Tom Geiger

That Vegas '57 T-bird kit looks like someone stored it in an outdoor shed over a few East Coast winters. I've also seen kits like that at outdoor flea markets, no doubt having been baking in the sun at flea markets for years. Those kits have no value other than to retrieve the "builder grade" kit inside, and to make sure it's actually okay. I'd suspect that the decals and instruction sheet are also toast. I do what Don Sikora suggested on a lot of my kits, even the new ones. Dave Burket taught me to do this maybe 20 years ago. I turn the kit over, and carefully cut the shrink wrap in the box bottom groove, so that it remains intact on the lid. I toss away that small patch of wrap that covered the box bottom. That keeps the kit boxes protected in my closet. As Don said, it also preserves any cool old price tags etc. I do have some older kits I've never unwrapped. I don't care personally, but I'm not planning on building them, and already have seen what's in the box so leave them be in case I want to sell them someday. I also have a few boxes that are autographed on the cello, I'd rather have the sig right on the box, but I got these this way.

What happens if the place goes out of business before delivering the last two sets of parts? Then everyone has an incomplete kit.

Joe Cavorley was a master builder who died about 15 years ago. He was happy to teach anyone who asked, so I latched onto him and learned much of what I do today. Back then I wondered how guys got their models done with perfect paint, and perfect details throughout. I was always screwing that up during assembly from excessive handling, or having to trim and improvise to get the thing to actually fit together. And much of it was kit provided assembly nubs that didn't actually fit together. Joe's technique was to sand all the kit parts flat, and then implant bits of straight pins as the assembly points. There are also those parts that will snap together and he'd make sure they all fit wonderfully while the model was in primer. He'd get to the point that the entire model was assembled while still in primer. Then he'd pull it apart, paint all his assemblies and then reassemble it cleanly and without putting wear on the new paint since he had prefit everything. The pins became his glue points and they were all calculated to be centered so there would be no glue showing when done. He also could use a minimal amount of glue since the model pretty much press fit like a snap kit.

Jonathon... I get your point. There was a guy in my club who was a good builder. He'd bring in progress models to our meetings and they were excellent. Somehow it seemed he lost interest in the last 10% of his builds, and just hurried through the steps to finish. And the overall model suffered. We'd whisper to each other that he had that chance to build a wonderful model, but blew it in the last steps. Argh! But he was happy with what he did. So it was our problem not his. He died this past year, so does any of that matter at all? Not one iota.

I know what Ray is saying about the regular general public not getting badge engineering.... back when my father in law was looking to buy his last Toyota Corolla sedan, I had a friend who was selling at a Chevy store who offered me a cost deal on a Geo Prizm, which was the very same car, coming off the same assembly line. My father in law paid probably $2000 more than my deal and bought a Corolla. Why? Because when he mentioned my Prism deal to the Toyota salesman, he told him that Geo Prisms were Corollas that failed Toyota's quality checks and had to be sold as Chevys. Liar! And why I dislike car salesmen. And my father in law was a gullible non-car guy.

Dan- That left side BMF could use some clean up. I often take photos of my in progress builds just to see things that aren't apparent as I look at the model. You can just scribe lightly (no more pressure than drawing with a pencil) at the edge of the trim and carefully pull away the excess with a toothpick. If that doesn't work, it's easy to pull the BMF off and try again. It's one of the aspects of your model where you get do overs! You did such a good job of creating that trim, I just had to speak up. You can get it perfect!

Wow! It must be nearing feeding time at the zoo... folks is getting a bit cranky! There are guys in this hobby who do amazing work and are constantly pushing themselves forward into new levels of detail. We call this "the cutting edge" of the hobby. For instance take Gregg Nichols model "Backdraft". I was at the Liars show on Long Island last week and that model won Best in Show and Peoples Choice. There were people crowded around it all day. I never got near it to take photos. A model like this represents that cutting edge. Now if I saw a thread titled, "Gregg Nichols next model", I'd immediately click on it and anticipate being wowed and entertained. A reasonable expectation. But does he owe me, you, or the hobby anything? Nope. We can hope that the next model will be cooler, will reach forward past that cutting edge... but if he decides to do a box stock copy of his grandfather's car, so be it. We have no right to second guess his art. And we need guys to constantly challenge that "cutting edge" and bump the ceiling. The hobby would stagnate without this growth. And the guys who push this edge are some of the nicest, most humble folks you'd be honored to call a friend! Are they doing it for fame? In most cases no, they are just listening to the voices in their head and they themselves are amazed that they've achieved what they have. And there are guys at all levels whose work I enjoy. Some of us have developed styles that you immediately recognize. I love nothing more than participating in a build thread as a spectator. I love to watch the progress day to day. It energizes me and I root for the builder. There are builds that show so much promise, but fall short of my goals... note I said my goals... but we don't know what is in the head of the builder. That 'off' detail may be perfectly fine in their world. And who am I to argue? It is their model.

I remember being in museums in Italy where there were scale renderings of Roman Chariots that survived some 2000 years. And I remember seeing copies of wagons and Conestogas in the Smithsonian, again attributed to the era. Heck, within the last year I was out near Lancaster, PA and the Amish store had hand made Amish buggies for sale. Someone always has looked at their transportation and whittled out a scale copy for entertainment. The medium they work in may change, but their will always be car (or whatever supersedes cars) models.

Yes, be careful when considering alternative employment. Write down every aspect of your compensation, including any employer paid for perks. Look over your medical plan and what it costs you out of pocket each month, and what your costs are when you actually use it. For instance, someone I know paid $100 a month towards his benefits, and went to a new job he thought was a step up and was horrified to find he would pay $100 a week!

Hi Gary, here's an odd old survivor for ya! My friend Dave Burket handed this body to me. (I placed it on my chassis for the pix) He knew I was the one person who would appreciate it and preserve it. Most folks would just look at it as a ruined body and would throw it out. But somebody back around 1960 had a very cool vision and did their best to bring it to life. See in the photo below that it was actually constructed with magazine card stock, since they didn't have plastic sheets available back then. It appears that it never was finished but so cool it deserved to be done! And with a few evenings it was complete! I didn't want to change or improve the original builders model at all. Just finish it the way he intended. I didn't have an expendable Valiant grill, and he had changed the shape of the grill opening a bit, so I made a flat cover from Evergreen plastic sheet. I cut down and made a roll bar to fit through the holes that were in the body. The tail light tunnels were perfect for rhinestones I had in my parts box. The wheels are actually modern Revell tires that would have had plastic white wall inserts. I discovered that the huge moon discs from the original Monogram Green Hornet kit fit right into those white wall insert holes. Who would've thunk? I always rebuild these using period pieces, so aside from the 1960 era Green Hornet wheel discs, I used a bucket seat from an early 1960s kit and a 57 Chevy instrument panel. This 1960 Valiant won't be winning any trophies at today's shows but it's a screaming relic of our past. And after some odd 50 years, it deserved to finally get finished!

Wow! I make a simple factual comment and I get this tirade? The same one you post every time anyone makes a comment or a suggestion? It seems that the original poster, Casey G83 hasn't posted since Sept 2012, so you aren't really worried about him. This thread has somehow endured since 2007, 617 pages and 12,340 posts and nobody seemed to be upset in any way. If it's not broke, it doesn't need fixing! And using your logic, someone should start a thread called "What did you get today?" in the Off Topic Lounge? Wouldn't that be redundant? And per your comment about volunteering in the hobby, I do my share and put in hundred of hours per year on my own projects to benefit the hobby. And I do that very well. Only stands to reason I'd do this very well too.

Congrats!

Which is why you don't want to have a $10,000 coverage auto policy!

I just bought a bag with three old 30s Fords that had been built / messed up in the 1960s for $4 at a show last Saturday. I am going to resurrect them because in my thinking if they've survived all these years, they deserve to come back! And I'd like to see the reaction of the kid who originally built them, seeing these old models done to the standard we build to today!

Wow! The answer to a question nobody asked. This thread was just fine the way it was.

I dunno Johnathan, for some reason the Tamiya cans don't seem to last as long. Last three times I used them for a project, I wound up buying two cans to finish a model.

I was in my local Hobbytown (West Chester, PA) yesterday. You can see that their focus is on RC since the young guys working there had three repair projects going on across the front counters. I drove all the way there to get some Tamiya paint. They only recently got some, and most folks won't know since they have it hidden in a Pactra RC Colors rack. I just happened to notice the Tamiya caps sticking up on one of my trips there. I need a can or two of the "Pastel Grey" color I am painting my Trabant postal van. I used nearly a whole can just painting interior trim and such, not much paint in those little Japanese cans! Anyway, of the dozen or so colors they had, of course they didn't have the pastel grey I need. So I asked the guy who seemed to be the head numpty if he could get the color for me. He wasn't friendly nor did he appear interested in helping me. I handed him a card that I had the stock number etc on, and he banged on his keyboard for a few seconds before telling me that their source didn't have that color... I cannot imagine a wholesaler not having the entire line. So I left, darn pesky customer that I am, and he went back to playing with the RC plane thingie.

Simply put, kids don't build models because their friends don't. They play video games and other modern kid pursuits because their friends do. They want to fit in and identify with their herd. Same reason we built models as a kid, and why we still do and congregate here!

Today I looked out the window at work and there was a Delorean sitting at the curb! In the no parking zone!

Thanks Dan. Here's a Taco Bell napkin used as upholstery. It's supposed to look like someone upholstered their rat rod with burlap bags. Your side trim looks great. Also like the two tone on the interior! It pops!

Alluring and aggressive? Almost looks like Adam wrote that on the box. Another build idea. The Chevy Corsica was pretty much a Beretta 4 door sedan.

It's been said that new Trabants would refuse to start to be driven off the assembly line. They'd have to be pushed out! And people were on waiting lists for years to get these nasty little buggers! And people are collecting them today. I joined the Trabant forum to get information for my builds, so I started a build thread there. The group responded enthusiastically and invited me to attend their meet, which I think was yesterday in Washington DC. One guy even promised me a ride if I came. I went to the Liars Show instead. Oh well.

I've been thinking about this incident ever since this thread got started. It's an example of how a seemingly harmless prank can go very wrong. I had a friend I knew since high school. Even in our 40s we'd get together every Thursday evening. We most often would rent a movie and watch it over a few beers at his house since he was single. I've always had a busy work day so by evening I was tired. I'd often fall asleep watching the movie and this upset him, and he'd always be waking me up and pranking me by taking my picture with some stupid sign on me. Silly stuff. One evening I had dozed off to wake up suddenly to a loud bang inches from my face. My first sight was him laughing like crazy holding a pistol. I had felt the blast near my face and I truly believed he had shot me in the face for several terrifying seconds as I waited for the pain to start. I really believed these were the last seconds of my life. I grabbed my face and held it and rolled off the couch onto the floor. He realized something went terribly wrong with his little prank and started calling my name and apologizing, telling me I was okay. I was hysterical, couldn't stop crying, my face was burned and hurt from the blast and my ears were ringing from the close proximity of the gunshot. He had shot me with a starters pistol with a blank. Being an idiot, he had not thought through that there still would be a significant blast. I know that he didn't really want to hurt me, but I have never gotten past that incident. Our friendship dissipated and we lost touch that year. I just couldn't look at him without seeing that laughing face. I had dreams about it, I'd wake up thinking about it. Right now, my heart is pounding as I type this. The day I thought I had seconds to live. And think about this when you go to do some stupid prank. People have been killed at the end of stupid pranks gone wrong. I actually feel lucky.

Oh what the heck... the story is... back in 1991 when I bought the Tracker my daughters were young. They both thought the little Jeep convertible was way cool and named it "Our Tweety". So I got the decal made at a car show. They loved it. Back then my younger daughter was around five and was into stickers as most kids were back then. We were going to run errands and I came out to the car to find her in the passenger seat with a huge grin. She pointed to the dashboard where she had put a smile face sticker right next to the speedometer. She said, "Every time you look at that you will think of me and smile." And I have, for the past 22 years and 245,000 miles!

Bingo! Post of the day!