Tom Geiger

Don't go killing off the squirrel population on my account! I have a lot of squirrels here in Pennsylvania that stay outdoors! This guy I've named Howdy and he keeps his stash in this flower box that's on my deck. He's in and out of there all the time, and it's right outside the kitchen window where I work most days. So he's entertaining. A few years ago I was sweeping the driveway of acorns and realized I had nearly a bucket full. I was all set to put them either in the trash or back in the woods and I got an idea... I dumped them into Howdy's stash. He probably thought he hit the jackpot! And he will sit on this same branch and eat all the time. It's up high and parallel to my model room window on the second floor. I find it interesting that the squirrels in the region are brownish with touches of gray. In other regions I've seen pure black and pure white ones! And my little herd of deer for Rob... This is all seven of them. Some of which I watched grow from babies. We don't have any babies this season. But they are very tame and will stay there while we come and go. I got fairly close to get this shot and they all stayed there and mostly just watched me. And some of the girls just hanging out in the backyard. We walked right past them and the worst they reacted was curious stares.

If you need a specific engine to fit something you are building, the board is here to help! I have a lot of parts boxes and would be happy to send you an engine, especially since you are actually building the kits! It's fun to help people's projects along and see the finished work!

I don't think they have any more information than we do. Right now it's just threats and political posturing.

Spent on models!

Cool! I like that the outside mirrors mostly have mounting pegs. I never just glue a mirror to a door, I'll drill a hole to mount it. And in most cases I'll drill out the mirror and insert a short length of straight pin in the absence of a mounting peg!

This photo is dated 2005. Someone in my club was selling a bunch of stuff for $5 a kit. So I grabbed a few pickups, most had been started or otherwise messed with. I liked the yellow paint on this one. It was sitting up on a finished chassis, although not detailed with engine wiring and such, but it got me thinking that I should just finish it as a shelf model. That's when I noticed it had no cab. No worries, I had a bunch of parts kits for the '50 Ford. Problem one surfaces... just what is that yellow paint? I ask the guy I got it from. He didn't know, thought it was something he got at Walmart. So I go searching in all the local stores and nope I cannot find this color. That got me going on a two tone. This one really didn't work, so... I went for a red hood along with it. An unorthodox one at that, but it kinda / sorta works. Also notice that I accidentally shot the hood another red! That's Duplicolor on the red parts. Or should it have red wheels? Then I believe I screwed something up. I remember painting the underside of the rear fenders with flat black and it bled through onto the body. The kit got put back in the box and it placed on the shelf of shame. Move ahead to 2012. I pulled it down off the unfinished kit shelf and got another idea. I had recently been to St Thomas and saw all the pickup based jitney buses running around the island. They were all late date pickups, but I wanted to do something more vintage... So I came up with this mockup. The sides are from the Tom Daniel Paddy wagon. I made the roof from basswood. I worked on it a bit, and you guessed... back in the box! The project wound up back on the bench as I was working on my Ardun engined 50 Ford pickup ratrod. So I started to fiddle one again... This time around I think I may just finish it. I have shingled the roof. I figured out the seating and even have a tropical pattern seat fabric I've printed. And most importantly, I looked over the original yellow parts and see the original builder did no prep work on the fender unit. All the mold lines are present. That led me to pull another unit out of my parts hoard, prime and paint it in another yellow paint. That's sitting drying right now. I have another built chassis I assembled for a different mock up exercise. So now I'm using that one. You know the story about great grandfather's axe? Been in our family for 200 years. Replaced the handle 12 times. Replaced the head 8 times... well, at this point there isn't an original part on this pickup! And it's an illustration why I get very little done as these models take me down the merry path fraught with many perils!

Ha! I've been building stuff out of scrap and finishing ancient builds I had started in the last century lately! Still, I am scrounging through kits for parts and such. And with cheap kits, I have no issue pulling one out for parts. I actually dumped another '55 Chevy Cameo kit into the corresponding parts box this past week, and sent another copy to a board member who needed it. And all those parts and aftermarket bits I had been saving for "someday"? Well someday is now. I'm using the stuff.

No doubt from C1 Models... www.c1-models.com Chris Hales is a great guy to deal with! He comes to NNL East every year from England

he's heavily armed

Squirrels - Many years ago when I was back in New Jersey we had a very cold winter and the clan of squirrels who lived high up in the tree in my back yard chewed through a side vent into my attic. You could hear them running around at night. Sounded like they were ricocheting off the walls. I learned a bit of information... I hired an exterminator to remove them. Squirrels may have one entry hole, but they will dig a second one. They always want two ways out. Their second hole was behind a gutter. The exterminator put live capture traps on my roof. Squirrels are curious and will be attracted to the bright metal traps. Once captured.... he would take them away. Then I found out that it's illegal to relocate squirrels for a few reasons. First, they are clan animals and if a single one was relocated to another area, the clan there would not accept him and he would die alone, or be killed by the competing clan. Second, you cannot relocate them because of disease control. The government doesn't want you spreading disease out into new areas. An interesting fact... The "Have A Heart" catch 'em alive trap is designed to conveniently fit sideways into a garbage pail filled with water. The exterminator told us that once we captured all the squirrels he would seal the holes into my attic. He needed to have them all or they would return. And he did rid us of squirrels! Of course at a cost of several hundred dollars, which was reasonable since they were there daily for a few weeks. Now the irony.... we thought we had hundreds of squirrels. Any time you looked out our back windows there were squirrels dancing along the fence, up on the trees etc. He captured SIX squirrels and the world went dead! No squirrels at all... so it must've been those six squirrels over and over!

Your assortment of small dogs will keep them away. They smell the dogs and avoid the area.

Lookin good!

on the beach

Moving is a great opportunity to design new work space with all the experiences you have from the past! I recently attacked the task of cleaning up my work space. I had a buddy coming over for an afternoon and knew I needed to clear out enough space for us both to sit and move around. My room had been reduced to a little goat path down the middle of the stacks of kits and parts boxes that were just everywhere! I managed to box up about four cases of kits and move them down to the model warehouse in the basement. I actually swept and vacuumed. When my daughters moved last summer, they had a chest of drawers that became surplus, so that's now in the model room. I filled it with supplies. There is a plastic drawer, a wood drawer, and the top drawer is all decals, instruction sheets and research materials. So far it's staying usable! I still have to organize my paints, which includes testing and tossing dead cans and bottles, as well as cleaning out the spray booth. It now is a bit easier to work! And a bit more enjoyable at that!

I still want that pickup! But I guess I'll settle for watching you build a model of it!

Great work on the bumper guard! I need to work on my soldering skills

Every country has it's moment as that "low cost provider". First it was Japan, then Korea and now China. Then they become prosperous and their citizens get a taste for consumer goods. Costs go up and they are no longer low cost. If indeed these tariffs are put into place and become permanent, there are other countries who would be happy to become the low cost provider for this coming era. Note that Revell already sources in Poland, I'm sure they have other opportunities in Eastern Europe. There's certainly the skill there. Moebius spokesman Dave was quoted as saying there is currently no turnkey vendor in the USA who can provide the process from design to shrink wrapped boxes. There's nothing stopping a company from developing those services if there is a market. And other places like Viet Nam and Laos have become exporters to the USA. We will see.

Welcome. Another good source is Spotlight Hobbies. Tom Carter ships near instantly!

That's a nice start after 45 years! Very cool model, keep on building! And welcome to the group, you will fit in well here.

Been working a bit... this is a 1950 Ford Jitney bus like you'd take for a tour of a tropical island. The back was made from sides of the Monogram Tom Daniel Paddy wagon many years ago. I was away for the entire 3 day weekend so I got to sit down for a bit over my lunch hour today. I stared at it for quite a while. Then I mocked up the seats inside after many different ideas. And here it is with the roof mocked up on it.

Why mess around? Here's a set of Model Car Garage photo etched seat belts. I added a layer of Evergreen plastic to the female ends to give them depth. Then just use a chrome pen around the edges. I bought three packs of the belts for less than $20 postpaid. 1/16" ribbon. Got all of this on eBay for less than $10 shipped. So I spent about $30 and now have a lifetime supply of seat belts. It's just not worth the effort to play around.

Yes, a model not sold in the USA but a lot of them have made their way here over the years. When I lived in Germany 1969-72 the family across the hall from us had one as a second car

I once had a garage drop my full size Dodge van off a lift. It became evident they didn’t have proper shop insurance and they started playing games like asking me to split the cost of the repairs! Took me a long time to get paid

I agree this is an excellent kit. I enjoy seeing everyone’s versions. I remember all all the grumbling when the Foose kits were announced, but they have been a home run for Revell. Guys were complaining that there was only one way to build customs, boy did we all prove them wrong! I enjoyed my own build, it pretty much fell together. The glass snaps in place and so did the exhaust system. I’ve already cut down and fit the chassis under a Datsun pickup, can’t wait to try a few other builds!

Lookin good!