Tom Geiger

I knew it was Johan just from that shifter ring with the tach on it!

It very well may be a strategy. The crowd parts when he walks through! I was at a show a few years ago and there was a guy who didn't have BO, he smelled like he had a load in his pants. Phew! My peeve is vendors who don't put prices on their stuff! Some of these guys wonder why nobody is buying, but it's human nature not to ask because the belief is that they'll want too much. Bill showed the opposite, the $150 promo for $6, but it wouldn't have been there for him if there had been a $6 tag on it! There was a resin vendor who would have something like 50 different kits across his tables with no prices on them. I'd ask how much one was, he'd answer, but by the third kit (they were all dif prices) he was giving me the evil eye. What he didn't understand was that he had a lot of stuff I liked and I was going to buy 3-4 pieces. But there were times I'd just walk on by because I didn't want the confrontation. Then there was the guy who didn't price his stuff because he thought he was smarter than everyone. He'd size up each buyer as they walked up and give different prices to everyone based on his impression of the person. That got around so people were wary of dealing with him. Once he gave me a much higher price than my friend, so I sent my friend back to get it for me. Then I walked past him holding the kit!

Thanks guys! Running into little fitment issues due to work I did on this 20 years ago. When I replaced the interior floor to get rid of the console I didn't leave it exactly flat and true. Now that's showing in the left corner of the firewall. Argh! Right now the body and chassis are one, clamped and drying.

Yea, now you just get to download the app!

There was a thread recently, not sure if it was on this board, that equated hobby time with meditation, and said it was good for your health and sanity. The meditation comes in where you are singularly focused on your craft, and not thinking about all the stressful stuff that creeps into your mind when you are doing less intense activities. I know I can spend a few hours at the bench and come out relaxed and de-stressed! And perfect for a day like today! It's freezing rain and watching the news this morning, there were major accidents and roads are closed. My wife is working on her scrap books and I'm finishing up a model. A great day to cocoon knowing we don't have to leave the house for anything!

Progress! The chassis is pretty much done and up on wheels. Those familiar with this kit know the chassis isn't all that detailed and I left it much that way. Since I changed the engine and trans, I did cut out the molded in drive shaft and added one. The rear is the one that came with the kit, with a wire axle below it. I had to make the exhaust and I'm happy with how that came out. I didn't bother adding front suspension, this is the way the kit was made. I will do some more touch up and add oil etc to the bottom of the engine and trans once it's all together. It's a running, rolling chassis right now. Interior is in place, as well as the entire engine bay. I am still working on the screen on the top of the firewall. And the up on wheels profile. It's just mocked up here. I am having some fit issues, getting everything lined up for final assembly. I should have this one done this weekend. Again, these are progress photos I take to spot issues, so if you see something let me know...

$60 well spent! I would've grabbed up those AW catalogs without a second thought! I also bought a Citroen 2CV, mine the Tamiya version, at a show this year for the same $15. And I've been buying those big parts bag myself. The last one I got at the Maryland NNL, was also a 2 gallon bag, but was filled with loose parts, much of it parts off old built ups, for $10. The bag was stuffed like a pillow. I spent a few evenings sorting parts into my bins and I'm still not done yet!

I had the same issue with my Trabant postal van project. I bought something like six different cans of gray to get the right shade, and the one that was closest was a Tamiya RC color. I sputtered my last before I even got to the body, spent an entire can doing trim and such. I thought it would be easy enough to get another can... nope. Somehow this color became impossible to find. Local hobby shop said they couldn't even order it from their distributor. I checked on line and nope. So I wound up driving the hour west of my house to the hobby shop I bought the original can, which I was trying to avoid. And I was worried that they'd be out too. I lucked out and they had two cans... so I bought both! Add in the $20 for gas and tolls on that purchase!

Here's Maisto's 2009... one year earlier!

Your cat works on cars? He has grease on his nose!

Part of the problem when the NASCAR bubble burst was that the early kits became worth collector money so people stocked up on new issues thinking history would repeat itself. With the demand, the mfgrs made more, and most of these never got consumed. So we have a glut on the market. What we need to do... if everyone bought five NASCAR kits, destroyed them and threw them away, we could wipe these out within our lifetime!

Very true! Some guys think that good builders get it right every time. Nope, they just don't give up even though the body has been in the stripper tank 3 times! Nice work Rich, you will get the hood done right!

Maybe that PJ guy could buy it. He could list all the parts for at least $100!

Hey Steve! Let me know if you need any pointers on getting that stuffing standing up like that! I just did it on my Volare.

Wow Tom! That floor plan and facade is the same as the Getty station my family once owned! That one probably started out as a Texaco station.

Several years ago a model dealer gave us a case of mixed NASCAR kits to use as door prizes at NNL East. It took us two years to get rid of them, giving them away!

Teleportation was soooo 1960s!

If you want a nice dull finish, go with Testors Dullcote in the spray can. It gives a nice flat finish that won't scratch.

Each and every time! My Volare is a prime example. I've been working on that one for 20 years. Each time it comes out of the box I get into some major detailing or modification, so a bit got done, then it would go back into the box for another 5 years. It's on the bench again, and the last time out, it got stalled on getting a slant six to fit and in proper position. My thought was to just abandon that idea, put the old 318 that came in the kit back in, glue the hood shut and just finish it as a curb side. But you know where that went. I solved the issue of fitting the slanter in there pretty quick. Which led to... how much detail could I get under that hood? Next thing I knew I was 2-3 weeks into creating wires and charcoal canisters! This time I promised myself it will get done. So I'm forging ahead with the chassis fighting me and the chassis/interior refusing to sit right in the body. Still I am getting it done this time!

I disagree. I love to see models with a new or unusual slant. It doesn't have to be a custom, rat rod or street rod. It can be a version of that race car nobody has done before... like when you find a photo of a car from a specific race or out for a tuning run before it got painted. I remember someone did a Dodge Dart with gel coat fiber glass nose. It was cool because I hadn't seen that before. Even factory stock builders can do something different. Change of trim line down to the Plain Jane, 4 door sedan or wagon conversions, all cool stuff, some of which hasn't been done for a specific car. For instance when I got my Trabant Universal wagon, I did some Internet research and found photos of a panel van version. Then I just had to do the postal van! And nobody has done that one just yet. Even staying strictly with the kit, you can always add a roof rack with luggage, or even fill the back seat with Christmas presents. Simple accessories like some photo etched sun glasses on the console make your model just a bit different. I'll add a bumper sticker, inspection stickers or a parking permit. On my recent Chevette build I added a college logo book bag in the hatch as well as a college decal across the back window. Oh, and that one had fuzzy seat covers on the front buckets. You can do little things like adjust the two head rests at different heights, I have even had the drivers seat positioned closer to the wheel than the passenger bucket. Sometimes it's just the little easy things that can make your model a little different. And I love that stuff!

All of the above! Loss of interest. Once I can squint and see the finished model in my head, I can lose interest. That's where I need an under study to hand the model off to for finishing! Club or board projects! I will push aside my current project to start one of these for a club, board or show deadline. And this one will get pushed aside when I miss the deadline. Difficulties with vision... I can suddenly not see the next step or where I want the model to go. So I take a break... often years! Difficulties with assembly... I'd better take a break instead of hitting the wall with it. Lack of skill... models get put aside when I couldn't do the next step. For instance there's a certain '73 Barracuda that I didn't know how to make drip rails. Now I know how, so that one should come back to the bench. Or the times when a model is going so very well, that I'm afraid to touch it because I know I will screw it up!

There will always be a small and vocal following for old school technology. That's because it's what we experienced when we were young. The car manufacturers have capitalized on this by bringing back Mustang, Challenger and Camaro V8s, and the pricing of these offerings isn't for youth market starter cars. They are aimed mainly at the aging Baby Boomer population with a few dollars in their pockets. I don't think the price of gas affects this, as there is a following of same in Canada and Australia where fuel is much more costly than in the USA. Still, there have been a lot of very cool V8 cars sold in Australia. The end of the road will be when gas isn't available at any price. It's not a matter of a V8 being more durable. Toyota and Honda have made their fortunes selling 4 and 6 cylinder cars to the masses, people who simply see them as reliable transportation. And the lifespan of these cars is a minimum of 200,000 miles and a lot of them for many more miles. They rewrote the book on quality and durability. Time does march on, and perceptions of the public at large will change. Toyota has sold an awful lot of Priuses, no matter how we snicker at them. And say what you will about alternate fuel technology, but Tesla just rewrote the book on that one! Ford is responding to the future market. The generation beyond us doesn't share in our passion to any great numbers. They don't mind 4 door cars, and 4 and 6 cylinders have always been mainstream for them. Fewer of them are car mechanically inclined because cars have always been complex for them. Not that they are slouches, nor are they afraid of new technology. Many of them are computer talented way beyond our understanding. The game of talent and skills has also moved with technology. I will take a modern car with all it's safety and creature comforts any day. That's why I just bought a Buick LaCrosse for our family cruiser. It's comfortable, safe, peppy and still delivers 28 mpg. The comparisons between the 1971 and current Challenger is no contest. You can say that anyone who drives like an idiot deserves to be killed in the resulting accident, but maybe not the poor unfortunates who happen to be his passengers, or other unlucky motorists or pedestrians near him! There are many people who died when 1960s muscle cars folded like accordians who would be alive today in a similar accident. The extra weight on the newer car is partly because it's designed to keep that passenger compartment intact under very hard circumstances. Just go and find that insurance company video of the head on crash between a 1999 Malibu and 1959 full size Chevy. No comparison. And I want my family to be in the safest and most reliable vehicle they can!

That's okay Bruce! Sometimes I post just to type. I love to type!

I'd say I've finished maybe 50% of what I've started. I'm guilty of all the above excuses, I sometimes run out of steam or missed the deadline for a club contest. I lose inspiration on how to finish a model so it will sit. Sometimes I hit a skill roadblock and don't know how to move forward. And sometimes I'm frustrated and rather than throw it at the wall, I put it back in the box until a better time. I keep most of my unfinished projects on the shelves over my work bench. That forces me to remember them, and not lose sight of models locked in my basement. Sometimes I'll sit at my bench and pull them down one at a time when the label on that box intrigues me. Sometimes with a fresh look, I'll immediately see the issue that was in my way when I gave it up. Other times I'll now have the skills that stumped me back then. And sometimes just playing with the parts will renew my interest and the next thing I know I'm working on it again. I don't always finish them on that second round. Sometimes I fiddle for a few days and maybe complete a few more steps before it goes back up on the shelf. But that's okay because it's one step closer to being finished the next time. Maybe. And there are models that will never get finished, but I developed a skill or learned a trick while working on them. So that's okay since they are the stepping stone to the better models I build today. And I never say never, I'm currently finishing up a model I started over 20 years ago. I do have this Christmas Amnesty Program thing I've done since 2000. Every year when I'm off work between Christmas and New Years, I'll pull an old unfinished project off the shelf and actually finish it. I have done this pretty successfully with only one DNF and two years where I wasn't able to work on models during that break. But of course, I've started a few more projects during that year so I will never catch up. And that's okay. I refuse to feel pressure to finish models, and I won't promise to finish anything before I start a new model. I will do what ever my heart desires because it's a hobby, and I do it to feel good! Above photo shows my shelves. Most of the boxes on those two shelves are unfinished projects.

They are 1/25 or 1/24... definitely our scale! I wanted at least one to build a model off of, but they are so nicely done I didn't have the heart to break one up... and which one? Too much of a decision for me!