Tom Geiger

Nice work. I'd like to have one of those in 1:1! I was waiting for Chrysler to introduce the PT panel but they never got to it. Seems that they had big plans for the Fiat 500 and needed the production capacity. So the PT got killed, probably a few years earlier than needed.

Okay, now that's cool and sooo different!

True, I know one guy who will buy 2 old built ups and use the best parts to build his model. Then he packages up the remains and sells it on eBay as a 'restorable'.... so if you're buying the worst of 2, you know where you're at?

Small world Chris! I've known Alan a very long time, actually met him through some mutual 1:1 car friends. He's visited me here in the US twice, spent a week with me last fall.

I don't know... Back then I thought it was an interesting choice since the 1950 would have had a flathead six. The 1951 was the first year for their V8. Someone had posted a bunch of Studebaker racecar photos and they all had "V8" painted on them, so they must've been '51s. So that would be the year that Moebius would produce to be able to spin off race cars and such. We did get a diecast version from Johnny Lightning right when Playing Mantis got sold. It had a pretty limited distribution. Model King queried modelers a ways back (prior to Round 2) if he should do a run of those. There was no enthusiasm so he passed on the project.

You'd think with all the advances of recent decades that they would've fixed the hospital food issue by now! Then again, some people like it... there's even a chain that sells hospital food... Boston Chicken!

This was a Terry Jessee piece from Scale Auto back in the last century.

Very, very nice! And a reminder that even the best show cars have some wear on their underside!

Yes, look up three posts or so for the picture of me and Ted in the pool. He smiles! He's in his glory floating around.

Hi Chris, good to meet you. How many NNLs are there in Australia now? I know of: NSW NNL TItles - Rob Burns Queensland NNL - Chris Schumann Super Model Car Sunday (Perth WA) - Alan Barton

Ah the days of domestic kit production... darn sloppy Americans!

The CV was done in my own company logos. Something went wrong with the final clear coat, it discolored parts of the body and floated the black paint in the body lines to the surface, making a royal mess. So back in the pond it went. I think the issue was the red plastic under everything. I don't know just how the Model Masters Wet Look laquer clear etched through several coats of Duplicolor blue and gray primer but something went wrong! So as part of the repaint, I added a silver coat to block the red plastic... then I decided I liked the silver and went for it as the body color this time around. I have some touch up to do on the body, then I need to add the decals again to move forward.

Fairly common but you got a bad version! Fortunately those windows are all flat and easily replaced with clear plastic sheet stock!

Because the thread title is... "American Muscle Fanatic from Pennsylvania!" I'm a mussel fanatic from Pennsylvania myself. Just had a big order of them up at my local pub!

I don't think either would hurt plastic much. I used to do brake fluid in a small plastic loaf pan the shape of a small loaf of bread (same shape and size of a model car body), with an opaque plastic top so I could seal it between victims. I'd put the body / parts etc in there and put the lid back on to keep the fumes in and keep the liquid from evaporating. Worked well. After about six months I went to dump the very used brake fluid and found some parts in the murky bottom, still good! Over time it can make parts brittle but won't melt them.

Pull up a chair, it's charming story time! Way back in the last century, I had a 1960 Buick Electra with classic car insurance on it. I got a cancellation notice saying that I had broken the rules because I was using the car as my daily driver. That was funny because the car was buried in my garage with stuff piled on top of it. The company said it had the right to investigate me by any means they had available to them. So I called. They told me in a phone interview with Mrs. xx xx (my next door neighbor) she identified that I drove "the blue car" to work every day. I had to laugh out loud because I looked out my window and there was... my blue 1991 Nissan Stanza (my wife's daily driver), my blue 1973 Plymouth Scamp (my daily driver), my blue 1973 Barracuda, my blue 1978 Dodge Sportsman van.. and of course my blue 1960 Buick which was buried in the garage. So I took a photo of my fleet, a photo of my garage door open with the Buick buried in stuff, and sent it all off to the insurance company demanding that they reinstate my insurance immediately AND find a more reliable interviewer to investigate people. I got a new card in the mail almost immediately! And the funny part... it was the first time I realized that all our cars were blue!

Oh so be a tease! Looks good so far. Seems we went to the same two shows recently and never hooked up!

Thanks Richard and Greg. Your Caravan taxi looks great. There are so many in 1:1 that it just needed to be done in scale. I have those Caprice stickers put aside to be scanned and reprinted on decal stock someday. I see more cabs in my future. I have a '62 Valiant already painted and I have my eye on a PT Cruiser kit that's not doing nuthin'!

No offense taken! It's pretty much a running joke. There was one skit I saw, "allo? my name is Skippy. How can I help you?" Call centers and software are big business in India. They're actually building American style office space. In fact the US manufacturer Haworth office furniture actually built a factory in India to supply cubicles.

Left on my own, all my models would be the same color. Every time I start a project, I see it in medium metallic blue, or lately that awesome orange metallic. So I literally toss out the spray can when I finish a model so that I don't use the very same color again.

Hey I know Brad! Actually one of my good friends is an Indian guy named Nick. I car pooled with him for years and got a real respect for Indian culture etc in the process. And his awe of all things American was interesting to see as he (a guy about 40) tried to memorize all the American songs and cars. He was amazed that I did so effortlessly, but I assured him it was just because I had a 30 year head start. And it was fun taking him out to buy his very first Christmas tree! (the fir kind, not the racetrack one)

Completely agree! That's what sold us as kids. Whether it was the Tom Daniel drawn '55 Chevy box or the '57 Nomad beach scene, we all bought into that dream. A lot of sales are done on line these days, but they're still looking at a jpg of the box top.

Wow! Didn't realize that I had put these aside for so long. I got involved with the NNL East preparations and that took most of my hobby time until now. I've decided that I do need to get a few things off the bench. And when I was at the Mid-Atlantic NNL this past weekend someone asked about these projects. So here's what I did this week... We had a fair amount of conversation on how to do the windows on this kit. Some folks have just flat blacked the rear glass, blocking off any view of the interior. Others have suggested a variety of ways to tint the glass, which I will try on a future build. I've seen models on display that they did nothing at all, which left the sides clear, where the real truck has metal between the side glass panes. That just doesn't look right. About 80% of Caravans had the factory tint package, but there were a lot of cheapies that just had the clear glass. Those had the black mask visible. The same mask is on the ones with tinted glass, only you don't see it readily in photos. It is visible in person depending on how the daylight is hitting it. I have a 1:1 '96 Grand Caravan in my driveway for reference. So I decided to take the difficult road with this build, figuring that a taxi would have the cheap glass. Or if ordered new, a fleet operator would want the clear glass for security reasons. So I drew up a set of glass masks. I made a template for the rear glass and one for the side glass. Then I traced them onto Avery name tag labels. I found these worked well because they will peel off easily. I have other white labels (I have a roll of UPS ones) that will never ever come off. Be careful what you use. The above photo shows the masks in place ready for paint. Note that I had already colored the front glass with a Sharpie so I just masked it all off. Next time I'd do that with a mask and paint also. Another view of the masks in place. Important to know that I cut out the side masks at the same time. The name tags come two to a sheet, with a perforation line between them. I merely folded this over, drew my cut lines on one side, and cut a pair at the same time so they'd be exactly the same. The templates. I did these in card stock so I could use them over and over. Notice that the rear glass template was folded in two. That was cut like a paper doll, so that both sides would be symmetrical. Templates worked for me since I went through half a dozen sets of stickers as I tried to get them to the right size and position. I probably had two hours invested at this point. Here's the rear glass for the CV Caravan. Note that the side glass was done in body color to make a panel van. So I had cut the clear window piece apart. Here Here we are with the glass shot painted and masks removed! I used Testors Flat Black for paint. It worked very well and I'm super pleased with the results. Note that the paint is on the inside of the glass. I had masked of the entire exterior glass. Side view, glass just held in place. It looks exactly as I hoped it would. A quick aside - the phone number on the taxi is my old home phone from when I lived in New Jersey. Just for fun! Rear glass in place looks good too. I will add the rear third light and a wiper. This was the hurdle that kept me from finishing the pair of Caravans. I still have to repaint an area of the CV in silver so that's what I'll do next. Then it's onward to final assembly for the pair!

Price and maybe some weight advantage for racing. Back in 1966 my father ordered a new Tempest 2 door sedan with a 4 speed. The car was delayed and we were moving to Europe, so the dealer offered him a Lemans hardtop off the lot at the same price. My father later remarked that he was glad he got the hardtop since it was a much prettier car, but he was blinded by his strict German upbringing to avoid spending money you didn't have to. In the same light, my grandfather bought a new 1963 Biscayne 4 door sedan with a six, stick and no power anything. It's just the way folks were back then.

Greetings Chris. There are a number of Aussies here on the board. Where in Australia are you located?