Tom Geiger

Did anyone else realize that maybe it's NOT ABOUT US??? Note that Revell did the poll on FaceBook, not the Model Cars Magazine board. And for good reason, they didn't need the opinion of the cranky old men on this board who represent less than 1% of their sales. They are trying to expand the market for model cars by reaching out to the general public, car guys who don't model, and yes kids. We complain that our hobby is going to die with us and when RM actually does something to create new markets and new modelers, we complain about that too!

My wife and daughters told me I should do that! I told them it wouldn't be fair to the normal folks!

Reminds me of a story... when I was 10 I used to custom paint Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. This was like 1968-9. Testors brush paint for the most part, but I'd do designs and such. All the kids thought they were cool and wanted a car like that, so I sold some for $1 each. Some kid's mother came screaming to my mother that I ruined her kid's car by painting it. Beauty in the eyes of the beholder for sure!

Where did you find those? I need a set like that for a '66 Mustang six cylinder replica from my past!

I used to have a Crown Vic with automatic headlights. When driving other cars, I'd forget to turn them on.

Looks great in color.... and one of my favorite colors at that!

Welcome Nick.... from Perth.... must be a friend of AB!

I like that little Jeep Renegade. Like a Jeep only smaller! Italian design, I believe it's kin to the Fiat 500 wagon. Local dealer is advertising $1200 or so off a Renegade but something like $5000 off the little Fiat. Hate to say, that odd looking little Fiat wagon is growing on me.

Ya know guys.... isn't one of the reasons we have a board to be able to ask questions? Guys get into the hobby fresh and have no idea of the history of things we all take to be common knowledge. And a list like this is important. I remember posts from folks who got into the hobby and bought a new AMT kit (say a '57 Chrysler) and were very pleased with the kit and parts count. Then they see an AMT '62 Buick in the hobby shop. They bring that home and feel gypped! They have no idea the history of the hobby and how that kit was an annual in 1962, and the interior bucket and one piece chassis were the technology of the time. All they know is that they bought a 'new' kit off the hobby shop shelf. So it's cool that we help out everyone we can. If you don't want to answer questions, just move on and let others do it. No need to make snide comments. And no, this board shouldn't be a good ole boys club of cranky aging people who haven't built a model in years!

I'd like to see a real Harry P avatar! And you can't say, "You first!" LOL

I guess to match the midget band in the back?

Since Tom Sheehy stopped by, I thought I'd post this NJ State Trooper Volvo that he built. I bought it from Tom on eBay and that's a photo of it sitting on my work bench. It's in one of my display cases. I And why not a security patrol car? One of my builds, this 1982 Cavalier is from Big Bass Lake, a resort we used to vacation at in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains. And one car based pickup. 1961 Falcon Ranchero, another of my builds. A resto from a really beat up old original Craftsman kit.

Very nice Geoff! I watched the whole time you were working on it. I need to get back to my postal van.

Angel, my grandfather's first car was a yellow 1932 Chevy rumble seat roadster like your model. He worked in his father's jewelry store as a young man. One day his father pointed out a car that was sitting at the curb outside the store and asked him what he thought of it. It was a one year old '32 Chevy... he said he liked it, and his father said he was glad he did because it was HIS. Yes, his father had bought him the car. This was the car that he courted my grandmother in, and I have a photo of him behind the wheel of it.

That avatar is Harry M Schmidt

Thank you everyone for the thoughts on my wife's surgery! I look back at my post here and I remember the sheer terror and helplessness I felt at that moment. She is home now, sore but resting comfortably on the couch. She is wearing on me as she asks me to run for something every other minute. But we wouldn't want it any other way! And on to better times. The impending surgery has been hanging over us for the past six years. Now hopefully all this is in the past!

I'd expect that to be the plan. Ship the new kit to hobby shops, give them the exclusive for a few months, then ship to the discount outlets.

Ya know, there's like this little squiggle that looks wrong on.....

Rich, I think you just got out of your normal routine by being away. The best way to solve it is to simply sit at the bench. Start to clean up a bit, fiddle with something that's on the bench, and the next thing you know, you are working on a model! I haven't worked on a model since NNL East either. With all the tasks, both before and after the show, I had no time to build. Then I ran out to GSL and back home to a bunch of family stuff. And now I'm nurse maid to my wife who got out of the hospital yesterday. I'm hoping to get back to some projects that have been calling my name soon!

There was one at a Philadelphia area old car dealer in the $8000 range. I was curious and thought I'd take a peak since I never saw one in person, but forgot about it. It would be fun to drive one, if I saw one locally for $1000 or two, it might be cool to have one for a summer.

You must live in the sticks! One time I saw a nice little chest of drawers out at the curb for garbage. I stopped and had loaded it in the back of my Nissan Stanza hatchback when some old broad came storming out of the house, asking me how much I wanted to pay for it. I said, "Hey it was out for trash..." She agreed, but picked up two drawers and said she wanted $20 for the drawers. I declined and she walked back to the house with the drawers. I was so mad that I drove off with the chest minus two drawers. I had no idea what to do with it! The next week I drive past the same house and there are the two drawers out for trash. I stopped, grabbed them quick and drove off! I still have that chest! So a few months later on another road, there are bales of National Geographic Magazine at the curb. I stop and I'm putting them in the same hatchback and a lady comes running out. I'm thinking, "Not again!" but her need is quite different. She has a whole friggin basement full of these, as well as Life Magazine and the stuff at the curb represented how much she baled and carried before she ran out of steam! She wanted me to back my car up to her house and TAKE more magazines. So I did. I filled the little Datsun THREE times! I spent at least a year cutting the car ads out. I still have a mess of copier paper size boxes full of 1960s LIFE Magazines.

Hi Richard, my brook. It goes across the center of my yard. We have a bridge to access the back of the property.

Glad to see there's a stock one left!

Good call on leaving that grille off the model. It was created for the last ambulance version of the kit and doesn't match anything Dodge ever produced! It's not as easy as finding an earlier grille / bumper unit, because they modified the body opening to allow for this monstrosity! With both the Chevy and Ford vans of this era being reissued, we need the Dodge back as well. I can imagine Round 2 hasn't done so because they know we'll complain about that grille. The version before this kit was the high end van grille with the dual rectangular headlights, see photo below: My vote is for Round 2 to tool up the last version of the low end grille, that's one similar to above, but with single either round or rectangular headlights. That would create a whole new kit version very easily. They shouldn't go back to the earlier 1970s grilles because MPC did upgrade this model every year during it's run. So things like tail lights, trim and even the roof ribs are different year to year and bound to be incorrect.

Nice work! Keep it coming! Sanity is highly over rated. I get into the same thing, my yard is calling so I would feel guilty modeling during daylight hours on the weekend. Maybe tell your wife that your work here is important for the advancement of the hobby?