Tom Geiger

Another good classic car book is Roadster (How and Especially Why A Mechanical Novice Built a Sports Car From A Kit) By Chris Goodrich. In the book he builds a Lotus 7 from a kit, while sharing philosophies. An interesting read.

Yes, you read that right. The South African NNL is sponsored by the Kimberley Modelers Society in Kimberley, South Africa. And yes, there is a connection to NNL East. Peter Thomas and Gerhard van Vuuran are old friends. Peter visited me at my home when he was in the US. We have a friendship between our clubs and we share information on show topics. Anyway, here's an album of photos from their recent South African NNL. It's interesting to see our similar likes, and those things where we differ due to our life experiences! Cool stuff never the less! http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/south-african-nnl/

Yea, it's just like cut up parts. Not even a whole body shell. You'd better send them here for disposal.

That's as nice a job as anyone could do! Very nice model!

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy a car with no miles on it. If someone with money bought wanted it and the money doesn't matter to them, that's fine. It's the same thing as when you find a holy grail model on eBay and the bid is only $10 but you bid a maximum of $100 because you want it badly. Same thing but in a different financial bracket!

Which ever looks better on the grill and wheel centers!

I could just see me doing that apron trick. I'd forget, get up and pull my entire workbench to the ground! For small parts that seem like they'd fly, I stick them to masking tape before cutting. Especially photo etch!

I live and breathe Testors Dullcote... I only use the spray can. I prefer to spray it, but when I do wish to brush it I spray it into a small bathroom paper cup and it works just fine. If you want to beat the cost, you can buy it at Michaels using the 40-50% off coupon. I do that when I go there and there's nothing I want there, so I grab paint or Zap-A-Gap so I don't leave empty handed.

Caution- Try this at your own risk. I once put glass from a 1960 Valiant that had some paint on it in 90% alcohol. Not only did the paint come off, but the yellow was gone from the glass! It turned clear.

If Palmer was make kits today, that would be their Mustang model! Otherwise, it's looks enough like a Mustang, including the little pony logo on the grill and steering wheel. If It's called the BASS, shouldn't that be a fish instead?

Back in the fall of 1978 when the Fox Mustang / Capri debuted, this Capri was sitting on the showroom floor of the local Lincoln Mercury dealer. I was working for a rather prosperous construction company that bought nearly all their executives company cars. I was the guy who bought and leased them. So I was at this dealership buying a Lincoln Versailes and a Town Car when my then girlfriend took a liking to the Capri. It had a window sticker that said, "Not For Sale - For Demonstration Purposes Only", but we managed to talk them out of it since I was a real good customer. We drove it on their dealer plate until they could get a title for it. Taking it home was a funny story. This was during the gas crisis and gas was being rationed. We picked it up on a Friday evening and the gas tank was empty. The dealer put a can of gas in it, that's all they had to give us. So we drove it home and parked it until the gas stations reopened on Monday morning. With a dealer plate we could get gas any day. Imagine the angst of having a brand new car and not being able to drive it around! Once we got it on the road, it looked new and different to everyone! People were stopping us asking what it was and saying it was cool. It was a lot of fun to have the first one. That lasted until things started going wrong. The second week we had it, we took it to a friend's wedding. I was looking for the rear defroster switch and couldn't find it. Checked the manual and there was just a blank spot on the dash where it should have been. Back to the dealer! They also forgot all the sensors for the console warning system. And it spent a lot of time at the dealer under warranty! We were very glad to get rid of it after 3 years and 30,000 miles.

The block looks good! You even have the right number of courses (14)! This is really coming along nicely.

For me it was the 1988 aftermarket issue! I was in Boston and found the issue in a bookstore. I didn't sleep at all that night. I read the issue cover to cover! In the back there was a classified ad (someone's free ad for subscribing) advertising the Tri-State Scale Model Car Club. The Earth must have shook a little when I replied to that ad, my life has not been the same since! I don't get the flack guys post here and on other boards about one magazine or the other. I subscribe to both. I enjoy both. I know the editors of both personally. I know so many of the writers that I hear their voices as I read their articles. The hobby would be a bit poorer if either stopped printing.

Looks great! I was at a show recently and found a Beretta kit marked $5. Upon opening it, the former owner had lopped the roof off, no doubt on it's way to a Pace Car conversion.

I would have bought it for $250. The bumpers alone are worth $250 each!

My wife had a 1974 V6 Mustang II coupe when I met her. I drove it on several trips and it was just fine for what it was. She bought it from a friend when it was a year old. She never did have any issues with the car. In 1979 we traded it in on a new V8 Capri. I was sad that we couldn't afford to keep both. The Capri was a mistake. Nothing but problems from Day 1. Got rid of it with 32,000 miles on it when it was three years old and was happy to get rid of it.

Charlie I don't think that length of time in the freezer matters. Once it's frozen solid, that's as good as it gets. The whole idea is to wet it (maybe even soak it in water overnight) so that water gets in every seam. When you freeze the model, hopefully the water that's in joints you wish to break will freeze and that expansion will push the two parts apart to weaken the joint. I think you'd be better off repeating that process every day, than keeping the model in the freezer for three days.

There has to be an agreement about driving cars in other countries with your home plate, registration and license. People go on vacation all over Europe. I know when we were there we took our little Valiant with the USA military plates in several different countries.

It's cool that you have the hardtop. We see a lot of the convertible since it was in the USA Oldies series. Back around 1990 I was in a hobby shop and the owner asked me to follow him into the stock room. I spied a stack of the Studebaker convertibles on a shelf. I asked about them and the guy said they were obsolete stock and nobody wanted them. So I asked and he sold me the stack of 5 for $10. Two dollars each! The odd thing was that they were all molded in black plastic, so my Studebaker friends wanted them as varieties. I still may have one unbuilt, but here's what I did with the other one... Oh, and I do have a hardtop kit as well as two resin bodies.

When I was cleaning my folks house out I found some of the 'required reading' books from high school. I found some of them intriguing so I took them home. I read Grapes of Wrath and Catch 22 over again. It was interesting to read them with an adult perspective.

I bought mine when I was going to build this. I was at the hobby shop to buy basswood and saw this on the shelf for $49. I use it every day, it's very handy to have around. Oh, and for the guys who won't spend the money, good tools are forever. I've had this 5 years now, so I've depreciated it $10 a year. It's certainly worth that!

The eBay man brought this to me today! $6 bid plus $6 postage. I bid quick as it was ending and never noticed that they actually put the Monogram 1/24 Nomad in this kit. I was actually looking for the old Revell kit. A buddy-o-mine invited me to a challenge to see if both of us (or either!) could actually build a decent model from the Revell kit. I already had one underway, but wanted a back up kit. And this was cheap. Oh well, it was worth the $12 anyway! Dean Milano did a lot of the design on this series of kits. This decal sheet is him all the way! Route 66 theme and some pretty cool images. I will be using the travel stickers on my camper, and I will keep my eye out for a second sheet so I'll have two each of the larger signs to do light commercial vehicles. I'd love to do a Ted's Root Beer van! Of course the kid in me... first thing I did was build the gas station. It's just a cardboard thingie, but cool in it's own way. It will sit in the back of my display case. I may use it for some photo shoots in the future. I also noticed that this is the first shot since I painted my deck! So now you can date all my photos by the deck color (gray-pre Sept 2013, brown- after). And in the same delivery, the eBay man brought me the above old postcard for my collection. Back in 1904, the post office sorted mail enroute in special postal cars on the trains. This one has the marking of being on the "New York & Washington RPO "Railway Post Office" and received in Baltimore. And you think the mail is fast now? It was just as fast in 1904. Note that it was mailed in Mohonk Lake, NY on the 22nd and received in Baltimore the next day. I just love old history! And some neighbors came over!

A quick swipe around those windows with a black Sharpie would take care of the situation!

My wife keeps the GPS in the kitchen drawer (it might get stolen if it's left in the car! Um, it's only useful in the car!) and the TV remote is usually on top of the TV!

Since we're whining... Please don't take model contest pictures while standing. Those roof shots look like you were on a third floor balcony! Squat down and get the camera at table level!