Tom Geiger

Hey Michael Moskov.... two posts totally criticizing the issue and trying to stir up trouble on the very magazine's website. Enough. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are just clueless. No, Model Cars Magazine isn't Life Magazine and they don't have a professional staff of photographers that they can dispatch anywhere in the world to take award winning photos of model cars for your delight. No, the magazine is a shoe string operation, led by a man in Hawaii and a virtual staff around the country. Most of the show coverage you have decided to belittle has been provided to the magazine by the clubs that ran the shows. Yes, a non-professional photographer with a digital camera, most likely a member of that club, has done his very best to represent his club and their show. And for some reason you see the need to pee all over it. Sad.

Many thanks to all who came to NNL East and made it our best show to date! We think of it as a party where we've invited 1200 of our closest friends. And we have a great time running the show! This year's show results: http://www.nnleast.com/nnleast2015.html This year's photo albums, I believe our photographer took 1800 photos: http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/nnl-east-photo-albums/nnl-east-29-/ We have big plans for our 30th anniversary. So this would be the year to come!

Those were the raffle prizes! Actually our member Bob Gill has a SC/Rambler, but that was a friend of his that he invited. I saw photos of that very clean and original white Chevy II, one of the photos revealed a small For Sale sign on the seat... wants $10,000. There was also a mid '60s full size Pontiac out there. I was busy as all get out, so I have to rely on the photos! And on my way home from work yesterday I saw a 2 car carrier behind an older Ford pickup carrying two vintage Land Rovers!

Well I didn't get a moment's break at NNL East so for like the fifth year in a row I got nothing! And that's just fine, we do the show for the guests. I can always find models at other shows. I did pass Ollies on my way home so I bought 7 cans of Plastikote primer... that should hold me for a while!

Now when you sink that same drill bit deep into a finger, you can still resort back to a childish response! Yea, a recent experience.. drill bit on my battery power drill, went in fast and good!

As mentioned "unbuildable" is in the eyes of the beholder, and the from the viewpoint of their current skill set. What they may deem unbuildable today may become an easy build later when they've developed those skills to the point of building that model. Many years ago one of my clubs had a guy in his 50s who was all thumbs. The model he screamed as unbuildable was a diecast Hummer, one of those marked for "Ten And Under". The glass was one piece and was supposed to be snapped onto a peg that stuck out of the headliner area. Well, our boy just pressed, pounded and fumbled until he broke the glass. Oh was he steamed! He was going to go back to that hobby shop and tell them good! How dare they sell this unbuildable thing! I'd expect that everyone reading this would have put the glass shot over the peg, realized it was a bit tight, and we would've made the appropriate adjustment to the receiving hole in the glass with an exacto knife. Rookie fix, but to this one character it was indeed "unbuildable". At least he couldn't figure it out!

MY POINT !!

Very clean period build Steve! I'd put that one right on the shelf.

Bob's Paint WILL be at NNL East. Just check our handy vendor list. http://www.nnleast.com/vendors.html

and set off Armageddon?? Everyone knows the aliens would send one ship to make contact and let us know they come in peace... shoot that one down and they destroy the planet! Isn't it great to know our future is in the hands of the lowest denominator!

Darn Rich! That could be a Country song!

That cab didn't originate with Ford. It was originally produced by a body builder... was it Budd? And adapted to Ford. One of those enduring designs right up there with the VW Beetle and Checker Cab!

I have never sold a model I have built. They are too close to being family for me! Best I've done was to give my wife's sister the replica I built of her Chevette. I actually built it for my shelf, but when I showed it to her she was so happy it was easy to let it go. Packing - I've heard the method mentioned of the TP wrap was best. It pretty much makes a mummy out of it. As far as selling models. I think Craig's List is a poor forum since few people look there for models. And those who do are looking for bargains. There are people who get good money for their builds on eBay. I know people who pay good money on eBay. Hundreds of dollars. Not enough to make me build to sell, but if you have overflowing models, it's an option. In that position, forget about the time and money invested, it's about recouping some money and making space. Almost like selling a 1:1 hobby car! The key to selling on eBay is presentation. I've seen good models sell for nothing because there are two bad cell phone photos and a few lines of misspellings for description. You can't tell if the engine is wired or not, or the quality of the work at all. If you want to sell and get a decent dollar, take MANY photos that show all the details. Then write a good description including all the details. If the brakes are plumbed tell that! Explain what work was done, what paints used etc. There are people who do appreciate a nicely built model and will pay for it

and once you've sawed two Modelhaus kits in half, you have about what you paid for that 1:1 car invested!

Mmmm, no, not a good thing at all. It would basically show that all tooling in China, some of which we know and love, is at risk.

I was looking at Danbury and Franklin Mint cars on the 'bay recently. There are a lot of "Buy It Now"s a outrageous prices. Then the same car for $60. I did notice that the later Danbury hot rods were all pulling a decent buck. Since all of them are out of print at this point, prices may edge upward. On the other hand, the tooling from both companies was confiscated by the Chinese government from the company that manufactured both lines plus some other companies products. Fear is that cheap product produced from that tooling may hit the market in the future.

There was a kit of the '73 Chevy, a two door hardtop of course. It was done back in '73 and never reissued because the annual body tooling was modified to the next year's car. We had a '71 Belair 4 door sedan in that same light green. As you said, it had the corner lights. And it didn't have those huge 5mph bumpers, 73 was the first year for those!

You can't have it both ways!

The boards on FaceBook have been heating up! Someone actually built a replica of our Trosley Gasser Hearse!

Well... a follow up on my tire post. I got on the PA Turnpike this morning and right when I got up to speed the front end starts shaking and I get a howling noise like I just blew a wheel bearing. So I limp off the Turnpike at the next exit and head for my favorite repair shop and thought, "ya know, let me check the lugs." Sure enough they never tightened the front wheels. Rears were tight, but the fronts were loose enough that I got about half a turn of my spanner on each. No more noise. So I paid Mr Tire store a visit on my way home. The manager was suitably upset, pulled the van back in and redid the alignment and balancing job since I told them that if their tech missed the very basics of tightening lugs, I seriously doubted anything else that he did. Then they put on my account that they owe me five synthetic oil changes. I guess that's getting off cheap for them since somebody's wife might have flipped the van when the tire came off!

Come to our show... we give everyone free pens!

You are correct Jonathan. We have been corresponding and he's a great guy!

Mike I was only speaking of the guys with valuable collectors kits. The $100 plus ones. The retail / new or recent kit market is a completely different thing. There are some pretty astute dealers working the NY/NJ/PA shows I attend. You can buy kits around $10 less than hobby store prices. That's because they buy kits in large quantities directly from Revell and Round 2. So they've bought at the lowest possible price. Then some local hobby shop decides to vend at your show. They come in with their kits marked at that full $27 retail. Why? Because they have bought their kits through a distributor. Their kits have been through an extra set of hands, that has taken a profit. I had one hobby shop guy tell me the other vendors are selling kits for what he pays for them. So why doesn't Mr hobby shop buy direct? Volume. A distributor will sell kits per one to a hobby shop. I know of one shop that takes two of every new release from one distributor. They don't buy enough kits to have the volume needed to buy direct.

Um no! You have it completely backwards. We had a vendor who would come to NNL East who had the big wall of amazing delights with huge numbers on them. Guys would actually come to our show staff complaining that we needed to "make him sell at reasonable prices". And at the end of every show we'd see guys with some of those models... I'd ask and they'd say things like, "Yea I finally broke down and spent $350 on that kit I'd been looking for years for!" Soooo.... if that vendor marked those kits down to bargain prices, he'd sell them all at one show. Then how would he replace that wall of kits? Assortments like that don't grow on trees, they are built over time. So if he sold them all at $10 profit each, he'd be out of business, and make maybe $2000. BUT, if he sold 10 kits each show at a $200 each profit, he'd make the same $2000 and then it would be a reasonable task to find another 10 great old kits to sell to fill the holes in the wall. Does that make sense to you?

All animals are created equal... but some are more equal than others