The Wheel of Accidental Wisdom with Ed Baroth: PMM Episode 137

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

All right, kentucky Dave. We've been to the great white north and returned safely. Yes we have man. What a trip. I'm tired still. Tomorrow will be a week since our departure date last week Yep.

And I'm still tired.

We stayed up too late.

We did, but it was well worth it. It was well worth it. It was well worth it.

Well, we're talking about HeritageCon Mojovia and we had a grand old time.

We did indeed.

We got to see lots of people and hang out with friends and support those Hamilton guys.

And got a lot of new experiences too.

We did, we did. Well, if that's part of your model sphere, you can talk about what it meant to you, but what's up in your model sphere? Kentucky, dave.

That is a big part of my model sphere. As you said, we just got back Monday from Hamilton. I got to be the best three or four days that I've had since the Nationals, and in many ways it was equal to the Nationals. Now, obviously, the contest in vendors was only one day, but still we got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people whose company I really enjoy and in fact this time we got to spend time with new people as well. Dr Vitkus flew in from Salt Lake City. We picked him up in Detroit, Got to go to Michigan Toy Soldier for the first time.

That was great. We met listener Steve Rui from the Minnesota Club flew up from Florida.

And you know one of the great things talking about my model sphere, one of the great things was how many people came up to us at the contest who were listeners, who just wanted to say hi, many of them that we'd seen before, but many of them that it was our first time seeing them, talking to them. Sure, some had dm'd or emailed and you know we had that common bond because we had communicated but some just wanted to stop and tell us how much they enjoyed the show and that was. You know, you can't beat that, you can't beat that. So I'm on the post-show high, just like when I come home from the Nats, and I'm fired up. I'm fired up here Also got some modeling reading done and, having seen the models at the show, I don't know about you, but I got inspired.

I mean there are a lot of really good modelers out there. I mean it's amazing the overall quality of what's on the table and the inventiveness and the techniques. I know you and I we took a couple of wooden cards that the guys at Bases by Bill had made up for us and put them out next to some models that we really, really liked, and it was so hard to choose because there was so much good on the table. So, in short, my would probably kill me, but I die a happy man because that's that's what I want out of my model sphere. How about?

you? Well, probably all that and a bag of chips. Man, it was a good trip. I think I enjoyed the fact that this year we went up to Detroit on Friday and met Steve Hustad, mark Copeland and Steve Rui and John Vickis there at the hotel they had arranged for us.

Yep.

And hung out. There went to dinner, hung out a little more.

A really nice dinner.

We did, and then we went to Michigan Toy Soldier the next morning. Took our time, slept in a little bit. Well, we went to breakfast first.

Yep.

And then did that. It was just a very casual descent into the Heritage Con host location there at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. So for the record, if we make it next year, we're probably going to end up doing something similar.

Yes, yeah, doing something similar, yes, yeah. I think that the way we did it this year is an improvement on what we've been doing previously and, yeah, that's the way I want to do it again next year.

Well, and we solidified some new support for the show. We finally got to meet Kevin and Janelle from Kit Mash Face to Face yes, that was fantastic.

She is such a sweet person. I mean just so nice. Yes, that was fantastic. She is such a sweet person, I mean just so nice.

Well, they're great. And then Kevin came to breakfast there on our departure day. I wasn't expecting him to show up and he walks in the door and that was nice. Got to see him right there before we left. Yep, Got to spend some time with him, Got to have a conversation with him I've been meaning to have for a couple three weeks now and excited about that so more on that later, folks, yep.

That's my model sphere.

I've been too tired to be too inspired.

I hear you, so obviously we're recording an episode. That means you should have a modeling fluid to hand. What do you have?

Well, folks may get a little confused because it's a two for night, because we actually recorded our special segment yesterday, ahead of this, and I was at Ed Barris' request. He wanted to call out the modeling fluids in our special segment because he had chosen one. So last night during the recording of that segment, which folks will hear later, I was sampling some 40 Creek Niagara whiskey and tonight it's Holler Lager from Farm League Brewing. So we'll touch on both of these at the end and these were given to me up at Heritage Con from Mr Steve Johnson, so appreciate that. More on that later. What about you? What do you got?

on that later. What about you? What do you got? Well, coincidentally, I also have a modeling fluid. That was provided in this case by our friend Evan McCallum. He brought me a four-pack of Braumeister Brewing Company. It's a variety pack and the one I'm having tonight is called Route 21. It's a Marzen and this brewery is out of, of course, carlton Place, ontario, canada. So I've never had it. Evan seems to like these, so I'll report back at the end.

Oh crap, didn't get me any.

Well, I've got four cans. Two of them might well technically be yours, of course. Then again, you got the whiskey, so you know who's counting.

That's true. Who's counting? I'm giving him a hard time. Well, that's good. Well, if that's your modeling fluid, let's just roll right into the mailbag. You got it. We got quite a bit at least I do on my side, and on the email side of things, I got some as well. Up first from the email is from Daniel Brewer and Daniel's from Maryville, tennessee, which is just outside Knoxville near the Smoky Mountains.

I know exactly where it is.

He says he remembers one of us mentioning what brand of tweezers we use and he's on the hunt for the new set. Can you make a recommendation on a good set of quality tweezers? Well, I don't know that I've recommended a brand. We've talked about this gosh three or four times over the show the great cheap tool debate we had with the late John McIntyre from our club Right. I guess the landscape's kind of changed. Now there's some companies out there within the model sphere that are making some decent tools.

Now, if you want to go that route, I think you might look at the Tank Craft titanium tweezers. They've got a couple of pairs. They're only two styles a curved and an angled and a straight. Also, if I was picking up tweezers, I'd get those plus a more flatter, wider, tip blunt set as well, because those can always come in handy. But I think what you're remembering is I went to Cole Palmer, and this is 25 years ago or more.

Cole Palmer is a laboratory and research supply company and if you get on their website and put tweezers in the search bar, you're going to be deluged with options of all kinds of things, from titanium, stainless steel, carbon fiber, tip tweezers all kinds, and they're going to be all over the price point. I mean, most of them are going to be probably north of $10, because they're all pretty good and that's the thing you know good tweezers. The points close together like they're supposed to and they tend to not be so soft that they get bent and twisted, unless you're using them for you know, to pry paint lids off Humbrel paint tins or something Don't recommend that Don't do that.

So Cole Palmer and I'll put that in the show notes that's. That's was a tweezer supply that I used and I've still got most of those. I mean, I've had them for many years. Children sometimes would raid my tool drawer and a couple have disappeared or gotten mangled. But by and large all the ones that have been in my tool collection and have not suffered the fate of youthful hands are still as good as the day I bought them.

The only other thing I would recommend is a couple of sets of reverse tweezers the ones that you have to press to open, cross-lock tweezers, cross-lock that you have to press to open instead of press to close. Those are really good for holding small parts while you're painting them. But the big thing that Mike and I have talked about is the fact that if you go and you see these cheap tools, usually having come out of China or Vietnam or someplace, you know they're yeah, sure, they're very inexpensive, you know $2, $3, but then you pick up four or five pair and look at them and no two of them do the jaws both align and close completely together and you know that's just. That's asking for trouble.

Well, the next two are kind of related and I'll start with the first one. It's from Dr Paul Budzik and I'll preface this with the oh, what was it? That new scale, that scale wars thing we did last time? Yeah, kind of put off and then really thought about it. We've gotten a lot of feedback we did For our answers about that. So we appreciate all that. We took a little extra time and thought about it. And Paul agrees with me about nixing 35th scale. He says it should have never happened. I agree. He says it should have never happened, I agree. And he says all the scales up until that point essentially were based off architectural inch scales.

Right.

We got a quarter inch to the foot, which is- 48th scale 48th scale or O gauge in model railroad, the 316th is S gauge.

Right.

And then 3 eighths to the foot, which is 32nd scale, which is twice the 316th.

Yeah.

So 135th makes no sense. And he's got a little story about one of his best friends and modeling mentors, a gentleman named Oscar Newbert who was the creator of Calscale or created a pattern worker, pattern master for Calscale and they came out with that combat series line of brass machine guns and mounts and ammo boxes and you remember all those. Oh yeah, and he was mastering these in 32nd scale and Paul says he tried to convince him that was a mistake but he's dead set on on 32nd, saying 135th was a passing fad, saying all serious military guys were in 32nd or 54 millimeter, which was the figure scale I mentioned last time. So pretty interesting and kind of also on this subject was mr don cluff and he says there was mentioned to me a panther being the first 35th skill armor kit and he thinks that actually goes to some of the early monogram military kits like the half tracks and the weasel.

Oh, that could be. Well, I don't know which came first. It's an ish.

Ish, okay, they were targeted for three eighths scale, which is three eighths inch, to the foot, which is 32nd scale but technically, by the time it was all said and done, they ended up closer to 35th, which they claimed on their boxes after about I don't know, 75,. The old Mattel-branded, sub-branded boxes and later, prior to that, the boxes from the late 50s and 60s, had no scale on them. So that's why I'm saying it's ish. They didn't. They didn't market them as 35th scale until tamia had already to me and a couple, three other brands had already been marketing kits in 35th scale. Tamia, nitto, oh, who else.

It's hilarious right we're already established by the early to mid 70s. Peerlesserless, that's another one, peerless, peerless Max, and so I guess on a technicality he could be right. But I think that was never Monogram's intent to market those as 35th scale. They kind of backed into it because their models came out a little undersized and seemed to match what was the scale du jour in that genre at the time.

Well, I think it's safe to say that all of you armor modelers out there, your collections are safe. Whatever fork in the road that got taken, got taken. So yeah, at this point, 35th scale is well established to the point where we're now getting 35th scale aircraft models established to the point where we're now getting 35th scale aircraft models.

He says he'd love to go back and get rid of the whole pile of these scales but would never want to go and do the same with the kits in those scales. Yeah, he says he's got an old Revell T-34 and 140th scale sitting on his desk, and fond memories are worth something. Yes, they are. So there you go, appreciate those. Those were good. The voice of Bob.

Ah, we got to see Mr Bear again. I don't know when it's going to be, hopefully. I don't know. Maybe you come up to answer to Wonderfest.

Yeah, well, if he's at Wonderfest you can see him. I won't get to, let us know, bob. Well, he was commenting on our organizational comments in the last episode and he kind of does what I, I do, I, I don't. I. It's especially true with my, like dropper bottle paints. I try to group them in similar colors, like these are my greens, these are my grays, reds, blues, etc. And it kind of limits the amount of search you got to do to find them Right. So that's an approach.

And if he was going to snap his fingers and redo the scales, he would get rid of everything not divisible by five Says we got 10 fingers. We're naturally decimal based or base 10 beings. Well then, why five, bob? Why aren't our scales the same? So tanks and aircraft can be 130th or 140th. Figures can be as big as one-fifth and, dave, your one true scale can be 170th or 175th. You might think I'm crazy. Ah, we don't think you're crazy. Bob cars can be Bob Cars can be 120th or 125th, and ships are already doing it. We got 350th and 700th Right and 100. So ships are kind of unaffected. So there's Bob's suggestion and this is before HeritageCon, which he told us to enjoy and drive safe, beep, beep. Yeah, I see what you did there, bob. That's a day tripper by the Beatles.

Yeah, I was going to say, even I got that one.

So he makes the musical reference this time All right. Next from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Will Woods. He returned to the hobby in 2016. He's written several times before, but he got back into the hobby in 2016. He's been amazed by how much the hobby has been improved. He's used numerous channels to watch and learn for new kits, new products, techniques, Met a ton of new friends in the scale modeling world, and all this has assisted in his own progress in this hobby and he felt he owed something back. So Will Woods has started a YouTube channel called Timberwoods Scale Models. Oh, that's cute. And he told his 10-year-old granddaughter and had her cracked up to tears that her 60-plus-year-old closer to 70, grandfather would be doing a YouTube channel. Why not, Like all the kids, that's?

right. Like all the kids, they're all on TikTok anyway.

You know he has same concerns like when we started the podcast how much, how deep it's going to cut into our modeling time.

Right.

So far, not so much. We've figured it out, Dave, I think.

Yeah, no, it's actually helped. It's motivated my building, there's no question.

But he's got an interesting anecdote here, kind of when you're doing a video or even when we're doing this, it's you and me, but you know, essentially we're kind of talking into the ether right, and he lost a brother in 2020 and someone who'd looked up to and they'd gone down similar career paths and both had a passion for scale modeling and model railroading and aircraft and stuff and they'd spend countless hours talking about their projects and visiting shops et cetera. And he says doing this channel seems to be a channel to feel like he's talking to his brother and keeping the flame burning and he hopes to see this grow and keep getting better. So Timberwoods Scale Models and we will put that in the show notes and help that along a little bit.

Absolutely.

Well, bruce Binkston has written in again thanking me for getting his last name correct, so it's almost like I'm Swedish. Well, he wanted to say that. Well, he showed us this model a while back. He put it on the dojo In fact it was a Wingnut Wings Junkers D1 diorama Then he displayed it with the German pillbox field cap that his grandfather brought back from World War I. Yeah, and that model won the aircraft category for fine scale model of Build a Model Month, oh nice. So it's going to be featured in the May-June issue. That's cool. Well, congratulations. This is the first contest he's entered since 1971.

That's cool. Well, congratulations. This is the first contest he's entered since 1971. You know, speaking of fine scale, those guys were at Heritage Con and I meant to stop by and talk with them because I know you and I had a real nice conversation at MMSI and I meant to stop by and talk to them and gosh, it was just such a whirlwind.

We didn't get a whole lot of content generated at that show. I don't know we were having too much fun. We were. It's a short one and it's too big to not be busy the whole time you're there.

It was fun.

We'll figure that out Sure Up. Next from the greater Seattle area Tim Nelson.

Too tall. Tim.

That's right, or?

just right Tim.

Well, tim appreciates our comments about focusing on finishing and closing projects this year and Tim's personal theory is that the biggest obstacle to finishing is fear of failure. I agree. I agree We've all been through exciting and relaxing process of planning a project, starting the build, getting it well underway, then realizing. The final steps are make or break in terms of realizing the original vision. So, once again, we put it aside until we quote unquote get better.

Yep.

What's your plan for getting better? Getting better is not just practicing all the skills that go into a build, but it's the mental mojo. I like that, the mental mojo of accepting the possibility of screwing it up in the final push.

Yeah.

The upside is the possibility of fun and satisfaction and growth. So damn the torpedoes full speed ahead. Ps Still waiting on those. What's your plan for getting better royalty checks?

Checks in the mail. You just keep a good eye out on it. Check your mailbox every day.

I thought we'd been paying that in beers and bourbons in the National Convention Dojo.

Yeah, well, that's true. That's true. Mr Nelson has always been welcome there. We might need to look at that contract.

Dave, yeah, okay, oh, our friend Mark D duramus, also from that area. Yes, friends of mr nelson paint storage, he's got a lot of model master black lid stuff oh gosh, yes and he puts a three-quarter inch round label on the tops of all those jars. He prints the color and the number on that label.

Yep.

So I can find it east. But you know, if you've got a whole drawer full of black blizzards, white labels yes, you got to read them all.

I did the same thing. I've got a whole drawer of old Model Master and I started putting labels on them and writing what it was no-transcript.

Well, he could take Bob's suggestion and group them according to color and kind of subdivide them out and that would make it a little easier.

Hey, if I ever get to that level of organization, you probably need to call the coroner because I've died, because if I can get all of my paints in one, organized in one place, that alone would be a miracle.

Well, steve Burke, told from Covina California, gives us a quick hit saying well, in response to my life chatter in the last episode, he likes the life chatter, along with the model talk so don't change a thing. So well, good, that's the plan. We're going to change some stuff this year, but talk so don't change a thing. So well, good, that's the plan. We're going to change some stuff this year, but that's not going to change. Yeah, they'll always be that. Yeah, well.

Finally, on the email side of things and I do want to make a note about this particular email because it was submitted through our give us your feedback link and I'll get to that when we close out this segment. But we appreciate the listener, mr Joseph Bridges, for finding that in the show notes and being the first person to use that avenue to communicate with us. So thanks for that and thanks for being a listener. And he sends us a show topic suggestion, which I always keep close to the vest. But he's making a new Airfix 72nd scale Typhoon. All right, good choice, basic in many ways, but he's having fun. That's what it's all about, joseph. It's a good choice, solid kit. Well, Dave, that is the email. The DMs have been rolling in. I've been seeing them, yes they have.

Again I'm to the point where I'm weeding and selecting, and this time there were a lot of the see you at Heritage Con. You know safe trip type stuff.

We already touched on that.

Exactly. Listener Chris Wesley from Detroit heard that we were going up through Detroit and he recommended a hobby shop called Prop Shop in Detroit. Heard that we were going up through Detroit and he recommended a hobby shop called Prop Shop in Detroit, michigan. That he said isn't too far from Michigan Toy Soldier. Now our timetable didn't allow us to get there this year but definitely going to put it on the schedule. If we go assuming we do what we did this year and go up through Detroit and pick up our friends and meet the Minnesota boys, we'll definitely check it out.

Yeah, especially the open before 11.

Yeah, really yeah, that's right.

It's about the only way it's going to work. Yeah, yeah, really yeah that's right.

It's about the only way it's going to work. Yeah, Listener Rod Kuntz contacted us to remind us that the Aviology Japanese tailcoat decals were available. Also wanted to know if we had a coupon code for them, which we didn't, but I wish we had Save us some money. Yeah, we should have thought of that, but it did remind me to go ahead and order those decals. So thank you, Rod, because the worst thing in the world would be to have those things reprinted, and by the time I remembered that they were out to go get them, they were gone because there would be another 15 years before they were reprinted again.

The next two are kind of related. Dave Morris reached out to say he was going to hope to see us in Hamilton because he was going to Heritage Con and we did yes, and he promised that there would be no peanut butter packets or peanut butter whiskey or peanut butter jokes, because he says the peanut butter joke is dead. Our next contact, our next listener, disagrees because Christian O'Day sent me a link to an Australian advertisement for peanut butter whiskey. That is really, really funny. Australian advertising is great. I love it and this is a good ad. I'll send the link to Mike, and we'll put it in the show notes. It's worth watching. So the peanut butter joke may not be dead. May not be dead.

Martin Piatta, the Seattle show guy, the Seattle IPMS guy, who we talked with about the Seattle show coming up after we did the show spotlight. He DMed me to say of course this happens to everybody we interview After we do it. Then they remember one thing they meant to say that they forgot to mention. Well, he forgot to mention how good a big raffle that they had at their show. So another reason to go to the Seattle show big raffle. Warren Dickinson, our first one in Kentucky and they are doing South Union, Shaker Village, bourbon. So I'm going to have to. Next time we're going to see Warren, I'm going to have to get him to bring a bottle of that.

Warren, I'm going to have to get him to bring a bottle of that, because I would like to sample a Is this the same Shaker Village that's down in Harrodsburg.

I don't know if this is the same one or another one Bardstown down. That way it's called South Union Shaker Village. So, warren, you'll have to reach back out to us. But the idea of a distillery, all of whose profits are going to apparently be rolled back into the museum and preserving the community kind of interesting and interested to see what they produce as a bourbon. So, warren, when you hear this, reach out and give us some more information. Is that all?

you got. That's it. Well, folks, if you want to write into the show, we now have three avenues through which you can do that. The email is plasticmodelmojo at gmailcom, or you can direct message via Facebook's messenger system. I usually take the emails. Dave handles the DMs, as you've seen here. But we've got a third one now. It's called Give Us your Feedback. It's a link in the show notes where you can write or do an audio recorded message there and we might do something with those in the future if that becomes a thing with folks.

This started with the show notes in the last model show, spotlight, and it's going to be in the show notes going forward. Now you're going to go back in the old ones. It's not going to be there, but it will be in the show notes going forward. I think I might have no way to get in all the old ones too, but it's going to be in the show notes going forward. If you want to use that as well to give us a feedback link, you can do that as well. So there's three ways to get there and we appreciate it. It's one of our favorite segments. We love the feedback, we love the questions, we love the back of the questions and suggestions that we had gotten.

So we need to replenish the wheel. So, in addition to communicating with us generally about all sorts of stuff, if you think of wheel questions after you listen to the segment this time, please send in new wheel questions, because we'll be doing this segment again.

Yep, probably one more time this year. And you know I was thinking, dave, we should raise the stakes.

Uh-oh.

I don't know how I got some ideas.

When you're done listening to this episode, we'd appreciate you rating us on whatever podcast platform that you listen to us on. Give us five stars. It helps drive the visibility in all of the podcasting apps. Also, if you have a modeling friend who isn't listening to the podcast, would you please recommend us to them? Help them out if they need a little help figuring out how to download and listen to podcasts. We continue to grow. In fact, we've seen a real surge lately in growth, and the best way for us to get new listeners is recommendations from current listeners.

Well, the Give Us the Feedback link is not the only link in the show notes, folks. We also now have a Rate the Show link as well, and there you can go on and leave a comment and rate the stars if you will, and we'd appreciate that, just like Dave said, and this is a way to get it outside any of your apps that don't have a way to do that. So we're excited to get that going too. Yeah, in addition to that, please support the other podcasts out in the model sphere. You can do that by going to wwwmodelpodcastcom. It's model podcast plural. It's a consortium website set up with the help of Stuart Clark, where he's aggregated all the banner links to all the podcasts in the model sphere, and you can go to this one-stop shop and check them all out. We saw Stu at Heritage Con yes, we did, and we learned his wife's coming home Yep, good news After a long stint, and Stu's looking pretty good these days too.

So good to see him. Yes, he's lost a little weight. He's looking healthy.

Well, in addition to podcast, Dave, we got our blog and YouTube friends out there and we saw a couple of them at Heritage Con for sure. Yes, we did Mr Chris Wallace, model airplane maker, our host extraordinaire for arranging our accommodations in Hamilton. We thought he couldn't do any better, but he did.

The only way it gets better is next year, if we're sleeping in the museum. We said that last year. Yeah, I know.

But we managed to cut the distance in half. I know I can't wait. And in the modeling fluid, you mentioned Evan McCallum Panzermeister36. Great YouTube channel, and he's growing, but not fast enough. I think you got something to say there, Dave.

Yes, listen, we got to see Evan. We got to both see Evan and his lovely fiance. Evan, as you know, has a YouTube channel Panzermeister36. Evan and his lovely bride have set a date for their wedding in late October October and Evan currently stands at, I think, 82,500 subscribers something like that. And what I would love to see our community do is everybody you and then everybody you know family, friends find and subscribe to Evan's YouTube channel, because I think it would be really, really cool if we got Evan to 100,000 subscribers by the time he gets married in October.

Now, that's going to take a big push, but I'm confident we can do it. If every listener goes out and gets four people to subscribe to Evan's channel, it's free. All you got to do is go on YouTube, find the channel and click on the subscribe button. I want to get him to a hundred thousand. I want to see him get that silver plaque from YouTube, and we want to find out what happens when, besides the silver plaque, what happens when you get to 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, and that would be a nice wedding gift for Evan. So let's see if we can do that.

In addition to Evan we've also got Stephen Lee SpruPi with Frets Long and short form blog. Always got something good to say, Mostly 70 second scale, His latest blog post that he posted on the dojo was actually on model railroading.

It was really cool.

And we got Jeff Groves, the Inch High Guy, all things 70 second scale. You're going to check out Jeff's blog and we're going to have him on the show here, hopefully in the not too distant future. Right, we got something in mind for Jeff. And then, finally, dr Paul Budzik Scale Model Workshop on YouTube and over on Patreon and lots of good stuff there as well. So check out all this stuff, folks.

Check out all this stuff, folks. Finally, if you are not a member of IPMS USA, ipms Mexico, ipms Canada or whatever nation you live in, if you're not a member of the national chapter of IPMS in your home country, please join. It is an organization dedicated to making modeling better for all modelers in your particular country. Also, if you're an armor modeler or a post-1900 figure modeler, join the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society, amps. They have a show coming up in May that Mike and I will be attending. I think Evan's coming down for it as well. We went to the one last year in South Bend and it was awesome, so I have zero doubt it will be again. Please consider joining. They're a great group of guys.

Plastic Model Mojo is brought to you by Model Paint Solutions, your source for harder and steam back 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 lacquers. Check them out at wwwmodelpaintsolutionscom. Check them out at wwwmodelpaintsolutionscom.

Well, Dave, it's been a long time coming, but we finally got back to the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom. Yes, we did, and our old friend Ed Barath is joining us in third chair for this installment of the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom and hopefully folks can get some nuggets of well, wisdom and inspiration and useful information from this.

Yes, and hopefully entertainment along the way.

Well, Dave, it's time for the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom again. Finally, we got enough questions to pull this off.

Yep.

And we've got a recurring guest, Mr Ed Barath, a guy who's such a baseball fan he followed the Dodgers from Brooklyn all the way out to Los Angeles.

Now that's what you call dedication, and it's finally paying off, right, ed?

It's an acquired taste.

I hear you Well, Ed, how you been.

I have been fine. My modeling stuff has been off the charts the last couple of months.

That's fantastic to hear Well that's good to hear Before we get into this little game. We got here at this wheel. We know some folks over in the UK reached out to you recently to come to their club meeting, somehow via electronic magic, I guess to offer some insight onto something you've been doing. And why don't you tell us about that and how all that came to be?

Well, again, it's your fault. It's always our fault. It's your fault. I posted a picture of my Edward Wildcat on the dojo and they sent me an email saying we really liked your plane. Would you come and talk to us? Who is they? They being the North Somerset Model Society.

So they weren't offering you a plane ticket, anything like that, right?

No, not in these days. And what's going on with the flights? I don't think I would have taken it. You know, these days with flying the way it is, yeah, I understand. So, no, just a nice little zoom google meet actually it was, which I've never used before, but it was a google meet. We arranged the time seven hours difference thanks to daylight savings time, which threw a monkey wrench into it at the last minute. But but yes, and I spoke I talked about, just in general, about some techniques I use and how I get, and, I'll be honest with you, I threw in some of the stuff from my seminar about modeling.

I would have thought you would have done that.

Yes about. You know, don't make a model better than it needs to be. You know, know how close you are and know where the model's going to go when it's done, and that kind of thing. And we had a lovely chat. I started off drinking water and then they had a break and I figured I better come back, and so I had a nice little gin and tonic with them. You know, just to be fair.

Well, that's fantastic. So no technical glitches, no difficulty in actually doing the presentation from a technical standpoint.

Well, not from my point of view, but they did. There's always computer trouble. I think they were supposed to record it and something happened and then he didn't and what have you. But yeah, we have the usual snags and what have you, but it didn't stop us and we went on. Literally, I would think we went on for an hour and a half. Wow, that's fantastic. And so I got some good feedback from them and we're buddies now.

That's fantastic.

That's what it's all about.

Now I'm going to ask you the next question. If there are other clubs out there who are listening to this, clubs that might be. You know clubs sometimes struggle to find presentations to do at their meetings. There's only so much you can get from club members. Are you willing to? If another club reaches out to you, are you willing to do the presentation for other clubs?

Of course, absolutely. Do the presentation for other clubs? Of course, absolutely. And obviously each club would be different on what they want to focus on. Sure, like I've said, since when does a New Yorker not want to talk to people? And this is what I do as a solo system ambassador anyway. I mean, I go and talk, so sure I would love to, and I think it just brings out the best in the club.

Well, good, any club members, particularly club officers of local IPMS or even non-IPMS or AMPS chapters out there, if you're struggling looking for a presentation and a presenter? You heard it here. He said he'd do it.

No take-backs, no take back, no take backs and obviously we're talking on planes or 72nd armor. There you go, or my two strong suits.

He's Mr Versatile. There you go, and he can even talk to you about space.

Yes, we can throw that in too.

All right, all right. Are we ready to talk about modeling and modeling related stuff?

Yes, let's let's get the wheel moving.

All right. Well, ed, you've heard this segment and, to remind the listeners, we've been soliciting topics for gosh a lot longer than I thought we're going to have to this time Probably, since I think my earlier ones go back to really maybe there's a couple on here from March of last year- yeah.

So that's a long time. But anyway, we've got a full docket and we'll use the prize wheel to randomize these and we'll get through as many as we can get to and hopefully somebody gets little nuggets of wisdom along the way. Hence the title Wheel of Accidental Wisdom, because that stuff just kind of comes out and we're just talking about the question like we see it. So you, ready Ed.

No, I thought you were going to talk about how about your modeling fluids?

We can do that. I've got some modeling fluid if you want to do that. What are you drinking, Ed?

I am drinking, since this is a special occasion. I'm drinking 12-year-old scotch, oh man.

Now we're in the same room. Yeah, really.

Which 12-year-old scotch? Called Glen Goyne oh yes, I know it well, that is a fine scotch. You have made a good selection, sir. Yes.

I don't do it much. I don't do it when I do modeling so much, since I start at nine and ten in the morning.

Oh, come on, that's the perfect time for a scotch.

Don't listen to him, man, you know better.

I had to take advantage of the situation and brought out the good stuff. So, yes, good choice.

Good choice, dave. You got one tonight. I'm actually since we're recording this before you and I record the rest of the episode. There's a peek behind the curtains for everybody. I'm actually drinking a Coke.

Well, I'm drinking a little 40 Creek Niagara whiskey that was gifted to me up at Heritage Con.

Oh, I want to hear about that.

I can't wait to hear about that at the end It'll be in the regular segment. We've all got something. We've all got opinions and things. Let's get this ball rolling. Folks Get that wheel spinning. All right, what is going to be first? This one comes from listener Norman Stubbe and it was rooted in a diorama from our past guest, mr Bruce McRae, out of Las Vegas, I think, where he resides now.

Yeah.

He built a diorama that used a sewing bobbin in it as a discarded barbed wire spool and he wants to know what is the best appropriated object used in a model as either part of the model or part of a diorama that didn't start out life? Of course, yes, appropriated object, so it's not a model item per se, but maybe it looked like something in miniature so he used it anyway.

So, dave, you got one Because of what I build, other than reusing very fine wire that comes out of electronics or stuff like that. The best one I ever saw was back when I first joined our local club in 1982. Back when I first joined our local club in 1982, there was a young modeler in the club who and this is back before the ACAB version of the M113 was available and he wanted to do that version with that little Coppola turret type thing up on the top.

Yeah, Coppola turret type thing up on the top. Yeah, and he found at a restaurant one of those sauce cups that was just the right size and shape, and so he got two of them, cut the little lips off, glued them together and then cut the slit for the gun.

And it was perfect, it was just absolutely as if it had been made for that purpose. Ed, have you ever scrounged something and used it in one of your models?

well, what I use regularly is guitar wire okay always for, for hoses and what have you? So, whatever you know, you need a, need a, some sort of hose or some sort of not to mention also thin wire. You want nine, nine thousand wire guitar string. Use it whenever you, whenever I need it.

I have a lifetime supply we might get to that in a minute, but so help me out here some guitar string. Well, there's basically well, I don't know much about guitars other than they make great music most of the time there's some that are smooth strings and there's some that are wrapped strings. Is that right?

That's right. Brass wrapped.

So what are you using mostly? Well, the brass wrapped. Okay.

And you can get them very small and they make perfect air hoses.

The hoses with the corrugations in them For the coil hoses.

Yeah for the coil hoses.

So is it on a core and you pull it off the core.

No, it just comes, you just cut it.

Okay, so it's like just a really tightly wound spring, right, okay, well, crap, now I got to go out and buy some cheap guitar strings.

There you go, I'll send you some.

Okay, do you break them on occasion? I would imagine.

No, yes, I do. And then every once in a while, you're supposed to change them, and yes, so I have acoustic and I have steel. They come in handy. To mention antennas, they're perfect.

Yeah, mike, how about you, buddy?

I'm trying to think what's the craziest thing that I've ever used. It's an interesting question. I know I've used dowel pins and small extension springs like out of a typewriter.

Right.

I remember, when I was a cooperative engineering student, one of the labs where I was working, which was an IBM site here in Lexington. At the time this lab hadn't been refitted in a while, so it had bin after bin of springs and linkages that were part of the Selectric typewriters.

Right.

I'm sure Ed knows what a Selectric typewriter is. Well, everyone has sold North America. It was made just like two miles from where I'm sitting right now and they're throwing a bunch of that stuff out. So I just filled up a little tackle box with some of that stuff, and it comes in handy all the time because they're like some tiny, tiny extension springs and pins and things like that. So those are the kind of things that I've used from time to time. All right, let's keep going. Well, Ed, this one's from you. Oh gosh.

Well, that's cheating.

This one's from me, really yeah.

He's going to know the correct answer already.

There is no correct answer. That's the joke. He suggested topic or question of Operate Nats. What are we doing differently since the National Convention? How has it changed our modeling sphere and that sort of thing Since the National Convention? Ed is there because we saw you there.

I have re-adopted 72nd Armor, yay, since the Nats. I bought some there. I was laboring under the illusion of working under the old kits, yeah, which were bad, you know, and I do it just for fooling around, and then I realized there are some really nice kits out there in 72nd and I learned that in Nationals and I'm just about finishing my second one I did the IBG, the Ukrainian anti the four.

Oh yeah, the armored.

Armored personnel carrier. Yeah, finished that and it really came out nice and that's been on the dojo and that's won an award at Model Zona. And then I'm just about finishing the Vespa A34 Comet B.

Yeah, that was really nice too.

So that has changed and no, that's the biggest change. And plus, I've also relaxed a bit, knowing that I don't know when I'm going to be at a nationals again that I can drive to, and so I'm not going to make everything flawless from three inches away.

Ah, back to your. Who you building the model for? Who you building the model for Philosophy? Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, they're. They're kind of out here in the East for a while.

So it's probably a little tough for you, yeah yes well, that's good, come on, it's only a 36 hour drive, you can do it. You've seen cannonball run? Yeah, exactly, you just get dom deluise. You rent an ambulance and it's a reverse cannonball run well, dave, what about you?

since gnats, since.

Nats, and this is largely attributable to Steve Hustad. We spent a fair amount of time with him there and then subsequently, and he is assisting me in kind of doing weathering a different way, doing weathering a different way, and so the SAM that I'm currently working on is the first time I'm applying those techniques and so far I'm liking it. And now I'm getting back into that now that HeritageCon is over, but basically trying to do some different stuff weather-wise with his help and guidance. So how about you?

By the way, I have to give a nod to Steve Husted too, because he also helped me. He primed me a bit at Nationals regarding 72nd Armor.

Well, good, yeah. Yeah, he is a zealous advocate for the new 72nd Scale Armor kits, and rightly so.

So we can expect something new from him. Not too long down the road he's been working on something that's in 72nd Scale Armor. It's his most recent project he's trying to get to completion, so really looking forward to that he hasn't sent me a picture yet. We should all be prepared to be. Inspired.

I'm sure. So Mike how about you?

Uh, I think I've finally gotten to the point where I'm not buying so many kits. I'm being really selective and not grabbing everything I think I might want, and I've really been since Nats have been working the book angle. It's not any cheaper than Kits, that's for sure.

And definitely not any lighter.

Definitely not any lighter. But you know we've talked about it in past episodes, about the books we bought this year and I've really gotten keen on quality reference material since the national convention that's what I've been doing. Good, you buy a lot of books, Ed.

I can't say I do. To tell you the truth, I'll take a lot of photographs from the net and stuff, but I sort of sparingly on the books I've got. I do have a lot already. You know detail and scale and walk arounds for almost all the planes that I work on.

Okay, well, that's probably good. I mean, books are heavy and take up a lot of space.

And you can't beat those detail and scale books. Yeah.

And so I've got one for the Devastator that I promise I'm going to get to one of these days. All right, I hear you. I promise I'm going to get to one of these days.

All right.

I hear you, ah, from Hector Colon up in Chicagoland. All right, this is kind of interesting.

Yeah, we saw Hector at MMSI, didn't we?

Yes, we did, because that was in his own backyard Exactly. This will be interesting See if we each have an answer to this one. What kit is your albatross? The one kit you've tried to build more than once, but it ended up either on the shelf of doom or in the recycle bin, thrown against the wall or floor oh his you mentioned devastator.

His is the monogram devastator in 48 scale. He says he's tried to build this monstrosity multiple times as a teenager and not once has he been able to finish it. Well, do you think about it? I'll go first this time. I haven't gone first yet you go. Interesting, because mine is in the same series and time frame as his, probably even pre-teen.

I've struggled as a kid and I've not tried it my my adult hobby Maybe I need to slay the dragon, but trying to get Monogram's TBM Avenger, for all the gimmicks to work on it. When I got it done Because I'm a kid, right, and the one time I did think I had it because those wings were like you had to pull them out and turn them and then fold, I can't remember. It was fairly complex. You know they broke off. I broke something and it was like, and you know, four bottles of gloss blue paint later and it looks like crap. I think if I had an albatross it's going to, I'm going to dig back in the years and that's the one I know. I've probably attempted at least twice, maybe three times. Ed, you got an albatross.

You know I don't have it that way. I mean, obviously I grew up on that same set of kits but I'm smart enough to say I'm not going to touch them now. Are you crazy? I'm not going to build. If anything, I would build it with the neighbor's kid. If I could get the neighbor's kid to come, I'd be to build.

I always loved the avenger with those folding wings and everything. That was always my favorite. And so now my albatross is I want to rebuild all of that set in 30 seconds. That is my albatross. I want to redo all of them, that that whole set, but in 30 seconds. I've done it in 48th. I've done it in 72nd. Not only do I did it in 48th, I did it in 48th with folding wings and not folding wings. So I have the whole set of 13 done, but I haven't done in 32nd, I just did the Wildcat. That was the first, and I'm thinking that next is going to be the Dauntless, the 32nd Dauntless Trumpeter. Okay, that is my arbitrage. I want to finish that whole set before I go.

That's a good collection to build what?

about you.

Dave. Well, the one that I can think of that comes immediately to mind was the Airfix 72nd scale HE-177. I know I tried two or three times as a kid to build it and something always went terribly wrong. I do believe I finished one, but I mean it was kind of a dog's breakfast of a model. And then Revell came out with this. I really liked the HE-177. And Revell came out a number of years ago with this really good kit of it and I think I've got PTSD because every time I touch the kit, every time I pull it out, I start, I think, having flashbacks and I've never built the Revell kit, even though everyone says it's great. So I'm going to have that on a short list. By the way, I am going to conquer that modeling mountain.

Well, and how many of the 30 seconds you've gotten through yet?

Well, 30 years ago I did all the you know, the Revell Wildcat and the Hasegawa Hellcat and Revell Corsair. But that's older generation. Yeah, for sure, the new generation, as I just finished the Wildcat. That's the first and I'm thinking of what to do for the second.

Well, if you build that Tamiya Corsair in 30-second scale, I can guarantee you you're going to have a really good time.

And I do, and I have that one, and I have the Birdcage, yeah, and for some reason, I don't know why, I'm not jumping in to do them first. Maybe I'm just saving them.

If you need any advice. Chris Wallace, model airplane maker. He in fact we're DMing today about that particular kit and he says he's built it once already and he's got two more in the stash.

Which one? The birdcage or the one the one d? I think he's got one of each. It's. It's there. It's on the list. I'm saving myself a bit for let me practice a little on the on the other kits.

Time is short ed gotta get, gotta get building I was gonna just bring up a kit from the way past that I sort of remember is the last kit I built was that 140th scale the sky raider with all the crazy features. You spin the prop and the wheels go up or something like that, or you move the bomb, and it was just. It was like the monogram kits on steroids and I remember building that and just it didn't work out well because those models really aren't made to be moving parts.

Yeah, Polystyrene is not a good load-bearing material well, this one's from a long-term, long-time contributor, michael karnalka, and this was going to diverge a little bit from modeling, actually, ed. So uh, he, he wants to know. He was wondering if we had a remote interest not related to modeling or the hobby that brings us a great deal of satisfaction when we take it up. And he got into vintage matchbox cars. He started playing with them as a kid. There's a whole collector's world out there for that stuff. He got into this looking at Diecast Collector Magazine from the UK. So they're all into that. And I'm going to start with you because I know you have a pastime and it kind of came up in the guitar string comments.

Tell us about that that you do in addition to modeling.

In addition to modeling, I'm a bass player in a jazz band and I'm learning teaching myself guitar with a friend on keyboard. So I would say at least maybe once a week I have a jam session at a friend's garage, just like I did when I was a teenager.

Oh man, that sounds so fun.

It is. We have play dates. It's fantastic.

You have play dates to play?

Yes, In the friend's garage. He's got a studio in his garage. It's a couple of miles from my house. We go there on a Sunday morning 10 o'clock. We're there until 3 o'clock. There's modeling fluid. It's just enjoyable as all hell.

Now do you all perform anywhere?

No, Once in a while the jazz band performs at Caltech or something like that, We've got links to Caltech or local stuff, but not really. Everybody's too busy and it just isn't worth it anymore.

Gotcha.

My father does something similar but he picks and grins with a bunch of guys down in Tennessee where I'm from. He loves it. I mean he's been playing a little bit all his life but now that he's retired that's a really big part of his life getting to do that once a week. And if folks don't know, all the bump riffs for Plastic Model Mojo were done by Ed. So, ed, that's been a hit and we really appreciate it. We thank you for that contribution to the effort.

No, you have a legacy of my base.

Thank you very much.

I was just going to say at some point I should send you the link to our CD, a jazz CD that anyone can just download and listen.

Oh, that's great. Yeah, definitely, Dave. What about you? Do you know what the answer to this question is? No, I do not have well, unless you consider my library tendencies a separate hobby. I don't, Although my wife might argue otherwise. I actually don't have another hobby.

But your hobby is reading, don't deny that. Well, but your hobby is reading, don't deny that.

Well, there is truth in that, but I don't have a hobby that's not related to modeling, a hobby I get so much enjoyment out of I don't have the need nor the time for another one. Now I know what Mike's answer is, I think.

Well, the military was a thing for a while, but it's gotten expensive enough that it's kind of slowed down. But I went to my. Let's see, my youngest son has become a rather savvy coin collector. That's an understatement. Yeah, it is.

Oh, we got to talk, hector, that's an understatement?

Yeah, it is. Oh, we got to talk. Well, we'll save that one for later. But anyway, I took him up to Chicago this past summer, to the American Numismatics Association's World's Fair of Money in Rosemont, there near Chicago, and helped nurture his hobby a little bit. Nurture his hobby a little bit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, heritage Auctions was there in force, previewing coins, of course, in their next upcoming auction and a lot of other stuff which happened to include a lot of vintage baseball cards which was a hobby I enjoyed in the early to mid-80s for a long time. Unfortunately for my wallet, that one's kind of taken hold again. So I've kind of got back into baseball cards from kind of before I don't know about 1975, all the way back into the thirties. So not cheap but enjoying it. It can be expensive or as inexpensive as you want to make it. So I'm trying to to keep a little control over myself. But it's been fun. I've got a collector's gene from my mother and just needed something to scratch the itch and that's. That's kind of helped it out.

So Can I ask you a question? What's the difference between a collector's itch and a hoarder's itch?

About $2,000.

I'm not buying anything and everything just to get it what I've got's curated. I'm not just anything and everything just to get it what I've got is curated. I'm not just throwing it around everywhere. I don't know. You could argue that maybe they're potentially closely linked, but hopefully I don't go down the hoarder's road.

I understand. I'm just saying there's a small line between the two of them.

I don't disagree. We got one from past guest, Jake McKee, and hopefully he's going to be on here in another month, in the coming month or so.

Yeah, we got a lot of episodes to record man.

Now this is a good one. A new person is getting into the hobby for the first time. Beyond the basics buy a paintbrush, use xyz brand of paint, start with easy kit, etc. Etc. What suggestion would you tell them? What tools would you recommend that are non-standard hobby fodder, that maybe they should pick up so you can kind of go down either of those paths, or both. Dave, what do you got?

I can tell you what Now. It's not necessarily non-standard, but it's something that if you told me I was going to be stranded on a desert island and I could only take a few modeling tools, this would be my number one. This is the one I cannot live without, and that is the God Hand Nipper. You would not, and these things are not cheap. They're made in Japan and you know. You're paying $50 plus for a pair of parts. Nippers seems insane, and it seemed insane to me, and I did not. I used inferior nippers for the longest time and dealt with the results of using a less than top quality tool, and once I got the God hands, it changed. It actually changed my modeling. It made my modeling so much better because of the fact that there was so much less cleanup to do. And that would be the one item that I would tell everybody, no matter how new to modeling you are, go ahead, pull the trigger. Yes, it hurts, but go buy them.

Ed Amen.

You must, you must have a pair.

I do, I do and I broke down and I got it. I agree. The simple truth is there's less cleanup of every part. Exactly, when you think of that time, it is easily worth the extra money. Yes, the time you save in cleanup, it is easily worth the extra money. Yes, the time you save in cleanup, which is nobody's favorite job, right, it's worth the extra money. The tool that I sort of out of, that is besides the usual stuff, is, I'll be honest with you I can't build a model without Lego. I use Lego every time to make jigs, gotcha.

Interesting.

And there isn't, especially for airplanes. Yeah, it's just so easy. I want to make sure the wings do it the same height. You know that kind of stuff. What's easier than just building it up with Lego?

And I've got an instant jig. I tell you, ed, it's interesting. You said that because you know we just came back from HeritageCon and one of the nice things about this year's trip was we had a friend from Salt Lake, dr John Vickis, fly into Detroit and meet us there on Friday before we went on into Canada the next day, and he and another gentleman in our little circle of modeling friends use Legos to build, essentially like you're doing, jigs so they can transit their models through the airport and TSA screening and all that.

I use them too. Certainly, whenever I'm taking my models to someplace, you know, set them up with Lego, but I mean, I use it in the construction too as well.

Yeah, certainly, yeah, well, that's a good tip, that is a good one. Well, for me, I'm going to go with the. The advice line of this other than Legos and God hand nippers, which I also have, the tools are are pretty well understood. But I would say, if you're just learning, get out there, find somebody you like on YouTube and watch and learn. With one caveat your first efforts are not going to look like those YouTube rock stars that are out there building these amazing things. They're just not it's easier, I think it's easier. Youtube rock stars that are out there building these amazing things. They're just not. Yeah, you, uh, it's, it's easier, I think it's easier. We've got a lot of much better kits than we had in the past. We have much better finishing products, weathering products, et cetera. But to some degree, you have to pay the ferryman.

Oh, yes, absolutely, there's no shortcut and be willing to learn, because, right, there are no shortcuts. Skills are learned and refined and honed, and some of us get there faster than others. Some of us achieve things that others may not think they can do. But you got to put in the time to some degree and don't expect necessarily stellar things your first time or two out. Just it's like Edison's pile of light bulbs that didn't work. Right, that's right.

And I also think you need to. You have to pay your dues with instructions. You have to learn. You know you cannot. You have to learn to decode the instructions right there. There and the sequence. There is a code, a secret code, a secret sequence to every model and it takes experience to figure that out and I think any newbie who starts with the instructions and follows it to the letter will sooner or later find themselves disappointed.

Yes, there is an art to reading instructions. It isn't a science, it's an art.

All right, let's get another one up. Go go, adam Greenwald from the United Kingdom yes this is a fun one, okay. After recent incidents at the bench, I would like to ask what is the furthest distance from the hobby bench you've ever found a lost part?

oh god.

I've got hang on, I'm not done there's a couple of paths you could take here, oh god, and or the longest time interval between losing a part and actually finding it. Oh god, that's your god, yes you got ed. Sounds like he's ready. Go Ed.

I was working on the 172nd Ukrainian and I dropped a wheel, and I dropped the wheel in front of me and I finally found it about a dozen feet away under one of the tires of my car, in the garage. In the garage, and believe it or not, I dropped another one and I found it about a dozen feet in the opposite direction, hidden someplace, and I was in a frenzy it's a long way.

I assume you build in the garage yes, I hope so, and I try like hell to confine. You know what I mean? I think that's the whole thing about a man cave. You have to build a confined space. You have to do something to confine your modeling space as much as possible to keep stuff from launching all over the place.

I think that's good. I think that's absolutely true. Go ahead, okay. The longest distance was probably. I found a modeling part that I lost and could not find. It was some small part to a Japanese IBG, the Japanese version of the Ford truck, and it has, you know, those teardrop-mounted headlights that are mounted on the front.

Oh, I hate teardrops. Yes, oh that.

Well, I dropped one and I could not find it anywhere in my model room, hands and knees sweeping up broom, you know, did everything, could not find it, just went ahead and finished the model without it. The floor in my bedroom, which is on another floor of the house, way far away, from my model room.

It was in your clothes or your hair or something.

I, I it, it had to be in my clothes or in my hair. And you know, and I I've learned. Now, of course, when you lose a part, one of the things you do is you check your clothes, yes, and your pockets, and your belt line?

Yeah, your shoes, and it clearly was, but I never. I just one day walked into the bedroom and it's like there was a light shining on it. It was as obvious as the day is long and it was right there, and that was about three or four months later. So, yeah, it had to have been in my clothes or my hair. I didn't think of searching my hair. That's a good point.

Well, I bring that up because I've often had something zing out of tweezers or pliers and end up in the forelock of my hair oh really, yeah, it's like right above my forehead less of a problem over time. Oh yeah, well, yeah, it is I had to take the shot. I'm sorry. Okay, I owe you one now. It's gonna come hard. I hear you and I deserve it. Well, mine comes from the E16 float plane. I just finished.

Yeah.

Now, I worked on that piecemeal for a number of years and, if you remember, I've moved my workbench since then, right? Well, when I was working on that kit, all the exhaust flares that protrude out from under the cowling on that kit are individual pieces, right? So there's like 14 of them, 14 exhaust flares.

Which are just little stubs of plastic.

Little stubs of plastic with a little bit of shape to them. I dropped one and lost it. Couldn't find it anywhere, so I made a little plaster plug mold and did the old heat up some sprue and jammed in the plaster cavity and made myself a new one, apart from a second kit.

Right.

I don't know how long later it was. It was probably a year north of a year year, maybe two when I moved my workbench 90 degrees to one of the other walls of the basement and then was cleaning up the spot under my workbench and what I used to clean up with and do my lost parts search with, I have a draftsman's brush. Yeah, ed, you know what I'm talking about.

Yes, I do.

Really fine. Horsehair brush yes, Used to get eraser bits off your drawings Long time ago, right, oh God. Yes, Well, that makes a great part sweeper. Yes, they do. And when I was cleaning up I was like, well, why don't you go ahead and use this? And you know, I found lots of stuff, including that little stinking piece of plastic. So a long time yeah, over a year. Guaranteed, it was over a year.

So not a big distance, but it was right under right under my nose, but uh, but it took forever to find it. Oh, from IPMS Duneland, john Fluck.

Okay.

You know he's been building for over 25 years and knows we're in that same ballpark.

Yep.

Ed too. When Evan was on, he hadn't been building 25 years. He's barely 25 years old, but we've certainly been building that longer and longer. What is the most influential item or thing that we have now? That wasn't available when we started, when we started modeling?

influential.

I guess you can take that several ways you can take it however you want to take it.

That's what it's all about. I'm gonna go out of the box you're gonna say the internet that's damn sorry, let me.

Let me do that again Exactly, particularly, youtube. Well, let me qualify Particularly two parts of the Internet YouTube and Internet model stores. Because when I started modeling, the only way you could get a kit that your local hobby shop didn't have is try and get them to order it for you and, depending on their distributor relationship, they might be able to or might not. That you combed through each month or the squadron flyer sale flyer which of course, everybody waited for with bated breath. So acquiring models is much easier, particularly aftermarket, and decal sheet is so much easier than when I started. Sheet is so much easier than when I started and if it exists, you can obtain it as long as you're willing to pay the money.

One of the things about joining a local model club was learning from the more experienced builders and, depending on the size of your model club and their interests, there was only so much you could learn from your local modeling members, I mean when you would go to contests. One of the things that used to be much more popular than now at local contests were presentations, because that was your one opportunity to learn from somebody who wasn't in your local model club. So you may pick up techniques that none of your local modelers may know. Now the world is your oyster. You go on YouTube. There are more modeling channels than stars in the heaven, and there are different channels who have different approaches, all who favor different subjects. It's so much easier to learn the skills Now. You still have to do them and, like you said, you've still got to pay the ferryman his toll, but at least knowing what you're supposed to be doing is so much easier than it used to be.

What about you, Ed? What do you think?

Well, if Dave is going to take the big view of the Internet, I'm going to go the other way and take the real small, teeny, hands-on view of a little bit of nostalgia. What's really different for me when I was starting out is the airbrush, to be honest, and superglue.

Yep.

You cannot model these days without super glue, certainly you can't do any PE without it, and an airbrush I mean it's second nature. And those were certainly when we started. We had no idea that they existed, and they did really for us. And now it is that and and the idea, to be honest, that the kits themselves, the kids themselves, bear no resemblance to the kits we built.

they, they don't, and, and I give credit to the companies and the engineers and all those people who design and build those suckers. There is. You know, if you're building a model today, you have no concept of what a lousy model is.

Right, go pick up a frog kit, build it and then get back to me. Yeah, yeah, oh. And that's another reason I'm convinced that modelers who start out now are becoming better much quicker is because the kits are engineered to go together, whereas in the past they were engineered to kind of fly in formation. The parts were in the general area.

Right, and I think the lack of frustration leads to you concentrating and making a better model. Yes, I agree, if you're not, if you're not saddled by things like fit and this, that and everything, you not only can make a model better, but then you want to make it better. There are other things you think of that you wouldn't have thought of before if you were so damn busy filling scenes.

Right Yep, and getting parts to fit that really were trying their best to not.

Yeah, all right, mike, your turn.

I think just the economic and technological place we are in today allows things to get to the marketplace that there was just no way to do it before. And you know, you know we often joke about the, the glut of a 3d printed materials out there for folks, a lot of overlap, just everybody seems to be doing it. A lot of that becomes white noise if you're trying to pay attention to all of it. But it's just amazing how little effort and financial investment it takes now to bring something really useful to somebody to the marketplace.

Yeah, take a look at all the 3D printed track companies. Yeah, I mean, that's a lot. They are way too numerous to count.

There's getting to be as many 3D printed radial engines. Yes, Some of those things are just stupid, crazy looking man.

Oh, they are works of art. Who would?

have thought Right, it just amazes me in our times today what we have access to and I think that's it. We just have access to so much in our times today, what we have access to, and I think that's it, we just have access to so much. And the the financial, investment and the technical technological hurdles folks, folks have to get over to bring something they have a vested interest in to market, that that bars really come down and we're seeing things that 25, 30 years ago would be no way would anybody even consider them, because it was so hard and required so much work to generate the master to cast them up or make the tooling or whatever. Oh yeah, it just was not viable to even think, consider it, and I think today things have changed a lot and it makes, makes makes the hobby really, really fun right now.

It does.

Ah, it's from our friend Tim Nelson in the Seattle area. Too tall Tim, Just right. Tim, Just right Tim.

He says we all have finite time and some percentage of that time can be devoted to modeling. He believes that the biggest factor in building a fine model is the willingness and ability to invest the time we talked about that. You got to pay the ferryman Time devoted to fundamentals, getting the small details right, addressing problems, fixing mistakes, et cetera. That said, we all want to complete projects and move on to the next shiny kit.

So what are productivity tips and hacks that folks use to save time at the bench? So what are productivity tips and hacks that folks use to save time at the bench? For example, and not particularly profound, he offers two. He says he tries to have two parallel projects on the bench at the same time with at least some common elements, to take advantage of economy of scale in painting in particular. So I guess paint projects that have similar paint schemes will be using light colors, so you're not having to swap your airbrush out so much. Right? And Ed, to something you're familiar with he tries to use some project management techniques to plan projects and avoid shitting himself in the foot, Because negative modeling certainly is not going to help your productivity.

Yep.

Well, Ed, you got any productivity hacks and tips.

Productivity. Again, it goes back to me to instructions beforehand and writing and understanding the sequence, and I also do what I call the Noah's Ark of modeling. I'll build two that are similar. The last one I did a 32nd Wildcat and a 48th Wildcat. So there's that. And in terms of productivity, it is important when you're doing multiple projects to actually sit down and ask yourself what are you doing today? When you sit down at the bench, take a minute to say why am I here? What do I hope to accomplish today? I want to do this on this kit, okay, and then you've got a goal and that helps the productivity as opposed to sitting there and wondering what you got to do. That's the best I can give.

Well, I mean, you sit there and you pick the wrong thing and you screw up a build sequence or things like that. So that makes sense. I do that. I sit down and think, okay, what am I about to do and how am I going to do it, and then get going on it. And I think that's really important. Ed Dave, what do you? Got Productivity hacks?

This ought to be good Time management, Lack of or lack of Organ? Well, and it's companion. These two things are related Time management and organization. Okay, I waste way too much time, I procrastinate, I'm disorganized Again. We talked in a previous episode about me trying to be better, about putting at the end of each session, putting all my tools back exactly where they go, so that I don't come in and spend 15 minutes of a modeling session looking for a tool that I need. I'm terrible at it. I'm trying to get better.

A companion to that is shedding stuff that does not add value to your day, your life, whatever, and the biggest one of those things is your cell phone. It is so easy to take five or ten minutes that you could be reading a reference book or you could be looking at the instructions for a model if you're not at the bench or doing some research on the subject you're building or a detail you need to get right, and instead you're doom-scrolling Twitter. You're looking at just stupid stuff on your phone. I can't delete Twitter from my phone. I wish I could, because I think that would give me back part of my life. And the one thing that again goes back to time management the one thing you, no matter how much money you have, you can't buy more of, and that's time. The minute that just passed is the minute that you will never get back. So there are only so many of them left for each of us. Use everyone as best you can wow, those are both pretty good so you go come on, come on top it.

time management. It's an experience thing, as ed has alluded to, and it's it's, I think, at the front end of your project, sitting down and going through the instructions and figuring out what makes sense and what is just not going to work, what is putting your build at risk, like putting the landing gear struts in the wings before you put them on a fuselage and having to carry them with you through the rest of the entire build Stuff like that. Right, that comes with experience, knowing, knowing where the pitfalls are and if I think, if you take some time to figure those things out, you're gonna end up not breaking stuff. You're not. You're gonna end up not painting yourself into a corner, and you know, sometimes those things are just about unrecoverable sometimes and I think sometimes a little time at the front end can save you. You know, minutes on the front end can save you hours later on.

Yes, and fundamentally that's time management. Even though it may seem like a mistake and we all make mistakes actually learn from that mistake. Take a minute to go. Okay, this is what the mistake was. This is what caused it. You didn't pay close enough attention to the instructions and you put on a part wrong or whatever. But learn from that mistake so that you don't waste that same minute again in the future.

And I just want to add another concept from project management. Oh sure Of risk avoidance.

Yep, yep.

Understand when something is at risk, when there's no undo and that's what my big thing is, especially when you're dealing with to me, when you're dealing with clear glass and decals and most of photo etch, there is risk avoidance because you really a lot of stuff, stuff.

You don't get a second chance well, gentlemen, we got time for one more, one more, let's get it. Oh, we get a fun one to end this on good. This comes from, comes from our friend, scott Stachowiak from Saginaw, michigan, from the Mid-Michigan Model Makers, and we certainly enjoyed his feedback over the last few years and hanging out with him in the dojo at shows on occasion. What is your favorite nostalgic or nostalgic kit? So this can come from any angle your childhood, something you like, what have you? And I can start this one. Go, and I need to pick this up. The first kit I built by myself was a monogram 148 scale Hawker Hurricane Good kit, and I think that one would be a pretty reasonable build as long as I didn't try to fix everything about it.

Yeah, to approach it like you did with the Airfix 76 scale kit, that and I can apply my current skill set to it and actually mask the canopy instead of trying to paint the stringers by hand and ended up just having to paint the whole size of the canopy yellow or khaki or whatever, because I couldn't paint a straight line.

Well, I still can't.

Dave, what's your favorite nostalgia?

I'm tempted to say 72nd scale to me is zero.

That's contemporary, Dave, yeah.

I know, I know, but it's a good joke. So I had to go with it. Monogram F4D in 72nd scale, the one with the raised panel lines that came out in the early to mid 80s. At the time it was a cutting edge kit and it went together reasonably well. It was reasonably well engineered and I remember building it. I remember enjoying it. And there's, I know I'm building it, I remember enjoying it and I'm like you. I know that I could do it again and do it so much better, but then again all those kits have been superseded now, so I don't think I would spend the time doing it.

Yeah, that's not your jam, at least not right now. Ed, you got one.

Well, I'm going to get controversial. I'm going to say I really have no interest in nostalgic kits. I don't listen to 8-tracks. I mean I don't have a slide rule anymore. You know what I mean.

I know what you mean.

Those things had their time. But I have no interest literally none in building those kits. I love those planes by all means and I would like nothing better than to build the latest of that monogram. I've spoken about it before and I must be getting boring on it, that monogram series. Yeah, of that monitor, and I've spoken about it before and I must be getting boring on it, that monogram series, yeah. But I, I'm not gonna touch the old. There's no old kit that I, I nostalgic, that that I that I yearn for any more than I, you know, yearn for all those other things that no longer really exist. You know floppy disks and what have you. I mean mean, they're just not, it's just their time has passed. And so if I'm going to spend my time, I'm going to spend my time on the best kit I can find.

I think that's a great attitude. Life's too short to build crappy kits.

You know, and especially for the reason of nostalgia. You know because I built it as a kid and I mean, if you're going to try to prove yourself, you can build a kit, because I built it as a kid and I mean, if you're going to try to prove yourself, you can build a kit. Why mute yourself from the foot and get the oldest one they have when they have a new one? I mean, why would you build old stuff when the newest stuff just is so much better all the way around? And so I don't feel any nostalgia. I have no reason to build an old kit.

Well, that's an honest answer.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, this was fun. It was fun, Ed. Thanks for playing with us.

Is it ending already? We just started.

About an hour and eight minutes, man.

We're in the gravy now, yeah it's early in the evening for you, it's late at night for us.

Man, yes, yes, it is.

Well, thank you for coming on.

It was my pleasure, absolutely.

And if anybody reaches out through us to have you do the presentations at their club via Zoom or Google Meets or whatever, we'll let you know. I appreciate you offering that.

I'm sure you will.

All right, all right, ed. We look forward to the next time we see you, so maybe we'll get a national you can actually drive to here in a few years.

Well, we'll get a national you can actually drive to here in a few years. Well, we'll see, yeah, and I'd love to come back and talk to you about what's going on at the museum and that kind of stuff.

Oh yeah, so we'll have to figure that out, all right. All right, ed. Thanks again. No problem, it's been a lot of fun. All right, well, that's always a lot of fun, yes it is.

Ed is an entertaining guy. I mean, he's a New Yorker who spent all his time in California and it's just a great combination.

And he's been at the hobby a long time.

Yes.

A little different perspective than some of our other other guests. Yep, but they've all been good. It's always enjoyable it is.

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All right, dave, it's the Benchtop Halftime Report. You got that, moosaroo, build off your back.

Yes.

Hopefully other things have been moving forward, what you been doing since. That has concluded.

The Moosaroo is done. The less said about it the better. A little bit of frustration there at the end.

That might be worth talking about.

Yeah, yeah, it was the pressure to get it done. I'm sitting there doing it and hating that. I'm doing it because I want to be doing other things. Now it was not. I mean, I enjoy building. Well, I enjoy building.

The kit was fine. It was a good kit and I love what some of the other participants did with it. Some great ideas and I learned things. You know, using a lot of the AK terrain products for both the water and the mud flats for my base and the mud flats for my base I learned some things. One of the things I learned is that AK's instructions, or at least their representations on drying time are not correct, and more about that at a future time. I'll sit down and talk about that at length at some point. Maybe a shop talk quiz. Yes, I think that would be a good shop talk, but it's done. I'll put some pictures on the dojo.

But that freed me up to do what I wanted to do, which is A get back and finish the SAM and then get started on the F, started on the F8Fs that I'm building for the group entry in Hampton Virginia, and I got back into both projects and they're both moving along and, as I said, I came back from HeritageCon inspired.

I'm building three F8Fs, three of the same kit, the Hobby Boss Simple Kit, which is truly simple but actually a good kit. So this is my first attempt at a Jeff Groves a group build or a batch build like this and so far it's coming along really well. And I got to say I see some of the advantages that Jeff mentions when he talks about building two or three of the same kit at the same time, and not only the time saving but the fact that as you do them you get better. As you're doing it, you figure things out as you go along. So my bench is hopping. I just need to get it cleaned up, I need to get it a little better organized. And I need to get it cleaned up, I need to get it a little better organized and I need to get some stuff finished, sam, I'm hoping to have done in the next 30 days.

So do you see the batch building getting scaled up to something more sophisticated?

No, but I can see myself doing pairs. I could. I could very easily see myself. I posted on the dojo. I got a book Pacific Profiles book on land-based zeros in the South Pacific area from 42 to 44. And it's got, first of all, a great book and it's got tons of really cool. You know, everybody thinks of a zero as gray with the markings or late war zero, gray over green. But there's a lot more out there than just that and the book is very inspirational. I'm reading it now and I could definitely see myself at some point in the future sitting down with two or three Tamiya Zeros and doing two or three at the same time. All right, I could see that.

And I want to get back to my BT-7 because Mr Husted is building one. In fact he's already got his built and he started well after me and he's going to finish well before me. But I've gotten with that one so far along that there's no excuse for me not to finish it up and get it done. It's a great little kit, all right. So that's what my bench looks like. It's messy but things are happening and I'm happy to be at the bench. I got, to admit, the last two, maybe three weeks of the Moosaroo. I was not happy to go to the bench and that was not happy to go to the bench, and that was not. That was, I was angry at the bench and that's not good. So what's your?

benchtop look like. Well, I've spent some time the week there prior to heritage con, reviving or resuscitating my printer and my wash station. It's been idle for quite a while, four or five months probably speaking of that.

Speaking that, do you think that it's important to say at least once a week, use your 3D printer just to keep it? Do you think it degrades with?

non-use? That's a good question that I don't really know the answer to non-use. That's a good question that I don't really know the answer to. I know the IPA in my wash station evaporates at a fairly good clip because it's 99% Right. But I've noticed the uncured resin thickening in the vat. I've definitely seen that. But performance-wise I don't know, I don't know.

Well, we've got a lot of listeners out there who have 3D printers, so I'd like to know from them do you find that if you don't use your printer, say for 30 days or 45 days, that when you go back to use it again, has it degraded its performance?

Yeah, is there anything you've got to do to get it going again, Right? Well, and all that was just as a preface for the Flak Panzer 38D. I'm having to reprint some of the parts for that guy. I've got the main hull together and it's all prime now.

Now, why are you having to reprint some parts?

They got brittle because I left them out. Oh okay, Exposed to reprint some parts. They got brittle because I left them out. Oh okay, Exposed to the room lighting and some of them got kind of brittle. Well, one of my dropped and just broke it.

Okay, so were you suggesting that if you have 3D printed stuff when you're not working on it, don't leave it out on the bench under lights?

If it's not been primed or painted. That would be a good idea. To not do that, Just put it in a dark box.

Yeah, something where it's not getting any ambient light because the UV component of that's going to make some of the resins out there brittle. Now, they're not all going to have that same effect, but this particular one, those parts, have been printed quite a long time. So I think if I was going to do one of these kits again, I would print it as I needed it, gotcha, instead of running ahead and printing the whole stinking thing and just letting it sit. Or if I did that, you just need to put it away where it can't get any light, or just go ahead and prime everything on the support structure until you need it, because you're going to put it all together with super glue anyway. So glue or, excuse me, paint on it. It's not going to affect things too much, and I'm seeking out some better gun barrels and maybe some wheels. I've got a different solution for the wheels, I just didn't like the way they looked.

They printed okay, but it's just something not right about them. Is it something in the CAD design itself?

Well, one thing is there's no, it's like the gripe on the old it's Hilarious 38T kits. There was no backside detail on the wheel hubs.

Gotcha.

And on the first pair from the front and the last pair from the rear you can see the backsides of the road wheels, because it sits high enough and the wheels are big. So I may have figured out something else for that. But the gun barrels, the 3D printed barrels again, they print fine. They're just not very robust and I think even after you paint them they're going to be at risk of getting broken.

Yeah.

And if you super glue those things all together and you break them, that's going to be real hard to fix. So Aber makes a set of barrels for the German Kugelblitz anti-aircraft turret. Yeah, it doesn't matter whether it's a Panther one or a Panzer IV one or whatever, Right, the turret's the same. So there are aluminum gun barrels out there with some really nice resin-cast muzzle brakes on them. So I was hoping to pick that up at Heritage Con. But the barrel store had just piles of Aber PE and barrels did not have the one I needed.

Didn't that always the way it works? Yeah, it seems to be always the way it works. They have tons of stuff, but not the one item that you need.

And the KV-85 was progressing before HeritageCon. I haven't touched it too much since we've been back. The fenders are on, which I may have reported last time. That took some fiddling, but I finally got them where I wanted them. The thing that's progressed is the weld seams on the vertical sides of the fender supports have been added. Now did you use the?

kit, parts for the supports themselves.

I did. They're a little thick but there was some really ugly reengineering involved to just replace the supports and not the entire fender assembly. I won't get into that, but they're a little on the thick side but they look fine. And I did the weld scenes with the, the, the melting the styrene rod and then shaping it with a like the tip of a.

Right.

An exacto blade that's lost its point Right, and for that I like to use the 10,000 styrene rod from from evergreen no it's from plastic trucks.

Yeah, evergreen doesn't yeah?

evergreen doesn't make one that small. Yes, you're right, this stuff's. I like that.

You could use stretch sprue if you wanted to, right, uh, but unless you're the sprue stretch extraordinaire, getting them all the same thickness, you know the same diameter right every time is could end up causing some problems later if they're different, although all those, all those welds may not be exactly the same on the model, or I mean on the real thing. They're not going to be grossly different in that scale though, yeah, that's probably true.

So the 10,000ths is a good place to start and you're starting with the same base stock material every time. It took a little while, man. There's 20 of these I had to do yeah.

And I got them done in a couple of days. I was alone at the house.

Yeah.

I got a couple of texts when they were getting to you, yeah.

So I had to take a break. It all went well. It's just Sure, it's just tedious man.

20 of anything is a lot of work, yeah, and those are tiny things. A lot of work, yeah, and those are tiny. So while you know the, the actual doing, sometimes working on really small stuff, is much more tedious than you know doing a bunch of sanding a road wheel, something big well, yeah, 20 of those was just.

That'd just be tedium. This was this. You had to concentrate, and you know, because trying to get them all to look similar Right, they don't have to be the same, you want them all to be a little different, but the average width and the spacing of the little weld arcs needs to be close to the same. Yeah, but it came out good. But, yeah, I had to get up and walk around and go do something else every now and then, but no disasters, and I tell you, once I got in the groove it would go pretty fast.

Well, good.

Well, that's my bench man, so hopefully next episode We'll both have lots of progress to report.

It wasn't bad. It's two weeks. Let's set a goal. Let's make some real progress.

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Hey, mike, yeah, have you been spending money on modeling stuff?

Well, I had the big goose egg last time. It's not the case this time. Yep yep Well Though. I will be outdone folks, but I'll go.

Yeah, yeah, you go first, cause mine, it's going to take a while.

Well, I tell you, in the, in the in the uh refurbishment of my printer, I probably spent a hundred and a quarter on resin and another 50 on 99% ice prop isopropyl alcohol to get that going. So that'll last me a long time. So I'm not too concerned about that. Keep that jug sealed tight. We went to a major hobby retailer and we went to a model show. Yep, now I will fess up. I've spent actually zero at HeritageCon Somehow. I spent a bunch of money there last year.

They're probably not going to let you bike across the border next year.

They might not. They may make me make a promise. Yeah, exactly. But I did spend some money at Michigan Toy Soldier Company and pretty pleased with what I got. Anybody who's not been there and has wanted to go there, I recommend going there Now. The caveat is that the shop is geared primarily for miniaturists in the figure kind of vein of that, and wargamers and larger scale figure painters. So the model kit selection would have fit in the trunk of my smallest car.

Yeah.

Everything they had.

It is. It is not a kit shop.

No, and a high percentage of what they did have were tune tanks and egg planes, and yeah. Whatever you call the ships, yeah, that said, though, I've never seen so much paint and diorama and finishing stuff in one place in my entire life.

Yep, I agree.

So, and paint, Did I say paint, yes, you said paint. Hey, golly man, you talk about a lot of paint.

Paint and tools and weathering products and terrain products. Yep man.

Well, you'll have more to say on this, but oh yeah, you know he had a Mr Color Rack.

Yes.

So I picked up a couple of Gunze paints yeah, a couple I did. You can talk about yours in a minute. The big thing was, though, he had pretty good stock. You know, when you got that much stuff you're not going to have everything of every line all the time. It's just impossible.

But green stuff world yes who makes all kind of scenic stuff and tools for doing scenery and and texturing tools and things. I had a lot of stuff and tools for doing scenery and texturing tools and things. I had a lot of stuff and I was going to need some different grass tufts pre-made grass tufts to get on the base for the KV-85. So I picked up three different sizes of that. They make these machined acrylic rolling pins and I got one to do square cobblestones with. And these things have had me curious since I first saw them on eBay.

Yeah.

So I picked up one of those, and then the coolest one is I got two paper punches that are for making scale leaves.

Right.

And these. These remind me of some of the shape punches my wife used to have when she's all into scrapbooking. It's the exact same thing.

Oh yeah, that's exactly what they are.

So I picked up a couple of leaves that were good shapes that were in the right size for Also. The immediate use will be the diorama base for the KV-85. So glad to get this stuff. I finally got my hands on some Green Stuff World material, so I'll be trying that out. Not too much damage but you know it's respectable.

Well, you need to send me a check then, because I did damage.

Not to my wallet.

Well, I did it not only to my wallet, I did it to my finances.

I thought you were're gonna dump the whole gunsy rack into your shopping bag yeah, well, did you okay?

and it just wasn't okay. Let's start at the beginning. I have bought a lot of hobby related stuff in the last two weeks. In fact, in the last week, week and a half, I bent the end of my Badger Velocity airbrush just the little protective cap at the end. So I went online to Badger and I ordered the. It turns out they have two needles and tips for this brush, so instead of just ordering the end caps, I ordered the needle and tip set with the end caps.

Then, on Amazon, I ordered a tempered glass cutting mat. We use these self-healing cutting mats, which are great for cutting plastics and doing some things, but if you want to work in photo etch or sometimes some other materials, glass is the preferred surface to work on a tempered glass, and they make tempered glass mats that look just like a cutting mat, except they're, of course, made of glass and they're not really very expensive. You can find a variety of them out there. I just ordered mine off Amazon. I ordered a complete set of the Aviology decals tailcoats. I actually ordered two complete sets, so technically, one of those sets goes in your broke, my wallet.

Oh yeah.

Not my broke. Well, you haven't given me the money yet, I haven't given you the decals yet, so I can see why you would have forgotten. So then let's see. In addition to all of that, I then went to Michigan Toy Soldier and was like a kid in a candy shop. The main thing that they had that, unfortunately, I can mail order but I can't get around here is Mr Color paints, and they had them reasonably priced, mr Color paints, and they had them reasonably priced, and so I bought $90 worth of Mr Color paints. I also got a USB rechargeable electric hand drill. I got some Green Stuff, world terrain products. In fact, I think of the four of us, or the five of us at Michigan Toy Soldier, I won for the highest bill. I'm not sure that's called winning, but I did so.

Then we went to HeritageCon, and the Canadian dollar is very weak right now compared to the US dollar, which means that when you go to the money machine it goes far, and so I had a stack of it and I didn't hold back. I bought a whole bunch of used books three Shores and Cull books, two volumes on Canadian aviation history, a stack of Bound Air International magazines, and I bought kits. I bought four or five kits. I bought some tools, including these really really fine round diamond files that's being sold by the folks who do Flexifile and they're really really nice. I can see them being quite useful getting into places that you couldn't get into with any other sanding or file-type item, so I can see them coming in handy.

I got as a gift from Mr Wallace a little car air freshener in the shape of the nose of a P40, which was awesome and it's in my car and I am unreasonably entertained by it. We saw John Bonanni up there and John was kind enough. He had some patches from the company he works for, boom Aerospace, who just did the supersonic flight with their test aircraft where they're trying to build a supersonic airliner. He gave us some patches, which was very nice. He gave us some patches, which was very nice, and we acquired a bunch of beer and a little bit of bourbon, because we have the greatest listeners on the planet and they bring us these things at shows and it's awesome. So my wallet is very broken. I will not be spending a penny on my hobby until we get to amps and even then I may have to cut back because, oh boy, I'm going to need to keep your wallet for you, yeah, exactly.

Like your dad.

Right.

Yeah, I let you dole me out like $20 a day, but yeah, that's it. But, man, it was a lot, a whole lot, and I'm happy about all of it. Now, my creditors may not be happy about it, but I was pretty happy about it. Mike, are you done with your modeling fluid?

I am Dave Okay.

It was yummy. Okay, yummy. Well, remind us again.

Well, the first one, the 1429 for the main segment. Well, not the feature segment, but what we call the shell of the episode. All the standard features, standard segments. This Holler Lager from Farm League Brewery and Farm League Brewing is in Galton, ontario. And what's the ABV on it? It's a lighter one, it's 4.8.

Okay, so is it a lager.

It's a lager. It's a real clear lean-in-toward-the-pale-side lager. It's a real clear leaning toward the pale side lager. It's really good.

Good.

I could drink it.

Remind me again who gave that to you.

That was given to us by Mr Steve Johnson Thank you, steve who also gave us which was featured in the Wheel of Accidental Wisdom Forty Creek Niagara Whiskey.

So now, this was a whiskey, not a bourbon.

Yeah, it's a whiskey. And where's this place? It's also in Ontario. It was Forty Creek Distillery in Grimsby, Ontario. It's pretty good. Now, these Canadians we get from time to time this is pretty smooth, it's just it's not bourbon, it's different and I don't know. It's probably the mash bill and it's probably the barrels.

Yeah.

One thing I like to do if I can have the opportunity, if I don't wash the glass too soon, if I have a bourbon, particularly one, and I just get up and go to bed or something, and what's left the something and what's left the the residual dampness in the glass evaporates out right and leaves to the dry residuals in the bottom of the glass. Yep, with most bourbons that is a really oaky smell to it. I mean, it's like cutting oak firewood. Yeah, um, this stuff did not have that smell. It was a different wood. I almost want to say it was maple but I don't know that would make.

that would make sense in canada it would. I don't know that would make sense in Canada, it would.

I don't know if that's what they're doing or not, but it was good. I appreciate it, and thanks to Steve for letting us have that. So how's that beer you're drinking? It's good.

A Browmaster Brewing Company out of Carleton Place, ontario. This is called Route 21. It's a Marzen which is somewhere between a lager and an ale. It's a little darker. It's got a little bit of that malt. It's got a little bit of that malt. It's not as malty as, say, a Scotch Ale or something like that. This is 5.5% alcohol by volume brought to us by Evan McCallum, and it's very drinkable. You know what, on a cold Canadian winter I can see this being really really good by the fire because it's not too heavy like a porter or something like that, but it's got a body to it and I can see it being a really nice beer to sit by the fireplace in winter looking out watching it snow.

Well, all those beers styled as Oktoberfest releases are Meritsons, yes, and they're malty.

Yeah, except that what this doesn't have, that a lot of the Oktoberfest ones do, is they have the pumpkin spices this doesn't have any of that.

I'm not talking. I'm talking about the real ones, not those.

Right, Well, I'm talking about the ones we see in America. Really good beer, Evan. Thank you. I've enjoyed this one and I'll look forward to drinking the others. Mike, we're now really at the end of the episode and I've got two shout outs. Do you have some shout outs?

yeah, my first one's easy, it's gonna be mr steve johnson for providing us the gifts. Not only do we get some beers in this little bottle of burt or whiskey, he gave us a really nice coffee mug and some stickers. Yes and uh, his handle online is Fuzzy's Ghost Models. His online handle is Fuzzy's Ghost Models and look for him there online.

Very, very nice, got to have a really nice conversation with him at Hamilton and was just great and we appreciate highly what you brought us and we appreciate all the nice things you said as well. Well, my first shout out is to, of course, the Hamilton crew, the folks at IPMS Hamilton, who put on what, in my opinion, is the finest one-day show in North America day show in North America. It's a great show in a great location. The quality and number of models was amazing. The vendors were fantastic, the weather was on the nippy side but it wasn't awful, and the Canadians deserve their reputation as super polite people. All the guys up there were just so kind to us and you know it's great to see Stu. It was great to see him looking so good and hearing the good news about his wife. So big shout out to the guys at Hamilton. Thank you very much for doing what you do and letting us all come up and play.

Well, my next one is going to be to Mr Chris Wallace, model airplane maker that was mine. Well, you can tag on if you want, I will. We appreciate the accommodations and for seeking that out and finding it for us and hopefully get paid.

Yes, chris man. Every time he does the hard work of finding us a place and he hits a home run every single time. He is also one of the nicest people on the planet, and sitting around drinking a bourbon or a Steve Husted martini with Chris and just shooting the breeze either before the night before a model show or the night after a model show is just the pinnacle of fun.

Well, once you finish it out, because I know what your next shout outs are probably.

Well, the last shout out I have is to all of the folks who have contributed via Patreon, paypal, buy me a coffee, et cetera. You all are really helping us. As you noticed, phase one of the website is out. That's something that was paid for professionally. We're trying to do a lot, and the support of everyone out there really means a lot to us. Mike and I would not be able to do nearly what we have done without your all support, and I am truly grateful.

So if you'd like to do that and Dave touched on it, but there's Patreon, paypal. Buy me a coffee, buy me a beer is actually what we call it Exactly All those avenues can be found in the show notes. So we appreciate it, folks. It's really helping a lot and it's going to help us bring you more stuff in the future. Finally, dave, we'd be remiss not to shout out all our travel companions Mr Steve Husted he's been on the show several times. Mark Copeland he was on the show recently.

Yes.

Steve Rui came up. Delta Pilot came up from well, he's in the Minnesota club but he got to Detroit from Florida. He came up. We talked to him quite a bit and he knew Mark and Steve already, but we'd never met him face-to-face, only through some listener mail. And John Vickis from Salt Lake. We see him on occasion at the National Convention, but the last couple of times we haven't got to see much of him. He rode in our car onto Hamilton and really appreciated bringing him to and from Hamilton, back and forth between there and Detroit. He was excellent company in our car. He was so already looking forward to next year and seeing what that was going to bring. So yeah, dave, that's a lot man and as we always say, so many kids, so little time, dave.

Mark's coming to the close Yep.