On The Bench Ep130

Cleaning out the compressor

Armor 101 with Sam Dwyer

The intro music is growing on me.

Back at it again, Dave, Ian, Julian and Sam get into What’s on Your Bench”. Dave slips into familiar territory with his “Why do modelers put up with bad kits?” by comparing a wrong hamburger order with bad model kits. We return the hamburger order, why then do we put up with bad kits from manufacturers? I don’t think it’s the right analogy, Dave, rather if we get a wrong order, crappy food and bad service we should not return to the restaurant. Model manufacturers are under no obligation to produce good kits. If we, the modelers, buy bad kits it’s our fault. Fool me once, shame on you (the manufacturer)! Fool me twice … yeah, shame on me. Stop buying the crummy kits and the producers will eventually fold. You can’t force modelers to do anything, I see it more as a need to educate modelers. Then again, herding cats would be easier and at the end of the day manufacturers understand dollars.

What’s on the bench. Dave, Ian, Julian and Sam do talk about stuff on and off their benches. Congrats to President Dave and VP Ian of DSMC. DSMC? I don’t know either. A bit of “advice” on decanting paint from spray cans? Good on you Ian for helping out a new modeler at the shop. I can see why you could step into the president’s job. I do enjoy listening to these guys, especially when Sam is a guest, soft voice and all!

Listener Mail. Airbrush and compressor maintenance would be a good topic for a special segment. I didn’t realize I should be draining my tank and as you can see from the picture above there was a lot of water, sluge and nasty stuff when I finally did. I’m not sure about releasing the bottom value with the tank under pressure though. Sounds very unpleasant and messy. Ian’s Excel “model stash” sheet sounds daunting. I use Scalemates myself and can access it on the fly. Plus, I can add not only my models but determine the particular release. It’s free, sortable, and doesn’t take another app on my computer or phone to run. I’m surprise none of the Benchers uses it. One listener asked, “If your house is on fire, what 3 kits do you grab and why?” Frankly, my hands would be full with Sunkist and maybe one guitar. I think Sam’s advice on having “contents insurance” makes the most sense. I guess I’m just not into esoteric or hypothetical questions. I really don’t care to speculate who would win in a fight between Yoda and Godzilla. But if my wife asks, the Tamiya F-4b, the AFV Club Meat Chopper and the 12-string Ovation 😉 Can I squeeze in the Kinetic A6E? The podcast nearly goes off the rails with Julian’s “Model Makismo” judging dilemma again. I don’t agree that the judge should know the kit and judge accordingly. As I’ve heard elsewhere, the product is judged in a competition, not the process. No extra points for building a bad kit. A hidden gem in this section is the tip on ship building. Work from the middle out, build in subassemblies and paint as you go! Concise.

What’s new in the modeling world. The Falcon sends in his comments, though I didn’t hear the falcon scream. Maybe he wasn’t feeling well. My ears did perk up at hearing about the coming Clear Prop! 2022 Polikarpov I-16 Type 5. I’m a big fan of the I-16s. Check it out on Scalemates. It’s a cool looking plane and another reason to use Scalemates.

Armor 101. Sam Dwyer (along with Dave, Ian and Julian) goes through building armor for the beginner from choosing a kit, building, painting and weathering, to displaying it after it’s done. While not delving into details per se, it’s an hour long discussion that lays out the general flow of things and is well worth the listen.

1.5 Butt Crumbles