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Tom Geiger

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Everything posted by Tom Geiger

  1. Back on New Years Eve last year, we weren't in much of a celebrating mood. I was out of work all year with no end in sight. So we stayed home and prayed that 2014 would be a better year. And in January, I got a phone call from an old boss offering me a job. For all the pain in the tail demeaning interviews I was on all that year, here I had a job offer over the phone. No interview, no bull, just show up next Monday! And with that being a great year, and working hard including a week in Puerto Rico, I didn't get that much done this year. But I'm not complaining! Dodge A100 Van -- A replica of a van a friend drove back in the late 1970s. My sister in law's first car, a 1977 Chevette. She loved it so I gave it to her! I do have the Volare going, that's days from completion and my Trabant Universalle is also very close to being finished right after the Volare. If I had added up my production earlier, I might have stepped up my work on these two!
  2. Nice production year! I especially love that '50 Ford woody! I'd buy that in 1:1!
  3. More eBay fun.... Over the past few weeks I had researched (and bought) new headlights for my Dodge Grand Caravan. I also did a quick look for a Pace Spray Booth. Since then I'm getting emails from them urging me that "It's Time To Make Your Move!" Four photos of Dodge Caravan headlights... (Don't they even keep track of what you buy?) And their idea of the spray booth I really need: Yea, only $7000 plus freight. And they listed several to choose from!
  4. Jim- I just took a look and there are a total of TEN items for sale on eModelCars, including the 3 items you just listed.
  5. Happy New Years to you and yours Rich, and a Happy New Year to everyone on the board! May 2015 be a brighter year!
  6. Here's mine built from the snap kit. It was a fun low detail build. One tip - don't spend a lot of time improving the interior, you can barely see it through the chopped windows!
  7. Alclad also comes in a spray can.
  8. One comment- When doing a wash on the body, don't brush it on. The brush strokes show and wouldn't be on a real car. Instead, pat it on with a very fine sponge for a more realistic finish.
  9. Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement. Per the suggestion, I've taken the mold line off the radiator top. I dunno it was done so well it looked like it belonged there. And I swear I had one on one of my cars with a plastic radiator. You all are correct that the engine needs more weathering. I had mentioned in my post that I wasn't done with that yet, I usually do the final weathering after I'm done with all the heavy handling. Since my last entry, I have been working on the underside (no it hasn't been weathered yet!), most specifically the exhaust system. When you change out the engine and trans, especially going for a six cylinder, you may just have to fab one up. On the Volare, the exhaust was on the right side with the kit V8, but the six exhaust leaves on the left side. I used up a complete dual exhaust set from the 1971 Duster kit in making this one. You'd think the Duster exhaust would fit right under the Volare, but nope there was a bit of work. The first part was adding a cat converter from the Volare exhaust, and mating the front pipe up with the manifold. And every piece you see here was cut apart, drilled out and reattached with a small length of straight pin. That's pretty much the equivalent of installing a 1:1 exhaust system. String all the pieces loose, twist them as needed to fit, then tighten... or glue it all up. Past that, the Volare chassis wasn't the greatest detail wise. I wasn't changing it out for a Duster one since the Volare had a unique torsion bar setup. So past doing the exhaust, I'm just assembling it as MPC envisioned, funky rear with the wire axle and all. I won't put the wire axle on in the front so not to be seen under the engine I worked hard on, I'll just peg into the mount on either side. That's it for this year, past this post I will be making food for tonight's celebration! Have a great New Years and see you back in this project thread next year!
  10. Tomo is planning a take over!
  11. Scott, some of my holy grails were the Tom Daniel kits from the late 1960s. They were advertised in comic books back then so I had to have them. I had the T'rantula, Tijuana Taxi, Pie Wagon, Paddy Wagon, Circus Wagon, Rommels Rod, and I always wanted the S'cool Bus since I had the Hot Wheels version. I was fortunate that several of them were current kits when I got back to the hobby in the late 1980s. That only fueled me to search out and find the rest. I paid big money for an incomplete TJ Taxi, and got parts from friends in Germany and The Netherlands to finish it up. I also paid money for a Rommels Rod and Circus Wagon glue bombs. Of course after I did that all these kits got reissued! But it's all good, I get to relive my youth, and build them much better than I did back then! And to bring it to a really happy conclusion, I got to meet Tom Daniel at GSL a few year ago. Actually got to have a beer with him! All I could think of was that I never could have imagined that when I was a kid building his kits. The little kid inside me was screaming with excitement!
  12. MMMMMMMMMM!
  13. Some reference shots of a bench seat in a Scout II. Note that it's a folding seat with a 2/3rd split. Interesting seat, and I plan on doing one in my model.
  14. Michaels has a weekly 40% off coupon, and it's just up the road so I go look occasionally. I have only bought one kit there ever. For the most part their stock is maybe a quarter behind the hobby shops, which is probably how the manufacturers want it. At my local store kit space was reduced with a rack area of carded toys in the middle. Revell / Monogram kits to the left, Round 2 kits to the right. The interesting part is that the model section seems to be raided regularly. Interesting since I don't know any other modelers in my area. So it shows that the general public is buying kits. I will use my coupon to get another can of Testors flat black or dullcote, just because I'm there. And if I have a paper coupon and I see a cute soccer mom with a large item in her cart, I'll give it away.
  15. Ha! I picked up chassis duty on my Volare. Spent part of the afternoon making an exhaust system, all parts like a 1:1. And then I realized that the wheel backs I used won't work so I'm back to the parts box for some of those!
  16. Here's one of the 1967 Impala commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSsIxPahYno
  17. There are as many ways to build models as there are builders. There are those who are disciplined like yourself who can focus on that one model until completion, then pick out another. There are those who start a lot of things, but never finish anything. And the rest of us falling somewhere in the middle!
  18. This year I built two replicas from my past life and it was a blast! First up was finishing a Dodge A100 Van that I had started many years ago to be a replica of a van a friend drove back in the late 1970s. I got it right enough that I posted pictures of it on my FaceBook group for my town, and two people identified it within a half hour. That was fun. Second one was creating my sister in law's old 1977 Chevette. I had helped her buy this lime green beauty back when she was 17 and she drove it 10 years. I built it down to the last detail of her fuzzy seat covers and college stickers. She loved it! So I let her keep it. A lot of fun to see the look on her face when I put it on the table in front of her. Next up? I bought the yellow paint to build the '74 Mustang II coupe my wife was driving when I met her!
  19. Engine looks great Rich!
  20. Love those '59 Plymouth taxis!
  21. Wow Blair! That looks like you just dragged it out of a lake.
  22. I am going to build this kit for the 24 Hour Build that Gary Kulchock sponsors on FaceBook every January. Each year I try to find a fairly simple kit that's common enough to sacrifice for a quick build, and best if I have several of them in case I get into a jam during the build, I can always grab a part from a second kit. Yea, that's happened both of the past two years! I'm going to build 'the one that got away', a Scout that I came close to buying around 1991. It was sitting up on the highway for sale, it was black with a white top and had a white scallop on the door. Finish was dull and it had a green bench interior. I noticed that it was sitting in a puddle of oil and after taking it for a quick test drive, I asked the owner to open the hood. He fumbled about a bit and said it was broken, or he didn't know how to open it.... just hit me as something being shady, so I walked away. What happened? Someone on the next block from me bought it. So I saw it sitting there (in a big puddle of oil) for years! The guy drove it for years so it probably was a pretty good truck. I would've figured out what the leak was and fixed it. Yea, I've thought about that truck for years and have kicked myself. So it deserves to be on my shelf!
  23. 2014 was better than 2013, mainly because I've been employed! In that respect it's been a good year. Healthwise, we've been good. We had the best ever NNL East and hope to top that in 2015. I worked on models pretty consistently this year, finishing 2 or 3, while adding a significant amount to my unfinished project pile. This fall we got our roof and siding replaced by insurance, due to hail damage from this past spring. So the house looks pretty darn good! And we recently bought a nice low mile Buick LaCrosse. On a sad note we lost clubmate and long time friend Todd Koncsol over the summer. He was our club artist, and we are struggling to fill the void he has left. This fall we lost our dog Ted, and that has left our house very quiet. I miss him every day! We go forward to 2015 with promise of employment for the year, and ready for anything that hits us. As you can see we had a few surprises in 2014 and hope this will be a better year.
  24. I rented it once and did all the car scenes in slow motion and over and over. I believe I taped it so I should have it here somewhere in VHS. Typical mindless zany movie of that era where they tried to pack in as many stars as they could. Classic!
  25. Expensive fishing expedition! A few years ago much of the original Johan art was sold on eBay and sales were in the low hundreds
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