Tom Geiger

and some of the guys here are still living in the last century! They'll be posting this here in like 12 years!

I always said these things would happen when computers got cheap and too easy to use! I used to sell old car brochures on eBay. I sold a brochure to a guy and by chance checked the feedback he left... I was shocked to see he recently left neutrals and three negatives for different sellers. In reading his comments, he didn't understand that he was rating a seller... he thought he was writing a review of the brochures he bought! He would leave negatives like, "Didn't like brochure. Small and not in color". Total idiot! At least he liked my brochure!

Since all the recent tools of US kits have been mentioned above before I found this thread, I thought I'd throw an odd one out there. Besides, I haven't built any of those new US tools, so I don't have experience to comment. Revell of Germany has tooled up some new stuff as of late. Kits like the two Beetles and old MIni Cooper come to mind. I own the Beetle sedan but I haven't tried to build one yet. I haven't scored a Mini yet, because I want to buy and build three... I guess you know where that is going! Anyway, I'm nominating the ROG Trabants.. they've done the 2 door sedan (Limousine) and wagon (Universal) and these are great examples of modern tooling. There is no flash anywhere and very little in the way of very light seam lines. Ejector pins are only present on areas that will not be seen when the kit is built. Same for the tree connections. These also are designed in a way that they break clean, rather than taking a chunk of your model part with them. I am building the Universal kit right now and it's downright wonderful. Another board member described it as 'the kit falls together' and that's rightfully so. Overall it's just a beautiful piece of engineering between ROG and who ever their partner in Poland is that presses the kits. At this point I cannot wait to try their Beetle kit!

BREAKING NEWS! I've gotten some nice positive response on the Trabant Forums. One of the fellows there from Germany says he lives near the car museum that has MY Trabant postal van in it. That is the postal vehicle number 125946 I am modeling. He says he will go there this week and get me a bunch more photos. He knows I'm most interested in the front seat set up and any postal trays. Ain't the Internet just grand! Hurrah!

I had an encounter with a Numpty! My wife and I were sitting at the bar in our favorite pub the other evening and a guy about our age engaged us in conversation. Not an unusual thing, this pub is like Cheers. That's why we go there, the bar tenders see us coming and our favorite beer just shows up when we sit down. We are talking with this guy and somehow hobbies comes up. My wife tells him I'm a model car builder and this guy just screws up his face and says, "What? You play with toys?" and I replied, "Oh yes I do!" End of conversation. I'm not telling anyone where the body is buried.

Here's the 1939 Plymouth brochure... it looks lower, longer, wider.. maybe sectioned and chopped too? This was the brochure that I decided to stop collecting brochures as model building reference material!

The Trabant van progresses... This is a very interesting kit. It has tons of teeny tiny little parts, and most of them go together very well. There have been a few questions as the instruction sheet will point a part to a location... the washer fluid container shows as sitting on the inner fender well. The area it sits is a square, the bottom of the unit has a round hole. Then I realize if it sat up there, the hood wouldn't close. So I went to my Internet reference photos and saw that it sits down low in front of the inner fender. That's when I noticed a notch on the back side of the unit that fits the square peg. This is one tight little engine compartment! And Revell of Germany very accurately copied every friggin bit of it! Some of the parts will be barely visible in the finished model, but each piece was tooled like it was a model all unto itself! Here's where I am right now. I have just placed the body over the chassis to get an idea of how it all sits, and what will be visible in the final piece. From this vantage point you can see the mount point for the washer bottle in front of the shock tower. Yea, it sits down in that hole, pretty much obscuring the view of anything below it. See the perfectly manufactured master cylinder? The battery mounts directly above it. Probably not a good position in the real car as I'd be concerned that battery muck on that assembly. In this view you can see the steering assembly. It perfectly matches up to the suspension assembly, but again it will be buried way down outta sight! The big thick gray rod next to it is the shifter assembly that again, perfectly attaches to the firewall and the transmission. Such details! On the right side, we have the coils, and I've drilled out the spark plugs on the engine cover. Note that there is no distributor, the wire from each coil goes directly to a spark plug. Easiest wiring job ever! And that's the fuel tank on the firewall as well. One last view.. I can see some little paint things I can correct. One of the big reasons I take a lot of progress shots. I see things in the photo I don't with my own eyes. ROG gives an extensive list of colors and such, but some of the colors listed are taking two different colors and mixing them. So you have to figure out what that color would be. I've also noticed that Revell's color instructions differ a bit from my 1:1 reference photos. Obviously I'll go with the 1:1 in those cases. One that got by me, was the shock towers, as you see ROG said to paint them flat black, with a silver nut on each. In every 1:1 shot, they are body color (argh!) and too late to change. You can see the detail on the back of the engine in this shot. I don't know if you'll be able to see it once the hood is hinged. Here's a reference shot of the 1:1 car. Busy under there isn't it? And a second reference pic of a different car. Overall, ROG did an excellent job of modeling this engine bay! I am not even going to attempt all that wire! I think I'll settle for the spark wires and I believe I'll do the battery cables as well. The only thing that's not in the kit, is the cylinder thing next to the fuel tank on the firewall. It does leave an empty spot under my hood so I'd like to add it. Would you say that's a wiper motor? What could ROG have done better? Not much. Note that this engine bay isn't even done yet. There's more pieces! And that should pretty much fill up the entire thing. You can see the European modeling mindset here, it reminds me of those Airfix 1/32 full detail kits. Yea, they had all these fiddly little parts too! The one thing they could've done is list the names of the parts. There is a chart that shows every part, and it's part number. There is a color chart in multiple languages. I would've liked to know the part names, especially since some of it is so out of our norm, and I had to figure it all out from the pictures. Once I finish up the engine bay, it will be onward to the suspension. I do want to get it up on wheels. Then I can concentrate on the body and interior. I have the interior panels and seats all painted and ready to go. The door / side panels were a triple mask to get them to match my 1:1 photos. I did paint both seats, although I'm pretty sure there is only one. I don't have an interior shot but I can only see one head rest in my reference photos. So I'm assuming there is some sort of mail sorting tray where the passenger seat would be. At least that's how a lot of US mail vehicles were set up. I have put the question out on the Trabant Forum, so I've been holding off on making final interior decisions. This is coming together well. I'll bet I have her finished at my club meeting next Saturday. I can see myself slowing down to make a load of mail. Yea, life is in the details.

I like your analysis. It's very true. One time I was in a management class about working with diverse people. One of the examples was to give someone a $20 bill and send them to get you 'a good lunch' with no further instruction. What would that person consider bringing you? It will vary as much as modeling opinions! Just watch the lunch line at work and see how very different the trays are from those very limited choices!

Iceman I love those '50 Ford pickups!

I'd be drinking the bottled water for a while myself. I'd make sure the pipes all get flushed out good, and don't forget to flush out your water heater, and same with your refrigerator ice maker. Note that they said heating up the algae would produce toxic results.

Nothing wrong with a slump buster! Here's one I did over the winter (can't ya tell?). I had this old built up someone painted this flat green and I thought it would be a cool rod. So I pulled it apart, ditched the fenders and such, and redid it as you see. It was the first model in a long time that went quickly and I built it beginning to end without stopping! Go for it Charlie!

I have also noticed this on a couple of 25 year old builds. One is AMT and the other Revell and both were modern era pressings, new kits when built. I have noticed that the tires have shrunk on the rims, sitting back exposing the lip just like in your photo. I don't think this is the same thing as the ancient tires that melted rims etc. This is shrinkage in the tire itself as the vinyl dries out, not the tire causing a reaction to other materials touching it.

Like this? I'll add a tip. Both the side light and tail light are BMFed and then colored with a Sharpie. Note that a Sharpie just on the body color won't look right since the green underneath will still be seen under the thin ink. So that's why I BMF the piece first.

Thanks Ron! There is nothing better than "being in the zone"! That's when you know the hobby is working. Catch a ride to NNL East with your friend someday. An NNL isn't about cutting edge models. It's more about you and I and enjoying the hobby with others. Your work is welcome here! And you'll have the best hobby day of the year!

Thanks. I need the version prior to this, the 1975-78 Corolla Deluxe. My first brand new car was a 1978 Corolla Deluxe wagon, that I was handed as a company car. I enjoyed it very much, and put 100,000 miles on it in two years. When I met my wife her family had a 1976 4 door sedan. So I'd like to build something similar someday.

Ron, I think you answered something for yourself.... when I get involved in a project I lose track of time and pretty much tune out everything else. I can have the TV on and never notice that the show has changed. I bring a cold beer to the model room, I take one sip and forget about it. It goes warm and flat. But I emerge from the model room refreshed, and with a sense of accomplishment. My mind is clear and I feel good. And that's what a hobby should do for you. I never saw a rule book that says you have to build them all. I don't put myself under that kind of pressure since it is a hobby. I consider my 'inventory' a collection that I enjoy owning, and I like to have the kits and parts on hand for my next great idea. Someday I may just sell it all to a dealer, or if I fall off my perch, my wife will. Was my ownership a waste? No, owning it all made me happy and I was keeping it safe and warm for the next guy. So if you do lose track of time while working on a high level of detail, go for it. I'd rather have a handful of nice builds that I poured my heart and soul into, than shelves full of mediocre stuff that I slapped together in the interest of saving time. My life, my opinions. Your actual mileage may vary!

Recently I drove a good distance to check out a new hobby shop. I was disappointed by the selection, they didn't have any of the kits on my want list. I found myself trying to buy a kit, just because I was there! Then I caught myself and left empty handed.

You are right for the original AMT kit. Note that I commented on the comment that " Even the Revells have molded in consoles" . These are modern era kits done for enthusiasts. They should've done the console separate in these.

Here's one that hasn't been mentioned yet... I believe Round 2 still has that 1980 Volare tool!

Your interior is phenomenal! I was looking at this one recently and the work you did on the different colors was difficult since the seats are both molded in. I've also thought about deepening the Johan interiors, just haven't gotten the motivation to try it yet. Great work!

And why did they do that. Surely a console is a large enough piece to mold separately. That would give a modeler the option of using the console or not. Heck, the model I'm working on now has tiny microscopic pieces that should've been molded in detail! Great work on the conversion.

When I started this thread I was hoping to get responses by guys who had quit vices and spent some of the money on the hobby. For instance I remember guys who quit smoking putting half the savings into plastic. In fact I know a guy who bought himself a brand new car, using his old cigarette money as the payment. He said his wake up call was when he finally added it up and realized for the first time how much it cost. Then there are the guys who put their own hobby / pleasure ahead of home and family. I've known of guys who were in bad financial situations who continued to spend a few hundred a month on eBay. I know of a guy whose family car was repossessed while he was at a model show! And what about that father you see at shows dragging around two disinterested kids who are carrying big bags of his purchases. Did he spend any money on them that day? What was the life lesson those kids learned there?

I agree. I'm almost great when I use Tamiya Tape! Still there are very small things that need to be taped off occasionally and I'll still use foil. I then will do a quick score around the foil prior to attempting to remove it. That seems to do the trick.

Things just look better in a photo than they do in person. When I first got back to the hobby I had several issues of 'the other magazine' prior to actually attending a model meeting or show. My very first show was attending NNL East 3. There I saw some of the models I saw in the magazine, and in person I could see minor flaws and such. I actually found that encouraging as I was intimidated with the models in the photos, as they were perfect. Seeing them in person gave me more a 'hey I could rise to doing that!" feeling. And this was before Photoshop! In fact, my Geo Tracker looks really nice in photos! In person it's a dull and rusty thing!

I have a program called IrfanView, that's a free program. I can do minor stuff like cropping and brightening. There is a button for sharpening too. But for the most part, I just take a mess of photos and one or two are bound to come out nice enough to post.