Tom Geiger

and suddenly it's Geo Tracker weather in Pennsylvania. I need to clear out enough of my 2 car garage to get it inside. Then I can take the roof off for the whole summer! 21st summer with my baby! (file photo from when I still lived in NJ)

I own two or three air brushes that were given to me as presents or door prizes. I also have a nice small compressor. Can't remember the last time I used them. Haven't even dragged them out in the new house and I've been here three years! I spray everything. I use a mix of hardware store paints, hobby paints and Duplicolor automotive paints. I don't brush paint anything. I will take small parts and mount them a variety of ways to spray them. And when I find the need to brush paint anything, either a touch up or painting details, I spray paint into a small cup. I don't use the little Testors bottles. I don't do much in the way of shiny paint jobs, but when I do, Duplicolor sprays work just fine for me!

I met a guy recently in one of my career networking groups whose name is one letter off from a serial killer. Fortunate for him, this guy has been in jail a long time.

Here she is up on wheels. I set the front spindles on the highest setting and used the raising blocks on the back. Since this is supposed to be a high desert or outback vehicle, ground clearance would be needed. And the good news is that the camper unit has come to shape and is fitted into the car. Previous photos were just squeeze fit. Although I don't have any photos, I also had to build up the interior to create the relationship between the body, interior and camper. The big problem for me was the shortcomings of the old El Camino camper shell. It was just done for visual appeal with no interior. My big enemy is my scale ruler. That's where I discovered that the darn thing sitting in the pickup bed was only three foot deep! So I thought about just going with it and blacking out the windows, but you know where that went with me. Next thing I knew I was carving plastic again. What you see here is the original bed cut into three sections and the center one dropped down two feet to match the rear door. That involved some engineering at the back, mainly that the pickup bed used to sit on the trunk lip, now cut away to allow for walk through. And from here I'll start fabricating the interior from basswood. Sleeping area will be over the cab, and I'll make one side all cabinets, an abbreviated kitchen, and the other side will be all couch. At the rear there will be a closet on either side of the door. Here's the camper unit bottom. Everything white is either Evergreen or part of a second camper unit. You can see where it mates up with the car cab. Now that I have a solid camper unit, I can do the trim repairs on the sides, as well as the fun part... creating the interior!

That is really cool. I know a bunch of us ran to the work bench to glue some fenders together, I know I did! Note that is is the process that early rodders used to make track noses. So check out any old fenders, not just pickup ones!

http://www.owencraft.com/handle.html Could this be the one Gregg? I was just at their website this morning.

Size.. the idea of a diorama is to present a small vignette that represents something larger. For instance if you are doing a diner, nobody said you needed to include a 50 car parking lot. Less is more. And don't go filling that 50 car parking lot with diecast and toy cars just to fill it up either! I've seen a lot of toy like stuff in dioramas, prepainted rail road figures and such just to fill it up. And don't use doll house (1/12 scale) accessories either. I remember one diorama where a 1/25 scale man was reading a HUGE newspaper! A while back there was a diorama that made some local shows that literally was 8 feet long. It was a car show in a park, but the builder included FULL SIZE tennis courts between the car show and the parking lot. The tennis courts added zero to the story and took up a lot of table space.

Because he's new and hasn't figured it all out yet?? It does take a while to get the hang of the board. And to answer Mark's questions... let the board know where in CT you actually are. Then maybe someone would be able to help you. I know there are a lot of modelers in the state. Modelers are cool, someone would probably be willing to drop by to help you for the cost of a soda. Alclad also makes it's chrome in a spray can. I have used this a lot, enough that I'm into something like can number three. I looked it up and the Testors 9215 set is a pseudo airbrush with an air can set up. I wouldn't recommend trying Alclad with this, although someone here may have tried it. I'd recommend getting the spray can. I've used it over Tamiya and Duplicolor paints with no issue. If you are new at modeling and just want to get that Chevy built, you can do the whole car with spray cans. Duplicolor automotive paints give you a wide range of colors at your local auto supply store. If you use Duplicolor, do use their primer under it since it will affect bare plastic. I believe it won't harm resin. Hope this helps.

I built in the house all through the years when my kids were growing up. I worked in an upstairs bedroom. I built myself a little spray booth with a small fan and a hose that I'd toss out a window. I had a corner room so there were windows on two walls. So most of the time I worked there I'd just keep the other window open a bit to allow the fan to work with cross ventilation. So I'd bring in clean air, and all the smells would go out with the fan. Just a thought for ya, welcome to the board.

And please do post in Dan and Wayne's new thread "What Crime Did You Get Away With Recently?"

I always thought Fieros were cool. My wife's cousin had a V6 version, all modified for performance with that sinister scoop reaching out above the roof. Gotta love 'em! Note that the Fiero project was originally started out as a GM high gas mileage commuter car concept. It shares a lot of GM parts bin items, including some Chevette bits. GM probably should have looked at it's Euro or Japanese cars for that commuter car but Detroit seemed to always try to solve their own problems with a US solution back then. For instance, later on the Geo Storm (new body on an Isuzu chassis) was the answer for the commuter car question. I guess they eventually learned. Once we got past that first gas crisis, everyone went back to their old ways and GM thought the need for that high gas mile car was gone and looked at the sports car that the Fiero eventually became. I think it did as well in the market as any dedicated 2 seater could. Remember that's not a large a market to begin with. I think if they did it as a convertible, they could have sold a few more of 'em. As far as models, I have an original MPC kit, but someone boogered up the body, attempting to mold in the flares with at least a whole tube of Green Putty. Otherwise, with the stimulus of Jordan's car here, I'd pull that sucker out and build it!

Richard, I've loved this dio since the beginning. I know exactly how these things get way out of hand and become much more than we ever intended! The only thing I see is that steering wheel on the shelf on the back wall. I don't think one would stand up like that. It would more likely be hung on a hook, or laying down on a shelf.

Cubans have never seen Mustangs. They came out after the embargo!

I used doll house hinges on this Vicky, built over 20 years ago. A few observations... doll house hinges are for 1/12 scale doors so they are pretty large in the 1/25 scale world. The three part hinge was too big, so I cut these down to two part hinges. These are brass and weren't cheap. It was a lot of work for so-so results. I don't think I'd be doing this again.

The Lindberg '34 IS the same kit as the earlier AMT versions. Tooling got lost and Lindberg found it. You may be thinking of the Lindberg '32 Ford pickup, which is a bit of a challenge.

Tomo.. why not do all the body work over time and spray the whole car? And I love the hood ornament on the Scimitar! Can you just ship me that car? That would be cool and unique here in the USA. Do you live in the country? That looks like an ancient barn in the background of one of your pictures?

Agreed Joe. My cousin with two small children has cancer. He's doing okay but has been given five years. Doctors are just hoping that medical science discovers a cure in the meantime. A modeler known to some of us lost his 20 year old son this past year. I just saw on Rock Center a gathering of young women who lost limbs in that stupid Boston bombing. Me? I've been out of work for a while and sometimes feel low about it. Then I think of the people above, the real life issues and permanence of their situations, and I realize that all I need to do is find a job and my life will be whole again. Puts things in perspective real fast!

Gramps.. SJS has been gone for years. They did a few interesting things like a 1950 Ford Ice Cream Truck and a Studebaker Champ pickup. Best chance now is RMR for cabovers.

Gramps, here's an SJS '50 Ford I plan on building someday. I have their frame too,

Dumber than rox!

You mean you never ordered these??? Note that the offer is no longer valid. The address is now a parking garage.

When the original Fox body cars came out, we just had to have that 1979 Capri RS with a V8. It was just the coolest thing we ever saw! Within a few weeks we knew it wasn't such a good idea. The factory had forgotten to install some of the accessories like the dash switch for the rear window defroster and all the leads to that console mounted warning system. It wasn't that long before we started having trouble. The engine had a coolant leak somewhere on the top end that the dealer couldn't find. The rear was replaced under warranty after I insisted to the dealer rep that it shouldn't be howling. The auto trans slipped on a regular basis but never when being demonstrated at the dealership. The TRX tires all wore out and needed to be replaced at a huge cost within two years. Once I noticed the crack developing at the top of the A pillar, I decided enough was enough. It was traded in for a Nissan before the 3 year payments were done. It had less than 30,000 miles on it. The sad part was that we traded in my wife's 1974 Mustang II Coupe on this car. She had gotten the Mustang from a friend of hers when it was a year old. She never ever had an issue with it. It was a V6 car and was nice to drive. It had 60,000 miles on it when traded. To add insult to injury, the dealer sold this to someone a few blocks from our house. We saw it regularly long after the Capri was gone. So I just can't get up any enthusiasm for a Fox Mustang. It's kinda like my experience with Southern Comfort. I once got super drunk on it as a teenager. To this day the mere scent of it makes me cringe.

Finding information about someone on the Internet gets harder if someone has a common name like Edward Smith. You want to Google your name and see what comes up. Back about 10 years ago, I'd come right to the top of the search. With more stuff on the Internet, the first entry that was me was on the fourth page of a Google search. I personally know two other Tom Geigers that aren't related to me, and now there's some young singer with the same name too. Also Google your email address. You are more likely to find direct hits on that than on a common name. You do want to have your Internet presence in order. Watch what you have on your LinkedIn, Facebook and other pages such as message boards. Don't post anything you wouldn't want a potential employer to see. Employers do Internet checks on potential employees (I even check out people who are interviewing me on LinkedIn). I once had an interviewer say, "I see you do some work with a museum". because my name came up on the model car museum site. So do a bit of homework and check yourself out on the Internet.

I'm just sitting on the sidelines in this battle. I don't know or care. But my question is "How does this new kit hold up against the Morgan Auto Detail resin offering pictured above?" The body is a 1979. I don't have it, just swiped the photo from their website.

Looks great as usual! I dunno if I should use this as inspiration to build better models or just chuck all my stuff and concentrate on weed control in my yard as a hobby!