Tom Geiger

That would get paint on the dirt and grass!

I can't find the site I'm thinking of, but try this link. There are many sites with doll house printables. Some of it is cool and some of it is downright hokey. There are many fabric, blanket and flooring patterns that work well. But you can salvage pieces of the hokey stuff. I didn't want to fold up cardboard appliances, but the controls on them worked good on my scratch built ones! and remember full size doll house is 1/12, half scale is 1/24. https://www.google.com/#q=doll+house+printables&start=0

Thanks Howard.... Since you liked the new name tags... we've added another thing that will connect people together. Here's our new "Parking Space" placard for models on the show tables. This year we've added a few things. Aside from your name, you can add your city and state or province. There's a spot for your club affiliation, and the biggie, a spot for your cell phone so folks can find you during the show! The real ones will be a little larger, this is just a sample printed from a PDF and my printer wasn't honoring the crop marks. They will also be numbered. Yea, we try to raise the bar a little bit each year!

What's up with that car? In one post you say it has 9,000 miles on it, so I'm picturing a cream puff. And now this rant?

Agreed! I put a search into my local Philly Craigslist for "Breeze", to look for another Plymouth Breeze, and I got two pages of results. Most of them for a single dealer who had this HUGE keyword list of every car known to man. So his ads would come up with any search anyone did. I had time, so I pulled up each ad and reported it as prohibited. I'll have to check back and see if he's still advertising. And with car ads a few things irk me, dealers who just advertise a payment... there are those of us who pay cash. And it tells me that the car is priced too high to begin with. Ads that don't list mileage (you know it's a high mile car).. and going a step further those that say "Nice Miles" or "Low Miles" then you find out their idea of "Low" is 120,000. And lastly those that don't list a price. How many people answer an ad for a car that has no price and no miles listed?

And Round 2 is investing money in the old tools. The former Learning Curve owner didn't understand this business at all so they didn't understand how to make the molds complete and viable, nor the market potential of any item. So they kept rerunning the same functional tools that were already at their contractor in China. Back then, Model King was working with them and with small investments, he was able to bring some old kits back to life. For instance having the Chinese contractor reverse engineer (that's creating a new part by looking at an example of the old part) the entire chrome tree for the 1959 Imperial. That cost him in the area of $10,000 to accomplish. Doesn't sound like much, but when you need to make that back over a small run of 2,500 or 5,000 kits, you can see the impact. Dave had to be careful with what he invested, because he only had a small window to make back the money. Remember that at first, Round 2 was leasing the tooling, so again they had to calculate their return over a short period. Now that they actually own it, they can do whatever they want for long term returns. So I suspect there are more kits in the tool crib that require more work, or at the least astute eyes to assess what's there, what's the investment and what the potential in sales would be. Look at their strategies so far. They've managed to add value to every kit. All those old kits we all have multiple copies of got new nostalgic boxes, a souvenir small box, some tooling additions, opening up areas of the tool previously welded shut, and new cool tires. That was a good strategy to make those old tired kits marketable to all of us. And it worked! We as a group have purchased them. And you can see the strategy for the 1960 Ford Ranchero. This is a tired old kit that we all have, and can still be bought cheap at shows from the last issue. We all know that kits tied to drag racing are the best sellers. So they gave it that Ohio George connection. That necessitated backdating the grill, which has never been done, so that also sells kits to the factory stock guys who will want a 1960 Ranchero to sit next to their 1961 Ranchero. And there are additional items, off the top of my head, wheels and such. And they opened up the runners to some of the old custom parts that haven't been seen in eons. On the other hand, the budget no doubt couldn't handle tooling up a new engine, so the Chevy V8 remained. A certain number of us would rejoice if they put the proper Ford six in it, but not enough to finance that venture. And most of the audience would want a Ford V8, which wasn't in the car anyway. So they avoided this area overall. Good strategy! Now the other thing I think they really do right, is that Tom Lowe was always a licensing guru. Although we guys scoffed at the recent "Beverley HIlls Cop" Nova, the "Elvis" dune buggy and a few others, are all kits that are not aimed at us model builders at all. The TV and Movie Memoribilia hobby is much larger than our model car building hobby. There are huge conventions that make our model car shows look like lemonade stands. So when he taps into that market, those are model kit units that add to the overall sales, and amortization of that tool, which is a good thing. And it doesn't even matter what's in those boxes since most will go into collections and never be opened. I think that Round 2 is doing an outstanding job! Imagine what the future looks like!

Yes the Caddy engine carried over from the earlier kit. It was said by Revell that NOT tooling up a new engine was the thing that made the project viable from a budget standpoint. Keep in mind that was for that one project. Nobody said in the future they won't do a stock convertible and put a stock flatty in it. That would be a new project with a different budget. It's been said in threads, maybe even in this one, that the 1950 Ford pickup engine / trans is not the correct flathead for this application. The correct one is in the AMT 49 Merc kit, which they astutely brought out again around the same time...

Last summer was my uncle's 75 birthday and the family had a big bash. My cousin Laura told us that she was doing a travel theme since my uncle and aunt were leaving for a trip to Europe right after the party. So she asked for old time accessories for the main table. I loaned her an old 1950s small suitcase and one of my antique cameras, a large one that had one of those accordion lenses. About halfway through the party, a bunch of little kids came running through the area led by a three year old carrying... yea, my camera! I grabbed it quick. I don't care if he cried! Congrats on the wedding! I've lasted through 35 years of marriage, so you'll do just fine too!

I agree! I really enjoy the magazine. The last few issues had features on some neat cars like a 1977 Mercury Monarch coupe, the restoration of a '64 Dart convertible and a feature on a 1974 Road Runner with only 7200 miles on it. The issue I just got had a feature on NYPD cars and Studebaker taxis and police cars. That same issue had an article on a recreation of a NYPD 1971 Plymouth Fury I by a retired cop. The December issue had a 1962 Chrysler New Yorker T&C hardtop wagon on the cover, and articles on the sole surviving 1911 Cole, a 1949 Dodge coupe and 1936 Pontiac sedan. I also just read an article about early International Scouts and GMC Syclone pickups so they cover just about everything a well rounded unbiased car guy could imagine. I like it when they have unusual feature cars that you hadn't thought about in a long while. Just a nice magazine! Since I subscribed to Classic Car, Hemmings sent me near give away offers ($10 range) for a years subscription to their other magazines. So who could resist Muscle Machines and Sports & Exotics. The subjects are a bit further away from my own interests but great reads as well. I learn more with every issue.

Per Rich's comment, here's my burlap seat covers. It's a tan Taco Bell napkin that has been glued to the plastic seat. I didn't thin the clear glue or get the surface of the napkin wet. And I think it came out pretty well. Here's one of the few interiors where I flocked the carpet. Sorry Harry. And I'm not really a big fan of flocking. Sorry Rich. I never flock anywhere near where I work on my models since the stuff is microscopic and I'd be getting it into paint jobs. And I don't like seeing model cars at shows with bits of flock that have been drawn to the glass by static electricity. The seat is painted with the Scale Motorsports interior sprays that give it a bit of texture. Then I just masked off the center and sprayed it with Testors flat brown. I pretty much just want to give my interiors some color since they are inside the model. I hate black interiors that are just lost in a dark cavern. and there's ways to add patterns. I have an old box of this business card with the embossed stripe. I use them for headliners, seat fabric centers and door panels. Masking tape can done to replicate a pattern. The cheaper brands of tape have the most defined patterns for seats. This seat was wrapped in masking tape then sprayed. I had previously cut holes in the plastic seat, so I just poked the tape through from under for this effect. Add some cotton for stuffing. Here's a pair of buckets going into my Chevette project. The real car had gray fake lambs wool seat covers. I think the flocking replicates that decently. I sprayed them with hair spray to keep the flock from escaping. Everything in this interior was scratch built. The flooring is just paper from my printer, using a floor pattern from a doll house site that had printables. I got the Welcome mat there too. The bed... mattress is shaped balsa covered with a tissue. The pillow is also made from tissue. The covers were a painted napkin. You can use a lot of materials like this if you watch how big the embossed pattern in it is. The pattern on the blankets is a bit too large. The couch is just balsa cushions cut to size and shaped. The covering is a fabric bit from Walmart. It's difficult to find patterns that are small enough to be convincing in scale. The fabric itself is a bit too large here. As Skip said, you can print your own fabric or get some from the doll house store. I plan on trying the printing method in the near future. Hope these ideas help!

Another interesting chain is Cheeburger, Cheeburger! It started on Sanibel Island, Florida and is more a 50s sit down restaurant with decent burgers, again with most the toppings free, and they have a huge selection of milkshake flavors as well. My old VP and friend from my old company ditched the corporate world and bought the franchise for the Philly Mainline region. He has one restaurant up so far and seems to be doing well. Bummer for me because I was hoping he'd get another VP job where I could follow him again!

I get the big bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke and it's maybe $10. Normal for decent fast food.

Cool ole Chevy! You'll have to post a video of it beating out a funny car at the drag races! And the 1:1 McQueen car... last I knew Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars owned it. I had a mental note to build one just like it! I love the yellow on it.

Otherwise you get a jagged missing chunk out of the rocker that's a pain in the tail to repair! Yuk!

Don't know how far the chain "Five Guys" has grown but I'm addicted. It's a burger chain in the NJ/PA area that has great fresh hand formed burgers and fresh cut fries. I get the Five Guys bacon cheeseburger. Huge, fresh, made to order and sloppy! All the burger toppings are free. The standard burger is a huge double patty thing... you need to order a Junior for a single! It's counter service, and when they bag your order, they put your burger in the bottom, then fill a large cup with fries... then they fill the rest of the sack up with fries! Can't beat them!

Yes. I saw a new episode this week. Aaron fell in love with a '63 Falcon race car they were building and bought it from Richard... and the creep is charging him 10% interest!

Yea, we need to stop and think about how amazing it is that this stuff still exists in serviceable condition. Back when these molds were created, the companies had no idea. An old kit in those days was one in it's second or third year. If they got three issues out of them, they did well. We can just thank our lucky stars that they over engineered the tools so well, that they still work 50 years later. AND how amazing it is that those old tools, some unused for 30-50 years were allowed to exist in the warehouse, taking up space and producing no product. And they managed to do so through many changes of management, ownership and change to the companies themselves! This phenomena would not happen today, with assets bar coded, Lean practices and Sigma Six S in industry.

Yea, and other people do that too! Then they forget and sell the kit to me on eBay! I recently got two "believed to be complete" Chevette kits off eBay. One was missing the exterior mirrors and fog lights. One was missing the scale figures. And BOTH were missing the little tent !

Since you mentioned steel wheels with both baby moons and trim rings... AMT 1957 Ford kit, issues prior to mid-90s had these steel wheels and baby moons. These wheels, all chrome representing the baby moon and trim ring, are in the Deora kit.

A bit of a story...many years ago I had my 1960 Buick Electra insured with classic car insurance. I got a cancellation notice from the insurance company with the explanation, "Car not in locked garage - car used for daily transportation". This was a big shock to me since the car was indeed buried in my garage. So I called the company and challenged them. They said they got this bit of intelligence by having one of their investigators call my neighbors and spoke to the busy body next door. Upon asking her she said that they called and asked about "my blue car". That was the first time I realized that we had ALL blue vehicles. 1981 Nissan Stanza, 1976 Dodge van, 1973 Valiant Scamp, 1973 Barracuda and the 1960 Buick! So I quickly straightened out that insurance company. Then we went through a red period. 1998 Plymouth Breeze, 1995 Celica, 1993 Geo Storm... All quite by accident, cars bought used (except for the Stanza) and that just happened to be the color they were!

My vice was the Danbury light commercial trucks! I owned a Ron Cash Divco resin, but once I saw the Danbury Divco Bordens truck, there was no sense even trying to build it! The Danbury piece was just spectacular. I followed that up with the TT Coke truck, the US Mail Jeep and a few others.

I paid $10 which may tell ya something! The Premier Falcon... Too short, too tall and too narrow. Otherwise it's great! Their excellent Corvair. No promo contracts here! And the Rambler. Ugly as sin. I'm surprised these models don't burn holes in their boxes! But of course I own them, and many more. I find them interesting, and I grab them when I see them cheap.. or free. Next time guys on the board start some heated debate thread about some miniscule thing on a new kit, I think I'll bomb the thread with these beauties!

That's the Palmer '59 Plymouth kit.

My first brush with my own mortality was in my mid 40s when I tried to read the date on a Mercury dime. So I got glasses and it's been downhill ever since! Life has been rushing by and I don't even notice how fast the years go! All I can remember is my grandfather at 88 telling me, "It all went so fast. Last thing I knew I was 18. And I still feel 18 inside."

Congrats Harry! I'm not a grandfather at 55, and with two daughters aged 26 and 30 who think they have all the time in the world. I made my father a grandfather at 52! Enjoy it! Grandchildren are kids you can give back to their owners when they fuss!