Episode 69: Chatting with Pete Culos and wrapping up RME 2026

In this episode, your hosts talk with New Jersey modeler Pete Culos, an active member of the MFCA and APG (the Artists Preservation Group), one of the most creative box-diorama builders today, and an all-around fine fellow… despite, you know, having grown up in Jersey (like Jim).

Pete has an artist’s gallery elsewhere on this site, but here are the boxes we talk about in this episode: “Theatre of Spoil and Destruction”; “Can’t Hardly Wait” (a.k.a. the Replacements box); “Cliché Noir”; “Between Promise and Despair,” and his latest, “The Crossing,” depicting Washington’s troops marching toward the Delaware. (Photos by Penny Meyer and Barry Goss)

Barry and his amazing wife Joan also played key roles on the hard-working show committee for the third Rocky Mountain Expo a few weeks ago. We talk about another incredible show in the Salt Lake City area, and the special awards sponsored by this podcast and Joan’s podcast “Her Shrink Ray Eye.”

Above: “Her Shrink Ray Eye’s More Than Meets the Eye Award” 2026 winner Jake McKee; below: “Small Subjects’ Most Imaginative” award winner Amy Gillespie.