Tom Geiger

A lot of Canadians vacation at the New Jersey shore so we'd see that on a lot of cars. We'd translate it as "Bring Me Souvenirs"! There's an old joke, How do you know it's summer in New Jersey? You get Canadian coins in your change!

Today it was in the 40s here near Philadelphia. As I got home, all the snow was melting and the roads and sidewalks were all wet. Tonight it's going back to the low teens. Figure it will be amateur night at the ice rink!

Yes that A100 kit has it's challenges! My big problem was the paint that was scratching right down to the primer as I attempted my final assembly. I still had 6.5 hours to go, so I could've finished, but the results would have been poor. The paint is now hard as a rock, but today I chose to give the body and chassis top another coat of color to counter those scratches. I also didn't like the crooked tailgate, so I took another one from my parts kit and sanded it for a better fit (inner and outer shell) this time. I am quite pleased with the build, it does look so cool in that color! And shiny is a big change for me. Next year I might do an AMT '53 Ford pickup.

I participated and got this Dodge A100 pickup done as far as you see it by 6:30 am. At that point I had just the final assembly and detailing to do but the paint was a bit soft underneath and I didn't want to screw it up. I built it to be a stable mate to my A100 van. I will finish up those details soon. I don't know exactly when since I start a new job tomorrow.

Each year Gary Kulchock and gang from West Virginia host the 24 Hour Build. I believe this was year 8. Gary actually has a bunch of guys at his house, and there are a few other groups around the country, but over 50 modelers built as part of the project. I was one of them, building solo here in Pennsylvania. The premise is to start a model at noon on Saturday and to work 24 hours, finishing it by noon on Sunday. It's quite a challenge and a lot of fun. Here I am right before noon on Saturday. I decided to build a stock A100 pickup, as a stable mate to the A100 van I had recently finished for my Amnesty Project. My own rule for the build is to find a kit that is relatively easy to build that I have multiple copies of so that I can build it for fun without worrying about the end result. I chose this one because I had just built one, so I thought I knew all the little quirks of the kit. Um, I was wrong. This kit was quite a challenge. Aside from what you see here, I had another parts kit just in case I broke a part. I did, and I pulled parts from this kit and will deal with the imperfect ones at a later date. My kits are from the first lot of Lindberg units. I received a half case from them as a thank you because I donated my original issue instruction sheet to them for the new kit. Here's where I was about 4pm. I had all the parts I needed off the trees and cleaned up. I had putty on imperfections. This kit was cast in a funky shiny red plastic that was wavy in texture and every piece had a plastic fuzz around all the edges. A lot to clean up. This is where you start to realize how long the different steps of building a kit actually take! A dozen hours later I had everything painted and moving ahead. I used Testors Wet Look paint for the first time, and it performed well. Color is Flaming Orange. Another time stealer was that I replaced the front windshield center post. It was just odd on the kit body. I also had the chassis up on wheels. I didn't do my usual weathering, I wanted to build a model clean for a change. The engine is done, I didn't need anything up top since you will only see it from the bottom on the finished model. And I was as finished as I was gonna get by 6:15 am. Funny thing was that last year I was beyond tired and making mistakes by 5 am, but this year I was just fine. My issue was that while the paint was dry to the touch, it was still soft underneath and started to scratch off in final assembly. So I thought it best to wait a bit until it hardens completely. One thing that slowed me down was that I was fearful of the red plastic, so my paint is Duplicolor gray primer, followed by Duplicolor metallic silver as a barrier, then the Testors paint over that. So while some guys just shot paint onto bare plastic for the build, I had to wait for three different coats to dry. And here we are in the morning once I got a bit of sleep. I did get a nice shelf piece to sit with my van. It's a bit different since I usually don't do fun trucks so it's cool. The overall 24 Hour Build is fun on several levels. First it's a good challenge of your skills and learning to build quickly. I notice that I do build a bit more systematically and get more done since I did it last year. Also, we're all communicating and posting progress photos on the Facebook page all night. There's nothing like posting a 4am progress report and instantly having 6 guys respond. And it's cool knowing there are 50 people out there doing exactly what you are doing in the middle of the night!

This arrived today! 1957 Opel Rekord promo. It's in pretty good shape overall. It's not warped like American promos of that era. It has a working friction chassis held on by screw posts. It has a small crack at a screw post on the trunk lid and the right corner of the front bumper is missing. Funny thing is that the seller described it as a "parts car only". I think it's more like a car that needs a bumper! I lived in Germany from 1969-72 so I have a soft spot for Opels so I wanted this one. This was a Buy It Now for $19.90 + 7.75 postage. I had $5 in eBay Bucks so it only cost me $23.00 Yea! Funny thing was that when I clicked into the Promo section to look for something else, this was the first car in the list. There were 5 watchers but nobody pulled the trigger, so I did it quickly. It is a bit large, with a 100 inch wheel base it scales out at 1/23 scale. It should be a small car but it just looks like a full size car next to a '55 Chevy on my shelf. Anyway, it made my day!

The new company is called American Racing Miniatures and they intend to release all of Etzel's old kits in the next 12-18 months. And they will be at NNL East.

I'm agreeing with Pete. I build a lot of rusty beaters and put a lot of time and correct detail into mine. I'm not the best modeler on the board, but my stuff isn't bad! It always irks me when I see people selling beaters and junkers on eBay that are nothing more than an old model some kid built, that they've quickly smeared some rust paint and mud onto. Cars with rust through in places no car ever rusted, missing parts like fenders with just plastic that AMT made showing, and dented plastic grilles and such. Same kind of hype about their expertise and how perfect the model is... only it's just a scam. All wrong, and I feel it really degrades what I build, as people who see these may not look close enough at my work to understand the difference. A while back I had thought about building a series of old detailed pickups to sell, but I'd be needing to get serious money for it to be worth it to me. I don't see how that's possible with this kind of junk floating out there. I also know a modeler or two who build like grade school kids, who will sell their built models. Mostly these guys are happy to get back their investment so they can buy another kit to build. I do know one guy who was bragging that he built a tractor trailer as a commissioned job for $100. He was so impressed that someone asked him to build a model, he didn't even realize he lost money on it!

I think that any tri-5 Chevy is cool now a days. The Aussies only had 4 doors so they worked with what they had and built some neat rods. In the future we'll see more 1:1s rodded as they will be the only ones affordable for some. Me? I'd love to have a '56 4 door hardtop. I just love those lines!

Old news! That was yesterday! We've moved onward to clogging the air waves with the Bieb's latest misbehavior!

Ah, but remember that we have 50 states and all of them have their own ideas. Some states have stickers on the plates, others do not. For instance I'm in Pennsylvania and just got a new sticker to put on my plate. They did this a while in New Jersey but stopped sending them to save money, so you'll see cars on the road that appear to have expired tags. Some states have two plates like NJ and others have one plate like PA. PA doesn't care what you put on the front bracket, so I have a US Virgin Islands plate on my Geo Tracker. Many plates have fund raiser plates with pictures on them, In NJ you can get a Wildlife Protection plate, a USS New Jersey ship plate, a Fight Cancer plate and a few more last I looked. Best course of action is to ask the board about any specific state you wish to use a plate for. You can print plates at the Acme Plate Maker on line also.

Amen. While I was out of work, I'd spend fruitless days at my computer and on the phone with no results. A job search isn't something you have control over. So every day at 4pm I'd head up to the model room and work until dinner. It was something I could control and bring to a successful finish on my terms and say. It would wipe away the day, and I got a lot of models done!

Hi Doug- Welcome to the board! I understand how you feel! I am from New Jersey and accepted a good job offer in Pennsylvania a few years ago. It wasn't a good time to move, my daughter was in her senior year of college, so I moved here and my wife stayed with her in NJ for a year. I was here in PA, in a new house, new everything, no friends and all by myself. So what did I do? I loaded my model room into my van and dragged it all down here. I would go back to NJ on weekends, most weeknights I would turn on the TV and hit the workbench. It really helped!

I can't wait. We already decided that this kit will be our next club build project!

Tools are always a good investment. Never skimp on good tools, you will enjoy using them for a lifetime! Here's one of my favorite tools. The Chopper gives you perfectly clean cuts on Evergreen plastic strips and basswood strips that I use for scratch building. You can set up angles too. When I need 4 pieces exactly the same, I'll tape them together and cut them together. This is about a $50 tool. I've had people ask how I could waste that much on a tool, but consider I've had it 10 years and I have used it on every project I've done, it's truly cost me nothing!

I will agree. I grew up as a US Army dependent and moved frequently as a kid. Thus I had no real home, no lifelong friends and had to adapt to new situations frequently. As a result I've always been a collector, of Matchbox cars, coins, stamps and eventually automobilia and model cars. I always treasured my things and kept them in perfect condition, first because I lived in places where they couldn't be replaced and because I believe my things were my stability, the familiar things that were always there, and the things I could control. I still have a great deal of things from my childhood, from the Santa doll my grandfather gave me for my first Christmas, to the first record album I bought at age 13. I even have the Weekly Reader from the first moon landing. Things I've always had and always will. I like to collect, the hunt and putting things in order. My model building is my art. I love to be able to create that crazy image in my head on the work bench in front of me. I get excited as it slowly appears, and looks like that idea from my imagination. I don't compromise, if my vision is a certain red, I'll spray a dozen spoons until I get the right shade. And I'll work with details and weathering until it's perfect in my eye. I can't tell you how many times I moved the interior junk around in my camper until I thought it was just right. I once showed some models to a work friend of mine who was a painting artist. He got very excited and told me my work was indeed 'Art', he defined it as a multi-media sculpture since I assembled them from plastic, wood and bits of metals. It's not just the assembly of a kit once we start bashing and scratch building. And as my Art, it satisfies a certain need in my soul to create. I can have a bad day, have a head ache.. but once I spend an hour at my bench, I am refreshed and ready to face the world once again. And as the collector in me, I treasure my finished works. I proudly display them in my case and can get lost in just looking at them one at a time. Sometimes as a group in the case, and sometimes I pull one out to enjoy closely. It would be very foreign to me to give away, sell or otherwise part with my work.

I believe the temperature sensor is on the pump inlet. So yes, that pipe is drained and it's probably the air temp, although it's always different than the air temperature reading which flashes right before it. For instance right now it says the air is 25 and the pool temp is 22.

Very cool Ray. I have two china cabinets I use. The first one was a freebie and the second one cost me $100. It's easy enough to add a shelf between each of the existing shelves. I had glass shelves cut at the local glass place for cheap.

When Jesse mentioned "free" that reminded me of a bunch of stories. Here's a good one... One Saturday I was out running errands and came home to find a '74 Dodge Dart Brougham in my driveway. I immediately noticed it had no interior, otherwise just had 100,000 on it, V8 and AC car, and no other real issues. Keys in the ignition, and a title from someone I didn't know in the glove box. Later that weekend I found out it was a gift from a car club buddy who was getting divorced and needed to get everything off the property quickly. He had bought it to put the interior in his Dart. He was the guy who made me realize I was much better off with my wife not being interested in cars and my hobbies. His wife was always by his side at car shows, and was into cars too. I used to be jealous of that relationship, until she found herself a boyfriend and booted him out. And the divorce was tough. She took his Dart convertible, and fought him for everything down to the last socket! Anyway, I had this Dart with no interior but a good running 318. I searched locally for a replacement interior with no luck at all. But I did own a 1978 Dodge van with a blown 318. I had a brother in law who was a mechanic who I asked to do the transplant for pay. He declined saying it was too much work and he couldn't be bothered. Then someone came along who bought my van the way it was. Same bro-in-law was working at a local garage and asked me if they could buy the 318 for a customer's car for $300. I figured that was probably the best use, and wanted it out of my driveway. So they towed it down to their shop. A few days later I realized I left some stuff in the trunk, and went down to the shop to witness same idiot putting my 318 into a DODGE VAN! Man, I was ticked. And shortly thereafter I got a call from my car club buddies soon to be ex-wife... she had this Dart interior in her garage that she wanted gone now! Too late!

Yes, the USPS got real serious with that on the last rate hike. It used to be if you mailed someone a part, say a 1/25 scale hood in a small bubble mailer, and it weighed 2 oz, that's what you paid. Now you're paying a minimum of $2 for anything that isn't purely a letter.

I don't care since I never view by category. I hit the View My Content and View New Content buttons so all the categories are mixed for me. We constantly get emails from folks asking that we add categories to NNL East. We have kept few but broad categories due to the volume of models on display, and the fact that it's not a contest.

That's my pool control panel that's in my kitchen.

I felt sorry for and saved this one! Pulled it out of a junkyard for $300 in 1981. It had no floors so the junkyard owner and I pried metal panels off the exterior of an old school bus and I used those to rivet in floors. I drove it all that summer. Kept it in the garage for many years, but this was a very rusty car so I figured I could always find a better one someday. My bro-in-law was on my back to give him the car, he kept insisting that nobody would pay me anything for it. So I sold it to someone else as a project for $2400. That set him on his tail!

Exton PA, right now! Live photo just for you Harry.

I like it much better than the stock two tone! Great choice.