Tom Geiger

The dry climate is the killer for me. Back when I used to travel to Denver on business a few times a year, the lack of humidity made the inside of my nostrils crack. Yea, nothing like putting Chapstick up your nose.

Hey Ray! Here's two more Cobra stamps. Part of a huge multi-country (most you've never heard of) car series. Both should be easily found on eBay, don't pay any real money for them.

One of my best investments of the last few years is one of those power station things that Pep Boys sells for around $60. That's what I jump started the car with this morning. Aside from the jumper cables, same tool is an air pump, a light, can be used to charge cell phones and a mess of other things. This winter I've kept it charged. The day we lost power during a storm, I used to as a light and cell phone charger.

John, automotive paints like Duplicolor will also affect the plastic. Putting on a good coat of Duplicolor primer will protect the plastic from HOT paint. Try that if you want to give that paint a second try.

It's alive! Very cool and you can now scratch that project off your bucket list! One question? Is that Hitler in your diorama base?

The battery in our 1999 Plymouth Breeze gave up the ghost, no doubt killed by the constant cold weather this year. I can't complain since my records show it was 7 years old. So today I went to Pep Boys and had them install a new battery. The old one was their Bosch, so I replaced it in kind. Yea, I'd normally put my own battery in, but I wasn't dealing with it outside in the cold and damp today!

don't believe you Harry! With your graphic design background you at least have to admire the box art!

Saturdays are definitely better for a show. For Sunday, church comes into play for a lot of your potential attendees.

I've seen models of staff cars, in fact I have a 1940 Ford and 1941 Plymouth 4 door sedan resins tucked away to do that someday. Only problem here is that I'm doing a line of Chevys. If Galaxie does a 1941 Chevy and someone casts a sedan, I'm golden! Oh, procrastination is my friend indeed!

Hmmm Dan, I hadn't even thought about those, but I have at least 4 Galaxie kits. I can go all the way back to 1941 if I use my Welly diecast and of course ignore the war years of 1942-5. And the year run isn't all nice models I built with great details. A lot of it are promos, and old built ups done by others like these.

I finally won a 72 Impala on eBay! I had been collecting parts to piece one together so I'll have to see what works best once it arrives. It's a built up done as a badly built low rider. The body and chrome look original and that's all I need! This finishes my run of full size Chevys from 1949 to 1976

News Flash -- Philly area, it is snowing again. Light snow, shouldn't amount to much. Just enough to cover my deck.

I like it. Looks great especially for a quickie. As far as the ejector pin marks in the bed, glue some junk in front of them!

This one! I fell in love with the Hollingsworth Nomad when I first saw the box as a kid. Of course we didn't argue that the decals weren't even in the box to build that car. And we all know the build quality of enclosed kit! So I wasn't successful in producing a satisfactory model from the contents. I'd see the box again the next year, and reason that I was a year older, and up to the build. And no, I didn't get it built again. Going back at GSL about 14 years ago I met Bob Paeth who was involved with the release of this kit at Revell in 1968. He gave me the whole inside story about the box art and really brought the story alive for me. As a kid buying that box, little did I know one day I'd know someone involved with it's production. And I had Bob sign the box for me, lower right corner. Still my favorite box. And I'm sorry that Danbury Mint isn't going to produce the Hollingsworth Nomad in diecast. That was my one shot at actually getting the car on the box!

Even better... almost nobody knows that "The Fast And The Furious" original was a 1954-5 movie about sports car racing. I have a copy on DVD.

Maybe you read my post about self service vs full service gas stations? I find it funny that 48 states consider any driver qualified to pump gas without any training. Especially since OSHA and most industry requires hazardous materials handling training for many chemicals less dangerous than gasoline!

I have found the opposite. I lived in New Jersey and back when I got my license in 1975, it was pretty lax and easy. You were given a little book to study the traffic laws, once you read it you could take the written test. No requirement of drivers ed at all. On your 17th birthday you went to motor vehicle, and they gave you a permit with a date to take the license road test, 4-6 weeks in the future, depending on their schedule and backlog. I passed the road test first time so I was out there with the general public with about 5 weeks part time experience. And we got some of that experience driving around with our 17 year old friends. And once we were licensed there were no restrictions on when or where we could drive, or who we could have in the car with us. So we were driving around with 6 friends in the car, great distractions! When my daughters got their licenses in NJ in the 80s-90s, it was quite different. They got their permits at 16 1/2, so they had 6 full months of practice driving. They had to have Drivers Ed in high school, and pass the written test. Then they needed 20 hours of behind the wheel training from an accredited driving school before their permit was valid for practice with a licensed driver over 25. Once they got their license they were restricted to having no more than one passenger under 25 in the car, and they weren't allowed to drive after midnight til 6 am. The license plate of a driver under 20 has a little red rectangle on it so cops know there's a youthful driver. Back in my day, I knew people who got killed in accidents. In my daughter's era, we didn't know any. Big difference.

I like it! Nice light commercial build. At my old employer they had a welding rig on top of a 1970s Chevy chassis. Truck had less than 30,000 miles on it, but the frame rotted. They put in for a new truck, saying they couldn't fix the frame... but there was a welding rig on top of it... irony! LOL

at least you are in Phoenix. Here in Pennsylvania my patio is still under two feet of snow! But I do love this project!

who is to say they didn't get it right? Numbers have been produced, that the exact numbers scaled down don't work. Then you have the scale fidelity, what actually 'looks right' vs actual measurements. Guys on this board have said that once they have painted it all in the correct colors and assembled the kit, it looks right. Again, subjectivity. The problem I'm having is that Mr Duff sees fit to scream bloody murder and slander Revell, admitting to have never bought the kit. The very definition of 'reasonable' is meeting the expectations of the average consumer. Those with extraordinary expectations should realize that they are above the normal consumer and be ready to either modify the kit to meet their expectations or pay extra to buy the resin conversion that meets that need.

Again either ignoring or oblivious to manufacturing processes or how projects progress in a corporation. You, or I, don't have that project budget or schedule in front of us, so any opinions are just that. Eight months ahead of product release, may very well have been beyond the last opportunity to make major changes to the product. (those kits have spent the last month prior to those kits appearing in stores in transit alone), Think about it. Changing roof height is easy with a plastic kit. Simply lift the roof off, add little .01 lengths of plastic, glue roof back on. In tooling, you will need to scrap the most expensive part in the tool and recut it all over again. In reverse of a model, that would involve cutting deeper into a tool and recutting the entire roof, and again, retooling all the parts that have a relationship to the change. Say that the body part costs $50,000 as part of a $300,000 project you are asking to scrap a $50,000 investment and invest another $50,000, and add a 90 day cycle into the schedule, it's simply not happening. Especially where we are talking about our very serious modeling group being 5% of the kit market, and the guys who are having this major issue with the kit being 5% of that number, there's simply no way it matters to Revell at all. And in quoting you "I'm not buying the resin kit, because I refuse to buy the actual KIT in the first place.", you are arguing about a situation that you probably haven't even seen in person since you admit to not having bought a kit. And in the eyes of the manufacturer, your opinion doesn't matter at all since you haven't even become a customer. You have no skin in the game at all.

Most of the new cars sold in the USA are financed, an alarming number of those are leased, or in my words 'rented'. Any breathing human can get approved for a new car, so there is no status in having one. I know of one guy who leases new cars he cannot afford, they get repossessed for non-payment and easily gets a new one. As I posted above, when a cash buyer shows up, the salesmen don't believe them. Personally I've paid cash for my cars, only financing my Geo Tracker for 3 years in 1992. When those payments were done, my credit union gave me the option of continuing to pay the $300 a month payment into a savings account. I did so, reasoning that when it was time for a new car I'd have the money available. I continued in that job and made those payments into savings for 9 years. I've never touched that money and that account is worth a bunch of cash today! Funny thing, I still have that Tracker. My own formula is to buy older low mile cars for cash. Of the cars we own today, I had bought the 1996 Grand Caravan for trade in and cash. That was my last new car. Since then we've owned: 1993 Geo Storm - $2000 cash, bought as my older daughter's first car, became younger daughter's first car then a spare. Kept it something like 12 years and donated the still good running car to charity two years ago. 1998 Plymouth Breeze - $4200 cash, with 29,000 miles on it. I drove it as my commuter car for years. Engine blew at 198,000 miles about 2 years ago 1999 Plymouth Breeze - $4300 cash, with 31,000 miles on it. My older daughter drove as her car for many years, currently my wife's daily driver with 145,000 on it. 1995 Toyota Celica Convertible - $4000 was younger daughter's car for years, still have it. 2000 Jaguar S Type - Bought 3 years ago for $10,000 cash with 23,000 miles on it. Currently has 30,000 on it. So overall I haven't bought anything that wasn't a good value, nor financed a vehicle.

TJ if you are in Vineland, NJ look up AAA Hobbies in Magnolia. This is the storefront for Stevens International, the large hobby wholesaler and distributor. Their shop is rather well stocked with Evergreen and Plastruct plastic. And in NJ, if you are looking for a good overview of the hobby, the aftermarket and over 2000 great builds, come on up to Wayne, NJ for NNL East on April 26th. Better yet, come stay in our host hotel and be at our Friday night event. Nobody is a stranger there, tap me on the shoulder and I'll introduce you to a lot of folks you see here on the board. www.nnleast.com

Ah we live in interesting times! Every time we think we've seen it all, a new player announces interesting product. Are we headed for the best of times for the hobby? Me thinks yes!

It's been warm here in PA and the snow is seriously melting. I did no shoveling out front but my walkway has somehow reappeared. I wasn't counting on that until spring. What I can say is that the brook in my yard is running fast enough to be heard inside the house. And that's the run off of all the melting snow!