Tom Geiger

James, condolences on the loss of your mom. It is awful to be put into a bad situation when you are in an already sorrowful one. The best thing you can do is support your dad, his feelings and his way. It sounds like your brother's wife just took over and did things her way, without thinking of anyone else. My wife's family is on a similar path. Her sister has a phobia about wakes and funerals and she's the domineering one. My wife's parents were very traditional people, who didn't specify their wishes, so you know they expected the full Christian wake, funeral and burial. Sis in law just made it all about her, and quickly cremated my father in law so she wouldn't have to endure a formal affair. My wife is livid and feels that she disgraced the family. Now my mother in law, who has suffered with Altzheimers, so she cannot express herself, will die in the near future. Now it's a battle of the 5 siblings. My wife wants to do a traditional rite. Her sister wants the quick and dirty again. One brother is traditional, but doesn't want to spar. And the last one wants to do it as cheap as possible so there will be money to split. Quite a situation and I'm staying out of it. James, again I understand where you are coming from. This isn't a good situation on the best of days and the bull just makes it that much more draining. These things just take a little bit away from you that you never really recover from.

I take I95 from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. The road comes to a screeching halt for a few miles where the rubber neckers are looking off the bridge at the completely frozen Delaware River. If George Washington had waited, he could've just walked across!

They are self stick tags. We were actually looking to get them in rolls, but only found a company that would print them in sheets. I guess if you brought your own sleeve type holder, you could just slide it in there without taking the back off!

think of it as a long strip of plastic backed sand paper with a loop at either end that goes around the frame peg. You are right in the observation that it's wide. I have several of the frames to keep different grits etc for different work. On one of those I have cut the tape in half, so I get two narrow tapes from it. I use that one for those tricky places. And no it won't wrap completely around a drive shaft, your correct that it will do 180* at a time, It pretty much will conform to an oval to round shape. You still need to watch that you don't flatten the piece you're sanding but it's much easier.

Imagine the pressure! Here you are, singing one of the legendary songs of all time, in front of the frickin Beatles live??

Tooling alone can be more than your project gross revenue.

You reminded me... the first album I ever bought was Let It Be! I bought it in 1970 or 1971. Still have it.

Cool Rob! I have never had either one, but would grab one if I saw it priced reasonable at a show. How are they as kits? Good / Bad, accurate or Palmeresque? And I can only guess why Lindberg put a screaming chicken on the hood of the Camaro!

Yes, I don't think I will ever be comfortable with my sister again. When my parents died, she wanted everything. In fact, while I still had my mother's funeral on my credit card, she was demanding the entire life insurance check. That was over 10 years ago and it will never be right. And my wife's family is in the middle of this now. Her father died last year and her mother is an any day thing. And with five kids, and nothing in writing about funeral etc, there is a battle going on.

No problem! From the wrinkling, it looks like someone tried to strip it but didn't go all the way. You can strip it in a variety of strippers (Castrol Super Clean, Brake Fluid etc) and that should all come off. That would leave you with the important parts, the unique cab and bed. You are right that this is the expensive old version. There are later versions of the Little Red Truck that you can find cheap that will supply chassis components, engine and the fiddly little bits you may be missing.

Yup, it's only 32* here and very sunny which heats up the surfaces. It feels warmer out. My driveway is a little stream headed towards the street, and since our street is a hill, there's a lot of water headed down hill! We did luck out. I did get the 18" yesterday and cleared it in what was the lull in the storm. We were told we'd get another big dump of snow, but only got 2" or so. Much of it, my driveway and sidewalks, have melted in the sun, so I didn't break out the snow blower. Good thing, I'm still sore from yesterday. Yea, I have a big snow blower, but you are still wrestling the darn machine, especially in deep snow.

Yup, and we've all seen it on the boards. A resin caster will show a master that he's thinking of doing. There will be 25+ replies all vowing to buy the product. Resin caster invests the money in the mold and sells maybe 5 copies!

Hey Everyone, thank for having my back. A funny side story. From the time I was a teen up until I decided to get back into models when I was 30, I had still cruised the model aisle in the stores, and occasionally bought a kit. I'd open it, look at it, and put it into my stash. I had three copier paper boxes full of models, mostly Mopar muscle cars. So my goal as I entered the hobby was to advance my skills to the point where I could do those cars justice. Once in the hobby, the stimuli of modelers and shows took me other directions. I did develop the needed skills, but 25 years later, I still haven't touched any of those original kits!

I can't wait for the moaning... there will be a certain group who will be waiting for this kit to hit Michaels or Hobby Lobby so they can use their 40% off coupon.

Welcome to the board! Don't let it all overwhelm you, start slow and concentrate on the basics like cleaning up your parts and painting and gluing cleanly. Then add a bit more detail into each subsequent build. I found it wasn't insurmountable talent, but just listening to people and learning techniques. Most of the things we do to produce nice models are just things that aren't difficult to learn, but you wouldn't have thought of on your own. And being in New Jersey there are two good clubs there. The Jersey Shore Model Car Club meets in Brick on the third Friday of each month at 7pm. The Tri-State Scale Model Car Club meets in Perth Amboy on the second Saturday of each month at 1pm. Both clubs would be excellent places to meet people and learn. In fact there are guys who belong to both, And NNL East, one of the largest shows in the country is held in Wayne, NJ in April. Go to the website, www.nnleast.com for full information.

Same here in Exton Blair! The snow is so deep the deer can't get around. Here's a picture I took in my yard today. This guy is up to his body in snow! Behind the deer is a snow covered bush that is like a tent. The black part is the entrance and they're hiding in there.

It makes you wonder who qualifies these folks for the loans. I used to know a guy in our hobby who was eternally broke and went from one calamity to the next. Talk about priorities, his car was repossessed while he was away at a model show for the weekend. And somehow, every time he had a vehicle repossessed, some dealer would let him have another new one. At one point he kept telling me he really wanted a new truck and it was pretty obvious he couldn't afford one. As I tried in vain to talk him out of it, he told me that I didn't understand because I had money. So I asked him, "You didn't notice that we're riding in an '89 Crown Vic with 200,000 miles on it? That's why I don't have money problems!" The next time I saw him, he had a new truck. And that one got repossessed too. And I can say I've never taken family money for my hobbies. My kids never were compromised so I could have something. We got by fine with used cars, didn't do the biggest vacations and my kids were never hungry. We were frugal, saved and tried to set a good example for my kids. We managed to have my wife home with the kids, and I worked as much as I needed to support our family. I paid for my two girls to go to college cash. So they don't have huge college debts like their friends. And they turned out well, and manage their money like we do. Both have nice cars that are paid for, and money in the bank. I was recently out of work for a year and a half and didn't miss paying a bill. Why? Because we planned well and had money in the bank to cover it. And I wouldn't live any other way!

Here a bit west of Philadelphia we are getting hammered. We have been getting 2-3 inches per hour. News just said we set a record for the first winter ever with 4 storms of 6" or greater. They started keeping records in 1884. News just mentioned we're getting 12-18" and my town already records 9.5". A file photo of when I was staining the deck this past summer for reference... Same photo in the past hour! Note that the benches will soon disappear. I believe we've had enough! It just stopped, but they're calling this the lull in the storm. So it may be a good idea to get out there and get some out of the way before the other side of the storm starts!

Today's cars are safer than old cars because they are computer engineered to bend a certain way and protect the passenger cabin. We've all heard of 'crumple zones'. Look at any modern car that's been in a front end collision and you'll see how things have bent right. Even a Smart Car is safer than older cars... there are videos showing how it was designed with the same energy absorption as a modern football helmet. In a front end collision, a Smart car has a skeleton frame that wraps around the passenger compartment and one of the bend points in a front ender, is actually behind the passengers. The frame absorbs the energy instead of the sheet metal and passengers. Back in the old days, the manufacturers just put heavier and heavier metal in the cars (ever try to lift a 1960 Buick bumper? I have!) with the reasoning that it would protect in a collision. All you have to see is that insurance institute video of the '59 Chevy and '99 Impala crash test to see how that worked out! And for gas mileage, back then a slant six would only get 15-18 mpg, but I could get 30 out of it on a long highway trip.

Since the topic of limited budgets came up, and someone already mentioned that there is a place in this hobby for people with limited budgets, and not to get upset about people with larger budgets... Joe Cavorley was a fellow who lived on disability, very limited funds, and constant pain but he was the best commercial / light commercial modeler in the country during his lifetime. Everything he built was from scrap and old broken kits. Joe said he didn't have money for aftermarket, so if he needed a broom for a truck, he'd scratch build it from a toothpick and straw. He would chuckle that he had the time! And models he built were regularly in the magazines and a few are currently in the International Model Car Builder's Museum. He is no doubt responsible for the popularity of these categories today because they weren't cherished categories in the days he pioneered in them. When Joe died, the usual vultures thought he'd have a big collection of kits etc, but were dismayed to find a few boxes of parts kits and supplies. Now on to the Irk part.. people do need to budget for what they spend in the hobby. Home and family come first. It bothers me to know guys who spend money they need for their kids and families on models. That's selfish and wrong! I have known of some real shameful situations where families were being evicted and the father / husband was still bidding on eBay. I have seen people who have no money for food until their next paycheck, but when they get it their first stop is the hobby shop. And we've all seen the guy dragging two kids along at a show (probably because the wife made him take them!) and the kids are bored as heck and carrying the huge bags of stuff he's bought for himself. And people who drag their family of 4 to Michaels to use 4 40% off coupons, but buy the kids nothing! Be responsible!

That was just a little aside, over the years I sold lots of kits that would bring bigger money today... early on a dealer friend of mine came into a hoard of mint condition, still in cases, models from the 1962 era. I bought an entire case of the Revell '62 Valiant customizing kit for about $20 a kit! And that darn eBay, I sold many of them for $50 each thinking I was making a killing. But it was fair at the time and I used the money to buy different kits that I didn't have. Those sparkling mint kits today would bring over $100 each! At least I still have the empty case!

I would make them from wire instead of trying to relocate the spindly Revell plastic ones. Make sure there's enough area behind the door to fit the hinge. I'm not sure how shallow the cab is in that area.

I used to have a bunch of them! When a chain called ChildWorld discontinued models (back in that era) they put them all on deep sale for $2.50 a kit. I went to several of their stores and literally put a shopping basket under the shelf and just pushed all the models into it. The only ones I didn't take them all were the Revell '57 Ranchero with the chopped top! And they had a lot of those. I had at least a half dozen of that EXP. Then eBay came about and I sold a lot of stuff for big money! I probably sold them for $10 each! Which was quadrupling my money So I have one left in my collection.

Very cool model! And that's about my style too!

I got past all the mentioned issues! I opened the doors so I made my own door panels. I used clear plastic for the windows and never even tried the rear bumper! One of my all time favorite kits!