Tom Geiger

Well, I'm car shopping once again. So I was checking out ads on Craigs List, Auto Shopper and eBay Motors.... so what irks me? Car dealers.... Maybe someone who works in that industry can explain this one, but what drives me silly are... + Ads that don't list a price + Ads that list a fictitious price, you know the tiny little asterisk that says in microscopic text "price after $2,000 down payment" + Ads that list only a monthly payment, not a price (some of us are paying cash!) + Ads that don't list the miles on the car, that includes the latest phrase "nice miles", or "low miles" and it ONLY has 100,000 on it Or ads that omit several of the above.... no price, no miles... all you know is that this dealer indeed has a 2006 Chrysler 300... who the heck calls on ads like that? I called a dealer on a 2006 Chrysler 300 with 30,000 miles they had listed for $9999, he verified they had it. I get there... no car! Salesman is not upset, he immediately tries to switch me to something else, all the time asking "how much a month do you want to spend?" Or the supposed "one price -- no haggle" dealer where the salesman immediately slashes $1000 off the price... is it 'no haggle' or is there much more room in the deal? Sooo... am I the only one who gets ticked off at all this bull.

People were much shorter back then!

I once poured an entire beer into a freshly finished interior bucket. And it was water tight!

BMF won't cover a mess, it will enhance it! The foil is so thin you need to make sure you have a smooth surface under it. Yes, it's good to do your paint color separations on top of the chrome strip (you don't want to do above or below since you may miss a spot), but once you have both colors painted, give the chrome strip a quick sanding to flatten out any edge or mishap that will be under the foil. Once sanded, wash the body before applying BMF to make sure the sanding dust is gone. That will show up too!

Great job Rob! I'm a real pill about weathering and you've got my seal of approval! A few things of note... 1. Your rust patterns are just right. It's so easy to over do it. You've got the eye. 2. Although you didn't photo it, your description of adding a battery label is the way I do it. An older car like this won't have a factory battery, so I copied a Pep Boys battery label. I may do a Walmart brand battery for the next one I do. A lot of guys skip this because they think they need a decal, but you got it by gluing on paper. The label on a lot of batteries is a sticker anyway. 3. I love your under hood pad! It looks right. 4. The only suggestion I could add is that you left the screw posts in the engine bay. I usually cut those out, you still could if desired. Otherwise, a great job. I have a Johan 1960 Desoto that I have sanded all the trim off because it was damaged in an earlier mishap. I will be building it primer gray to match a photo I found. You're giving me inspiration to pull it out!

I have three display cases. This was my first one, a china cabinet that came with my sister's house when she bought it. Didn't want it when she moved so I grabbed it some 25 years ago. It was my main case for years. It's in the model room. Curio cabinet is home to the Old Kustom Kollection. I found this at the curb for free. A cabinet like this is good for someone with limited space. The big case. A huge china cabinet that a second hand furniture store couldn't sell. They had sold the rest of the set, and sold me this one for $100. It's in my office on the main floor of our house. I am about to add more shelves to these cabinets. There is room for an extra shelf between each existing shelf. I have a local glass store I have already had shelves made at. That will double their capacity. I also have a store display counter case out in the garage to be rebuilt someday. Again, scavenged on big item trash day a few years ago. You can get display cases free to reasonable. Ask friends or folks who are moving if they have one to get rid of. Check the curb and Craigs List, especially the Free section.

Try changing nozzles with another Testors can. I had that recently work with a can that just wasn't spraying right.

Congrats both Chris and Clayton.... Real life is so much more important than building models. Savor it! These are exciting times for you! Plenty of time to build models later on... ask Rich and I, our 'babies' are around 30!

I love your concept and it reminds me of an old built up someone gave me a while back. This one was built by some kid back in the 1970s or so. As kids use whatever is available to them, the back wall of the cab and bed floor was made from cardboard.

Yea but I've procrastinated on some great model ideas only to have a manufacturer announce the kit. Procrastination has served me well.

March 1st and it's been snowing and now sleeting here near Philly.. here we go again!

Ah, just remembered this diorama and found the pictures pretty easily.... From the Liars Model Car Challenge, 2000. A crime scene....

I have a photo reduced Dunkin' Donuts box but no scale donuts... maybe paint up some Cheerios?

I always get that "shouldn't I be doing something else?" when I sit down to build. I don't build during the day weekends if it's nice outside when I could be doing yard work or house / car chores. Today it's snowing out and I am thinking.... should I be doing some paperwork? the taxes? is there anything I need to do for NNL East? That's the kind of stuff that haunts me when I want to build!

The roof on this '34 Ford was masked with Tamiya tape. Once I got it, I stopped using BMF for masking, except in tiny spots where the Tamiya tape wasn't flexible enough to get in there, like on dash boards with lots of curves. My first two tone was on a '57 Ford some 25 years ago. The tip back then was to use the frosted Magic Tape. And it worked like a charm too.

Agreed! Tamiya tape will give you an amazing edge! The first time you buy some, buy it in the dispenser. The answer to the post below will explain that! While it's expensive, you only need to use it for the defining edge. Once you have that masked, you can mate it up with painters blue tape to cover the rest of the body. The Tamiya tape also cuts very well and I will often place it over the line I need to paint, and cut it just like Bare Metal Foil on the body. That gives an exact edge and you can create curves and such. In a professional paint shop once a roll of masking tape hits the ground, it gets thrown out. Reason being, the edge of it has gotten dented and picked up dirt from the floor. You can't guarantee it will provide a clean mask. So your idea of cutting a fresh edge is good. My rule is that the roll of painters blue tape on my bench never gets put down on the bench. I have a shelf over the bench where the bracket sticks out further than the shelf. I put the roll over that. It took a bit of training to get myself to do that every time. No dirty edge! And that's also the reason to get the Tamiya tape dispenser. The tape edge stays clean inside it.

Hey Kris- Glad you got a room, last I knew we were close to selling out! We will be doing the wooden nickel again since it was a big hit with both the vendors and show attendees! This year they will be RED and will have a unique design. Last years are now void so don't accept the BLUE ones. They all have year imprints. As far as shirts, Al is handling the printing and that's underway. We'll have to see if we have a club member who will take on selling shirts at the hotel.

I'll echo that I also use those same interior door handles from Replicas & Miniatures of MD in my builds. They are amazingly perfect for such small resin pieces and I don't know how he sells them so cheap for the volume in each bag! Here they are mounted for painting. That base is one of those small paper bathroom cups. I just poked holes in it for the perfect paint stand.

I went to The Big Sit today, an annual gathering of area modelers sponsored by the Philadelphia modeling club. The event is nothing more than a bunch of guys hanging out and displaying models. No structure, no prizes, nothing to buy. It was fun to see what everyone had built over the winter and to have some lunch with friends afterwards!

I call it the sandwich effect.... Glass fits in body just fine Interior bucket fits in body just fine Chassis fits into body just fine Put it all together and it doesn't fit!!!

Andy- Here's albums from my visits to the museum. I went again in 2007 and 2009, but have missed going out to GSL since. I am planning on going this year, already have hotel rooms for my group. http://public.fotki.com/modelcitizen/model_cars/model-car-shows/the_gsl_salt_lake/gsl_2001/national_model_car/ http://public.fotki.com/modelcitizen/model_cars/model-car-shows/the_gsl_salt_lake/gsl_2003/international_model/ http://public.fotki.com/modelcitizen/model_cars/model-car-shows/the_gsl_salt_lake/gsl_2005/international_model/ http://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/model_cars/model-car-shows/the_gsl_salt_lake/gsl-2007/tom-geigers-photos/the-international-m/ http://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/model_cars/model-car-shows/the_gsl_salt_lake/gsl-2009/international-model/

fin Everyone forget about our favorite tool for burning houses down as kids? You can find original Mattel Vac-u-Forms on the 'bay for under $50. As others had said, vacuforming is limited to items with limited detail. Also, your new part will be once size larger than the original since the process wraps your plastic around the original piece. As such I found that I was best using it to form windshields. Here's a freshly formed windshield. I have found that I may have to make three to get one good one. Other times I get lucky. And the perforated sheets are still available through the source in this photo.

The International Scale Model Builders Museum is small and has a focus on collecting famous old builds from our history. It isn't a place that has one of every kit ever produced. The collection they have built is amazing and certainly worth seeing. Donations they don't need get auctioned off at their show every two years. The crowd is very small, and since most of us have flown there, the ability to buy is reduced greatly. Thus, stuff sells for very little money.

Agreed! Except for the fact that my retirement fund took a serious dive, since I was deeply invested in Pacer kits! Whenever I see a '41 Plymouth kit for cheap at a show ($5-10) I grab it for the flathead six engine, as well as the chassis for other Mopar builds I am planning. For instance didja know that the Powell pickup truck was based on a recycled '41 Plymouth chassis? And I always thought the Pacer was an interesting looking car. My friend worked at an AMC dealer at the time and we'd go cruising in an Pacer with a 4 speed. It was actually fun.