Tom Geiger

Actually yes! Back in the day the mails were much more important than today. Mail was delivered twice a day in city business areas around the start of the 20th century. It was the only means of communication before phones. I have a cover that was mailed between two lawyers in the 1890s. It was mailed from Newark, NJ to Brooklyn, NY and from the postmarks it appeared to have been received the same day it was mailed. The message inside was making an appointment to meet the following day. I guess it took a lot of faith that the recipient actually got the letter, to travel to that appointment!

I live on that slippery slope!

It's warm and sunny here in Eastern PA. I spent an hour out in the yard picking up sticks and filled two garbage pails. And I didn't even make a dent! Warm enough out that Ted came out with me and laid down on the deck in the sun. Thermometer reads 67* right now. Life is good!

My grandfather would sing "Danny Boy" when he drank. But he'd be 105 today. I think modern drunks rap.

For those who are whining about the high cost of the hobby, here is Exhibit A. Nothing in this project cost any money to speak of. Everything is from the parts box or scratch built. The body is from an old project where I used the front and back of it. This was just a center section that I used as a paint stand for years. No cost! The roof rack is sprue from a Japanese kit that was the right shape, I just cut it down to size. The dog house up top is just plastic sheet with sandpaper on the roof. All the window frames, back porch etc were all made from plastic scrap from previous projects that I toss into a box rather than toss out. The trailer tongue was made from a glue bomb old chassis that had no better use. Again, everything inside the camper cost nothing. The cabinets and bed are all from basswood sheet scrap. The bed covering is a tissue and some painted paper towels or napkins. The floor covering is paper... the pattern was printed from a doll house site on the internet, as was the welcome mat. The shoe? I found a 1/25 scale leg in a parts bag. Most folks would have thrown it out, I salvaged the shoe. The kitchen clutter is also all made from nothing. The plates and cup were just shapes from my parts box. The sink was half a gas tank. The microwave was a TV from an old Dodge van kit. I made the coffee maker. I scaled off my real one and made it from scrap plastic sheet. The coffee pot is a short length of clear drinking straw. The top was a shape from my parts box, the handle is half a staple. The only aftermarket things in this interior are the silverware and a hanger that came off a single "Interior Junk" photo etch set that I've had 20 years, and have used on several projects. No paint was bought for this project. I used what I had on my shelf. It hasn't been finished but it's been in Scale Auto Magazine. Exhibit B - 1951 Chevy Traveler. Again, no money! The project is based on a box of 1951 Chevy parts that I bought at a show for $10. There were the remains of two kits in it, someone had stole the engines and one chassis. The body was painted that green, without any prep at all or primer. The camper was a freebie, handed to me by Rich Manson the last time I saw him! I had a second one that was way beyond repair that I used for some of the pieces (see the white areas). As with the Dodge above, the entire interior is made from bits of basswood and plastic sheet. It will get some interesting engine from my parts box. So here are two fine examples of low budget modeling. I do have a lot of nice kits and aftermarket supplies, but somehow my projects gravitate towards cheap to free stuff. Let this be an example that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have fun with model cars. In fact, the "building something from nothing" is a lot of fun!

Guys, it's easy enough to paint wood grain. I have saved a tutorial that Irvin Arter put on the Hobby Heaven board many years ago. I recently saw Irvin and told him I was sharing his technique, and he just laughed and said he learned it from Lyle Willets. Anyone who wants a copy please email or PM me (my email is at the bottom of this post) and I'll email you a copy. I can't post it since it's a large PDF.

You can start a war with that question! I always clear (if I clear at all) before applying the BMF. Some guys will say that they need to seal it in, but I've never had BMF come off with age. In my opinion, BMF has it's own shine, and clearing over it makes it shine at the same level as the paint around it.

I just looked at the website and I think that the wood grain is way too large for 1/25 scale models.

Interesting Harry! I specialized in one stamp, the Series of 1902 Ben Franklin One Cent stamp. That's the one on the Leap Year cover. I had given up on finding the hard stuff back in the 1990s, but once eBay came about I renewed my interest since suddenly I was finding things I had never seen in person like the booklet pane and the private perforations. It was an interesting era in postal history as things had just begun to be automated and companies developed the private perforations for use in stamp vending machines and stamp affixing machines, the very birth of junk mail. Within 10 years of collecting with eBay, I had completed all the hard (and expensive!) stuff so now my focus is on unusual postmarks and usage, precancels and perfin (companies perforated their logo or initials in their stamps to avoid theft) stamps on covers. They aren't expensive but it's something to chase! And isn't the fun in the chase?

It seemed my newly acquired Graf Zeppelin post card was a hit in the "What I Got Today Thread". I didn't get these today, so I'll post some stuff here. I've been a stamp collector since I was a kid. If I'm spending big money on a collectible, it's more likely to be a stamp item than a model car item! A few things that I think are cool... I know I've posted these places before, but I don't believe I've done so on this board. Here's another Zep item. I got this one a year or so ago, I just noticed this was the eBay image I bought it from. This was one of our military zeppelins, the USS Akron. We didn't have an air force back in 1932 so 'air ship' somehow went to the navy and they gave it the typical "USS" ship designation. I have another cover from an Akron flight where they delivered mail to a navy ship in the Pacific. It's cool to have these since they were actually on that flight! The post office offered Special Delivery Air Mail even back in the early 1930s when airmail was still in the pioneer stage. Note that this one is postmarked Dec 31, 1932 at 6:30pm. It is going coast to coast, from San Francisco to Pennsylvania... actually to a town very close to me here near Philly, Here's the back of the same envelope. The mail didn't stop for holidays! Here it got to Chicago by 9pm on January 1st 1933. So this cover straddled the year, postmarked the last day in 1932 and the first day in 1933. It did make it to Ardmore, PA by 11:30am on Jan 2nd, so it must have traveled over night by air again. I'm surprised there wasn't a Philadelphia airport receiving mark. That would have told the whole story. It no doubt went to Chicago because they didn't have planes that could make the whole trip in a single flight back then. Now we can only wonder what was so important to spend 18 cents to rush a message coast to coast. This is a small card envelope, and the dark lining (see where it's missing a bit of the flap) may signify a mourning card, so I'm thinking that this mailing brought sad news in the new year. It's fun to be a bit of detective in the cyber age too. The house at 133 Arnold Road in Ardmore is still there today. Just pop the address into Google Maps and a picture of it comes right up. Here's another interesting piece. It's a greeting card. I don't believe I've seen a greeting card in an envelope prior to the early 1930s. The post card was the custom back in the early part of the 20th century, Now you may have noticed the significance already. It was mailed on February 28, 1908, and received February 29th. Yes! 1908 was a leap year! This is a completely unique piece, you won't find another! Keeping my eyes open to little details like these New Years and Leap Year postmarks are part of the fun of collecting. And nobody before me even noticed the significance. The New Years airmail cover was in a large lot I bought. The Leap Year post card was an eBay find. But the seller was focused on the picture on the other side. And sometimes our worlds collide. Here's an airmail cover mailed from Lansing, Michigan to Nyack, New York by the Reo Motor Car Company back in 1929! Hope you enjoyed this bit of history.

Going back to the contest debate... and not to point at anyone here since I understand this is an academic debate. My experience is that those who will take the short cut of using a prefinished body, or commissioning someone else to paint a body, will also make short cuts in other areas. Scheming, instead of working, is in that person's makeup. Thus, while the body will stand out, that modelers interior, engine and chassis will never match the paint job quality and it is readily apparent. Back when I got into building 25 years ago, you could get away with prefinished bodies etc, but the cutting edge at shows has gone well beyond that. Models I built and won with in that era aren't even competitive today. And that's the way it should be, that cutting edge is ever moving forward. There is nothing wrong with paying someone to paint a body for you. There is a fellow, I believe his name was Brian, who did amazing real flame paint jobs. I can imagine the number of folks who would want one of those on their shelf. And it should stop there. Things you bought should be displayed, but never entered in contests. It's a matter of honor and honestly. And for those who "win" under those situations, the first person they have cheated is themselves! And the worst are guys who tow along kids while they do this. Great examples they are to their children!

Consider this the 'gate fee' to getting back into the hobby. When you start with nothing, you need to buy your initial batch of supplies. You need to buy putties, glues, a mess of different paints and aftermarket supplies. If you put that cost against that model it is astronomical. And this is what scares off a lot of folks, especially well meaning parents buying their kid a kit. When the kit starts at slightly under $30 and the hobby shop guy piles another $50 worth of supplies on top of that, well that may very well be the end for some. But the tools you buy will last a lifetime. The supplies will last through several to many models, until you use it all or it dries up. Aftermarket stuff doesn't go bad and will last forever. I know I have some supplies I bought 20 years ago that I still use on kits. Even a sheet of Bare Metal Foil that guys think is expensive at $8, will last through 3-4 cars. So isn't it worth $2 a car to have great chrome trim? This isn't an expensive hobby. I remember Joe Cavorley, one of the great commercial vehicle builders. He had very limited funds as well as major health issues that eventually took him. Joe started most of his masterpieces from glue bombs that folks gave to him. He scratch built things from nothing. He once said that if he wanted to have a broom on a truck, he couldn't afford to buy a resin one, but he had the time to make one himself. So a toothpick, some straw and some imagination would yield him a broom that looked real. And he built models that would do well in contests today. Some of my best times in the hobby have been creating bits of detail from my junk box. I especially remember making the furniture and bits for my campers and getting great satisfaction. I made a scale coffee maker from bits of sheet plastic that were in my scrap box. It was one of the most fulfilling evenings I can remember!

Rich, let me know if you need a front seat. I have a bunch of '51 Chevys in my parts box!

Brad, I was all set to print out a slew of travel stickers (go to eBay, tons of real ones for sale - perfect images) but my printer was broken. In the meantime I got the Revell 49 Mercury Woody wagon and found it has some super travel decals in it. So I never printed mine!

I once thought that way too. It gradually changed over the years. First when I got involved with the museum, I got interested in old building style and the history. So I started to collect them. Then I came into a few collections of built ups and realized I'd never get to redoing all of them my way, so I started to display them. I have a complete run of full size Chevys from the early 1950s through the 1970s in one case. I didn't build any of them, nor are they super builds. Still, they tell a story and it's better than keeping them all in boxes. So I could display them now the way they are, or wait 20 years until I get to them. All my own builds are in one showcase, downstairs in my office. I have two more cases up in the model room that have a variety of things in them. One case is purely the Old Kustom Kollection, while the other is a lot of misc stuff I acquired. I have one special shelf of models built by friends of mine, both those who have passed and those who are alive. I like that shelf.

Probably so. I have one that the kid painted the entire engine bay silver. It as rare to have a detailed chassis on these old customs. Mine run between black and bare plastic. I've got some that are absolutely brilliant on the top side, but bare plastic under?? Another thing I've noticed. Some builders left out the glass back then. I mean on kits that certainly did come with glass. I don't know why they'd do that,.

Sorry Glen, they just keep following me home! I have stopped buying unless I find one that has truly unique features.

Crown Burgers I made myself! I can't prove it because I ate the evidence!

I hear ya Harry! I'm looking out the window and see all the leaves / branches that are down in the back yard. I have a ton of outside cleanup to do. Then I'll be getting my annual load of mulch for the gardens. Last season I painted my deck, but had bought enough paint to do my bridge and all the unpainted wood up near the pool. Looking at the deck, I'll be needing to do another coat due to the harsh winter. I scraped it up pretty bad shoveling. My bench sits in place year round, and I do try to spend a 1/2 hour a day on something, even if I just run through and spray a few quick items. From January to April, it's NNL East season so my build time gets sucked up with show preparations. I got the vendor packs done this weekend. And just when you think you've seen daylight, you find other chores... yesterday I remembered that my garage workbench is held up by the tubs full of show table leg extenders! So I need to empty my messy bench completely to retrieve those... and of course it's all jammed in with my grills, patio set and other outdoor stuff that has been crammed into the garage for winter. Argh!

What is irking me this cloudy morning? That song "Happy". I hate it. It's everywhere. It gets stuck in your head. And when you manage to shake it, you hear it again somewhere! Argh!

Harry, I have a Peugeot Tour De France hanging in my garage. It's yellow and I bought it new at Wheeler Dealer in Aberdeen, NJ back in 1973. In the mid 1990s I took it back to same dealer and had it cleaned up for use. Mainly replaced the tires and brake pads that had dried out, oiled everything and adjusted the gears. I rode it a lot that summer, but soon forgot about it again. Now in PA, there are a lot of bike trails and I keep saying I need to drag it out once again. I checked on eBay and found that they're pulling $500 or so in good condition.

My favorite? The jerk behind you on the on ramp, who the moment he can, goes across lines he shouldn't to cut you off onto the highway?

Thanks Charlie, when I opened this thread and saw that Michael was from NJ, I was going to mention NNL East, but you beat me to it. Hope to see you both there. Michael if you need any more info on the show go to: http://www.nnleast.com or feel free to either Private Message me here on the board or email me at the address below.

Ha! The place we all go out in Salt Lake City is Crown Burger. A Crown Burger is a large cheeseburger with a big heap of pastrami on top. For that far out west, they do a very thin, moist tasty pastrami that gets put on your burger along with their fry sauce. Simply heaven! I have made Crown Burgers at home more than once!

Yea, when Walmart moves into an area, they haven't done research that says that the local market could support their new store in addition to the stores already there... their goal is to crush the existing stores and put them out of business! And that's how all the big chains work... big box stores, casual restaurants and fast food. That's why there are so many empty stores and shopping centers that are like ghost towns out in suburbia!