Ramfins59

For the past 4 or 5 years I have been assisting my friend, Tom Valenta, who takes pictures of models for Model Cars Magazine at the NNL East Show in Wayne, NJ. We both walk through the model display hall, taking turns placing the photo shoot info sheets next to the models which we feel meet certain "criteria"; The model is well done, the model may be of an "unusual" subject, the model may have an unusually intricate paint job, etc... We place the sheets with the model before we look to see the name of the builder. Tom usually takes at least 3 pictures of each model that is brought to his photo table. Overall, he takes pictures of an average of 150 or more models, depending on how many are brought to his table. You'd be surprised to see how many builders don't bring their model to be photographed. Once the show is over, Tom goes back home to write the captions for the models pictured and loads all the pictures and captions onto a disc and sends the disc to Gregg Hutchings (he used to send it to Harry Pristovnik). Gregg then looks through the 350 or so pictures on the disc and picks the ones that he feels will show up best in the magazine coverage. Out of 350 pictures of about 150 models only an average of 2 or 3 dozen pictures (depending on how many pages in the magazine are allotted to that Show's coverage) might actually be printed. There is also the possibility that additional models will show up in separate "Contest Issues". Many people seem to feel that just because their model is photographed, it will show up in the magazine. There is no "favoritism" when models are picked for photos at the show. Every effort is made to pick the widest variety and selection of models for pictures. No one wants to see 10 pictures of '32 Fords and 12 pictures of '57 Chevy's.

Welcome to our plastic playground Michael.

No Joe, I never did that, but it looked like it would be a time-consuming but fun thing to do... A wad of gum on the end of the string to stick to the coins so you could pull them up... and hopefully get them up through the grating without knocking them off..

Yeah, I remember picking up ditched soda bottles at the park for the 2 cents deposit... Every once in awhile I'd find a LARGE bottle and those had a 5 cent deposit, which was like a home run...!!! When the movie The Ten Commandments came out, we HAD to go see it per instructions from our Catholic School. Everyone freaked out because admission price was 50 cents, when movies usually only cost 25 cents at the time...... It was a 4 hour movie so I guess they had to charge more.

I turned 71 back on April 3rd. Started building model cars in the very late 50's....... Stopped when I discovered girls and bars and then got married...... Got back into the hobby in '92 and have been at it ever since.

Welcome to our plastic playground Bill.

Welcome to our plastic playground Ryan.

Welcome to our plastic playground Bill.

Welcome to our plastic playground Hermann.

Welcome to our plastic playground Mike.

That does look good. Just a suggestion...... You might want to give the grille a blackwash.

Welcome to our plastic playground David.

Welcome to our plastic playground Mike.

Yes, it works fine.

Welcome to our plastic playground James.