Tom Geiger

It's a technique developed by Irvin Arter that utilizes dry brushing. Once you understand the process you can get good at it. I have a PDF I can email to anyone interested. Either PM me your email address or email my address I have listed below.

or the ones that just discovered that lab rats are cancer prone?

Cool. I need to do that with my two china cabinets. I just replaced all the wood shelves in my wife's curio cabinets with glass so the light would shine through. Glass cut to order isn't as expensive as people think.

The lady who hit my wife in our Jaguar had Liberty Mutual. They admitted their party was at fault and asked me to go to their preferred body shop for an inspection / estimate. I had already gotten two real estimates in the $5000 range. Their estimate was $3500. I asked the inspector and he said, he didn't know how they arrived at the number, he just put the services into their program. He also admitted that he wouldn't fix the car for that. Then they called and offered us 20% of their lowball estimate. They said, "Yea, our party is at fault but this is our offer. If you don't accept it, sue us." What they didn't know was that I was fairly high up in my company that recommended Liberty Mutual to their employees... not any more!

Cops in NYC may not even want to do a report on something that doesn't involve blood! I know when my grandparent's were alive and living in Jersey City, NJ they couldn't even get the cops to respond as my grandfather watched (from safe indoors) someone break into and try to steal his car. The guy was in the car at least 15 minutes when he gave up and left. He had destroyed the entire steering column. Dispatcher said that all their resources were out responding to more important calls. Per Craig's List, I've done some nice deals on both sides of buyer or seller. I bought both my Celica convertible and Jaguar S off the list. If you've got something big that the garbage company would charge to take, post a FREE ad and it will be gone in an hour. When I moved to PA, I had a huge wood swing set / jungle gym in my yard. I posted a "Take it down, take it free" ad and the phone rang off the hook. A couple guys came and took it away that day! You just need to be cautious and stay in the 'burbs!

Correct! Many years ago the judges at a model show told me that my pickup would have placed, but they 'disqualified' me because I painted my bed flat black instead of doing wood grain with chrome strips like it supposed to be done. I kinda corrected them! Then there was my '32 Ford with the VW chassis under it to represent a kit car. After I won nothing, one of the judges decided to tell me that I was a contender for first in my category BUT when they saw I made such a big glaring error as forgetting to have a battery in the car, well they pushed my car aside. I just looked at him and said "Its a Volkswagen. The battery is under the rear seat." The look on his face was priceless! And people wonder why I don't do contests anymore!

I wanted a New Beetle the first time I saw one. I had passed a dealer that had just gotten them in and even with the dealership closed there were people looking them over and the windows all had fingerprints on them. So I found one I liked, a red one with a 5 speed, and went back the next day with my Geo Tracker to trade in and a bank check. I figured there would be no bargaining so I was prepared to pay the list price. A salesman approached me, and I told him I was interested in this one. He just sneered at me that me and everyone else wanted that car. He said bids were starting at $2000 over list, but if I wanted one I'd need to give them a $1000 deposit to get on the waiting list. No telling how long. No picking out your car. When your number came up, what ever car (color / options / whatever) was chosen for you, you had the choice to take it or forfeit your deposit. He was so surely and rude! So my question to him was "How much money did you just make NOT selling me a car?" I told him if he was half a salesman, he would have been nice, would have gotten my contact information and would have tried to sell me something else that he had in inventory. Then I left. I did send a letter to VW but never got a reply. And six months later when they were begging people to buy Beetles, I wasn't interested! And the funny thing? I still have the Tracker!

That is very cool!

The NNL East name tag order came in yesterday! People have been asking for name tags so we've gone and printed them for everyone! As you know the whole idea behind an NNL is sharing the hobby with your friends and meeting new people. We hope the name tags will help more people connect at the show!

We are headed there. My new job is a consulting gig so I'll have to buy my own health insurance. This new Obama Care legislation is supposed to give everyone access to affordable health care. Last year I applied for private insurance and was turned down. Then I found out everyone I knew who was over 50 had also been turned down. So the companies just wanted to cherry pick and insure 25 year old kids who wouldn't cost them any claims. So it sounds noble that companies must accept EVERYONE, but doesn't guarantee prices, saying that the market will sort that out through competition. I saw that as a problem. I go to the site and there are only two companies serving my county so there is zero incentive for them to compete. The quotes start at $900 a month for just my wife and I. And that policy is $6,000 deductible per person, $12,000 family deductible BEFORE it covers ANYTHING. That's right, you are 100% out of pocket until you meet those deductibles. And after you get there, it only covers 30%. That's like having NO insurance. To get what we'd consider BAD insurance, those policies start at $1,000-1,500 a month with large deductibles but allow for doctors visits etc at a $50 copay and $100 co-pay for a specialist, but you must get authorization from the company first. Now the prices above are the starting prices. I haven't even gone in to apply and see how they jack us up from there. There is a calculator on the page to see if you qualify for the much touted government subsidy towards your coverage. I kept putting in numbers, and found that even if we had a family income of less than $50,000 we wouldn't qualify for anything. So here's this AFFORDABLE health care act, that will fine you if you don't buy coverage, that expects a family with $3000 monthly take home to spend 1/3 to 1/2 of it on the friggin policy! Something is sooo totally wrong here!

So far so good. We were expecting snow yesterday afternoon, which would have interfered with my club meeting in NJ. We can't afford to miss a meeting before NNL East! But we lucked out and there was no snow. I even went to dinner with my daughters and drove back to PA without a problem. The weather report for today was snow, starting around noon. My wife takes those reports like they are an exact schedule and is miffed that it's not snowing now...

So far I've ducked those! A bunch of years ago we were in St Thomas and there was one going on at the hotel. It seemed to be awful self indulgent on the part of the couple to assume everyone could afford / would want to spend / that much money on their wedding. Especially having older relatives forced to make a trip that might be a physical strain on them. We are going to the wedding of one of our friends' son this fall in Atlantic City. We are staying over since the casino rooms are only $35 but it's close enough that we have the option to go home if we chose. That was in the era before you needed passports to go to islands etc. Now they even want to see a passport when you go to possessions like the Virgin Islands. Guess you could just say, "Oops, we don't have passports."

And that's the fun part for me, all the friends I've made from around the world. Even locally, pre-internet days guys from the different clubs didn't mix much at shows. Guys from one club would stand in one corner and guys from another club in the other corner. It wasn't until we got on message boards... as early as the old AOL Model Car Chat on Saturday evenings, that we started talking and became friends when we met at shows. It was the ice breaker that pulled us together as a community. We've gotten so used to things, we don't even seem to notice when a thread here involves guys from 5 different countries! And we do that all the time. And we actually get to meet these guys face to face. I've had visitors from South Africa and Australia (4 different) visit me here in the US. One of the fellows from Australia who occasionally posts on this board has been a friend of mine for a long time. He and his wife recently visited and stayed for a week with me here in PA. There was no 'getting to meet you' phase, we dove right in as old friends. Our wives laughed that we were brothers separated at birth. In fact we went to a swap meet and both bought the same '65 Rambler wagon promo (a dealer had two) and only discovered we did that after the show! We are living in very cool times.

Yes Dan, I was at Fort Riley from 1960-62. My sister was born there in 1960. I remember Dog-N-Suds, in fact I believe I still have a pair of very small root beer mugs from there. I don't remember much considering I was 4 in 1962. I never saw a McDonalds as a kid. We were mostly out of country but when we were home, I don't remember them at all. When we got back to the US in 1972 it was sensory overload. McDonalds, Burger King and even Italian Subs (grinders, hoagies, what ever you call them!) were all new experiences to me and I was 14 at the time. Those chains hadn't made it to Europe yet when I was there. Best I remember was a British hamburger chain called Wimpys and going there in Paris. I'm told that later on there actually was a Burger King right on the army post where we lived in Pirmasens, Germany.

after my club meeting in New Jersey today, a couple of us hit a local hobby shop. They had a big stack of clearance kits, as well as what looked like part of a collection. I got the '37 Ford Panel for $11.99 since I recently stole those wheels out of the one kit I had. Upon opening that one I decided I want to build this kit in the light commercial style. I already know the decals I will make for it. The Daisy's Jeep was on sale for $7.99 and they had a stack of them. My buddy Bart also bought one. I got mine since I have been looking over my Jeep Rubicon and want to see what's transferable between them. Couldn't pass up the kit for that price. The Galaxie Chevy Panel was $19.99 and was a bit of a gamble since it was an opened kit that the shop had sealed with clear packing tape. But I took the gamble and am happy to report that everything is still in bags inside. The box is a bit damaged but this one's a builder. I've always had a mint kit that I've hesitated to build. I envision this one as a service vehicle for my grandfather's jewelry store. My grandfather was the watch maker and he did architectural clocks as well... you know the clocks mounted on buildings. When ever we were in Journal Square in Jersey City, he'd point out that the clock in the tower on the Jersey Journal building was one of his! So we need a service vehicle. A good score when I was least expecting to buy stuff.

Interesting story! My father had a '54 Studebaker prior to the '62. He was an army officer and was sent to Viet Nam in '62 before we admitted we were involved. He bought the new car for my mother so she wouldn't have any problems while he was away. The Stude got traded in on a '66 Pontiac Lemans 2 door hardtop with a 4 speed. We were supposed to be going to Germany then (wound up in Turkey) and the Pontiac was the car he wanted to take to Europe. Funny thing was that the Stude would have been valuable in Turkey since it was a sedan and they turned those into Taxis. He said he got rid of the Stude when they were going out of business partly in fear of not being able to get parts and service, but also because the 4 year old car had visible rust on it. My next encounter with a 1962 Studebaker was when we finally got to Germany in 1969. The officer my father was replacing had a new Audi that he was bringing back to the US and a '62 Studebaker convertible. I begged my father to get the Stude from him since he was leaving it in Germany, but the other fellow said he wouldn't sell it to us because the frame was very rusty. It got junked in the car junkyard on the Army post. That was only a 7 year old car! Later in life in the late 1980s I bought a '63 Studebaker 4 door sedan to be a father son resto project. Once we took it apart, we realized it was way too rusty to restore. Both A and B pillars were nearly rusted through. Man could those rust!

I was lucky here in Exton. We lost power from 5am to 5pm on Wednesday. We didn't see any damage from our house, but were amazed once we had TV and saw the devastation in the area. There are areas around here that are still dark, just luck of the draw! When I was driving home from work on Thursday, a lot of areas were dark, including the area with all the hotels and gas stations near the turnpike entrance. The hotel lots were full of cars so there were a lot of people camping out there in the dark. When I left for work on Friday, many of those areas were lit up, so the crews were working all night. I was watching Philadelphia news tonight and they were showing power crews from Quebec working on the local lines. I was in NJ today and on my way back every hotel parking lot was full of power crew trucks.

Pretty much as described in Theo's post above...

A number of years ago I rented a silver PT Cruiser in Florida. I believe it was from Enterprise. Upon returning it the agent asked me how I liked it, and I replied, "Good enough that I'd buy it and drive it back to New Jersey!" He hit a few buttons and quoted me a price! Apparently everything is for sale! No I didn't buy it.

Art Anderson told the story about the hobby before plastic sheets.. he said they (the older kids) would hang out outside the hobby shop and convince the younger kids to buy the AMT 1961 Ranchero and they'd buy the bed cover from them for a quarter. That was how they got sheet styrene to build from in those days!

the difference is that with the 40% coupon you could only get that discount on ONE item. With the clearance sale, you could empty the shelf into your cart. And it's interesting to see the people who don't know about or just don't use that coupon. Yesterday I was on line behind a lady who had two large decorating items in her cart. She didn't use a coupon and her bill was $120. So that 40% off really would have saved her money. Back when I printed out the coupon (not long ago I only got my Smart Phone in December!) when I didn't see anything I needed, I'd look for someone with a big item in their cart and give them the coupon.

Interesting point. I remember when I got my first Tamiya kit (Ford Sierra) and I was floored when I opened it and everything was in little compartments and all the items were in individual bags to protect them. I wrote a piece for my club newsletter about this asking when and if the domestic manufacturers would be following along. It would be interesting to pull it out for a read. The US manufacturers did what they did, and quality got worse when they moved production to Mexico, but everything improved when they moved production to China. Manufacturing was better, less flash and problems, no doubt because the Chinese had newer equipment than the ancient presses the American companies were using. There was a bit more quality control and things like chrome trees were done better. Most kits today have everything in separate bags. I was especially impressed with my new AMT Jeep Rubicon, they even molded a plastic bag that has the axles, springs and other parts in separate compartments within the bag. I've also received kits with convertible windshields carefully protected with a cardboard tent, hand taped in place. While kit prices didn't go down, quality went up. And the move to China may have resulted in kit prices stabilizing or at least not rising as fast as they could. No telling what kits would cost today if they were still made domestically.

It's a new color in the Testors One Coat Lacquer line called "Baby Poo"! Just kidding Rich! It made my day to see you are making progress on this all important build! And John... why don't you and Amy get a room and stay over Friday night. Heck, I rented a whole hotel just for the fun of it! Seriously, Friday night is well worth coming. Some folks say they have as much fun there as at the show. And it is a brand new restaurant this year! Check the website for the special hotel deal. In fact, our killer rate may be less than driving to Jersey twice considering gas and the tolls!

Hey Ray! I only just saw this post for the first time. I hope all is well with you and your wife!

They've only recently expanded into my territory. So it was an experience... and a big let down. It was just another Michaels or AC Moore store