Shaun Harland, Model Builder and Streamer

[00:00:00] Halfling: Thanks for tuning into the Halfling and the Spaceman: Journeys In Active fandom. We're having great conversations with people that have turned their love of fandom into something creative. We're fans talking to fans, and today we're talking with Shaun Harland Gundam model builder, and Twitch Streamer.

[00:00:20] Halfling: Welcome Shaun.

[00:00:21] Shaun Harland: Hey, thanks for having me on. You guys. It's really good being here.

[00:00:24] Halfling: Yeah. Well, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today and I'll be the first one to admit, I do not know a whole lot about model building, so, I should imagine this is gonna prove an interesting conversation. 

[00:00:40] Shaun Harland: Well, yeah, here's hoping and I can make it interesting for you guys.

[00:00:43] Halfling: I'm sure. I'm sure. So let's just go ahead and jump in and have you tell us and our listeners a little bit about yourself and your background.

[00:00:52] Shaun Harland: Sure. So, as you said, I'm Shaun. I'm from Calgary, Alberta up in Canada. 33 years old. I've been. Doing model building for roughly six to eight years. Uh, did a little bit when I was a kid on and off, but didn't really dive into it till I was in my mid to late twenties. I'm also a Twitch streamer, as you said.

[00:01:12] Shaun Harland: Not a big channel, but you know. What, little bit of audience I have, they're pretty good people, so I'm happy to be there for them. Though I've been on a bit of hiatus for some health issues the last year or so. Um, sleep apnea and the chronic fatigue that comes with it. Not exactly great for streaming, but.

[00:01:31] Halfling: Yeah, the Spaceman can testify to the effects of those things. So hopefully you are on your way back and on your way to good recovery.

[00:01:42] Shaun Harland: Slow and steady, but definitely feeling a difference now that I'm on the machine.

[00:01:46] Spaceman: Yeah. Yeah. You never know when those aliens just need to be fragged at two AM..

[00:01:54] Halfling: You did not just say that. Okay. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. Okay, so moving on. Yeah, this is a channel that talks about fandom in sort of a non-specific way, because fandom encompasses so much but what does it mean to you when somebody says they are a fan of something and what might your earliest memories of being a fan of something be?.

[00:02:24] Shaun Harland: So, I mean, for me, I would say being a fan of something, it's something that brings you your most pure form of joy, whether it be, you know, the sports guys, the car guys, you know, whatever brings them their purest form of joy. That's to me what a true fan is. And my earliest I would say is as a just a little kid, when my grandparents were up from Snowbirding down in Arizona. I would always rummage through their VCR or like their VHS collection. And, I came across Star Wars: A New Hope, and that was the slippery slope that led me into being a sci-fi and mecha fan and all that. And always loved dinosaurs as a kid.

[00:03:06] Shaun Harland: So I, I was doomed from the start.

[00:03:11] Halfling: Well that sounds pretty typical to me. If you hear a lot of these stories and they're all very similar. A lot of times it's, well, you know, I started watching Star Trek with my dad, know, or what have you, or, well, I went to the comic shop with my mom and she actually liked comics too, we hear it is very similar stories, so that's pretty cool

[00:03:32] Spaceman: There, nothing wrong with bonding over, transformers or whatever.

[00:03:36] Halfling: No.

[00:03:36] Shaun Harland: It's so true. Some of my best friends I've made because of fandom so...

[00:03:41] Spaceman: Absolutely. Absolutely. So one of your claims to fame, in addition to being a Twitch streamer, is being a model builder. Can you tell us how you got started with that and how long have you been doing it?

[00:03:52] Shaun Harland: Well, as I mentioned earlier, as kind of a regular hobby of mine, I've been doing it for about six to eight years. Dabbled with it a little bit with my dad as a kid. Built a couple of cars, a couple of trucks, you know, that sort of thing. But really the seed was planted, about 10 years ago when I was at Calgary Comic Expo.

[00:04:12] Shaun Harland: And I came across just a booth that was selling a whole bunch of Gundam models. And, I picked up one from Gundam Wing, took it home. Built it in the most crude fashion possible because I had no tools at the time. And using a pair of side cutters for my dad's toolkit in the garage. And that was about it.

[00:04:34] Shaun Harland: So it's Nub city. But yeah, and then I came across model kits at my local comic shop. At that time, it was just a small shelf. They were sun bleached. They'd been like, the boxes had like almost no color on 'em and yeah, I picked up a couple of kits and I built them and now that comic shop has an entire section for Gundam models and other, Bandi Mecha and whatever kits that they have out now.

[00:05:02] Shaun Harland: So it's pretty awesome really.

[00:05:04] Halfling: Do they have any of yours on display?

[00:05:08] Shaun Harland: Not at that store, although I could probably convince them to. But I do have one kit on display here in Calgary at a local card shop. 

[00:05:18] Spaceman: Okay. 

[00:05:19] Shaun Harland: just cuz I haven't taken it home.

[00:05:24] Halfling: Here, you guys wanna keep this.

[00:05:27] Shaun Harland: More or less. I was in there the other day, picking up a card for my Digimon deck and I was like, oh, you guys still have it sitting on the shelf? They're like, yeah, we don't move 'em. So.

[00:05:38] Spaceman: Well, we, talked about models for just a second. Let's talk about your streaming. How long have you been streaming..

[00:05:43] Shaun Harland: I've been streaming, I think going on about four or five years. I hit affiliate status about three years ago. It started out as just something that I wanted to do and try. Initially it was for my model building and then I found that it was a royal pain in the butt to try and capture me working at my desk with my model kits and that, so I, did switch it over to gaming and, I just play the games that I like if, nobody tunes in because they don't care about that game, I mean, I'm still putting it out there in the world and, sharing my enjoyment of it with everybody, whether they're there or not.

[00:06:18] Shaun Harland: So I'm definitely small potatoes on Twitch, but I enjoy it when I'm able to do it.

[00:06:24] Halfling: Okay and this is how old I am, but I know of Twitch and I know the very basics, but you said you became an affiliate. What does that mean?

[00:06:36] Shaun Harland: So the affiliate is where I can start making money from being on Twitch. It's kind of your entry point into monetizing your content on there. They do have a further step called partner where you get someone who assists you with making sure that you're not doing anything wrong with your streaming.

[00:06:54] Shaun Harland: You have extra kind of supports with the company. But, affiliate is very much the wild west of monetization on Twitch. Cause one minute you're going along just fine and all of a sudden, your viewer count drops like a rock and you have no clue why. And nobody can tell you why.

[00:07:13] Halfling: Oh,

[00:07:13] Shaun Harland: So,

[00:07:15] Halfling: okay.

[00:07:16] Shaun Harland: yeah.

[00:07:16] Halfling: Sounds a little unpredictable. 

[00:07:19] Shaun Harland: It has its times, but, it's why I just kind of stay in my lane, do my thing, and let whatever happens happen. I'm not in it for the money, so,

[00:07:26] Halfling: Okay. Just for the sheer enjoyment of it, I like that.

[00:07:30] Spaceman: Well, it's good to have a passion.

[00:07:32] Shaun Harland: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:32] Halfling: Absolutely. So what inspired you to make that move to Twitch in the first place? And you said you started with your model building. How did you decide that you wanted to go that step?

[00:07:46] Shaun Harland: Again, it comes kind of back to the same reason I do the games. I just wanted to share something I love with a potential wider audience, especially back then when it wasn't as mainstreamed as it is now in the West. Gundam model building is huge overseas, like anything on the eastern seaboard of Asia and Australia and all that, it's really big there.

[00:08:06] Shaun Harland: But it's only recently started to get a real foothold here in North America, especially amongst the more old school model builders, just cuz. They're traditionalists. I can't knock 'em for that, but they have no clue what they're looking at when you, drop a bunch of Mechas on a table and they're like, it's a cool robot.

[00:08:29] Spaceman: Well, we're a couple of old school anime fans, so we know all about the Mecha.

[00:08:33] Shaun Harland: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:34] Spaceman: Yeah, it seems like the older school, the bigger the Mecha.

[00:08:38] Shaun Harland: Yeah. Well, I mean, I do love Mazinger. I love the dumber, the Mecha the more fun I have with it. So, as much as I love shows like Gundam, I love the super robot nonsense because you never know what you're gonna get by the end of that series.

[00:08:55] Spaceman: Yes. 

[00:08:56] Spaceman: Yes, you. know, the best anime makes you scratch your head.

[00:08:59] Shaun Harland: Yeah, absolutely. I mean one of my favorites is Gurren Lagann from 2007 and they finish off that show throwing around literal galaxies, 

[00:09:09] Halfling: Oh wow.

[00:09:15] Spaceman: Oh, it's so 

[00:09:15] Halfling: so funny.

[00:09:16] Halfling: Wow. Well, we are anime fans, but we're not like hardcore. I guess you would say we're not really hardcore and we don't know. We don't keep up with the latest things that have come out. Usually we end up watching stuff that other people have recommended to us, and I would say nine times outta 10, we thoroughly enjoy whatever it is, you know, that somebody's recommended to us.

[00:09:41] Halfling: But we enjoy all. And again, anime covers such a wide breadth of topics and, so many genres within anime. You have your princess powers and you have your giant Mechas and you have, sports, there's all sorts of themes, and we like a variety of, different anime.

[00:10:03] Halfling: So when we say anime, yeah, it covers a lot. So people have to be specific when they say they're an anime fan.

[00:10:13] Shaun Harland: It's so true. Actually, I work for an anime convention here in Calgary, and one of the running jokes is, as soon as you start working for an anime convention, your time to start watching anime falls away. Like I, I am so far behind on shows that I genuinely love just because I've run out of time to just sit down and watch 'em.

[00:10:33] Spaceman: We, we feel ya. We feel ya. We used to work at an anime convention and, yeah, but it's also how we found out about some great anime.

[00:10:43] Shaun Harland: Mm-hmm. 

[00:10:43] Spaceman: yeah. So, there's a plus side in the minus side I guess.

[00:10:46] Shaun Harland: Yeah. 

[00:10:47] Halfling: Yeah. So this is just a silly question, but when you were a kid you do the Legos thing? Did you start building with Legos when you were a kid? 

[00:10:58] Shaun Harland: Absolutely. Uh, between, Lego, K'nex and like Lincoln Logs, I was always building stuff. And when Lego released the Bionicle line in the early two thousands, I dove headfirst into that so hard. Like they, were little robots that I could build and build other more complex robots.

[00:11:19] Shaun Harland: I'm like, sign me up. I'm down.

[00:11:24] Halfling: Uh, well, that's cool. I would say that a lot of kids, have their experiences with Legos and some just never grow out of it. Which is cool. I think again, if it's something that brings you joy, go for it, who cares if it's Legos?

[00:11:40] Halfling: You know? And I say that meaning for kids, you know,

[00:11:44] Spaceman: Look, if you find your joy in it, pursue it.

[00:11:48] Halfling: Exactly.

[00:11:49] Shaun Harland: And I mean with how cool modern Lego sets are. I mean I get why so many adults are coming back around to it now cuz, like I went into the Lego store not too long ago and I mean, you can straight up buy kits that let you build flowers out of Legos and I'm just like, my mind's blown cuz we didn't have anything like that in the nineties.

[00:12:10] Shaun Harland: It was all just castles, pirate ships and wild west stuff.

[00:12:15] Halfling: Have you faced any challenges along the way, and if so, what particular challenges have you faced either as a model builder in general or in making the move to Twitch?

[00:12:29] Halfling: And it's okay if you say everything was just smooth and hunky dory. I mean, some people never encounter any issues, but maybe you have.

[00:12:37] Shaun Harland: Yeah, I mean, as, as I, as we kind of talked about a little bit earlier, the sleep apnea thing was a huge blow to my Twitch streaming, this past couple of years really. Also just finances of doing, of hobbies like this. It's getting more and more expensive every year and my paycheck isn't keeping up with it like it used to.

[00:12:57] Halfling: I understand that. 

[00:12:59] Shaun Harland: and I mean, Taking on other projects, like being a part of OtaFest here in Calgary. I mean, that sucks up some more of my free time. The payback on it is just, So much it's worth it. So like no doubt. But yeah, with the streaming it's definitely, it was the sleep apnea, and trying to have the energy while working a full-time job to make time for it as well.

[00:13:24] Shaun Harland: Especially cuz I, work in inside sales and. It can take its toll on your energy level by the end of the day. 

[00:13:32] Halfling: Oh sure. 

[00:13:33] Shaun Harland: having to tell customers, Hey, you're not getting your, CO2 for your restaurant because we're all out, or we just had a massive snowstorm so our trucks can't go anywhere, so you're not getting your product.

[00:13:45] Shaun Harland: And, uh, it takes its toll on your energy levels, so it's been an adjustment these last couple of years I've been on, as I said, on hiatus. Hoping to make my return this year. I've, moved into a really nice space that is accommodating to both hobbies and, as well as just my finances too.

[00:14:04] Shaun Harland: So, keeping my fingers crossed cuz it would be nice to get back to that 

[00:14:07] Halfling: Oh. Oh. 

[00:14:09] Shaun Harland: But, but yeah, that's kind of the biggest one. I've had in the model building side, in the recent years, there's been kind of a growth in, ego in the community. Both good and bad. I mean, there's some really talented people out there, but there's some really talented people out there that also know they're talented.

[00:14:26] Shaun Harland: And so it kind of puts, a negative kind of, Cloud over the hobby in some ways, which is partly why I've taken a step back from the public side of it in the last few months as well. Just cuz I needed to refresh and, recharge to it and hopefully make a return and better form.

[00:14:45] Shaun Harland: But those are the two major things.

[00:14:48] Halfling: Okay. Well we have talked about the issue of gatekeeping and I don't know if you're familiar with that. Generally it's more in relations to like cosplay, where, people will say, you know, well, you can't dress like that because you don't look like that character, for various reasons.

[00:15:06] Halfling: And you've mentioned that there is sort of an emergent ego issue among the hobby, is there any experience like gatekeeping within model building.

[00:15:16] Spaceman: Or within streaming. 

[00:15:18] Shaun Harland: Sadly, yes. 

[00:15:19] Halfling: Mm. 

[00:15:20] Shaun Harland: Not so much to me personally. Most people that I've come across in the hobby are very accepting of my build style. Cuz I'm not a , as they call it, in like, more old traditional model building. I'm not a rivet counter, so I don't go for full-blown accuracy with my builds.

[00:15:37] Shaun Harland: I tend to just build in a way that I tell a story with my build, and so, you know, people are rather perceptive to it. In contrast, we've got some amazingly gifted and creative builders out there, both men and women, but the women especially, who take a model kit, especially one with like nice big open flat surfaces to work on,

[00:16:01] Shaun Harland: and they turn 'em into beautiful works of art.

[00:16:04] Shaun Harland: But you've got these people out there that are trying to discredit them and I'm like, I, I, and I look at the work and I'm just like, how can you, how can you do that to this work? Who, someone who literally put in. Hours and hours to paint these intricate details on these kits just because it's not screen accurate or, you know, military accurate.

[00:16:28] Shaun Harland: And for me, I've always been very vocal that I love the creative, I love the stupid, I love, like anything that's outside the norm. And I've been very vocal about it for years. I used to be on a YouTube channel. A couple years back, unfortunately I don't have a good relationship with the owner of the channel anymore, sadly.

[00:16:48] Shaun Harland: But when I was on the show I would be very vocal that, you know, I would much rather see a messy build, anything that has personality. I hate looking at clean builds cuz it's all the same. and that's kind of like I said, the traditionalists, the rivet counters, they're kind of coming into this hobby and taking some of that creative fun out of it and gatekeeping in that way.

[00:17:11] Shaun Harland: And unfortunately, it mostly affects the women in the hobby, which is the saddest part of it all.

[00:17:17] Halfling: Well, I'm sorry to hear, but I guess I'm not very shocked to hear that that is also an issue within that hobby as well. 

[00:17:25] Shaun Harland: Yeah, sadly. 

[00:17:27] Halfling: We've heard it with other people and other hobbies, and personally the Spaceman, and I feel like there's just no room for gatekeeping.

[00:17:34] Spaceman: There's room for everybody.

[00:17:36] Halfling: you know? 

[00:17:36] Shaun Harland: Yeah, absolutely. The more people, the more minds, the more fun it.

[00:17:40] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:41] Spaceman: That's right. That's right. And you can get the best tips from some of the people you might not even know yet.

[00:17:47] Shaun Harland: Yeah, exactly.

[00:17:48] Halfling: Yeah. Have you made a lot of friends within the community? 

[00:17:53] Shaun Harland: I have made some really good friends and all over the world too. I have one friend who was kind of my go-to tutorial guy when I was first getting started. Him and I are actually pretty decent friends now and he actually produces his own line of paints out of Australia and they're amazing products.

[00:18:10] Shaun Harland: The whole downside of it is, is bringing them to Canada costs you more than buying the paint itself. So basically, I have to make a trip to Australia, buy his entire line and come back. But I've got even quite a few friends down in Southern California, who I talked to on a fairly regular basis, even about completely unrelated subjects to the hobby. Just cuz they're really cool people that I get along really well with. I even have a friend who is now an upper part of the corporate structure at Twitch, who I became friends with years before she even got a job with them, just through this hobby.

[00:18:48] Shaun Harland: Like, it's pretty crazy the people that you meet through this hobby.

[00:18:53] Spaceman: Awesome. That is awesome. So just a random question, but what is the craziest amount of money you spent on a kit and have you ever had people send you a kit to build on Twitch or otherwise?

[00:19:08] Shaun Harland: Yeah. Oh God. I'm actually staring straight at the most expensive kit I bought because, you know, I gotta experience my shame on a daily basis. But, yeah, I built and bought the perfect grade unicorn gundam about four years ago, something like that. It was just before I moved up to Calgary from Lethbridge.

[00:19:27] Shaun Harland: And, it cost me between the kit itself and the LED unit that goes in it, I think it was around $400. And if I didn't have a friend who had bought the expansion set for it, because he intended to build it himself, it could have potentially cost me closer, like $600 altogether.

[00:19:46] Halfling: wow.

[00:19:47] Halfling: My goodness.

[00:19:48] Shaun Harland: So it, it, it's pricey and, and the problem with it is, is I'm dealing with, Schrodinger's, LED on one of the legs, because I may or may not have put it in backwards and I don't wanna open it up to find out,

[00:20:05] Halfling: understandable.

[00:20:08] Shaun Harland: uh, uh, even to this day, I joke that I have unicorn fatigue because, that whole build experience. It just killed me.

[00:20:16] Halfling: Mm.

[00:20:18] Shaun Harland: And then as, for like kits that I've been sent, as I mentioned I was part of a YouTube channel, so we did have a sponsor, that sent us review kits and I did review a few. I've never had any sent to me to actually build on stream before though, but I would never turn it down if someone did offer.

[00:20:35] Halfling: Mm-hmm. Do you do commissions or is that, I mean,

[00:20:41] Shaun Harland: No, I've never done a commission just cuz, I'm not the most skilled builder in the community. I just kind of have my style. If, my one friend from Lethbridge has constantly said that, he wants me to build one of his kits for him. It's the same one that bought that expansion kit that he ended up giving to me.

[00:20:58] Shaun Harland: But. He just hasn't had the money to pay for the supplies. Uh, like the labor itself I would've done for free. But, yeah, he would've had to pay for the supplies needed to do it in my build style. And I also said to him, it's gonna be in my style. This thing is not gonna be clean. Like my, go-to technique is the oil paint gunk wash, which just makes an absolute, like it'll turn pretty much any kit into something looking worn and tired. And it's my favorite style cuz it tells a story.

[00:21:28] Spaceman: Now, do you ever do any Kit Bashing?

[00:21:31] Shaun Harland: I have done a couple. Yeah. Usually it's for contests. Though I have built one personal, one that I built and I'm very proud of it. It was, A friend, we did a, gift exchange and I got, what's called the Efreet and I wasn't too fond of some of its design style, so I changed out like the shoulder armor on it.

[00:21:53] Shaun Harland: I turned its weapons from being beam weapons to like physical swords. And I also stole some shotguns off of one of my other kits because I wanted him to be (a) close range kind of high speed fighter as opposed to it was equipped with like rocket launchers on its legs. And I was just like, nah, that's not my, that's not my style. So I, yeah, I've done a couple of kit bashes, nothing terribly ambitious, but, hopefully in the future I might do something more little crazier when I have the finances to do it.

[00:22:24] Spaceman: Do you build landscape or dioramas for display?

[00:22:28] Shaun Harland: Not yet. I do have one project that's been on the back burner for the last couple of years that I do intend on creating a diorama for, but again, it's come down to the finances, like big projects like that cost money. And the, cost of living in Canada right now is not the friendliest, unfortunately.

[00:22:49] Halfling: Hmm. Yeah, we've got sort of a similar situation going on here in the US. 

[00:22:54] Shaun Harland: Yeah, I think, I think we all do, sadly.

[00:22:56] Spaceman: Uh, well, you know, what can I say to that? We have a couple of friends that are into miniature war gaming, and they do a lot of the painting and stuff. And recently we've had some people get into BattleTech, which is, you know, a Mecha War game that involves building a lot of the larger mechs as models.

[00:23:15] Spaceman: So there's an interesting crossover between the different hobbies.. Have you ever met anybody who does like the miniature war gaming had any interaction with them?

[00:23:25] Shaun Harland: Oh, plenty. I've got quite a few friends that actually play War Hammer. Either they have or they still do. And yeah, I mean some of the, art that those guys create with those miniatures, it, blows my mind cuz I'm sitting here going, I, still paint my kits with rattle cans and, and they're over here doing like these fine scale details on their miniatures.

[00:23:45] Shaun Harland: And it, yeah, it's great work. I love seeing people go just ham on their miniatures. It's great.

[00:23:53] Halfling: I'm always amazed at the detail that some of these painters do, because I'm thinking to myself, I would never have the patience to do anything like that because it's such intricate work and you really have to be precise with it.

[00:24:13] Halfling: So I'm happy to just observe and appreciate what they do.

[00:24:18] Spaceman: Well see if, if I were into like Warhammer or something, I would be afraid to paint my managers because the things are so darn expensive. I'd be afraid I'd mess 'em up. 

[00:24:27] Shaun Harland: Yeah. That's the one recommendation I've heard is track down like somebody's used set , like they're offloading and just practice on those cuz it, it'll save you way more money. That being said, I've learned some techniques from those miniature guys that I've implemented into my style of building.

[00:24:45] Shaun Harland: Namely being that gunk wash technique with the, oil paints. Because they, use it. As a kind of a workaround to create detail on those smaller figures, cuz the oil paint works its way into the, crevices. And as you wipe it off, it still stays in there and it works brilliantly on, on gunda models and other model kits.

[00:25:05] Spaceman: So taking a step away from that for a 

[00:25:07] Shaun Harland: Mm-hmm. 

[00:25:08] Spaceman: you can see that the Halfling and the Spaceman are doing the podcast thing with the headsets and the microphones. But what if we or someone else wanted to get into Twitch streaming?

[00:25:19] Spaceman: Do you have any advice?

[00:25:21] Shaun Harland: Yeah, absolutely. The first thing to focus on is your content, your schedule, and the quality. Everything else kind of comes after that. You don't need the most expensive equipment. I mean, I'm running on an $80 microphone. That sounds really good that I got off of Amazon. That came with a stand and everything.

[00:25:41] Shaun Harland: And I'm running on two computer monitors that I've had for over a decade. A computer I bought off of a friend, like I am literally the non definition of the streamer type. Like everything is salvaged or, You know, whatever I could afford to put together. Uh, but I always prioritize making sure that I sound good.

[00:26:04] Shaun Harland: I don't even have to look good. I don't have to be on screen if I don't want to, but I like having my face there, but I make sure that I sound good, my content is good, and I stick to a schedule. Those are the big three to me anyways.

[00:26:19] Spaceman: It sounds good.

[00:26:20] Halfling: Sounds a lot like what we have to focus on actually. 

[00:26:24] Spaceman: Exactly. 

[00:26:25] Spaceman: You know, every week we are challenged to find someone new and interesting who can share their story. It's not about us, it's about, you know what interesting thing is happening out there in the community. But talking about being a Twitch streamer for a second.

[00:26:38] Spaceman: You know when, the Halfling told me you were a Twitch streamer, I was halfway expecting to have a whole room, like a disco from all the RGB lights.

[00:26:48] Shaun Harland: Not, not my style. Um, I've kind of unfortunately, you guys are from the States, so you're not familiar with, Y T V, but my style is kind of like nineties children's television kind of feel. This is a lot more sixties, seventies, basement space. But the actual like layout of my stream, it's very.

[00:27:07] Shaun Harland: You know, kind of grungy, kind of like very nineties, right? Uh, I don't feel for that, more modern style for Twitch streaming. I love my nineties kids television. And, that's the feel I kind of go for, with My stream. I did a relaunch of my content last year just before the chronic fatigue issue started.

[00:27:28] Shaun Harland: And with, actually Paige who was on the show, she did all my assets for me 

[00:27:32] Halfling: How cool. 

[00:27:33] Shaun Harland: She nailed the feel of it that I was going for. And yeah, it's that definitely nineties grunge kind of industrial feel that I just absolutely love.

[00:27:44] Halfling: Well, I, actually was gonna ask you about conventions and again, I'll have to plead ignorance on, the whole community but are there conventions for model builders?

[00:27:57] Shaun Harland: Uh, yes and no. I mean, I P M S has been around for decades and they do their big shows kind of all over the states. We do have some model shows here in Canada as well. Nothing that's like a formal, in the same vein as like an anime convention but typically there will be, like for with OtaFest for example, the team that I'm a part of, we're responsible for all the Gundam programming.

[00:28:22] Shaun Harland: And actually I'm the person responsible for our showcase and contest. So I handle the judging and all that. There is one big competition each year for Gunpla that does have, competitors from around the world go to Japan for, it's the G B W C, Gunpla Builders World Contest.

[00:28:43] Shaun Harland: Yeah, I wanna say it's contest and it's just starting to get its foothold here in North America. There's been a lot of growing pains with it. The community has been very vocal at how they've been handling it here in the west compared to the east. But it comes down to the market share.

[00:28:58] Shaun Harland: Like they can't invest in the same way that they do overseas here, just cuz the market share isn't the same. But, yeah, It's definitely growing. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised in the next few years if there was like a major convention for just this type of model building, just cuz of the way it's growing and it's overtaking the traditional style of model building too.

[00:29:21] Halfling: But right now it's, primarily a component of other conventions.

[00:29:28] Halfling: If that's what I'm hearing. 

[00:29:29] Halfling: Okay. Okay. Gotcha. I didn't know, like I said, I plead ignorance with that community and again, the too much delicate work that I would just throw my hands up and Spaceman can testify that I have very little patience.

[00:29:48] Shaun Harland: Well, I mean, nowadays there are kits that are significantly easier. Bandai actually has what's called their entry grade line, and they're very simple. Snap together kits, minimal extra work needed on 'em. Literally, you can pop 'em off the runners with your fingers, put it together, and you're done within like, maybe half an hour to an hour, depending on how much you're just pushing through it. So there's, definitely options out there if, you want to give it a try, and they're, inexpensive too, which is a nice thing.

[00:30:21] Halfling: Oh, well, you know, that's good to know. , I guess it's like a lot of things. There's different levels of complexity and skill. It's sort of like, , I'm into jigsaw puzzles myself, so you know, it's kind of like that because you've got jigsaw puzzles with any variety of, or any number of pieces anywhere from a hundred pieces up to thousand pieces.

[00:30:45] Halfling: So that was good to know. That was good to know.

[00:30:48] Spaceman: All right, Shaun, we touched on Gundam, we've touched on model building. We've touched on Twitch streaming.

[00:30:54] Shaun Harland: Mm.

[00:30:55] Spaceman: Tell us about your convention experience because conventions are near and dear to the Halfling of my heart.

[00:31:01] Shaun Harland: Yeah. Uh, well, I've been with OtaFest for, what am I going on, four and a half years now, almost. Um, sadly, two out of those four years were during the, uh, pandemic years. So nothing was really happening. Uh, I got onboarded in. Late 2019 brought on to do their gundo programming. Then by March we got the, essentially the provincial government set down that all events had to be canceled.

[00:31:33] Shaun Harland: And so for 2020 we had to full on cancel our convention. So we, Buckled down, we're like, okay, we have a feeling 2021 is not gonna be an in-person convention. Let's do an online one. And we somehow pulled it off incredibly. But those two years were super easy and being a part of OtaFest, cuz there wasn't a whole lot to do, which kind of worked to our advantage cuz we were able to kind of get a feel for the rest of the team without the pressure of.

[00:32:04] Shaun Harland: You know, having to work out a convention in less time than everybody else had but come around to 2022. We found that we were able to host the convention, and 2022 was an adventure. So we were the, second convention in Alberta after the Calgary Comic Expo, to host. For any kind of like nerd content and we decided to play it safe, go two days, which turned out to be a mistake that we should have done our regular three.

[00:32:37] Shaun Harland: But that first Saturday, we had a line that went from the entrance to our convention center down the block, up the side, down the train station that runs along the backside of the convention hall and then back down again just for people wanting to buy day of tickets. And we had to stop sales.

[00:32:58] Shaun Harland: Like it was that, and we were, we, our line control was strapped, like last year was, as we all put it, we got caught with our pants down. Like we, we did not expect it to blow up the way it did last year. 

[00:33:13] Spaceman: I suspect that actually the issue we've been dealing with for the last couple of years has actually kicked fandom a little bit in the bottom and got us all moving because you know, all we could do is sit around the house and binge Crunchy Roll.

[00:33:25] Shaun Harland: Yeah, it's, it's true. I mean, people had way more free time. They were able to look into stuff that they haven't been able to do in the past. My team, we were pretty protected last year. Our space was up in the hotel connected to the convention center. So we were up and off to the side and we were able to watch the chaos unfold from our room up there.

[00:33:48] Shaun Harland: But like I am so glad I got brought on as part of that team. As I kind of joke we got onboarded and then our direct manager decided to leave for smokes and never came back.

[00:34:00] Shaun Harland: Like, 

[00:34:01] Halfling: Lord.

[00:34:02] Shaun Harland: uh, there, there was some, some issues that happened in, sadly in, late 2020 that had a little bit. You know, change ups in the structure of OtaFest.

[00:34:11] Shaun Harland: One of 'em being our direct manager. But, I'm so grateful that he brought us on cuz I've made an incredible group of friends. So they've basically become like my second family up here in Calgary, with my family being about two hours away, down in Lethbridge further south in Alberta.

[00:34:28] Shaun Harland: So having that, it, it's been an incredible time getting to know these people and, it was the best decision I made to join that convention because, not that I had much of a decision, we got told too much that we were onboarded by entire team, but.

[00:34:46] Spaceman: So what, what are your duties at the convention?

[00:34:49] Shaun Harland: So the day of, I primarily, Work out of the, Gunpla showcase. So I sit there, I take in the registration that people come in. I coordinate the judges on the Sunday, for judging the kits and figuring out who gets what prizes. I also host a panel of a showing of the only live action Gundam movie to date, which was the 2000 disaster piece G Savior.

[00:35:19] Spaceman: There was a live action Gundam movie, and I didn't know about it. 

[00:35:23] Shaun Harland: yep. Yep. It came, it went, it bankrupted a Quebec film studio.

[00:35:29] Halfling: Oh no. Oh okay. 

[00:35:30] Halfling: Uh, sounds like we probably don't need to see that. We probably can give that one a pass.

[00:35:35] Shaun Harland: I mean, you don't have to pay money for it. You can find it on YouTube easy enough.

[00:35:39] Shaun Harland: Um, it, it, it's, you know, it's worth the 90 minutes just to experience the peak 2000 Canadian film production.

[00:35:50] Spaceman: Hey, you know I'm never gonna knock Canadian film production. We are giant fans of Nelvana animation.

[00:35:56] Halfling: Oh yeah,

[00:35:58] Shaun Harland: nelvana, I grew up on Nelvana,

[00:36:00] Shaun Harland: like 

[00:36:00] Spaceman: Sure.

[00:36:02] Spaceman: Yeah. I had to search around to try to find myself a copy of A Cosmic Christmas. Yeah, but, and we also have a copy of, Rock N' Rule on DVD, Devil and Daniel Mouse. So all that good stuff from way back in the day.

[00:36:16] Halfling: Like Spaceman pointed out before, being part of a convention is really almost like being with second family. And we worked with Anime Mid-Atlantic, or AMA which was held in Richmond, Virginia and we did that for 12 years. So we saw so many of the same people year after year, and it really was almost like coming home every time.

[00:36:42] Halfling: You know, it was just a wonderful, wonderful experience. And I think that fandom. Depends a lot on that sense of community that conventions bring. Because it's great if you really enjoy something, then you know, you're having a good time. You're, you are watching, all the Marvel movies or reading all the Harry Potter books or what have you. You're having a good time with it. When you get around people that share that same love of, of whatever it is, it just, it just, uh, really, I don't even know what the word is. It just really, really sort of just, I don't know. You know what 

[00:37:30] Halfling: I'm trying to say? 

[00:37:31] Halfling: I'm, I'm a little tongue tied.

[00:37:33] Spaceman: Yeah, there's something special about knowing people who know the in-jokes.

[00:37:37] Shaun Harland: Yeah. Yeah. It feels like coming home.

[00:37:40] Halfling: You did talk about the craziest amount of money that you spent.

[00:37:44] Halfling: When it comes to the time that you invest in putting a kit together, I'm assuming it varies depending on the complexity, but is that same kit that you were talking about is that the one that you had to spend. The largest amount of time putting together,

[00:38:03] Shaun Harland: 100% that thing I worked on and off probably, I want to say it had to be pushing 20 to 30 hours, like just on and off. I didn't, I, there was no way I was doing that in one go. But yeah, it's definitely the longest, The second probably is anytime I do a custom work on anything, whether it be painting or just the custom weathering, anything like that the basic kits I can put together.

[00:38:34] Shaun Harland: And usually if I don't let my A D H D distract me, I can get 'em together in about, about four or five hours roughly. Like they're, they're not too bad,

[00:38:46] Halfling: Okay. Okay. Well, that's not an enormous amount of time. I know people that can sit and read books for that length of time or more. So, you know, somebody gets a book and they get involved in it and next thing you know, it's two o'clock in the morning and they really know to need to go to sleep because they gotta get up and go to work the next morning.

[00:39:07] Spaceman: And it keeps you away from that halfling pipe weed that we hear so much about.

[00:39:14] Halfling: Yes. As a matter of fact, I need to restock my supply. Sorry, sorry. 

[00:39:23] Spaceman: Now, now we all know that Merry and Pippin were actually just consuming tobacco

[00:39:28] Halfling: of course, 100%.

[00:39:30] Halfling: Of course it 

[00:39:31] Shaun Harland: Me and, and, uh, the, the Scooby Snacks and Scooby Doo 

[00:39:35] Halfling: Or 

[00:39:35] Shaun Harland: dog 

[00:39:36] Halfling: just just dog biscuits. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And how dare anybody think anything else? So do you have any advice for model building, you know, kit building? Cuz you did mention that sometimes it's good to get one that's already been done that somebody's wanting to just give away or whatever.

[00:40:02] Halfling: Any, other advice in terms of like, I don't know, I'm thinking like the price of paints,

[00:40:08] Spaceman: Or what basic tools do you need?

[00:40:10] Halfling: Yeah,

[00:40:11] Shaun Harland: Yeah. So starting out with, model building Gunpla specifically, a relatively decent set of nippers will take you a long way. Um, a hobby, knife, a basic set of files, sandpaper, I mean, that, basically your starter kit. That's that plus a bottle kit. You can pretty much do anything with that kit.

[00:40:33] Shaun Harland: If you wanna start getting into customizing, like painting, anything like that, don't feel the urge to go out and buy the most expensive paint booth. The most expensive paints, as I said earlier, I still use rattle can, like Krylon is my best friend in a lot of cases. I used to have a home-built airbrush booth which I got rid of cuz I was starting to have issues with it and I wanted to rebuild it at a later time. But the thing, it was a tub with an exhaust fan cut into the back. A furnace filter cost me about 40 to 60 bucks. Like, you don't have to go out and buy the $200 paint booth. You can stay easily within your means financially, if you do want to get into painting.

[00:41:18] Shaun Harland: And, paint wise, the only thing I say is avoid Testors. Just, cuz you can find it at every Walmart doesn't make it good.

[00:41:25] Halfling: Mm. True that,

[00:41:28] Spaceman: Yeah. Yeah. You know, many years ago we used to have a model train store, in a nearby city. And it was a wonderful place, but they sold specialty paints for model trains, which I discovered was good for just about anything. So, yes, the quality of the paints makes a difference. 

[00:41:45] Shaun Harland: Yeah.

[00:41:45] Shaun Harland: And watch as many tutorials as you possibly can. He's gonna hate that I'm telling people publicly to go back and watch his 10 year old videos. But, my friend from Australia, Scott, his channel's called the Ghost of Zeon, and he has some fantastic entry level tutorials for first time builders.

[00:42:04] Shaun Harland: The quality of the video is, not good cuz it's from 10 years ago when, we didn't have 10 80 p in 4k. But, the skills I call his videos my Bible cuz I go back to them every, I'd say every four or five years, or every couple of years I go back to 'em. Just to refresh my old skills, especially when I'm getting into a bigger project.

[00:42:29] Shaun Harland: But yeah, find, someone who does tutorials that you like, their style, like their way of doing things and just make that your go-to whenever you wanna try something new.

[00:42:40] Halfling: Okay. Do you think he would mind us sharing that information on our show notes?

[00:42:46] Shaun Harland: Oh, I don't think he'd have a problem with it. He'd just be like, Shaun, why are you telling people to watch my old videos? But other than that, I think he'd be happy to have, you know, some people come and view his content.

[00:42:57] Spaceman: You know, I don't know. I feel like the best Spaceman was 10 years ago, but the second best Spaceman is right now. So

[00:43:04] Shaun Harland: I, mean, I'm pretty sure Scott's feeling the same way with his paint company taking off the way it is over there. 

[00:43:09] Halfling: Yeah. Yeah. Well that's wonderful. Any plans to make a trip to Australia to visit?

[00:43:16] Shaun Harland: Uh, someday. I definitely wanna get a chance to go down there and visit him and see his, plant. I studied automation in college, so anything manufacturing, I'm like a kid in a candy store if I can go in and look at it. And I'd also love to have him and his family come up to visit here because he's another big dinosaur nut like I am, and I'd love to take him and his family to the Terrell Museum, which is Canada's biggest dinosaur museum.

[00:43:43] Halfling: Cool. Cool. That's great.

[00:43:45] Spaceman: we're we're hoping to make our way up to Canada in the next couple of years for some of the conventions, so we're looking forward to that. 

[00:43:53] Shaun Harland: Well, Keep me posted if you guys want to come up to OtaFest. We get four friend and family passes every year, give me enough warning. I can give you guys a pair of mine.

[00:44:01] Halfling: Oh, now that would be awesome. That would be awesome. Sounds like we need to make that happen now. You

[00:44:07] Spaceman: But, talking about Australia, Australia's an interesting place. I used to work with a guy from Australia, but the place I really want to go is I want to, take the Halfling back to her homeland.

[00:44:19] Spaceman: I'm Back to 

[00:44:20] Halfling: in Middle 

[00:44:20] Halfling: Zealand.

[00:44:24] Halfling: Uh, yes, I do miss the Shire. I do I do. I'm sorry. We're just a little, we're just a little punchy this afternoon.

[00:44:34] Halfling: We're always 

[00:44:35] Halfling: a 

[00:44:35] Halfling: little punchy. We're always Talking about? 

[00:44:38] Halfling: well, we okay, we lost power yesterday. Yeah, we had kind of a bad rainstorm slash thunderstorm and a big tree fell down, down the road from us.

[00:44:49] Halfling: And when we came home, we were confronted with the down tree and. Down power lines. And so

[00:44:57] Spaceman: Yeah. It's as hard in the podcast without power.

[00:44:59] Halfling: Yeah. Um, you know, but not exactly the way I would've wanted to spend the day off. It is great, 

[00:45:06] Spaceman: you know. 

[00:45:07] Halfling: But yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:08] Spaceman: Well, Shaun, we're about to wrap up. So tell our listeners where they can find out more about you and they can find your stream channel

[00:45:17] Shaun Harland: So I'm, really easy to find, I go by DG_Television on Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, pretty much anywhere that you can find social media nowadays. And yeah, I'll be all going, well, returning to streaming, hopefully mid-June. So, definitely keep an eye open for that. And yeah, that's the best place to find me.

[00:45:41] Halfling: Okay. Well, have you already come up with some ideas for episodes, for what you wanna do with the channel when you do make your return.

[00:45:51] Shaun Harland: Yeah, the relaunch stream, I plan to do a 12 hour stream. Yeah, I've done one once and it was a marathon. They call it that for a reason. But, I haven't fully locked down what I'm gonna be playing or the entire plan, but I plan on having a bunch of friends over.

[00:46:05] Shaun Harland: It's gonna be a super casual stream, hoping to line it up roughly around my birthday. So kind of pair it up with that and yeah, just hang out, have fun cuz that's really what my channel's all about is just goofing around having a good time, be it in person or over discord like, it's very informal and I, I love it that.

[00:46:25] Halfling: Well, that's awesome.

[00:46:26] Halfling: Awesome. I wish you continued success. We wish you continued success and hopefully, we'll look forward to you returning to your channel and, just bringing a lot of enjoyment to, everybody watching. So we really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today.

[00:46:44] Halfling: We have had a great time. It's been a lot of fun getting to know you a little bit and talk with you about your journey into active fandom. So again, we just wanna thank you for taking the time with us.

[00:46:57] Shaun Harland: Honestly, thank you guys for having really small fries in both communities on your show cuz it's been a lot of fun.

[00:47:06] Halfling: Well, we try to make it fun. To us it's like meeting new friends. I mean, that's really what it's like. We just appreciate being able to talk to as many interesting people as we have had on the show. It's, just been an amazing journey of our own.

[00:47:21] Spaceman: Yeah. And we want to convince everybody to get their geek on. 

[00:47:24] Halfling: Yeah.

[00:47:25] Shaun Harland: Amen.

[00:47:28] Spaceman: All right. Well, thank you Shaun, and thank you to all our listeners for tuning in today. We hope that you have enjoyed and perhaps become inspired by today's guest, Shaun Harland. Thank you so much for taking the time with us and this is the Spaceman signing out.

Note:  Please send any corrections or errors with this transcript to info@halflingandspaceman.com