Tom Geiger

Give me a break Scott He DID say doggie treat! And no I'm not up on kids snacks much. I'm not one and my kids are grown.

We are probably around the same age. My interest lies in about that same time period. Only I lived outside the US for a good part of my youth since my father was in the US Army. So my shelf not only includes the US cars we all love, but I have a soft spot for all the Euro cars of that era as well. I don't mean the super cars, but the bread and butter VWs and such. Right now I'm working on a Trabant and the ignorant have made comments like, "What a waste of time unless you shove a Hemi in it." I also have caught grief over the years because I build a lot of weathered beaters and light commercial subjects. The hobby has gotten wider over the years and people now accept a wider variety of vehicles. Still, a muscle car build will get more comments than my latest beater, even if my beater is contest quality. And you're right, life is too short to build stuff you're not interested in. The same applies to the young guys. They have no connection to the cars of our youth. So appreciate what they build and we'll see a lot more participation at our shows!

I think it's because the nasty old men have chased them away! And I'm serious about that. The discouraging words from the drag car and hot rod only guys about any other style of build... A bit of history. A few years ago at NNL East we had a Tuner theme. One of 'those guys' thought he was gonna be funny and put a can of tuna fish on tires on the table. He thought that would be the only thing on the table and he'd laugh at us. A funny thing happened. The tables filled up! Like parking in New York City. Young guys came, guys from our tribe who had built late model cars put them on the table. It was so successful that that udder magazine did an editorial about it. Our next foray was the "Modern Muscle" theme. Again a great category and filled tables. After that got a nice email from a fellow named Victor representing a new club called Diversified Scalerz, a group of younger guys into building modern subjects. He asked if we could have a regular category at NNL East. We talked and agreed to add the first new category at NNL East in 15 years. Why? Because it makes sense. We all complain about how the hobby is dying, and at the same time we don't reach out to the younger modelers who will need to carry the torch when we're gone. We cannot expect them to build our subjects, it's not of their life experience. We need to invite them to display their subjects, their art. So we did. The Diversified Scalerz have been present at all the East Coast events that I've been to in the past two years. And they also have started their own show. The third one is Saturday, October 25th. We at the Tri-State Scale Model Car Club and NNL East are recommending that everyone reach out and attend this show. These are great guys and the future of the hobby is depending on them!

I know all about the Little Red Wagon. I date back to that era! And I've seen the real truck in person, spoke with Bill Maverick and even have autographed photos and t-shirt! And know that the primary buyers of kits back then were kids, so perfect detail wasn't a major thing like it is today. I merely posted to the modelers of today the few shortcomings and how to fix them. I know guys who built replica stock or light commercial trucks and didn't catch this until they were finished. Oh and while at it, the center post in the split windshield isn't exactly centered and the gasket detail is different on either side. I took mine out and replaced with Evergreen plastic. Bingo.

Nah, driving is highly over rated! Actually I hear ya. I wanted to drive so badly that I took my birthday off and was first in line at Motor Vehicle to get my permit. The lady looked at me and said, "You wasted no time." My grandfather got a big kick out of taking me there.

Thanks Mark! I agree with you. The one dealer I've been talking to said that the base model domestic cars he has (Malibu, Focus, Avenger and a bunch of low to no mile last year Vics) all came from the government motor pool. And talking with other dealers who have a ton of their own brand used vehicles, one to four years old, say they are lease returns. The local Hyundai store had literally dozens of 1-2 year old Elantras. One with 2,000 miles on it that he said was a repo. That makes sense since more and more of the general public cannot afford to buy new so they get those low dollar lease deals. That worked out for my daughter, we found a Ford Fusion that had 20,000 miles on it that was leased for 18 months. The original owner.. or should I say driver.. took Ford up on an early lease termination on a two year lease and got a new car. The car had been leased from same dealer in town, and we bought it for about 50% of new value. I took the story with a grain of salt, but later my daughter ran into a lady in a store parking lot who said it was her car. We still haven't pulled the trigger on getting a car. My Caravan has been sitting on the trans shop lot for two weeks now and they still haven't generated a quote. I'll be in Puerto Rico through next weekend, so I'll deal with it all then!

And foreign governments contacting me to collect the millions of dollars left to me in their country! I'd be a zillionaire by now if it was all true! The funniest one recently was sent to the NNL East email account, supposed to be a lady looking for an American man.... Dear East, I want to be your girlfriend... yea right!

I'm as cranky an old guy as you John, but the old names on the new vehicles don't bother me. We've long ago run out of car names, and Chrysler has been paying trademark fees on those names forever, so they own them and are free to use them as they see fit. And for the most part, 90% of the car buying public has long forgotten about these old car, or are too young to have known. In fact I work with a young guy who owns a Dart. I told him I had a 1970s Dart once, and he had no idea that Dodge had ever used the name before. My cousin named his daughter after my long dead grandmother. Pretty much the same thing in my eyes!

Wait! She fed the kid dog treats?

Beware of those friggin doors.. The hinges are so huge and out of scale that I finally decided just to glue them in place. I cut off the hinges and made scale ones from Evergreen rod. I followed the example of my Jimmy Flintstone A100 resin van body and how they did that. A few shortcomings of the A100 kit... it's missing the "Dodge" emblems on the doors. Many years ago a resin caster offered doors that had the scripts on them. I believe they came from the larger IMC Dodge truck kit. I had made decals of the scripts, but opted to just live without them on my build. Second issue is that the gas cap is missing from the left rear fender. I drilled out and added one. And yes, I glued the engine cover in place between the seats so there was no reason to detail the top end of the engine at all. I put the stock small V8 in the pickup and actually fit a slant six in the van

I just ordered a second one on purpose! Since I'm building the one I have already as a van, I figured I needed a wagon too. There was a vendor who had them on eBay for $20 postpaid. That's a good deal, so I grabbed one. Probably should've grabbed two!

and still saving towards TWO weddings... nobody engaged yet so I have some time Car wise, we told ourselves we were getting new (better) cars as soon as we got our NJ house sold... 3 years ago! Grand Caravan is in the shop getting a new transmission at 194,500. That leaves me driving Geo Tracker to work the past two weeks at 245,000 miles. Noisy on the turnpike! We did upgrade my wife to my daughter's hand me down (hand me up?) 1999 Plymouth Breeze with 155,000 on it. That one needs an $800 a/c repair I'm not doing so it needs to be replaced before the spring. We do need one decent car so we don't feel like Gilligan leaving port every time we leave the driveway!

Ha! I used to say the same thing. I put my two daughters through college, they are four years apart, so it was eight years of paying! I used to say it was like buying a new PT Cruiser every year for cash and scrapping it! In the end it was worth it of course. Both of them have found nice jobs and are supporting themselves! And I still don't have a good car!

Norm Veber, Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland makes some nice resin ones. They come many in a pack for around $5. I love to use these on models since they really add depth to interiors. One time when I saw him at a show I invested $20 in four packs. That'll last me a while! Edited to add the below photo, for some reason the computer wouldn't let me do so yesterday....

This next week my office will have an ocean view and temperatures in the high 80s! I'll be in Puerto Rico from Saturday to Saturday running a conference for a large company. I don't think I'll get much down time since I'll be busy from the time I get up until after the planned dinners. But it will be nice to be somewhere different!

I will always remember this summer since deep down I knew it would be my dog Ted's last one. I worked from home a lot this year, so I made sure he got plenty of outdoor time. There were days I'd be here banging on the computer and he was asleep in the sun on the deck. He loved that. Summer is gone and so is he!

Ha! Isn't that true. All boards and clubs have their armchair modelers who will super criticize everything you build, but you've never seen a single model that they've built. There's a guy in my club like that. Big expert. When I first joined the club he took me over the coals on my first build. He told me he 'disqualified' me from the little club contest because I used Krylon paint and you weren't supposed to do that. I almost quit the club over that! And close to 30 years later I'm still waiting for him to plop something down on our display table.

Add the Fiat 500 and a VW Beetle to the Gunze vinyl seat debacle! I built this one years ago and didn't have any issues gluing down the seats using Zap-A-Gap glue. I've heard that acrylic paints will stick to them, but I just left them black vinyl in this case. To add insult to injury, this kit has no inner door panels at all. So I scratched out a pair because it just wasn't right to leave them missing! I think I remember that one of the new Challenger kit/promos had vinyl seats as well.

We're more common than you'd think. Years ago I had a vendor who called on me at work who was also Tom Geiger. It would flip out security when he showed up "Tom Geiger to see Tom Geiger!"

Not me! I went to high school in New Jersey. There is a Tom Geiger in Saylorville, PA who could be your man. The credit agencies keep tangling our credit reports so I've actually spoke to him.

At least you didn't get contacted by the guys in Nigeria who will give you $5000 for your windshield, please send your bank account number, social security number and date of birth.

I'm sad to report the passing of my little guy, Ted. Here he is as he appeared on the Model King release of the 1979 Ford pickup kit. Doug Whyte photo shopped him into the model. Ted was 14 and had been slowly declining for some time. He was an amazing little character and knew something like 100 words. I greatly miss him! He knew how to get comfortable! He loved to sleep in the leather chairs in our den. If you were there, he'd snuggle his way in close to you and fall asleep. And my favorite Ted photo. This was the first time he was in the pool, and he loved it. It was my daughter's college graduation party. I had just gotten my new job in PA with a lot of promise, we had our new house and all of our family came to celebrate. We were on top of the world then, one of the best days! I'd love to step into this photo and relive that day! I sure do miss the little guy!

I don't own a cat but there is a neighborhood cat that sometimes hangs around. I've seen him sunning himself on my front steps, and have found the feathers of a doomed bird there also. This week he perfectly placed the bottom half of a mouse on my top step. I guess the top half was tastier, or he was just full!

Lookin' good Rich! I love those tail lights. Sometimes you get lucky! Too bad you didn't have a bag of them to share!

Thanks Corey- When my father died I took over his Crown Vic, figuring I'd drive it for a year. I drove it for six and put over 200,000 relatively trouble free miles on it. I then gave it to my bro-in-law who drove it a couple of years and passed it on to a buddy who needed a car. So I'd buy one of those in a heart beat, but my wife will be the primary driver of whatever we buy and she wants a smaller car. She is currently driving our 1999 Plymouth Breeze and thinks that's the right size for her. My father once worked for a government contract, that happened to be on the same property as the US government motor pool and car auction. It was open to the public, so we'd go watch sometimes, and bought two cars over the years. The bulk of the auctions were cheap US cars like Plymouth Reliants, all at the lowest trim levels, then vans and trucks. The cars were very well maintained and every time they went into the shop the engine compartment got steam cleaned. There were other cars, such as DEA seizures, and once there was a gray market BMW coupe we thought we'd like, but the dealers bid it up.