Tom Geiger

You did good Anarldo! The pickup looks great. Soooo what's your next model going to be? And BTW, your avatar picture makes me dizzy

I mentioned resin casting it like a niche company like American Industrial Models... I believe he's a one man operation. If you were to resin cast dozers, you'd need to start small and see what the market would bear.

Ben, first off I build mostly light commercial. I'm going through a period where I'm scratch building a couple campers etc. Much of what I want to build isn't that main stream and I realize that I'm going to have to do diecast conversions, buy resin and scratch build most everything else. When another light commercial builder comes on like you, demanding that the manufacturers produce a '53 International pickup, I'll give them the same argument I'm giving you. The market just won't support the new tooling. And there's a diecast available. Pop it apart and build what you want, you will still wind up with a model in the end. Right now in this thread you have some pretty knowledgeable guys trying to explain reality to you. These aren't just car modelers but industry guys who have years at both the wholesale and retail levels. I don't know you, and I can see you are passionate about your own building niche. I think you are reasoning with your heart not your head, as many of us do. This is a hobby for us and that's cool. When there are niche markets, resin companies jump in to fill the small demand. So why not email companies like American Industrial Models (AIM) and ask them why they're not focusing on your market? OR why don't you put some skin in the game and scratch build some stuff and start your own aftermarket company to produce the very things you feel there's high demand for?? According to your reasoning, you will be rich in no time!

Very cool work with those seats. It's been said to treat every part as if they're a model all to themselves! Here's a neat set of seats. These were in my junkbox so I had painted them to use in my '34 Ford ratrod. Then I decided to make a bench seat to match the back seat that's covered in a Taco Bell napkin. They were custom seats in an early 1960s Chevy kit., I have a second set that's minus the top cushion (which is a separate part). I'm planning on putting mesh in the top centers.

I always BMF after clear coat (or final paint coat since I rarely clear). You don't want your BMF under the clear. Part of what BMF is, is that it has the unique gloss and color of actual chrome and aluminum trim. Once you clear it, it just takes on the same sheen as the paint around it. Some guys say the seal in the BMF with clear, but BMF properly applied will never peel off. I have models older than 20 years that are still just fine. If you have paint flaking off the model you need to look at your prep work. Do you have a primer coat under the paint? Are you prepping the body prior to primer / paint to help the paint adhere? And have you sanded between your primer and paint? And finally, if you are lifting up bits of paint due to your cutting of the BMF on the body, then you need to think about your technique. To cut BMF you don't need to press the exacto knife at all. You just need to trace along the line like you are using a pencil. The foil is so thin that this is all you need. Some guys press hard and cut through their paint, and that will lead to some of it coming off.

I just had an evil thought. With the advent of 3D modeling and affordable printers, maybe this will be the catalyst to bring younger people into modeling. Now that they can create things on the computer and bring them to life in plastic, that might just be the lure to start a whole new generation of modelers! Thoughts?

Tony, I don't know how long you've been around the forum or how deep you are into the culture here. If so, you would know that several of the people involved in this discussion have many years experience in the business. And then there are those of us with direct access to the decision makers in the model manufacturing business. There were periods of time in our history where the model companies were owned by clueless companies that didn't know or understand what they were selling or how to effectively market model kits. I can say that this has changed and today all the major brands are in the hands of the most knowledgeable, caring cheerleaders for our hobby. Knowing them, I totally trust that they are doing the very best for our hobby with the limited budgets they are faced with today.

As mentioned above I'm amazed that no company has kitted a 1/24 scale split window. It's never been done!

I've got some experience with that Cavalier kit. It actually builds up nicely. I have thought about doing the Pontiac conversion, just haven't had a J-2000 donor kit. Those all got sucked up for the pro street chassis! In doing that conversion, I'll bet the interior is near identical. A few other thoughts I've had. I have a Jimmy Flintstone Cavalier sedan delivery phantom body. I've thought about trying to do a wagon conversion. There was also a notchback version of the Cavalier. I've eyeballed it and it wouldn't be all that tough to convert the hatchback body. The Cavalier kit is still out there dirt cheap. So lets see some builds!

Rich- I have bought and used Alclad in a spray can. It works very well.

Ken you must know that Hendrix Manufacturing makes both a '32 and '34 4 door sedan. I had thought about doing my own a while back but lacked the spare bodies to try it. It's neat to see it done pretty much the way I thought it would go together!

This kit was part of Tom Lowes plan to bring kits to the movie and tv memorabilia hobby. It was pretty genius and no doubt sold a ton of these to Simpson fans. Note that from the parts in the box, anyone could assemble a fairly decent replica in colors. An easy build for people more a fan of Homer than car people / model builders. They also did the Jetsons saucer, and even Herbie The Love Bug was part of this series. The makeup of the VW was very cool and may just be the type of kit that we need in the future for this hobby to expand and flourish. I gave one to my 12 year old nephew and he had a decent looking replica built in about an hour with no paint, tools or glue. It was molded in enough colors that he was satisfied with it. The same kit had enough parts and was realistic enough to hold real model builders attention. A lot of us have built some pretty detailed models from this kit.

Or you could make the crawdad den up against the side glass and put a black flap on the outside of the tank. Then they'd feel secure inside it and you could peak whenever you wanted.

It is interesting to see the varied opinions of modelers of varying experience, tastes and understanding of the market. As long as we keep it civil it's a good read. Armchair quarterbacking is fine, but putting up the money to fund the idea is where the rubber meets the road!

Love the magazine and Pepsi can. It makes the model more human. Sometimes little mishaps result in a cooler model! It's not that you made the mistake, but how you recover!

That is very cool. I've never seen one of those built before, never mind built as well as you did!

I haven't had an aquarium in a long time, but I used to keep fancy goldfish. In my teens I had a 20 gallon long and graduated to a 55 gallon as an adult out on my own. I had some very nice fish over the years that I grew rather large in the 55 gallon. The above two fish were later on. My daughter came home from a fair one day with the fish in the top photo. It lived in a bowl for a while, graduating to a larger plastic tank and eventually into a 20 gallon tall aquarium. The bottom one is Sammy the chocolate oranda that I bought to keep the other one company. Both these fish were probably 8" long in these photos. The free fair fish lasted over 10 years! Oh, don't put goldfish in with crayfish. The goldfish tend to sit on the bottom while sleeping and the crays attack!

Very cool Richard! I like that you don't quit until you get the look you hoped to achieve. Truly an artist's eye! The windshield in that kit is fairly fragile. I know I broke two of them trying to polish them! I'm hoping that Round Two will bring this one back with a new stock grill.

Harry it's just subjective opinion, no I don't have a published report saying it. Just look at the "What Did You Get Today" thread on this board. Folks on this board regularly buy dozens of kits at a time. People who attend shows leave with bags of kits, and people buy dozens of kits from vendors at club meetings. I know of two where prominent dealers attend. I am not disputing that we are a very small part of overall kits sales. 10% by some accounts down to 1%. And I understand that new kit releases have to be marketed to the larger audience. All I'm saying is that we, as a very small group, consume many more models than the passive guy who may hit the hobby shop for a kit every other month. And if he was buying a dozen kits a month, that would get him membership in our exclusive society! And yes, you are included. You have model book credits, moderate a message board as well as being on staff of the magazine. You are into this hobby up to your neck, so you indeed are part of the lunatic fringe!

I recently got an order of stuff from Don. I needed a couple of propane tanks for my camper builds and he had them in two sizes. I also bought a bunch of diorama type of stuff from his list. The cost of these was very low. Unfortunately, the quality left something to be desired. Maybe a peg lower than R&R quality. Good enough for what I ordered, there was a fair amount of work to square off and true up some of the parts. The good side is that Don was very accommodating and answered emails very promptly. He was pleasant and good to deal with. He emailed me every step of the way and when some of the items were going to take a bit longer, he mailed me the bulk of the order, and followed up a week later with the additional parts. Any other caster would have just held the order. I'd order again from him.

Diecast is a completely different market from kits. Basically diecasts are passive, anyone can buy one and immediately display and enjoy it. Kits are a commitment and especially anything as complicated as construction equipment takes a certain level of skill. I've been around facility management and construction all of my career. I've seen a lot of diecast displayed in offices over the years. Much of it was handed out as free premiums wearing some company logo. At one company I saw the above TD40B dozers with a plaque commemorating a construction project glued to the blade. They were handed out to the management of that project and displayed in their offices. So a lot of construction diecast become freebies, even the expensive stuff. And there are those who will collect it with passion and buy them. But very few who want to build it. Having known Dave Burket, Model King, a long time I've seen that he really has his finger on the pulse of the American modeler. People are always screaming for large scale. Dave did the 1/16 scale Vega funny car. He had a hard time unloading them. He did the '64 Mercury Comet, '70 Buick Electra and a '70ish T-Bird that sold very slow. But every funny car, drag car and race car he did sold out quickly and he sometimes went for a second issue. And note that he aimed to please our very market of the lunatic fringe, wholesaling the kits into our market. And these kits were done in very limited numbers, much less than ever would support a new tool. So we, as a collective group, we are very race car oriented and that's where the manufacturers will focus. Note that even the hallowed Moebius kit selection is based on cars that were historically raced. Same with the recent Revell tools.

Overall, you've done very well for this being your second model. It looks clean and well done. There are two minor things you could do for a better result next time. Note that the front and rear glass have a raised edge on them that represent the rubber gasket. If you had taken a Sharpie black pen and carefully edged them, you'd have more detail there. Also, your front parking lamps are clear and some of the truck color paint shows through them. If you had painted the back of these silver, they'd look more realistic. Again, they make a silver Sharpie pen that I use for some minor detail work like that. For the mirror, if you think you can install it without making a mess with glue, go for it. If you are questioning messing up your very nice paint job, leave it off. An outside mirror would have been optional equipment on this year truck, but anyone driving one today would have added one. I have a technique for attaching mirrors and other small trim so that they are strong and never show glue. I have a small pin vice and small drill bits that I got at the hobby shop. I drill a small hole in the base of the mirror and a matching hole where I want the mirror to be on the body. Then I insert a small length of straight pin I cut with wire cutters. I glue it into the mirror base, then stick the pin through the body. I glue that point from the inside of the body so no glue is ever showing externally. See the mirror on the primed body. I drill the holes prior to painting so I don't mess up the body. If you are going to drill in a painted body, put down a small piece of masking tape and drill through that so that you don't scratch the body if your drill moves. Look at the interior of the right side of the truck cab, you will see where the straight pin comes through. This is the full pin prior to my cutting it to the right length. I'll often leave parts on the long pin to make it easier to paint and handle, only cutting it when I need to install it. There is only one pin per mirror, in the top mount. These fit so well that they are still unglued on the finished model and stay in place. I originally kept the mirrors loose because the truck was being mailed. I hope this helps or gives you good ideas!

A lot of good points. I will agree with Brett and others who said hobbies do prosper in bad times. NNL East has held it's own, and even increased in attendance and vendor sales in the past few years of bad economic times. When I talk to attendees holding big bags of stuff, the usual response is something like, "We're not going on a big vacation to the islands this year, so I'm splurging on a few more things here." Agreed, creative entertainment in the home. It's a given that the kids of today aren't as hobby driven as we were in our youth. I hear that same moan from all the traditional hobbies like stamp and coin collecting too. Also note that when we were kids, we were the baby boomers, the largest generation ever. Since then the birthrate had declined so even the kids who are interested in cars and building models would be down just by the trimming of the population. I do see a decent future for the hobby in our lifetime. Note that the model companies are in the hands of good knowledgeable management that knows how to cater to the serious adult hobbyist. They are counting on more and more of us baby boomers retiring and having more leisure time to pursue hobbies. And as said in this thread, each one of us who is active in the formal hobby of attending events, building very detailed works and communicating on the message boards is worth ten of the passive builders in dollar volume spent each year.

So there I was sitting at the work bench, happily plugging away on my Caravan Taxi and what happened? This little voice said, "Pssst, look at that Caravan body just sitting there doing nuthin'!" Next thing you know I was cutting apart the glass and gluing the sides into their frames. One Caravan CV Cargo Van coming up! Color is Duplicolor Spinaker Blue. I haven't seen one done in scale, so I figured I'd see what it would look like. I already have decals drawn up, I just have to get to Staples to buy a new printer cartridge set. I'm working on the front bumper since the kit is the Grand Caravan SE top of the line bumper and the base model one has less openings in it. Third round of putty on that one. So now I have two of them going. And you don't even know what I did to the third Caravan body I have! LOL

The Chevy was on the shelf at Avenel Hobbies in NJ last month. It's current.