Tom Geiger

For me it's about taking that strange image I have in my head and building it in 3D. If I look at the model sitting on my workbench and I've achieved that, I'm happy. I do try to make my builds a bit different than I've seen similar vehicles. I like to find a new idea or unusual slant on the subject. And for me, I weather everything. The degree of weathering depends on the subject and it's age. Even new cars have some dirt on the chassis and minor surface rust on bare parts. Seeing and duplicating that adds to the realism of the model.

For me it's modeling causes insomnia.. If I get on a roll on a project and try to go to bed I can't get to sleep since I'm so excited and awake over the build. Much of my building is done 8-11 pm, once my wife has tuned into something I won't watch like The Bachelor or Dancing With The Stars. That's my cue to head up to the model room. I try to come back downstairs to watch the 11pm news prior to hitting the bed around midnight. Then I can calm down enough to sleep! My one all nighter was for the 24 Hour Build last month. Following the rules, I started at noon on Saturday and was to build through noon on Sunday. I lasted until 5am. At that point I was not focusing right and dropping things. I had the model done enough that it was sitting on wheels and assembled, so I posted a few quick pics to the group and went to bed!

I have two old china cabinets. I got the first one for free and paid $100 for the larger one that is in my home office. They display the models nicely and keep them out of dust. I no longer have little children, nor have we ever had cats. TJ The Wonder Dog is firmly planted on the ground. This is the larger china cabinet that I bought. It's huge and looks more like a display case than a china cabinet.

Be careful! I would never submerge or wash my models with water. I have too many things on them that aren't water proof. For instance, I will make cardboard headliners, I use 60 lb bond stock for license plates and I use chalk and water colors in my weathering. Even with older models that look okay, I had a problem with an original '65 Barracuda built up I own. I washed it and the neat red lines apparently were done with a water soluble flair pen over the thin white wall. They went pink. The best thing is to keep your models in a dust and dirt free environment. I keep mine in two old china cabinets I own. They only require a brief dusting once a year or so. Hmmm... a bit dirty. I bought these on eBay many years ago. Can only imagine where they were sitting for like 30 years!

The stuff you don't hear about... GM built the Saturn Sky, Pontiac Solstace, Opel GT and get this... A Daewoo G2X all on the same assembly line in Wilmington, Delaware. The Opels were exported to Europe and the Daewoos to Korea. We only hear about cars being imported here, not the other way around.

Yeah, so many people willing to jump in and complain! Stuff happens to people in their lives and when it does, the part time resin business is at the bottom of the list. The post said the caster made good, so give him a chance to catch up. Casting supplies aren't cheap so it may be a matter of filling some past orders and some new orders to pay for the materials.

The surf shop decals are a better fit. If you are going to use the first one, you'd need to scan it to scale it down and print it out on decal paper.

I'm not adverse to building several of a kit, I just work too slow to do so most of the time! When I'm building something, different ideas keep going through my head. For instance as I was working on my '34 Ford that I did a slight section on, I got the idea for a much more radical section that's still going through my head. And I do own a second kit! There's also the 'if I knew then what I know now' factor. The Heller '28 Citroen truck was a pain to build, but now with the experience behind me, I could do a much better job on the next one. So happens I have the woody pickup of the same kit, that I found the '34 Ford chassis slides right under! So a street rod version may not be far behind.

I have two Opel GTs that I plan on restoring. I was going to open the headlights on one of them. Good idea. It's just scratch building some shapes. You can add a lot of detail with very little cost. For instance, if you have some extra scale ignition wire, drill a hole in your tire rims and add a short length as a valve stem. You can do the same on interior door panel tops as locks. Masking tape -- If you spray the sticky side with Testors Dullcote, it neutralizes the glue. Then paint the finished side colors and slice it thin to make your own seat belts. You know those thick plastic seat belts that come in kits? Cut off and thin down the buckles to use on your new masking tape belts! Head rests and seats -- add interest to your interior. Mount your two buckets in different positions, like where the drivers seat would be all the way back on it's track. If the car has adjustable head rests mounted on the seats, cut them off and mount them on bits of straight pin at different heights. Head liners and sun visors -- I have a stack of my old business cards that have a decent weave to the card stock. I cut these to size, paint them and install them as head liners in model cars and pickups. I actually have an envelope of patterns for the headliners of my favorite pickups. I just did one in my '34 Ford sedan. A lot of kits don't include sun visors. You can make them out of flat Everygreen plastic. Cut two the same right size, round off the corners and paint and glue them into place. Kit supplied Glass- Sometimes it's too thick or we're missing it. I just used flat clear plastic on my '34 Ford that came from a clear plastic package that contained muffins. I cut all the straight flat sections, and found enough plastic that was nice, clear and imperfection free to use for the two small windows I needed. Then I installed it with double sided craft tape from Michaels that cost around $4. for the roll I've been using all year. There's lots of budget things you can do like this.

The more valuable ones are worth putting on eBay. You'll get the most for them there. Don't forget to charge enough for postage, and eBay fees. And it can be a pain to find boxes, pack 'em up etc. I figure you have a bunch of those kits we've all bought and have duplicates of in the last 20 years. Those may not be worth the trouble. Guys in my clubs will bring a case of those for $5 or $10 a kit to sell at meetings. I buy kits when they do that. Dealers don't want to buy some of the more common stuff because they already have enough and it's a slow sell. Or like Casey said, set up a table at a show.

From what I have heard, Plastikote and Duplicolor are owned by the same manufacturer. I believe they have phased out the Plastikote line. Pep Boys used to stock it, but now has Duplicolor in it's place. I've always used Duplicolor gray primer on everything. Never had a problem with it with any paint whatsoever.

I know I commented earlier, but I just found this photo! Here is the '41 Plymouth pickup along with it's Dodge brother. The Dodge is from the Johnny Lightning line. I believe our own Art Anderson designed the tampo for this one!

Yea, don't do that. You want the model body to be stable. I like to take something soft, like a wadded up t-shirt, and place that on your table. The model can indent into it changing the shape to it's contours without scratching the body. As you follow the trim line, you want your hand to be resting on something. One pin striper once taught me to use a bean bag, or a large bag of M&Ms as a hand rest. And when doing a long side trim, I may hold the knife stable and gently move the model forward.

The owner died some time ago.

Hey John, the whole idea of NNL is that everyone can bring and display their work. As you know, there's no judging so it's just for fun. One of the things we realized is that a lot of good builders are coming to the show but not displaying models. So this year we are starting a neat NNL East imprinted gift that will only be given to those who display! So display a model and get a neat gift!

Yes, Alclad does do chrome in a spray can and it works very well. I got mine from Model King, Dave Burket, at our club meeting on Friday night. I believe he got the supply from Stevens Hobby, which is a distributor who supplies a lot of hobby shops across the country. The Alclad spray can also be sprayed into a small cup and brushed onto small parts. I've used it on door handles and scripts and it looks as good as real kit chrome.

Jeff, I do my weathering without use of an airbrush. Practice your weathering of the brass on the sprue from that parts tree. I would recommend a spray can of Testors Dullcote. It will take the shine off of anything. You can try a couple of different things. First, just spray some onto scrap to see how it changes the brass look. You can get more control by spraying some into a small cup. I like to use those small bathroom paper cups since they're disposable. You can then brush on the Dullcote or add a bit of black or brown paint, or even some black or brown chalk dust to it to tint it for the look that Art described. I also use water color paint (yea, I have a small kids set on my bench) for some toning. Once you put Dullcote onto a part, it will hold some black or brown water color paint. Even work some green into the seams as if the brass is turning color. Play with different methods with these materials on the sprue until you get a look you like. Then move onto the actual model parts.

Looks good, you brought it alive! I have a red and black one I'm keeping intact and another one I plan on blowing apart and creating a model project out of it... someday!

I find pieces stuck to my shirt sleeves and the bottom of my shoes!

I've always thought these were cool since I lived in Germany when they were new. Per Casey's photo above, the modern Opel GT is available as a Maisto diecast. Here it is on the left, next to the US Saturn Sky which is a dead ringer! Maisto also does the Pontiac version. I'm glad to see the kit back, but why in that odd size box?

I blame that on the tires. There's nothing like opening an old sealed kit and finding a tire stuck to the windshield! Still, beware of packing peanuts. They are good for shipping but I'd be wary of long term storage in the same way you only would use archive quality plastic pages for baseball cards or other collectibles. There's no telling how they will break down over time as they dry out and age. Also, some of them now are water soluble for the environment. I can imagine what humidity could do to these. Mush!

I got a new spray can of Alclad Chrome! Yea. I can build again!

I'm looking forward to seeing it at NNL East! I had fun watching you build it. Very cool build. Most folks don't realize what goes into making a beater look right.

I've been trying real hard not to touch that one. At least I have two of the Missing Link resins of it to play with!

I build slow so I don't have many duplicates. But every time I finish something, I think I should build another with the 'lessons learned'. My Heller Citroen is the poster child for that one!