There are many ways to fold photo etch, using a folder with a safety razor has been the go-to method for me. Not anymore! This tool set is much more ergonomically friendly. I found it much easier to use because it is easy to control, fits in you hand, is easy to manipulate, and keeps the photo etch in place when using it without a jig. \

Available individually ($4.16), or as a set of three for $12.96 at https://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/index.php

Highly Recommended

Many thanks to UMM for providing this product and IPMS/USA for the chance to review it.

Heller is making good the better of some of their older kits. Take this - the 24th scale Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Short Tail brought back into life with refurbished moulds. See what's incuded in our preview...Read on... »

Zoukei-Mura has graciously provided the IPMS Reviewer Corps with a first look at their brand new 1/32nd scale Kawasaki Ki-100-I Otsu Type 5 Fighter. Parts 1 and 2 of this review looked at the box contents and initial assembly, respectively.

Part 1 can be viewed here: https://reviews.ipmsusa.org/review/kawasaki-ki-100-i-otsu-type-5-fighter-part-1-kit-inspection

Part 2 can be viewed here: https://reviews.ipmsusa.org/review/kawasaki-ki-100-i-otsu-type-5-fighter-part-2-assembly

Final Assembly Process

This is a box stock build with no aftermarket add-ons or modifications.

Trumpeter has gone down a scale with the massive Chengdu J-36 in tiny 144th scale - 11 parts in a snap-fit kit! See more in our preview...Read on... »

The late Dr Leopold Scholtz was a senior journalist, political commentator and a highly regarded military expert. He was deputy editor of Die Burger until 2007 and was the European correspondent for Media24's Afrikaans dailies. Scholtz obtained his doctor's degree from the University of Leiden and was a research fellow at the University of Stellenbosch. He wrote several books and over 40 academic articles, most of which are about military history. He was a captain in the Reserve Force of the South African Army. His books include "The SADF in the Border War 1966-1989" [2013], "General Christiaan de Wet as Veldheer" [1978] and "Terror and liberation: The ANC/SACP, Communism and Violence (1961–1990)" [2022]. Scholtz died of leukemia in 2022 in Delft, the Netherlands, and is survived by his wife Ingrid, also a historian.

Gonna miss this but all good things must come to an end. Lots of great people and work on here, gonna miss it for sure. Take care all! Semper Fi

UMa Model has announced the 72-scale J-35/J-35A "twin set" kita in 72nd scale to the public. Bigger & twin-engine, this sleek Chinese fighter is the subject of today's preview...Read on... »

Special Hobby has provided this beautiful 2024 release of the First French Supersonic fighe the SMB2 Super Mystere, in 1/72 scale model.

• Nine grey Sprues
• One Clear Sprue
• Three resin parts
• Two Decal sheets
• One Instruction guide

The detailed quality is excellent in every way with this kit; crisp and detailed molding. The kit can be built in two versions: one the French version and there other the IAI Sa’ar Honduran version. You need to decide which version before you start the building. I when with the version A – French Air Force May 1961.

The Assembly is quick and easy.

The assembly starts with the engine and jet pipes in stage 1 and 2. There are several ejection pin marks that need cleaning up.

The Cockpit is next at stage1 and 2 this was straight forward just watch for part C39 as it is a tight fit.

Your hobby room can either pull you into the build or quietly push you away from it. We talk through a real-world reset that many scale modelers are facing right now: replacing doom scrolling with model reading, building a simple nightly routine that feeds ideas, and making smart changes to the model room so the bench feels focused again instead of scattered.

Listener mail takes us into two topics that keep coming up for plastic model builders: health and access. We dig into air quality monitors, ventilation habits, and even surprising CO2 spikes during airbrushing, plus the bigger “golden age of modeling” question. Kits, 3D printing, decals, and aftermarket detail sets are better than ever, but local hobby shops are closing, evolving, and shifting toward different audiences. We also share encouraging stories about modeling as living history and the youth programs that help new builders discover the hobby.

Then we bring on Dr. Michael Polin from Knoxville, Tennessee, fresh off winning Best Aircraft at the IPMS National Convention with a jaw-dropping 1/48 F-16. He breaks down the full “Magnum opus” process: brutal resin fit issues, black CA glue as a gap-filling workhorse, sanding and rescribing, integrating 3D printed parts and photo-etch, choosing decals and clear coats, and solving last-minute canopy and stabilizer disasters right before travel. We also get into a clever QR code build log, transport foam strategies, and how figure painting with Citadel colors sharpened his brush skills for avionics bay detail work.

If you enjoy deep-dive scale modeling talk with practical takeaways, subscribe, share this with a modeling friend, and leave us a review so more builders can find the show.

Model Paint Solutions
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Your source for custom display bases, laser engraved airfield and carrier decks.

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Mike and Kentucky Dave thank each and everyone of you for participating on this journey with us.  

Panzerwrecks features the best of British (& Commonwealth) in this latest issue. We have read the book & thought to take you on a walk through the carnages & some very interesting vehicles in our review...Read on... »

Welcome to Episode 131 of The Modelgeeks Podcast! 

After a small bit of banter, we share what is on our bench and what we have picked up lately.  We then cover Mail Call (keep the cards & letters coming folks!).  Don’t forget Listener Spotlight.  

For our Patreon Giveaway, courtesy of LionHeart Hobby we have the Ryefield Models 1/48 MiG 21MF Fishbed.

Our main topic is “Seafires, Part 1”.  El Prez again opens up his references and leads a modeler’s discussion of the Naval Spitfire or Seafire.  This part covers the Merlin engined Seafires.  If you’d like to follow along with his notes you can download them here.

We would like to thank all our listeners out there for the continued support you have given the show. We hope to see you out and about as we hit the show circuit. If you happen to see us at a show come on over and say hello, we may even put you in front of the mic!

If you can't make it to the shows then you can still interact with us through social media, Facebook, Instagram, and of course email at:

contact@modelgeekspodcast.com 

Also remember to surf over to the Geeks homepage at https://modelgeekspodcast.com.  Take a look at the Listener Gallery, and if you’d like to see your work there, send us your photos to contact@modelgeekspodcast.com.  File size and quantity is not an issue for us, but may be an issue for your email provider.  Feel free to send us a link to a sharing service if you use one, but please ensure the link expires at least 7 days after you send it.  We need a few days to get them published.  

Make sure you check out our group / community on Facebook:

The ModelGeeks Model Shack
 

Get on there and feel free to share your work! We want to see what’s on your bench. 

We also want to thank each of our sponsors for their support. We are very lucky to have them. When you have the time, pay a visit to their web sites, and have a look at their fine products.

Please visit our Sponsors and see what new items they have:

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We are very fortunate to be able to join the scale modeling podcast community and are in the company of several other really GREAT podcasts. Hopefully, someday we’ll earn our wings and be able to keep up with those guys!  Please check them all out at https://modelpodcasts.com.  It’s a consortium website created by Stuart Clark of the Scale Model Podcast.

 

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Detail & Scale’s Color & Markings first series was launched in 1984 with Volume 1 focusing on the Convair’s F-106 Delta Dart. Authored by Bert Kinzey and published by Tab Books [ISBN-13 978-0816845255], the first volume was largely in black and white with 16 pages of color. Thirty-six years later, this new publication, Colors & Markings of the A-7 Corsair II significantly revises and expands the original coverage of the original volumes, Colors & Markings Volume 15 of The A-7E Corsair II: Pacific Coast Squadrons [1990]. Authored and illustrated by Colonel Richard S. “Rock” Roszak and Mike Heideman, Volume of 10 of the new series of Colors & Markings is all in color and double the size: 64 pages vs. 127 pages. This English edition was released on June 26, 2026, and is available in soft square bound format [8.5” x 11.0”] or in digital format.

This week the boys chat to Brad Belsheim about building armour and his love for the odd ball and weird subjects.

This is followed up with a call from John "Boom boom" Bonanni about his exciting new adventure as the owner of "Tankraft".

Go and check out the awesome range of cutting matts that are available and all the other cool stuff by clicking here.

Don't forget to support the sponsor of our show, Scott from the Scale Modellers Supply

Leave us a message, comment or even ask a question, we would love to hear from you! Write to Onthebench64@gmail.com.

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MiniArt's newest release of the StuG III Ausf.G served with Sturmartillerie-Brigade 281. We look at the CADs, sprues, decals, etch, profiles & the real subjects from this boxing in our preview...Read on... »

This is part of a series of books by Kagero on warships and I have a few of these and are truly indispensable when building a model of the subject matter.

This book goings into great detail via illustrations of the Royal navy light Aircraft Carrier HMS Invincible –entering service in 1977. It served in the Falkland war in 1972. After the Falklands war it was to be sold to the Australian Navy but that was cancelled and remained in Royal Navy service until 2005. Before this HMS Invincible also served in the Gulf War in 1991 and 1993

The book is lavishly illustrated and shows every aspect of the ship in great detail. The book also comes with two large scale fold out poster size ship outline drawings in 1/400 scale

The illustrations give so much details as one could wish for as a modeler or history buff.

Border Model has a second 1/35th scale pre-cooured Mustang incoming. Two marking choices, sprue maps & features in our preview...Read on... »

MiniArt's new mechanic's workshop will fill the gaps in your 35th-scale diorama. We look at the kit contents in our preview...Read on... »

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Unfortunately Grant and Jensen are out for this latest installment of the Triple P. We are joined by longtime Posse Community Member and Supporter Terry Wilkinson. Terry hops into a seat with the guys and we also interview Terry about his modeling, influences, and background, as well as his own modeling and clubs in Pennsylvania. 

We also spend the bulk of our time discussing questions, suggestions, and other feedback submitted by our Deputy Marshalls and Posse Foremen. We discuss far reaching topics such as Social Media overload, AMPS, When a model is actually finished, Guests and Topic suggestions, and more! All submitted to us by our Patreon members! 

Remember to check out our YouTube page and our new regular video content at the Plastic Posse Podcast YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP7O9C8b-rQx8JvxFKfG-Kw 

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Bottom Line Up Front:

Building a Gunpla is for sure out of my lane. For those that don’t know, Gunpla is the kit, and Gundam refers to one of many TV shows. In other words, Gundam is animated Gunpla. This is the second Gunpla I have built. The first was a simple small kit for an in house model contest for my local club. Gundam Barbatos is a much more complex build. Having said that, assembly was straight forward as long as the instructions are followed closely. It turns into a nice kit, if you make a mistake, like I did, it is easy to recover from since no glue is involved. It is a fun build that doesn’t really take that much time to finish. Highly recommended for Gunpla modelers or for those modelers looking to try something different. For those looking for an enjoyable build, this is a good option. Highly recommended.

Meng's new 35th scale "Marseille's Pkw.K1 Kübelwagen Type 82 OTTO" boasts extra 3D-printed parts plus the man himself with a seemingly unimpressed Erwin Rommel - See what's inside this kit in our preview...Read on... »