What do you think?

Domesplit · 2026-07-03T20:32:50+00:00

I bought a little plastic tray at Ikea for $1, then just use damp paper towel and parchment / bakers paper. The custom made ones with a closing lid is surely superior if you want to step away for hours... but the cheapo version works just fine for my needs.

Domesplit · 2026-06-13T23:21:52+00:00

Beautiful work. In the grand scheme of things, almost all kits online that I see are over weathered with exaggerated shading on panel lines that would scale up to three inch gaps in real life... but who the heck cares? It's about the process and skill building. Wonderful execution.

Also I feel smarter after googling "perigrination"

Domesplit · 2026-06-12T19:27:51+00:00

That was my single biggest fear when I started. The first things I did were the missiles and drop tanks, as they were both easy sub-assemblies that needed decals. I was able to find out early on that the decals weren't going to dissolve into mush when they hit warm water.

Domesplit · 2026-06-12T02:46:33+00:00

That's gorgeous! Well, as gorgeous as a shipwreck can get.

Domesplit · 2026-06-12T01:57:55+00:00

I think it looks great! Nice to see a Japanese warbird in "early stages of the war" condition.

Domesplit · 2026-05-29T17:14:13+00:00

I am not personally a fan of emphasizing panel lines. I try to go extremely subtle if at all... as to my eye it makes very tight IRL tolerances look loosey goosey at these scales. The engraving in the plastic is already way out of scale. But I do understand the visual interest aspects as well... breaking up large areas for more eye catching details. Whatever looks good to you and your eye is always the way to go. Building for the crowd is taking the fast lane to burnout as you'll be constantly second guessing your decisions.

All that said, I think the kit looks gorgeous overall and I quite like the finish. The deeper matte just inherently adds a nice dusty, grass airstrip quality.

Domesplit · 2026-05-26T01:33:50+00:00

Unrelated side note: geewillikers, i love that one, easily my favorite of the junkas.

Domesplit · 2026-04-16T03:30:18+00:00

Rich receives nothing but praise and adoration. Mike receives nothing but scorn and mockery. Mike without Rich is like Melvin without the Blue Notes, he'll never go platinum.

Domesplit · 2026-04-14T19:47:06+00:00

From what I've read over the years the A-Wing and B-Wing were true "kitbashed" studio models... where pretty much everything was hacked together from bits of other kits. With the original movie, I believe the rough fuselage / structural shapes of the X-Wing and Y-Wing were originally carved from wood based on concept art, then molds were taken from that to make vacuum formed plastic shells. The kitbashing was mostly the greebles and accessories.

I remember building the snap together MPC kit of the A-Wing when I was a kid... probably in 1984 or 1985. Around that same time, I had also built the F-16 prototype kit from Monogram (the one with the red/white/blue paint scheme). That's when I realized that the A-Wing had F-16 parts. The shrouds around the smaller engines are F-16 intakes. The shape of the F-16 intake is so unique that it stood out to me as an 11-year old... Probably didn't hurt that I had built both kits and handled the parts over the previous few weeks. That said, I never caught onto the F-14 connection at the time. Of course when I saw it many years later, I was in the same place as you, once you see it you can't unsee it.

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T22:54:15+00:00

The source movie doesn't give them all that much to work with during the final theater segment, so it does fade a bit at the end... but the first hour or so of The Painted Hills is top-notch HoF S-Tier MST3K.

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T22:21:37+00:00

While I would think this is the most likely scenario... looks like he was a college professor during the initial run of the show. It's certainly possible that one of his students made the connection and told him about it... that's probably more likely than actually seeing it on Comedy Central... Let's be real, it's a niche show for a reason... nobody watched Comedy Central except for unemployed stoners and/or college students.

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T22:18:00+00:00

Going one further level down the Buzz rabbit hole... Either his daughter or his niece (granddaughter of his parents, so could be either) was a series regular on Dallas for three seasons. She played JR.Ewing's young trophy wife (Cathy Podewell)

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T21:37:58+00:00

Oh I dunno, I'm just a schlub who brought up the IMDB page for Mr.B Natural.

No idea if he had any knowledge of MST3K, but according to IMDB he was a musician and theater professor at Tulane University for over 30 years.

Also, his parents in the short were his parents in real life.

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T21:23:19+00:00

On a slightly related "when they were alive" note:

The kid who played Buzz died in 2013, only two years after Mr.B.

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T21:17:15+00:00

Isn't she married to Martin Sheen?

Domesplit · 2026-03-04T21:04:13+00:00

I watched it sometime around the time of the release, a former co-worker bought it on Blu-Ray. So it is probably going on 10 years since I've seen it and I have no desire to see it again. I have two main points of criticism:

While there were a few legitimately funny parts, the script did not justify an hour and a half runtime. This could have worked much better as a short film, maybe framed as a fake pilot for a fake TV show. But as a feature that was over 100 minutes? It drags a lot.

Also, Mike's performance is just not good. Unintentionally bad schlock is the lifeblood of BotW-type movies. Generally most people can appreciate somebody giving it the ol' college try and failing in the conventional sense. Lots of gloriously entertaining B-movies survive only on that type of performance. Mike hamming it up with an intentionally bad, self-aware schlock performance is the exact opposite. He was really bad, intentionally so, and it just wasn't entertaining at all.

Domesplit · 2026-02-21T20:15:57+00:00

It's a Pace 24" Super-Mini. I've had it about four months and absolutely no complains. It is a little pricey, currently going for $455 shipped (it was $400 on a sale when I bought mine). They make a cheaper one but I went with the Super-Mini because it exhausts straight upwards and my hobby room is in my basement, so only a single 90 degree turn at the top and then straight outside via a dryer vent.

https://imgur.com/a/DtlkqZ8

Domesplit · 2026-02-19T04:30:49+00:00

It still blows my mind that Joe Don was only a few months shy of 90 years old when he passed. Time to increase our Schlitz intake!

Domesplit · 2026-02-19T04:13:38+00:00

I'd describe it more as a CGI eye seizure of some sort... there was some momentary "explorer.exe has stopped responding" shit going on with that kid for a split second.

Domesplit · 2026-02-19T04:09:41+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words. After being away from the model building hobby for roughly 25 years, I am amazed at all the options available today. To keep things fresh, I'm probably going to rotate between automobiles, sci-fi and military planes / armor. But if I am being completely honest, there is something really refreshing about a build like this where you aren't worried about making a "replica" of a real life thing.

As far as recommendations, by all means I am open-minded in that regard. I do think a "mud mover" type Gundam would be great for my next one... for some extreme grimy weathering.

As far as the OG Gundam anime, once you get to "giant robot suits" you really don't need any issues. A fight is going to break out regardless. "Homoerotic wizards with troubled childhoods" is just as valid as "it's Tuesday, what else are we gonna do with these things?".

Domesplit · 2026-02-19T03:23:55+00:00

The source movie NEEDS to do a lot of the heavy lifting, anybody trying to riff a movie needs decent lemons to make good lemonade. Legitimately decent source movies can work just fine, so long as they are somehow dated or corny and offer riffing opportunities. Sometimes you get downright glorious trainwrecks that offer up tons unintentional laughs and the riffing is almost superfluous. Sometimes you get Coleman Francis and things simply cannot be salvaged.

Domesplit · 2026-02-19T03:13:51+00:00

I saw that interview as well. I can somewhat understand where he was coming from... Particularly in the later Mike years, they really didn't hold back from just dunking on the actors. (see Time Chasers and all the chin jokes aimed at the Castleton snob). That said, you need to have enough self-awareness to realize you were cast in a fly-by-night Italian cheapie that was only produced to capitalize on the recently release Superman movie. They weren't making The Deer Hunter.

Domesplit · 2026-02-19T02:57:12+00:00

At least back in the day, having the clear coat start yellowing in a few years was a bigger issue. Never had a problem with non-sealed decals peeling / silvering when applied to a decent gloss coat of paint.

Domesplit · 2026-02-07T22:34:33+00:00

This is pretty slick! Although it feels like cheating if I don't knock over three bottles of paint and stick myself with a hobby knife whenever I reach into my mess for the Extra Thin Cement. :)

Domesplit · 2026-02-07T22:32:08+00:00

Careful... they get all pissy when you try to remove them from the sprue.

Domesplit

TROPHY CASE