Tom Geiger

A bit of background... I always have had the week between Christmas and New Years off. Either the company shut down or I just took vacation days. I like it as an end of the year unwind. No work, no house projects. Just perfect time to work on a model. So I started my Christmas Model Car Amnesty Project about a dozen years ago. Just as the president pardons a turkey at Thanksgiving, I reach up onto my unfinished project shelf and give amnesty to one of them for Christmas! There are years I've made the deadline. There was the year I finished one on Christmas morning before the family got up. There are years I finish the model a week or two into January and there have been the years where I've failed! Anyway, here's this year's project. This '34 Ford dates back to 2005 and has been on the bench a couple of times since. I have her out on the bench and the goal is to finish it by New Years Day. I am still working on the Dog House Camper and I have a '51 Chevy custom that someone else built but I'm detailing out on the bench. But at the stage these three projects are at, I alternate while stuff is drying. Here's where I left off in 2005. The body had been sectioned 6 scale inches at the belt line. The Plymouth flatty six was finished and ready to install. The chassis componets are just posed. Here's the difference of what I sectioned out of the body. It was really easy, the two remaining pieces just fit right back together. the good part about revisiting an old project is that you notice things you didn't before. On this one, the car was just sitting up way too high, like a highboy with the chassis showing below the bottom of the body. Back in 2005, I was playing with (and destroying!) chassis and suspension parts. Go to 2012 and I immediately saw my issue... I sectioned 6" out of the body but still had the stock height interior. So per the above photo, I took a second interior tub and cut the corresponding 6" out of it. It was a three part process. I needed the top of the doors since they had detail on them. I needed the lower half of the back for the arm rests. So I cut the floor out, then seperated the doors forward from the back of the tub. I cut 6" from the bottom of the doors, 6" from the top of the tub and then glued it all back together. It worked fairly well. I did have the seats all done in the taller interior, but I needed to redo the rear one from a fresh part. Here it is completed, it's supposed to look like burlap. In reality it's Taco Bell napkin. I can do a tutorial on how easy this is to do with good results if desired. and here's the completed interior. The front seat was previously done in 2005 and was made from the two kit bucket seats. Seat belts are ribbon with seat belt buckles cut off those huge seat belts we find in kits. Flooring is old Turkish carpet that I actually printed to use in the camper. It works here. I also thought the interior side panels were too plain and I had sanded off the very light detail to do the resin handles. So I glued some of the Turkish carpet to thin plastic. Side view as you'd see through the windows. I forgot to thin out the belt buckles so they're a bit thick. Door handles / window cranks are resin from Norm Veber. I did an 8 ball shifter on another car, so here's a 6 ball shifter because this car has a flat head 6 in it. It's green and the number is one of those little decal numbers you find on decal sheets. So that's the progress to date. The suspension just needs to be glued to the chassis, engine will drop right in also. The challenge to finish it is the body and the grill / radiator detail up front.

Okay... screwed myself... since I posted the above, it started snowing here. At least we have nowhere to go for the weekend. Can just stay inside, watch it snow and work on models! Exton, PA Right Now! And it's coming down. (and no the orange thing isn't a UFO, it's the reflection of a light off my window. I wasn't going out there!)

I haven't counted my models and know I'll never build them all. Why put that pressure on yourself? It's a hobby! I had run out of room at my old house because it didn't have a basement and I was leery of storing kits in the garage (mice) or the attic (heat). In my new house in PA I have a full finished basement and took over what was a 12x10 bedroom as the model warehouse. So I have all the room I'll ever need (famous last words) and I stopped worrying about buying stuff. If I see something interesting, I'll buy it. I do intend to organize and cull down the hoard with the intent of eliminating duplicates, upgrading some really beat built ups to better buildable kits, and filling in the holes in my collection. For instance, if I sell 3 of the 6 '61 Buicks I have, I can use the funds to get a few other years that I don't have. And I can get rid of some of the stuff that just doesn't interest me anymore. And the funny thing... I have a great collection of old and rare kits and restorable built ups, but what do I build? It seems my projects either start with a current kit or some old scrap (like my Dodge van camper!).

That's because the other rag is always two months in advance. Perhaps they are off set for a good reason.

The beginning of last years season I bought a snow blower. I still haven't had to put gas in it yet! And I don't think it will ever snow here again. So here's a photo from Winter 2010.... that's my backyard here in Exton, PA. There's a small brook running through the yard and we have a bridge over it. When someone says, "Believe that and I'll sell you a bridge" I reply "no thanks, I already have one."

Nice cars. Here's one we owned back in the day. My wife had to have a new car... First year 1979 Fox Capri RS V8 with TRX package. It also had a red Ghia interior that people swear was never offered. I was told that this was one of the first 500 off the line, all done this way for promotions and sent to the dealers. When I first saw it, it was in the showroom and wasn't yet for sale. The window sticker said "EPA numbers not in yet, not for sale". I was buying vehicles for my company from this dealer and talked them out of it. My wife actually drove it on dealer plate for a few weeks until they could process the sale. When we first got it people were pointing at it and asking what it was. It was that new. The irony of the purchase was that this was in the middle of the gas crisis. NJ had odd / even gas rationing and was only selling gas during business hours during the week. I was used to dealers delivering a car with a full tank but there was no gas to be had. We had to drive it home on empty, this being a Friday evening, we had to park it until gas sales started up on Monday. This wasn't a good car at all, maybe typical of the times or the fact it was one of the first off the line. It had stuff missing from the factory, minor stuff like the sensors to the console monitoring center and the rear window defroster switch wasn't on the dash. It went back to the dealer for this stuff. From day one, it had a coolant leak on the top end of the engine the dealer couldn't find. It was one thing after another. The rear end howled, the transmission started slipping and the TRX tires only lasted 20,000 and cost hundreds each back then. So were unloaded it after 3 years. The photo above is my favorite shot of this car, the last time I saw it when we left it at the dealer! To add insult to injury, my wife traded in a '74 Mustang II coupe on this car. This was a great little car that she bought a year old from her friend and never had any problems with it. Someone a few blocks from her house bought it so we had to look at it for years while suffering with the Capri!

Which is silly since the information is timeless and people collect the set. The shop owner did look happy that I bought them though!

Hey guys... we've had the Jag a year and haven't had a single problem. My neighbor next door has a blue X Type and has 130,000 on it without any problems either. And I know my car has a shared Ford platform. Probably why it's trouble free. I think the aura of problems past are still assumed to be true. Same with my daughter's Fiat 500. She's got 9,000 miles on it and it hasn't been back to the dealer for anything. No problems at all. Great fit and finish, overall a quality little vehicle. I had a buddy-o-mine tell me that he read that they were so trouble prone that they needed 5 of them to do the commercial with J-Lo because they kept breaking down. Nobody would tollerate a car with issues like that now a days!

I went to the local hobby shop yesterday. It's not the greatest shop, and really doesn't cater to modelers. It's more of a toy store. The kind of shop where the Squadron Green Putty is near dry in the tube. So I was surprised that I got everything I went for... They had the Testors 9200 decal sealer spray can. They had the Evergreen .2 sheet plastic, even though I had to hunt for it in their disorganized rack. Then I noticed they had the October and November issues of Model Cars. So I grabbed them up!

I went to the local hobby shop yesterday. I picked up the Oct and Nov issues, but no December issue!

I once dreamed that the '73 Chevy kit had been reissued. The dream was so realistic that later on I believed it actually happened and I had one in my stash. Once I couldn't find it, my friends convinced me it didn't really happen.

Thanks to all for the kind comments. Tom S - Thanks and a great New Year to you and yours!

When I was finishing up this interior, I had scratch built the coffee maker but was having a problem finding something the right size of round clear to make the coffee pot. I went through all kinds of sprue hoping one would be big enough. I finally gave up. We were out to dinner and I unwrapped a straw. Ureka! There it was, round, clear and the right size! I almost wanted to go home right then!

I have successfully dodged the snow for now. I was at my NJ shore area house and we had no snow there. Went to North Jersey for Christmas and just saw a little bit here and there on lawns. Came back to PA today and saw a bit on our cars. It's 34 degrees outside and raining. Nasty night, not going out at all! But here's a little sequence I did for a message board years ago.... VALIANT SNOW CAM

Congrats! Sounds like your future is very bright. To a great 2013!

Interesting thread. I don't see any problem, unless it interferes with real life obligations. As long as we have jobs, support our families and our bills are paid, what we do in our off hours is our business. I have relatives that have no interests at all. They sit and watch TV. I showed my bro in law a model project I was working on once and his response was, "That's work! Why would you do work that you don't have to?" There are those who get it and those who don't. As far as collector or builder, who gives a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH? I was a stamp collector for years and the whole idea there was just to collect and own the specimens. There is a thrill in the hunt, just like we have when we finally get a holy grail kit. Only nobody in the stamp collecting world says, "You have more stamps than you could ever mail. Are you going to use all those stamps?" I may have 1000 kits. I don't know and refuse to count. When I got into the hobby 25 years ago I was like a kid in a candy shop. I'd go to shows and come out with huge bags of kits. At this stage of the game I'm selective. I still put $100 in my pocket when I go to shows, and if I see something, I don't hesitate to buy it, but if I don't I leave with the money in my pocket.

I have been a Fotki user for years. They do have a free account, but you're better off with the paid account. The cost is small, especially if you do the multi year membership. I think mine is around $15 a year and I'm good for a few more years right now.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Leave the door handles chrome. They do that on retro cars... PT Cruiser has 'em. I did the same on a Concept Camaro kit that I did a retro bit on, added chrome in several spots.

Cok Guzel! I lived in Izmir from 1966-68 so I remember the old US sedans as Turkish taxis! I'll be watching the project.

I use laquer thinner I bought at Home Depot. I got the small can and I pour it into baby food jars for use. I just keep using it until it gets low, then add more from the can.

Think about it. We don't need or want for anything. That in itself is a blessing!

I'd rather not get models as gifts. In my past when friends or relatives bought me a model, they'd tend to think 'bigger is better' and I got 1/8 scale stuff... "I got ya a really big one, think you can put this one together?" (Like it's a friggin puzzle or something!) I buy all my new kits from within the hobby at a steep discount over retail so I don't want people paying full hobby store price for them for me! In our family we don't exchange gifts with my wife or my siblings or other family. If my wife gets me anything, it's usually clothes I would've needed to get anyway.

Thanks LB55 for that info- I modified two of these pickups like this using instructions that were printed back when the kit came out. That was in pre-internet days, so I didn't have the resources I do now. I'll get it right on future builds, I love that kit so I'm likely to do a few more. I do have a '58 or '59 resin body that ain't doin' nuthin'! LOL

Hey SJ6... A Car is just another Car....But a Jaguar is a Jaguar and here's mine. 2000 S Type, 30,000 original miles. Bought it last year from a RR/Bentley dealer.