Hey guys, welcome to Good News York. We've got
a special, very special episode, special guest.
Mike's earning his producer pay here. Yeah, finally.
I think this might be one of the coolest things
we've ever seen. And it's also a unique thing.
We're going to do something a little different.
Yeah. We're gonna do this At eyes at like a no
-face interview. I guess is that that is that
the term for that? So we have a special guest
on us today that we're gonna introduce But this
guest is unlike any other guest for two reasons
one when you find out what he does It's just
fantastic and two it's a no -face account and
before I talked to him I didn't I didn't know
what a note. I mean I figured it out. As soon
as he said it, I figured out what it meant. It's
not a complicated thing. It's not a complicated
thing. A no -face account means it's a social
media account where you don't show your face.
But we've never had anyone on that has a no -face
account. So Matt came up with a brilliant idea.
What are we doing? We're gonna we're gonna do
the same thing. We're gonna we're gonna do this
as a no -face interview, you know So we're gonna
turn around and without further ado. We're making
our coolest guest on the planet Wait, this is
yeah, this is your you're losing your producer
We've got David from David's miniatures yes,
and If you haven't seen this gentleman's work
It's it's mind -blowing feel free to pull it
up as we're we're talking or don't pay attention
to this blow it up afterwards, but This is so
cool. So welcome to Good News York, David. Thank
you. Thank you, guys. Yeah, David. Here's here's
what's great for you and not for us. If you end
up hating this interview, we'll never know because
we can't tell. Yeah. What you could you could
be like rolling your eyes right now and we have
zero clue. But I'm so excited to have you on.
The reason why I wanted to have you on is what
you do is so unique and so. spectacular it is
it's it's hard to find something new nowadays
you know you you scroll through social media
right and you see there's something for everything
right sure it's all been done and then it's been
redone I've never seen what it is you do and
the funny part is it came across my feet as I
think an ad of some sort and I was blown away
and why don't you tell us David what is it that
you do yeah we'd love to hear your description
Yeah, that's actually great. I've never really
described it other than like on my website or
anything, but basically I make scale miniatures
for film, TV, advertising, and private collectors.
But my niche within miniatures is typically anything
retro. So anything from retro movies, 80s and
90s. I have a certain product that I do, which
is called retro rooms, which are basically a
slice of an 80s or 90s bedroom and the client
can actually customize everything they want in
it. So either whether they're recreating the
room they had as a child or the room they wish
they had as a child, there's just a room filled
with all their favorite stuff from the era. So
that's super popular product that I offer, but
the majority of my work is private collectors
and film studios. So I've done work for Netflix,
Amazon, MGM, Sony Pictures, Ghostbusters, Back
to the Future, all that fun stuff. And yeah,
I've been going on 15 years now doing this. Wow.
It's amazing. What came first? Did it start out
as a hobby or did it start out as a paid gig?
that then evolved. Oh, no, it was definitely
a hobby for sure. I was in the corporate world
for a while. I started out as a graphic designer,
eventually moved up to art director. I did a
little stint in set design for film when I was
much younger. I did an internship, didn't like
it. It was like glorified construction work.
Gotcha. No offense to construction workers. Sure.
Super hard, which is why I didn't like it. Absolutely.
And yeah, I actually it's kind of like a sort
of bittersweet story. But in 2013, I was diagnosed
with kidney cancer. Oh, wow. And I had a lot
of complications, was in and out of the hospital
and was stuck at home for over a year and started
to get sort of cabin fever. And to the point
where like the hospital like recommended I speak
to like one of their therapists because I was
like I'm going nuts, oh man and They're like,
oh, you know, do you have a hobby and I was like
not really and they're like, well, maybe you
had a hobby as a kid that you can maybe Like
spark up again, and I was like, well, I used
to like making scale models and stuff And when
I was a kid they sucked obviously, right? But
you know through a time you you acquire experience
in things without realizing it, you know like
By the time I hit my 30s, I had like partially
renovated my own house and built certain things
and whatever. So you can take those skills. Sure.
And I decided to, you know, because I was stuck
home binge watching stuff. I had just watched
the Back to the Future trilogy, which was one
of my favorites. So when this whole model making
thing came up, I was like, oh, maybe I'll make
a scene from Back to the Future. And so I went
online and I bought a little Little car and then
I built the scene And I was like, huh that was
fun I'm like I'm better at this than I thought
I would have been so then I did a scene from
the second movie and then I made a scene from
the third movie And then after that I was like
I didn't want to stop so I made a scene from
Ghostbusters and then because I had a background
in graphic design and web design I decided to
just share them online and see what happens.
I remember where they got shared at the time.
I don't know if Reddit was even a thing back
then, but it ended up getting reposted by other
people. Luckily, I had put my name at the bottom
of each image. And I started getting contacted
and messaged about like, hey, can I buy this?
Like all these kinds of questions and like, it
wasn't even a thought in my mind. For me, I had
made these for me, you know? And then it kind
of like, I've always had like a entrepreneurial
spirit, I guess you can say. I've never been
able to have a hobby that doesn't turn into a
business. This is the pattern I've had in my
life. I have a similar curse. It's not a bad
problem. Yeah. So I went straight from like,
oh, this post got a lot of attention to like,
well, now it's a business. And I created a website
and I created an Instagram. I love it. And I
just started making stuff and selling them way
cheaper than I should have been selling them.
And it just kind of snowballed from there and
then it kind of got to the point where I don't
know exactly how it works in the States. I'm
in Canada So when you're sick you have like a
certain amount of time That the government will
like pay you to like get better and stay home
and yeah, we don't have any of that Yeah, and
I was I was reaching my I think it was like one
year or something like after one year They're
like you need to figure it out And I was sort
of at that point where like, okay, do I follow
this or do I just go back to my job? Sure, which
was waiting for me And I took the risk I had
just gotten My first sort of big gig if you want
to say it was for Universal Studios They wanted
the universal pictures. I should say they wanted
me to recreate the McFly house from back to the
future And it was for they were doing a big anniversary
event in LA And they were gonna auction it off
for the Michael J Fox Foundation. Oh wow for
Parkinson's so Yeah, and that was like sort of
my sign of Okay, like my name's already getting
out there like this is like a good way to start
and The highlight for me at the time was I had
gotten an email from Bob Gale. And for those
that are not familiar, Bob Gale is the co -producer
and co -writer of Back to the Future, along with
Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. And I got
an email from him saying like, hey, he's like,
I saw the miniatures you made. And he's like,
they're absolutely amazing. He's like, they really
brought me back, blah, blah, blah. Like just
all this nice stuff. And for me, that was like,
you know, between that and Universal, it was
like a big sign. that like I was on a good path.
Not gonna lie though, from that moment on, every
time I got an email and the sender was like,
MGM, Warner Brothers. I was always like, well,
I'm getting sued. And it was always the opposite.
It was always like, hey, we saw your stuff. We'd
like to work with you or we'd like to hire you
to make this or whatever. So it's all been super
positive. And yeah, so back in, I would say 2013,
2014, I went full time. And yeah, it's been great
since. That's amazing. Long -winded answer, sorry.
No, no, it's fantastic. Just when I thought you
couldn't get cooler, you also, you know, are
cancer survivor and turn something so negative
into something so positive. On a personal note,
did Did you find that, before this scaled into
a business, did you find that the hobby actually
took your mind off of your illness and did it
do anything for you personally? Till this day,
it's hard to describe how isolated my brain gets
in a good way when I'm working. I could Get like
the worst news ever or whatever and it's just
like, you know what? I'm gonna go down to the
shop and just work and it's It's it's my Xanax.
It's my melatonin. It's my you know what? I mean
it. Yeah, you're able to just pour yourself I
think it's because it it uses so much of my brain
hundred percent and so much of my My physical
like it's almost difficult to think of anything
else. Yeah It's yeah, I I experienced Panic attacks,
you know my whole life and early on before I
got a handle on them The only way to truly get
myself out of a panic attack was to play guitar
I didn't even want to play the guitar at the
moment because I'm in the middle of a panic attack
But yeah, you know, you're physically making
your brain do something different on something
else and so I that's why that that kind of You
connected with me there when you said, you know,
you had this illness and and and So they they
asked if you start a hobby I just think you know,
obviously this whole thing that you've created
is cool but I look at it from a different angle
of like hey this this this actually might have
Saved his life in a way or at least gave you
a better quality of life 100 100 You know, like
I said, it's been like I lost count like somewhere
between 13 and 15 years and I You know, there
has been times where, you know, like society
has made me feel like this isn't a real job,
you know, and I've worked a couple of months,
like went back into graphic design for a couple
of months and literally like day three on the
new job with, you know, the cushy salary and
the, you know, the health benefits and all that.
I'm like, what am I doing? Horrible. Right. This
is horrible. And yeah, like my my happy place
is my shop that you see me in here and it's like,
you know, I either have music on or I have a
movie on and I'm just working away, you know,
I I can literally, you know, see the day go by
and like forget to eat or forget like, you know,
like I have to set alarms for everything because
they're all just zone out. Well, that's how you
know, you love what you're doing when you know
that old saying time flies I didn't realize that
until you know, I started editing, you know video
or recording music or something You know all
of a sudden you blink and it's been four hours
and that you're so hyper focused and it just
takes you away Yeah, you know David I gotta ask
it so Obviously, it's David's miniatures, and
they're small models. Why so small? Why did you
not go with something maybe a little bigger,
a little easier to work with? What drew you to
this tiny size? You mean bigger within the world
of miniatures? Yeah, just like a larger figure.
Just something that maybe a little easier to
work with, that you didn't need as many tweezers.
Yeah, so I actually work in... Pretty much any
scale that's requested. Okay, so i've i've done
up to like one sixth scale for movies one eighth
scale It just gets a little bit harder to work
in the shop when they're that big sure but Usually
i'll determine the scale either with the client
or Typically like the bigger the thing is in
real life The smaller scale I'll choose because
it's easier to display. It's easier to I see,
you know, so, you know example I did Michael
Scott's office. Yeah from the show the office
and that was 124 scale so about That big Wow
for the whole office But I had someone commission
the building like the exterior of the building
with the parking lot and everything from the
office So that I did 164 scale which is like
hot wheel size. Okay. Yeah And even at 164th
scale, it was like two and a half to three feet
wide, about 13 inches tall. So it was quite big.
So that building at like 112th scale or 124th
scale would have been bigger than this table.
So that's how I determined the scale and obviously
whatever the client requested. So like the studios,
the big companies that come to you for this work,
is it... What are they using it for? So is it
a gift for the performers? Is it something they
use in a production? Like what are they looking
for? All of the above. I've made stuff for Amazon
that was online promotion. So to promote like
the new season of a show or a movie. Sometimes
they... They get gifted to like the star of the
show or the director or whatever a lot of times
It's for promotion of a series or a movie like
the majority. That's what it is. Gotcha but a
lot of times I'll also ship it out to them. So
like I did a bunch of sets from Stranger Things
for Netflix So that was for online promotion,
but now they're on display at the head office
Like in the in the stranger things section of
the head office, you know one thing so neat I
know it really is man though one there's many
things I love about you and and what you do one
the obvious you're we're clearly around the same
age because Everything I've seen on your site
is just I mean you have hit such a nostalgia
nerve with me from Ghostbusters To back to the
future. It's all 80s 90s stuff. Yeah, but one
thing that really connected on is so I have you
know a handful of tattoos and when I first went
to a tattoo artist one of the things I learned
is like and I'm not disparaging tattoo artists
that do this but you know you don't want to go
to the tattoo artist in Myrtle Beach and go I
want that thing on the wall you know most tattoo
artists take pride in like Tell me what you want.
I'll design it. And I'm never going to do that.
At least my tattoo artist. It's a one of a kind.
It's a one of a kind. I'm never going to do that.
Once I put it on your body, I'm never doing it
for anybody else. And when I was reading through
your site, you kind of go along with that same
model. If you want to talk about that, I really
respect that. And I know it's as a customer kind
of bums you out because I saw like 10 different
models on on your website where I'm like, I want
that one. I want that one. And I want. Yeah,
but. From an artist standpoint from a creative
standpoint. I really think that's unique and
special Yeah, so there there's several reasons
why I do it The first and foremost reason why
I do it is I hate making things twice That's
the first reason each build is such a challenge
It has its own you know ups and downs and things
to figure out and for me. That's the fun part
like figuring it out It would be easier for me
to make something I've already made sure, you
know I'll already have like certain files already
done the blueprints already done whatever and
And it's not to say that I never will That's
my like my insurance plan Like if ever business
isn't doing well, I can just open up the floodgates
and be like, hey I'm willing to remake anything
you've seen on my website But For the time being,
I don't need to. I have a one year plus waiting
list of stuff, and I don't really need to make
five of that thing to survive. I do have this
thing I've been doing for the past couple of
years where once a year I'll make a limited edition
item that I think will sell well, that's more
affordable because not everybody could afford
my larger pieces. And it gives people that like
my work a chance to like buy something. Yeah,
that's like under a thousand dollars, you know,
so Every year I release a different thing So
this year it was like this little retro TV and
it plays a bunch of like movie trailers from
the 80s and it has like a VCR and a Nintendo
That's awesome. And the client and the client
can choose like the poster that's on the wall
behind the TV and I sold over 200 of those in
two weeks now I have to make them. But yeah,
and they're all like handmade each one. So, but
yeah, to go back to your question, the main reason
is I just don't enjoy making things twice. But
I also, you know, through the years dealing with
collectors, collectors that have that budget
that are willing to spend that amount of money
on something that's unique and handmade. First
of all, there aren't that many of them. Yeah
and Something that they value is knowing that
they're the only ones that will have that piece
That's awesome. So You know and I always tell
them the same thing I'm like if ever in X number
of years I decide to make this again either for
myself or somebody else I will check in with
you and make sure you're okay with it. If you're
not I will not make it That's great. I've done
variants of certain scenes, especially Back to
the Future because it's my biggest demand. I've
done the DeLorean coming out of the truck. I've
done that three different ways. That's so great.
The McFly House I made twice, but it was two
different scenes. Same house, but one was the
scene where basically the end of the first movie,
beginning of the second, where the DeLorean comes
in and crashes into the trash cans. And then
the second one I made was the scene where Biff
is waxing the cars. Yes. So, again, same house.
But, you know, and that one, I kind of agreed
to do it because the McFly house, the first one
I did was my first thing I ever made that went
viral. But it was also one of the first bigger
projects that I did. And. It was over 10 years
ago. Wow, and I just it was almost like a challenge
to myself to see You know, did I get better?
Did I get faster? Did I you know because like
it's essentially the exact same house and I think
it took me a Month and a half to make it the
first time The second time took me two weeks
Wow That's so we're gonna be showing as you're
talking by the way We're gonna edit in we'll
cut in some all through this way. We're gonna
cut in pictures of all that I got one more yeah
question, and I want you to do your thing I I
want to talk about the obvious now. You're a
no -face account We talked about that and in
solidarity Matt, and I are also doing a no -face
interview kind of liking this is this is this
to just you want to keep your identity anonymous
or is it kind of like a puppeteer type deal where
you're like you know the allure of this is that
I make these things you can see what I made but
you know it's it's almost like a creative choice
like I'm the you know I'm behind the scenes I'm
the puppeteer or is it maybe a mixture of both
so it it kind of it was never on purpose um smart
because of the nature of what I do Most of the
pictures are like of my hand holding something
or my hand in the picture of something I feel
like the scale of my hand is more relevant sure
do like if I if I do a full -body picture of
me holding a miniature like you'll barely be
able to see the miniature because The camera
would be have to be far away enough to see like
my face and my torso, right? So at the beginning
it was just like a logical thing. It wasn't like
I'm hiding myself. Mm -hmm but As my social media
accounts grew and everything And I had like,
you know, I had a kid and things like that and
I was just thinking about like privacy a little
bit more And you know, I had a I had another
business a while ago and I had at the time like
I'm not gonna get into it too much, but I had
a competitor that went a little bit cuckoo And
I had to deal with some crazy shit like, you
know slashing my tires Sending shit to my house
and like it's crazy and you know, it taught me
that it only takes one crazy person to like ruin
your life and You know when you start having
like 10 ,000 20 ,000 30 ,000 50 ,000 followers
You don't know who those people are. That's right,
and you can never assume Like oh, but they follow
me. They're all fans. They're all like nice people
that like I work like no That's not the case
at all Every celebrity stalker was a fan. That's
right Yeah, so it it kind of evolved into that
like at the beginning I just felt there was no
need sure for like like what does my face have
to do with any of this? you know, yeah, and it's
funny cuz I made friends like, you know, in the
sort of miniature community and influencer community
whatever at the beginning and a lot of them were
telling me this is sort of before Influencing
was like a legitimate sure fashion And a lot
of them were telling me like, oh no You have
to show your face and people like, you know,
they respond to that and like blah blah. I'm
like I don't like I'm like I don't see how it's
relevant to what I do. Yeah and Yeah, so in the
end I never did and I'm super glad that I did
I now have a podcast which is Filmed the exact
same way. This is filmed scale talk is the name
of the podcast. Yes scale talk project and I
interview like different artists and and Miniaturists
and things like that. Like I've had people on
that, you know worked on Star Wars and Terminator
I saw you talk to Freddie Prinze and junior.
Yeah Yeah, because he's into like model making
and stuff, so I had him on. Do you find that
you have to regularly like go get manicures because
your hand is always in frame? Do you have like
take extra care of your hands? The episode of
Friends where you get the hand model? Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Yeah, no, I'm pretty good. Like I clean
them up every day. I literally have some pictures
where like I have still have paint on my hands
and stuff. I mean, that's real though. It is
real. Yeah. No, but that's why that's how it
all kind of Started it was never really intentional
But I'm glad that I did just because you know
and like I was saying before it like for my podcast
it it kind of comes in handy because Sometimes
if like I have like a bad connection with the
person it'll seem like I'm talking over them
But I'm not it's just because there's a delay.
Yeah, I'm able to just like scooch my audio over
and You can't tell that it doesn't match my mouth
or not So super handy for her podcast. It is
brilliant. You know, the other thing I like about
it. I mean, you're just like clobbering me with
nostalgia. You're reminding me of Dr. Claw from
Inspector Gadget. So I think it's kind of cool,
too. Like, I have no idea. I was going to say,
are you happy? I'll get you gadget. I didn't
know if you were petting a cat or not, but yeah.
Oh, man. David, I just got one more quick question
for you. I was going to ask you about your podcast,
and you already told us about that, which is
awesome. One of the last things I just want to
know is, as you're building these things, obviously
you have to fabricate so much of it. You could
maybe buy a Matchbox DeLorean, but how do you
go about that? Do you custom make everything,
and what type of materials do you use to fabricate
these different pieces? Yeah, so nowadays, It's
much different than it was I would say like You
know for the last three years. I have a lot more
tools at my disposal. So I got into 3d printing.
I got into laser cutting mostly for Time sure
reasons and speed You know if you go on my website
you I don't think you'd be able to tell You know
which products like which models I made prior
to owning those tools. Uh -huh It's just a question
of time And everything I 3D print, I 3D model
myself. So I'm lucky again, because I come from
sort of graphic design, visual background. I
knew a little 3D modeling. If ever I have to
3D model people, I usually outsource that to
an artist that I work with. Oh, cool. And he
3D models people, or I work with a good friend
of mine who's an amazing sculptor. And he'll
do that for me. But yeah, most of the stuff is
handmade, mostly out of either wood, MDF, resin,
and a very common material we use in model making
is called styrene. It's a plastic. You can buy
it in textures. You can buy it in strips. You
can buy it like I just used yesterday, one that
has a stone effect. Cool, so you can like at
your hobby shop. You can basically buy like if
you want like a stone wall You can buy it like
it comes in like different scales I see and you
just buy the one you want and it's like a plastic
that you can like weld together Instead of glue
I see so it's very common and that's all like
all the Star Wars movies were made. It was all
styrene Do you think you're speaking of scale
talk your podcast? Do you do you? Think you'll
ever get to a point where you have to scale the
business and hire employees and maybe use a 3d
printer Or do you always just want to keep it
you in your workshop and and just kind of do
it at your own pace? Yeah, it's funny you say
that I was I was talking about that with with
someone else and I'm kind of getting at that
point. I just I'm just at a point where like
logistically, I don't know how it would work
You know my shop is in my house, and I I don't
want to change that right now It's It's very
hard because it's for me each piece is so personal
sure even if you know even if like someone I'll
give you an example like right now I'm making
a motel that this guy's family owned When you
know, it's a motel in L .A. like nothing special.
Cool. But they sold it not long ago. The dad
retired and he wanted a miniature of the motel
to give him as a gift. Sure. So I personally
have no attachment to this place as I would if
it was like one of my favorite movies or something
like that. Yeah. But the time you invest in it,
like the research, the all that stuff. goes into
like, oh, what model air conditioner is that?
And like, you know, you go down this rabbit hole,
just figure everything out, you become attached
to it. And I've tried in the past to like, get
people to help me. And oftentimes, it's faster
for me to do it myself than to explain to somebody.
Yeah, yeah. How to do it. Like right now, I'm
working on a project. When I work on bigger projects,
I sort of pause in between. Just because I don't
want to like work on one thing for three months
like a for my brain But be it's sort of like
messes up my my waiting list So I'm working on
a reproduction of the carousel of progress the
Disney ride Wow, and it has like a motorized
base and everything and Because it's the ride
is four acts I'm doing like one act and then
I'm going back to my to -do list and then do
another act And that one, like each act has like
between three and five people in it. They're
not real people in real life. They're electronic.
Right. So I hired this super talented, like 3D
artist to model the people. But just to work
with him, it took me three days of researching
like all the images, finding different angles
of the people. And then let's sort of like writing
out a document of him like. How much detail do
I need? How much do I not need? How are these
models going to interact with my model? Like,
do I need a peg in a whole system or like, how
is that working? And, you know, it worked out
fine, but, you know, it took me three days just
to prep him to do that thing. And the only reason
I did it is because that's something I can't
do myself. Yeah. And what one of the things that
blows me away, too, and I know we got to get
you out here. I'm sorry. I just. One more couple
quick things David from David miniatures The
thing that caught my eye. I mean obviously and
again, we're showing all this right now, but
You know the the the models themselves are spectacular,
but there's another element You know you add
like you were talking about like movement and
the first thing I saw of yours was it was a television
set that had like the like it had the Super Nintendo
or the Nintendo hooked up. And like, you know,
when the squiggly lines squiggly. Yeah, it literally
does that. Yeah. Just so it's not just modeling
your engineering. It's absolutely spectacular.
And I'm telling you right now, we're going to
be on that waiting list starting tomorrow morning
because we're going to come up with something
that we'd love for you to make. So you obviously.
don't just do movie sets. You said you're doing
like the retro rooms you do. You're doing a motel
that was near and dear to somebody's heart. What
else do you do? So for those that are watching
and listening. And while you're on that, do you
want to just take us through the quick process
of somebody comes to your site and they want
to purchase something? How does that all work?
Yeah, sure. So to answer the first part, anything
that's miniature, I can make. whatever it is.
I've made miniature fire departments for like
city buildings that want to display like the
new fire department they just built or whatever.
Like, you know, so I do a lot of commercial work.
I've done real estate stuff for people. You know,
it doesn't have to be movie and TV based. So
because of my portfolio, that's the majority
of work I get is that. But I do commercial stuff
all the time. And to explain the process, it's
pretty simple. Usually people reach out either
through a form on my website or through social
media. And because the demand has gotten so high
lately, I usually just send people back to the
website and fill out the forms because it asks
certain questions that I need to know. And then
it just kind of goes from there. Usually if it's
a private client, There's just a lot of back
and forth about what they want, the scale, the
size, the budget, that kind of thing. Then they
pay me a deposit. They go on the waiting list.
Usually about a month before I begin production,
I usually reach out to them, confirm that they
don't want to change anything, they don't want
to add the budget, reduce the budget, that type
of thing. Then I get going when it's more of
a commercial job. Let's say it's like a Netflix
thing or whatever Usually there's a lot of meetings
involved a lot of zoom calls with the directors
or whatever So that's a little bit of a different
process, but it's essentially the same in the
end. Yeah, and you I mean that is just it's just
outstanding the the whole thing Do you see this
going? to a next level or do you feel like you're
just going to ride it out? Keep this, you know,
the way it is. Do your thing or is there a next
level to this? A next step? I mean, the only
next level I see is I think eventually I may
have to either stop or limit like private orders
from collectors because every year the demand
for my commercial work goes up. And those projects,
not to get into too much detail, but pay way
better. And they're usually, how can I explain
this? I can't tell Netflix you have to wait a
year. You know what I mean? And the problem is
these companies, and because I've worked on the
corporate world, I understand. They're having
a meeting and somebody in the meeting is like,
hey, it'd be cool if this was miniature. and
their project is due in three weeks and then
they call me and they're like, hey, can you do
this? Most of these commercial jobs are very
quick turnaround, usually within 30 days. The
amount of money I make in 30 days for those versus
the amount of money I make and someone has to
wait a year for it, it doesn't make sense. But
right now, I'm very much in the middle of both
of those. The the private collector world is
still Pretty viable for me and I have a lot of
regular clients that you know They'll order like
two three at a time and just wait for them and
then they order like two three more and I have
a client just reached out to me last week and
he's like and I like I forget who I make things
for sometimes right and he sent me a picture
of his office and He must have had like maybe
six or seven of my pieces Wow And in my head,
I'm like, man, I didn't even realize these were
all for you. No kidding. And he's like, hey,
he's like, can you build me like a custom shelf
to display these? And I was like, I'm like, first
of all, you're like in Chicago or something.
And second of all, like, I don't build furniture.
If you want, I can, if you want, I can like design
it and then you can like give that to like a
carpenter or something and build it off of that.
But that's about as best as I can. can do it
so um yeah the regulars is fun because they and
those are always the people that trust me the
most they're always like hey i want something
from goonies i'm like cool what do you want they're
like whatever just tell me how much it is and
i'm like all right and then i just do like whatever
scene i think is the coolest is is there a lot
of um Like do you give people a specific set
of like I need these kind of pictures these dimensions
when they want to build something That's not
from a movie scene Like to send you ahead more
I can get the better yeah, right so a Lot the
advantage is like a lot of times. They're real
places that still exists so Google Street View
is like a huge resource for that and Sometimes
having a large following is super useful For
that as well, and I'll give you an example. I
had to I made the Vic theater in Chicago for
For Sal volcano. Mm -hmm. Okay practice jokers
Yeah and practical jokers So he was doing his
first like TV special at the Vic and they wanted
to sort of commemorate that with a model of the
Vic but like the marquee and stuff had his name
on it and everything. Um, and obviously I'm not
in Chicago and I, I, there was a lot of pictures
of the Vic online and it was very like inconsistent.
Like it had gone through renovations at one point.
The street view was like three years old. So
I just reached out, I went on my stories and
I was like, Hey, if anybody's in Chicago, like
I need help with something, let me know. What
am I? Followers reached out. He's like, hey,
what's up? And I'm like, hey, I'm like, are you
far from like the Vic? He's like, no, like five
minutes. I'm like, would you mind like just going
there and just snapping like a bunch of pictures?
He's like, yeah, no problem. So he he went over
to the Vic and he was like live sending me pictures
on Instagram. He's like, what else do you need?
And I'm like, oh, I need that, like that sconce.
And I need like a close up of the sign on the
door. And he was just walking around, like snapping
pictures of his iPhone. So. You got a street
team. Yeah, literally. Yeah. Just deploy people
all over the world. That's awesome. I love that.
David, we are out of time, my friend. And you
have been so incredibly generous with your time.
So much, yeah. It's really been incredible talking
to you about this and learning about this and
the best part is you're a fellow podcaster So
for folks that want to dig even deeper He peels
back the onion on all kinds of things incredible
channel that we were Going through all over YouTube
and its website. Yeah, you can also tell it He's
got a background in web because he's got it actually
nice nice clean well organized site where you
can check out everything he's doing David's miniature
David miniatures comm or David David manager
I own both domains just in case, but it's David
Miniatures. David Miniatures scale talk is the
podcast. Anything else you want to plug, my friend?
No. Best place to visit me is Instagram at David
Miniatures. If you want to contact me there or
through my website, if you're interested in anything
or have questions or want to learn or anything
like that. And we'll definitely be tagging you
on all of our posts. And on a personal note,
without getting into it, I want to let you know
here at Good News York, we absolutely love and
respect Canada. So God bless. I'll leave it at
that, my friend. All right. All right. Have a
good one. Thank you, David. David, thank you.
Wow. So we just did a no face interview. We did.
That's I don't know if we'll ever do that again.
We might do it every day now. I liked not seeing
your face.