In this episode, your hosts hit the dirt running, so to speak, tackling the importance of the scenery in a diorama or vignette, starting with the question of whether we begin by building the setting (an approach Jim has taken of late) or if that comes last (Barry’s tendency). 

Central Virginia-based modeler (and retired entomologist!) Mike Pierce has been an inspiration to your hosts since we first met him at one of the MMSI’s post-show critique sessions. He’s a modeler who’s always trying new things, and he tells great stories—both in his work, and in conversation. In this episode, we have a fine visit and hear more than a few of his tales.  

Barry and Jim chat once again with U.K. modeler Chris Meddings about a new international online “juried exhibition” he’s launched called the Upturner Prize, which, as he puts it atop the web site, is intended for “celebrating  modellers who push the limits of miniatures, models, and what they can  say, with an annual prize for artistic creation in miniature.”

Your hosts round out this episode with a new segment Jim has now formally named: “Ask Barry.” 

Jim talks with Norris, Tennessee-based modeler Raphael Shelton, who Barry thought had an interesting perspective on “doing the hobby just for fun,” something those of us who are obsessed about this thing of ours (and who talk about it on a podcast) can sometimes forget. Jim and Barry also discuss what they’re working on (or playing with, if you prefer) at the moment.

Toronto-area modeler Dave Browne has been a big inspiration to your hosts for quite some time, and not only because he shares their passion for box dioramas and is a master of the form. Dave is also a very talented armor modeler, and for 16 years, until it closed in January 2019, he ran Hornet Hobbies, the best kind of hobby shop. which, as he says, was about “building friendships, an active modelling community, and a few models.”

Your hosts talk with Robert Blokker, a loyal listener who lives in Alkmaar, a city located in the North Holland province of the Netherlands, known for its traditional cheese market. In addition to being a wonderfully gregarious fellow—Barry really enjoyed spending some time with him during World Model Expo in Versailles last summer—Robert, who works as a graphic artist, is a wonderfully imaginative modeler with a wide variety of interests: World War I to fantasy, busts to flats, 1/72nd figures to 1/9 busts, and a special love for dioramas.

After epic conversations about big topics with multiple guests on the last two episodes—Perspectives on digital sculpting with Alan Ball and Nello Rivieccio in Episode 59, and a recap of World Model Expo in Versailles with Joan Biediger, Joe Berton, and Pat Vess in Episode 60—your hosts talk amongst themselves in this one, with Barry giving an unusual (for him) but very welcome (by Jim) step-by-step on the creation of his latest box diorama “XOR,” his eleventh (see his gallery here).

Watch where you step; there are a few profanities uttered this time.

Incredible art, great camaraderie, a beautiful and historic locale—and some sketchy organization, long lines with overflow crowds, and none of the artist’s names on any of those incredible pieces! In this episode, Jim (who could not attend) and Barry (who could and did) discuss the good and the bad about the twelfth World Model Expo, which took place from July 4 to 6 in Versailles, batting it all around with special guests Joe Berton, Pat Vess, Joan Biediger, and U.K. correspondent Chris Meddings of the Model Philosopher podcast.

With our last episode recapping MFCA 2025, your hosts—with help from Lou Masses and Dennis Levy—kicked up a bit of a hornet’s nest by addressing a major recurring topic of discussion at the show and in our small section of the miniatures world in general: Should digital sculpting and 3D printing be judged differently than the “handmade/toothpick and putty” sculpts that have predominated in this odd art form of ours for the last five and a half decades?

Okay, it was mainly Jim doing the kicking. But since he was in part recounting a long and thoughtful conversation in Pennsylvania with master-sculptor Alan Ball, first featured with his master-painter wife Marion on Episode 20 of our podcast, we invited Alan to come back to have the discussion in real time—“for the record,” so to speak, and sans paraphrasing. As always, he graciously and eloquently shared his thoughts and insights as one of the deepest thinkers about this passion we share.

Now, when anyone talks about digital sculpting in the historical as opposed to the fantasy category of miniature figures today, the name Nello Rivieccio inevitably comes up. Based near Naples, he is as much of a master on Zbrush as he was for many years with a toothpick (or similar tool) and two-part epoxy putty.

To be clear, we do not intend these dual chats as a Pro/Con, Point/Counterpoint pairing: Alan and Nello have as many areas of agreement with each other (and with your hosts) as they do differences. But since the conversation about the advent of digital sculpting is certain to be a major topic of conversation again at World Model Expo, we wanted to drop this epic episode with both of them at the same time, so folks can have their perspectives (and our own) in mind as they view the work on display in Versailles from July 4 to 6.

The Miniature Figure Collectors of America’s 82nd show took place on May 9 and 10 in Trevose, PA, just outside Philadelphia. On Saturday night, Lou Masses and Dennis Levy—both in a rather, um, well-lubricated mood—told Barry they’d love to bum-rush our podcast. They didn’t have to twist our arms—your hosts are always game for a good chat with friends who are equally devoted to this little hobby/art form of ours—and this episode is devoted to that talk.

Once again, this episode is marked as explicit for some profanity (It would have simply ruined the flow if we had taken it out!)

For photos of what we discuss in each episode, visit the Small Subjects blog on boxdioramas.com: http://www.boxdioramas.com/smallsubjects