Tom Geiger

Me either! As time goes by I'm amazed at how many years ago I finished some of my models... or walked away from my unfinished projects. It seems like just yesterday! I post everything on my Fotki account. That includes my in progress projects and my finished models. I've resorted to looking at the dates the photos were taken to properly date my stuff.

Do you sign your models? I often will put my name and the year on the top of the chassis, or somewhere else not visible. Maybe someday someone will decide to redo one of my builds and will find it.

Snow! Woke up to find it everywhere!

Hmmm Chris, I have one of those! Mine looks that sad too!

Tom Ulmer- I've never found anything significant at garage sales. Maybe just my luck. You'd do better at area model car swap meets. I see you are local, so one is held 4 times a year in Gilbertsville. There is also a model car show there in September. Depending on how far you want to go, there are 3 clubs in the area. The Delaware Valley club (the Philly Guys) meet in Philadelphia. Silent Traffic meets in Trooper. And the Central PA club is a bit further out. There are also two clubs in NJ, Jersey Shore Model Car Cub in Brick, and Tri-State Scale Model Car Club in Perth Amboy. Clubs are the best way to get immersed in the hobby since you meet people and see models in person. People do bring things to sell and trade to club meetings so I seldom come home empty handed. Hit me on the board PM system, or by my email address listed below this message for more info.

Yesterday I spent some time making a coolant overflow tank from a piece of scrap from my junk box. I had it finished, painted flat white with a blue cap. And suddenly I fumbled it and it was gone! The good thing about having a hardwood floor in my model room is that you can hear the direction it's gone. So I knew it was to my left. I must've cleaned the entire underside of my bench without finding it. Then I turned around and there it was on the floor in the center of the room! I would have been bummed if I lost it. I probably had an hour into making it.

Sometimes it's just the thrill of making something from nothing... the same thing as seeing an old car in a field and wanting to restore it. For example.... This was a kit that probably was built by a kid. Runny paint that didn't cover everything and glue everywhere! I got it in a parts box deal. This kit is available in several of the past renditions fairly cheap. It's out again as the Blue Bandito. Easy enough to find a brand new kit to build, but there was something about this truck that drew me in. So I decided to base a project on it. And here she is today.... Much better than before!

Probably Bill! But to the kid's point, when you have one copy... they're either all right or all wrong! I have a second copy I haven't opened yet... ... okay just went upstairs and got it... both of mine are pretty much the same. Look at the tree that has the C cab sides and back. The space between the side of the back and the sprue is filled with flash between the part and the sprue, The edges of the pieces all have flash 'fuzz' on the edges. Look in the oval rear window. I had to run my knife around the edge to get rid of the minor flash there. Examine the edge of the sides where they attach to the sprue, there's a bit of distortion needing sanding along the outer edge at the top. All in all, it's what I expect for vintage kits of the early 1960s, but enough to cause a few hours clean up.

I am currently working on an old Plymouth Volare project that may actually get done this time! Then it would be back to my Trabant postal van since that was my project on the bench when the Volare caught my eye. I also have a half dozen 'almost done' models that I really should just buckle down and finish. Some of them have an issue I haven't been able to solve, but I find that a bit of time away from it, the next time I look at it, I quickly see the solution. I'm hoping! I have the Dodge Caravan twins -- the taxi and the CV windowless van that are soooo close, if I could figure out how to make headlight that aren't toylike. I have a Dodge A100 pickup that I have no excuse for not being done. My Dodge van camper just needs some grunt work to finish it up. Maybe I can get these all done before year end!

And here's the rest of the story. This project inspiration was a conversation my wife's sister and I had last Christmas as we worked together in the kitchen. She told me that she was recently telling her friends the story of her first car, and how I helped her go car shopping when she was 17. Her fondness for the car got me thinking it would make a cool model project. You all followed along on the build, and the completion photos above. And we pick up there... I had placed the Chevette in my show case for safekeeping. It had been to a few model club meetings and the Liars Challenge in November. We went to my sister-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. My wife usually takes a passive role in my hobby, but she was excited, "Are you bringing Mary's car?" She asked a couple of times, including making sure it was in the car when we left our house. I decided to leave it in the car when we got to her house. It was hectic as everyone was arriving and we got settled in. I decided to present it right after dinner, when we all still were sitting around the table. I pulled it out of the box and put it on the table in front of her. She instantly recognized it, with a "Oh My God! That's my car!" She immediately wanted it and shared the story of her first car with her 15 year old twins, who grasped the significance and the work into the project. It got passed around the table and the original story of how we bought it and how it served her well for 10 years was told. The next day my wife and I got this text: "Hey. Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all you brought yesterday. And a greater thanks to Tommy for the best gift ever... my very own model of my very first car! This one's getting it's very own shadow box!! Thanks so much for this awesome memory!! Such a throwback... such great memories! Love it! Big hugs! XO" And that makes it all worth it!

Great news Jim! The very best to you and your family in this holiday season!

I agree. Many thanks to Gregg and the team for providing this board free of charge to us all. A little blip like this makes us realize how much the board is part of our daily lives! Imagine if we didn't have it at all!

Well here's one that really matters. You may have heard that a plane crashed in Maryland yesterday, hitting a house and killing a mother and two young children. It was just a news item on TV here, until my wife discovered that they were related to a good friend of hers, and originally from our area of NJ. So now we are very sad for our friends horrible loss.

Hey guys! The kid is right! I pulled out my Fruit Wagon and decided to pop the cab together. Happy 1964 to everyone! Yea, there's flash, enough that you need to sand down the edge of each piece, and because of it the edges aren't flat, they've been pushed out a tiny bit, but enough that I think you'd see it on the finished model. The cab pieces also have some massive ejector pin marks, both innies and outies. I sanded all the outies flat and have a coat of putty on all the innies. And as someone else said here, the pieces don't have an exact mounting position. More like glue, approximate and hold until dry. I know I'll be adding a small glue edge between the sidewalls and the nose piece. I will probably glue seat to the back wall first, and then the sides to that with a cardboard or plastic sheet spacer piece taped to the front edges of the cab. No wonder kids had crooked cabs! Today, they would've molded that cab as one piece.

I've made seat belts from masking tape. Just spray Testors Dullcote on the glue side and it neutralizes it. Then paint the tape any color you want and cut to narrow strips to make belts. I've also found that 1/16" ribbon can be bought at that auction place very cheaply. I've bought both black and white ribbon. Black gets used on the majority of models, while white can be 'stained' with Sharpie pens to match any color you desire.

test post for date issue on 12/9/2014

Yea I'm just gonna stay on my own property the whole friggin weekend!

Guys! Enough! Leave the young kid alone. He is interested in building and likes Model Ts.

I have a resin body of a 1958 that I intend to combine with a '57 Revell or AMT kit. I really would urge Revell to do a '58 as next in the series started with the '57 sedan and now wagon!

This 1955 Ford Ranch Wagon was built by Todd McWilliams. I was friends with Todd for years, first on the old AOL Model Chat and in emails and eventually in person when he moved to New Jersey. A lot of guys in the hobby knew Todd since he moved around the country and was active in model clubs where ever he lived. Unfortunately, Todd left us last year. Todd was pretty private as a modeler and didn't show off his work at club meetings or in on-line posts. Even though we lived 15 minutes apart, he would send me long emails. I knew he was building this wagon, starting with the Posey's custom wagon diecast. He had taken it apart, stripped it down and wanted a stock Ranch Wagon. At one point I asked him to bring the in progress model to the Jersey Shore Model Car Club meeting so I could see it. He had it carefully wrapped in a box. He pulled it out, showed it to me and quickly put it back away. I was happy he shared it with me and thought he was doing a wonderful job. Todd died suddenly and I was sad to lose my friend. I thought about the unfinished Ranch Wagon and thought it would never be finished. Recently Dave Burket told me he was buying Todd's collection from his wife, and I remembered the wagon. I told Dave to look for it, and that I'd be honored to finish it in Todd's memory. Dave got back to me that he found it... with one surprise. Todd had finished it! I told him I certainly wanted the car and made plans to buy it. Once I had it home I really started to appreciate the car, the cleanness of the work and how unassuming a car it was, but one that immediately grabbed your attention when displayed. The plain antique white of the body along with the logos Todd made as decals really capture what the car was. I am very pleased to have a memory of my friend on my shelf.

I was working on the Monogram 1950 Ford pickup. I had the Model Car Garage photo etch sheet and was putting on the "F-1" lettering on the sides. I put the one on the left side and moved on to the right side. When I looked at it the next day, the emblem was gone from the left side. I cleaned up the entire model room looking for that bit of etch. It was gone forever, and since my trucks all have a bit of wear to them, I drilled a small hole where the emblem was and added a small smear of rust, as if it had been lost on a 1:1. I was satisfied and went on with life. One day I was at work sitting in a meeting, I looked down and saw a quick bright flash as I moved my arm. Yup, there was F-1 glued to my shirt sleeve, went through the wash and all! I did leave the model as it was. One time I told Bob Koronuw the story he growned, "I would've sent you the piece!' Oh well.

Cool take on an old classic kit. Send photos to Tom Daniel. I'm sure he'd like to see it.

Love it Ray! I had a 1970 Chevy Impala in that same gold color. Mine was a 350/350 coupe with a gold vinyl roof and interior. The one thing AMT did wrong on the body was that they have "Impala" two times on the sides, on the front fender and again on the C pillar. Different models that year had it in different places. For instance a convertible had it on the fender, while my car had it on the pillar. The back sidelights on the 1:1 aren't chrome. The bezel would be body color with the red lens showing through like a series of rectangles. If you pulled the BMF off them and hit them with a red Sharpie pen, you'd have it!

It all started here for me! This one is over 25 years old, first full detail kit I built when I got back to the hobby as an adult. I built it in the image of a car I would like to own. This one is in my Olde Kustom Kollection.. Dave Burket gave it to me with the suspension sheared off and the hood missing. It was built from the original release and used all the custom options. Fairly well built for the era. So I stole the suspension, tires and caps off a more current release. It was all light blue when I got it but I knew I wouldn't be able to match the paint on a new hood, so I did the two tone. It was glued together pretty well so the two tone was done on the assembled model, just to add one degree of difficulty. Still in the period style. And it rides again after 50 years.

Nice Buick Rich! It's fine to collect diecast of cars that haven't been available in kit form. And both Franklin and Danbury have done a great job of picking subject matter. I had the Ron Cash resin body for the Divco milk truck. Once I saw the Danbury Mint version, there was no way I'd attempt to build the rough resin!