Tom Geiger

and they don't sell encyclopedias door to door anymore either!

Harry, we're in the wrong hobby. A guy I know from work just had his 21 year old daughter signed onto a professional video game team! She will be playing for sponsors in big tournaments. The first one she will be in has a $50,000 cash prize, that she'd share with her team mates. Professional video game players can make six figures. Darned if I knew that! And we pick a hobby where there is no money!

Agreed. If I had the cash, I'd do something practical like pay down my mortgage. A funny story. Tesla doesn't have dealers, the company sells the cars directly to consumers. New Jersey has a very strong car dealers lobby, so they got a bill passed, barring a manufacturer from selling directly to the public. IHt made the news. The next day or so I go on Facebook and some clown has a post "Impeach Governor Christie -- He Hates The Environment, He's Barred Electric Cars From Being Sold in NJ" Heaven save us from the numpties!

When I first saw it, it was neatly parked in the right side space.. on the charger. I actually parked it that way when I returned from my test drive so we could walk around the car. That SUV was parked a bit close. And I didn't anticipate another Tesla showing up right then and there! Yes, there are two charging stations in the restaurant parking lot. These were free, no doubt to entice people to eat at this specific restaurant. It's in the middle of Eagleview in Exton, PA, a high end planned community, complete with $800,000 condos. So it's a bit uppity and the Tesla fit right in. My cousin says that there is a company that oversees all these charging stations so he has their credit card. So if they wanted to charge, that's how the payment works. My cousin has the car 3 months and has put 8000 miles on it. He's been as far west as Michigan and down south to North Carolina, mapping his course through the Tesla GPS that of course knows where all the chargers are. The programs in a Tesla automatically update themselves.

Maybe they closed abruptly. Some businesses don't want to admit that they're losing money and when the end hits, they just lock the door that day. It's often when their suppliers suspend their credit. Other times a principal owner dies, and the business closes. I don't know this shop or situation, just stating possible reasons why it went this way...

As we get closer to Round 2 issuing the new Demon kit, these will magically appear for sale at shows and on eBay. They exist, but guys have been hoarding them. Some will try to dump them for value, hoping buyers don't know a new kit is coming. Once the new kit is here, the value will drop a bit since half the market (those wishing to build the kit) will have evaporated overnight.

Jeff you have stumbled upon the 90% of kit buyers! Yea, these casual guys who build an occasional kit pay the freight for our hobby. Remember those of us motivated enough by the hobby to be super involved, build very detailed models on a constant basis and participate in the organized hobby, both on line and in person are something like 5-10% of the market. I've bumped into those same guys at Michaels. Some are happy to talk to you about models and such, a few want a recommendation on a kit, and others seem embarrassed to have been seen in the toy aisle! I used to work with a guy named Bob. At work there were no outward signs that he was into cars or models at all. One day he told me that he saw someone in Model Cars Magazine had the same name as me... well, it was me! That's how I discovered he had some model cars. Learning about him, he was one of those guys who would occasionally hit the hobby shop. And when there he bought a magazine once. He was eternally working on a Revell 32 Ford. He was interested in talking about building better models, but wasn't motivated to actually follow through. He asked about wiring his distributor and I gave him a resin predrilled one and the needed wire. Never heard what he did with it. I was encouraging him to come to our club or even to NNL East to see what we were all about. He never did. He just wasn't that interested. And he represents the majority of kit consumers.

I'm not the OP but it looks like a photo etch sheet from Eduard. Not big in the USA but they do a lot of etch for different models. I was looking at their products for US aircraft carriers for a project a buddy of mine wanted to do.

Lee, my point is that if your holy grail car exists as a resin.. Anybody at any income level can save up or trade for that one resin kit if that car is very important to you. Same goes for that holy grail expensive kit. Do an eBay watch for that kit until one comes through at your price. Buy an old built up and restore it. People we know have done spectacular builds from diecasts. Reference the 1903 Ford Model A that Harry showed in the Model A thread this week. Skill wise, there is no greater motivator to learn new skills and methods than getting that one holy grail car on your shelf!

Harry, I only thought of this when you said it was a new concrete driveway... Is the rust stain on top from something metal dripping down onto it? Or - was the concrete made with stone from an area with high iron content in the sand? If so it's rusting from within, from bits of iron close to or at the top of the dried concrete. I know in Monmouth County NJ we had this issue... in fact there was rust washing from the lawn across the sidewalks from the iron content in the soil.

Tonight my wife and I went for dinner at a local restaurant. It's in a nice planned community, so we decided to take a walk. I posted here that I had never seen a Tesla, so I was surprised when I spied this one in one of the two EV parking spaces. I had reported here earlier that my aunt told me my cousin David had bought a Tesla, so I said to my wife that it would be funny if this one was his. And little did I know as I was lining it up for a quick photo from my phone that I'd be driving it five minutes later! As I'm in that position my wife says, "Look!" And I see David and his wife walking towards us! We all laugh together about bumping into each other this way, then he asks me if I want a ride in it. Of course I said yes, and headed for the passenger door. He motioned me to the other side, "Here, you drive." I didn't need to be told a second time, I just slid into the drivers seat. This is a pretty cool car. The entire center console is a huge TV panel. I shifted into reverse and the back up camera came on filling the screen. As I hit the accelerator (I don't dare call it the gas pedal!) it silently moved backwards. Then I put it in drive and started forward silently. It drove nicely, and I learned that it's set up so that when you take your foot off the accelerator it starts to brake, so there's no coasting. David said that you generally don't need to apply the brakes until the last few seconds of a stop. Something to get used to. I tooled around the roads in this development at a maximum of 25 mph and the car was completely silent. So David told me to hit the highway so I could feel it accelerate. Man! He told me to nail it and I did, it just took off! Quickly! He said the zero to 60 was something like 5.5 seconds. And there was no roar, kind of a powerful whir sound. What you'd expect when Buck Rogers hit the throttle on a space ship! So that was very cool. Just the other day I was here posting I had never seen a Tesla, and now I've driven one. Ya never know what's around the next corner. That's what makes life interesting.

Rained like crazy here in PA last night. So much that it pretty much topped off my pool! Harry, I'd keep the Chevy. It's pretty unique, I'll bet when you take it to shows it's the only one there. Mustangs are like belly buttons.

Whoa! Drunken old folks driving rental cars they're not familiar with?

Ha! I forgot that. Yes, I just got some for the first time too.

R&R 1955 Buick Wagon Perrys Resin 1954 Plymouth Wagon R&R's 1969 Chevy wagon Jimmy Flintstone Chrysler 300 Wagon -- they did sell these in Europe Jimmy's '53 Ford wagon. There are two versions of this body as well as a sedan delivery. R&R did these as well. That's all the photos I had handy

Here's as close as it gets for the Kojac car. 1/32 scale (sorta!) from Lindberg back in the day. Ma's Resin has a 3D printed prototype of the same era Pontiac Lemans, so some enterprising person could indeed build one in 1/25. For the 1950 Plymouth, I've seen built models of this car! I have an R&R resin kit that would be the basis to do so. So it is possible. At this point in our hobby, there are tons of subjects that were done in plastic kit. But there is another huge group of subjects that were done in diecast or resin in the right scale. As far as I'm concerned, a diecast is just a model in metal that you take apart to build. And resin opens up a world of possibilities. I have no patience / sympathy at all when someone rants that a certain car isn't available as a plastic kit. Someone will point out a diecast or resin and they rant on that they want a plastic kit. So Revell/AMT/Moebius needs to produce that car so you can buy ONE friggin copy? If your holy grail car exists in resin and you're too cheap to buy it, I guess it's not all that important to you anyway.

Irony! I wanted one too. I even bought the Vega wagon funny car kit to replicate what I wanted! Of course my angle was that I could lure unsuspecting girls into the back! In Hazlet, NJ Tony's Pizza started up with a fleet of red Vega sedan deliveries. They lasted a very short time!

I think it's been fairly well covered. I buy stuff I like. I sometimes buy kits just to see what's in the box. It's a collection. I don't care if I ever get to building a specific kit, but when inspiration hits me, it's nice to have the required kits in stock. I do enjoy my unbuilt kit and rebuildable model collection and I do spend a lot of my modeling time just pouring through it, groking kits and dreaming of the possibilities. So the hoard does serve a purpose. The collection doesn't haunt me that I need to build them like some guys! I laugh at the posts by a guy who has 11 unbuilt kits and feels pressure that he needs to get them done. I don't care. Nor do I consider them puzzles I need to build box stock. I have no idea what will happen with my kits, whether I'll build to replicate a neat photo or they'll wind up a donor for a project. It doesn't matter. Nor do I care that my finished to unbuilt ratio is constantly climbing. I'll build maybe 6 models a year in a good year, but I'll buy another 50. Who cares, it's a cheap pleasure. I have no guilt. I've never sacrificed anything my family needed to buy models. Everything I own was bought from expendable funds. Nor do I need the money they represent now. If I sold them, the cash would disappear into my household and in the end I'd have nothing to speak of. The end? I know and understand that I will never build the majority of my stash. I haven't done any grand purges because a lot of what I have wouldn't fetch any serious money. For the chump change they'd sell for, they're better off in my basement. So that's where they will stay. I'd rather save a kit to sacrifice for a project than sell it for $5 or $10. I do know that there is an end sometime in the future. Whether I decide it's time to sell, whether I sell them one at a time on eBay, to my club mates or at a swap meet, or sell the whole mess to a dealer. Or if I croak, my wife will sell them or get that 40 yard dumpster! In the meantime, it's my fun and my sanity.

Over the past year or so I've been working to build better shiny models. I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone of the dirty / rusty models I so love and enjoy building. The last few models I'm building have been experiments with Tamiya gloss spray (the Chevette), Testors Wet Look laquers (Dodge A100 pickup) and clear coats over them. These have been very simple builds as I've been concentrating on my finishing techniques, and yea, I'm making mistakes! I've been learning to make more decals on my computer / printer. I've been learning how to create headliners and shoulder belts in late model vehicles. I've also been concentrating on learning to scratch build more, as I've completely scratch built the interiors in my two campers. I have been trying different things for affixing glass into models. I've been using that clear craft tape. Just this week I bought some two part epoxy. If you aren't trying new things in your builds, you are stagnant!

The employment landscape has changed entirely. I know a lot of modelers who worked state jobs who all retired in their late 50s in the past year or so because they had the correct number of years in, but feared that the terms would change if they waited since all entities are looking to cut costs and retirement benefits are an easy target. I know a lot of good management folks who have been out of work 2 and 3 years. They are too young to retire and collect social security, and most of them don't have pensions to depend on in the future. But they are living on their 401Ks and retirement savings now. I don't know what the future holds but it doesn't look all that bright for people who worked hard all their lives.

Perry's Resin also popped that body. I have one of theirs in my stash. Many years ago there was one of these wagons for sale at a short lived antique auto store in Red Bank, NJ. I went to look at it, and they had done a seriously bad repaint, badly masking off the chrome. You could see old paint and the rust creeping out from under the bright strips. And there was over spray on the chrome too. And they wanted real money for a car that I would immediately strip down to paint, so I walked away.

Since this thread got me looking out for interesting things on the road... I took the Pennsylvania Turnpike to work today. In this morning's traffic there was an early 1950s Chevy street rod going the opposite direction so I saw it quick. There are many truck / bus body companies in this area and west of us, so the traffic going west was truck loads of bodyless and cut away trucks and going East there were finished truck loads of trucks. This morning I saw a truck carrying two new big Ford stake beds done in the familiar brown and beige of Brickman Landscaping Company. There was another truck with two Ford vans bucket trucks. On my way home mid afternoon, there was a convoy of three pickups with trailers going west with me. The first one had an enclosed trailer lettered for some racing team. The next truck had a car trailer with a 1980s Malibu race car on it. The first truck had a two car trailer. On it was a nice 1980s Firebird and a '55 Chevy. Otherwise the commuter hours on the turnpike are Camry hell! There are a lot of nice cars hiding in garages in my area. They all come out to play on weekends for the most part.

I used to work in Pearl River, New York. It's the border town with New Jersey so I drove through Montvale, NJ on my way to work. Somehow this sleepy suburb is home to Mercedes, BMW, Saab and Mini. In fact the Montvale PD had a Mercedes SUV with "Courtesy of MB" on the back of it. So we'd see all kinds of interesting stuff wearing NJ Manufacturers plates on the local roads. Future Mercedes and BMW models, some wearing the black masking. Other times they had competitors cars, like Euro spec Renaults and Peugeots. My favorite was the fleet of Smart cars. Complete set of all the Euro models on the road and eventually all the promotional and car show ones were assembled in one lot. It was right on the road and nobody stopped you from looking. Four door version Sports car -- I'd want one of these. This one would wake you up when you saw it on the local roads. One of the execs had it checked out of the motor pool for a long while because we'd see it often. NY Marathon official vehicles. I was told that these were originally lettered for the Boston Marathon, then later in the year for New York. There were a bunch of them in different job categories. Another Marathon car. This was a pace car. Note that these photos were taken in 2005 so it predates the release of the Smart in the US market. These were all Euro models in the US for promotional purposes. I believe they all got crushed. Complete Album: http://public.fotki.com/modelcitizen/11_car_reference_library/smart_cars/

I thought that all those panel lines were left off of promotional models because those lines are air brushed out in most old car brochures and advertising of the period. I guess auto makers found the lines distracting from the overall flow of the vehicle. I guessed that the panel lines missing on kits was just a carry over from the promo origin of them. I have no explanation why they'd be missing on modern kits, especially ones geared at our picky adult market.

I was speaking with a vendor in Tucson this afternoon. He had heard about our major thunderstorms here in NJ/PA. I told him I lost power over night so we just went to bed when it got dark, He said in Tucson when the power goes out you head to a hotel because you can't sleep in the 100 degree weather. Can't imagine that one!