Tom Geiger

I enjoyed the simplicity of the snapper. I did this one for a club same kit contest.

Thanks Steve- Here's an example of that railway post office from my collection.... Going back to 1904! Piece was mailed at 5pm at Mohank Lake, New York (west of Poughkeepie) about 265 miles to Baltimore. That would be a 5-6 hour drive today, but in 1904 there were no interstates. This card was put on the train, and was sorted enroute by the NY&Baltimore RPO (Railway Post Office), probably overnight. It arrived in the mail the very next day. That's the postal marking on the left. Not bad for 1904! Back in the day, the postal service and fast delivery was much more important than it is today. Messages we text, email. or phone, were sent by penny postcard. I have one in my collection telling the recipient to meet the sender at the train station the very next day.

I have a box I'll have to dig out now that my curiosity is up... I have a '66 Rambler convertible promo that I had cut open the hood, and was working this chassis under it. I think the project was over my head some 30 years ago when I started, but should be an easy build for me today! Now where could that box have run off to...

Good points Richard! The future of this hobby may very well be the next generation creating car models in 3D software and printing out the results.

Nick Sandone has his in hand and was posting pictures of the open kit on FaceBook... I was told that the "new" Revell was shipping to their largest distributors ( Stephens/Megahobby) but neglecting their smaller direct ship customers. Is there any truth to this or are they shipping these out to all customers?

Texaco theme bathroom? I have a tiny little bathroom on the main floor of my house, about the size of a gas station bathroom. So I bought this reproduction sign. It's on the wall over the toilet.

Welcome from nearby Exton, PA! Your builds look great!

Greetings from Exton! Welcome to the group! Model building is addicting! Enjoy!

Same here! My old house in NJ had some great trees out front. I had built rock gardens with perennials that came back every year. It was very pretty. The goobs I sold the house to had the trees removed and leveled everything! Tiered rock gardens gone! Just random grass and dirt. And several lawn chairs where they sit in what was the middle of a garden.

Hey it wasn't a SCRambler either! It was pretty much a '66 Rambler American, with a convertible interior and a hole in the hood! Lord knows where that tool ended up...

I've always said that this is a skill set that is earned with hard work. Back when everyone ran out and bought lathes, many guys just made a bunch of metal shavings and gave up. This is the same thing. The early adapters are people who do 3D CAD for a living, so it's natural for them to expand to their hobby. There will be guys who buy a cheap printer, lose patience and put them aside. I am impressed with the results in the video. There is a future in 3D printing for modelers. Many of us will be the customers of those with the skills, just like we buy resin and photo etch today.

then wings Wednesday

I think about what the original builder would say if he saw his model now! And I often wonder about the history of these models. Was it a hobby store contest winner? And I live for the day I find one that was in a magazine back in the day! If these models could only talk!

January 21, 2018 $0.50 January 22, 2017 $0.49 April 10, 2016 $0.47 January 26, 2014 $0.49 January 27, 2013 $0.46 January 22, 2012 $0.45 May 11, 2009 $0.44 May 12, 2008 April 12, 2007 $0.42 $0.41

Very nice work!

Many folks know that I collect old survivors, especially interesting customs, that people built back in the heyday of modeling. I find that these are historical time capsules of where the hobby was at the time, both in imagination and in level of skill put into these works. I cringe when I see people take one of these neat old models that has somehow survived intact 50-60 years and strip them down for a new build. Here's some work I've done recently... Once upon a time I found this beat to death 1957 Ford custom in a dealers junk box at the MidAtlantic NNL in Maryland. It had the roof smashed off, and was missing all the suspension, as those parts are pretty delicate on that kit. As I held it up to look at it, the dealer told me to either take it for free for parts, or he was going to throw it away. Of course I took it. The roof you see here is from a much used '57 Ford body. The hood went to my blue '57 custom, the wheel wells to someone on the board here to better the ones on the newer Revell body. So it was sacrificed for three projects. Nothing went to waste! I was able to date this one back to the original kit release, as a first issue. I found the original instructions and decal sheet on the Drastic Plastic site on Fotki. Now on to the restoration: Here's the original interior. Nothing needed changing here. There was a glue mark where the rear view mirror was on the dash so we replaced it. The horn trim ring was missing so we replaced it as well. The back shelf was a glue mess so I added a piece of fabric that I had in my junk box for years. I thought it fit into the intent of the build and was something someone would do back in the day. I like the pet mascots that came in these early kits so I painted up and added the doggie. He actually sits on a tire burn. I never did pull this one apart so it was an "on frame" restoration. I knew I'd never match the paint on the roof so I found I had a crusty 69 cent can of Testors gold that still sprayed.. sorta.. and gave it a squirt. That led me to thinking it looked plain and the original builder would've used a kit decal there. So I picked out the largest decal on the sheet, which also was one not already on the car, and sized it up to fit the roof in Irfanview. Then I saw the decal had a yellowish background you can see in the large image, so I cleaned it up in Word, as you see in the top photo. There is a command to eliminate background that I used to get the clean image. Once cleaned up, I set it up to print 3 images on decal paper. Always print multiple copies. I screwed up my first one so the one on the car is image two. I still have the third one. And here we are with the finished roof decal. I did a tutorial on making decals for a Facebook group that requested it, so I have more on the process if anyone is interested. Front view- I blacked in the grill area and added the Meteor one from the kit. The car had glue marks where there were mirrors and antennas, so I added period pieces. I drilled holes and pinned them in for future strength. The mirrors came from the '61 Ranchero kit, while the antennas were in the '60 Plymouth wagon. I bought a '57 Ford parts box at the Liars Show that had an unfinished project and extra parts in it. These tires and wheels were in it. They fit perfectly so I used them. The exhaust held on from the original build. The car had a flattish finish, no doubt the characteristic of the paint rather than the builders intent. The decals were all flaking off, so I masked off much of the car and painted everything green with Tamiya gloss clear. I generally leave classics as they were, but wanted to preserve those decals. Curse those old AMT doors. The right side one opens, but the left one came off in my hand. I glued it shut. Interior was brush painted to match and used the piston shifter from the kit. I didn't touch the engine compartment, it's all original from the early 1960s. Rear views, didn't change anything here at all. Note that I usually add one of the old AutoWorld 1962 license plates to the classic builds. In honor of the Meteor grill, I used the Alberta, Canada plate. And here's both my '57 Ford custom restorations. They are cool together since the each use a different set of parts. And the complete set for full effect! On the right is the '58 Chevy custom I just finished up. Hope you enjoy the old classics as much as I do. If only these cars could talk!

The Forever stamps are turning out to be a good investment, they were originally 47 cents.

Hey, you made something from nothing! I enjoy restoring those old orphans and giving them new life. That back bumper is actually an improvement! Great work! I do have a few Corvair customs that look pretty good with the custom parts. So I've put them in my Olde Kustom Kollection.

Many folks know that I collect old survivors, especially interesting customs, that people built back in the heyday of modeling. I find that these are historical time capsules of where the hobby was at the time, both in imagination and in level of skill put into these works. I cringe when I see people take one of these neat old models that has somehow survived intact 50-60 years and strip them down for a new build. Here's some work I've done recently... I bought this '58 Chevy custom on eBay a few years ago for the grand sum of $10. I liked the color scheme, but I"m not sure how old this one is since that's a fairly modern color and the kit hasn't changed at all since it was first released so I cannot date it by discontinued accessories etc. Overall this one suffered from a poor build. Original builder did no body prep so there are mold lines and sprue nubs. There is no primer under the paint. It arrived in jostled condition and easily came apart so I set to clean it up to make a decent shelf model. There were glue marks where the original builder had put mirrors and antennas, so I replaced them. I drilled them in per my usual practice. The mirrors came from the parts box, no doubt from a kit of the same era. I made the antennas from wire and the bases are Grandt Line scale nuts. The car came to me with only three matching tires, two of which had cracked sidewalls. It had huge wheels (one piece baby moons with trim rings - all chrome) that wouldn't fit any of my tires. I replaced it all with tires from the Revell '50 Ford pickup and some nifty wheels from my parts collection. It has the custom interior with that really neat floating dashboard. I made a mental note to use my spare one in a street rod someday. One of the doors was broken off so I fixed that. I was originally going to just glue it shut, but the missing piece fell out when I took the body off the chassis. So I strengthened it with a bit of straight pin wire upon gluing it back in place. Original builder used Testors silver for the chrome and wasn't that good with the emblems. Since I didn't have access to the original paint, I left all that intact as part of the history of the build. I did crack open a fresh kit for parts. The glass had visible glue marks so I replaced it all with new. The front end wobbled and upon investigation I saw that our builder had glued each wheel on at a different build height. So I pulled it all off and redid with fresh parts. Now it sits flat and the original moving steering was restored. One of the things that had me buy this kit was the thread wiring like we did as kids. I did have the engine out for cleaning and a repaint but I left the thread for old times sake. It was missing the tri-carb so those came from my parts kit. Here she is sitting with a friend. That's a similar '57 Ford I restored from a junker as well. Both of these sit in my Old Kustom Kollection showcase. Fun stuff to own and very relaxing to restore as it's pretty low-tech work. I will share another '57 Ford in my next thread!

It appears wasteful to the average person, but it's actually quite efficient. I've been a stamp collector as long as I've been a model builder and have studied USPS delivery, since I am a collector of local postmarks. Back in the 1970s the USPS started streamlining towards automated regional sorting centers. They eliminated the sorting and postmarking staff at local post offices since this was all manual work, saving headcounts. So the local post office just collects the outgoing mail and it goes in big unsorted bags to the sorting center. In my case, living in the suburbs of Philadelphia in PA, mine goes to either Trenton, NJ or Wilmington, Delaware sorting centers, which is decided by the volumes at either center. The automation equipment detects volumes and directs additional workload to the center that has capacity to handle it. In your case it is Spokane, WA. All the mail from every post office in the region go there for automated sorting by computers. The only mail that sees actual human touch is the items the computerized system rejects. This is all done overnight, and mail then gets sent out to the local post offices before opening time, to be delivered that same day. I've tested that here, I put a card in the box at the post office early afternoon, and indeed it was delivered to my home in my 3pm delivery the next day, Wilmington postmark and all. One pickup round, one delivery round per day. In New Jersey there are 650 local post offices. In the old days there would be a couple of sorting clerks at each office. There would be a canceling machine with local postmark for them to run and maintain. Now there are four sorting centers! One in North Jersey (Daniels Center in Kearny), one in Central NJ (Kilmer in Edison), one for Western NJ (Trenton) and one in Southern, NJ (Southern Station). And those three centers do the work of a few thousand clerks that are no longer needed. In your perfectly logical scenario, the mail would be postmark and sorted in Dayton and then sent over to the Pasco post office, only that's all manual work and there would be a small handful of items going between those two offices so that trip wouldn't be anywhere near as efficient as the current practices. Now that's a lot more info than you asked for, but since model guys are interested in the world around them I thought it might be of interest!

I mailed a package USPS from Pennsylvania to Perth, Australia on Friday 12-7 and it arrived yesterday 12-17 in perfect condition. I'm happy!

I'm pretty sure that's the same one. Eddie Fluck was casting for him. Same body and door panels. Mine had separate exterior door handles to glue on and doesn't have the bench seat.

I'm not much of an exotics kinda guy but I've always liked the Miura. Ever since I got this Matchbox one in sixth grade. You can see my "improvements".

hammock out back

Jeremy, thanks for sharing your sons progress. Everyone on the board is rooting for him and your family. Have a great holiday season, you have a lot to be thankful for! You made our day!