Tom Geiger

Somebody made a million dollars on that trinket. That's the American dream!

I was watching the progress and enjoyed the ride! Great end result Rich! Great holidays to you and yours, my fellow PA guy!

Wow! That came out GR8!

. But I think I am going to make my wife pick my next build. hehe I been trying to get her into modeling but no luck so I am going to be kinda sneaky about it.. and get her involved with the ideas and what not hehe. Maybe not a great idea... imagine you come home from work and ask, "Honey what did you do today?" And she replies "I built one of those dusty old Johan kits on the top shelf!"

This is one of my favorite kits and I've built a few... see my avatar! Since you are going curbside you may not care, but for the record... Here's the one short coming on this kit. The bottom of the interior tub shows from below where it's glued to the chassis. It has a huge gap on three sides and you can see up into the bottoms of the doors. On this one, I made a flat floor that fills the entire void and then added the step downs. It's just a few pieces of Evergreen sheet plastic, and well worth the results.

Made a bit o' progress on the camper in the last few days. Last time I showed the weathered body, this time the underside is done. Here's the rear view with tail lights and license plate. I put them up high since there would be cargo down below. I used the Dodge tail lights from the kit since a 1:1 convertor may have done the same. The NJ Trailer plate was on a sheet Bart Orlans did. The Acme Platemaker doesn't include specialty plates like this. I may be peeling it back off to make a backing plate and include a small light. The chassis got my usual rusty underside treatment with a bit of oil under the differential. I may tone this back a bit, it's tough to see the results until it all dries. The Dodge van kit lacks shock absorbers. I had added them to the purple pickup, but may skip it here... but the more I look at it! You know how that goes. Most of the accessories are done and ready. The gas cans started out as the same 2 part can, but I modified them to different styles by changing the shape of one and adding different style handles. Here's the big home made tool box. This is the second one of these I've made for a project. The other one is in the back of my '65 Chevy pickup. I weathered it over the Duplicolor green, then misted some gloss over that for the effect. The trailer will have one suitably worn white wall. I put aside the Yamaha motorcycle since it was a bit large for the effect I desired on the back deck. Instead I found I had an SE LTD casting of a smaller Honda cycle that I'm working on now. I'm in the home stretch but there's much left to do, and I keep adding things to the project! But we should finish 'er up this year.

I built this Dodge Ramcharger a bunch of years ago but I hadn't posted it on this forum. It's the old Monogram kit, and as such was a bit simplified and toylike for starters, This was my first shot at using auto paint from the spray can. It's Plastikote paint with their clear over it all. Rear view Under the hood. Things were molded in here like the battery and windshield washer tank. I had to rely on detail painting to make it convincing. Here's where the kit was truly lacking. The chassis was fairly good and detailed but the floor was simply the interior tub bottom with huge gaps all around it. I added a complete floor to it, still I didn't do a lot of detailing on that. I built the truck as a memory of the Trail Dust Steak House. I used to travel on business to Denver all the time and would always go there. I liked the logo, so in the days before computer decal printing, I created the decals on a Xerox machine. It also has Colorado plates. The interior is beige tones with actual brown carpet. I went for just two seats up front opting for some cargo room in the back. The Trail Dust Steak House had a thing where if you wore a tie there, they'd cut it off and buy you a drink. All in fun, so guys would wear a crummy tie there. The walls of the place were lined with ties, so I decided to make a box of bad and loud ties. Those were fun to make. All in all, I'm pleased with the build. It has a special place in my display case.

Great variety of builds! A really good year for you! My favorite is the crusty '50 Olds. I'm a beater kinda guy!

Cars I'd want to own for this exercise: 1. A '32 Ford roadster pickup. Traditional style rod (I don't dare say rat rod here) with interesting 50s V8, maybe a nail head. 2. 1953 Ford pickup 3. New Mini Convertible for me - yellow, 6 speed 4. New Dodge Grand Caravan in that metallic orange color for family transport 5. New Dodge Dart for the wife Cars I currently own: 1. 1996 Dodge Caravan Mark III High top 2. 1991 Geo Tracker LSI Convertible w/ 5 speed and a/c 3. 2000 Jaguar S Type, red with 29,000 miles 4. 1995 Celica Convertible Heck, I actually like my cars, so I wouldn't mind keeping the Jag and upgrading the rest with better cars or having them restored.

Great work. I just read the whole thread. Looking forward to the trailer build and seeing the whole vision complete! It's also good to see that I'm not the only one who changes direction during a build!

Hi John! Yes, the truck is holding up fine. Time flies, it doesn't seem like I built it nearly 20 years ago. It usually sits in my display case but gets put in Christmas Village for the holidays. Thanks for asking! And a great holiday season to you and yours!

That's a true alcoholic. Someone who needs to maintain a level in his body just to function. Sad. I had a friend that moved to Florida when we were maybe 20. I hadn't seen him in 15 years when he came back to NJ to visit. We decided to get together with another local friend at his house to catch up. I picked him up and we stopped by a liquor store to get refreshments. I bought a six pack and he bought a fifth of Jack Daniels. I didn't think anything was wrong. We got to our friends house and he proceeded to drink the entire bottle, filling up a 16 ounce glass and drinking it like I'd drink water. His character went bad and he got angry and argumentive. Fortunate for us, once he finished the bottle and searched the whole house for more liquor (without success!) he fell asleep. I had never seen anything like that before. He died in his 40s.

I guess I feel fortunate to not need or want any models for Christmas. I got my holy grail, '66 Valiant Signet promo (value around $400) a few years ago, since then my life has been complete! Besides, with all the great kits I own, I'm building a project around scrap from the junk box anyway! I'm like the kid who plays with the boxes!

Guys, here's the part you need for the long roof options. The top part is the longer interior side panel, which was only in the first year Jeepster kit. When they did the short cab, they cut it off like in the lower part.

I bought this kit at NNL East this year. I got it because my wife was driving a '74 Mustang II Notchback when I met her. Important to note that this resin piece is for a 75 and up Mustang II. The '74 had a unique one year hood and grill. Apparently the V8 wasn't offered in '74 and those parts needed to be modified to fit a V8 in it for '75. So I have some converting to do. The notchback also had two different side windows. See the difference between Joe's photo of the resin body (regular car) and Ron's photo of a Ghia. I need to convert to the Ghia side window as well. The only issue I saw on this resin body was the rear trim panel below the hood (with the FORD lettering) should be flat and it's kinda wavy. This wasn't MADs issue, because it's that way on the kit body.

Here's one I built a long time ago. Originally I was going to do a cube van and then got intrigued with popping the rear of the van onto the cab. So here are the results... I put the Prowler wheels on it 'temporary' many years ago until I got a better idea. Haven't changed them yet! The wood bed is just balsa with tiny ship model brass nails on it. That was my first attempt at making a bed. This was the last version of the Dodge van kit with a decent realistic grill. I painted up the front as I'd want my real 1:1 to be detailed out. The paint is Pactra RC Car Colors with a Testors pearl clear coat over it. Rear was fairly simple. I used the kit tail lights and attached them to the back of the frame. I kept the dual rear windows but filled in the door line below it. Later on I thought it would have been cool to have hinged them so the bottoms opened. For connecting the cab and the extreme rear, I cut it behind the door. If I did it again I would have cut it at the back of the door. One less seam to hide. The roof on the van sloped back gradually and didn't line up at all. There's a lot of plastic and putty added at the back to allow for them to match with a reasonable slope. And a recent shot on my bench. For those wondering what happened to the center section, here it is. It spent years as a paint stand in my paint booth. I recently gave it a dunk in the purple pond and it is the basis of my Dog House Camper I'm currently working on. Waste not, want not!

You know that quote about great minds.. I love those mirrors in the '53 Ford kit, I've used them on a bunch of my old truck builds.

Spray a little clear after each taping before spraying the next color. The clear will seal off any places that might bleed through. Cool project. Ambitious paint job! It would be cool if someone cast that long bed and bench seat interior. I have a project sitting that I will need to do that same work. I even have the cooler set aside. See below!

I look forward to following along on this one!

Here's some progress pix, note that everything is just mocked up and some items are taped in place to get a sense of overall look and feel. This afternoon was spent weathering the body and top side accessories. I like to take a lot of pictures to review the build because I see a lot of things that I don't see in person. Rear view - the little back porch is done. I've pretty much built up the Yamaha motorcycle, then I found I had a resin copy of a smaller Honda scooter. That fits more into the size I was looking for. It will be tied up to the railing. I'm also putting a spare tire up there. While I was rediscovering resin I didn't know I had, I also found a cooler that was quickly painted and put into the interior. The windows all have glass in them now and are ready to mount. Front view- A/C unit will be put up higher. I need to see it's relationship to the closet inside the camper. The trailer tongue and chassis haven't been weathered yet. I ran out of steam today! The bare side of the unit. The small hole towards the front will be the water supply inlet. Top View- The weathering on the rack was done by using pastel chalks and Dull Cote to paint the rust on. Once it was done, I then gave it a dusting of flat white to get the look I was hoping to achieve. Then I rusted the bolt heads and hooks. The dog house won't be glued on, it will come off to view the interior. So next time at the bench I need to weather up the chassis, and then we can start final assembly.

That goes with the theory that a couple of high dollar eBay sales of an old kit don't make for a market where they could sell thousands at current kit prices! We've seen how that works and I have bought some of the reissues for $5 each as dealers try to get rid of them.

I do have a mess of stuff and was running out of room to store it all. So I bought a bigger house! I have things I swear I never saw before. I'll see a decent rebuilder for sale and buy it, only to discover I already have two. Eventually I'll build something from the best one and sell the others. When I get the time, I am going to build shelves in my storage room for them all and organize what I've got. Then I'll cull out some of the stuff I don't have an interest in, duplicates etc and sell them. I'll then use that money to fill in the gaps in my collection.

Everything is so commercialized and organized these days that everything is sold! So organized that the Disney swag is on the shelves before the movie is released! It wasn't so when we were kids. As an 11 year old, I'd run home from school every day to watch Speed Racer in black and white. I would have given anything for a Speed Racer car but none was available back then!

Kotex.. reminds me of when I worked in a convenience store as a teen. I'd be at the register and some poor young girl would quietly slip a pack up on the counter, hoping to get out of there with minimal embarassment. The store would be fairly busy with a line at the register, I'd hold the pack up and yell across the store to my co-worker, "Hey Doug, how much are these?" He'd yell back, "Regular or Extra Absorbant?" About three exchanges later I'd get the price and ring it up. The girl would nearly be under the counter at that point. Hey, we were kids!

Another tip, I usually put the part in the mounting hole, then add the CA from the back. No chance of glue showing at all!