Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / The Pope of Plastic: Rick Schad’s Journey from T-Shirts to TikTok Stardom

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The Pope of Plastic: Rick Schad’s Journey from T-Shirts to TikTok Stardom · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Break fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the auto sphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrol heads that wonder.
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How did they get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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Our guest is a seasoned professional artist and visionary based in Rhode
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Island with over three decades of experience shaping various industries.
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From designing iconic t shirts for clients like the Grateful Dead and the
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White House To innovating in the golf industry with the world's first fashion
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belt equipped with a divot tool, Rick Shad's creativity knows no bounds.
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His journey led him through packaging design, toy innovation at Hasbro, and even
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culminated in co creating the acclaimed Audrain's Newport Concours and Motorweek.
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And he's here to tell all of us about his story.
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So with that, let's welcome Rick to BreakFix.
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Man, great to be here.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for the, uh, introduction.
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I sound really important.
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And hiding in the background, but not for too much longer, is one of
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our regular co hosts, to break fix.
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Let's welcome back Don Wieberg from garage style magazine.
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Hello.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Good to be here.
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Good to be here.
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You know, next time, Eric, make sure there's some background music going on.
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When you introduced me, wave, please.
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Come on.
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Some nice lounge music, a cigar, step this up a little bit, you know?
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Well, Rick, like all good break fix stories, there's a superhero origin story.
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So tell us how you got involved in the Vehicle enthusiast world.
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What was that defining moment?
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What was that car that inspired you?
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Professionally getting into the car world.
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I was asked to assist in selling Ayrton Senna's rookie formula one car, the
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Toleman chassis, number two, which placed second at Monaco in the rain.
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And technically probably should have won that race.
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Uh, we know the how everything went down with that.
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The one you mentioned is like the worst one he ever drove.
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Do you ever think that that's just kind of ironic?
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The Tolman?
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Yeah, it wasn't the Lotus.
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It wasn't one of the MP4s, McLarens or whatever.
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It was the Tolman, which he ran for like one year and the car
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was like hellaciously unreliable.
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Yeah, it was a terrible car.
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He actually won Monaco, but they stole it from him.
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And he ran one of the most incredible laps ever there.
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I spent a lot of time with that car and had to do a lot of research for
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it because Nick Mason from Pink Floyd thought he had the real Tolman and
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we had to go to see him and go look at his car and tell him why it wasn't
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the real car, which he had spent.
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I don't know at that time, probably 600, 000 on the car.
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It was a total fabrication.
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It was built from Tolman parts, but it wasn't the actual car.
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The reason we knew ours was, well, number one, we got the actual guys
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that built the car to work with us.
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And when we went there and we looked at the actual car, we knew it was the
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real car because Senna was fairly short.
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The roll bar above his head and back of his helmet.
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Well, when Johansson took over that car after Senna left and the
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roll bar was too short, so they cut the roll bar and extended it.
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So as soon as we walked up to the car, we saw that that had been cut.
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We knew that it was sentenced.
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I was asked to sell that car and I took an approach, which was a little
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bit different than other people.
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I literally turned that car basically into a brand and put a real story around it.
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And I built basically a book on the car.
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I took my branding expertise.
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it to the way I would any brand to that car.
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And that was my first professional foray into the car world was really by
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the selling that airtime Seneca, which is kind of a crazy story in itself,
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because I'm very good friends with a gentleman who was Mario Andretti's
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long time PR guy, Donald Henderson.
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He was a character in the formula one, Indy car, the whole racing world.
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And it may easy.
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One of the.
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Best branding guys in the world.
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In fact, he helped create Newman's own with Paul Newman.
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And I was on LinkedIn one day and this guy had posted a picture of a motorcycle
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saying this motorcycles for sale.
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And next to the car could see part of like a quarter panel of
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a car that I knew was a race car.
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And it was Don Henderson that posted this picture.
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And I reached out to him and I said, you know, who cares about this motorcycle?
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What is that?
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That is.
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Next to the motorcycle, me making that comment to Don.
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Don asked for my phone number.
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He called me from that day forward, Don and I became very good friends.
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And it was Don that approached me about this Sena car.
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And he said, you know, I don't have the time to sell it.
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And I really don't care about selling it.
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He didn't know anybody who could kind of take this on ultimately
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sold that car to Zach Brown.
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So then the day that I met Zach Brown there for him to go over the car and
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he did the car inspection while he was doing the car inspection, his cell
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phone ring and he was told that he had just gotten the position of CEO
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of McLaren Formula One while we were looking at walking around the car.
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That's awesome.
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That is a true story.
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Yeah, it was a, that was an amazing, amazing thing.
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And then it was kind of from there, I got launched into the automotive world
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first selling that car and then getting exposed to different race teams and people
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that were trying to build race teams.
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And again, I was applying my creative hat and my branding hat to help teams
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raise money and get sponsorships.
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That's kind of how it all started.
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It actually started for me responding to a picture on LinkedIn . So.
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And then I started going to different car events associated with building teams
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and things like that in the racing world.
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But I was going to all the major car events and I came up with
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the idea of why shouldn't we have a car event like a Pebble Beach
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here in Newport, Rhode Island?
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Because Newport is so beautiful and it has the mansions and the lawns and In my
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mind, I kind of painted this picture as to what something like that would look like.
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And do like I do with any idea I have, I actually put it down on paper.
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And I take that idea from that concept that I'll write in bullet point.
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I'll start talking to some people about it, and it looks
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like it has some kind of legs.
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Then I will go ahead and do a formal presentation around the idea, and then
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that is my selling tool to sell whatever it is creatively that I'm trying to do.
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Ultimately, I met Nick Schorsch, who was the founder of Audrain Automotive Museum.
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He basically said, you know, I've always wanted to do something like this.
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And he had been thinking about something similar.
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He said, you know, why would I compete with you to build an event?
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Why don't we do it together and I'll hire you to do it.
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And we started that journey in 2017 and it took until.
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2019, we launched the first Audrey Newport Concord Motor Week, and
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it was heralded as one of the most successful first year automotive
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event ever held in the United States.
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It was very difficult thing to do over such a short period of
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time and make it look like it had happened year after year after year.
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And that was probably one of the pinnacles of my life was building that event.
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And you know, what's fun about this is we've now painted a picture of
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Rick, the adult, but that's not what we came here to talk about.
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We came here to talk about your alter ego, the Pope of plastic.
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And we're going to dive more into that, but that starts with little
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Rick playing in the basement, you got started in models.
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Like many of us at a really young age, who brought you to that?
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Was there somebody that mentored you or inspired you to deepen
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your passion for modeling?
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And obviously that carries into a passion for car.
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I was born to be an artist.
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And my mom saw that very early on that she had a son that she
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felt had talent who could end up being something in the art world.
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But the model building started when I was really young.
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I mean, I built my first model in 1975.
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It was a model by Ravel.
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It was a submarine.
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I did an absolute terrible job.
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You know, I was horrible.
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But the person who really influenced me in model building
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was my oldest brother, David.
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He used to build incredible models.
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And he would never let me watch him build a model.
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He'd never let me see.
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And I would sit outside of his bedroom, begging to come in to look and watch
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him build models, but he would never, ever let me when he would go to school
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or I'd get out early and I'd get home before him, or he would go out someplace.
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I'd sneak into his room and I would look at his models and I'd look
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at the paints, and he was really my inspiration for model building.
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I wanted to be like him and build models the way that he built models,
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but because he wouldn't help me, I had to discover it kind of on my own.
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See, the tables have turned now.
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Now my brother is jealous that I build models professionally.
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And he's probably one of my biggest fans and I share pictures with him
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all the time and we go back and forth.
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He was like, you know, maybe I should have let you watch me build models.
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He goes, but I think you figured it out on your own, you know,
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better than he ever could.
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So my brother was my first inspiration.
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And I don't talk about this a whole lot, but sometimes I do.
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And, you know, I was an alcoholic and I'm recovered and not recovered.
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You're always recovering.
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But.
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Model building essentially saved my life.
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I was in a deep depression.
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I was drinking myself to death and I had to get back into
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something that was positive.
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I got back into model building and it's not the only thing that saved my
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life, but huge part of it and doing it every day and doing something positive.
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And then when people were giving positive feedback on what I was doing
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and were encouraged by what I was doing, especially when they hear what I've kind
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of gone through, To see what I'm doing.
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And then it inspires them to kind of do the same thing.
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And the bigger picture is that it's much more than model building.
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You know, a lot of people are looking at this as a healthy alternative as well.
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You know, I have a lot of people that were addicts and things like that, and
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they need something positive to do.
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And it's, it's incredible.
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I mean, people that are trying to do something that can ultimately
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kind of change their lives.
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And that's an important thing to know.
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And it's really on TikTok.
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It's really what my community is about.
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It's not about, Hey, look at me.
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I'm the best model builder on TikTok or I'm this, I'm
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that, I'm the Pope of Plastic.
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It's encouraging people to come together creatively to just be part of something.
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And if I can kind of be that ringleader to let people know, Hey, you know, there's
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fun things to do that other people can enjoy you doing that are positive versus
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stuff that's negative, then that's really what it's all about for me.
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And I'm, you know, and I make a living at it, you know, I'm not going to lie.
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I get money.
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Tick tock pays me money and I sell models.
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As far as cars go, I grew up having an affinity for racing.
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My cousin was Cale Yarborough, the famous NASCAR driver.
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I grew up watching Cale race.
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And I was also a huge fan of the Indianapolis 500.
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And like every kid, I had all the matchbox cars and I would set up
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in the kitchen and pretend I was running the Indianapolis 500.
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And I just always loved cars, but mainly I loved cars because of their artistic form.
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So I spent a lot of my childhood drawing cars, sketching cars, dreaming of one
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day being able to design a car, which I'm not a car designer, but I've been
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friends with a lot of car designers.
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I just always saw the art in them.
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And then when I got the chance to build car models, it's just incredible
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now to be able to build these cars that I dreamed of as a kid.
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And now I'm able to do it at a level that most people aren't.
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I mean, I guess if they dedicated themselves, they'd be capable of doing it.
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But most people don't have the time or they're not capable
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of doing it artistically.
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So it's just a huge passion.
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Well, Don, I think he opened the door for a pet stop question.
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And I think, you know what I'm going to ask him, right?
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No idea.
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It's one of our classics, Rick, which is as an artist, especially,
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I love hearing the answer to this.
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What is the sexiest car of all time?
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Well, I can't say one car, but I can say one brand and that
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without a doubt is Ferrari.
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And I know that would be a popular answer for most people, but.
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The thing about Ferrari is it is 100 percent art from the engine to the
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chassis to everything that they do with those cars, especially the classic
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Ferraris when Enzo Ferrari, you know, his vision, his passion was always
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about the sound, about the look, about what it looked like when it was going
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down the road, what it looked like from behind, what it looked like, you know,
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the front, you know, he said, you know, a Ferrari emulates a beautiful woman.
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I've done some public speaking and things and I'll talk about Ferrari and I will
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draw the silhouette very quickly and I can say, okay, imagine a woman laying on
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her side and here is the hip and then it goes down and then you have the shoulder
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and then it goes all the way out into the nose of the car down to the road.
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And if you look at that shape, what you can look at is basically like
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a beautiful woman on her side, and then you can actually start adding
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wheel wells and everything else.
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And you can watch it transform into the actual shape of something that
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looks very similar to a Ferrari.
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And I think that's a good example of the way that design
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process was done back in the day.
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Ferraris are so fluid and so sexual.
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And even if it wasn't Ferrari, if it was another brand that had kind of
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that same Well, the car that comes up a lot, and you'd probably not be
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surprised by this, is the E Type Jag.
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Yeah.
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Enzo said that the Jaguar was the most beautiful car he had ever seen.
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Kind of the same principle when you look at it.
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They're almost liquid in their form.
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That's an incredible thing.
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So, It's hard to say one because I think all Ferraris are beautiful.
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I'm not as much of a fan now of the more modern Ferraris.
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I'm more of the classical Ferraris.
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I think when Ferrari went public, a lot of things changed.
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I don't think you would have ever seen an SUV from Enzo Ferrari.
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I don't think you would have ever seen an electric Ferrari.
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And I think he was very true to his passion.
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And he kept that passion alive all the way until he died.
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When he died, Ferrari changed immensely.
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I think.
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I think at the core of the passion is still there, but
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especially amongst Ferrari fans.
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I mean, I'm still a fan of Ferrari.
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I'll always bleed Ferrari red, but I'm not as much of a fan of the new
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stuff as I was at the old stuff.
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You know, Rick, listening to you about Ferrari, et cetera.
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I think we can all agree here that the best looking Ferrari ever made, you
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know, correct me if you think I'm wrong.
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The Mondial Troop.
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Oh, stop.
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Oh yeah.
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It was the greatest Ferrari ever done.
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That family four seater Ferrari.
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There you go.
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It looked like a squash toaster.
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I love the cheese grater on the side.
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Grate your Parmesan right there.
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It's terrific.
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Yeah.
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There's definitely visions of the 250 GTO and that.
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Yeah.
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It's just unbelievable.
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Great car.
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The Mondial.
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I was curious about your moniker, your name, the Pope of Plastic.
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Go into that for me.
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What the hell is the Pope of Plastic?
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Well, the Pope of Plastic came about, first off, I wasn't working,
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I was looking for work, still am, and I wanted to get back into model
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building because I was always able to sell models kind of on commission
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on the side to make extra money.
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And when I couldn't find work, I said, well, look, I got to do this seriously.
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And if I'm going to do it seriously, I need to be on
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different social media sites.
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I was just sitting there one night.
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I said, I got to come up with a name.
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And I went through all these different iterations of what it should be called.
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And then I was like, you know, it should have something to do with plastic.
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Plastic is a great word.
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A lot of people relate to plastic.
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I said, what goes with plastic?
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And I went through all these different names.
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And all of a sudden I hit upon, what would be the hierarchy of plastic?
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If plastic was a religion, what would the hierarchy be?
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And I was like, well, the top would be the Pope.
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As soon as I said Pope, I went Pope plastic, Pope of plastic.
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I was like, bingo.
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There it is.
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I thought it was funny.
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I thought people would find it humorous and it's tongue in cheek.
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I was never trying to say to people, Hey, you know, I'm the
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best model builder in the world.
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Look at me.
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It was more a funny, humorous thing that would grab somebody's
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attention and also something that I could build a logo around.
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And so I started Popoplastic first on Instagram, really
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didn't get much traction.
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I wasn't really putting a lot of work into it, but a friend of mine said
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to me, said, Hey, you should go on Tik TOK because Tik TOK is all live.
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He goes, people would love to watch you build models.
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And I was like, you know, what am I going to do on Tik TOK?
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I don't dance.
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I don't, I own a cat.
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I don't do makeup pointers.
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He said, no, he goes, you could build an amazing community on Tik TOK.
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Forget about what you hear about the media and everything.
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People are there to discover things.
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And especially watch people do things live, whether it's oil painting or DIY
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things or crocheting or whatever it is.
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And he said, you should give it a try.
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He goes, you know, you have a good sense of humor.
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Obviously, I know what I'm doing when I'm building models.
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And I said, all right, what the hell?
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I'll go on there one night.
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I went on and set up the account and never thought that anybody would follow me.
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And within like a month, I had a thousand followers and I could go live.
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And when I started going live.
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People just hooked right into it.
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It was incredible.
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To this day on TikTok, people don't even know my real name.
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They call me the Pope.
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I'm the Pope.
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That's all they refer to me as is the Pope.
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Pope this, Pope can you answer this question, Pope can you do this.
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And it's really incredible because it's turned into a community of people that
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are just fascinated with model building.
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A lot of older people who hadn't built a model since they were in high school,
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and they're looking for something to do.
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And I I've gotten a lot of people back into the hobby.
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I've gotten a lot of people to bring their young children
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in to watch me do what I do.
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A lot of the people who follow me have become friends with each other.
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It's a pretty interesting thing.
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So the purple plastic is really turned into a brand.
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For me, now, Rick, forgive me.
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I haven't seen any of your tick talk, but I'm curious.
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You say people watch you build the models.
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You put them together.
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Are you showing them specific techniques on painting on bluing
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on how are you doing this?
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What are you building it with?
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They're literally watching me build a model from start to finish.
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So they'll tune in and say, if I'm unboxing the model, I'll say, okay,
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we're going to build a new model.
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And my models take weeks to build.
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to build.
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I don't build them overnight, so they'll watch me from day one where I'll take
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the first piece of plastic out and they'll watch me do the whole process.
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So I will announce each day.
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Hey, today I'm going to be doing weathering or today I'm
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going to be building the engine.
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Today I'm going to be doing the chassis.
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So people will sometimes tune in for specific things that I'm doing
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and they'll have specific questions.
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But most of the people watch me, watch me almost like it's a television series.
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They want to watch me from the start and they don't want to miss
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a single episode of me building.
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And I usually build live three times a day.
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And I take a lunch break.
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I treat it like an actual job, which it is for me.
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And then the customers that are ordering models from me, they get the opportunity
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to see me build their model live.
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They find it very fascinating and a lot of people order models from me
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now order it because of that reason.
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They want to watch me build their model.
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And then when they get it, they're excited because, you know, they've seen me do
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the whole thing from start to finish.
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So it's really unique and it's a very, very positive community that I've built.
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You know, a lot of those people become friends with each other,
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which is really, really cool.
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So it obviously helps your business then.
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It is my business, and it's why it scares me when I hear them talk about getting
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rid of it, because I can honestly tell you on all the platforms that I'm on,
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TikTok is the only one I don't think I've ever had a negative reaction.
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comment.
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I've never had a negative thing happen.
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And TikTok is very strict.
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I can't sit there and talk about drugs or things like that.
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They'll yank you right off.
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So you have to really be very measured in what you do on there.
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And for what I'm doing, I think that's a very good thing.
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I pride myself on building a very positive community on there.
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The way you're describing it.
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Do you feel a lot of pressure to be like perfect on spot?
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Click, click, click, click, click.
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I build like I would if I were just sitting here by myself,
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except I talk to the people.
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The thing they love the most is when I get angry because I get mad a lot
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when I'm building and I have been known to throw things and I've been known
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to drop a few F bombs here and there.
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Usually when the tester's glue keeps your fingers united, right?
19:55
Yeah.
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Their favorite thing is when I drop things on the floor.
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Because that's like the worst thing in model building is when you drop
20:02
something on the floor, especially a small piece and they can watch me
20:05
progressively get angrier and angrier.
20:08
They just love it.
20:09
I mean, cause it's real.
20:10
Can I tell them all the time?
20:11
What if I were at your job standing behind you, watching you work all day
20:16
and making comments, you know, how would you do, especially I'm doing.
20:20
Stuff that's very, very tedious.
20:22
I'm wiring things.
20:23
I'm making things look extremely real.
20:26
I'm doing the gauges on the instrument panel, things like that.
20:29
And it's very, very tedious.
20:30
So you can get very angered while you're doing it because you get frustrated,
20:35
but it's very, very real what I do.
20:37
So it's not like your normal YouTube channel, where everything
20:41
is scripted and you know, Oh, okay.
20:43
I'm going to put these two pieces together and go off camera,
20:46
build everything to come back and it's, you know, all put together.
20:49
They're literally watching me from start to finish and they get to see the
20:53
good, the bad and the ugly all the time.
20:55
One thing that I did a week ago, which was really, really cool.
20:59
I came up with the idea to do something called the F bomb marathon.
21:02
I said, here's the idea, everybody.
21:04
I said, I'm going to let you vote on a model kit.
21:06
I'm going to pull out 10 model kits.
21:08
You guys pick the model kit.
21:10
Right after the Kentucky Derby in, I'm going to come on here on
21:14
live and I am going to build from start to finish without taking
21:18
a break for as long as it takes.
21:20
I don't care if it takes five hours, 10 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours,
21:24
whatever it is, I'm going to build a complete model for start to finish.
21:27
And we call it the f bomb marathon because you can be guaranteed
21:30
that I started dropping f bombs the more hours accumulated.
21:34
And let me tell you, it was one of the most watched things I've ever done.
21:37
I had over 140, 000 people watch over the course of 12 hours.
21:43
And I built the model from start to finish in 12 hours.
21:46
And at the end, in the 12th hour, I auctioned the model off.
21:49
And then they got to take the model home.
21:51
But it was really cool.
21:52
I'm always doing fun things like that, coming up with different
21:54
contests to give stuff away.
21:56
What was your favorite model to build?
21:57
What kind of car was it?
21:58
Well, I build everything.
22:00
I build whatever I'm hired to build.
22:01
I build cars, planes, trucks, tanks, boats, whatever it is I get hired to do.
22:06
So, I do do a lot of cars.
22:08
My favorite car that I've ever done was an Alfa Romeo Spyder
22:14
race car from 1934, I think.
22:17
It's beautiful.
22:17
It's a beautiful, beautiful model.
22:19
It's a 1 12th scale, but it has every hose, a lot of scratch building.
22:24
It looks exactly like the real thing.
22:26
And I did it post race.
22:27
So it's dirt with the mud and the grime.
22:30
It's a beautiful, beautiful model.
22:32
I've done so many though.
22:33
I get asked all the time.
22:35
I, even today when I was live, they were like, Oh, what's your
22:37
favorite model that you've done?
22:38
I love every single one of them that I do.
22:41
Just for this year alone, today I finished my 22nd model since January 1.
22:47
That's a lot of models.
22:48
And when you see my models, it's pretty incredible.
22:51
As I've been able to do that many this year, but I do it every day.
22:55
I do it probably 60 hours a week.
22:58
That's incredible.
22:59
Dovetailing off of what Don was just asking you about, what would you say is
23:02
maybe one of your most challenging builds?
23:04
The most challenging build I had to do was I was hired by the United States
23:09
Marine Corps to build an entire squadron of Harrier jump jets for the 50th
23:16
anniversary of the Black Sheep squadron, and these were 132nd scale aircraft.
23:22
In their configuration.
23:24
So I had to do everything custom to make it look exactly like those,
23:27
but I don't build models that just look like the thing I'm building the
23:30
engines to where they're all wired.
23:32
The cockpits are all perfect.
23:34
The wheel wells are all plumbed with hydraulics.
23:37
So to do a whole squadron, which was six aircraft.
23:41
At one time was absolutely insane.
23:45
It took 14 weeks to do them working every single day, at least
23:49
eight hours a day, sometimes 10 hours, sometimes 12 hours a day.
23:54
It was insane.
23:55
That was a pretty crazy project.
23:58
And then kind of thinking to the future, because the year's not over yet.
24:01
What's on your bucket list?
24:02
What do you still want to build?
24:03
Well, I actually have it here.
24:05
I haven't started it yet.
24:07
I have to find a customer for it because it was.
24:09
A gift from one of my fans.
24:11
I just got a one 12 scale Bugatti type 37.
24:15
I want to do that.
24:16
Wanted a model of that car.
24:18
I've actually driven it before the real one.
24:20
And I've always wanted to do one.
24:21
So that's one that'll be coming up at some point.
24:24
I'll find a customer for it and I'll end up building.
24:26
I can't build unless I have a customer for it.
24:28
Cause it takes too much time and I have to.
24:30
You know, get paid for what I do.
24:32
The other thing that I've always wanted to do, and I will get the opportunity,
24:35
I'm not sure if it'll be this year or next year, probably the end of this year,
24:39
is a four and a half foot long Titanic, with all working lights, working steam
24:44
funnels, sound, the whole nine yards.
24:46
Does it crack in half?
24:48
No, I'm not going to do the crack in half version, but so
24:52
I'm going to be doing that.
24:53
The model's already been purchased.
24:54
I'll get it at some point.
24:56
I, you know, I'm, I'm fortunate that I get to build a lot of really cool models.
25:00
And to be honest with you, I've had a lot of fans ask me, Hey, what model
25:03
have you always wanted to build?
25:04
And then I'll tell them and miraculously it'll show up at my house.
25:08
So I have basically all the models I've ever wanted to build.
25:11
You know, I just have to find customers.
25:13
How many models are in your house unbuilt right now?
25:17
Um, over a hundred, but they're all for customers.
25:20
So they're not mine.
25:21
They're right.
25:22
They're just waiting.
25:23
I have a waiting list.
25:24
And then a lot of the times people send me models every day.
25:27
I had a model come today.
25:28
They're just because they want to give me a model.
25:30
All week long, I build the big complicated models.
25:33
On the weekends, I'll do small models, something I can build in two days.
25:38
So those are models that the average person can kind of afford.
25:42
And I'll auction them off.
25:43
Or I run contests and sometimes I'll build a contest winner's build on the weekend.
25:48
Where do you auction these off?
25:49
TikTok?
25:50
TikTok, yeah.
25:51
I tell them Sunday at 7 p.
25:52
m.
25:53
I'm going to auction this off and tune in the way that it works is they have to
25:57
place their bid in the comment section and I bet everybody before I say if you're
26:02
going to bid, you have to message me.
26:04
You have to understand how it works.
26:06
You have to be ready to pay as soon as the auction is over with.
26:09
And it's worked out really well for me.
26:11
I've never been scammed by anybody.
26:13
I always have bidding wars.
26:14
in there, which is really interesting to see.
26:17
I have some guys that have almost 10 of my models, which my models
26:21
are expensive, the 500 to 800 model.
26:25
So I've got guys that collect my models and, but it's fun because the small
26:29
inexpensive models, it gives the average person a chance to own one of my models.
26:33
Models, which is pretty cool.
26:34
So where do you find these fits?
26:36
I mean, are these Les AMTs?
26:38
What are we talking about?
26:38
We make a lot of fun of a MT and MPC and the hurdle.
26:42
A lot of 'em, the customer will buy the model, have already bought the model.
26:46
Maybe it's a model that maybe even their father owned or something
26:49
and would never built, and they've always wanted to see it built.
26:52
Or it's a model of car that they wanted as a kid, or they drove in high school
26:57
and they'll find the kit and they don't have the skills to build it.
27:01
So they send it to me.
27:02
Same thing with airplanes or tanks or whatever.
27:04
The customer buys the model and then they send it to me or I find the model
27:09
for them and then they pay for the model and then I build the model for them.
27:13
But it's not just building right out of the box.
27:15
You know, there's a lot that goes into it.
27:17
Yes.
27:18
I use what's in the box, most of it, but a lot of times I'm
27:21
scratch building completely.
27:22
On it's because they're not up to the realism that I want.
27:25
What are some of the components you scratch build for an interior of a car?
27:29
The seatbelts, the upholstery, the dash, the instrument panels are
27:33
usually scratch built all of the wiring goes behind the dashboard.
27:38
Even though you don't see a lot of this stuff, it's still there.
27:41
And I take photographs as I'm going.
27:43
So the customer has photographs of the whole.
27:45
Process so they can see what went into it, all the stuff that a model companies
27:50
don't invest the time to putting into the car or it's just not realistic enough.
27:55
So I'm reupholstering and make it look more real.
27:58
And it's interesting you bring that up because I've seen some videos
28:01
where guys are either restomodding or rehabbing or restoring older models.
28:07
So do you do some of that as well?
28:09
You, you mentioned the word reupholster and it sprung that
28:11
image into my mind where I've watched videos of guys doing this.
28:14
I will refurbish a model for somebody, but I prefer to start from scratch.
28:20
Put it this way, I just had a huge vintage Formula One car model sent to me.
28:25
It's partially built, which I normally say absolutely no, I won't do that, because
28:30
I want to start from scratch because it's a process I go through, but on certain
28:34
occasions, this is a very special model that they stopped making in the 70s.
28:38
And it's a very detailed model out of Japan and I couldn't turn it down.
28:41
So I was like, yeah, I'll do this.
28:44
But most of the time I'm building it from the start to finish.
28:47
What kind of makes me different from everybody else is that I
28:50
don't build showroom models.
28:52
I build models that look like they've been raced, run, worn,
28:56
rusty, dented, dirty interiors.
28:59
The wheels are dirty, you know, the tires are about to go flat.
29:03
For me, that is the fun of building for me is making it truly look realistic,
29:08
understanding how to create rust and in dirt and grind and make it look scale
29:13
and make it look really realistic.
29:15
That's really what I'm good at.
29:16
And 90 percent of the time, those are the kinds of models I'm building.
29:20
And that's really where my bread and butter is.
29:23
Rick, it's obvious that your skill level is leaps and bounds
29:27
above where many of us are.
29:28
There aren't many of us that I can think of that are professional model
29:31
builders, but you mentioned earlier about building a community around
29:34
modeling and things like that.
29:35
So there's a lot of people that are probably curious, want
29:38
to know, how do they get in?
29:39
So let's see.
29:39
Kind of dial it back a moment and talk more to the beginners or the
29:43
intermediates and people that want to get back into modeling again,
29:47
as a hobby, where do you start?
29:49
And obviously it must be gear.
29:51
So what should every modeler have as a beginner in their toolbox?
29:55
Here's what I asked somebody who wants to.
29:57
to get into the hobby.
29:58
I say, okay, well, what is the subject matter that you like?
30:00
Well, cars, obviously.
30:02
Okay.
30:03
So cars.
30:04
Yeah.
30:04
So what kind of car do you like?
30:05
Do you like a domestic hot rod or do you want a Cadillac?
30:09
Do you want a Duesenberg?
30:10
Ferrari?
30:11
What kind of car do you want?
30:12
Once I hear that, it is very important.
30:15
That out of the gate, you build a quality brand model.
30:19
Let's unpack that for a second.
30:21
Cause we talked about Ertl and AMT.
30:22
So what to you is a quality brand, especially in plastic?
30:27
Tamiya, Asagawa, Ashima.
30:29
There's a few brands out there that are very, very good.
30:32
The Japanese probably make the best kits in the world.
30:35
The domestic kits that you want would be like a Mobius or you'd want Silvino
30:42
Jr., which makes a lot of racing kits.
30:44
AMT and MPC, which most people remember as a kid, those kits, there
30:49
are millions of them out there.
30:51
They make a lot of great subject matter, but the quality of
30:54
their models is not very good.
30:56
The molding isn't that good.
30:58
They're very complicated because they don't fit very well.
31:01
So I steer people away from that.
31:03
I tell them if you want to build a really good kit right out of
31:05
the gate, I would buy Tamiya.
31:07
Because Tamiya is one of the oldest model companies in the world.
31:10
Their instructions are rock solid.
31:12
The fit and finish of their models is far none better than
31:16
anybody else in the industry.
31:18
So the better the kit, the easier it is to build and the better
31:21
results you're going to have.
31:22
So I steer them towards a Tamiya kit.
31:24
Number two, get the model kit, read on the side what paints that
31:28
you need and buy those paints.
31:30
Just follow the instructions and follow the painting guides.
31:33
Make sure you have a good set of very good paintbrushes.
31:36
Go to Hobby Lobby or whatever and buy a nice set of good
31:40
paintbrushes with a nice variety.
31:42
Number three, you need an airbrush right out of the gate.
31:45
And people get scared of that.
31:47
Oh, an airbrush, oh my god.
31:49
Terrifies people when you mention the word airbrush.
31:51
You can get an airbrush for very little money.
31:53
You can get an airbrush for twenty dollars, you can get a compressor for
31:57
eighty dollars, and you have to learn to airbrush early on to get good results.
32:01
I mean, would you paint your regular car with a paintbrush or a paint roller?
32:06
No.
32:06
I've seen people do it though.
32:08
Wait, wait, which car?
32:09
Yeah.
32:10
So you want to get an airbrush so you can get a nice smooth finish,
32:14
you know, on all of your parts.
32:16
You have to get the right glues.
32:18
We'd still use the glue that you used as a kid, but it's used for certain things.
32:23
There's about four different glues that you need to get.
32:26
And you got to understand how to use those different glues.
32:28
The most important thing when you open up a kit and you actually start
32:32
to build and you're following the instructions is my biggest, best
32:35
piece of advice for somebody is.
32:37
Treat every little assembly like its own model.
32:40
Take great care in each assembly.
32:42
If you're starting out with the engine, follow the painting instructions.
32:46
Assemble everything very carefully.
32:48
And if you take your time with every single component, by the
32:51
end of the model, you're going to have a very, very nice model.
32:55
And I think you'll have a lot of fun doing it.
32:57
It's no different than doing a puzzle or whatever.
32:59
It's a little more entailed and when people finish a model the first one
33:04
I hear from them all the time and they're just absolutely they're like,
33:06
I can't believe how much fun that was and my kid enjoyed doing it with me.
33:11
I can't wait to do another one in this next one.
33:13
We're actually going to try to weather the engine, you know, and things like that.
33:17
So I get to watch that progression.
33:18
But yeah, The most important thing is to buy a very good model
33:22
kit, which would be my suggestion would be Tamiya out of the gate.
33:25
Don't buy something too complicated.
33:27
You don't want to go to a 112 scale out of the box.
33:30
You want to stick with like 125 scale car to start with and
33:34
just love it and take your time.
33:35
That models aren't meant to be rushed, meant to be taken one step at a time.
33:39
Joy, when you recommend practicing on the airbrushing, learning how the
33:43
machinery works, learning how the spray works, what substrate would
33:46
you recommend people practicing on?
33:49
Great thing to use for airbrushing is plastic spoons,
33:52
spoons, almost the same thing.
33:54
That auto guy, you know, when they paint, they do test spray.
33:57
We call 'em spray out.
33:58
When you do a spray out on a car, you get that little car form, they spray on it,
34:02
they look at how the sun is reflecting.
34:04
You can buy those, but plastic spoons are fantastic because they have
34:08
different reflections off of it.
34:10
Just painting on paper, just painting on a cardboard box,
34:13
just painting on a water bottle.
34:15
Painting on anything, but just to get the feeling of how it is to use the airbrush
34:20
and how it is to clean the airbrush.
34:22
Once you get over that hump, the first time you use it, 99 percent of the
34:25
time, everybody goes, Oh my God, it was a lot easier than I thought it was.
34:29
And it was so much fun.
34:30
And I can't believe how great the paint came out because they're not used to
34:33
doing that, or they're used to using a rattle can, which are terrible because
34:37
they put too much pain out too quickly.
34:40
And it's very difficult to get a good finish with a rattle can.
34:43
Airbrushing is incredible, but you also have to know how to bend
34:46
the paint, what paint to use.
34:48
I don't ever recommend anybody use an enamel anymore.
34:51
Most of us have moved over to acrylics, which are great because you can thin
34:55
them with water or you can thin them with rubbing alcohol, is what I use.
34:59
As the Pope of Plastic, I call it the Holy Spirit.
35:02
So that's what we use, which is 91 percent rubbing alcohol that you
35:07
can buy at any Walgreens or CVS.
35:09
I use Tamiya acrylic paint.
35:11
As soon as you get the bottle, you can split this in half.
35:14
Half rubbing alcohol, half paint.
35:16
So you're automatically extending your paint, but you need to be
35:19
able to thin the paint in order for it to work with the airbrush.
35:22
The other great thing about thinning it with rubbing alcohol
35:25
is that it accelerates the drying.
35:27
So pretty much when you're done spraying it, you're done.
35:29
The model is dry to the touch, so you can actually handle it a little bit.
35:33
So it's a lot different than your old enamels, which take a long time to dry.
35:37
And, you know, once you get a fingerprint in it, you know, you're screwed.
35:41
You mentioned, you know, cutting it with alcohol, cutting it with water.
35:44
Do you have demonstrated videos where people can watch what you're doing
35:48
so they can see exactly how you're doing it so they can learn from that?
35:51
A lot of guys do do that.
35:53
I really don't think.
35:54
do that.
35:54
I encourage people to watch me do it live and when they come on the live, they
35:59
can ask me any question in the world.
36:00
A lot of times when I'm in between things, I'll demonstrate for them.
36:04
Here's how I did it.
36:05
Here's how I'm doing it.
36:06
And I do it in live time versus just making a recording of my
36:10
hands and showing how I do it.
36:11
The other thing to be honest with you is that a lot of this stuff
36:14
I'm kind of secretive about.
36:16
I just don't like everybody knowing how I do everything.
36:19
And unfortunately, I've had to give a lot of his secrets away because I keep getting
36:23
asked, keep getting asked, or they're watching me do something and they're
36:26
like, Oh, what are you doing right there?
36:28
What is that that you just did?
36:30
And then I'm kind of forced to tell them.
36:31
I'm getting better at doing that because I realized that what I'm doing is an
36:35
art form and just because you watch Rembrandt paint a painting, it doesn't
36:40
mean that you're going to be Rembrandt.
36:42
I've had to kind of realize that what I do is art and you have to
36:46
have an artistic eye, especially in painting, because Weathering in
36:50
painting is all about layering color.
36:52
If you don't understand color theory, and you don't understand what colors go to
36:56
trick the eye to think it's this and think it's that, then you're not going to be
37:00
very good at the weathering part of it.
37:02
Weathering is all layering of color.
37:05
And understanding how that all works and making rust on a model kit.
37:10
You don't do it the same way.
37:11
You know, the rust is actually formed in nature.
37:13
You're tricking the eye to think it is actual rust.
37:16
So there's a lot of techniques and things like that, that you develop over time
37:20
to be able to execute those things.
37:22
And I can execute them very fast because I do it all the time.
37:25
So it's just, you know, that's what they really enjoy watching.
37:28
They like seeing it unfold.
37:29
Decals.
37:31
They're the absolute worst.
37:33
Oh, they're the nemesis.
37:34
You dip them in the little water.
37:36
You pull them out and they tear.
37:38
You're done.
37:38
It's over.
37:39
Do you have any tips on how to handle that stuff?
37:41
Decals are difficult.
37:43
So the tip is.
37:44
Always start with very hot water.
37:46
You dip the decal in.
37:48
Don't let it sit for too long.
37:50
Test it and see where it just starts sliding off the paper.
37:53
You put the paper in position where you want the decal to go.
37:57
You slide the very beginning of it off until it touches the plastic.
38:01
And then you gently slide the paper and let it fall down onto the plastic.
38:06
You know, that's okay.
38:07
But what happens is bubbles will form.
38:10
It doesn't go down into the cracks, like putting a big sheet of piece of vinyl on
38:15
your car and saying, okay, there you go.
38:16
It looks great.
38:17
But they move and smoosh all the bubbles out.
38:20
They cut and they let it fall into all the crevices.
38:23
So in model building, they make solution now called solve set.
38:27
And solve set is you put the decal down with water.
38:30
You tap down the water or you let the decal dry a little bit.
38:33
Once the decal dries a little bit, then you take paintbrush in the solve
38:37
set liquid, you paint that liquid over the decal, and then you just leave it.
38:42
You don't touch it.
38:43
And what will happen is the solve set dissolves the decal and lets it fall into
38:48
all of the crevices and it will remove most of the bubbles, but you may have
38:53
to go back and poke a little tiny hole into certain bubbles and then put solve
38:57
set on it again and let it soak down.
38:59
It literally becomes almost part of the paint job.
39:02
So solve set is really a miracle in model building.
39:06
It's almost like Mod Podge in a way, when you're doing
39:08
decoupage, it's the same idea.
39:10
It's basically the same thing.
39:11
And then it depends, different companies make different decals.
39:15
Some are better than others.
39:16
We know which ones are really bad.
39:18
You know, even me as a professional, you know, have very hard time with,
39:21
and when I see them and I know they're from a certain company.
39:24
I can design my own decals, so I will design a lot of time my
39:28
own decal, and I have a decal printer that prints them for me.
39:31
So I have resources that a lot of people don't have, and that's a whole nother
39:35
process is designing your own decals.
39:38
But yeah, I was gonna say that's not something that we all do.
39:40
3D printers are becoming a thing, but decal printer, that's a whole nother
39:43
story when you wanna buy a model.
39:46
Where do you go?
39:47
Do you go to Amazon?
39:48
Do you go to a toy store you like?
39:49
Where do you go?
39:50
Amazon is a great place to find just about any model.
39:54
I get everything on Amazon.
39:55
I have my own hobby shop on Amazon.
39:58
Amazon.
39:59
com slash shop slash the political plastic and I have over 300 items in there.
40:04
A lot of models, all the supplies that everybody watches me use every day.
40:09
I say, Hey, if you want what I'm using, it's on Amazon.
40:12
I don't make a whole bunch of money from that.
40:13
I did it more as a convenience because I get the question all the time.
40:17
Oh, where did you get your airbrush?
40:19
You know, where did you get your compressor?
40:20
Where did you get this model?
40:22
Where did I have it all in that store so they can go there and everything is there.
40:25
It's like going to a hobby shop.
40:27
I always tell everybody, if you have a local hobby shop, go to
40:30
the local hobby shop, don't go to my store, go there because.
40:34
Hobby shops are dying free, and we need to support those hobby shops.
40:39
The only reason I built the Amazon store was for people who can't get to a hobby
40:43
shop, or they don't have a hobby shop, or I have guys that are in wheelchairs
40:47
that follow me and can't get out really.
40:50
But they still want to build models.
40:51
So that was pretty much the main reason I built the Amazon store.
40:55
But Amazon's great.
40:56
You can get just about any model kit you can imagine or any airbrush
40:59
or any exacto knife or whatever.
41:02
But Rick, I want to take this in a slightly different direction because.
41:05
There are a lot of fans of plastic model kits out there.
41:08
And I had a few growing up myself and I loved taking kits that were different
41:13
and try to make like cool cars.
41:15
Like I'm going to do a six cylinder 904 with Fuchs wheels
41:18
because I had a 911 turbo.
41:20
And, you know, I made my own engine mounts and, you know, plastic was fun
41:23
because you could do that with stuff.
41:24
Some testers or super weld or stuff like that.
41:27
But as I got older, I sort of just got disillusioned
41:30
with the whole plastic thing.
41:31
And now as an adult, I don't mess with plastic unless the box says Lego on it.
41:34
You know what I mean?
41:36
So plastic over die cast.
41:38
Let's talk about that a little bit.
41:40
I know where Don sits on this and he knows about my collection.
41:42
So I want to get your thoughts on plastic versus die cast.
41:45
Uh, there's no comparison plastics leaps and bounds.
41:49
Better than die cast?
41:50
Look, I know all the brands, I know CMC and Exato and Amalgam and all of
41:55
that, but most of the die casts are not die casts, they're resin, and
41:59
resin models are equally as good, if not better sometimes, than plastic is.
42:04
Die cast, let's use the word correctly, like an herbal die cast car cannot hold
42:10
a candle to a really well done car.
42:13
And the reason being is that die cast has a thickness to it, that it has
42:18
to be cast in a certain thickness or else it'll basically break.
42:22
Yeah, it's pot metal.
42:23
It's pot metal.
42:24
So plastic, you can go very thin, so you can get very realistic
42:29
crease lines, opening doors.
42:31
trunk lid openings, vent openings, all of those types of things.
42:35
And then when you add in photo etched to it and then 3d resin printed
42:40
parts or 3d cast parts, it sleeps in balance better than die cast.
42:45
Now, when you get into an amalgam, which I've actually done work with amalgam, I'm
42:49
friends with the founder, Sandy Copeland out of the UK who their models are 20,
42:55
000, 50, 000, a hundred thousand dollars.
42:57
Again, that's a resin model and they're hand forming all the different
43:01
components and their 3d printing, all the different components.
43:04
And then you can't buy that as a kit and you have to buy it as a finished
43:07
model, but the quality is incredible, but they're not doing die cast.
43:12
They're doing resin and they're doing plastics and they're doing photo
43:15
edge, even though they're amazing.
43:17
And I own a bunch of CMC and I have Exato and I have amalgam
43:21
and I have all these things.
43:22
When you look at a die cast.
43:24
You can tell the body thickness is thicker than it would be on like an actual car.
43:28
That's the only telltale sign.
43:29
CMC and Exodo make amazing models.
43:32
They're incredible.
43:34
Their craftsmanship is incredible.
43:36
But also I look at those and I can, my eye, Is trained to look
43:40
at things kind of in scale.
43:42
And a lot of times on Exato and CMC, the scaling of fabrics and
43:47
things like that, isn't quite right.
43:49
Those are the things I look at.
43:50
So when I'm building a model, I'm looking for things that look truly scale.
43:54
So this fabric on a seat, what fabric would I use?
43:57
But most of the time I'm not using fabric because fabric, there is
44:01
no scale that's small enough to make it look like actual fabric.
44:04
So you have to develop your own tricks.
44:06
To make it look like fabric when it's not actually fabric.
44:08
I saw that on a Ferrari build where a guy was using some shaved something
44:13
or other on an F40 to give it that look, because the F40 had that
44:17
Alcantara dashboard or whatever.
44:20
And then it was some particle, but to your point, it tricked the eye to make
44:23
you believe that it was that material.
44:25
Yes.
44:25
I still love my diecast though.
44:27
I got way too many of them.
44:28
Don't get me wrong.
44:29
I love diecast.
44:30
I think it's wonderful.
44:31
But where I'm going with that is there's a whole nother craze
44:34
right now in the modeling world.
44:36
And that's the sort of resto modding of the 164th model.
44:41
CL cars, the matchbox and the hot wheels taking them beyond where we
44:45
think they can go with those things.
44:46
And Mattel has really stepped up the game with their premium lines,
44:50
but there's creators out there that are really going above and beyond.
44:53
So I want to get your feedback on this new trend in the one 64th world.
44:58
Yeah, it's amazing.
44:59
I have a lot of those guys.
45:01
Follow me and I'm friendly with a lot of them.
45:03
It's just another aspect of the hobby.
45:05
That is just incredible.
45:07
I think, I don't know who the first, first one is decided.
45:09
They could break one of these things apart and put different wheels on it
45:12
and lower it and everything else that do these paint jobs and the stuff
45:15
they do is absolutely incredible.
45:17
It thrills me beyond belief to see people doing this kind of stuff.
45:21
You know, because this is the kind of stuff I would have done
45:23
when I was a kid or whatever.
45:24
And anytime I see a young person, especially that's getting into this kind
45:29
of stuff and getting off of the phone or getting off of a video game and doing
45:33
something with their hands and then trading it like we did trading cards
45:37
or matchbox cards when we were a kid.
45:39
Seeing these things happen, it thrills me to death.
45:42
When I'm on live working and a young person comes in, he says,
45:45
Hey, you know, I'm 12 years old and I just got my first model.
45:48
That just thrills me.
45:50
I'm like, wow, this is incredible.
45:52
A lot of the older people looking for a hobby.
45:55
Are doing this stuff.
45:56
And there's some amazing guys out there.
45:58
I want to shift gears a little bit.
46:00
You do models on commission.
46:01
Yes.
46:02
So how does that work?
46:03
How do you charge it based on the size, the complexity that the customer wants?
46:07
Is it just an hourly flat rate?
46:09
There's so many variables that can play in.
46:11
So how do you figure that out?
46:12
Now it is done by an hourly rate.
46:14
I used to just say, Oh, okay, if it's this size, I'll charge this much.
46:18
But I would got myself into trouble a few times where a model where I thought
46:23
wasn't going to be that complicated ended up taking me 150 hours, you
46:26
know, and I only charged 500 for it.
46:29
So I had to get over that and I had to come up with an hourly
46:33
rate that made sense to me.
46:34
I'm pretty good at estimating now because I build so much how
46:37
many hours it's going to take me.
46:39
The big 132nd scale, say, aircraft is probably going to take me 100 hours.
46:44
So 100 times the hourly rate gives me that number.
46:47
Smaller kits that I know that I can do in 12 hours.
46:50
So it all kind of works out in the end.
46:52
Some of them can get very expensive.
46:54
But I let the customer know right up front, Hey, this is how
46:57
many hours it's going to take.
46:58
I'll stick to this hour.
47:00
So if I say it's 100 hours, that's what you're going to get billed for.
47:03
You know, so I'm very, very good at staying on target as far as how
47:07
many hours it's going to take me.
47:08
I also build a lot faster than the average person because I build so much.
47:12
Do you autograph your models?
47:14
You know, do you autograph a popoplastic or a rickshaw?
47:16
I give the customer the option, but I always sign them, always ask them.
47:21
To sign them.
47:21
Where do you sign them?
47:22
I usually find an inconspicuous place to sign them.
47:25
I don't want it on the top, you know, I sign it like any artist would, you know.
47:29
But I do sign it in my actual signature, which nobody can really read, and then
47:34
I put the Popop plastic, and then I put the date on when it was completed.
47:38
Then I usually take part of the model box itself, and then I cut out that,
47:43
and then I sign that part of it.
47:45
And then the instruction booklet always.
47:47
Which they love is getting the instruction booklet.
47:50
And then I signed the cover of the instruction booklet.
47:53
Oh, very cool.
47:54
When it comes to these plastic models, when it comes to any
47:57
model, they can be pretty delicate when you send it to your client.
48:02
What if something happens?
48:03
And how do you ship those?
48:05
Has anything ever happened?
48:06
Not anything major.
48:08
I'm really good at packing them.
48:10
Of course, something can happen to it.
48:12
I've been very lucky.
48:13
I haven't had, and I've shipped them all over the world.
48:16
So I just had one go to Argentina.
48:18
I just had one go to Scotland and I haven't had any damage.
48:22
You know, every once, inevitably you'll have like a little, if it's an airplane
48:26
and antenna will come off and I'll video chat with them and tell them
48:29
how to do it so they can reaffix it.
48:31
But most of the time they get there in one piece.
48:34
I'm really good at packing them.
48:35
If it gets damaged, I mean, the customer knows that we're at the mercy of the
48:39
mail, and it's just part of the thing.
48:42
If it was that damaged, I would have them send it back to me
48:45
and I would repair it for them.
48:46
Do you have a preferred mail method, USPS or FedEx?
48:51
Believe it or not, the U.
48:52
S.
48:52
Postal Service is the best, to be honest with you.
48:55
It's the fastest.
48:56
It's the most inexpensive.
48:58
They seem to take the most care in handling the packages.
49:02
They're super nice to work with.
49:04
I used to use only UPS, but I've moved to the United States Post Office.
49:08
They're great.
49:09
I really, I can't say enough good things about them.
49:11
I mean, I'm shocked to be saying that, but it's truthful.
49:14
They're really, really wonderful.
49:16
All right, Rick.
49:17
I need a rough order of magnitude here.
49:20
1970 in the Sunoco livery in 118th scale in plastic.
49:25
What are we talking here?
49:25
In 118th scale, well, we have to see the most likely to probably be in,
49:30
if there's a kit, there'd be probably be in the 124th scale or 125th scale.
49:36
I'm just going off the top of my head here.
49:38
Be about 800 bucks.
49:39
But be fully custom, fully look like the real thing.
49:42
And I just want to say, Eric, it's a bargain.
49:46
Even if he told you 8, 000, it's a bargain.
49:49
Because you buy it, you've got it, you're done.
49:52
You don't have to insure this car.
49:53
You don't have to maintain this car.
49:54
You put it on a shelf.
49:56
There it is.
49:56
For the rest of your life, done.
49:58
If you think about it, it's 125th the price, because the real deal
50:02
sold for half a million bucks a couple years ago, so there you go.
50:05
But it'll look just exactly like the real thing.
50:08
I've always wanted a Countach.
50:09
It's been my dream car since I was yay big.
50:11
I love a Countach.
50:13
They're the most ridiculous, outrageous cars and you just gotta love them.
50:17
One of my most favorite cars, the anniversary edition,
50:20
white with red interior.
50:22
Yeah, with the stripes and everything.
50:24
Yeah, they're crazy.
50:25
I bought one of these and I don't remember what I paid for it.
50:28
It's still in the closet today.
50:30
I have not pulled it out.
50:31
I don't have a place to put it yet, but I forget who built it, but I paid a lot of
50:34
money for it in my opinion, but I'm cheap.
50:37
And when I told my wife, I said, this is what I'm paying for it.
50:40
And she said, Oh, okay.
50:43
And I said, yeah, but look at it this way.
50:44
I've kind of resigned myself to Don is never going to own a real coontosh.
50:49
So this is the closest I'm going to get.
50:50
So this is a bargain price.
50:52
And you know, that's sort of the moral of modeling, the moral of modeling.
50:56
I love that on the collector side of it.
50:58
For you, Rick, there's a sense of completion.
51:02
There's a sense of, you know, being one with your artistry and all that
51:05
stuff as a builder, as a creator.
51:06
But for us, it's Collectors.
51:08
There's the excitement of I've got this unique thing.
51:11
And that's why I bring up that nine 14.
51:13
Cause it has a special place for me.
51:14
It invokes emotion and invokes memories from when I was a kid
51:17
growing up around that car and being involved with that family and stuff.
51:20
And so to Don's point, he may never achieve having a real Kuntosh in
51:25
the garage, but that model gets his juices going and he's thinking and
51:29
he gets the daydream and all that.
51:30
And live those memories and those.
51:32
Thoughts.
51:32
So it works on both ends of the pendulum.
51:34
And I think that's, what's so special about modeling, whether you're a creator
51:37
or a collector, you've hit the nail on the head, my customers, I'm recreating
51:43
a memory 95 percent of the time.
51:45
It's a memory that they have.
51:46
It's a car that they drove.
51:48
It's a car, their father drove.
51:49
This is the car we drove across country.
51:52
This is our farm truck that we wanted.
51:54
Those are the people that I'm building for.
51:56
And that's why my models.
51:57
They supply me with pictures, and I emulate exactly what those pictures,
52:01
so when they get it, they're like, Wow, this is what I remember.
52:04
You know, this is exactly what I remember.
52:06
Anybody can go buy a die cast car of just about any car on the
52:10
planet, you know, and put it there.
52:11
And those are cool, there's nothing wrong with that.
52:13
My cars, my models, tell a story.
52:16
You look at it, and it's very personal, that person.
52:19
I've had this concept, and maybe somebody listening here will reach out to me.
52:23
I've been wanting to do a television, like a Netflix series.
52:26
Or a Hulu series on that exact topic where the story is the person
52:31
comes to me with their story.
52:33
Say it's a Lamborghini Countach and it was a car my dad owned,
52:36
but he's not with us anymore.
52:38
So the television show would literally tell the history of
52:41
that car or whatever it is.
52:43
It would tell the story of his father and why he had the affinity to the car.
52:48
And then it goes to me actually getting the model and building the
52:52
model based on the photography and the stories that the family has told me.
52:57
And at the end, I'm unveiling the model to the family, to that special person.
53:02
And that is the show that I'm dying to do one day, if I ever get the opportunity,
53:08
because I think It has the perfect blend of history, feel good, family,
53:14
watching something that you've done as a kid, and maybe you want to do again.
53:18
And then it has that element of unveiling, of surprise, you know, at the end.
53:22
What is the person going to think when they pull the sheet off
53:25
of this Countach that they've dreamed about, and now here it is.
53:29
And that eventually is something that I really, really want to do
53:32
one day, is that whole concept.
53:35
I was picturing it in my mind.
53:36
I was actually thinking this show could actually be Yeah, it'd be pretty cool.
53:39
I'd watch it for sure.
53:41
Even though I'm a collector, and I know Don is, my daughters come down
53:44
here and they ask me about the cars and what's so important about this one.
53:48
And so I can either tell them about its importance and significance in the world
53:51
of racing, or in the autosphere, or it's important to me, or my grandfather had one
53:57
of these, and they're like, wait, what?
53:58
Much like the motto of our show, every car has a story.
54:01
Everyone has a story.
54:02
They're all special in their own way.
54:04
And what you're doing, it resonates with that.
54:06
I love talking about model building.
54:07
Obviously, you know, it's just an amazing thing to do every day.
54:11
I'm jealous, right?
54:12
I wish I could.
54:13
I know sooner thinking this guy builds models for a living every day.
54:17
Well, Rick, we've reached that part of the episode where I like to invite our guests.
54:20
To share any shout outs, promotions, or anything else we haven't covered thus far?
54:25
Well, I mean, if you wanna find me, please don't be scared of
54:27
TikTok for crying out loud.
54:29
Don't believe all the hype go to at the pope of plastic on TikTok at the Pope
54:34
of plastic on TikTok, also on Instagram at the Pope of plastic on uh, LinkedIn.
54:40
You can always find me at Rick Shadd, R I C K S C H A D.
54:44
I usually post all my models on LinkedIn.
54:46
That's kind of where I got my start.
54:48
My first commissions came, believe it or not, from LinkedIn and I build anything.
54:51
It doesn't have to be cars or planes, boats, tanks.
54:54
It doesn't matter.
54:55
So if you're interested in having something really special, you
54:58
know, please reach out to me.
54:59
You can also email me at rickshadd, S C H A D D at gmail.
55:05
com, or you can email me at thepopoplastic at gmail.
55:09
com.
55:09
And I'm going to be building another event that nobody knows about,
55:13
so I'm kind of excited about it.
55:15
Another one here in Rhode Island, but I'll have to come back on and talk about it.
55:19
Oh, for sure.
55:19
You're always welcome back.
55:21
I appreciate y'all having me.
55:22
It's been fun to talk about model building and to get people exposed to
55:26
it, and hopefully they'll find this hobby and they'll try it for themselves and
55:29
hopefully they'll turn into something that they'll be impassioned of there.
55:32
Now known as the Pope of Plastic, Rick Shadd captivates audiences
55:36
worldwide on TikTok where he holds the title of Top Modeler, routinely
55:42
commissioned to build intricate and unique models for collectors and
55:45
enthusiasts located all over the world.
55:48
To learn more about Rick, be sure to follow him on social
55:52
media at thepopeofplastic.
55:53
com.
55:54
On Instagram and YouTube, and most importantly at the Pope
55:58
of Plastic on TikTok, where you can see him build live daily.
56:03
And if you'd like to commission some work, you can reach him
56:05
via email at rickschad at gmail.
56:09
com.
56:09
Well, Rick, I can't thank you enough for coming on break fix and sharing
56:13
your story about coming up through the professional automotive world and then
56:18
turning your passion of artistry and modeling into a career for yourself and
56:23
turning your life completely around.
56:24
It's truly inspiring.
56:26
And most importantly, what you're doing as a creator, and we love
56:29
having creators on this show.
56:31
Is expressing your enthusiasm about the vehicle world in a way that
56:36
resonates with so many people worldwide.
56:38
So I can't thank you enough for doing that.
56:40
And especially promoting motorsports enthusiasm, which is something that's
56:44
really, really important these days.
56:46
We'd love to have you all come and visit me.
56:47
If you come and watch me in Tik TOK live, just tell me you saw me, you
56:50
know, on the internet or whatever.
56:52
And I'd love to say hi and.
56:53
Feel free to ask me any questions and I need to do a model for you guys.
56:57
We need to do a Kutash and a Porsche.
57:00
I'm all for that.
57:07
We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought
57:11
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57:13
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