Tom Geiger

I've bought a handful of model boxes in my day. Interesting ones or my favorite box art. Never for big money. I have used old model boxes for parts boxes and such. I have a bunch of them I use to transport my built models to shows. They sit in the corner near my display case, with the necessary plastic peanuts inside. Some of them have a divider so I can put two models in one. I have torn up and recycled some boxes, but I won't do that to older boxes. I carefully fold them up and I have a large box of them I've saved. And since cats have been mentioned, I've never had a cat. I have had cat friends and they seem to like me. Back when I was dating, a girlfriend had a cat named Mauser who would always come right to me when I came over. Later on there was a neighborhood cat named Okay, who would come sit on the fender of my car as I did engine work. Most recently we were at the vet's office with my dog and they had a free range cat in the office who was roaming around. He decided to plant himself on my lap. Oh, TJ my dog was not happy, but so stressed about his own impending doom at the vet that he didn't complain! In my family we always had a dog. My mother had a thing for schnauzers so we had a succession of them. My sister still does. When I got married, we soon got Sandy, a mixed terrier rescue whose owner had died. Once he passed, we agreed no more dogs until 6 years later when I came home to find puppy TJ. My wife got him for my daughter who was afraid of dogs. He's now 13 and once he goes, I doubt we'll get another.

The most important part is that you made it with love, for your mom.

The good part of this thread is that with Revell and Moebius giving us regular surprises, anything is possible! More than at any other time in modeling.

Once again Fox New's car articles look like they were written by a female summer intern with a one hour deadline. There is a guy in my model club who had a Superbird back in the 1970s. Note that dealers pretty much gave these away since they were near sales proof. In fact some dealers took the nose and wing off them to sell them as Roadrunners. He had the car for years, and sold it for a pittance once the nose rusted through on the bottom. And what are these worth today?? As said, any of the cars we see selling for big dollars today had to be stored and cared for in the past 30-50 years. That cost would dwarf any return you may get today.

I have a few of the SJS pieces. I have the Studebaker Champ pickup, the ice cream truck and their phone company truck body. A funny story... back then my inlaws asked me what I wanted for a present. I thought it would be fool proof to take the SJS order form, fill it out and hand it to them. All they needed to do was write a check, mail it and wait for the package. Instant present. My inlaws were very old school and believed all the cautions that Readers Digest warned them about. One of those was not trusting companies through the mails. So my mother in law called up SJS to inquire. She no doubt grilled him about her apprehensions about mailing a check and maybe not getting product. She convinced him to send her the kits and when she received them she'd mail him a check! I don't picture any mail order company doing that, but it somehow worked out and I got the kits for Christmas.

I'll go with Brett. Who said they will make announcements? They never promised anything. And I can only imagine what it's like to try to get a new kit to market. Dealing with a bunch of outsourced functions, from design, to tooling to production. I been there in my own career, and sometimes it's difficult to get them on the same page as you... even though you are paying them. And then add in the licensing wrinkle, that could take any unknown length of time, since every company has their own way of doing it, and they aren't working for you so you are at their mercy.

Does it have to be decals or will this sheet do? I was fortunate to find two complete mint condition sheets at a show about 20 years ago. I had to have them because I had them as a kid! One has remained the way you see it, the other one I've been using on my builds, most notably on the cars in the Olde Kustom Kollection!

I love that light commercial sheet. Here's two police cars I've done with decals from that sheet so far. I'm planning a taxi from that sheet right now!

SE LTD has / had a resin '58 Dodge pickup that looks pretty good. I think a company called SJS did a '55 in resin many years ago

Great build and in my favorite category! Sorry to hear it's no longer with us. I'm sure you could build another one, and even make it better next time.

Me thinks the moderators need to cut the newbies some slack. This board can be perplexing until you figure it all out.

Cats??? You couldn't mean model boxes since you are supposed to recycle those!

White walls look odd on the street today. Back when we bought our '99 Breeze for my daughter, it came from a friend's father in law, who was a car guy in his 60s. It was his wife's car and had been polished within an inch of it's life. And it had white walls AND a chrome exhaust extension on it.

Yea! Summer of 1976. My 2 buddies and I would go cruising. We'd each chip in a dollar for gas, get 6 gallons and cruise all night on it. Didn't matter who drove, my '66 Valiant, my friends '70 Maverick or '66 Mustang. All six cylinder cars, that still didn't get anywhere near the gas mileage of current cars. We'd get quarts of Miller and Bud for 65 cents and we'd drive around, each with one on our lap. Try that today!

Lookin' good Rich! I'm always up for some modeling as a spectator sport watching you build! I bought a pack of those Radio Shack diodes maybe 20 years ago and still have a good quantity of them. And suddenly your model will get radio reception because of it!

Great job on the Mustang! I think your build looks great, subtle and the way many of them rolled off the assembly line. I don't have any issues with the kit myself. I own one and will build it without going nuts over the roof and other small issues.

I was thinking about that myself. I am just learning to do paint masks and they are a pain in the tail. I see the glass nicely painted on diecast, would modelers want to have the glass predone with the black edging from the kit manufacturer? That would mean perfect tampo print every time!

I always meant to do that. I even bought the kits to do so! But procrastination wins for me once again! I can't wait to find this kit here in the US.

I've always used Testors flat black from the spray can. I spray a little bit into a small paper cup, then brush it onto the grille. I wait a few minutes for it to become tacky, then I wipe the grille off with a Q-tip with a little turpentine on it, for the above result. Note that the red lettering was done the same way.

cool oldie! I'd clean it up and keep it 'as is'. It's just one old time capsule from our youth. And that's the fun of it. Yes, some of these are ugly to our learned eyes today, but that was the style and fad back then. So ugly is part of the charm. My interest in the old customs goes back to seeing Dave Shulkas's original Bobtail Cat Valiant that was on the cover of Car Model number one in 1962. It was a mess, covered with gunk and blown apart. My friend Al Raab took on the task of restoring it and since I collect all things Valiant, I was called upon to donate some parts, which was an honor. Upon examining it there were a few things I noticed. First how crude the build actually was. This was a very well known model in it's day, so it stands today as a benchmark of how far our craft has come since then. Second, I had collected a bunch of old Valiants and was always perplexed as to why several had the rear of the body lopped off. Upon seeing the Bobtail, I knew why. Those builders were following this build from the article in the magazine, and the reprints of the article AutoWorld would send out with the kit! I found it interesting how much influence this had back in those days. So I decided that those bobtails also deserved to be restored. And off we went into the Olde Kustom Kollection!

An evil thought... would the AMX and Javelin be future subjects for Moebius? Cars with a good race history that could be issued in multiple versions... that may solve the whole thing!

Stick around! We also like to whine about the Aussie dollar being on par with ours! We liked it much better when it was 50 cents US!

Very nice Carl. I've always been partial to this body style because my father bought a new '66 Lemans 2 door hardtop with a four speed. His was midnight blue with a white bucket interior. The only car he treated himself to!

I'll agree with Bob. I too know Norman and he's one of those guys you can't think of anything bad about. He will forgo attending shows when he's behind on orders because he says it wouldn't be fair to take a day off from casting to the guys waiting for product. A thoughtful guy indeed and a good friend to the hobby.

I believe cars will have lights. Will cars of the future allow owners to drive them when wanted and be self guided when needed? Kind of like an airliner? And same with lighting, an airliner has marker lights when in flight and only hits the headlights when landing. I think marker lights will be needed to be visible to other cars and pedestrians at night. It's kind of scary when a hybrid car sneaks up on you now without sound, imagine them without lights!