Tom Geiger

It hit 90 in Philadelphia today. My wife got home from work and put the air conditioning on in the house. Now it's raining like gang busters, the storm that will push out the hot weather and give us 60s for the rest of the week.

Hey Rich! Did you know that you can fill out your registration form on our website and print it out now? First year for that.

23. As soon as you acquire a kit you've been searching for forever for a king's ransom, the reissue will be announced. 24. As soon as you scratch build something, the kit will be announced.

Just saw this thread for the first time tonight... and I have this puppy just sitting around doing nuthin'! This was started when AMT reissued the Studebaker maybe 20 something years ago. It was painted, red came out poorly so it got stripped and dumped in the box. There are some early builders errors I believe I can fix today.

I've always been a collector so it comes naturally to me to have a model car collection. I have close to, if not, 1000 kits and old restorable built ups and my fair share of resin. I have been doing this for 25 years and the collection grew by leaps and bounds in the early years, but much slower today. I'm more likely to buy cheap parts kits of subjects I fiddle with today. For the longest time, I was saving things for the future. Whether it was a kit, a resin accessory or decal. Only recently did I decide that the future was now and I've started using these great things on projects. For instance when I realized I had a dozen of the '50 Ford pickup, one of my favorite kits, I dumped the 5 unsealed kits into a large tub for building and parts. Since then I have two more of this vehicle in progress. I screwed up a few parts in the process, no problem I just dug into the tub for another. And that makes it fun for me. I have a friend I see at shows and when we passed carrying bags of purchases we'd quip, "More kits for the estate sale!" So if I leave some behind someday, you guys can all fight over them!

Very nice build Rich, and of course you need to bring it to NNL East. You can bring your packing materials etc along and mail it from Tom's house in NC to your friend. I'm sure he'll be tickled pink to get it. You are a very good friend! See you in 10 days!

The Revell '57 Nomad kit kicked my tail a number of times as a kid. I don't believe the parts in that box were ever intended to go together to reasonably depict a Nomad. I'd buy the kit, screw it up and put it in my parts box. The next year I'd get drawn in by that beach scene again, and reason I was a year older, only to repeat the same process. I must have done that 3 or more times! Once I got back to the hobby as an adult I tried again. I have one that's maybe 3/4 built, that I started about 24 years ago. Still sitting in the box! Ah, one of these days! Oh, the writing on the lower right on the box is Bob Paeth's autograph.

I think you need to put the salt around the rim of the pickup bed, then fill it with tequila! Nice work.

Back when I really wanted one of these 1950 Ford panel trucks, I got tired of being outbid. Everything was selling for more than $50. So one night I just went and bid $25 on every one listed. And the above happened! Not complaining, I was happy to get them for $20-25 each! The Ace van up front will survive as-is since the colors are cool. The other two will become different year trucks with different livery (eventually).

Really nice work on that Rod!

Next can we debate which end of a soft boiled egg to open?

Friends... When I showed one of my models to a friend of mine he asked how many hours were in it. When I responded he said, "Wow! I remodeled my whole kitchen in less than that!" I haven't added up the hours in a project since!

And right when you have wet glue on the parts... That's usually when the phone rings!

I agree! Few people in this hobby have the business credentials to understand the dynamics of the business, nor understand the 'changing of the guard' in the companies, and how things have been done very differently under different management. In short, the companies of today are completely different personnel, ,management and ownership than those that produced much of the tooling we love to complain about. What drives me absolutely nutz is a post by a numbnutt complaining that the model companies don't know what they're doing because they haven't produced a kit of his 1966 (pick any car) 4 door sedan. Now that car is readily available in resin but he's not ponying up the $50. He will only buy one copy of this kit once it is on close out at Odd Lots for $10. I just love these guys!

It hit 85 in Philadelphia today! I was downtown for a business meeting and people were out and about in shorts, taking full advantage. After my wife came home from work today we went to Marsh Creek State Park and walked around the lake. There were a lot of people there too! I'm sitting here next to my open kitchen door, we have windows open. And enjoy it while it lasts! I hear 50s next week. Honestly, I'd prefer 50s for NNL East in two weeks... any higher and the rooms get too hot. Just don't rain!

Let's just say "kit bashing" is a legacy term from the early years of the hobby. The one that drives me nuts is "Kit making" people writing "I made this model", the show called the "Model Makers group" that kind of thing... we don't MAKE models, we build them, we assemble them. I'll even accept "I put the model together." Only the manufacturer MAKES the model.

I do have that R&R 50 Plymouth 4 door. Why do I feel a taxi coming on?

Because it sure beats collecting shoes! I do have a lot of stuff. I generally can't pass up a $5 kit of something I like. Only with certain kits I hadn't realized I did it at least a dozen times.

My daughter recently bought a 2011 Ford Fusion so the gold 1999 Plymouth Breeze made it back into my fleet. I bought her the Breeze as her college car, with 34,000 miles on it for $4300.. 8 years ago. Right now it has 138,000 miles on it and runs great. So my wife will drive it to work for now. The red Breeze was mine for years. I got it with 29,000 miles on it for $4200, 7 years ago. I drove the heck out of it and then my other daughter drove it to work for awhile. She blew the engine last year at 188,000 miles. The Breezes were a heck of a value, decent to drive and very dependable.

1979 Ford pickup 1963 Corvette 1922 Oldsmobile street rod thingie 1959 Chevy 1934 Ford - custom dash from '57 Chevy 34 Ford rat rod - '53 Studebaker dashboard cut down and fit in

I have their Mustang II coupe and it is pretty nice. I bought it to create the car my wife was driving when I met her. Note that the coupe actually was sold with two different quarter window treatments, both showing on the box. My wife's car resembled the red car, while the resin body has the longer window. Easy work to fix that and add a vinyl roof. Our car was a 1974 and I found out that the nose was different on that year from the 75-78s since the first year car only came with a 4 or 6. The hood line, grill and such all changed to accommodate the V8 in 1975. I do have the '74 kit so I'll just add the nose onto the resin body. No problem at all with the MAD product. I'd buy more. And he will be at NNL East in two weeks.

Wow John! For someone that's been away from models you sure dove into the deep end of the pool! See you in two weeks my friend!

Jimmy is one of the few after market guys who knows how to do so as a real business with volume. His bodies are low priced, and as such do need more clean up work than say a Modelhaus kit. But it's all in the pricing. As far as ordering from him, I'm sure you will be treated right! BTW, Jimmy Flintstone is a vendor at NNL East on April 20th! See him there.

I think Olds got cut because Buick is a big nameplate in China, where it is revered. History has it that in the old days in China a Buick was thought of as a plant manager's car. So to cut the make in the US would have hurt that image and I understand they sell more Buicks in China than in the USA.

Maisto did all three versions. The Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky and Opel GT. Note that the Sky and GT are probably only badging differences, while the Pontiac had a unique look. Interesting that a US built car was shipped to Germany and sold as an Opel. Very nice replicas! If car companies did promos today, this is what they'd look like! My own impression of the cars is that the Sky is nicer looking than the Solstice. I never liked that cheese grater grill on it. I still stop and take notice whenever I see either. There are still a lot of nice low mile ones around. As said above, they weren't sold as primary vehicles, just as fun cars for those who could afford to do so. I don't see myself in one because I've sat in one and I found it a tight fit and uncomfortable to get in and out of. My own fun little cars are my 1995 Celica GT convertible and 1991 Geo Tracker convertible.