Tom Geiger

Guys we forgot one! I found this on the back of the Renault Daulphene instruction sheet yesterday. Doesn't look like a lot of value for your 1960 50 cents.

Great build on an old favorite kit of mine! I had that one as a kid and was looking for it all the years until it got reissued. I have one in my unfinished kit pile that has all the wood graining done, but not much further. I'm not a fan of the horse shoe windshield or hobby horse shifter so I'm swapping them out for more traditional rod pieces.

and let THEM do it! The big problem I had working with my father as a kid was that he would do everything and I'd watch. That never gave me hands on experience. I got tired of working on 1:1 cars with him since he did all the work and I got to wash parts and watch. When working with my daughter, I'd show her the step dry. Then have her do it dry, and once she was confident with the step, add glue. In the end she felt the accomplishment!

Very neat project! I've been looking to get this kit but Hellers are hard to find in the US. I don't know if I'd modify it or build it stock, I guess I'd need to see the kit to decide. This truck may be cool with a late model Mercedes engine from a Tamiya kit. I'll be watching!

Wow Rich, you are on a roll! New stuff just popping off your bench!

Scale Equipment LTD makes a lot of what you are looking for. They are copies of units that were available in kits at some time in the past. Most prominent is the snow mobile, there is also a tractor with trailer, and a couple different cycles. Check this page: http://www.seltd.net/cgi-bin/ez-catalog/cat_display.cgi?account=X344897;search=16;search=Special%20Projects;limit=category;v=2.0 As far as 1/25 scale, get yourself a 1/25 scale ruler. I've seen them in both 1/24 and 1/25 in hobby stores or you can actually print them out on line. I bought one many years ago and keep a photo copy of it in my wallet so when I see something I think may work in scale, I can put the ruler to it in the store. Most of us browse the toy sections at stores looking for things that may be in or close to scale. That not only includes Walmart and toy stores, but some of the odd stuff shows up in dollar stores. I saw a neat ATV at my local dollar store recently. Even check out these things for wheels etc that could work on models.

I'm not into promos because I find it hard not to detail them! I'm a builder and modifier at heart and that's a big no no! I'm not a fan of the early ones that warped. I do have about 100 promos that I mostly acquired with a collection. Many of them had detail painting already, or were in poor condition so I won't feel bad using them as the basis of a model project. The one promo I own that I paid money for is a '66 Valiant Signet. I believe I paid $450 for it. I used to have a 1:1 so I wanted to own the elusive promo!

When my daughter was about that age she expressed an interest in building a model. I think it was a to spend some time getting attention from dad, but also to get into all those neat paint supplies on my work bench. My bench has always been an old door covered with brown paper. I took a marker and drew a line down the center, labeling the sides mine and hers. So she felt she had her own work space. Part of the planning part of the project was choosing the colors, which I let her do with some input. I wanted the car to come from her imagination. Then we concentrated on the craft part of the project. We took all the parts off the trees and grouped them by the color they needed to be painted. We drew boxes on the bench with color names. We'd mount the parts on tooth picks on styrofoam bases and she'd brush paint the parts the designated colors. That was not a one night deal, it took a while to get all the parts done. Then there were the parts that needed multiple colors. I'd teach her techniques one thing at a time. First it was how to get the right amount on the brush and paint in even strokes. The next lesson was how to clean the brush in thinner so it would be ready for the next time. Once we graduated to the multi-color parts, she learned how to paint straight lines and a technique I called 'paint away' any mess with a bit of thinner on a brush to clean up the separation lines. She was getting it. I had turned away and caught her using the techniques. She was very careful and liked the painting part. I then taught her to spray paint the big parts like the body and chassis, with spray cans of course. She enjoyed that too. Then we got to assembly and we worked on careful gluing with small touches of glue on a tooth pick. And in the end we did the decals. She did get through two projects with me. The first was a Fujimi Suzuki Samauri which was a great kit for a beginner since it was curb side but had a lot of nice detail at the same time. The fact that everything nearly fell together made the assembly fun for her. She chose the kit from my stash because I had a yellow Geo Tracker and this was the closest model to that car. She chose the colors to match my truck. The second kit was the AMT Ghostbusters car. She loved doing this one since there were a lot of parts to paint and she liked that it was a movie car. For each car, built a year apart, we had a deadline of September which was the old Staten Island Model Car Show in conjunction with the local AACA car show. This was a great event because it wasn't only a model show, but also a bit car show with a carnival atmosphere with old time truck mounted kiddie rides and lots of food stands. We had a great time together and that's what it really is about. Time does fly and she's now 29 years old. The cars are still proudly displayed in my show case and she still will bring up the time we built models together. Good luck. Capture these times!

Here's something that would help. I put all my bids into esnipe.com. Aside from being able to do 6 second snipes without being there, you can modify or cancel your bids anytime prior to the actual snipe. So if you do go a bit crazy and later relent, you can go in and cancel the bid.

It does build up nicely, but is one of those kits you still see available for $10 at shows.

Here's a picture of a Doodlebug I started a while back. I was motivated to pull it down off the unfinished project shelf this week when I found this thread. I was surprised that this photo was taken in 2004! It started life as a '32 Vicky and the chassis was shortened severely. And here it is last night. I found better wheels and tires in my parts box. The front units are the stock wheels and tires from the AMT '34 Ford sedan. I have the white wall painted black. The rear tires are plastic and given to me by a friend. The wheels are the deep dish ones from the AMT '57 Ford kit. I don't think I'll be using the hood side panels, they're just still attached and help with the mock up. I cobbled together a bench seat and bed from misc wood scraps in my junk material box. I'm not sure if these are the final pieces or just a pattern. They look thick to me. I may redo it in thinner basswood. I am planning on putting the gas tank in the cowl with the filler sticking up through the vent. Not sure about the engine, I have the kit's flathead V8 assembled, but am thinking about a Model A 4 which is also sitting out on the bench. I may also shorten or eliminate the bed and add a trailer. Oh the possibilities when you are working with junk!

I just received a box with three of Ron Cash's old builds that I bought on eBay. The three models were sent in the same large box and were very well wrapped. First, each one was totally wrapped in toilet paper until it looked like a pillow. That was set into a box slightly larger, with packing peanuts all around. That box was then sealed. Each of these three boxes was then put into the larger box with packing peanuts etc all around so they wouldn't be able to move within the box. Everything got here fine! Hope this helps

u can build an old iron anything later than 1980's 80's and newer any car above 1980, compacts anything with a wheelbase less than 110 inches, and trucks Why are you limiting this to 1980 and above cars? I drove the derby in NJ in the 1980s and there were a good amount of 1960s and 1970s cars. Our rules were quite different than the ones you listed above too. I once ran a '73 Cougar that someone had given me for the purpose. One of my favorites was a 1970 Chevy 4 door sedan.

Man, you have me cringing with each posting! Argh! So I am posting the following as a public service before someone here gets stabbed in their Bobbit. I used to work on a drafting board prior to Computer Aided Design. The boards were tilted so things could roll off easily. See the two photos of my eXacto knife here to see how we prevented mechanical pencils and eXactos from rolling off the board. Take a small piece of masking tape and make a 'wing' like in my photos. Now the eXacto doesn't roll at all, especially on a flat surface like a model bench.

Hi Rich- I had lost track of this thread, glad to see the progress. Tough luck on the body, hope you get it back in paint soon.

Hi Jules and welcome. Fancy seeing you here!

Art reminded me of a funny story about copyrights and trademarks. I used to be a facillity manager for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. At the time we were sponsoring the Excedrin car with a little known driver, Jimmy Johnson. The company would put out a news release in our email weekly following our team efforts. I saw that the display car was going to be at local car dealers in New Jersey the next few weekends so I called up our promotions manager and asked the possibility of having the car on display at our facility on a weekday. He thought this was a great idea and we put the event together, pretty much at the last minute. We had poster art done, with our press photos, and asked our internal print shop to print these and post them on the glass doors of all our buildings on Thursday morning before the employees got to work. This was going to be a very cool surprise. I get in on Thursday morning and there's no posters! I frantically call the print shop manager and he sighs that they couldn't do it because the photo was copyrighted and had trademarks on it! I yelled, YES THEY ARE OUR TRADEMARKS! This dolt didn't know that Excedrin was OUR product! Argh! So we didn't have posters, but the car arrived on schedule. We pushed it up into the court yard right outside the cafeteria. It was a major hit with everyone. The managers of the other sites were jealous. One even openly accused me of wasting money while our budgets were being cut back.. but I replied that it cost us nothing. Promotions delivered the whole deal. Oh, and I did get a Company Spirit Award at our annual division meeting.

No, you haven't copied or counter-fitted the item. You have a right to resell a legitimate item that you bought legally. It's the same thing legally as selling a used car.

Back in the 1980s when I ran the CAD room, we would cut the drawings with a metal straight edge and eXacto blade. I asked the department secretary to order 10 packs of blades, you know the packs with 10 blades in them... well, order comes and she ordered 10 of the 100 packs. I still have no 11 blades today!

And how many of us own kits today with the wheel cut off the box top by someone else?

Congrats! I think you have to send everyone on the board a free kit.

Sorry to say this issue was done in 2006 and there won't be a Model King reissue because Round 2 won't do co-branding anymore. So it's up to Round 2 to bring it back in the AMT box. We know the tool exists and is in good shape, there was some work done to it for the last release, so I doubt it will be too long before we see it again. Thanks everyone for the kind comments!

There were four trucks on the box. I did the red one, Steve Goldman did the blue one, Doc Wiseman did the weathered beater and the last one was done by Tim Alhorn. Here's Steve Goldman's blue truck along with mine at Toledo in 2006. The Doc Wiseman beater truck. Doc's and mine together at the Liars Show in 2006. I've never met Tim Alhorn nor seen his truck in person. He's from Michigan.

When I buy a new kit I haven't seen before, I always open them up to check them out. When I buy old collector kits, something I haven't done in years, I will leave the wrap intact, just in case I want to flip it. I can always open it up later on if I choose to build it. And when I buy duplicates, especially cheap kits for parts or the future, I won't bother to open them. So I do have a lot of sealed kits in the hoard. Overall, I've not had many issues that would warrant returning a kit. Plus most of my buys are at shows, eBay and the like, rather at hobby shops where I could return a kit. For instance, back in the early 1980s when I was starting out, I returned a Johan Marlin to the hobby shop because it was missing a back bumper... bummer, I never found the kit again. Today, I'd put a note out to the boards and find a bumper! The only time I've seen a short shot in one of my own kits was a 1982 Cavalier kit. Of course way out of production! I didn't even notice that the windshield was a short shot until I was at the point to install it. I didn't have a spare kit then, so I just made my own out of clear plastic.

Dave Burket asked me to participate in the box art for the Model King release of the '79 Ford pickup. He was using several builders and styles on the box, so he asked me to do a red sports truck with some minor mud. So here's what I delivered from his test shot. The provided test shot didn't come with chrome, so I used Alclad spray can on the bumpers. I did it over a Duplicolor metallic blue, which gave it an unusual tone. I was under a deadline and didn't have any gloss black paint. To make the model different from the other box builds, I did the grill in body color and black. Details like the front bumper guard, the bed roll bar are just pinned in place so they could be removed if the photo session dictated. The mirrors are still only pinned in place since the model was mailed and I didn't want them to break off in transit, I really wanted to fix the windshield height issue, but this being a box art build, it had to represent what was actually in the box. I did add the drip rail because it was bad in the test shot, and I was told it would be fixed on the tool. And here we are without the roll bar but with the bed cover. Note that to use both the roll bar and the bed cover, it all would need to be glued in place at the same time. That would be glue on the bed cover, then stick the roll bar through it with glue on the feet, Engine built box stock with some minor weathering. Interior was detail painted and carpet was flocked. Seat was two toned. I did weather up and detail paint the chassis. Here's Doug Whyte's actual photo that appeared on the kit box side panel. That is my dog TJ photo shopped into the window. And here's the money shot.. the photo as it actually appeared on the box! And once I got it back from the photo shoot, I added license plates to commemorate the occasion. It was fun to build the truck for the box art, although it was building under a deadline that was much tighter than my normal work and I felt the obligation to get it done. And I got "Build a Box Art Model" off my Bucket List.