Tom Geiger

There is no way that magazines leave a publisher pre-destroyed! The USPS rules for magazine rate is that they are presorted. So they leave the publisher in bales. In the old days they may have been tied, but today most of the bales are shrink wrapped. They are marked with symbols that tell the postal folks how far down they are sorted. The most complete sort is that the street address is the same. A magazine like Business Week may have enough subscribers inside a single company to go this way. The next sort down is that all 7 digits of the zip code are the same. Large circulation magazines like People no doubt have enough subscribers in a single zip code to send a bale all the way. That bale wouldn't be separated until it reached the final post office. So that bail probably doesn't see any machine sorting. The next sort up is "3". That means the first three digits of the zip code are the same, and that goes to the regional sorting center, where the bale is cut open and the magazines are then sorted to go to the post offices within that region. This is the level where magazines go into the sorting system and could get damaged by automated equipment. Next up is State, which a small circulation publication like Model Cars may only have 25 subscribers in Idaho, so that goes to the state, and then it's broken down at that point. And smaller states like Alaska, the magazines may enter the mail stream as individual magazines from Denver. So magazines have different lengths of opportunity to get damaged by USPS sorting equipment. And of course it depends on how the letter carrier handles the mail. Some will fold magazines in half to fit in a box or slot. Some may even read magazines during their lunch break, so if you get a magazine with food stains and crumbs in it, the publisher did not ship it that way! The other things that comes into play would be the quality of the paper and how it behaves in the sorting machines. I don't think Model Cars is on any worse paper that any other magazine. So it's not the publisher! It's the postal service.

So very cool!

Hi John- Hope things work themselves out! My week sucked. I started a new consulting job on Monday. Or I thought I did. I get there, go through their orientation and I'm told that the computer they ordered for me two weeks ago never showed up. So they sent me home after 3 hours, telling me that I'm useless without a computer. I got a days pay on Wednesday going in for a full day of meetings, and they gave me maybe 2 hours worth of work to take home, which I did today. So I earned a big 13 hours pay this week. No telling when this mythical computer will actually show up. And this is a Fortune 100 major corporation that can't even get a new hire a computer? We are doomed!

Funny thing Adam, I was printing out new decals this afternoon! I also printed the roof topper decals for the Taxi, as well as license plates and decals for a few other current builds. The CV has been repainted and it's now silver. So I printed the decals in both blue and red. I'll see which look better. So these will be moving forward. I also masked off and repainted the passenger side front door on the taxi. The darn Revell decals shrunk up with the clear coat, now it looks good. I did get frustrated with these, so I took a breather. Now I'm calmed down, have forgiven them and am ready to roll them off the bench!

Funny story. A buddy-o-mine was here and we spent a day tunneling through my model vault. At one point he asked me how many Valiant models I had. I responded, "I dunno, maybe 50?" He just looked at me and said, "We've already found more than that and we haven't been upstairs yet!"

And what's wrong with that? This is a hobby and it's supposed to be fun. I need to get some of those old Tom Daniel kits I loved as a kid built and out of boxes! Nice build!

Do you think I need one of those to go in this row?

Cool Dave! My favorite color too!

Many cities have requirements that a certain % of their taxi fleet be low emissions, thus the Prius fleets. I was up in Boston not too long ago and it seemed all the taxis were Camry hybrids. In Philadelphia, the taxis are about 3/4 aging Crown Vics, and 1/4 Altima hybrids. In NYC I remember seeing Camrys and Ford Escape hybrids.

and every summer when it hits 100 they find old folks dead in their apartments in the city!

Back when Hyundai first sold cars in USA, Keansburg Taxi Company in Keansburg, NJ decided to buy a half dozen or so. They were all different colors with logos on the doors and roof lights. They didn't last long!

Who are you, Gas Monkey Garage?? That's a really nice build Dan! I'd love to have it on my shelf. Mine's coming out a little different. I think I lost the instruction sheet!

Aiden, welcome to the board from Pennsylvania, USA! Let us know what you build and what you like! Feel free to pop into any conversation! It's one big International family here!

Seth bring your cars to the NNL. The whole idea of NNL is that it's a non-judged event. It's like a cruise night for model cars. It doesn't matter if you are a pro or a beginner, nobody is judgmental at NNL. EVERYONE should bring a few models to share with our peers. Guys who like the same kind of models will start conversations with you and you'll have new friends as a result. If you ask for help, guys will offer tips and techniques. Guys from this board will remember seeing them here and will start conversations so you'll have some friends on the board who you have met face to face. That's the whole idea of NNL. Meeting friends, Anyone who doesn't bring some models to NNL is cheating themselves out of half the experience!

It depends on how you use them. In all cases, you will need to sand the stick down to create dust. I do that right in the plastic holder and let the dust sit under where the stick was. Some guys just take a dry brush and 'dust' the powder onto their model. Some then cover it, and others don't but complain that the chalk will wear in time with handling. I have my own method. I call it the Two Brush Method. I take some Testors Dullcote from the spray can and spray it into a small cup. Then I paint a bit of it onto my model with a brush (call it the wet brush), then take the other brush (the dry brush) and dip it in the chalk dust and blot it into the wet Dullcote. You can also paint with the mixture as the chalk will melt in the Dullcote, so you can brush it for coverage, just be careful not to get brush strokes. This finish is strong enough to hold up without covering it. Sometimes I do though. You can continue to add dust on top of this to get some texture and depth. It's all a touch and feel thing that you will develop your own technique as you practice. Light weathering with the two brush method to represent a typical used car. Heavy rusting with texture. This is done by repeat applications over the same area and pressing the dust into the wet Dullcote.

Similar story - funny ending. A while back my neighbor had a '76 or so Cutlass. He said it was very sluggish and wouldn't go over 50. He worked on it himself, so in increments, he had done a tune up with plugs, cap and rotor., and when that didn't work he went back and changed the wires and fuel filter. He was about to change the fuel pump and he came over to my garage to borrow some tools. He told me his story to date, and I went over to look at the car. I figured it out in two minutes. His floor mat was bunched up under the gas pedal! John was a real hot head so the last thing I saw was him throwing the mat in the middle of the street and jumping up and down on it! Oh and why not... A while back my daughter told me that from time to time the ignition key would not release from the ignition. One time she actually had to leave it in her work parking lot with the key in it. But when I checked out the car I couldn't duplicate the problem, so I told her to grab me the next time it happened. She came home from work one night and said it was happening. So I go out to check and sure enough the key wouldn't turn to the lock position. I do a brief survey and found the problem... she had a super large coffee cup in the cup holder right in front of the shifter. The cup was blocking the shifter from going into park! Duh! We had a good laugh.

Speaking of batteries... My wife was leaving for work this morning and my Tracker was behind her in the driveway. Instead of waking me up, she decided to move it herself. As a result, I get a text from her later that it has a dead battery and she had to maneuver around it. So I go outside and there is a huge mess in the snow and grass where she managed to get the Breeze past this. I have a brand new battery in the Tracker so I was interested... I turn the key, and it starts right up. Seems she didn't know she needed to have her foot on the clutch to start it!

In my quest to own every Valiant in America... I grabbed this on eBay this week and it arrived yesterday. It's a Bandai tin toy and it has a very unusual paint scheme. At first it looks like the paint wore off but no, it was made this way. The car is in perfect condition. No scratches or dents like most of them. Even the chassis (which is usually all banged up) is perfect. It is crude, as it's Japanese tin from 1961, but that's part of the charm. I have another one in blue.

Here's some of the parts for it... There's double the stuff in this storage unit now.. I have a problem. lol Ya know, someone won that unit on Storage Wars last week! :-)

Wow! A blast from the past. I remember having that issue with the backwards Barracuda on it! I used to buy every issue when I was a kid. I practiced drawing cars from the line drawings of the cartoons.