Tom Geiger

This kit actually started out as an AMT kit that Lindberg managed to buy the tooling. The lore is that it was out to a shop for repairs when AMT went through one of it's ownership transitions and it was forgot about. So the quality is pretty good on this one. Now that Round Two owns both AMT and Lindberg tooling, I'll bet we'll see this one back in it's original AMT box again! Here's one from my collection. I didn't build it, a guy from the Liars Club, Tom Trementano, was selling models at their show. I couldn't pass this up for $20!

Seat belts can be very easy to make. I've done them a few different ways. These seat belts are just ribbon with buckles made from Evergreen strip. Ribbon will shred and have frayed edges if you try to cut a standard piece. To avoid this, take the ribbon and coat both sides with white glue. Make sure it sinks in and doesn't sit on the surface. Then the ribbon will cut nicely. They also make ribbon in the right width, probably hard to find in the real world, but the aftermarket does sell it as seat belt material. Of course at a premium. To make the buckle, I just took a length of Evergreen and round off the edges. Once I had the look, I cut the buckle off the stick. It's easier to work it with a longer length so don't cut it to size until you've got the shape. Spray with silver paint. Note that seat belts are more convincing if they're random like in my picture. Here's another way to do seat belts... in this case, I took those hokey plastic seat belts that came in 1960s kits and cut off the buckles. Note that I would have been much better off if I had sanded them thinner first. Then I used the premade width ribbon to make the belts. They are way thick in this photo, but once in the interior you can only see them from above so they look a lot better. I'm amazed that I didn't take interior photos of this one prior to it's final assembly. Anyway, another way to make seat belts is with masking tape. Take the tape and spray the sticky side with Testors Dullcote. That completely neutralizes the glue and now you have nice thin material to make seat belts. Just spray paint both sides what ever color you need, cut strips to the right width and go for it. This was the first model I did shoulder belts on, using this technique. You can see the belt hanging near the B pillar in the photo. I've also used aftermarket photo etch seat belt kits. With those I don't like the buckles as I think they are way too thin (you could back them with some plastic to get scale thickness) but the male ends are really perfect! And work with any of the belt techniques I mentioned above. I bought a Detail Master photo etch seat belt kit for something like $5 and there were enough buckle parts in it to do several models. So it wasn't overly expensive. Still, I got the idea you were looking to do belts with available materials, thus the info I posted above. Hope this helps!

If it's just the headlight housings, I'd leave them on and BMF them as part of your build.

A kit from eBay for my Dune Buggy collection. I saw it ending at $12.00 and had to bid. All told, bought it for less than $20 including postage! Seller said in the auction text that he wasn't sure if it was complete, etc. I looked at the picture of the parts laid out and saw all the unique parts. So I figured I could always supplement it with parts from another AMT duner kit. Funny thing, I went through the whole kit this evening and it's missing one shock absorber!

And the wonder why the local hobby shops are in trouble. My local Hobbytown doesn't stock Tamiya paints. When I asked the owner he said, "Yup, people keep asking for that." Sooooooo?!?! It hasn't occurred to him to actually stock it?

Great truck! Modelhaus resins are a little more expensive than the average, but the quality is way better! Certainly worth the money. You are doing a great job on the truck so far. One thing is that Chrysler slant sixes used in trucks were painted yellow. And the transmission would be left metal color. I don't know if the crew cabs of this era were sold to the general public. All of the ones I've seen in real life started out as military units. My father was in the US Army when I was a kid and I remember these.

It's cool to see a kit from our youth built nicely!

Pretty cool piece of history!

A noble thought, I made the same statement as my New Years Resolution! I started out the year great by finishing my long suffering '34 Ford rat rod build. Then I fell off the bus and started building new stuff again. Most of which aren't finished, so I actually upped my number of unfinished projects instead of the opposite! Argh!

Very cool concept. This will be a fun build to watch.. I'm pulling up a chair and getting myself some popcorn!

That's really nice work so far! I'm not a truck guy but seeing how nice this kit is may just get me to build one! By the way, I'm really pleased to see Revell of Germany working with Moebius. This helps both companies and I'm all for strengthening the companies that support our hobby!

A few bench seat options for ya... This is actually the bench seat that comes in the Revell '66 Chevelle wagon kit. I recut the seat pattern, cut the rear seat divider (you'd want it as a one piece back in a pickup) and added the headrests. Interior from the Model King release of the AMT '79 Ford pickup kit Bench seat from the AMT 1970 Impala kit that I used in the '65 Chevy pickup kit. That kit also has it's own bench seat. Perhaps you could build up an interior for your '72 using the back wall and seat from the '65 kit.

I once had a Saab 95 wagon with a 4 on the column. It was a very cool car. It had this one thing though... as you drove the dash mounted ashtray would vibrate open. When you shifted down to 4th gear, wham! Your hand would make contact with the edge of that ashtray! I noticed there was dried blood on the sharp edge. I'm not a smoker so I threw the ashtray in the back seat! End of problem.

I love that set and have gone through several of them over the years! Here's the Poly S 'Mud' color The splash was done by flicking it with an old toothbrush.

Here's a photo of my favorite Aussie Ute, the Valiant VC Wayfarer. This one is based on the US 1966 Valiant wagon and was produced through 1967. It's on my bucket list to have one of these someday!

The only way I ever finish anything! It sees that I finish at least one project a year! For those not in the know- Each year between Christmas and New Years I usually take that week as vacation and pull an old unfinished project off the shelf and finish it. It's been called the "Christmas Model Amnesty Project" named after the "Thanksgiving Turkey Amnesty" thing the president does each year.

Carl I just counted 41 unfinished projects in my In Primer Projects album. And that's not all of them! LOL http://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/model_cars/my_model_cars/primer_projects/

Cool! Happy first car. I see you learned to drive the stick out of necessity! No fear, you'll like it! I learned to drive a stick pretty much the same way. I had started working with a company that was giving me a company car to make deliveries. Someone dropped me off at the dealer to pick it up. I went outside with the keys and discovered it was a stick shift. A salesman gave me the five minute lesson in the parking lot and sent me on my way! Yea, I broke in that brand new clutch really well! By evening I was driving it.

Looks good to me! This is becoming one of my favorite kits. Funny thing, I had half a dozen of the kit and realized they were all fleet side like yours. This past week I managed to pick one of the step sides ones up, so my life is now complete.

Dents- Here's a hood dent I recently did. I use a small birthday type candle in a stand, heat up the body area from behind. Once you think it's hot (it shouldn't sag or catch fire!) stick something metal into the area from the front. I use an old Matchbox car. And practice quite a bit on junk bodies before attempting this on a good model!

Very nice work on the cabinet Terry! I'm sure it will raise a lot of money and someone will be very pleased to get it. I've never built furniture, but I did stain my deck!

Update- Argh! Those Revell decals that were giving me issues sticking, wrinkled up once I hit them with a little clear coat. Interestingly enough, the ones I made are just fine. So I've waited a bit for the clear to dry well and most of them have dried 'good enough' for a taxi. I sanded one off of the tail gate and we'll see what I do there. Only one of the big "Checkers" decals on the doors has become unusable, so I will need to sand that one down. I did this a few days ago so I took a few days off to cool down.

I hadn't seen this build until now, but wow! That's fun! Very detailed scratch build on a unique car.

Thanks. Now I remember that thread. I actually glued together two rear fenders from the '55 Chevy step side, but hadn't gotten any further.

St Peter was having a boring day so he decided to let anyone who had a bad day into Heaven. The first guy to approach him was a middle age man. He asked him if he had a bad day. The guy responded, "The worst day of my life. I had suspected my wife was having an affair, so I came home early to surprise her. I burst into the bedroom and there was nobody there. Then I noticed this guy hiding, hanging off the edge of our sixth floor balcony. So I jumped up and down on his fingers until he fell. But the bushes below broke his fall and he's just laying down there in the bushes looking up at me. That got me even madder, so I grabbed our refrigerator, pushed it over the edge of the balcony and it landed right on top of him, killing him. That's when I was so worked up that I had a heart attack and died on the spot." St Peter said, "Wow! That was a bad day, come on in." The next guy approaches St Peter. He asks him the same question. The guy replies, "There I was just out on my seventh floor balcony doing my exercises on my mini trampoline. I jumped a little high and the next thing I know I'm over the edge falling! I managed to grab onto the railing down in the sixth floor balcony, and I saw a guy running towards me and thought I was saved. Then this lunatic starts jumping on my hands until I fell. I landed in the bushes below, then the lunatic threw a refrigerator on me and I died. So yes, I had a bad day." St Peter shakes his head and lets the guy into Heaven. Before long another guy approaches St Peter. Again he asks him if he had a bad day. The guy rants, "Picture this... there I am hiding in this refrigerator"