This is our first mid-week Model Building Toolbox Talk where one of us will just record some short thoughts, tips, or stories of our model building experiences. These can range from new ideas, errors you can all avoid, tips, new things, really whatever we want! And they'll all be in digestible 5-10 minute bites. This week Brett introduces the new part of the show and talks about his new endeavor into the vehicle modeling world! Sorry the recording is bad, I did it in the car on the voice recorde...
Jun 13, 2019•8 min•Ep. 135
For week 78 of the Bench Time Model Railroading Podcast we have a guest favorite on! Jason Jensen jumps on this week’s show for an awesome discussion on how we’re starting to see everyone SHARING MORE online with each other. We have more and more model railroaders sharing more of their work and progress online. There are more and more model railroaders creating pages and groups to document the progress of their layouts and builds. To be honest, we find this explosion of sharing to be completely ...
Jun 07, 2019•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 134
It's almost summer! So on this nice Friday evening how about you settle in at your workbench and get ready for another installment of the Bench Time Model Railroading Podcast! This week we didn't have a guest (we will have guests upcoming on the next few episodes, and they're going to be awesome!!), so we spent some time this week giving out Patrons the show and letting them ask us whatever they wanted. We covered topics from the current hockey playoffs, to vacation modeling to a plethora of oth...
May 31, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 133
What a pleasure it was to get Tom Barbalet of Model Rail Radio on our show to get a little bit of the history of his show and the story behind how he was able to grow Model Rail Radio into the show it is today! Tom went into his background a bit and he also gave us a great bit of info on how his show has grown into a worldwide hit for modelers and model railroaders all over! You can check out the show here: Model Rail Radio And Join the Model Rail Radio Facebook Group here Thank you for having u...
May 25, 2019•38 min•Ep. 132
It’s memorial day weekend, so let’s first take a moment to remember all of the fallen service men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the US Military. Thank you. This week on the Bench Time Podcast we’ve got a pair of guests, Jake Johnson and Dave Meek who together have formed Crescent Creek Models which specializes in innovative laser-cut structure kits for the discerning model railroader and collector. Founded by former Disney Imagineer and professional model maker, Jake Johnson,...
May 24, 2019•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 131
It's getting warmer out, and we LOVE this late-spring weather! So welcome to another episode of the Bench Time Podcast with Brett & Todd Wiley. To start this week we talk about Brett's current candy that he's been munching on and go on a bit of a food rant. After that's out of the way, we go over Todd's ITLA build, Brett's Wicked Wanda's wrap-up (post 100 miler run), and a little bit on how Brett chops up a Magnuson and DPM model for his current scratch build. We also open up a piece of list...
May 17, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 130
Well, this week’s episode of the Bench Time Podcast was ALL over the place. We talked a little bit about everything and there is a lot to cover in this week’s show. We started out with an off-topic discussion on the little known players in the NHL who actually wear the number 73, except for one player. But he’s on the Bruins so we don’t care. Next, Brett started talking about his weathering and rusting techniques from his recent car rust heaps that he made from plastic cheapy Life-Like vehicles....
May 10, 2019•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 129
It’s the first Friday of May and it’s finally getting warm out! LOVE this time of year! This week on the bench time podcast with Todd & Brett Wiley we have fellow modeler, kit instruction writer and fan of the show Dave Kruiswyk on to talk some shop about what he’s working on currently. We are all over the place on this episode and we cover our current builds, some of the kits and projects that Dave has been working on as well as some talk about a few new kits that are coming out with the in...
May 03, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 128
Hey, we all love Friday's! And I think as model railroaders and modelers, we all love to collect tools! We were inspired by everybody's photo comments of their favorite tools from last week's contest so we decided to dedicate an entire episode to tools and our favorite ones. Well they're all our favorites. Kind of our own little toy collection... I mean tool collection. This week Todd and Brett talk about all of their favorite tools. From pounce wheels to cutters, knives, model building specific...
Apr 26, 2019•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 127
This is Episode 70 of the Bench Time Podcast with Brett & Todd Wiley! Episode number two of the week resumes our normal schedule and it’s just us again this week, BUT that doesn’t mean we aren’t having a BLAST with it. This week we get into a quick recap of the Mini-Con and Clinics day we went to last weekend and then we transition into some of the Patron Questions of the week. If you’re interested in becoming a Patron and keeping our show thriving, you can check out our Support Us page. We ...
Apr 19, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 126
BONUS THURSDAY EPISODE: Listen in from our fun day out at the Mini-Con and Clinics day at the Blue Ridge Summit Fire Hall last Saturday. We met a TON of listeners and we had an overall great time with the entire event. We’ll definitely be heading back there next year! This is an awesome mini-con that offers a ton of great small clinics and hands-on opportunities for all of the attendees and the best part is that it’s FREE for anyone to attend! Near the end of the show, we had Tom Fedor pop in wh...
Apr 18, 2019•39 min•Ep. 125
Todd and Brett are live today kicking it old-school with just us two. We go over Patron Questions and really go deep into the patron topics this week as we spend a lot of time talking about scratch building, kitbashing, scratchbashing, and more! We’ve also got the pics [at the bottom] of what we’re talking about, you can check them out below or hit up our website if they’re not displaying in your podcast app. ALSO: we’ve got new prizes! These prizes are in thanks to the awesome support we receiv...
Apr 12, 2019•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 124
It's the first Friday of April and we're pumped that it's finally starting to look a little more "springy" outside. It's almost time to start enjoying the warmer weather. But that's not why we're excited about Friday's, we're looking forward to sharing our newest episode of the Bench Time Model Railroading Podcast with you! And this week we have Renée and Nick from ITLA Scale Models. ITLA Scale Models is a Canadian based manufacturer of high-quality laser cut model railroad structures, but they'...
Apr 05, 2019•1 hr 45 min•Ep. 123
It’s another fine Friday for all of our Fine Scale Modelers out there because we’ve got another episode lined up for you. Quick note: If you want to get updates on all of our new YouTube videos, click this link to check out our newest videos and subscribe to our channel: https://youtube.com/hoscalecustoms?sub_confirmation=1 This week we’re happy to have Ron Klaiss of Mine Mount Models on to talk about his newest kit that he’s been teasing us about now for the last couple of weeks! This is sure t...
Mar 29, 2019•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 122
Legendary Guests Dave Frary and Hal Reynolds. 50 plus yrs of friendship and world-class model railroading This week we blow the doors off the barn and bring you two model railroad legends. Dave Frary and Hal Reynolds! They both are not only scenery masters in this hobby, but pioneers, technique geniuses, and great close personal friends for well over 50 years. They share so many incredible stories about how they met, shared the same neighborhood, and worked with each other on projects, and with ...
Mar 22, 2019•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 121
What a great time we had on this week’s podcast with Doug Foscale and Frank Varga, getting them on the show to just talk about how each of them builds and how their creative minds work to make what they do, was just amazing & fun. The best part of this interview was getting the creative mind of Doug Foscale, who spends an amazing amount of time and effort to create his unique craftsman kits to talk shop with Frank Varga who has the eye of an artistic kit-bashing genius who often end up kit-b...
Mar 15, 2019•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 120
It’s Friday so that means it’s time for your weekly dose of the finest fine scale modeling podcast around! On episode #63 of the Bench Time Model Railroading podcast, we had the awesome opportunity to talk to Rick & Maureen of Hunterline.com. Hunterline has been in the model railroading industry since 1994 and they pride themselves on their amazing craftsman-quality prototype wooden bridges and trackside structures. They also enjoy making a product that is built for the novice to expert mode...
Mar 08, 2019•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 119
The weekend is finally here and so is March! Episode 62 of the Bench Time Podcast we have with us special guest Mark Schreier of Foggy Mountain Models Craftsman Kit Structures ! Mark shares with us a bit of insight into the makings of On3 and O scale craftsman kits which Foggy Mountain Models is known for and he tells us a lot about how they can be detailed out to look super realistic just like HO Scale kits can. He also tells us all about a new and first ever release of an HO scale kit which is...
Mar 01, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 118
On Episode 61 of the Bench Time Modeling Podcast we were very excited to bring to you someone that Todd met at the Fine Scale Modeling Expo in 2018 who paints amazing detail parts. He even led one of the clinics there on the subject! Vilius Bileisis is a very accomplished model builder and he's been working with craftsman kits for quite a long time. His work extends much farther beyond the detail parts we talk about in great lengths in this episode to great structure and diorama work as well! We...
Feb 23, 2019•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 117
It’s Friday fellow fine scale freaks! So that means another episode of the Bench Time Podcast! Number 60 to be exact! And this weekend we give you a mish-mash of everything! We start by answering questions from our listeners on a host of different fine-scale subjects, and we go off on a tangent of everything else from there! Yep! Being kept up inside for the Winter has about taken its toll on these two schmucks and their mics (which we talk about too!). But we discuss the great results we have h...
Feb 15, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 60
It's time for another Bench Time Model Railroading podcast with Todd & Brett, and this week we spend a good deal of time talking about how we make our roads and sidewalks. Recently we featured two live videos on Facebook that covered both of these topics and you can find them here: HO Scale Customs LIVE video on roads Model Railroading sidewalk how-to tutorial You can thank Brock, an Instagram follower of ours for the suggestion of this week's main topic! Our roads & sidewalk techniques ...
Feb 08, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 116
We’re about a week away from starting the live build of Pop’s General Store, so what better timing than now to talk to Kenny Crump of KC’s Workshop and Jason Jensen about the kit that we’ll all be building together over the next several weeks?!?! We start out this week’s episode by answering some questions from our Patrons of the Overtime at the Bench - HO Scale Customs group, and out patrons threw a ton of great questions at our guests including: Choosing colors for KC’s Workshop’s Kits The ins...
Feb 01, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 58
This late January episode of The Bench Time Podcast we spend some time answering our listener's questions and from two of them, we get into the subject of glues and the nightmares associated with some of the glue bottles we use when we do our model building. Get your hands on Pop's General Store to build with us for the LIVE Build! Link: KC's Workshop - Pop's General Store - ENTER CODE: HOCUSTOMS Also, here's the link to the tools list for the Live build: Supplies, Paints and Tools for the “Live...
Jan 25, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 115
What’s up fine scale fam! This cold and nasty weekend brings us to Episode 56 of the Bench Time Podcast: and we have joining us as guests Brian and Jill Bollinger of BEST Trains and besttrains.com . Our shows first ever husband and wife team and they tell us all about their wide variety of some outstanding pewter castings for detailing our dioramas, structures and layout scenes and bring them to a different level of realism. There are over 500 of them and they are unique and ones we often wish w...
Jan 18, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 58
What is better to kick off with the first guest of 2019 then to be joined again by Doug Foscale of FOS Scale Models for The Bench Time Podcast episode 55? How about a whole show filled with tips, ideas and techniques on modeling from one of the best in the biz! We start off with some questions from the listeners for Doug on how to pack a diorama or model for travel to a show or event to prevent damage to your work, his ideas and concept of color theory and how to choose the colors for the models...
Jan 11, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 59
Become a Patron & Unlock More! TGIF fine scale modeling friends! This week on Episode 54 of the Bench Time Podcast we explore the things we can do to a structure beyond the walls and windows, things such as fire escapes, duct and pipe work, billboards, stairwells, etc. And we discuss how very easy and cheap it can be done with realistic results! But these are things we often forget to add when we think the model is complete, it often isn’t! We also talk about the nightmares associated with u...
Jan 05, 2019•1 hr 24 min
Episode 53 of the Bench Time Podcast by HO Scale Customs brings us to the end of the year and the last episode of 2018! This week we discuss what is on our workbenches, Todd’s new build of KC’s Workshop’s Cameron Street Apartments and how he has detailed some of the multi-diverse materials of walls with some pretty neat tricks to create ivy vines, vintage wall signs, and window blinds, creating layers of depth to achieve great realism in ho scale. Also how these techniques will be demonstrated o...
Dec 31, 2018•1 hr 5 min
This busy weekend and upcoming Holidays on tepisode #52 of the Bench Time Podcast by HO Scale Customs we list and review some of the best non-professional modelers works from 2018! In no particular order, we pick ten or so of our favorite structures, dioramas and sections of layouts base on our own personal opinions and there were so many many more we simply could not have fit in a single episode. This year was BIG! The year modelers turned up the volume! Mammoth Structures and dioramas filled w...
Dec 22, 2018•1 hr 30 min
Our new Bench Time Voicemail # is 717-601-2348 Call us and leave a friendly message, question, or comment and hear it on the roundup at the end of next week's show! This weekend on The Bench Time Podcast Episode 51 we have an extra special treat for you with special guest and patron Jake Johnson! Jake is a professional model maker with Train Shack, and he has worked as a dimensional designer and model maker with Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, Shadow Machine, and Mattel! You nam...
Dec 14, 2018•1 hr 26 min
Welcome to the weekend Fine Scale Modelers! We’re diving into holiday trains this week and talking about some of the memories we have had with holiday set-ups, train sets and what we do (or did) for the holidays. Brett talks about his Bachman Big Hauler which he’ll set-up soon under the christmas tree. Do you have any holiday train memories you’d like to share? Put those stories up on our Facebook page! Our workbenches have a lot of projects piling up and we go through what’s on our lineup of wo...
Dec 07, 2018•1 hr 20 min
