Tom Geiger

Very nice build! I love the old Airfix 1/32 line, many of you know I lived in Germany when I was growing up in the late sixties / early seventies, so they figure rather prominently in my model building memories. I still have a few that I saved all these years, and when I got involved in modeling 30 years ago I found some at shows for $5-10 each and I grabbed them up! As eBay makes everything global, those old 1960s bag kits go for $100 now a days! I saw two that popped up in my feed the other day!

This is tragic. It will be rebuilt. This isn't the first time Notre Dame has had calamity. In fact it was severely damaged during the French Revolution and then was used as a warehouse. Napoleon returned it to the Catholic Church in 1801, and it wasn't restored until 1835. Much of the artifacts from before 1800 were already lost. I can see how this happened. During the current renovations, there was a safety failure regarding hot work. Once work is done for the day, a fire watch is supposed to occur. The fact that the fire was noticed after 5:30 pm tells me that the fire was smoldering for some time. Either they didn't do a proper fire watch, or the fire was undetected until the watcher left. Somebody and their insurance company is in a lot of trouble!

and you reminded me of a tourist story... I was headed home from work one Friday evening and spied a large Fiat motor home sitting in a supermarket parking lot. I stopped to take a look and a family was sitting in lawn chairs eating dinner. The man spoke English and he liked that I was interested in his vehicle. He asked me if I knew a good place to park overnight where he could hook up to electric... I thought for a minute and replied, "My driveway!" This was before we carried cell phones or had email so my wife was surprised when I pull up with this motor home following me. We invited them in for the evening, and it was interesting. The man and his wife sat with my wife and I and he did the talking, and translated for his wife. They had a daughter with them and my two daughters got a kick out of entertaining her, although they couldn't communicate! I asked him if he was concerned about driving a Fiat in America regarding spare parts and service. He said that it was very reliable and he didn't expect any issues, but it had the same chassis and diesel that the Ivecko trucks Fiat was selling there at the time. The next day we loaded them in our minivan and showed them around Monmouth County... took their photo out front of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and some spots they wouldn't have thought of. It's good to know the locals. One of those spots was the Keansburg boardwalk, where they still have 1930s antique rides. Introduced them to boardwalk sausage sandwiches! They stayed a second night and were gone when we woke up on Sunday. They were headed towards Philadelphia and then Washington DC. And interesting enough last evening my wife and I went for a bite at our favorite local pub. There was a couple from Belgium sitting at the bar with us. They were doing the tourist thing and wound up in Exton for the night just out of luck!

As is always said, "If you see it, buy it, because you never know if you'll see it again!" Who knows what occurs. This one could've been a guy who produced the mold because he wanted to build one, then sold enough copies to pay for the mold. Then the mold tore and he was done!

Reminds me of a story... One year I was driving back to New Jersey from the Toledo NNL on Route 80 across Pennsylvania. It's like six hours across the state. I came upon a 1960s VW van. Typical hippy van, Vermont plate. As you said, chugging along at maybe 50 mph! I passed it and kept moving at around 80 mph. I'd stop at a rest stop about once an hour. And shortly thereafter I'd pass that same van again! It happened several times. That driver must've had an iron bladder because I don't think he had ever stopped.

Tax Day! I'm sitting here avoiding writing a rather sizable check! Maybe I should just do it and get it over with!

Too cool! I've read both yours and Mark's threads. I was in conversation with Mark Gustavson yesterday and forwarded him the links as well, so he can add to the museum's files that these cars all still exist. I'm wondering if any of these cars are on the museum's Clone The Past list. And we generally assume that these old models are long gone, but they keep appearing! Mark sent me a photo yesterday of an iconic model that was thought to be long gone, but was found and restored. It will be revealed at GSL so I won't steal his thunder! As you know, I just love this stuff! It is all of our history!

Very cool Mark! Great bits of history rediscovered.

Cars! Gotta love them! I just had all of the brake hard lines and hoses replaced on my 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan. It was at the shop a while as I had to find the hard lines, and then my garage agreed to do the work at a reduced rate when they had idle time. I got it back two weeks ago. I go out to take it for a spin the next day... battery dead! Won't take a charge. So I went and bought a new one! And now my Hyundai has a slow leaker front tire!

Yes it is a fiddly old kit! You did a pretty good job on her though! I found it best to glue the doors shut and add correct size non-working hinges to it. Even then, nothing is perfect! Mine with the doors glued shut. Kit working hinges removed and scale hinges were made from round plastic stock.

I vote for Dad's 58 Chevy!

Bingo! We'd all go and tool up that one car we want that nobody else would understand! Funny thing though-- the owner of Moebius actually is a Hudson guy. He tooled up what he liked and somehow made it work.

Here's the Dodge A100 version that was at the Philadelphia Car Show in February! You can see it's not an exact replica of the cartoon car or the model. The graphics are a bit different. I've thought of modeling this version.. I have a Jimmy Flintstone A100 van body that's not doing nuthin'!

Here's my interesting experience. Last evening my wife came in late, getting her hair done after work. We decided to go to the local watering hole for $8 burger night. We are friendly with the patrons and on first name basis with the bartenders. It turned out to also be Bingo night, so they were calling out numbers as we ate. I was telling the bartender that my club runs a hobby show, that ends at 4pm and Bingo started at 7pm in the same room, and the old ladies were coming in before 4pm and setting themselves up on spare tables! Everyone laughs. Then the guy next to me asks what kind of hobby. I mention it's model cars and he's interested in learning about it. I pull out my phone and show him the show website. Then he pulls out his phone and starts showing me photos of very cool figures he's not only painting, but mastering in 3D and printing himself. There were some movie monster type pieces as well as some very ornate sculptures you'd see in a 16th century church! The guy is definitely an artist! His name is Mike and he is 40. I shared photos of some of my work as well, and now I have a new model friend!

Automodello will be a vendor at NNL East, so here's a chance for everyone to see their quality first hand! Beautiful stuff! I learned today that Automodello will be sponsoring the International Model Car Builders Museum raffle, donating one of their cars as the grand prize! It will be their 1937 Delage D8-120 Aerodynamic Coupe by Pourtout. So come on out to the show and buy your raffle tickets. Someone will win it!

I wonder if there's a few of those... Here's what I saw at the Philly Car Show...

I'd suggest avoiding creating multiple generations of the artwork. Going to paper and scanning again will degrade the image, just like making a new mold from a resin copy becomes second generation. Graphics programs will convert images to black and white. You can always print to black and white. There are usually two options, gray scale and pure B&W, select the B&W. The option is right in the print request in any Microsoft program.

Nice work on one of my favorite kits! No worries about the shortcomings, you learned a lot on this build that you can use going forward!

Another great day! I'm sitting here in my home office with the back door open. It's already about 69 degrees. We've had nesting Robins on the house for the entire 9 years we've been in this house. They've been in a variety of places on the house itself. One year on a windowsill where I could photograph the babies development every day. This is the first year they returned to an old nest, that's a second floor window. Great spot, overhang protects them from rain and high enough to be safe from predators. Fortunately I had that lamp turned off so not to fry them! According to Google, Robins only live two years so I'm thinking that the subsequent nesters are descendants of the original pair. And where do we have some of the best spring flowers? At the back of the property next to my stick pile! I believe the bulbs got scooped up with leaf clean up over the years.

Steve- Someone who frequents the boards was producing wood grain stickers for various cars, I believe this one too. Maybe he'll speak up or someone can identify him. Here's the one that will change your opinion! I do have some that are so well done, they represent the folk art of our youth. I can imagine them in hobby store contests, if only they could speak! I do have a collection of old customs and builds from that era. The above '60 Ford wagon is so over the top I just had to have it. In fact several people who know my collecting disease forwarded me the eBay auction information. And there were several competitors to win it! I believe this one started out as a convertible. The entire roof and extension is balsa wood. It's been restored! I polished it up and replaced the rear wheel covers to match the others, someone on one of the boards donated them! And never apologize for a cool discussion thread! This one is fun!

Cool progress on one of my favorite old kits! Keep it coming! It's always neat to see comparison photos. For the next one put it next to the Foose body (as you did) and a stock AMT '53 to illustrate just how much work you have done. FYI- I am currently stuffing that Foose chassis under the MPC Datsun pickup. A bit of slicing and dicing, but I have it under there!

Around 80 today in the Philly burbs. I work from home and didn't even realize it until I went out at lunch time. I left my door open the rest of the day.

Two guys in my club have bought these and they are amazing models. Automodello will be a vendor at NNL East this year.

As others have said, a super tribute model. You've put more details into that kit than anyone ever has! My father had a red early 1960s Beetle that we purchased when we arrived in Pirmasens, Germany in 1969. It would be some time until our '66 Valiant arrived and we needed wheels. Eventually my parents each needed a car. He purchased it from another military guy who was leaving. He drove the Beetle to work every day for the three years we were there. The Valiant had been taken to Bremerhaven for shipment back to the USA, so once again the Beetle was our only car. Some military folk would leave their cars in a specific lot on post, with keys in it and paperwork in the glove box so some fortunate GI could have wheels. My father intended to do that since he needed nothing more out of that faithful little car. In the last week we were there, we were living in the BOQ until our departure. An arriving officer asked me how to get to the PX. I gave him directions, and asked him if he needed a car. He did, and I managed to sell him the Beetle for $300, which is what my father paid for it three years prior! The new owner took over the car the day we left so all parties benefited. My father was so impressed that he let me keep the $300. I was 14 at the time. Once we were back stateside and I wanted to mow neighborhood lawns, I used that money to buy a used lawn tractor. That provided all the money I needed throughout high school! If I was to build a tribute model of my father's Beetle, it would be with a Christmas tree tied to the right side. One year my father and I went to cut our own tree, and that was my fondest moment with that car. And if I was to put scale figures into the car, there would be a boy sitting in the compartment behind the rear seat. That's where I'd sit when we had a car full of people!

Thanks for the "voice of experience" Chris! I haven't used CSC, which is why I hesitated to give that advise, and asked for other opinions.. I used to use Chameleon Stripper. They went out of business and my well finally ran dry!