Opening and Intro welcome back fine scale Moder weekly that's right after a short break while we moved offices and got the new studio set up Tim Kendra and I are back for more fun and that just means there's more of me so let's start looking at some kits starting with a kit that I know will be welcomed by many from Clear prop here's a 148 scale f-86a saber Clear Prop! 1/48 scale F-86A Sabre while the saber has been well represented in plastic the only 148 scale offering before now is an ancient Lindberg offering there was also a 172 scale kit from Matchbox what what was it Ancient Ancient Ancient Ancient Ancient okay surface detail on the airframe parts comprises very fine recessed panel lines and rivets that should look good under natural metal the upper and lower wing halves are full span with separate aerons flaps and Leading Edge slats inserts are provided for the inside of the slap Bay the one part tail planes have thin trailing edges the cockpit has side consoles with detailed tops instrument panel and multi-part ejection seat the fuselage halves also sandwich a full intake trunk and Jet pipe with front and rear fans and the nose and main gear Bays other features include the one piece intake lip open Speed brakes with detailed Bays separate Tires and Wheels the early gun troughs with covers drop tanks and the early windshield with separate canopy other clear Parts include the lights and the Gun Sight photo Ed brass supplies seat belts landing gear door actuators and slat rails the decals offer a lot of stencils as well as markings for three colorful US Air Force Sabers a 94th Fighter Squadron aircraft at March Air Force Base in 1949 a 62nd fighter Interceptor Squadron plane at Selfridge Air Force Base in 1950 and an f-86a from The 334th Fighter Squadron at the US Air Force Gunnery meet at Langley Air Force Base in 1950 we think this kit looks really good in the box but it'll probably look Even Better Built I expect it to be a big hit with the war in Ukraine on going ICM 1/35 scale Leopard 2A6 with Crew Armed Forces of Ukraine it's hardly surprising that we're starting to see more kits of the military vehicles and Hardware that are being employed and with much of that Hardware coming from other countries the possibilities expand hence this latest offering from Ukrainian company ICM a 135th scale leopard 286 with Ukrainian crew and appropriately since Germany supplied Ukraine with the leopard 26s Revel Germany is supplying ICM with the leopard 2 in this kit new in 2012 this kit has been updated several times to represent modernized variants the hull builds from the belly and sides with internal braces rear plate top and and side skirts suspension includes road wheel arms keyed for alignment dual road wheels with good Hub detail and the drive sprockets idlers and return rollers vinyl track runs finish the running gear the massive turret has separate sides and lower front movable cheek panels separate hatches and the mantlet to fit the two-part gun small details like smoke launchers and tools look good no clear parts are supplied but the kit includes a sheet of clear styring with templates to cut out some Optics decals Supply markings for five Ukrainian tanks wearing NATO 3color camo one in summer 2023 in the zapara region another in summer 2023 in robota one in zapia in Autumn 2023 two variations of what appear to be the same tank in Winter 2023 24 and another from Winter 2024 this kit also features newly tooled Ukrainian crew figures that are also available as a separate kit well molded the set includes five figures including a commander in the hatch a soldier smoking a pipe and perched on the turret a standing Soldier feeding a dog a treat and a pair who are carrying out track maintenance to equip this and other Ukrainian Armed Forces figures ICM has produced a set of infantry weapons of ICM 1/35 scale Ukrainian Infantry Weapons and Chevrons Ukraine including rifles machine guns rocket and missile launchers and drones the set also supplies a large decal sheet with uniform Insignia and shoulder patches as a fan of leopards I can see myself adding this to my collection sooner rather than later Den Vu gave us probably the best Meng 1/72 scale Dune Atreides Ornithopter cinematic representation of Frank Herbert's Dune world that we've seen with great visuals including the best realization of the ornithopters I've ever seen and it came the closest I've ever seen to matching what was in my head when I read book yeah it was really cool so anyway the subject of our next kit a 172 scale House of tradies ornithopter from mang designed to press fit together the parts are crisply molded the crew and passenger cabin has controls and five seats and four crew figures the fuselage have sandwich mechanisms for wings which inter mesh so they can move in unison the long Wings have recess lines and move between folded and flight modes optional raised and lowered landing gear can be fitted interchangeably thanks to polycaps and the belly and a stand is provided to show it in Flight individual clear panes are supplied for the cabin windows the atres Crest is molded in a light tan and fits in set on the fuselage no decals are provided and the painting instruction show the atres aircraft as seen in the film this will be a big model more than than a foot long at the fuselage and the wingspan's more than 2 ft so it'll be imposing either on your display shelf or a contest table if you like big trucks and I cannot lie then you'll want to pay Italeri 1/24 scale MAN TGX 18.500 XXL Lion Pro Edition attention to this next kit from itera here's a 124 scale man tgx XXL tractor the chassis of this curbside kit is molded with the oil pan bottom of the radiator inner front wheel Linings and rear fenders it is detailed with the front rear suspension axles brake tanks fifth wheel battery box as well as Wheels rubber tires and the transmission and drivetrain inside the cab are seats Dash overhead storage inner door panels and the bed for the sleeper typical of itary trucks the cab builds from the front sides rear roof and aerodynamic skirts cograph decals Supply instrument cluster badging inside and out carbon fire look graphics and license plates for almost every European country foil stickers provide the side mirrors and the chrome trim from the front with a heap of red plastic in this kit you should be able to make a pretty manly truck really Tim really you shush such a dad joke we've looked at ARA's terrific Arma Hobby 1/72 scale P-51B Mustang Deluxe Set p-51s in 172 scale before check the links in the description below below for all that information now the Polish manufacturer has released a deluxe set with two complete kits of the 172 scale p51b in addition to 3D printed parts for the exhausts seats and radiators the kits decals Supply markings for nine aircraft Captain Don gen's shanger LA from The 336th Fighter Squadron the Iowa but from The 354th Fighter Squadron an RAF Mustang Mark II flown by polish Wing Commander Stannis La skolski bald eagle 3 from The 374th Fighter Squadron a grimaced bird from The 355th Fighter Squadron with full D-Day Stripes Salem representative from The 334th Fighter Squadron Bonnie B from The 353rd Fighter Squadron a natural metal Mustang markk II from the raf's 309th Polish Squadron and as a bonus another grimaced p-51b probably used as a hack by The 354th Fighter Squadron another outstanding Mustang release from Arma we love Arma Edward is back with another beautiful Spitfire this one is Eduard 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk.XVI High Back ProfiPack the 148 scale Mark 16 highback so the big difference between the Mark 16 and the mark 9 is that the Packard built Merlin engine is optimized for low altitude operations we've looked at a lot of Edward spits over the years and many of the parts carry through including the fuselage Wings cockpit and clear Parts decals Supply markings for six Mark 16s one flown by Squadron leader Henry Zari of number 403 Squadron in Germany in April May 1945 a number 416 Squadron bird in Belgium in December 1944 another spit in Belgium in early 1945 with number 421 Squadron a number 127 Squadron fighter flown by Squadron leader Otto smick in Belgium in 1944 November a Spitfire from number 322 Squadron in the Netherlands in April 1945 and the Mount of wing Commander Donald Andrews in the UK in March through May 1945 another sharp Spitfire for fans of one of the prettiest aircraft ever built it absolutely is finally today we have another welcome Academy Minicraft 1/144 scale Boeing 737-400 "Colombian Air Force" reissue from from Minicraft Academy has reissued one of the classic Minicraft airliners the Boeing 737 in 1 to1 44 scale for airliner nerds like me this represents the 737-400 relatively simple the fuselage halves feature molded door outlines and a few panel lines the wings interlock to set the dihedral and the engines have front fan and rear body details cross Delta design decals give markings for 2 military aircraft a Colombian 737 called Kronos fitted to carry both cargo and passengers and an Indonesian Air Force VIP transport it's nice to see this kit back on the shelves and there are plenty of decals out there in the aftermarket to dress it up in whatever Livery you want indeed I may just do that look for reviews of the f-86a at fines scale.com fine scale modeler weekly brought to you by hobbyzone USA your source for hobby Storage Solutions hard to find hobby tools and aftermarket modeling Tooling Around: Discussing sanding grits and making sanding sticks needs there still seems to be some confusion about sanding grits and how those are rated on sandpaper on sanding sticks sanding pads and the like so let's go ahead and talk about that a little bit first off what you need to know is that sanding grits the lower the number on the sanding grit the coarser the grit is and the higher the number the finer the grit is so for example I have four different grits of sandpaper here the coarsest grit that I have and the reason I've got it is not because you'd ever use it on a Model I mean I do a lot of uh woodworking so anyway not that you would ever use this on a Model but it shows up really well on camera this is 60 Grit sandpaper and so you can tell very very very coarse that's a very coarse grit next up I've got two that look very similar to each other but one is 220 grit and the other is 400 so this 220 is coarser than this 400 you can hear that I think all right and then finally this sandpaper very fine is 600 grit so the same idea applies to say these polishing pads right here this 3200 grit polishing pad is going to be coarser than this 12,000 grit polishing pad now what does all this mean so that 60 grit or 80 grit or 100 grit sandpaper or sanding stick it's going to remove more material which with each pass of the Sandpaper and what we're doing then is we're working from those coarse grits up to the Fine grits because the finer grits are going to remove less material and the scratches that they're leaving are going to become finer and finer until eventually the finest grit sandpaper that you're using really basically levels out all of the other let's say damage that you've caused previously it's going to level all of that out and make it as smooth as possible now the thing that we run into if we use just sandpaper or if you're using sanding sticks or sanding sponges is that they can they can be compressible right they will just shape to whatever it is that you're pushing up against even sanding sticks that you can buy at the store they'll do that because they have some spongy material there and sometimes what we really are looking for is a hard surface for the Sandpaper to be up against so that's why we would turn to something like this a sanding block this is a very old school one wooden um you wrap sand paper around it nice hard surface what's nice about a sanding block like this is that you can switch out the Sandpaper right or you can go to something like this with this perspect material and then have a number of different grits that are already um applied to it now that can cost you a little bit of money but they are nice to have around however there's always this spot on a Model that you got to try to get to and you need something firm to get to it and you don't want to use a a normal sanding stick because it'll deform and you don't want that deformation so what do you do well the solution is make your own firm sanding stick now to make your own sanding sticks you don't need a lot of materials basically four things you need sandpaper you need a utility knife now if the thought the thought of using your modeling knife to cut through sandpaper doesn't automatically make you cringe you deserve what you get yeah I mean at that point you might as well use your decaling scissors to go ahead and cut sandpaper let's get back to it the utility knife you're going to need some popsicle sticks and then a glue stick now you can use a glue stick I like using these cuz it's simple easy you can also use rubber cement I don't like rubber cement as much because it can get glumpy and clumpy underneath your underneath the Sandpaper as you're gluing it so that can ruin the flat surface the other thing you can use use as spray adhesive that works too so what do we do you're going to choose the grit of sandpaper that you want on your sanding stick now here's the thing your sanding stick you're making it so you can have whatever grits of sandpaper on there that you want if you want to use the 60 great if you want to use 800 you can do that too I'm going to use 220 and I'm going to go ahead and put 220 all the way down one side of this one side of this stick and then I'll put the 400 down the other side if you have four grits of sandpaper four different grits that you would like to have on a single stick you can do that just as easily with this process so first what I'm going to do is just run this utility knife down the side of this sandpaper yeah yeah that's that knife screaming that's okay it's what a utility knife is for don't use your scissors on this so that should fit reasonably well when you check it and I'm okay with not having it all the way to the end there I can trim that which is something that we'll get to at the end of this so next then is you take your glue make sure you apply a liberal amount all the way down position it get it flat squeeze out the excess and then let it dry that'll cure up pretty fast in the meantime what I can do is I can make a second sanding [Music] stick Boom at this point then I've got two sanding sticks they ain't pretty but they will definitely do the job I'm going to go ahead and flip them over and then put the 400 grit on the other side so those are my two sanding sticks and like I say I'm just going to let them dry uh let the glue dry and I like using this this purple like kids school glue stick because when it does dry dries clear so I'll know when it has fully cured now that my new sanding sticks have dried it's dried clear time to give it a a whirl got a little nub here I know that one side is coarser than the other so we'll start with the course side look at that doing the job now obviously I could have done this with a commercially purchased sanding stick but the point is is that this is firm and it will not conform to any shapes that might already be introduced on the part what's also nice about making your own s sanding sticks in these cases is that if there's a spot that is awkward to get into and often times there is you know maybe you've got an area where you need to sand up next to something at an an you know and you need you need to be able to get in there well you can shape your sanding stick specifically for that particular work glue your sandpaper onto the end of it and there you go so that's just one example maybe you need something where you can get into a really tight spot and you can always instead of keeping the rounded ends you can always Square Off the end and go ahead and make a square sanding stick as well what's also nice about using the glue stick is that once you've used up the Sandpaper on this sanding stick you can very easily fry up one of the sides peel it off and then replace that sandpaper with a new strip easy easy peasy so am I saying don't use commercial made sanding sticks just make all your own absolutely not because I certainly won't do that but I'm also not afraid to make those sanding sticks uh specific to the needs that I have at the workbench when I need to do it so that's why I have an array of sandpaper at my workbench so that I can do those kinds of jobs just remember that when you're looking at grit the lower the grit the coar of the Sandpaper the more work it's going to do on each pass that you take on your model the finer the grit which means the higher the number the less is taking off every The Wrap-up: Stash sizes time recently Aaron and I for different reasons had to reorganize our stashes now of course we're talking about the modeling stashes not the because mine's nonexistent anymore and his well you know kind of grows into the rest of it anyway um so for different reasons we we went back and we had to organizer stashes now I'm going to stipulate right here out front that there is a big difference between my unbuilt kit collection and your unbuilt K collection and probably a big difference between mine and many of yours ERS of magnitude of difference orders of magnitude of difference and that that comes from years of being very selective and very strict about what goes into my stash so let's talk a little bit about yours first so about how many kits do you have it's a little hard to tell specifically kits versus like decals and detail and detail sets but it's probably 6 700 kids okay six or 700 kids some some people out there are like probably going oh that's a lot of kids others are going Child's Play wait until you hear about mine um anyway okay so six or 700 kids so what's your organizing Factor before this most recent organizing you're assuming there was any organizing Factor Tim okay um and that was part of the problem is that I would just add something to it and I I most of my stash is in a corner of the basement okay Corner being a very how about one end of the basement yes okay well we'll say end yes sure if for years it had just been I would try to find a place for things and at one point in time there were just boxes of things there and I couldn't see what was in it so what generated the so there wasn't really an organizing principle Beyond just being able to fit something in so Tetris it in there yes so what what sort of pushed you into reorganizing your stash and what did that entail and how are you organizing it now the the impetus behind the the reorganization was I just needed to get a handle on what I had and I knew there were things in that collection that I had picked up at some point in time thinking I was I was interested and then I realized it didn't fit anymore with what I was interested in I didn't necessarily want to keep it around so I decided that I was going to to focus on the areas of Interest which is not to say I have a single area of interest because I have like three or four and I would try to group things into areas so that I knew if I was looking for something the Australians flew okay then it was going to be in this area and if there was something sci-fi if there was a Sci-Fi it would be here if there was an airliner it would be here and then there were the other odds and ends which are sort of sprinkled in amongst those like I have a lot of Spitfires a lot of f-15s so that was the organizing principle going forward now it's not perfect yet but it's close when organizing did you downsize it all I did I got rid of the things that I knew that I was didn't fit either scale-wise or interest wise with what I was what I would be go looking at going forward so and what was what was the primary way that you did that the downsizing uh either gave it to people that I knew would want it or I sold some stuff here and there so I could you know like like eBay like eBay there you go so you made you made a little bit of money might have made which I could turn back into to adding things other things to the stash that fit more with others okay so that's that's an important question oh we got a fuzzy here that's an important question is so you did this reorganization yep has the stash grown since it was Shunk a little bit I mean um you know we were just at USA Nationals and that vendor room is you know full of Temptations but um I was able to pick up a couple things that fit my RF collection the new airfix Bristol Bulldog okay somebody had one of those I'm like going that's going in there because I had wanted one of those and then the uh special hobby uh L4 grasshopper cuz the Australians had a few of those too so they were things that fit with the collection there's also the Adres ornithopter from Dune which I added a little while ago so you know but again those fit within specific areas it's not like oh you know I like this this airplane's kind of cool I'm just going to add that in there which was for a while the Temptation was always to add just something because it was cool but I'm trying to avoid that okay just cuz it's cool thing all right so well there you go so you downsized a bit yes and then got organized again yes okay trying to stick to a plan very good so what about yours I mean you you your impetus was different than mine right yeah so mine wasn't so much a reorganization of the stash although it it was more of a moving and a consolidation of it because it was it was in a few different places and when we talk about you know the the difference in number of kids I have I have 38 kids in my stash yeah well you call it what you want I am of course I am I'm I'm very strict about what comes in and my how it has to be handled because pretty much the way that the way that I operate if something comes in something's got to go out and so if that means I have to give away a kit or I got to complete a kit or something along those lines I keep it strictly very much and boy is it hard especially working here or around this guy who's constantly hey how about this kid or how about this kid Tim let's go walk the vendor room and oh look at this new thing or or here's look at this large stack of Wingnut Wings kits because I know you have a I have that is the bulk of my collection that and and and Star Wars stuff um so and I do not count I don't count small scale Miniatures as kits even though they might be multi-art and so what you're saying is your stash is actually larger than 38 kits if we start getting into the figures if you get into the figures things start but figures are very well contained so um just because they're small just because they're small that just means you can fit hundreds of them in a small space right so the reason the reason though for the for the movement was because I was reorganizing my my work shop and I've got a better F going on with with how the workbenches at least for me how they operate and and that that whole thing so um so yeah that it wasn't it wasn't complicated in the moving of the kits so much as it was rearranging the workbenches and getting that whole thing in there so now I've got two long workbenches and then that third really big one that I share with my wife who does glass work um so it's it's a better feeling now in that Workshop which is good what we want to do is ask you how do you maintain your model stash how big is it what does it look like where is it at is it in your house or is it in some rented space that's offsite that you have to visit and you've got a very complicated catalog on how you and are are you just shoving the next one in on top of you know wedging it in around the others or do you are you alphabetizing them by subject what's your what's your organizing principle we want to know so please leave your comments below or email editor finescale docomo photos if you would because that would be really cool to see and maybe we'll show you a couple of photos of what we got going on yeah yeah ex all right anyway thanks for watching we'll see you next time Credits and Bloopers bye you don't get to laugh incorrect do it again yes I made a mistake [Laughter] Tim Jersey fried chicken I don't I don't I don't give I don't give away make sure you watch the Noles Bud um a redundant redundancies it dude you just broke it it's in pieces we're going to have to get some [Music] glue we've looked at our shut so there still seems to to be some confused suck if you think you can do it better than me by all means go make your own freaking video