Tom Geiger

John, that Chrysler convertible looks like a winner. I've kinda been searching for one of those and that looks like the right one. I'm currently using a gold '99 Breeze as my daily beater that has 160,000 miles on it. My '98 Breeze left this world at 195,000 miles. Essentially the same car, so you should get plenty of years out of it.

Interesting story Alan! It's been a year since you were here! Doesn't seem that long ago!

Rich I believe the green one is a Banthrico. I don't think you'll find anyone who has built one since it's a promo. This one was pretty thick, almost like a candy making mold for making chocolate Chevys. Detail wise, it's pretty good, although all one piece. If you can live with blacked out windows, it should detail out to look decent on your shelf.

Nor do Duplicolor clear and black Sharpie! Yea, that combo cost me!

This board has many more readers that never post, than those of us who are pretty regular posters. For many people the Internet is like TV or reading a magazine, instead of being interactive.

If the windshield is in there neat and firm, why not tape it off to paint the model?

The tough part for those of us who build beaters is that many folks don't understand that these are purpose built and are a lot of work. I've seen quips on this board saying, "if you screw up the paint job you can always make it a beater", as if the cars we build are cover up for mistakes. That's been reinforced by shifty sellers on eBay who will take glue stained old built ups, smear a bit of rust or Rustoleum primer red on it and call it a "Pro Built Beater" to make a few dollars off the unwary. I once had a guy at a show look me right in the eye and tell me I ruined a perfectly good kit! Never mind that the model in question was winning show awards and had been in the magazines! That became a running joke in my club.

a few more thoughts... Make your title interesting... people will be curious and open your post. You can also change the thread title as you progress (go to your first post, hit the use full editor button, and it will allow you to change the subject line). So instead of bumping your thread, add a progress post of what you did since your last post, then change the title like, "RX 7 Race Car Build - Engine Finished 2-26-15" will get people's interest, especially if you are working and updating the thread with progress on a regular basis. I love to watch someone build a model, so if you updated with progress regularly I'd be watching, no matter what the subject!

Here's the proposal: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cartoons-magazine You can see he's quite a ways from his goal!

Nice work on a great period piece! I just found this thread, but I'll be watching!

In modeling, even if we aren't into the subject matter, we can admire the techniques and work into a build. Take it one step further away from your comfort zone and go to an IPMS show and look at the military builds. Completely out of my area of interest, but there's a load of great work and techniques of weathering and diorama that we can bring back to our own building. I always look at Blair's posts because we have similar interests. But even if you are into fancy Italian sports cars you can still appreciate the work that went into creating his vision for his model. And a funny thing, a fair amount of people confess that they'd like to try a rusted beater one day!

I dropped Trosley a note and here's his reply: " The guy now owns the CARtoons logo and wants to put the magazine back on the newsstand ....we'll see what happens.... Troz " That was the only comment... didn't say he was involved, looks like he's taking a 'wait and see' response. Note that the guy was looking to raise a million dollars, but had $55 in pledges on the funding website.

One red Aero 3S for me please! I don't like the Elio seating... or the half a car look of the thing.

I built one of my best models at the kitchen table. We were renovating our house and I lost my model building space. I had a board that I placed on the table to protect it, and the board became a portable work bench. I'd work evenings, so at the end of every work session, I'd put everything on the board, then put it on top of the refrigerator to keep it out of the kids reach. It worked pretty well. The last 10 minutes of every session became clean up and organization, so I never got down to that last square foot of bench space I now work in!

Note that I leave my decals in model boxes for the most part. This album is for the loose ones, part sheets left over from builds, decals from parts kits and extras of ones I made myself. As far as for putting decals in plastic bags, be careful. A lot of plastics off-gas and that would be harmful to the decals over time. On the stamp board they caution people about storing stamps in plastic bags, even the plastic tubs I use for model parts, for this reason.

A few things.... this board is one of those 'you reap what you sow' things. Sometimes it's not about what you are building, but how you participate in the community. If you chip in and offer advise, send someone a spare part they need, or just get involved in general conversations, then people will consider you a friend. Then they will comment on your build threads, whether they are into the subject or not. I build rusty, dirty light commercial vehicles. My stuff is pretty much off the beaten path of this board, and there are times I get a ton of views, but a handful of comments. I kinda laugh to myself, picturing the dweeb who clicks on my post, "Not a Hemi!" then clicks away. I get comments on my work, I'd say much of it from folks who build other stuff, but look at my stuff because we are friends. I will look at most anything, and offer advise and encouragement. If you get involved, soon enough you will figure out who builds what you build. PM them! You might just wind up in a circle of folks just like you. Off the top of my head Jonathan and James Duff are into the Japanese scene, and there are a bunch more. I just looked back at your threads and I like your diorama. Great work on the bricks. I would've commented back when it was current, but I didn't see it then. Sometimes I'm amazed at what gets by me!

I've told everyone I know to buy me model related gifts. When they did, I'd get things I would never buy myself, like a Monogram 1/12 scale '57 Chevy... "Betcha can't put together a big un!" The general public thinks of model building like we are putting puzzles together.

What cars did you have that are impossible as 1/25 scale models?

1/25 scale seat belts! A life time supply! AKA 1/16" double face satin ribbon. I splurged at $4 a roll and bought black, brown, gray and white. The white takes a Sharpie real well to give me any color belt I need. Local stores (even JoAnn's) don't stock the 1/16", so I went to that famous auction place. Caution - the ones I bought were the best deal in the category, $3.95 a roll for 100 yards. Other vendors had much smaller rolls for much more $$. Package threw me off since it came with a man's name and Wayne, NJ PO so I thought it was something to do with NNL East!

I don't have one but I can see it... someone trying a color scheme on a model before committing to it in full scale! There are 1:1s that were created of model cars... Tom Daniel cars like the Beer Wagon and Red Baron were built to match the models.

Brad, sorry to say the Wanderer looks pretty much the way you see it in this thread. It got pushed off the bench for another project, and never got back into the rotation. Tom, what you are seeing is the rough work. But the shapes will probably look like you see, as this is supposed to be something that someone hobbled together and will be dirty / rusty as are most of my models. The one thing you don't see in the photos, is that it is RHD, I had converted a dash for another long gone project so I thought, "what the heck!"

Brad, I won't be actually throwing them away of course! These were inspired by your circus truck, watching your build thread gave me the courage to try something new, which was scratch building with basswood. I always wanted to build a camper, so thanks for the inspiration! Dodge Van Camper: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/?showtopic=66117 '51 Chevy Traveler: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74873

I've never owned a cat but they seem to like me. The vet we used to take my dog to had a few pets roaming around the offices and waiting areas. One of their cats walked across the back of the couch, down my arm and settled in my lap. Chose me out of all the people sitting in the waiting room, so I pet her and she purred. My dog nearly freaked! I've always had a dog since I was 12 and my mother got the first of a long line of Schnauzers in my family. My sister carried on with it and is on her third. My wife and I got a dog right after we bought our first house. An elderly neighbor died and we took in 3 year old Sandy. He was a long hair terrier type dog that looked like Sandy in the Annie movie, which had just come out back then. We had tumbleweeds of dog hair everywhere. I started building when he was still alive, and his involvement was to sleep on a pillow in the model room as I worked. I don't remember having a dog hair issue. Once Sandy died, we went for six years without a dog. Then a friend of ours got a Cockapoo puppy and the next thing I knew, my wife went and got that dog's brother. That puppy was my Ted, smart as a whip and quite a personality. One of the good things about Cockapoos is that they don't shed at all, so I never had a dog hair issue with my models. He never wanted to hang in the model room so I think the smells of paint and glue bothered him. He lived to be 14 1/2 and we lost him this past fall. It's been quiet and not all that lively here with just two adults in the house. He is very missed!

No, as Mike said, the sheets have clear glassine strips that the decals will sit behind. They are absolutely safe, I have stamps worth hundreds of dollars in albums just like this.

Premier Cadillac... looks like the car Stuart Little would have driven. I think Premier kits were made to make Palmers look legit!