Tom Geiger

When I was in my late 20s, I worked with a 70 something engineer who refused to retire. He was a navigator on a WWII bomber and told us the story about how they got shot down behind enemy lines. Fascinating story and we all told him that he needed to write a book. He just scoffed it off saying that a lot of guys had it tougher!

Speaking with someone who has had several 1/25 scale bodies done, it's in the $200-300 range. And from this thread you can see how gritty it still is. We are a long way off from printing free kits off our personal printer!

I'm a list guy. When ever I start to feel overwhelmed, I put everything I need to do on a list. I use the list function on my iphone too. Nothing like getting to the store and knowing you are forgetting something!

My wife's three brothers are complete mechanical misfits. They'd take turns mowing the lawn at their parents house until the lawn mower "broke". Then we sold the house and we had to clean it out. Last item to get rid of? That broken lawn mower. I tossed it in my van to get it out of there before the closing. Upon examining it, I noticed it was a near new Honda self propelled mower... not even dirty. My first thing to look at? I unscrewed the gas cap... empty. I put some gas in and it fired right up! The three of them couldn't figure that out!

I'm watching! I recently advised someone not to open up the panels since the resin body is fairly thick. So prove me wrong! This is a Jimmy Flintstone body. I recently finished mine and really enjoyed building it! A few things to watch.. the doors are thicker than the kit parts so you will need to take some depth out of the inner door panels. Watch for the relationship between those and the seat positions. Second, body to chassis fit. You will need to take some plastic out of the chassis edges to accommodate the thicker body as well.

Happy B-Day Rich! See you in two weeks.... back and forth with Tom on FaceBook today... we are having dinner Saturday night, like last year!

A lot of what a computer costs is what you intend to do with it. The laptop I'm on right now was eBay's deal of the day $199 delivered. It's a manufacturer refurb machine, but was absolutely brand new when I got it. We're not doing anything exciting here... cruising message boards, Microsoft Suite, minor graphics programs.... works just fine!

What was that old joke.... An old lady was going into the kitchen and her husband asked her to get him some ice cream. He added "Vanilla with whipped cream and a cherry... do you need to write that down?" The old lady was upset, "NO I don't need to write it down! I can remember that!" A short time after the wife appears back in the living room and gives the husband a dish with bacon and scrambled eggs on it. The husband looks at the dish and asks the wife, "Did you forget?" She asks, "Forget what!" Husband replies "Catsup!"

I wouldn't want to have an RV that large, maybe the one with a van cab on the front of it... A few years ago my wife and I both were out of work at the same time. I suggested that we sell the house, put everything in storage and take a year off to tour America in a camper. She declined. I'm still sorry we didn't do it.

I had a pleasing weekend! First, I dropped off the NNL East printing order at the printers, glad that's done! Then we spent the weekend at my NJ house with my daughters. Visited my accountant on Saturday.... good news! I'm getting a refund... bad news! it's equal to my quarterly tax payment due on April 15th! Oh well, easy come... Daughter number one (the one with the big ring) joined us for lunch on Saturday. Daughter number two joined us for dinner, then we all watched a movie together. Got to sit with a doggie sleeping on my lap. I miss that! Today we had coffee together and then drove to my sister's house for brunch. Served up my famous devil eggs... didn't have to do the outdoor egg hunt since the youngest child is now 14. Had a nice time since we don't see them all that often. Great weekend, nothing to upset me at all! Recharged my batteries since the next two weeks will be a bit crazy!

We've all known a few of those... I once knew a guy whose swore his six year hold had air brushed, polished and assembled a model better than I could do. Of course the kid showed no interest in models at the show, preferring to run around in circles and play with dust on the floor. Kid goes to pick up "his" model and the father yells, "Don't you touch that!"

I've been saving this photo I took from a local news item for this kind of discussion. This small SUV was designed to absorb shock and protect the passengers. Front end folded up into itself. Yes, the body structure absorbed some energy (see roof) but both doors opened. Nobody was hurt in this crash. It makes sense to make cars as safe as possible. After all, some of the stupid people are our friends and relatives.

You are right Rob, that would have been the last hurrah for Pontiac and got lost in the death throes! A shame they didn't go for it as a Chevy El Camino, since it was sold with that name plate on it in South Africa and the Mid East. GM wasn't in any position to finance that kind of program back then, it wouldn't have been a money maker, they would've had to use it as a corporate image car.

I had no brothers, but I lived in Germany and US model car kits were hard to come by. So my models got broken down for rebuild on a regular basis. Some of them had three coats of brush paint on them. I smile when I start to strip an old model and I find those layers!

South Africa. Holden design, sold in SA and the Mid Eastern countries (LHD). Chevy has great name recognition in these parts! The Holden being sold in the USA as the Chevy Caprice police car had been sold as same in the Mid East prior to being sold here. Watch film of Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Iraq on the news... you will spot one before long.

Mike - Be careful with the Sharpie. Don't clear coat / dull cote etc over it. It will melt into the clear. Ask me how I know! I had the same issues with getting my box square on the Heller Borden's Milk Truck. I wish I had assembled it and fit it prior to painting... but noooo, I listened to the instruction sheet!

This may not be a current model, but it was produced!

Peter, I'd have to start making them now, and by the show some of them would be two weeks old! And we have a major league cool surprise for everyone this year! No telling, no hints! Much better than an egg!

Very nice interior, and a shame to hide it inside a car body! Steve I know what a pain it is to work within the constraints of an interior tub from that era. Your cast parts really make the interior as they provide some depth to the door panels.

Sleeping room for 6 people and room for a quarter sheet of plywood in the back!

I'd say the guys competing in the Light Commercial category let our a collective sigh of relief!

H A P P Y E A S T E R One of our family traditions is that I make Devil Eggs for Easter. It started when I worked in the deli when I was 18.Two of us boiled a mess of eggs to make egg salad, and when we found out we had double what we needed, the boss said, "Oh well, lets make some devil eggs". They turned out to be a best seller, so I made a lot of them and experimented with the recipe over the last 38 years! You can tell I'm serious about this since I own four of these professional devil egg carriers! When the kids were little I started putting a random face on an egg or two per batch. And it kinda went from there.... the kids are all grown up but still want faces on their Easter devil eggs. And my sister would send me home if I showed up without them! So we are in New Jersey this weekend, enjoying time with our girls and going for Easter dinner at my sister's house! Best of the holiday to everyone!

Thank you! There are two different techniques there. Both involve an Earth tone chalk set and Testors Dullcote. In both I sand the chalk sticks to make dust. The chassis is my "two brush paint technique". I start by spraying some Dullcote into a small cup. With brush one, I paint a small area with Dullcote. Then with brush two, I dip it dry into the dust. Take that and paint, like water color, into the still wet Dull cote. You can work with it as the dry brush gets wet, but it's best to clean that brush and keep it dry so not to ruin your dust pile. The work box was scratch built from Evergreen sheet stock. Same two brushes but instead of painting with the dust for a smooth look, the dust is mashed into surface to give it texture and a 3D look. This can be repeated in layers to create more depth. The final act that gives it that sheen is that I took Testors Semi-gloss and shot it upward in the air, letting it fall down onto the part in drops. A few notes - you will need to dedicate a few brushes to this, since you are going to ruin them for painting. I clip the end of them to ID my weathering brushes. Second, it's not an instant thing to get good results. First, you have maybe eight different dust colors. The final look is much different than the color of each chalk stick. Think of this like doing a water color painting. You will figure out which colors to use, and what colors to use as accents over those. And final thought. You will not see your results as you are working. It looks very different wet than what your final result will be. It's better to do a bit and walk away to let it dry to see what you have. You can always add more later. It is very easy to over do this. Less is more. And do some research on how things actually rust. You can find a million photos on the Internet of rust and chassis and such. I have albums of photos I saved for reference and use them often. The beauty of this is that it forms a good durable surface. The standard use of chalk dust was to brush it dry over a military model, but that wears off quickly with handling. My rust is forever! Good luck. It's fun.

Very nice job on that heater box!