Tom Geiger

States all have weird laws and different and creative ways to tax people. When I lived in NJ, I had a friend from VA bragging at how low his property taxes were. He neglected to tell me that they had personal property tax, being taxed on the value of your household, your cars etc. That upped the ante considerably! I had a friend in Tennessee who told me that cars old enough that they showed as zero value on the state's tax sheet were like gold there. Yea, I'd be driving a car just over that threshold! Heck, I probably do right now. When we moved to PA, our property taxes are considerably less than they were in NJ. But nobody told us that there was a town tax of 1% on everyone in your household's income! And I worked a few towns over, and that town taxed all the non-residents who worked there, calling it a "services fee." Yea, they'll get you one way or another.

Well that sucks! I used to know a NJ State Trooper who patrolled the Garden State Parkway. He told me that he'd never both you if you were going 75 or more in the flow of traffic. He was looking for the car that was frequently changing lanes or other dangerous behavior at that speed. There were allegations of 'profiling' back then, so he added with EVERYONE speeding, he could pull over anyone he wanted since they were all breaking the law. Sorry you got the luck of the draw on that one!

I believe the situation is that we need to be in utter amazement at what tooling does exist, instead of upset at what doesn't. While much of the hobby takes it as a given that it should exist, this isn't the case at all. And this just wouldn't happen in business today. First, note that most of the early tooling was produced to a much higher quality than needed, allowing it to still be in operating condition 50 years later. Today's businesses would design the tooling to last exactly the usage they had planned. Then for tooling to go into a warehouse and never be used again, until it's being looked at today is utterly amazing. Again, today, every one of those would have been inventoried, bar coded, had a asset value attached and depreciated annually. There would be a report that covered the storage costs, depreciation and other costs of that tool's continued existence, especially in situations where they paid to move this dead weight several times. We weren't there so a lot of modelers assume that the management of these companies back in the early 1960s knew that these kits would be collected 50 years later and planned for that. Nothing is further from the truth. I had a conversation with Bob Paeth of Revell back at GSL many years ago. He said that Revell saw itself as a toy company. Their market was kids and they thought those products would be consumed, played with and thrown out. He was honored that history transpired the way it has that we remembered his work today. In those days model companies focus was about one year out. They tried to get two releases out of each annual. The hardtop at the beginning of the season, followed by the convertible at mid-year. Things like those Revell 1961 glitter cars were a mid year attempt to get one more pressing from those tools before they'd be useless. Annuals were put on clearance at the end of the year because nobody thought anyone would ever want one of those past the model year. That was the sentiment of the 1:1 car business then. Last year's designs were old hat. So last year's annual usually was tooled into next year's annual promo, as a cost savings effort over producing a whole new tool. It was reasoned that the tool would be scrapped otherwise. I've seen modelers today critical of the companies saying they should've started fresh every year and have kept all the tools. Nobody had a chrystal ball back then to foresee an adult market 40-50 years out. And even if they did, no company is focused out that far, way beyond the retirement of those who were then making the decisions. Designers got rewarded for coming up with new uses for retired tools. That's how the Beverley Hillbilly truck became the Jolly Roger, and AMT annuals became that stock car series. They got more life out of tools that otherwise would have been scrapped for the metal value, the storage space, and to get the asset off the books. And that's how it went for the vast majority of consumer goods manufacture over the years. And that's how it would work today, in the age of computerized records, and lean companies. So instead of whining about what was lost, we should be rejoicing that a good portion of the historic tooling from our hobby still exists at all!

The Johan classics of the 1960s tools may still exist. Note that when Okey bought some remains of Johan, he put out a flyer of coming releases. There was a version of each the Mercedes and Cadillac, offering them as rat rods. If he was advertising them, it's reasonable to think he had the tooling at the time. It's known that he lost tooling to either some entity that did work on the tools for him, or pressed his kits. Maybe these two are still out there somewhere. Not that they are hard to find on eBay....

I got pulled over a few times when I had my '56 Chevy, just so the officers could look it over and talk about cars. Kinda a relief since your heart is pounding hard from getting pulled over in the first place!

For 99 bucks I'll send you my copy! And I'll throw in free shipping!

Oh we are up on wheels! I did some fiddling with the engine bay, probably not done yet. I got myself prepared to spend an evening working on the chassis... the darn thing fell together so well I was done in a half hour. Much of it isn't even glued. What kit engineering! Per Mike Cassidy's observation, I spent some time cleaning up the coils. Yea, it stuck out like a sore thumb to me too. So I do listen! It's still not perfect as you may see in the rest of my photos. But I may spend some more time at it. But here's what the engine bay looks like in the body. As I said, we are up on wheels. Here is the Trabbie mocked up on all fours! Side view showing the panel sides. And noting that I am going to have to make a rear mount for that exhaust pipe... way too low! Wheels.. the kit includes 4 tiny, flea size decals for the wheel centers. I lost two of these in the process. Note to Revell... put like 8 of these in the kit! So if anyone has extras of these, drop me a note! And a rear view just because I took the photo... The interior will be so cool with the bed cover and side panels in place. I think I'll make some packages. I wanted to see how the engine bay would look with the hood in place. I am disappointed with the die cast toy like hinge assembly. When I get to doing my Trabbie Tramp, I will fill the holes in the firewall and just have the hood as a separate piece like I do most of my models. In fact, notice the little decal near the passenger side hinge. That's the serial number plate, cool that it is included as a decal, but it should be on an angle right where that darn hinge cut out is! The chassis that fell together! It can be done. All 4 wheels hit the ground and the chassis symmetry is right just by assembling the parts! Amazing! My only observation is that the one piece exhaust is 'springy'. I noticed on other build photos that it hung real low, and wasn't so on my 1:1 photo cars. So I pinned it in place mid ship between the manifold and muffler. I see that I will need to do the same somewhere at the rear so the exhaust exits right under the bumper. All in all, I'm having fun. I've made friends on the Trabant board who have invited me to their meet in Washington DC. I may go to see Trabbies in person and get a ride! I still haven't gotten my photos of the postal Trabant in the museum in Germany, so my interior is on hold. I figured I could finish the chassis and may just do the same for the body this weekend.

Scott - The irony is that in high school we would've died a thousand deaths being seen in any of the wagons in this thread! It meant that you were driving mommy's car to school, or that you had the cast off mommy car as your first car. It just wasn't cool in 1976! Fast forward close to 40 years and those wagons are pretty darn cool!

Dave Burket specifically asked for this one and was told it no longer existed. It's gone. And ya know, it wasn't that hot a kit and would cause a great outcry from casual builders who bought it, not knowing it's origin and expecting more contemporary AMT detail. It is typical of a promotional model of that era turned kit. Curbside, very thick plastic, one piece chassis, one piece interior bucket. The interior is very narrow and the top door sills are way too thick. Take one and put a Monogram '59 Chevy interior in it and you'll see. I did. I had to hog out the Buick body to fit the modern interior in it. The fact that it was such difficult material to build from, is why we are all so pleased with your build! I would welcome a new tool 59 and 60 Buick kit. I owned a '60 Electra 2 door hardtop for over 25 years. Having one at the detail level of that Monogram '59 and '60 Chevy would be very cool. With the recent releases and announcements I don't discount anything anymore!

Yea, that kinda sets the tone for a thread! Once I saw that I never bothered to open and read it. I saw it was going down that crooked road to no good real fast!

Agreed! That's why I was buying a 12 year old Jaguar for cash! The last new car I bought was my 1996 Grand Caravan and that was a wise decision since we still own it at near 200,000 miles. Since then I have bought a line of used cars for cash. I paid under $5000 each for them, except the big splurge on the Jag. The two Plymouth Breezes bought with 30,000 miles on each for $4300 each worked out very well. I put 200,000 on one before it died, and still have the other one. I never want to have a car payment, so I save a little and look for awhile until I find the right car at the right price. Now I have my eye out for a PT Cruiser in a good color, 50,000 miles or less for around $5000. And I'll eventually find the right car. The funny thing was that when I bought my house, in processing the mortgage, my credit report got flagged. I got a call that there was a problem since my car loans and other consumer debt weren't coming up. They had a hard time accepting that I had no car loans and no debt. They said I didn't fit their profile.

When I photograph models I get down at table height. I often will literally sit my camera down on the table to get that right perspective. You want to avoid the 4 story view like in the above photo. You don't see this in real life. In fact, the paint was faded on the roof of my Dodge Caravan high top a long time before I actually saw it. I just don't see the top of the van from my normal viewing position! Every so often we get a link to an album some guy took at a show from that 4 story view position. He never got down to capture the model, and has posted 100 photos of roof tops! And that's one of the reasons we raise the tables at NNL East. To ease people's backs from trying to view the models down on low tables, but also so people can get decent photos!

Andy, I also bought a car from a Bentley / Rolls Royce dealer. That's my 2000 Jaguar S Type sitting in the delivery queue. It was a weird experience buying a car in that environment. It was a 23,000 mile cream puff, and according to the salesman had been a spare car on an estate. It didn't get used much so they traded it, and a Bentley, in on a new Bentley. But they talked about it like it was an old piece of junk. It was advertised on eBay for $14,500 but I was told it was sold. A month later I saw it advertised again so I called, and they said it had been sold but two different people couldn't get a loan on it. They didn't like this price range because of that, so they were planning on wholesaling it. But they'd hold it for me to take a look at the next day. I offered them $10,000 cash and told them I'd go up the block to my bank and the car would be gone immediately. They countered with $10,500 (from $14,500) and we had a deal. It was interesting sitting in their show room for the time it took for them to prep it for delivery. One guy showed up with a six month old Bentley convertible, saying he wanted to trade up to the sport model. I could hear the whole exchange. The salesman said they couldn't locate the sport model as a convertible, only a coupe. The customer said he didn't care what it took, get him one. Money never came up. Then a guy in his 30s came in with who I assume was his father, an elderly man in a wheel chair pushed by a nurse. They were looking at new Rolls Royces. It's a different world these folks live in! The salesman was nice and I asked him the demographics of who bought a new Rolls or Bentley. He said most of the cars went out of the door for cash to well healed folks. Old money, CEOs, doctors. He said that the big change in business over the last decade did away with the leased cars, the company cars and the like. The average CEO would drive something less conspicuous to the office, and use the high end car for personal use.

that's the beauty of this interactive forum. You can ask! Most folks who show their work, especially the works in progress, are very happy to explain exactly how they did that step or created that detail. While there are very talented folks who do unbelievable things, a lot of the details that most of us do are pretty simple, just things you didn't think of on your own.

I dunno... does this one count? This is my 1/25 scale playhouse that I built out of basswood. I wanted to get some experience working with wood and working in scale, so I tackled this project. It was in either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics Magazine, and they included the complete set of plans and a bill of materials... I followed these plans exactly, but used my trusty 1/25 scale ruler for the measuring. It went together very well. It sits in my display case along with my model cars and trucks. It fits right in.

LOL Popsicle sticks are sooo way outta scale for anything. They are pretty much too hard and too finished a wood to really work with. Hobby woods are so cheap that it's really worthwhile to work with bass wood. I just laugh when there's a diorama where the fence is popsicle sticks, using that round edge at the top of the fence. It just screams toy!

I dunno, guess it depends on who is buying... I don't need any more so I'd only buy it if the auction was ending without a bid, and it was less than $10 with free shipping. Lance Armstrong maybe?

One of my most indispensable tools is my 1/25 scale ruler. Measure something 1:1 from real life, then copy it onto plastic using that 1/25 scale ruler. You are on your way to making an exact scale replica. It's actually much easier than approximating. In this photo I was making 17" long window frame pieces. All ten of them were right on the money! You are right, there are so many things people do out of scale. From approximating when they scratch build, to buying 1/12 scale doll house accessories... yea, I've seen those. I remember a car with a HUGE newspaper and other accessories. And please watch your wire sizes... nothing like the guy who took apart a calculator and is using that wire for plug wire... (good 'enuf, it's what I had) well, now you have garden hoses running to your plugs. You'd be better off NOT wiring the engine at all. And I always approach people in a non-judgmental way to help them with their models... "Yo Bozo! Get over here, this looks like crud, what's wrong with you?"

And for those who can't wait for hell to freeze over... Plymouth pickup and Dodge van! I believe Art was project manager on this version... Oh the dreaded D word! There is so much nicely done light commercial stuff. Just take it apart and it's a model!

Professionally we call it "workplace ergonomics". There are standards for your work bench that will make life easier and less painful. First, as someone mentioned, get a good chair. A used office chair for a desk height bench, a drafting stool for a higher table. Not the Staples special $89 chair either. You're better off looking around for a sale of used professional office furniture. Brand names are Steelcase, Knoll, Herman Miller and Haworth. Don't be afraid to pay $100 for one of these, they listed out at near a grand new. Make sure your work surface is at the standard height for your chosen bench type. The above comment about getting up to reach supplies every 15 to 20 minutes also falls into a workplace standard. It's not good to sit in one position for an hour or more, so people are encouraged to move around as part of their day. My work bench is an old hollow core door that's wrapped in brown craft paper. It sits at proper desk height and I have a Knoll office chair that I got for free when a company was moving out of office space. Good lighting is very important. I have many bulbs aimed at my bench from different angles. My problem is that they are all standard bulbs and I could hatch chicks on my bench with that heat. If you are buying lights, get the cool kind! Get a surface you can work on. Some folks like those self healing mats. I work on two surfaces that sit on top of my door / bench. One is a piece of wood that has a rounded corner, and holes of different sizes drilled into it that I can position parts into to work on them. I also have a thick piece of glass for my flat surface that I can cut against, or true up things. I have shelves above my bench where I keep parts cabinets and my unfinished project collection. I have hooks on the edge of the shelves to keep tools. I also have one of those rotating tool carousels. The tough part is getting the discipline to put the tools back in their spots.

They are sitting that way for now, and the way I build there chances are good to stay that way a really long time! The only bad part is that the finishes were damaged like you see in the photos when I got them. Heck, I would've sealed that patina in with Dullcote if it was intact!

I know a guy who has a tricked out PT Cruiser with those dern Lambo doors... hits his head on that door at least once a week! Donk!

Oh why do I hear the theme song from "Oklahoma" in my head???

well it looks like we'll have to fix all that! I am finishing up my Trabant Universal Van and will be looking for a new project... maybe that Ebbro 2CV van... and we'll figure out how to hinge them suckers.. prototypical or not. I want to be able to view and photo the model with the doors open and the doors shut.

Okay! We have half a case sold already!