Tom Geiger

A BIG 36 Horse Power! Heart be still! I've been looking at that Gunze oval window... the shape of a split window isn't all that far off. I've been thinking of working on that rear window.

No problems with model security here in PA. My wife is totally in tune with my models. She sees it as my art and the key to my sanity. She's big on my sanity. Kids are grown and living in NJ! My daughter the younger did empty an entire bottle of glue into an interior once when she was 4. Now she's 24 so she's over that stage!

Jim, I see your process as an artist. You must be in tune with every piece and part. I think you have a totally believable scene at this point.

Here's a few I built over the years that have won awards. They've all been in the magazines too. The two trucks were in a Car Modeler article back in the 1990s. I still build but I don't really get into competition any more.

It will be interesting to see how they modify the '61 Ranchero tool. The only real difference is the grill change from 1960 to 1961. The last issues of the kit had a Chevy V8 from the original '66 Impala kit. I just read up on the Ohio George car and it was a race support vehicle with an original 6 cylinder engine. It was sold at auction in 2009. Let's hope they do it right! Some nice pix in the link below. http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=RW09&CarID=r134&fc=0#

This was over 10 years ago, but I had the shelves over my workbench give way while we were away for the weekend. I came home to this mess. As bad as it looks, no models got destroyed. My chair got flattened though! Here's some irony. We were going away for the weekend and had to put the dog in the kennel. We drove there and they had a sign on the door that they left and would be back at 3pm. This was noon, so we went home to kill some time. The model I'm using as my avatar was sitting on my bench needing a very minor repair. So having time to kill, I fixed it and put it back in the case. IF the kennel had been open, that model would have been toast!

Darn you Jim! Now all of us want an apple crate cart! I built one with my grandfather when I was a kid. A neighbor gave me 4 old baby carriage wheels and my grandfather brought home a crate. Mine was simpler, I sat in the crate and the front end was nothing more than a wood plank with a cross piece on either end where the wheels went. Think dragster! Mine had braking by Keds!

I was going to let sleeping dogs lie but Jonathan asked me questions directly... First, your post loses all credibility when you refer to another forum as a "joke". Nowhere in any post I've posted anywhere do I resort to name calling. That's an insult to everyone who enjoys that board. In fact, there are many people here who post in both forums. Go back to my post 11. I have not complained. I simply stated what I see as a shortcoming that pretty much is human nature. I have been a member of this board since 2007 but haven't been active. A few months ago I made a resolve to get active on this board to expand my friendships in the hobby. My very first post on this board got moved by a moderator! Why did I post in an incorrect spot? Because when you first see the board in your browser, you see just the "General" and "Model Cars". The first category there is "On The Work Bench" so I posted my camper project there. Harry moved it to "Trucks, On The Workbench Pickups, Vans, SUVs and Light Commercial". Not a problem with me, I saw my error and will post where it belongs... or does it? There is no section for campers and trailers! But why did I post where I did? Simply because I didn't know if I scrolled down there was a lot more categories there. Human nature, and what a newbie to the board will do until they figure out the format. And that's all I said! I never said anything should be changed.

Dave, so sorry this happened to you! In two separate incidents I had my '56 Chevy stolen and another time, the windows broken while it was parked on the street. At least when people steal things, they have a motivation to get money. Vandalism is a worse thing in my mind because it's completely unproductive and destructive. There's no sense trying to figure out the reason. One guy is angry at society, the others are just followers? Who knows what's inside their heads? There is no justification and you never know what people are going to do. As I sit here the TV news just reported that some lady was stabbed while shopping in Bath, Bed and Beyond while holding her baby in suburban Middletown, NJ. Scary because that's right where my relatives live. Quiet, safe suburban town. The 19 year old jerk who did it was followed to his apartment and immediately arrested. You just never know.

Evergreen sheet is you best bet. It's nice white sandable plastic. You want the PLAIN packs. It comes in different thicknesses and I have the .010", 0.15" (really thin, almost like paper) and the .020", .030" and .04" in my stash. You get 3 6" x 12" sheets in a pack, the last one I just bought at a local Hobbytown was $3.89. For a camper shell, I'd work with .030" for a first project. The .020" can flex if it's not supported with framing from behind on large panels. In the photo below, nearly everything in the photo was made from Evergreen. The body is the .030" and the part of the roof that bends over the top curve was made from the .020". Per Shawn's advise above, figure out your piece on card stock. Much cheaper to make your mistakes there! Once you get it mocked up, transfer your work onto the plastic sheet and cut it out. See my photo above to see a mock up. To make sure your sides match, if I was to cut this from plastic, I'd tape two pieces of plastic sheet together and cut them out together. Even the cut for wheel well would be sanded to shape with the two sides together. Hope this helps!

Very nice! I used to own a 1:1 '63 sedan. I thought I was going to restore it, but it's rust had rust. Once I figured out that both the A and B pillars were near rusted through, it was over. Back when I was a kid in 1969, we moved to Pirmasens, Germany. My father was US military and he was taking over a unit from another officer who was going stateside. This guy had a 1962 Studebaker Lark convertible. I was big on taking over the car, as was my father since he had a '62 4 door sedan and two previous Studes. The owner discouraged us since the chassis had totally rotted out! Keep in mind that this was only a 7 year old car at that point!

Very cool! It sorta reminds me of a specific vehicle. When my family moved to NJ in 1973, I remember seeing a 1958 Plymouth two door offered for sale at a local farm. It didn't get sold so it eventually got cut off like your car as a field truck. I remember seeing it there with the nose on it, windshield intact, but the rest of the body gone. It eventually got retired and wound up in the adjacent woods. In 1977, once we were of driving age, my buddy bought a '59 Plymouth and in due time blew the engine. I remembered the field car Plymouth and we went to take a look. The farmer was delighted to sell it to us for $100 and the flathead 6 went right into my friend's '59!

Jim, this is already way beyond perfect! Reel it in and finish it!

Very good analysis! I randomly get all my magazines damaged or not. I was going to post that Greg must rough up the magazines for those he knows personally, but I know that's not the deal. I don't think it's a matter of option, but of doing all the magazines the same way. Simply put, it would add costs to bag 'em. I get Vintage Truck Magazine and that comes poly bagged. It never gets damaged. But what's the cost differential? Is it enough that it would chase off subscribers?

I found a model today! I opened a '51 Chevy box and found a complete kit, some magazine clippings with pictures of an ambulance and a built hot pink Revell sedan delivery I never remember seeing before!

I love that old kit! The IMC kit is neat and has some shortcomings due to the age it was tooled in. For instance, the door hinges are out of scale but the two complete versions of stock and V8 drag car are pretty neat! You can take that drag chassis out to use for something else, and still have enough parts to build the stock car. There is a newer version of that kit done by the Japanese company Union, It's the same kit, but in a Japanese style box. Union went out of business and nobody knows what happened to the tool after that!

Soooo... Harry, Roger says that there are merits to the other board's format and you ask him why are you here? That's the equivalent to telling him to go elsewhere. Go back to my post number 11 which seems to have started this entire thing.. everything that I've stated there is the format of IP Forums, nothing against Model Cars or the moderators. Simply stated facts / observations / opinion. There is good and bad in each board and format. For instance, the big short coming of the Spotlight board is that all that great information runs off the end and is lost after two weeks. Both of you guys jumped in to defend little points, that in the grand scheme of the boards true mission, really don't matter at all. The boards of the hobby shouldn't be in competition but should all compliment each other and work together for the purpose of moving the hobby forward. Quite frankly hobbyists can subscribe to both Model Cars and Scale Auto magazine while buying kits from Spotlight Hobbies, and participate on all three boards. There needn't be any quarrel there. I stand by my comment that the moderators are here to make this a pleasant experience for the customer and not to make it unpleasant by challenging folks and over regulation. There's no profit in that!

Nicely done! I love old light commercial subjects. The good part of the Jimmy Flintstone body is that he's added the DODGE lettering to the front doors and the gas cap that's missing on the kit!

Oh go for it! I haven't seen the movie but my favorite movie taxi is Ernest Bornine driving the old Checker in Escape from New York. "I've been driving a cab in this town for 30 years, same cab too!"

This is amazing! Within the confines of this one thread BOTH moderators have told multiple customers that they should go elsewhere! It seems you gentlemen are out of line with the main goal of the board. To retain and gain customers for the magazine.

Moderators are held to a higher standard than the board posters. Paid or volunteer, they have agreed to represent the board owner and what ever they post is under the badge of "moderator" so it is representing management. They are free to post as modelers, and I've really enjoyed looking at some of Harry's builds, but they need to keep in mind that what they post reflects on the board owner who has given them authority. The main reason this board exists is to sell a magazine. The role of a moderator is to provide a pleasant experience for the board user, ie- the magazine customer. Tick us off and it reflects poorly on Model Cars and people stop buying the magazine. The goal is just the opposite.

Gotta love it. Now both moderators have shown up to jump on me. This is the real difference. What I have posted as opinion suddenly becomes "complaints". Nobody asked a moderator to respond at all. The users were having a good exchange until then. Moderators should get involved if there is a board infraction. Not to block the free exchange of ideas.

Great. I use the green stuff for a lot of small spot stuff. It's not a problem unless you try to do a big build up that will not dry immediately and will shrink as it dries over time. All you need to do is add the putty in shallow layers a bit at a time. All the modifications on this one were done with Green Putty over 20 years ago and still look as good as the day they were done!

I agree with Johnny. The posts where people repeat the photos just drive me nuts! It's fairly easy to edit the quote down to what you are commenting on. I stand by my observation that people start at the top of the board and don't get all the way to the bottom. In fact, I'll bet that there are people who have never scrolled down to the bottom. The big issue I'm having right now is with a moderator, where upon my civilly stated an opinion, goes off on a tirade "that if I don't like it, I should start my own board". Paid or volunteer, that's not a good way to represent the board owner.

Yes! We seriously need a split window in 1/24 or 1/25 scale! The Revell Beetles tooling is pretty worn out at this point, and Lunajammer's post is accurate. I do like the Polar Lights kit. They were really onto a good model kit formula before they stopped doing new tools. They had found a happy medium between a detailed kit and something that would be easy to assemble for the novice. Part of Tom Lowe's formula was TV and movie licensing, so the Herbie version was a good piece for movie memorabilia collectors, which is a much bigger market than us poor model car builders. I gave my first one to my 13 year old nephew and within an hour he had a nice shelf piece he was proud of. And for us guys, we can go to town on it detail wise. I'm hoping that Round 2 eventually issues the Cal Custom version which was to be the next release off the tool. The only thing that looks wrong on the kit is the way the soft top attaches to the body. Note you can see the push pin right above that B pillar. To do it right, you'd need to fill in the hole in the roof, cut the pin off the soft top and just glue it in place. The above photo is one I own but bought built as you see it. Overall a very nice Beetle that was built by the late Mike Havranek of NJ. Also note that the soft top is the first time that has appeared in 1/24 or 1/25 scale. I intend to use one on an oval window I need to build.