Tom Geiger

I always love to go to the Mid-Atlantic NNL. First, I love to go to a model show where I have no responsibility! I can just be one of the folks and enjoy the day talking to people (that's where you realize just how many friends you have!), looking at models and buying neat stuff. I also find that this show has vendors I don't see at most shows, like club members selling off duplicates and such. I always find neat stuff at reasonable prices here! So just what did I get? Since I had a blast turning a Chevette promo into a curbside kit, I thought I'd do it a few more times. Here's an S10 pickup and Blazer. One was $5 and the other $10. Can't beat that. I know the Blazer will become the safety vehicle on my company as they have one of this era still in service. Trucks last a long time when they never leave the property! Found this one for $20. I know I have a few of these in different versions. Not sure if I have this one with the skirts molded in, but heck I'll take that chance at that price. This became the "Year of Resin" for me at this show. I found 4 different pieces. I got the RMR Jeep Scrambler for $25. I've always liked these, and was surprised at the high prices when I tried to find a 1:1. So now I can build one instead. The '74 Chevy 4 door sedan looks like Modelhaus and is really nice for $40. I was meaning to order the MCW '65 Biscayne, and here it was, so I grabbed it and the Modelhaus Falcon from the same dealer for $50 total. A good haul! On the way home I stopped in a small hobby shop in Delaware. I found this Buick Reatta for $16. I had been looking for one of these for a long time! And the ride home... I just thought this would be a cool photo. I had a good day indeed. Thank you Mama's Boys!

I think folks know where I stand. If it is in good overall condition and the build is nice, and representative of builders of the 1960s, it deserves to be preserved. That's the folk art of our youth. There is some magic in the way it's managed to survive 50 years intact! And it's not a rare kit, it's easy enough to find an unbuilt one of those to build. I don't recommend saving every old build... if it's poorly done (as in worse than the typical build of that era), broken or otherwise not salvageable, it could become parts or a rebuilder. For instance when folks have old annuals that were built without any paint etc, those aren't historically significant and should be rebuilt to current standards. Here's my collection of historic old builds. http://public.fotki.com/modelcitizen/model_cars/old_customs/ If you think your Model A is cool enough that it should be eternally preserved here, I'd be happy to send you an unbuilt version of that same kit (AMT '32 Ford Roadster?)

I'm agreeing with you on some points here Lee. The thing that made all us kids build models was accessibility. Model kits were sold everywhere from the corner drug store to five and dimes to the grocery store. I remember them lined up on top of the low freezer cases. I'd hide one in the bottom of my mother's shopping cart and got away with it much of the time! When I've been involved with kids groups and snap kits, they all are amazed that these things exist. They've had no exposure. And no doubt once we got done with them, that was it because they didn't know where to purchase more! So what happened? There used to be many retail channels in the USA. All small operators like local family owned stores, small regional chains and the like. Today the entire market is sewn up by a few companies. For instance, do you know that the largest wine buyer in the country is Costco? And you just know that isn't good for quality or furthering that craft. It's completely twist top and cardboard box territory. Same with model kits. I was speaking with a veteran hobby insider recently and the subject of kits with issues came up. He pretty much said that all those kits needed one more revision but there was a promised shelf date to Walmart, and nobody misses that deadline. So the kit was okayed for production and came out with glaring errors. Still, we fanatics that would notice these little things like the shape of a '55 Chevy vent window only account for 1% of the market. So as far as the '55 Chevy pickup vent window issue, AMT under whatever management did it, fixed that tool a long time ago. So any kit made from that date forward has the revised correct window. They can't go back and correct all the kits produced prior to this, and a lot of those seen at shows for $5-10 are the old cab. The window fit was a big whine back when that kit was originally released but I haven't heard the complaint in recent memory. Actually they tried to do something new and cool, creating windows that installed from the outside with the proper gasket and all included. That eliminated the customary awful glass shot with runners across the headliner. Personally I never had an issue with it. I made sure I did my fitting prior to paint. I think the guys who assumed everything would fit perfectly and found out after painting were the whiners. I don't believe there was a 1956 kit ever issued off this tool. The only real difference from a 1955 would be the side fender chrome emblems. I got mine from Modelhaus. Still, I stand behind my remark that converting that kit to be a 1958 and 1959 would be a slam dunk!

Make sure you warn him about displaying it in the sun... especially in your area! BTW. I thought I posted in this thread, I don't see it so who knows! I had made a mental note to place a good size order at MCW as soon as funding allowed, to get a bunch of his plain Jane cars. I especially lust after a '64 Biscayne since I bought one for an old girlfriend. I thought that would be a nice one on my shelf. Saturday I was in Maryland at the Mid-Atlantic NNL and what do you know... someone was selling a MCW '65 Biscayne kit. They also had a Modelhaus '64 Falcon kit so $50 later I owned both of them! Can't beat that!

Thanks Harry! I have two of the very same unit, so I think I'll order up one of each part, and I can swap them back and forth to see what gets fixed! I used to do the same thing with two Plymouth Breezes! Mine are Sears units installed by the original owner that I bought the house from. I don't know how old they are, but the house is 18 years old. They are electric eye units. As far as ordering stuff on-line and especially on eBay, it's gotten too easy and we're taking it for granted already! I have an Iphone 4 and only have one charger cord for it. I like to charge it on my night stand since I also use it as my alarm clock. Then I have to remember to take it with me in the morning and put it in my computer bag... and of course I'd forget. So the other morning I'm sitting in a meeting at work and per usual practice we all have our laptops open and on the company wifi. It was a day that I forgot to charge the phone at night, and then forgot to bring the cord. So here I am at work with a phone giving me 10% charge messages, by 9am! So I just logged onto eBay and typed in "Iphone 4 cord" and instantly a whole mess of stuff came right up. I found I could buy a dozen of the cord for $9.99 with free shipping, but I wanted the electric plug part, so that put them at $2.99 each. I figured I needed 3 of them, so I put in that quantity and found that I'd get a dollar off for ordering three. So for $7.99 complete, I did the deed and paid for it all within minutes, not moving from my meeting. Three days later they showed up and I'm a happy camper. Things are just too easy these days!

Go for it. There's nothing better than time spent with your daughter. She will remember the experience and the attention you gave her for the rest of her life. I built with both of my daughters, who loved the craft process of painting and assembling. I suspect that having dad's full attention was more important. And a word of advise... do it now. They grow up way too fast. The little girl in this photo is now 30. Seems like yesterday...

I have two garage door openers that are haunted. One of them works all the time, but you need to hold the button in the entire time of operation. ( you should be able to just push it once and watch the door go up or down) The second one, which is the one closest to the house, has no doubt gotten the most use. It works when it wants to. There are times it works flawlessly for a day to a week. Then it will go up a short distance and stop. Other times I just hear a click at the unit and nothing. There's nothing wrong with the physical unit like a worn or damaged gear, it's the electrics on mine. There is a sticker on mine from the company that installed them for the original owner. I'm beyond fiddling with them so I may just make a service call.

Irony! I've been following this thread since I've meant to buy some of the Model Car World plain Janes. I was at the Mid-Atlantic NNL in Maryland today and what do you know... one of the dealers was selling a MCW 1965 Biscayne kit. So I grabbed it for $25.

Lots of good thoughts in the last few pages. In fact way too many that I'd like to comment on! There are two ends of the market for the manufacturers to work. 1. The baby boomers who are retiring every day. That's us guys and the subjects we are interested in. Revell has been listening and has produced timeless cars that will always sell. And the model of getting several to many different kit versions out of a tool is a necessity today. Moebius is also riding the retiree wave and very successfully. They are producing models of cars we never thought we'd see. And they are successful. This market will work for the next 10-20 years. In fact, as more and more of us retire and have free time, it will get better. Note that some of the movers in the hobby like Tim Boyd and Ken Hamilton have recently retired. I would bet real money that guys like these will devote more time in being visible in the hobby. I think we are headed into a new renaissance that will make the ones we've seen before look like bumps in the road. 2. The tuner crowd. There is a strong movement in my local area with young guys in their 20s who are building modern sports material. In response NNL East created their category this year. I was at the Mid-Atlantic NNL and they also agreed to support it at their show next year. So it's happening. If the manufacturers want the hobby to live a long life, they'll need to cater to this crowd as they mature. Comments by Jeff that guys will find hobbies after they get past the 1:1 cars and girls phase, and settle down. We all did it so no reason why history cannot repeat itself. There was a comment a few pages back about nobody wanting the AMT 55-57 pickups and their cheap availability at shows. Note that this kit is over 20 years old and has been a constant in the catalog for all that time. So the market is saturated with those pickups, I know I have a dozen in my stash. But take that tired kit and tool up 1958 and 1959 pickup bodies to drop onto it... game on! That would be a winner.

Yea, I don't see many business cases here! Guys, we are looking for viable projects. Kits of cars that A. Are timeless cars that will sell today and in the future. B. tools that would allow modification for multiple releases, use under different variations and cars to spread the cost across 4-10 versions. No we don't care that you once had a Volare station wagon... that's good for two units sold!

http://youtu.be/GEoF7jfSxpY I give up. I cannot get the Youtube video to work on this board... tried it many ways, can get it to work on other boards... Tried to post Karla Devito, Midnight Confession...

Same here. I have music in my soul but cannot play or sing a lick. Music just isn't in my genes! When I was 12 I begged for a guitar for Christmas. My father responded with a German made Framus folk guitar (we did live in Germany at the time). He hired a woman we knew to give me lessions. The first thing she did was ask me to hold out my hands. She looked in disgust and said, "short stubby fingers, you'll never play the guitar!" And I was defeated. My father should've smacked her!

My father's hobbies were photography and high end audio. Since he died, I have all of his equipment, much of which was swapped out and put back in the original boxes. I've checked prices on the Internet and eBay and I could cash it all in for a few grand. One of the cool things he got for both of us was a programable turntable. At about the same time CDs debuted, the industry had introduced these. Very cool. Just like a CD you can say you want to play the 1st and 3rd track of an album side. The stylus first goes and scans the entire side, looking for the breaks between songs. Then it plays what you asked for in that order. The only drawbacks were that live albums, with clapping and talking between songs will confuse it. Still, it was pretty awesome at the time. Since he's gone, I have two of these. And I have over 500 albums. Nothing like vinyl!

And I got a new avatar photo! My aunt (my father's youngest sister) sent me a bunch of old family photos, and here's one of my father when he was two years old. The car was my grandfather's 1932 Essex (he traded his 1932 Chevy roadster for it straight up when my father was born in 1934!) Photo is marked 1936 on the back. Check out the art deco skirts on the wagon! Super cool!

My paint order came in the mail today. I had ordered two cans, each for $20 plus $9 postage, so each costs $24.50. I actually only needed one right now, but the postage cost was the same, so I got two cans for known projects. And of course who could not do some quick test squirts upon arrival? The can on the left is Ford C-6 1972-4 Goldenrod. Someone had recommended that California Mustangs had all the Mustang colors, but apparently not this one. So I went to the Automotive Touchup website instead. After having a pleasing experience replicating my wife's sister's Chevette, I've decided to give this one a whirl. This is the 1974 V6 Mustang II my wife owned when I met her. She bought it a year old from a friend who moved away. I have a Morgan Auto Detail 1977 Mustang II coupe body that I will add the 1974 nose from a kit I have for the project. And the second can is 1991 Geo yellow to replicate my vehicle. I bought this new and 240,000 miles later, I still have it. The Fujimi kit is the Suzuki version and is a hardtop but we will build it. Now I have the paint so I have no excuse!

Speaking of cheap tools... I just burnt out my third Black & Decker Leaf Hog. It's an electric leaf blower / vacuum and I loved to use it. I lost track of how long the first two lasted, but I know I took the first one apart to clean it out etc. and had trouble getting it back together because the unit was never made to be serviced. I have two burnt ones in the garage. By burnt I mean that they actually smoked and burnt out. Again with the middle one, I lost track of how old it was and bought another. At least the unit was beat up and the bag had torn by that point, so I reasoned that I got my money worth. But this time I know it only lasted TWO friggin seasons. The darn thing looks brand new! I was using it the other day to suck up some winter leaves and noticed smoke coming from the cord. So I shut it off. Both of the ones I have have burnt positive tines on the plugs. You'd think there would be some sort of shut off in this unit before it actually caught fire! So this week I went to the 'depot with my 10% off coupon and got a brandy new Toro version of the same tool. The nice man at the store said he had this same one for five years. So far, so good. I've used it the past two days and it works well. But time will tell.

Hotrod Hotline attended NNL East and did this neat report: http://www.hotrodhotline.com/node/6877/12279/

"The Fonz" is no longer cool. He now sells reverse mortgages to his peer group!

It was Revell. I have one, I could photo the box art. A bit o'trivia. Chrysler actually shipped Revell a slant six engine to use in designing the kit. It wound up sitting in Jim Keeler's office. Tex Smith had come in, and the subject got to a car Tex was building. He was hung up on the engine, and Jim suggested he take the slant six out of his office. So Tex installed it in the XR6. Then AMT did a model of the XR6, producing a model of that slant six that came from Revell.

Absolutely true. Under Lee Iococa, Chrysler was in the process of digging itself out. The Horizon/Omni pair, based on the VW Rabbit were selling well and the K-cars were designed but hadn't gone into production yet. In the hearings as to IF the government should bail out Chrysler, the company showed the plans for the K-cars. Note that many Chrysler vehicles of the next decade were built on that platform including the original mini vans, which changed the entire auto market in America! And Chrysler made good on the government loans, paying them, with interest, ahead of schedule.

yup, I'm at $1300 a month for the wife and I for health insurance, no dental or glasses either... just health. I get no subsidy or discount, but my provider informs me that I'm paying a 5% tax as part of my bill to support that friggin program. And no I didn't vote for these idiots.

My father's hobby was high end hifi so we always had the best equipment and I was trained on proper care of lps from the beginning. So I still have all the albums I bought as a kid in perfect condition. Since we lived in Europe until 1973, some of my albums are Euro releases. A buddy-0-mine saw my German release Let It Be and I thought he'd pass out. No he couldn't have it! Of course I have Dark Side... once pulled a copy out of a bin at a garage sale, opened it up and seeds fell out! Many years ago I did some car repairs for my sister in law. She wanted to buy me something, mentioned getting me a CD so I said something like, Okay just get me "Dark Side.." A few weeks later she shows up with a gift bag with John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band Album in it.. I must've made a funny face, but was gonna just suck it up, but she noticed. So I just said, I thought you would've understood "Dark Side.." Her husband just moaned and put his head in his hands!