Tom Geiger

Welcome to both Andrew and Clayton! It's a great hobby and even more fun when you can do it together. This is a nice board to participate on.

a store closed on Sunday may be a religious thing. The entire Chick Filet chain is closed on Sunday for this same reason. Camera and Electronics stores in New York City are closed on Saturdays when they are owned by devote Jews. I do agree that stores open more hours are more available and can attract more customers. I know I scratched my head at the stores in NJ that closed at 6pm, in a shopping center where the commuter busses dropped off folks all the way to 8 or 9pm. The shopping center was the commuter lot! I think those stores were missing out on a lot of business.

I love this truck! Everything about it is just right, nothing is over done. The wheels fit right in too. As far as mirrors, a pair of the street rod mirrors from either Model Car Garage or Scale Repros Plus would look very cool. They are small round mirrors and come in pairs. They are machined aluminum.

The Drastic Plastic Model Car Club site on Fotki has nearly every instruction sheet ever done. I noticed the other day that they are in the process of organizing the folders better. In the past, you had to sort through like 10 AMT or MPC folders to find a subject, but now they're putting them all in order by car make and year. It will be much easier. Thanks guys! The only issue is that Fotki still hasn't put everyone's older photos back on line. So as you find an instruction sheet, there's a good chance that a page or two of it will be missing. I know there's still a lot of stuff missing from my personal albums.

It's all a matter of economics. If there was a lot of money to be made producing models of late model trucks, the manufacturers would be all over it. Don't forget that the last set of vehicles we had, pickups, Explorers, Expeditions etc. were all promo based. That means that the actual car manufacturer ordered those done and pretty much paid for the tooling. So any kit production beyond that was gravy. There's a few trucks I'd like to see too. I wouldn't mind a Sprinter or one of those little Ford Transit Connects. I think we're more likely to see trucks in diecast, and don't forget that we can take those apart and build what we want from them. They're essentially models to be built!

That's because guys were within driving distance of NNL East and posted the photos when they got home. More folks fly to GSL and the delay in posting photos is because of the travel time. I know that when it's over on Sunday around noon, we usually pointed the car in some odd direction to do some sight seeing. Then we'd fly home on Monday, with jet lag back to the east coast, that put my picture posting til Tuesday.

I buy lots of stuff on the Internet, from my cars to mulch, but I can understand why people like to go to the local hobby shop. There is nothing like getting up on a Saturday morning and having somewhere to go to have a good modeling conversation and see who you can bump into. It can be a social thing, a human contact thing, seeing people of like minds. Yea, we have that here on the boards, but there's nothing like people in person! If indeed I had that customer focused hobby shop I spoke of earlier in this thread, I'd have a big round table in the middle of the shop where modelers could sit and talk. I'd also have regular seminars on different topics, to different audiences to keep people coming in. As you know, when you go to the hobby shop just to look, you automatically spend $50 or more!

Bill, considering your original thread title was "Revell's TRASH plastic" I think that is what upset people here, that's pretty much dumping on Revell in my book. I know my first post was because I took offense. I see you've changed the title since.

Cool build! Color is just right. I have 3 '49s on my unfinished project shelf just screaming to get finished.

This one has been festering a long time. Many moons ago I cut up a '51 Chevy hard top headed towards doing a rough pickup. It sat in a box ever since. Then Rich Manson handed me this camper body and told me to do something strange with it. Then Dr Cranky got going on his '57 Ford... so stuff came outta boxes, plastic got cut and here's a very preliminary mockup. Body is the '51 Chevy fastback. I wanted the sedan doors. I believe that's a 50 or 55 Chevy pickup box jammed between the '51s rear fenders. And the camper sits nicely on top of this all. Stay tuned, beware!

Poor management, poor customer service. Most hobby shops that are owned by enthusiasts cater to the market that they are passionate about. So if the owner or staff is big into RC cars, that's their focus. You can tell right away that the model car selection is very generic, sometimes just what their wholesaler sends them. There is a local shop in NJ that the owner is a big IPMS military modeler. It's like nirvana for those guys, aftermarket bits etc for those subjects. One day I was there and went up to the counter with about $50 worth of basswood and Evergreen plastics. The owner smiled and asked me what I was working on. When I told him, he looked down and said, "oh, cars.." and then treated me like I had a disease. It gets worse when the owner is away and the store is left in the hands of youngsters. I recently was at a shop in PA, where again I spent about $100 on supplies and tools. The two kids working there were too busy cutting up and joking between themselves, as they fiddled with RC stuff, to really be focused on a customer. If I had a hobby shop, I'd make sure I knew enough about every category to have an intelligent conversation. I would treat every customer like my best friend. I don't care what they're into, I would be enthusiastic about it since I do indeed want them to buy those things from me. I'd make sure everyone left the shop with a smile. To illustrate it... my wife and I go out for dinner and drinks maybe once a week. There are a lot of choices locally but we always wind up going to the same place. Same beer we'd get anywhere, food is good but no better than at the other local pubs. Why do we go there? Very simple... they have the best bartenders I've ever witnessed. Every one of them remembers our names like we're their best friends and remembers what we drink and our usual food order. They are beyond friendly and very efficient. They make the evening spectacular, No wonder this pub gets our money each and every week. Hobby shops could take a lesson from them!

It's pretty easy. First, all you need is to print gauges onto white paper. You don't need decals. See the '65 Chevy interior above this. I went to eBay Motors and copied a photo of a dash cluster that was for sale. That's the tip, go to the parts section and you'll see clearer photos of the gauges. Clusters in cars for sale will have the steering wheel in the way in the photos. Then take the photo of the dash cluster and print it to see what size it is. Once you see, compare the size of the print out to the size you need. I usually do my photo reductions in Word, then print a bunch of them. Save the extras for future projects. I found a catalog of street rod gauges (is it from Mothers?) that I use also. I just scan what I want and print to the size I need. As Eugene said, the above dash (from the '79 Ford pickup) just needed some generic round gauges installed. I did that with a photo copy of the round gauges found in photo etch dash kits. It is a bit tedious to cut tiny little circles, (unless you have a punch) but it works. Then I just put the clear lens glue over them for a finished look. The key is to put the gauges in with either white glue or the clear lens glues available in the hobby.

What happens if you unplug the saw? Do the lights work normally then? If the saw is 240, that outlet should be on two dedicated circuits. Are the lights on the same circuit?

True! Remember we only account for 5% or less of overall kit sales. I'll bet a lot of the remainder don't even get painted. Just dad and a kid spending a nice Sunday afternoon assembling a kit. And that's the primary market! So we just need to get over ourselves!

Jim that brings a tear to my eye! I really wanted to be there. In fact last week I even checked for air fare prices and had my daughter (who works for Marriott) see if she could get me a free room at a nearby hotel. Still, it wasn't happening this year. Hope to see you in two!

Here's the deal... this kit isn't aimed at US. Tom Lowe has always been involved in the TV and Movie memorabilia market. There are huge shows for this hobby across the country all the time. Our hobby is tiny next to this market. People attending these shows will buy this kit. Most will be happy with the box art and maybe never even open the box. None of them will notice the differences between the actual movie car and the kit. And if this makes Round 2 money so that they can invest in stuff we'd like to see reissued, so be it!

Not the same truck. I remember that show and thinking that I would have paid the 30K for that truck! I agree that the price of this truck is waaaay out there, but the owner hired a company to build his vision, and that costs money. Reading the article he's not concerned about getting his money back. His money, he's happy. So be it.

I'm with Mr Kendall- I made the mistake of ordering 10 yards of mulch and have spent the last two days weeding gardens, pruning bushes and trees. I've got two garden areas completed with mulch and they look super! Sad part is that I'm probably 25% done and I haven't even put a dent in that huge mulch pile in my driveway! And I didn't mention that every bone in my 54 year old body aches!

Very cool. I recently did a bit of a model inventory and realized that I had two of these new in box, and three junkers begging for a rebuild. I will have to do something like yours!

Hi Phil, I remember having breakfast with you at GSL one year! I too am not at GSL this year and would like to see some posts about what's going on! Tom Geiger

Not trash, just different. Is this the Dodge Challenger that is also the promo? If so, the plastic on it is no doubt formulated to support a shiny plastic as the final surface, not to be painted. Different kits may be pressed by different vendors to Revell, so plastic formulas may change.

Welcome to the board Jürgen! It's a good group of folks, you should be happy here! I lived in Pirmasens from 1969-73.

Exactly why I won't do it! Earlier in life I was an enthusiastic stamp collector. That led to becoming a dealer and brokering collections and such. I got so involved in that aspect that I never had time to work on my own collection. And when I had time, I didn't want to look at another stamp!

Thanks Jeff. It's actually quite simple. Just like you said... light gray primer over the plastic, then red primer on top of that. Then your gloss red paint on top. All from rattle cans. Let it dry. Then do some wet sanding at the sink. I used automotive sand paper. I cut it down to small 1" x 1" squares. I believe I used 320 on it. Maybe touched up with 600, you want it rough. With the body wet, just gently sand until you get the effect you want. Check frequently by putting the body under the running water. The effect on the door is from sanding in a circular motion. Anywhere you have gone back down to plastic is a high point. Those I hit with the rust! There is Testors Dullcote sprayed in an uneven pattern so there are still some shiny spots in the paint. Sometimes I just do the top surfaces and let it rain down on the sides so the sides still have a bit of gloss. I've never done the salt method.

Cool build. A very typical American work van. A bit of a Norman Rockwell view into our everyday life!