Tom Geiger

In industry the newly graduated engineers did corporate boot camp. They started out on the drafting board, shadowing experienced engineers on projects and handling minor tasks. Today, right out of college, some of them think they should be handling multi-million dollar jobs. And they don't have a clue. I once had a college intern working for me. He was a good guy who wanted to absorb knowledge so I put him through the paces. I had him standing out in the heat and cold watching fencing installations and indoors replacing carpet and watching painters in occupied spaces, and other ground level work to get him familiar with the work environment. I made him help with space planning, office furniture installation, getting phones assigned, office moves and how to dispose of assets. Much of it engineering grunt work, but he smiled and learned to do it all well. He graduated and followed his girlfriend to Florida so we didn't have the opportunity to hire him permanently. I got a phone call from him maybe 4 years later. He said he thought of me every day and could still hear my voice saying that our work was really 75% psychology and 25% engineering . He had just finished a project relocating his company from one office building to a new one, and he wound up in charge of the entire project because he was the only engineer, (and this was an engineering company!), who knew how and understood the importance of all the tasks listed above.

This one I did myself... that is my daughter building back in the day. She might have been 6.

When I was a kid my father was in the military and we lived in Turkey and Germany. We got our mail through the APO system, which basically was the military end of USPS service. We got a lot of care packages from home, tons of Christmas gifts from my grandparents mailed to us all marked SAM which stood for Space Available Mail, pretty much like you described SAL. But as kids we used to giggle that all our gifts came from Uncle SAM.

The Fujimi Del Sol is a nice kit, it's a pity that they chose to mold it in black, that will make it harder to get to a light color like white. Since this is a replica of your own car, I believe you'll want to do it right. I recommend using automotive paint, in spray cans, that you can buy at your local auto parts store (Pep Boys, Advance Auto etc). The Duplicolor brand is what I see around mostly, and it will work fine. Most important, you need to use their primer to protect the plastic body. If you try the paint by itself, it will etch and ruin the body. I use Duplicolor gray primer under most of my paint jobs. They also make a white primer, which may be more appropriate for your project. Then pick out a white from their line that matches your car. Their sprays are done to match real car colors, but they wouldn't have anything as old as your car. So find one that is close. Note that there are many shades of white, To paint the car, you will want to make a paint stand so it's not sitting on a surface. You can fold up a wire hanger to fit inside the car body, to suspend it in the air. That way you can hold it up, and spin it around to paint all the sides and surfaces. That should get you there. This board is good with helping folks and providing answers, so use us as a resource!

I'm reading all these recall threads with interest.. Part of why we see so much today is that our government has tightened the manufacturer's reporting requirements and remedy. My question... can you imagine what the reporting history would have been like on US 1950s and 1960s cars? Different world.

I've always been amazed at the car parts in the shoulder of the road. In NJ, sitting in stop and go traffic, scanning the junk in the shoulder is done out of boredom. I recognize the parts that fall off cars, or are broken off in crashes.. but an alternator? I've also seen drive shafts, brake drums and other parts a car wouldn't go any further without. I'm thinking that some of this has fallen off scrap trucks. The scary stuff? Ladders! I see a lot of those contractor trucks with a lot of ladders and scaffolding stacked on the roof. I realize that it was all put up there by tired men at the end of a work day. And when I see mangled ladders in the shoulder, I know how it happened. And I don't wish to be anywhere near those trucks when it does!

Here's two stories from my dusty archives... I was in the process of buying a house and had two days to close on the house before my mortgage commitment, and low rate, expired. The company said they mailed the papers to me, but I didn't receive it. This was before the Internet, and the company was only 10 miles south of me, so I drove to them. A few weeks later I get the big envelope in the mail... 10 miles between two New Jersey towns by way of Puerto Rico... Envelope had a "missent" stamp on it and a San Juan backstamp! Second story.. back when I got into models some 25 years ago I had a small ad in Scale Auto looking for Valiant kits. A guy in Denver, whose handwriting looked grade school, sold me one for something like $15 postpaid. Weeks went by and I didn't receive it. I'm back and forth in the mail with this guy who I figured was scamming me. He stopped replying so I just figured I was screwed. Maybe five years later the people at the end of our cul de sac are moving. A kid of theirs comes to my door and hands me a UPS package... yea my five year old package from Denver. Kid tells me they found it in their hall closet. No doubt UPS delivered it to a neighbor and they forgot.

I too have a lawn service. When I bought this acre I thought I was going to mow my own. I had picked out the tractor I was going to buy. Then I got delayed a few weeks and called the lawn service the past owner used... $30 a week. Heck, I did the math and the break even point was two years! And that was with me riding the friggin tractor. Like Harry said, it frees up an entire weekend morning, I certainly would have 4 hours into the entire treatment.

Those scoops do look cool... if they were plastic! Anyone else think it would be cool to get the latest Beetle in a kit ?

Guys I saw this model last Sunday at the Super September Showdown... much better (or worse!) in person! Great work Blair.

It's a phenomena called "butt dialing". Somehow you managed to hit a series of screens with some part of your body as you handled your phone. Yesterday mine dialed a FaceTime call with the pizza shop. Fortunately I got a message saying they didn't have FaceTime. As far as language.. I believe the iPhone can be set for a bunch of languages. No doubt just because they can. But there's a market for it.

Acre properties here! I have left a lot of my property as woods so I don't go crazy with the blower. I can blow the leaves in my back yard to the woods in about a half hour. Raking? Probably the whole day. Still, the nut behind me chases single leaves as they fall.

Some definitions --- Above- Some dirty old built ups. Nothing historically significant. No paint, parts missing and parts broken from play time. Historic models that have never been reissued. Great resto candidates. One step up the totem pole... some old T-Birds built by a kid many years ago. Brush paint, no significant detailing. Old annuals. Again, great resto candidates. Not worth restoring - ten coats of varied color of brush paint. Flocked roof. When I did soak the body out of curiosity, I found that the roof had been smashed and badly glued back together. Not worth restoring since this kit has been reissued over and over and you can buy a fresh clean unbuilt for $10-20 depending on your market. The above six images are called "Folk Art", priceless relics of our youth. Very cool examples of the contemporary build at the time. Some of these were probably entered in the local hobby shop contests. Somehow these have survived intact some 50 years. The sad part is a good number of modelers confuse these with "Ugly Builds" and gleefully pull apart all this history!

Many years ago when I was very active as an eBay seller I came across a Tandy PC mint in the box for $10 at a fire dept donation flea market. I put it up for auction with a $9.99 start bid and thought I'd make a few dollars. Almost fell off my chair when I checked and it sold for over $200.

Oh the irony! Right now I can hear the constant drone of my neighbor behind me's friggin leaf vacuum! It's been constant since I've gotten up this morning. The guy is a yard nut and will run this thing without break until there is no leaf anywhere. The amazing part is that the leaves have barely started to fall.

Here's the later version of the valve cover. It has the Cadillac bolt pattern on it. We'll never know if losing the Caddy scripts was a royalty thing or a design thing...

Man I walk away from the computer and all that happens ?? I wouldn't know where to start looking. And the last 20 years probably haven't been kind to her either! The elderly father is long dead. The three year old is probably 25-26 at this point though! Maybe cute but she'd call you "sir".

Back when I was a kid in the last century, I learned about models and got involved through peer exposure. A lot of kids built back then and it was easy to buy models. Every corner soda shop, drug store, grocery store and chain store had models on display. As we know that's not the deal today. So lets get a young perspective.. Jason, how did you discover models? What made you get involved? Where do you buy your models?

I have the cheap version of the double Messerschmidt / Isetta kit and they both have clear bodies. I believe Gunze thinks that it is easier to mask the glass than to install some. I've been afraid to even try that kit. And don't forget the 1962 Revell glitter cars... those are essentially clear bodies tinted green with glitter suspended in the plastic. And yes they shatter like clear plastic as you try to work with them!

A follow up from the above rant. I went to the UPS website and filed a complaint. Within a few hours I got an email from a human saying that someone would call me during next business day. I never received that call, but we got a UPS package (the other half of the garbage pail delivery) and it was delivered to my covered front porch! Guess they got the message.

Ha! You guys are biting off more than you want! I am finding it impossible to get services in line. Imagine calling 5 restaurants asking to book a dinner for 50 people, and nobody calls you back! After several calls, all have promised to email menus and pricing... nothing at all received. It took the limo company two weeks to get me a quote. And that's the preferred vendor! I can only imagine when I get to the actual conference... biting my nails wishing this one was over!

I had two idiot encounters today... I stopped at the Wawa convenience store to pick up a few bags of ice for the cooler of soda we have at our club meeting. I noticed Coke products were on sale at 2 12 packs for $8 so I grabbed up two. Then I saw their breakfast sandwiches were on sale 2 for $3 so I got two of those. I approach the cash register carrying 2 12 packs between my arms, with two boxed sandwiches on top of that, while balancing a bag of ice in each hand. It's a balancing act. Approach the register and there is this young couple. The girlfriend is paying for their lunch with her debit card while this skinny little dweeb is watching her. He see me with all this stuff and still stands there in the way leaning against the counter. The deli counter calls their number so the girlfriend leaves the transaction half way done and walks back across the store to retrieve their sandwiches. It never occurs to him to be a man and go get the friggin sandwiches while she finishes paying for them?? No, he just stays there blocking the counter. I finally have had enough and say "excuse me, can I put these on the counter." Dweeb looks at me startled and it takes him a moment to comprehend and get the heck outta the way! I head for the Pennsylvania Turnpike entrance where I encounter idiot number two. In front of me going through the toll booth is a beat up old van. The lane allows for cash payers to get a ticket, or Easy Pass owners to just fly through. Should've known he'd be a cash guy. He stops at the ticket machine. He reaches, he's way too far away from the machine to grab the ticket. So he takes off his seat belt and is hanging out his window trying to get it. He finally gives up and opens the door, gets out and gets the ticket. Now he's back in the truck. Still sitting still with a line in back of him, he puts his seat belt back on. He sits and reads the ticket. Then he puts the van in gear and inches forward. He heads up the ramp slowly, this is the acceleration lane where you need to merge with traffic at the end... he doesn't break 35 on the way to that end where.... he friggin stops! Since we couldn't merge we sit while he looks for a break in the whizzing traffic. He decides to move forward, again accelerating slowly.... I'm stuck behind him because the cars and trucks are whizzing by in the left lane and I can't get around him. He gets up to about 50, calls that good and just cruises along blocking traffic, that's running around 75. I finally get a break, pull around him and watch him quickly disappear in my rear view mirror, never to be seen again. I deserved a numpty free afternoon after all that! And I pretty much got it!

Today??? I got to eat some chicken and pizza with good friends! Yes! I went to my model club meeting. At TSSMCC we had a good showing today, most of the usual suspect were at the meeting. Gregg Hogg and Bob Doebley came up from the Philly Guys to attend. Victor from the Diversified Scalerz came too. Bart Orlans gave a BMF demo at the request of a member who was trying it for their first time. It was a good day!

Amen and agreed! There is a certain odd faction in this hobby that doesn't understand how the world works outside of the confines of their parents basement. There is often no respect for those who volunteer to spend their time doing good things for the hobby. That includes folks who run message boards, shows and other free services. These people think we all are fat cats in big companies that are making big money off of them. So they treat people with the same contempt they do when pulling a scam at the Walmart returns counter.