Tom Geiger

Okay, it's Sunday! But I finished the chopped '30 yesterday and that was Saturday! Along with a matching pickup completed earlier. Both redone from junkers. Yes that was the original paint on both of them.

I have a very cool survivor build on this one too! I'll post it when I get a chance.

I finished a model. First one this year! And we're nearing year's end! I was home today, I had anticipated going to NJ to work on the house, but the storm changed those plans. So what else to do but hit the bench? I got my final details done and the rain stopped long enough to take some photos outdoors. I started an "Under Glass" thread. Feeling good enough to clean the model room!

Fantastic! Nobody can say they have one just like it. Great work and congrats on a well deserved People's Choice.

my dear sir!

Those of you who follow my silliness, you know I love to fiddle with old survivors. I found this in a bag of junk models I bought at a show a few years ago. Some kid never finished his chop. I got this engine and body, but no chassis. Someone mentioned that this was indeed the 1962 original issue (green plastic) of this iconic Monogram kit. It has the dual side mount fenders that seem to be missing in kits after 1970 or so. I don't know why I didn't do a build thread on this one. I thought I did, but couldn't find it. Oh well. I dug into an early phaeton parts kit and found a few of these wheel covers that I really liked for this project. Through the kindness of a board lurker from Cape Cod and Dave Dale, I wound up with enough wheels and wheel covers... note that I needed six, to make that vision come true... thanks guys! I cracked open a couple of later date versions of this kit series as parts cars. The Phaeton will be rolling off my assembly line next. Seeing that it survived all of some 55 years, I figured it was cool enough to finish! And here's it's debut today! So here she is! As with a lot of my restos I kept the original color and the original builder's intent. I found that Testors still made that blue in a brush bottle, as a flat color. That came in handy with all the body work. I had always planned it as a traditional (don't say rat) rod. This is the original engine, all rebuilt and painted Chevy orange. I wired it up and soon figured out that the headers on it wouldn't work with the side mounts. So I made an exhaust system for her. I fitted a hood, this one actually was part of the Model A pickup you'll see in a few photos. It didn't work on the pickup because the air cleaners sat high. So I stripped it and painted it to match this project. I'm still deciding if I like the hood patina or if I'm going to tone it down a bit. Rear view. The left tail light did come with the original body, so I left the 1930 license plate since it was original. I added a second tail light from the open parts kits. The rear bumper came out of the 1962 Phaeton kit that I had received as an incomplete parts kit. I mounted it upside down to fill the void between the two fenders. The body was cracked, so I left it. The door and trunk handle are delicate little parts that were missing on my body. I didn't want to steal them from another kit I plan to build, so I made some from wire. And with all the fiddling to get this together, I broke the mounts on the rumble seat so it's glued shut. I'd call this the "dirty side" but that doesn't apply with this model! The Monogram suspension pieces were all semi-flat and out of scale so I replaced it all with different sizes of rod and wire. I made the exhaust system from my big box of exhaust parts. I cut it up and assemble pieces with bits of straight pin. I can adjust the angles etc, just like you would on a 1:1. Once I like it I glue the pieces together. Those are the tires that came with the Phaeton in all their misshaped glory! And a couple of relatives with a lot in common! I built the pickup from a junker too, and both come from the same family of Monogram Model A kits. I had a lot of fun and have found it rewarding to finally bring a model that sat for 55 years to completion. During this process I acquired a bunch more of these Model A kits, so watch for the Phaeton and maybe a few more! These kits are addicting!

Ken Kitchen from Kitchen Table Resins makes the correct air cleaner!

Thanks for posting Dan! Yes, NNL East will live on, despite someone confusing it with NNL Nationals that will indeed end after next year. NNL East maintains a lease with the hall that projects five years out, so we are set through 2023 right now. We will continue to raise the bar each year and give everyone the best day of the year for our hobby!

None of them were built with much skill or represent a unique survivor build so have fun with them. I buy old cars like those from dealers junk boxes at shows to use parts for building street rods. The wheel sets on all three of those would be cool, as would the unusual drivetrains.

I remember one top builder telling me that when he shipped models to shows, he'd wrap it in an entire roll of toilet paper, wrapping it tightly so nothing could move, encasing it like a mummy. Then that wad was packed into a box surrounded by packing peanuts. Then double boxed. You cannot pack it too well! I once got a built up convertible in a Priority Mail box without any packing what so ever. The windshield frame was destroyed. People are clueless.

Hey I'm right down Route 100 from you! Great car! I read the article too! I like the engine with the "Oldsmobile" valve covers as shown in the photo in this thread!

Cool! Can't wait to see. I finished up my chopped Model A last night. Still will bring it back up to the bench for some patina adjustments, but I'll be doing a photo session outside as soon as the friggin rain stops!

Practice with Duplicolor, it's not like hobby paint. You can put it on thick, right before the point where it's going to run. It looks like it's obscuring the details, but then it pulls down tight as it dries. As Greg Peters said, there are colors that dry glossy and those that require a clear coat. They follow the paint code of the car manufacturer. My last job was a Duplicolor beige that dried dull. I gave it a few coats of Tamiya clear and it's great. I seldom polish anything out since I don't build many show cars. The beige Model A will be a Race of Gentlemen car and those traditionally had less than mirror finishes. I believe that a lot of models get polished way beyond what a real car would look like. There once was a Nascar builder who put on mile deep clear coat over everything including the decals, then polished it like fine jewelry. Never saw a Nascar car like that!

Early morning traffic... on my way to work as the sun comes up. And there's a '55 Chevy 2 door wagon in with all the commuters. He got on the Pennsylvania Turnpike too. Headed the opposite direction, so that was the last I saw of him!

Hobby Lobby has their 40% off coupon right on their website. It's always there. Bookmark it on your phone. All you need to do is show them your phone. If I go in the store and I don't see anything I want, I'll buy something small like a can of Testors flat black or dull cote. And yes I even use the coupon on that.

Yes, different from your photo. Here's a side view showing the tires / rims that came with my kit. This was the Gone Fishing set. Probably the same in the recent release of same kit.

Many years ago I trained myself to put the purchase date on each can. Comes in handy!

Bingo! I once had a conversation with Bob Paeth, who worked for Revell in the 1960s. He said they were very aware of "perceived value". Boxes were a standard size. What was the perception when a kid opened a box and it was 3/4 empty? That led to the double kits of these small cars. It's also the very reason there was a Tiki Hut in the Roth Surfite kit!

Scout looks great! I hadn't looked in since I left the idea for the bench seat, so I'm pleased to see you used it, and executed it so well!

Here's what the 4x4 chassis under the Monogram 1/24 scale Ramcharger looks like. The chassis is separate from the floor boards. Ignore the floor boards, I modified it for full coverage, the kit is just an interior bucket with lots of open space around the sides.

I once had a 1978 Sportsman 300 long wheelbase window van with seats. The neat thing about this series of kits is that MPC faithfully updated changes each and every year. I once was looking for a donor van for a project and pulled out a bunch of old built ups I had and realized that every single body was different. Things like the tail lights, grill and even the roof ribs changed over the years. I built this from one of my junkers. I started off building a cube van and then went off on this tangent instead. The middle section that I chopped out of the pickup bounced around the model room for awhile. It was a paint stand at one point. I saw it one day and said, "Why not?" and built this camper out of it. I still have to finish it.

Hey, the winner's demographic as being from a small town in South Carolina makes my point that it could happen to anyone! This guy is still in shock. I'm picturing some guy in a chamo baseball cap, week or twos worth of stubble... we probably will never know since SC is one of the states where you don't have to reveal your identity. But in a small town when someone starts spending big money....

Rich, did you look at the Facebook link Casey provided? There's photos of his different kits there.

Agreed. I have a lot of happy memories in my stash. Then again, I come across model kits I swear I've never seen before! I am considering selling off some stuff that has value and I no longer am interested in for the same reason, to reinvest. But I'm looking at a couple of high priced items for my stamp collection.