets and stuff. Yeah. So do you.

Yep.

In replicate.

Yep.

On that same theme, Kit Mask. Unfortunately, they're not going to be there, which is a little sad for us. A lot sad for us, actually. But Janelle's been working overtime to cover us for HeritageCon with some promotional stuff. Yeah. And I hope it works out. It's going to be tight.

Well, I hope so too. And I listen, uh, you and I have repeatedly said we love promoting manufacturers and sellers, retailers, et cetera, who really do a good job and are very customer forward. And there's nobody in the business that I can think of that is more customer friendly and accommodating than Kevin and Janelle.

So she sent me an email, I guess they're on Pacific time, and I got it like at 2 a.m. the other night. So I found it in the morning and I responded immediately. And then we had one more iteration on what she was working on, and I think we took care of it yesterday, last night. So hopefully she had time, or maybe I had to wait till Monday morning because the print shop wasn't open. But maybe that print shop's in the Hamilton. I don't know, but uh she's cutting it close. But hopefully it works out. I'll be more than pleased if that material's waiting on us when we get there. You and me both. And finally, we had some things, just the scheduling, we had some scheduling problems last last week.

Yeah.

Um, and hopefully, I'm not gonna get into who it was, but we'll we'll get that taken care of. But Ed Bareth was kind of on my mind about being coupled with what we had to reschedule. Ed's got a really interesting project we're doing kind of in collaboration with him as far as the exposure to the the greater Mojovia. And Ed, I'm gonna be in touch soon, probably after HeritageCon, and we're gonna we're gonna get that started. So I haven't forgotten about you. I'm sure you know that, but uh just some stuff happened here late last week and it just didn't work out. So we're gonna get that going. And folks, you're gonna like it, especially if you like large-scale aircraft.

Yep. It's cool.

That's my model sphere. Finally, something besides planning.

There you go.

Well, Mike, uh, since we're recording, do you have a modeling fluid? I do. I finally circled back around to the Russell's tenure, Dave. Okay. Always a good choice. It is, and uh, you know, I'll probably have a have have I'll have some during the sh the recording tonight, and I'm gonna slap some tape around that bottle, and uh it's gonna come with us to Heritage Gon along with a brand new bottle of Weller Special Reserve.

Cannot wait. Cannot wait.

We're we're in good shape, and I know you said today you picked up some beer, so what are you into tonight, though?

Well, what I'm into tonight is a McDonald's fountain coke.

Um, it's getting to be a habit on on recording night day.

Well, it's only the second time, but obviously we're going to to be going up to Detroit and then on to Hamilton. So I'm taking a break from the modeling fluids of the world so that my liver is nice and fresh when we get up to when when we get up to Hamilton.

I don't think it works that way, man.

I think that's your uh Oh well, I'll try, man.

That's your that's your Catholicism coming through, man.

There you go. But in any event, I do have a very fresh fountain coke from McDonald's, and man, I'm here to tell you there is no soft drink better than a McDonald's fountain coke.

Well, I'm gonna second that because it was uh rather balmy in Kentucky this weekend, and my son and I really busted it out in the backyard, and guess what I went and got when I was done. Yeah, I'll bet you did. I told Jack it was the nectar of the gods. Yep, it is pretty much. It got me about halfway back to where I'd been after all that work, man. But uh that's a big that was a big step. The rest needed a night's sleep, but we're there.

Listener Mail And Direct Messages

So we got listener mail, Mike?

We do have listener mail, Dave.

All right.

Let's get into it. We're gonna get right into it. Let me back up here because I I didn't print it this time, and it's never good when I don't print it.

That's okay.

We'll get you through it. First up, folks, is Giannis Romatikos, and he's a Greek who's living in the UK in London. Mm-hmm. And interesting, he's an electrical engineer by trade, and he got back into modeling around Christmas of 2024 after 30 years away from the hobby. And now he's happily surrounded by model kits and loads of tools, and says he's even though he doesn't know how to use them properly. Well, you'll get there, man.

Yeah, especially as an electrical engineer. He's not gonna have much trouble figuring all that out.

Well, he had some really nice things to say, and I forwarded it to you. And uh, you know, we don't we're not ones to get into the platitudes we receive on air, but uh we do appreciate it, Giannis. Yes. Very nice, and he wishes we'd do a little bit more on 48-scraft, and we can probably accommodate that. Yeah, maybe we'll get Mr. Wallace back. We can get him get Wallace back. Well, Dave, he loves your enthusiasm for 70 second scale, but it's too small for his clumsy hands, he says.

I maintain that the parts are the same size in a 48-scale kit as they are in a 70-second scale kit, but I sympathize and understand. Maybe we can get Chris Wallace back on, and because Chris is Chris is killing it with some 48-sc aircraft modeling lately.

Well, good on him, and he is. And uh we'll see him at HeritageCon. We will. He's our host. That's right. All right, Dave, moving on. Steve Burktold. And uh he wants to he says the next time we have Doctor Strange brush on, have him explain the solution to make mission models paint work better and resolve the adhesive issues. He hears uh mission models paint bash constantly.

Mm-hmm.

And he has these issues. Yeah. And uh I I I think the running joke is it's it's it's a chemistry set for grown-ups. Right. Is Mission Models Paint. But it can be made to work. And I think if you dig in the back catalog, the first time John was on the show, we talked about mission models paint.

I think we did. If you go to his website, Model Paint Solution.

Well, that's what he did. Yes. And he went to the website and he found the answers and now it's working great. Good. And Steve would also tell you if there's something on the website you're not quite getting or need a little bit more meat in the in the instruction, just call him.

Yeah.

He'll take your call and he'll tell you everything you need to know, and then a bunch of other stuff, and you'll be grateful you called him.

Ver just like we were mentioning with Kevin and Janelle, customer facing. He he loves talking modeling, he loves talking painting, and he has forgotten more about the art of airbrushing than I know. So yeah, absolutely. If you if you have a question, he's the most available guy out there. You just reach out, email, phone, whatever, and you'll get a response.

All right. Up next is from uh William Barry Goss. And I'm a little where'd this come from? It was an email that was a response to a discussion about decals on Beyond the Box Art Podcast.

Oh, okay.

Out of the UK. And he he goes into a lot of the stuff about homebrew decals. William, I I appreciate the information and I I've responded to him privately, and I've actually made a request of him. He's actually in Orlando, Florida, Barry Goss, Orlando, Florida. And hopefully he well, he has gotten back with me, but a little bit of a delay. He's working on something else, but if he can think about it and decides he wants to do it, he's gonna maybe do something for us. So uh Barry, at least thank you for considering it and thank you for the information. If what we requested cannot be done, that's okay. And then we'll take the information you've given us and we'll forward it on and hopefully help some people make their own decals. It was because we talked about the the hobbyist decals I'd gotten from hobbyist decals out of out of India.

India.

So there you go. Hopefully I hear back from him. I I'd really like to get him on board with what I what I've asked him to do. So we'll see.

Okay.

Next up, Dave, is uh another Dave, David Enders. And uh he just finished listening to episode 159, which was Jake McKee talking about going from AI prompts to printable figures. And he says on both large scaleplanes.com and large scale modeler.com.

Mm-hmm.

Modeler Jerome Peters has been building some 30-second scale aircraft, and he's been using this process to make figures for his uh presentations. So and actually he's not the this is not the only response we got, and we'll talk about this a little later. Yeah. Um pretty interesting. He says he talked to you in Murfreesboro. Oh David Enders. Okay. He's the guy that had the uh the IBG uh PZL 11c.

Okay, yeah, I remember.

Okay. So there you go. We'll have to check out these blogs, and if there's well, if I can find the maybe back up. David, if you can point me to the exact threads on these forums, so because I'm not familiar, we can find them and and we'll get those posted so folks can understand this a little bit more. Uh you know, there's other people doing this with varying degrees of success, and it's really interesting. We'll talk about that more in a little bit. Yes, we will. Well, my old friend Mike Ida Cavage is written in from Marietta.

Yeah.

I almost expected this. I probably did subconsciously. It was about the 72nd scale kits of the SA2 and the and the Patriot systems. Right. This theme you like, Dave, is also favorite of his.

So Yes, it is.

He has several in his stash, so they do exist. We'll run them both down for the SA2. You mentioned the Hobby Boss, which he also mentions. Right. Uh there's also a Planet Models resin kit.

Yeah.

Uh Zebrano SA2 made up mounted on a T-55 chassis that's in plastic and resin. And we also mentioned the Airfix 72 76 scale kit.

Yeah.

Uh and he says there's a few others out there, but they're not as good as the Hobby Boss.

Yeah.

So there's the SA2 and the the Patriot. And again, I I this is all 72nd scale.

Yep.

Model Collect has a PAC3.

Mm-hmm.

So that's the I don't know, these are the designations for the various generations of the system.

Yep.

Aoshima also has a PAC3.

Yep.

I'll go, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the model collect's probably better than that, unless they're the same kit. Aoshima made the Musuru car kit, and I was uh uh you know, I wasn't unimpressed, but I was I wasn't overwhelmed either. Gotcha. Uh Tropper has a a PAC2.

Yes, they do.

And a company called On Target has the missile only. Right. So I may dump these into the show notes. So thanks, Mike. Hope your show down at Atlanta last weekend went well. I bet it did. And now we got a bunch of information about SA2s and Patriot Missile Systems in one 70 second scale, Dave. Yep. Well, Dave, finally, answering my call to him specifically when I was talking about my custom decals last episode. Adam Coleman has has written us in.

Yeah.

And he had hobbyist decals make uh copies of the decals for the air fixed Moskva, the helicopter carrier kit.

Mm-hmm.

He measured the sets of millimeters and to give them some size references. Paid $35 for two sets of decals. Now these are the sheets not very big. Right. Let's see. I think he gave me some basic dimensions. Well, the overalls aren't there, but he's he used solving set on his, which is a solvent I did not use. And he thought it he thought it worked on these. Okay. So now I get now I'm curious.

If anything was going to solve set would be the thing.

Well, that AK decal adapter was supposed was supposed to be kind of on the same theme, right? As far as aggressiveness. So Solvaset made a difference for him on his his Heledeck decals.

Okay.

Um and you know, he he agreed that this uh the singulation off the plotter was not was not a great thing either. So he cut around all his bow numbers and all that after he found the hard edge. And he knows the Raj, the representative at Hobbyist Decals, is working on quality control and he'd be open to suggestions. So I'm probably gonna go ahead and send them a summary of my opinion on their decals.

Yeah.

And hopefully uh they can do some improvement and uh pay it forward just a little bit.

Right. Somebody's got to tell them before they can get better.

That's for sure. And he says finally he has a small project he's about to give them in 170 second scale. So Adam will be real curious how that one goes as well. Especially you, Dave. Yes, absolutely. All right, well, Dave, that is the email side of things. Has anything been coming in through direct message?

Oh gosh, yes. Um first of all, numerous people have reached out and said, Are you going to be at Hamilton slash amps? And the answer is yes, we're gonna be at Hamilton, and yes, we're gonna try and be at Amps, but numerous people are wanting to arrange meetups at both those locations. So I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of listeners both places.

Our amps ought to be in pretty good shape, man. I hope. Me too. We're better than we were this time last year.

Mr. Idakavitch was not the only person to hear our conversation regarding the SA2 and the Patriot. Kyle Williams reached out to also point out that Ayoshima and Trumpeter both do a version of the Patriot 70 second scale. And of course, Mike Idavich mentioned that Model Collect also does one. So there are choices if you want to do one. Again, you mentioned Mr. Coleman and and his decal experimentation. As you know, he also brings in Liang model stuff, and he had DM'd me because Liang has a bunch of new products. So if you want, go take a look at their website, just Google Liang Models, L-I-A-N-G models, and you'll find the website. And they're doing some really, really interesting stuff. So don't sleep on it. Listener Jeff Danich.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's written in before.

You know, I had mentioned all those things I bought for my hobby room, which is still a mess and not organized, but we won't talk about that. One of the things I'd mentioned was a pair of glasses with multiple replaceable lenses to kind of replace your standard optivizor.

So want them to show your model in a finished state?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Those would be the rose colored ones, right?

Yeah, that's right. Go ahead. Just stab away. You miss you finish one model in a year, and boy, all of a sudden you are Mr. Mr. Finish.

That's right.

So, but he asked about. He asked for a link and I sent him a link. We'll put a link in the show notes in case anybody else is interested. I've played with them a little bit, and I do think that they're a useful replacement. They have some advantages over your classic Optivisor, so we'll put that in the show notes in case anybody wants to see it. Speaking of products, you mentioned that Paul Budzig mentioned that once a year he goes through and just gets all new superglues. Yep. Because superglues age, and even if you've, no matter how carefully you store them and everything, as they age, they degrade. They react with the humidity in the air, among other things. And so you talked about Paul Budzig just replacing them all once a year. Christian Gurney of Bases by Bill was interested in that same concept, but he couldn't remember where Paul was getting his stuff. And it's Robart, R-O-B-A-R-T. That's another thing. We'll put a link in the show notes.

Yeah, we should have done that last time. That was my oversight.

You're not nobody's 100%. You're close, but nobody's. We try, man.

We try to be 110, man.

Yes, I know. The Podfather, our friend from Down Under, reached out because we've been talking for some time. They wanted to have us on their show for a crossover episode. So that is in the planning. So if you turn on OTB at some point in the future and you hear Mike and I, it's not an aberration. It's a well-planned crossover episode.

Still might be an aberration. It's been a long time since we've been on their show.

It is. It has been. But we're going to get to see the Pod Father this summer. So I'm looking forward to it.

We are. We are looking forward to that too, man.

Yep. Chris Mettings, ITA 3, Inside the Armor 3, also known as ITA 3. Chris does just some amazing 3D stuff. He has thrown himself into 3D and just is absolutely producing some amazing stuff. I previously mentioned the Vickers K guns that he did in 72nd scale, 3D printed that were amazing. Well, he had, we were DMing and he had sent me a picture of he's doing Japanese bombs and bomb racks in in 48 scale.

Which means you can do them on all scales.

Well, that's what I said. I said, Do you think you could possibly would they work? Would you and you know I said that was like three or four weeks ago, and then a couple of days ago I get a DM from him saying, hey, I did it, they work, and sent me a bunch of pictures.

So uh Well, even if it didn't work, I I uh you know, my engineering mind says the problem is the the the the tail box structure, right? Right, the f the fins, if you if they were made to scale in 48th and he tried to print them in 72nd, they're like vapor. I mean there's like nothing there, right? They're so thin that you you'd probably have a hard time resolving those on on most printers. But they might work, depending on what he did. But he's done a beautiful job. He's figured it out. I don't care how he did it, but now we got some small-scale Japanese bombs.

He sent me some beautiful pictures, man. I'm telling you what, this work is amazing. And finally, Martin Pieta. Yeah, I'm I I love our listeners, I just absolutely love them, but they are bad for my wallet. And this happens literally once a week. Somebody remembers something I talked about. Oh, I'd like to have this, or I'm interested in that, or whatever.

You have to watch what you say.

Exactly. And Martin DM'd me to tell me that uh that a certain vendor had a flash sale on fine molds, F-15s, and Imperial Japanese army seat belts in 72nd scale. And man, it you know, that's a that's a heat.

So what'd you get?

That's a heat. Well, I haven't done anything yet, because Hamilton, man.

You know, this those seat belts aren't gonna be in Hamilton.

I know. I'm looking I understand it, but oh my god, it's a heat-sinking missile straight at my wallet. So I and uh all joking aside, I appreciate Martin doing this. I appreciate any of you. If you all see something that I've mentioned or you know I'd be interested or whatever, particularly if it's something on sale, please DM me. I I love getting those messages.

And I don't know who was doing them before, but if you're if you know who you are and you can do the make Dave Spend Money bingo card, let's see one of those. Oh God. Is that it, Kentucky?

That's it. That's it, man.

Well, folks, that is the end of the listener mail segment, which is our absolute favorite segment of the show. Almost always. I mean, if we had a really good guest, it might not be, but usually it is. Of our core segments, definitely is. Yeah. We can say that without reservation. So if you'd like to submit email to Plastic Model Mojo, you can do that by sending us an email to Plasticmodel Mojo at gmail.com. Or you can send a direct message through Facebook's messenger system, and I'll handle email most of the time. Dave will handle the direct messages most of the time. In addition, there's a third avenue to do this. There's a feedback link, a web link in the show notes. You can send us a message that way. We get a few, we get a few that way too. It's it's getting a little getting getting a little more popular. So we appreciate that as well.

Absolutely.

Well, folks, it's a shop talk kind of episode, and uh, we got a couple things we're gonna run through. Maybe three if we can think of a third. We had a we had a long uh model show spotlight, so this episode might air to the to the lower side of the time stamp. So anyway, we mentioned Jake McKee's appearance last time, a little earlier, and the AI modeling. We had enlisted mail talk about that. We had a lot of well, I won't say a lot, but we we had a nice thread going on that on the dojo talking about this episode and what it might mean or might not mean. We thought we'd rattle on a little bit with some additional thoughts about that because it was it was a really, really interesting episode, and it was really almost well received is the right word, but it certainly seemed to be spurred fault thought provoking. There you go. Spurred some additional conversation, which which we'd love to see. So go ahead, Dave.

Well, start this off by what you did, because okay, when we interviewed Jake, it blew my mind. I mean, literally, I don't know that I've stopped thinking about the possibilities since that interview. I mean, literally nearly every day, and I've interacted with a bunch of people on what not only what it means now, but what it means 18 months from now. But then you did something that blew my mind. You you've never done anything Jake was talking about. Okay, you're a talented engineer, you you understand all this stuff, but you've never tried anything that he was talking about prior to us interviewing him.

That's not exactly true. When we got that email from the person wanting to do the the bunch of HO scale figures of rail fans looking at that big boy locomotive, remember that one?

Yeah.

I did go play with it then. Okay. But that here's here's the point though. That was not that long ago. That was months, months away, not not a year away. It was months away. Probably less than six.

And the technology wasn't there.

Was almost there, but uh meshi, the the the program that Jake was using. Yeah, one of them, he's using several, but right from the image to the to the 3D, has gone through two they're calling them, you know, levels of iteration. So two major iterations since I tried it. So when I tried, I was like, eh, okay, this I could see if I would really spend a lot of time doing this. This could be something. Uh for HO and 70 second scale, it was probably getting close to okay.

Yeah.

Because I've seen some resin 70 second scale figures that were not a lot better than what the AI AI was kicking out. But that said, uh, after the interview, I was like, okay, Jake's giving me us some more information here to work from, and let's just see what this does. So I thought up something new to do, and my modeling interests tend to skew hard toward the war on the Eastern Front between Germany and the Soviet Union and some of the third right proxies like Romanian and Hungary. So so and and taking what Jake had said, you know, because you raised the question about going from a you know a photograph, a period photograph, a real a real photograph. And he's like, Yes, but and the but was it's not gonna resolve all the details of equipment and things that are gonna have to be for a model or a purist is are gonna be right.

Right.

Because it's that's where it's gonna fall apart. So he was like his figures were civilians for one.

Yeah.

And they had period clothing, but a lot of generalities around them. And he even said, you know, he he kind of said that he had a you know, I don't care threshold. Right. As long as it's something that's looks right.

Yeah.

So I kind of like, okay, let's let's start there. And I think, okay, I've got an idea of maybe advancing Germans in the Ukraine in 41, summer 41, Operation Barbarossa, or retreating Soviet troops, kind of the same thing. Yeah. Um, maybe a tank or a truck or something, and you've got a a figure of authority leaning over the side, shouting and pointing to some peasants on the road, and they're looking up at this guy like, what the heck, right?

Right.

Uh so the the prompts were for a about a nine or ten-year-old boy, a Russian peasant in period clothes for summer of 1941. I got into what his clothing looked like a little bit. I want his like his pantcuffs rolled up like just above his ankles, and I wanted to carry in a basket of turnips like they had just picked these things. And maybe maybe that's the wrong season. I don't know. I should probably keep looking look into our beets, yes, when beets are actually harvested, because I really don't know. Because I'm a city boy by heart, I guess. But anyway, I put all this in there, and this was the kick out. The other prompt was a photorealistic image of X, and X was all the stuff I just said.

Right.

And lo and behold, it did it. And did it and it it did it well.

It breathtakingly well.

Wow, that's you that's crazy.

You you played for that with this for not that long, right?

No, this is on my lunch break at work. I did this, yeah. So I'm talking less than an hour.

And then he sends me the the images of this both the the 3D CAD type image and the photo realistic image. I was blown away. Now, Mike is very talented, and Mike understands some of this stuff that I'll never understand. I mean, being an engineer and all, but I'm not sure that a lot of that came into play in what you did.

I know I was yeah, it did not. And other than it's it's like Jake said, it's it's how these two things, the human and the AI interface, talk to each other. And that's where these things work and that's where they break.

Right.

Um, it was really interesting. Like you'll do the first bunch of prompts and it'll kick out this image, and it's like, then you're like, well, take the basket, the handle off the basket. Or and then you step a little further, or make his cuffs not rolled up as high, or cut his hair off to be like a buzz cut. You know, so it's a pretty common haircut in the summer with these peasants. You look at these photographs that see on German eBay, and like these kids have no hair, their heads are almost completely shaved. And you go, go, go, go, and you get to a point, it's like, okay, fine. Then you want to take that one to Meshi and and and make a 3D. And even that came out pretty pretty good. I was surprised.

Now I was shocked.

Let me say that I've had a honestly, I've had a couple of listeners say that, hey, I'm doing this kind of stuff, and I'll never use all my credits. If you want me to print this or do do the STL and send it to you, I'll do it. So the two or three folks who have done that, you know and you know who you are, thank you very much for that offer. I really appreciate that. Probably will take somebody up on this, but I got multiple requests or offers. Again, I really appreciate it, very generous. And just see where this goes because now this is like turning into something I might actually want to do. Because I think the diorama idea is interesting. And I went on from doing the young boy. Did I share I did his older sister? No, you did not. So I need to send you those pictures. So I'm I'm like, now I've got this like mid to older teenage girl who's post in a similar but different way. So they're they're a tandem looking up at somebody that's higher elevated than they are, who's like passing on a on a vehicle down the road. So really interesting that the way this has turned out. But the the thing though that bugged me, and it'll get better, and I wonder if Jake will chime back in through listener mail. You you you do your first bunch of prompts and then it kicks it out. And maybe he's doing it completely different because he's not an engineer.

Right.

I I'm doing the prompts at in with an engineering mindset. If it was more of a, I don't know, a graphic graphic artist mindset, the prompts may be different, but the point I'm gonna trying to get to here is you you do this first tranche of prompts and you get something that's close, and then you start iterating on it. Right. Well, at some point during the iteration, you'll phrase something in a way that it completely blows up and breaks. And it's from that point that I don't know how to recover what I've already done. Because even going back and saying back up to the last iteration, I never get the same thing back that it moved from with my last errant prompt or whatever. So it's it's it's close, but not exactly. And I think with what Jake was doing, it's yeah, it's it's working real good for him, except for that seated, the complicated one.

Right.

The complicated one is is not working. And then some of the listeners on the dojo who are pointing out one was a really good point that I completely missed was at what point did it go from the childlike, stubby fingered hands in the in the photorealistic image to these lifeless, exceedingly long-fingered hands that are on the 3D generated model from Meshi. And I was like, like, oh man, you're right. I can't live with that now. Not that I can't unsee it, right? The kid's got like he's nine years old and his fingers are are four inches long.

Or you can palm a basketball.

Yeah, you can palm a basketball at nine years old. So uh that's the kind of stuff you're gonna run into. And I don't know, because that that's that's between the image and meshi, and I don't know. I need some help there, folks.

I don't know what to do there because what blew me away about this uh about all of this, in addition to the concept when we talked to Jake, was you sitting down over a lunch hour having never really done this before. And eating my lunch at the same time. You can walk and chew gum at the same time, and to be able to produce what you produced that quickly. I think about what can be done now, but what really blows me away is 12 months from now, we'll have a a new generation of 3D printers and one or two more iterations of this software. And if it's this good now, what's it gonna be like 12 months from now? I mean, this uh I'm not talking five years or anything.

Yeah, I'm talking 12 months from now. Well, the the printer one, I don't I don't know. That's this current crop of printers. I well, I wouldn't be the first person to say it's good enough, only to be proven wrong, right? Right. I guess that's not the right way to talk about it. I think for the these consumer hobby, these hobby hobbyist consumer printers that most of these folks are using to do all this amazing stuff. Yep. If the finesse of detail, the you know, the the s the tiniest detail that this thing can resolve is is still always fighting the durability of the resin. There's just certain things that me, Mike, on Plastic Model Mojo, Mike, is never gonna adopt 3D printing for because it's just too too stinking fragile. Um the the details there, it's it's like infinitesimally small, but you look at it hard enough and you'll break it.

Yeah, but that's the resins. That's the resins today, not the resins a year from now.

I'm telling you that I know, but uh I've I've I know what you're saying, and yes, I think. It's not there yet. There's still there's still a disconnect, in my opinion, right. Between the durabilities of the resins and the detail, the this the the finesse of detail you can actually print.

Yeah.

So we've we that's digressing from the topic of the the AI to 3D print, though.

But that's it's related, but well, we're talking about where we're gonna be a year from now.

Disruption Risks And Material Limits

And we got a lot of information. Well, we got a lot of comments about other folks doing it and some direction to some other resources to do it. All that I'll say is in the positive bucket for this. Um there was a converse as well. We got a lot of stuff about the negative side of this.

There well, it depends on what you mean by well, negative side of this. I certainly think this is going to be disruptive to several types of hobbyists. Um I agree. The cottage industry figure modeler, you know, the guy who carves and casts and sculpts and all that and sculpts and and works really hard artistically to bring a figure to life and then casts it and sells it. I'm not saying they're gonna get wiped out by this, but there's gonna be some business that goes away from it.

There is, yeah.

Um I don't know.

It was Martin Hulst who who who made a comment on the dojo that was that spurred a a lot of interest in conversation, I think. Um it was and and you had a conversation offline with you mentioned Chris Maddings earlier with him about, you know, this is this is gonna kill some cottage industries, and that's probably true. Yep. To what degree, I I don't know. It's depending on what side of the coin you're on for the most part, you tend to forget about the influences coming from the other side of the coin that you can't for whatever reason you you're not you're not looking at.

Right. They're not visible to you for whatever reason.

Like for instance, the the the person who predicted the world catastrophe due to overpopulation passed away here recently. Paul Ehrlich. Paul Ehrlich. And uh he made a lot of assumptions about birth rates and a lot of and and completely discounted human ingenuity.

Right. And uh right now wasn't wasn't interested in taking in new evidence. Once he reached his conclusion, when things continued to happen that proved him wrong, then he at no point was he willing. To at least step back and go, okay, maybe maybe I need to review this whole thing with fresh eyes. And I think that's coming for this AI and 3D printing.

Thank you for bringing it back. I don't want to get into debate about whether he was right or wrong because there's plenty of that on the flipping internet already. Right. But what goes away, but what emerges, I don't know. And is it I I we just don't know.

I mean, there are probably some visionary people out there who can make some predictions that would not be obvious to you or I, but I think there's a lot of it where we just don't know. Somebody's gonna do something that you or I haven't even thought of yet. True. And I keep saying we live in the golden time of of this hobby, and I think that's true as far as all this 3D print stuff goes. Now, what's it ultimately gonna do to the hobby or people involved in various aspects of the hobby? I have no clue. But it's sure, sure as heck exciting.

And it's it's gonna come up in the faves and yons. Yep. But so much of it is on that side of the development, right? Is it's all all that all this stuff is is 3D print.

Yeah.

Divorced of AI to 3D figures or whatever. Fundamentally, for me, the medium is still not something I like working with. Right. And I I just really wonder how pervasive that is in the model sphere for for other folks.

No, that's a good question for listeners. If if you've worked with 3D printed materials, how how do how is your experience compared to working in plastic or resin or photo etch or whatever? Do you like working in it? Do you find it deficient compared to other materials? What are your thoughts? Because Mike and I are real interested in all of this.

I am, and I will fully admit that a lot of it for me is old dog and new tricks, right? Right. It's just learning something new. And and I think part of my opinion has been polluted by products that have come out in 3D print where the designer has given very little attention, if any, to the support structure, where it is, how big the contact points are, and all that. And I've gotten a few things that are they're rendered completely useless no matter how well they're printed, just because you're gonna destroy it getting it off the support structure, or the work involved getting it off the support structure is not far enough better than me building it from scratch or doing it by some other means to make me want to do it.

Yeah.

So I mean, that's all design stuff, and some of it's technology too, and advancement and and capability of these printers and things, but uh right now it's it's really it it's it's a medium. I have not I've not fallen in love with it yet. I mean, no doubt there's some amazing things, and I've got some amazing things. You know, you mentioned Mattings already twice. I've got some Churchill parts that he sent me uh that I every bit intend to use. And I'll go I'll go out as far to say he's an exception. He's he's thought about this a little bit more than most people have, maybe a lot more.

Yes.

And I think the stuff he's doing is not gonna be so not going to give me as much heartburn as some of this other crap that's out there for sure.

You know, this kind of blends into our next topic because talking about where we get inspiration for modeling, yeah. And you talked about doing this figure and having it come out and then doing another one, and the diorama started to do itself and do it started to occur to you in the in your mind. Yes. So I'm I'm not sure that not in addition to all the technical stuff this AI 3D print combination's gonna give us, I'm not so sure that it's not also gonna provide inspiration.

It could, because when I saw these quote unquote photorealistic images of these things I'd prompted it for, this diorama idea just starts it just kind of gets a mind of its own.

Yep.

Where Modeling Inspiration Comes From

And and I didn't expect that. Maybe I should have. But yes, this is our second topic of our shop talk as an inspiration. Uh listener asked if we could consider it, and maybe they're a newer listener, or or well, they could even come on board in the last four years probably and and not heard the last time we talked about inspiration. This was unexpected, I guess.

Yeah.

And it's it's funny because I've got this BT5 project that is is kind of starting to coalesce around my conversations with Evan, Panzermeister 36. And maybe that's where this comes together. Maybe we got a retreating BT5, and he's screaming at these kids and making them look at look back at the way they're looking at them. I don't know. That could be it. But I start playing with this, start dabbling in it and going back and forth with the prompts, and this picture keeps changing and changing and changing and changing, and like bam, they're like, okay, that might be it.

Yeah.

That might that might be where I stop because that looks that looks convincing. That looks like something I would want. Uh so it yeah, completely unexpected avenue of inspiration that even if you didn't take those and go do the 3D print, the STL file and 3D print of those figures, if you didn't take that route.

Right.

Um, you could use these these photos to to sculpt your own or to modify other figures, which you know I talked about with Jake that I really don't like doing, but uh somebody else might.

Yeah.

And it would be a way to do that. So and we've had some listeners write in about using AI for generating ideas for bases for models.

Mm-hmm. So yeah, that's another way a way to display.

But in but in general, that that's all just brand new inspirational avenues for me in the last three weeks, really, because I don't I didn't even consider them until we talked to Jake.

I know. I know. That's amazing to me. Speaking of inspiration, you also mentioned another place inspiration has come to you from, and that is with this BT5 thing with Evan. You start talking with a fellow modeler about a particular subject that you and and that person are interested in. Yeah. And the next thing you know, you're inspired to start putting the project together. Now, you all haven't started cutting plastic or anything.

I took all the support structure off my 3D printed uh BT5 upper hull.

Okay.

I I I did do that. And Evan's gonna benefit, he's gonna benefit from that because I can tell him where all the gotchas are.

Oh, okay. Well, that's good. Nice of you to do that.

Should take it with me, man. I put it on the pile of stuff to take the heritage con.

Well, I'd say I've got some some 3D printed stuff to take the Heritage Con to.

But anyway, you're you're right. It's it's mutual admiration for a subject that can get you going. Yeah. For sure.

Yep. I mean, if you're you're sitting there talking, for me, if I'm sitting there talking with, say, Jeff Groves, Inch High, and we both have an interest in World War II Japanese aircraft, and we start talking about either the latest kit or a conversion or something that we're both interested in, you start to feed off of each other. And one idea bounces to the next, bounces to the next, and before you know it, you're all hot to trot on a project that you weren't even thinking about before the conversation.

Yeah.

So I do think we draw inspiration from each other in addition to other places, which is again one of the reasons Mike and I like to talk about people interacting at shows and all, because again, that human interaction leads to that inspiration. And if you're sitting in your hobby room by yourself, never really interacting with other modelers, you're not going to get the benefit of that. And it's worth getting. It is something that really does provide you with an extra something to your modeling.

Well, what's something else, even if we've talked about it five years ago, that's still a major major source of inspiration for you?

Books, books are still, I mean, I'm very much, I guess, being a lawyer or whatever, reading a lot. It's always been something that I do. And so reading particularly histories, combat histories, overall strategic, tactical, operational, reading military history always ends up inspiring me. I've got at least a dozen projects that I have in my mind, at least, not in plastic yet, where I've been inspired by a particular book or a particular set of books that make me want to do a subject or subjects. Ploesti being the one that that just pops to mind. There's a book called uh Black Sunday. And once I read that book, it was like I I want to do these things. Now I need to get around to doing them. We won't talk about that, but that's that's where I got the inspiration. Now I know you're more photo inspired.

I am, and a lot, a lot of it's still books. I don't even I'll occasionally read a a history like you do. Right. Or whatever. I may if I can get it on audio, I'll probably do that instead. Right. But I'll I'll get a book. I'll see I don't know what would what would inspire me to even pull a book off the shelf. It would probably be it's a topic I come back to time and time again. It's it's eBay Deutschland, eBay, German eBay, all the snapshots on there that you can find from that soldiers took, particular you know, almost all of them are before 1944. Right. For for obvious reasons. There's just so much stuff out there, and and you'll find a photo and then you'll go digging in the books, and it's just it I don't know what what was there, like random association almost. Yeah. Would would be a way to describe it. It's you needle down and you you you find there's a vehicle you you want to or something. There's a vehicle that catches your eye. A photo, like even off Germany. Okay, there's a T26 that catches my eye. And I can think of this because I looked at it just the other day, and it's that model 39, the final version of T26 that nobody's ever plastic kitted. It's run off the road in a ditch, the turrets turned 180 degrees to the rear because it was in retreat. There's a Soviet kilometer sign right next to it, and it would make a great little vignette. And that makes me want to go to all my books that have T26 information in them.

Yeah.

And then I'd pull those out and I start looking. I'm like, okay, well, I think maybe that kit's got this part, these parts, or this kit's got the others. So then I go to the stash and I pull out all those kits and I start looking. And next thing I know, I got like four books open and five kits and the internet's open. And you're down the rabbit hole. And I'm down the rabbit hole, man. I'm like, okay, what would this take? What would this take? And it's taking a little longer, but it's it's not this BT5 project that uh Evans got me hot to do. It's it's not unlike that. Yeah. Uh it's it's probably the the genesis for that was the the BT5, the the old Zvezda kit that Italary started importing in the 90s.

Yep.

That's just awful. And it's like, man, it's like a bait and switch, right? Right. You can't get all excited, you got this, finally, we got this subject. You get the kit, and like, oh my God, this is terrible. I can't, I can't live with this. So how do we do it? Well, we don't. We wait, we put it on the shelf and we wait, and then all these BT7 kits start coming out, and then all these BT2 kits start coming out, and you start to see various components of what you want to do in all that stuff. And finally, somebody like Scott Demick and his cottage industry produces an upper hole for the BT2 that gets you to a BT5. Then it all comes together because apparently nobody wants to do one in plastic.

Well, they will as soon as you and Evan finish yours.

Well, luckily for this project, only one part will be resin or replacement, really. Right. The rest will come from other plastic kits, which plays into the idea that maybe they should have done it anyway. Because it would have been a better thing to do than some of the crap they did come out with. So this whole rabbit hole thing is is kind of where I get my inspiration. It's it's it's latching onto something and digging through my own reference library and digging through the internet and and kind of figuring out what might be possible. What do you do, Dave?

Well, again, most of mine is reading. The one other thing I would mention for inspiration is going to model shows and seeing models on the table because I will go to a show and I'll see something, and I won't necessarily want to replicate what that modeler has done. But I'm either inspired by the paint scheme or the weathering technique or the kit that they use that uh I didn't realize you could turn that kit into that nice a model. And so a lot of times it will bring me inspiration to then go home and start, you know, I'll start ruminating on it at the show. If I can find the modeler, I'll go and talk to him. And then from there go home and kind of like what you described, start going down the rabbit hole. Okay, what do I want to do? What would I like to try? What would I want to pull from what this person did, etc.? And I find that always inspirational. The and the the I mean, you can find inspiration at any model show, big or small or whatever. But when I go to something like HeritageCon or the Nationals or Amps, you know you're going to see enough models of just unbelievable quality that you won't fail to be inspired by them.

Let me back up on something you just said. Okay. The you didn't know you could get that good a model from that kit or whatever. That's kind of what you said.

Yes.

Yep. So a problem I have, and I'm gonna call it a problem because it it it's it's scope creep from the onset of a project. I'll get a kit and I'll open it, and I'm like, eh, I don't like that. I don't like that. I could probably fix that. That's maybe aftermarket, or I could scratch this or whatever, right?

Right.

So I've got this project in my mind, and I've not built it yet. I've not cut a single part off the sprue, but it's it's in the stash. I've thought about it a little bit. Then I go to a show and I see that kit built. And not only not only have I seen it built, the modeler has not addressed any of the shortcomings that I think the kit has.

Right.

And it still is an impressive model. That's inspiring to me because I know if you built that kit raw dog and it looks like that, yeah, that makes me want to build it even more because I know if if that's what's gonna look like out of the box, more or less, how much better is it gonna be? Maybe none, but it inspires me to take that knowledge that it it it already is pretty stinking good. And anything I can do to improve it is just gonna make it that much better, unless I completely gaff it. But um, you know what I'm saying.

Oh no, I know exactly what you're saying.

So uh Yeah, you're right. Shows that but for me it it's seeing a kit that uh was built up and now I now I know what the kit looks like looks like built up. I think that is a huge piece of knowledge.

Yes.

Whether it's and well, I was I was gonna say whether it's online or social media or live, but I think seeing it live is is the most is the most impressive. Yes. The most the most inspirational.

I love seeing a beautiful model on Facebook or you know, on the internet or whatever, but there is nothing like seeing it in 3D in person.

No matter how they built it. Exactly. Well, Dave, I think we're gonna stop with two topics. I think I think we we waxed pretty good there.

I think so too.

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All right, Dave, it's the bench top halftime report. And uh I got a bad feeling about that.

I was gonna say you better have a lot to report because I got almost nothing.

It's the third third episode in a row, man.

Well, I know, but I did get some stuff done last time. But to be honest with you, I have not touched a model in nine days.

It just what about the other five?

Well, I got a little bit done uh on the on the on the Hellcat, but I really in the last nine days have not touched a model. It's a combination of family stuff, spring getting here, and having to start doing all of the housekeeping and and yard keeping stuff. In fact, I don't know about you, but I cut my lawn for the first time on it yesterday on Sunday.

I'm not I haven't yet, but I'm not far behind. I I need to. The back's gonna have to be cut here before I before I go to Harriscon.

I hear you. And turns out a a tree close to my house, uh, the trunk is split, so I've had to start cutting it down. Then, of course, the pole saw that I'm using, the chainsaw pole saw that I'm using loses its locking nut or locking screw, and you know, just one thing after another. And then, of course, at this point, that's the time that work decides to become very, very busy. Sure, why not? It's life. I am not going to would I like to get more modeling done? Yes. I'm not gonna stress about it. I am not going to put artificial pressure on myself and make myself feel bad because I'm not getting to the hobby bench to do something that I do for relaxation. So it is what it is, and I'll go forward from there.

What did you get done? No, you're not getting off that easy, man.

Well, I did what I did was some oil panel washing on the on the Hellcat, which is about halfway through. In addition, I built that little Sea Hun sub last year for the Moosaroo, and I want to take it to I want to take it to HeritageCon, but the little propeller had come off, so I had to reattach that. But I am going to be taking that to HeritageCon and we'll go from there. But yeah, not a lot.

How about you? Well I'm on the KV eighty-five now because the moose through cup's done. Yay. We talked about that ad nauseum last time. The tow cable turnbuckles I was ruminating about last time and time before that and the time before that probably. Have a solution path now.

I I liked your solution. It really was a great idea little idea.

So I figured out a way to make a bending jig for some brass wire to make the hooks on the ends. And I've got some Albion Alloys aluminum tubing to make the center section. And uh I think it's gonna work out.

Well, I don't know if you posted it on the dojo yet, but you sent me a picture of one of these things, and it looks really, really good.

Well, I did post it on the dojo, and I posted it along with uh a company who's doing 3D print turnbuckles, and I'm like, well, I could go this route, but I can't imagine how fragile the 3D print crap is, given how fragile the kit parts were.

Right.

So mine's gonna be like solid metal.

So Right. Even if yours is not does not have any more finesse to it, it at least is much more sturdy.

Oh, that's way more robust. So I've got all the hooks made. I figured out a way to do the center section. I gotta figure out how to drill through the the center of the the cent the center of the center section uh to to put the the the lever to you know the the cheater bar you use a yeah to turn the turnbuckle with.

Yeah.

You know, Liang makes something that might work. Oh, do they? Yeah, they got a they got a tool for that.

Oh, that's that center drilling tool.

Well, it's one of them. They got a well, I'm I'm sure Adam will let me know. Uh it's a solvable problem at this point. The hooks were the hard part. Gotcha. So a little little uh bending jig uh search on on the Googles and like, okay, I think I understand what I need to do. And I may I built a little jig out of drill bits and close your ears, Christian Gurney, but when we were doing our little wooden aka poker chip things, he sent me some that were not quite up to snuff, so one of those became the the hardwood base I needed for my bending jig.

Well, I'm sure he'd be thrilled with that.

Well, I hope so.

I'll bet you he'd be thrilled that you got that use out of it.

He he liked the Musaru scheme, even though uh I'd aligned his uh business with an with a laxative. All in good fun. All in good fun, you're right. KV85, so that's for such a tiny part, it's a huge leap forward. So looking forward to getting those knocked out. I got all the hooks made. I'm working on the center sections as soon as I figure out the the way to get a good accurate drill for the cheater bar, those will be done.

Mm-hmm.

So that gets me down the road pretty far with that. That 3D printed flak panzer I'm working on. I'm back on it too. No are you? It was gonna be a kind of a paint mule kind of thing.

Right.

But you know me, man.

I know you. You can't you can't you can't do anything halfway.

So there's a short list of quote cannot live withs on that kit. And it's pretty much the gun barrels. Right. Which I got I got some really great ones from Aver. Yeah. Really, really nice. The road wheels, which I talked about last time, those came in. I've got those now. So we'll be using some resin cast road wheels for their Hetzer wheels, is what they are. Uh now it's the perforated muffler shroud. I don't know how you know how you've been referring to scope creep before. I know, and this is man, this is a good example of that. So I I print the thing, and I I don't know what the designer did, but so it's it's a it's a form sheet metal piece with a a perforated pattern of holes in it.

Right.

So and they're like staggered, one rows this way, then you stagger.

Right.

So it's like on, off, on, off, on, off. Well, when you go around the bends in this thing, I don't know how it happened, but the CAD model, the the hole pattern gets lost. So when you clear all the holes and you have the finished thing, it just it's just like it's all helterskelter. It doesn't look doesn't look right.

Right.

And it's right there on the top of the rear end of this tank. And like not living with it. So I printed it, I've cleaned up all the holes, and I'm like, uh I don't know what happened here, but something something messed up when he when they did this. Right. In the cat in the cat design. Something's not right. So I've I ordered uh I found a guy selling a big stack of the the Aber mesh and perforated metal sheets. It's a lot. So I bought those. So I've I've got uh I've got a photoette sheet now, it's got the right hole pattern in it.

Gotcha.

So I'm gonna try to make a new one out of photoetch brass. So there you go.

All right. Well, at least eight. Even if it's scope creep, it's one where you think you've come up with a with a fairly quick and dirty solution to it.

Yeah. Now I think I think so.

Just don't let it creep any further.

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Mike, this is our faves and yawn segment, and I gotta say, for the first time in a long time, a little disappointing.

Folks, it's really interesting because we were talking before we pushed the record button tonight. We came to the same conclusion independently.

Yes, we did.

I don't know what's going on, man. The Shizuoka hobby shows in May. Maybe they're sandbagging. Right. You know, the Nuremberger was in February.

Yep.

Shizuoka is coming up here in in May.

So this may be a dead time.

It may be a dead time. So still, did you I mean, you led the segment. Do I get to go first?

Yeah, go ahead.

You know, there's some things that are interesting. It's not like there's nothing out there, but agreed. The the full-blown shrink wrap boxed injection molded kit front is a little weak.

Yes, it is.

I got a couple here, but uh we'll get to those. First up, man, from our sponsor squadron. A couple of things. There's a in 48th scale, there's a Klee Track M2 tow tractor.

Mm-hmm.

Klee Track Cleveland Cleveland Tractor Company.

Yep.

Made these tow tractors for for uh rough airfield service. Brandon and company is doing one now in 3D print, a little kit in 48th scale to go with all the 48th scale bomber kits out there. Because, you know, until now, uh there's probably been some resin ones here and there over the years. But the the only one in that was really easily available was the one that's in the the monogram B29. Yeah, the monogram B24.

And it's like Oh yeah, 25.

This is a little hyperbolic, but it was almost just a left and right half that you just glue together. Yeah. The point is there wasn't much to it. Real curious what they got going on here with this little kit in 48th scale. So should be popular for them, I think. Yep. I think so too. And before you before you go, I'm gonna double up because they're both from Squadron. An M5 high-speed tractor in 35th scale.

Mm-hmm.

Now, I did a look around. I don't think there's anybody's done the M5 in 35th scale yet. There's a long history of M4s.

Yeah.

Ravel did one ages ago. That's an old almost box scale kit. Nitto from Japan has had one.

I remember that one.

That one's probably not very good either. And then Hobby Boss has a couple, maybe three, two or three versions in 35th scale. But it's the M4, it's not the same tractor. So a a tow tractor that was used in the Second World War that's not been really covered yet in 35th scale.

So Yeah, you always want something new.

So it's something new. There you go.

Well, you're right, Mike, that's not completely barren out there. There's a company that I've never heard of. Apparently, it's 3D print called KM Models, and they do a pair of German fuel trailers. Basically, one's just two wheels and a frame that one of those 200-liter barrels goes on. And then they have a bigger version of it where it has two 200-liter barrels. And if you were going to do a German airfield diorama of any sort, these things would look really good, especially maybe with a 70-second scale Ket and Krad or one of the little tractors or even horse-drawn. I can see this being quite useful. It really looks good. Of course, it's 3D print from a company that I've never heard of before. So, you know, the images look good, but you don't know what you're getting. So if any listener out there has any experience with this company, please let us have your input because I'm tempted by these things, but I don't want to spend the money if it's not up to snuff. So help a guy out.

Well, I'm happy the next one's in 48 scale because if it if it was in 30 second scale, I'd probably be tempted to buy it. Okay. Round two, AHM. Yep. They got a tie bomber in 48 scale.

Yep.

Looks like a good one. That's gonna be popular with the sci-fi crowd. But I really like the larger scale, the TIE fighter I got. I really need to get that thing built, man.

I know, I hear you. Maybe that's the Musuru next year.

I I seriously doubt it.

So do I. But it could be. So do I. You got anything else? Yeah, I got one other thing, and this is something that you and I mentioned. Because 3D print is able to be done in multiple scales. Uh-huh. When you look on a website like Scalemates, you will see the same item listed with individual listings for each individual scale from like 16th scale all the way to 87th scale or whatever. And it really makes it difficult to scroll through and look for look for new items.

You got to use the filters.

You do have to use the f the scale filters to filter out. And frankly, if I was going to suggest a change to scalemates, that they that what they do is have one entry with multiple scales. Yeah, available in multiple scales.

And have it if if someone were to search a specific scale, it would still show up there.

Right.

But but for the general view, there wouldn't be 25 entries of the same thing.

Of the same thing. It just gets a little irritating to scroll through. So that's that's a pet peeve. It's something that irritated me, and you mentioned it, it irritated you. So if it irritates both of us, I figure there are at least a couple other modelers out there whom it irritates.

Oh, I got one more. Okay. Just for conversation. Okay. Trumpeter, 116th scale, Ferdinand Tank Destroyer.

Oh, come on. That thing would have to be It's going to be pretty big. Two and a half feet long, three feet long?

No, I don't mean three feet long, but 20 inches, maybe.

God.

It's pretty big. 18 at least.

Not only long, but bulky. I mean, that thing is that thing is not small. It's not small. I was gonna say you and I have both stood next to the real thing.

That yeah, we have.

And oh my gosh, I cannot imagine. And again, you and I've referenced this on 16th scale. And the bigger the item, the more true it is. How you keep that from looking like a toy. I'm sure there are guys out there who are artists, especially some of these AMPS modelers who are just absolutely magicians.

Well, like Dave Parker at the AFE Modeler. Right. He's taking he's taken on some of these, and it's is it's amazing the fidelity detail he can get in that scale.

Yeah. But you really have to get down to the details on something that big.

Yeah, Spud Murphy's done some Sherman's and stuff. It's just really, really amazing stuff. But uh for for me, it gets down to shelf space at a retail shop. Yeah. Uh just yeah. That's that's kind of the limiting thing.

I think Yeah, can you imagine one of those Japanese or Hong Kong shops? Where the heck would you put that box?

Well, you get you have like one of each, maybe? I guess. I'm sure. Well, it's trumpeter, so I don't I don't know how good it's gonna be. Right. But somebody like Dave Parker is gonna do something completely amazing with this thing.

Oh, yeah.

And and to pull the silver lining out of the cloud, a Ferdinand's on my list eventually. And if somebody like him, Dave Parker, took on this project and and made it a two year, three-year thing like some of the other projects he's done.

Yeah.

Uh I'm gonna learn a lot about the Ferdinand. Right. Regardless of what scale I build it in.

Yep.

So there you go.

That's that is indeed the silver lining.

But for me, it's way too big. And I mean Yeah.

I can't imagine what it costs.

I've got like a handful of kids I'd like to see them go ahead and finish either them hot trumpet or hobby boss. Yeah. And that that is so far removed from the list, it's not even funny.

Yeah.

Yet they're that's what they're doing. It's their company, right?

It's their company, that's right. Well, that's all I got.

Me too, man.

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 lacquerers. Check them out at www.modelpaint solutions.com.

Ratings Request And Community Links

This is the time in the episode where we ask if you have not rated the podcast on whatever app you're listening to it, please go rate it. Give it the highest rating so it becomes more visible to more people. Also, if you have a modeling friend that does not listen to Plastic Model Mojo, please recommend us to them. Please tell them about the show, show them how they can listen. The best way for us to continue to grow is a recommendation from a current listener. So we would appreciate it if you did that.

In addition, check out all the other podcasts out in the model sphere. You can do that by going to www.modelpodcast.com. That's model podcastplural with an s dot com. It's a consortium website set up by Stuart Clark as a scale model podcast up in Canada. He's aggregated all the banner links to the all the current podcasts out in the model sphere. You can go there for a one-stop shop to uh find all the links to all the podcasts. In addition, Plastic Model Mojo has a lot of friends out there in the model sphere, doing some blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts. We've mentioned Evan McCallum several times tonight. His YouTube channel is Panzermeister36. If you're into armor and weathering, you're going to want to check that out. And the occasional HO scale railroad uh rolling stock weathering thing. You can enjoy that there as well. 70 second scale, Sprue Pie with Fretz, Stephen Lee. Also some model railroad content, but it's all smaller scale, HO and 72nd scale. Long and short form blog. Check that out and see what Steve's got to say at uh Sprue Pie with Fretz.

He's always got something interesting to say on a topic.

He does. And on the topic of 70 second scale, Jeff Groves, the InchIGuy, InchIGuy blog, 70 second scale centric. You're going to like what Jeff's got going on, batch builds or whatever, kit reviews. He's always got something going on in 70 seconds scale if you're so inclined. We had a listener wanting more 48 scale content. He can get that at Model Airplane Maker. Our friend Chris Wallace and our host for HeritageCon.

Yep.

Great blog, great YouTube channel, models in 48 scale. He just did another uh Shark Mouth.

Yep.

Doing some masking. Amazing work. It looks tedious, but uh turned out good. So that'd be a good place to go for some 48-scale aircraft content. That would be uh modeler playmaker. Finally, Paul Budzick, we mentioned him a lot, scale model workshop. Lots of tips and tricks of the trade. All come from a deep uh well of wisdom from Paul's longtime time in the hobby. So check it out on Patreon and YouTube.

If you're not a member of IPMS USA, please consider joining the national organization or joining your national organization in your country. IPMS USA is a group of volunteers who work and give up some of their modeling time to try and make the modelers' experience better. It's a good organization full of people who really have the best interest of the hobby at heart. If you are into armor modeling or post-1900 figure modeling, take a look at the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society, AMPS. It's a really, really good group of modelers, very talented, and they're really dedicated to advancing the art of armor modeling. Mike and I are going to be at their nationals in a month or so. And I I can't wait, I'll tell you, I really can't wait. Mike, we're almost at the end of the episode, and I can tell you, modeling fluid-wise, while it doesn't have quite the kick that a bourbon or a beer does, the McDonald's fountain coke never disappoints. I'm at the end, it's all gone. It was wonderful. I get I can't recommend it highly enough. I hope he can get to sleep tonight. Oh, I got that book. I won't have a bit of problem with that.

Or I have to get up and go to the restroom.

Yeah, well, that probably. That's true anyway.

How about you? Russell's Reserve tenure is a bargain for a 10-year bourbon. I've said it many times. I've got a lot of feedback from listeners who agree.

Yep.

Uh, if you wanted just a really good bourbon that's got a lot of flavor, that's not terribly expensive. The Russell's Reserve tenure is going to be for you. So check it out.

We are now truly at the end of the episode, and it's time for some shout-outs. And I'll let you go first, but I've got one too.

Well, I've got two, so I'll go first and pick up at the end. As always, I want to shout out all the folks who have chosen to contribute contribute to Plastic Model Mojo through the generosity. If you'd like to support our show financially, we really appreciate it. And we've had several folks do that. You can do that through several avenues, and those are all can be found at the Support the Show link at Plasticmodel Mojo.com. Thank you, folks. It helps us uh defer the cost of this show and bring you new stuff all the time. So thank you very much.

Yes, I would uh add my thanks as well. We really do appreciate it. It's it it means a lot to Mike and I that that people care enough not only to listen but to support the show and make it a little bit easier for us to bring you the show. In addition, I'd like to shout out all the listeners who've reached out to find out if we're going to be at this show or that show, Indie, Amps, HeritageCon, etc. I've I've said it repeatedly, and it's absolutely 100% true. The interactions with the listeners are truly the best part of this show. It's one of the reasons that Mike and I love the listener mail and the DM segments, because truly what we're it what we're getting out of this is we are getting out, we are getting interactions with fellow modelers who if we weren't doing this, we may have never met. And there's always something great that comes out of an interaction with a listener. So thank all of you who are interested enough to reach out and say, Hey, are you going to be at this show or that show? Because the one thing Mike and I really love when we go to shows is getting to talk to listeners. Because we get good interactions from mails or DMs, but the best interactions we get where we can sit there and dynamically ask people, oh, you liked this, you didn't like this. It just leads to great conversation. So thank all of you who've reached out. And please, if you're at a show and we're there, come up and talk to us. We want to talk to you. Well, I got one more, Dave. Okay, give it to me.

I want to shout out all the folks who we talked to for the April Model Show Spotlight.

Yes.

I want to thank Mike Radsky from the IPMS Roscoe Turner chapter, and we may be hearing more from him in the spring and summer because he had a really good idea.

Yeah.

Uh so we'll see about capitalizing on that. Uh Brad Guy, Dan Holmes from uh the Commies Fest crowd. They got some cool stuff going on. It was nice to hear that. And then finally, James Morondano from uh the Wine Country Model Club and the Wine Country Model Expo. Just a really interesting conversation. All this kind of just flowed together, and I think it was probably our right now it's our pinnacle model show spotlight we've ever done. And I just really appreciate everybody having their stuff together and having great things to say about their respective shows. And I hope they're all just rousing successes.

Yes, I I I second that. I hope that all of you, all of the different clubs have nothing but success with their shows. And the thing that I liked about this model show Spotlight was the three shows we featured were different, and each had a particular focus, a particular idea, and it's nice to see the interaction with the different uh clubs and what they're doing, and so that clubs can start borrowing ideas from each other because I really do think shows are getting better and better.

Well, I hope so, because uh me too. We we got a lot of stake if they don't.

Yeah.

Well, Dave, you got anything else tonight?

Mike, I'm ready for HeritageCon, and you know what they say. So many kids.

So little time, Dave, and I'll see you Friday and we'll get it on up the road. Sounds great.