Tom Geiger

That's a good post Mike, I can comment a bit further... Revell / Gearz Contests - This was a good out reach to the general public. One of the things that troubled me was that "ringers" from our "lunatic fringe" herd were all over this contest. I got crucified on the boards for suggesting we sit it out and allow the contest to run as intended, with lesser experienced modelers. This contest was advertised with flyers on the shelf edge at Michael's so they were looking to involve the casual builders and kids. Same with hobby shop sponsored contests... a while back there was a guy on one of the board who was bragging that he went to a hobby shop contest and won all the awards! He was quite proud of himself for stealing all the trophies from the little kids and casual modelers who entered. Doing so, absolutely kills the intent of the contests to bring new folks into the hobby. Once they experience something like this, they'll walk away angry and we've lost some potential builders. People like us should be helping with these contests, holding the seminars during these contests and helping with the judging. It's better to be a role model than a big fish in a little pond. Note that Revell is doing Make and Take events at major car shows. They have enlisted model car clubs to help with those. So our group is helping! Sponsoring events for kids is difficult today, since the world went paranoid. Tri-State Scale Model Car Club tried to sponsor an annual kids contest many years ago. We found it impossible to promote the event. The schools, churches and even the scouts wouldn't work with us. Some questioned our motives as if we were pedophiles looking for access to kids. So the event went away after the third year since it was empty other than the kids of our own members.

Windshield lookin good! It's coming along!

Back when I got into the hobby in the late 1980s, the annual kits from the 1970s and 1980s were $3-5 at swap meets. People said they'd never be worth anything, throw away models. But today a bunch of these are bringing collector money, Pacer, Volares and eventually the Cavaliers and Omnis of the world will be sought after too. The last two issues of Hemmings Classic Car have talked about how the cars of the 1990s are now showing up at car shows and people are having that, "Wow, I haven't seen one of those in ages!" reflections. So guys who either remember these cars growing up or had them as their first cars will want to build a model of one.

It's Valentines Day which started with an 8am visit to the dentist for me. Teeth all sparkly clean and look no cavities mom! Home by 9:30 so we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It's been a good day! (so far!)

Agreed Howard. When we were kids, back in the last century, model kits were on display in stores we frequented. I mentioned above that the Acme Supermarket had them lined up on top of the freezer box. I always begged my way into getting one on each trip. Today they are out of sight and out of mind. I don't know what the answer is. Revell has come out with their new easy kits that they are sponsoring Make and Takes with at major auto events. Round 2 is still trying to get out from under the investment they made in old tooling. I'd say if there was an affordable way to advertise, they'd be doing it.

Here in PA they don't even knock! UPS especially just backs the truck up the driveway and leaves the package anywhere. I once saw the driver toss a package onto the driveway from his seat. Didn't even leave the truck. Last year I was anticipating a package needed for NNL East and when I checked, found out UPS said they delivered it a week earlier... where was it? Delivered under my car. So I filed a form with them asking for delivery to the front door. Nope! Still dumping stuff in the driveway, and in places we wouldn't normally see. FedEx not much better. When we bought our bed last fall, we got free pillows and sheets, that were sent that way. These clowns delivered it curbside and put the box next to our garbage pails. If my wife didn't notice it on her way to work, the garbage men would have taken it. USPS is better. We have a curbside delivery box, but when I have a package larger than the box, they will bring it to the front door, AND ring the bell and wait for us to answer. My wife had a condolence plant delivered from 1-800-flowers last week. Live frickin plant and UPS just dropped it in the driveway, up next to the garage, with a car parked in front of it. I found it around noon the next day when I opened the garage door. Plant frozen solid and dead. Called the flower company and they were most helpful in replacing the plant and we scheduled delivery yesterday since we'd be home. Again found it in the driveway.. plant dead.

Yes, here on the East Coast we are anticipating a storm, starting this afternoon. We cancelled our model club meeting, seems we might get there fine but the storm is predicted to start while we are at our meeting, so it's best to err on the side of safety. No sense putting folks in harms way for model cars.

I had no idea when I bought these! I was at a show and a dealer had a beer case bottom full of Premier, Palmer and small scale stuff. I wanted the Premier English Ford and I asked how much. He replied $20 and I thought he meant just for the Ford, and I would've paid that. Then he said, "For the box". I reached for my wallet quickly and as I was walking away a guy offered me $20 for these two and I declined. I didn't realize their worth until later!

Looks like the image you started with is correct. Lamont wouldn't lie! The decals offered on eBay are wrong.

I didn't leave the house today. I stopped short of hiding under the bed.

He was actually at the J Lloyd facility, former owner of Lindberg who sold it to Round 2. Most likely everything in that warehouse was made before that sale.

Cool Steve! I have a '67, 68 and 1970. I need the 1969 to complete my set.

I was a bit concerned with this one..... But if came out just like the box art!

I only open a kit if I don't have one and haven't seen the contents in person. If I buy multiples of a kit, there's no reason to open them, and as said before it will make it easier to sell them someday, not that I ever have sold anything! And I only open them once home with them, because I usually cut the edges of the shrink wrap aligned with the bottom of the box edges. That leaves the box top still shrink wrapped to save shelf wear. I've been doing that for 25 years once a friend showed me how he did that!

Correct Chris, I will paint both sides of the chassis, the outside of the interior tub and inside of the body flat black to avoid any unpainted surface from being seen on the finished product. You can't possibly predict entirely what will be visible. Paint what you think will be visible and Mr Murphy says that you'll be seeing white from an angle you didn't think of, like someone said, through the gap between the body and interior from the top of the doors. I never said I was a fricken neurotic who painted the inside of engine blocks!

Most of our retail market today is controlled by national chains, employing the exact science of sales per linear foot of shelf space and sales through put of product through their stores. When you talk with the buyer from Walmart, you're pretty much talking to 50% or more of the sales potential across the country. Same with hardware stores (now Lowes and Home Depot) or drug stores (now Walgreens and a handful of others), all managed through central control. Walmart's efficiency is so great that they have sold the product before they've paid for it. Slow moving items hit the clearance rack, or are returned to vendors for credit, quickly and those SKUs don't get ordered again. There are no old dusty kits on shelves today. That truly limits the opportunities by jobbers to sell a case of models here and there to mom and pop stores. I would go grocery shopping with my mother because there was a line of kits across the top of the frozen food cases and I could often whine and beg my way into getting one. Not today, I don't think I've seen kits outside of hobby shops and crafts chains like Michael's, AC Moore and Hobby Lobby in a long time. Some of that sales potential has gone to sales sources that didn't exist when we were kids, like on-line retailers (who have replaced mail order companies) and venues like eBay and Amazon.

In my experience the only issue I've had with regular BMF was when I found an ancient part sheet and tried to use it. The foil refused to come off the sheet, breaking up into small bits. That sheet went into the trash. If I can get the BMF off the sheet in one strip, it's always worked well for me. I've never had BMF peel or otherwise come off a finished model either. Some of the issues that people have with BMF not sticking is due to handling and being too stingy with the product. BMF is like putting in wall to wall carpet or tile. Those trades can produce 25-50% waste of product. In the same way you think it's a shame to toss a brand new strip of carpet 12" wide that came off the edge, BMF will be wasted. A few of my tips. I always cut my pieces of BMF VERY WIDE, that is about 3 times as wide as the trim I'm covering and much longer. You want to place that piece centered over your trim so that there is waste on all four edges. Do not attempt to match up the foil with the exact edge of your body trim. Much better to cut a fresh line once burnished down. The part of the trim on either end where you've handled it is waste. Your finger oils are on it, so figure your piece that way. Put the BMF down ONCE. You cannot lift and reposition... that compromises the glue and wrinkles the foil. Once you have it centered and placed down, burnish it and cut the edges on all four sides. And the final FAIL is accepting results less than optimal. If you have a messy piece that's wrinkled or cut wrong, don't accept it as 'good enough' to save foil. Pull it off and try again. There's no reason not to have it done nicely. Do upfront planning... just like you would define and scribe door lines better, look at the edges of trim where you will be cutting BMF. You will want to scribe those before painting the body to make BMFing easier later. And as I said earlier in this thread, do not press down hard with your knife. Exert no more pressure than if you were tracing with a pencil. In fact, practice on a junk body seeing just how light you can go with the knife and still have the foil come apart. You will be amazed! Good luck!

Kits of the big cars like Johan Imperials are scarce today because they were not popular kits when they were new. The primary buyers of kits back then were kids, who all wanted the 'cool' cars, customs and hot rods, and kits like Imperials, Caddys, Lincolns and the like wound up on clearance tables in stores. Even now, those kids grew up and their tastes haven't changed. Of the kits that Model King has sponsored, the big sellers were drag cars and other hot rods. Cars like the old AMT Comet, 1970 Buck and 1971? Thunderbird sold slowly today.

an evening well spent creating something. Calming and relaxing, like meditation.

I love Bare Metal Foil. Nothing you can do to a model makes a greater change for the time invested than BMF. There is no step of building where you can do infinite 'do overs'. Don't like that last piece? Pull it off and try again. I was never intimidated, I pretty much took to it right away. I look forward to the part of building when I get to use it, and I actually find it relaxing. If you find it tedious, just set a goal to do a bit, then walk away. You should take a 5-10 minute break every hour anyway. If you worry about scratching the model body, you are putting too much pressure on the cut. You never need to put any more pressure than if you were lightly sketching the line with a pencil. The BMF cuts that easy, without scratching or digging into your paint.

Yea, like $50 worth of labor there! I think the same thing when I spend an evening making some tiny little part.

Very cool Phillip. I'd like to build one of those stock J2000s too. Revell does need to bring the Dobbertin car back, a lot of guys like to use that chassis under other projects.

Amazing! That will be a really nice addition to the museum's clone project!

My daughter teaches elementary school and her first job out of college was at a school in a bad area. A lot of the kids were growing up in bad situations and had been taught anti-society values before they hit kindergarten. It's a shame since they are being set up to fail at an early age due to their environment. Still there were good people trying to hold their heads up and do well in those neighborhoods. Often it would be a God fearing, church going grandmother or aunt raising the kids. And those were the best kids, those who were taught values by their family.