Tom Geiger

Mine too! No damage! I was concerned since this was the first copy of my subscription, I didn't know how quick it would kicked in and if I'd have to go buy this issue. I finally got tired of running to the hobby shop to see if the new issue was in.

Don't forget the Surfite!

For me, my slumps occur when I run out of steam on my current projects for a variety of reasons. If I stick to my guns and say I won't do anything else until I finish them, it's like telling a toddler he can't leave the table until he eats his vegetables! Stalemate! Everything just sits still! I get going one of two ways. First way is to clean the model room! (And getting the gumption to do that sometimes is the same as trying to pick up one of the stalled projects!) I will clear off the bench, put all the projects in their own boxes and tools where they belong. Clean the room of plastic dust. Once it's all done, I usually pick one of the unfinished projects... over 50 to choose from, and concentrate on just one thing. The other way is when I get fixated on an idea. Often I'll shut that off, worrying about the fact that I already have enough unfinished projects. But when the voices get going... well, sometimes I have to listen! If I start one of those new projects, often the enthusiasm will keep me going for awhile!

Motorcycles... about 2 weeks ago I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on a Saturday. Traffic was not extreme, but busy and moving at high speeds... but with weekend drivers anything is possible. One minute you're going 80 and the next minute everyone jams their brakes and you are sitting still. The traffic around me was going maybe 75mph and suddenly a big Harley with a couple on it is along side me. Neither of them has a helmet on and the woman rider is wearing flip flops. Talk about a death wish!

My point. And for the media to find a reason to bash Walmart. That's why Walmart settled that case quickly for big money. To get out of the friggin news! Like I had said earlier, there was an accident on the PA Turnpike the next week where a sleepy trucker hit the back of a truck sitting in the shoulder. That trucker had stopped to help a family who had a breakdown in a car. Big fireball, killed them all! It was 5 or 6 people dead. Barely made the news.

Looks great. You did the kit justice! I always thought that those T-Bird rear wrap around seats were cool. I actually used the back of that interior tub to make a custom interior in my 1961 Ranchero!

I get a kick out of Jaegermeister becoming a fashionable drink here in the USA. It was never sold here, but I remember back to when I was a kid in Germany. It was this awful tasting drink that only old men drank to stay warm in the winter. And suddenly it's cool? You can sell anything with the right marketing!

I'm not saying the driver was not wrong by any measure, but I know that section of the New Jersey Turnpike and I'm very surprised that no news account mentioned the road conditions that contributed to the accident. That section of road, which was 2 sets of three lanes (cars & truck lanes) separated by a divider, total of six lanes going North.... for no known reason just comes to a dead stop at any time of day or night. Traffic crawls for a few miles and then you are back up to speed again. That accident happened at something like 1am on a Sunday morning, and being on a Turnpike at highway speed and it suddenly coming to a complete stop surprises everyone. There were always accidents there. Never mind a drowsy driver. The news reports went nuts to slander Walmart when the truth is that they run one of the safest fleets in the country. After listening to NJ rant radio talking about Walmart's fleet being responsible for 9 deaths in the last two years. OMG, these clowns on the radio wanted to shut Walmart down for that! But... Wal-Mart is consistently recognized as having one of the safest private fleets in the country, with an accident frequency of 0.342 per million miles traveled, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Wal-Mart trucks have been involved in 380 crashes in the last 24 months, according to data compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Nine people have been killed in those crashes; 129 have been injured. That record is over 6500 trucks and 8500 drivers. Actually an incredible safety record. And the news also sensationalized that the driver may have been going 65mph... but never mentioned that is the speed limit. In fact if you're going 65 on the NJ Turnpike you are in the way! Since then that area of the Turnpike has been expanded to I believe six lanes times two. So that road condition shouldn't exist there any more. And again the irony is that this accident hit the national news because it involved a celebrity and Walmart. About a week later there was a much worse accident on the PA Turnpike, where a truck ran into the back of another truck stopped on the shoulder resulting in a fireball that killed several people. That was barely a mention on the local evening news.

The highlight of my day.... I bought tickets for Counting Crows! August 29th in New Jersey. Can't wait!

I like to use Tamiya acrylic brush paint. Paint your grille with it and let it nearly dry. Then use a damp Q-tip to wipe it off the highpoints you want to be chrome. I also use it in door jambs and panel lines the same way. I don't like the Detailer. The black gives a purplish tone!

Hosted on Fotki

Good luck to you and Amy John! You could always join Rich and I in Pennsylvania!

Hi Ernie! Good to see you made it here!

Oh my quandry! I have always bought MCM at my local hobby shop, but right after buying the last issue I subscribed. So now I have to play a waiting game to see if one comes in the mail...

Given it was in Colma I'm guessing the damage wasn't from Visigoths. It Was Zombies!! not either... more likely messed up by Numpties!

There are guys who have told me there is no model club in their area. My response is always, "Well, start one!" Then they respond with questions as complicated as asking if there are state forms needed to start a club, etc. No! It's super easy. For instance, I find out that there is another modeler in my town. So I invite him over on a Saturday and show him my stuff. The following week I'm at Michaels, and there's a guy looking at models. We get talking and I get his email address. The next month, I've got two guys coming over. Is three people a club? Oh yea! And you can build it from there. Keep it as simple as you want, as long as you have a few friends who enjoy getting together to talk models, it's a club!

Hmmmm... I have a Michaels a few blocks from me. I could use some cheap Darts for chassis for some projects.... but you know I'll forget!

Your project reminds me of a story! Many years ago my family and my wife's brothers family decided to go to Wildwood, NJ together and stay at a beachfront hotel. This was a hotel built in the 1950s, six stories with all the room facing the water, with common balconies and entry doors off that balcony walkway. We are asleep at about 5:30am, and all of a sudden my wife is shaking me because there are sirens blaring everywhere. She thinks the hotel is on fire. I investigate and see it's all police activity on the beach. The streets dead end at the beach with a barricade of closely spaced sawed of telephone poles, and then a severe drop down onto the beach. Right next to our hotel is your Tahoe, a white one that has managed to blow through the barricade and is sitting nose deep into the sand, with it's rear still up on the wall. It's almost daylight and cops are swarming all over the beach with flash lights. I head downstairs and find out that some clown robbed a local convenience store in the stolen Tahoe, and led cops on a chase through the narrow streets of this beach resort town. He made a wrong turn down a dead end and landed on the beach. He ran off. We make some coffee and continue to watch the spectacle from our balcony, as is just about everyone else in our hotel. Eventually two cops come walking from the beach, one carrying a boot and the other carrying a garbage bag full of money. My bro-in-law and I ask a cop if they caught the guy, nope he got away with one shoe and no money. We head back upstairs and our wives ask us if they got the guy, We tell them, "Yup, they caught him a few blocks down the beach." The women are relieved and go about their day. We lied? Yea, we knew this guy was as far away from there as he could get and wouldn't be an issue. But to tell our wives he was still out there would have meant instant packing and heading home!

We were driving back to PA on the New Jersey Turnpike this evening and I thought I was dreaming. All at once I realized I was completely surrounded by Honda tuners! Then I saw that three of them, all side by side (it's three lanes there) all slowed down to about 50mph. This is a dangerous thing since everyone on the turnpike had to slow down from the usual flow of 75-80mph. All at once, they floor it and take off, in a big plume of nasty tuner smoke. They soon caught up to the weekend driver slow pokes, and one of them passed a car in the shoulder, as the three of them shot from lane to lane to pass one another. Stupid, stupid, dangerous people. There were lots more tuners who were just driving normal, even saw a group of four of them together in the shoulder. Then I remembered my friend John said it was Honda weekend at Raceway Park! I must've hit it right at closing time! Once on the PA Turnpike I passed a Dodge pickup with one of those tuner Hondas with the severely canted wheels on a trailer. Guess he couldn't have driven that one all the way to Englishtown! Right behind him his buddy in a Honda CRV, that was as low to the ground as you would dare, followed him. Way too many tuners for one day!

I actually got off my butt and went to the procrastinators club! When I got there I saw a note on the door that said, "Maybe next month!" My model room is frustrating me right now. I have bits of several to many stalled projects everywhere. I got a brilliant idea for another project this week and I merely pushed some stuff aside enough to have a few square inches. Still, I wasn't finding tools and materials, so I left that in a huff. Right now I have another brilliant idea I've been eyeing here in the kitchen. I don't dare! I need to have one of those "HOLD EVERYTHING!" moments where I stop and clean everything up.

You know how that goes Harry.... there are people who pull that on several times a day and get away with it. You try it ONCE and you are snagged!

Nice work Lee. I still need to get that kit.

Costco has always done that. The employee looks at the receipt and then counts the items in your cart to make sure it matches. Then they would mark your receipt with a yellow highlighter. It was easier for them than Walmart since they don't bag things. I guess they are combatting people who either add things to the basket after paying, or even people who unload their basket in their car and come back and duplicate it and walk out with a duplicate load that would match the receipt? Shoplifters are a crafty bunch. It's a career for some! Per stealing large items... I once knew a character who said it was very easy to steal TVs and such. The plan? Just walk out the front door like you bought it. He said that he even had store employees holding the door open for him. He said that even when the alarm went off, no employee would ever follow him.

"Living here, paint pretty much dries in minutes." I've heard it dries between the air brush and the model! Everyone has been there! Like most said the issue for me is when I get to a decision point, and I get impatient and just do something quickly. Sometimes I'm not in the mood and push myself to work on something, and I mess up. And I know I have screwed up even before I'm finished screwing it up! Right now I have a bunch of cool models that I've started and some nearly finished from the past two years. Some are stalled for a decision (note my comment on decision points!) and others I've just lost steam.

Hosted on Fotki New definition of "light" commercial! Our club meeting is in Perth Amboy, NJ. Upon fetching our pizza, this was parked outside. The Perth Amboy cops use at least one of these Suzuki quads downtown. A very quick shot since we were in the way... bad position with the sun blocking out my phone screen so you get my finger at no extra charge! Argh!