Tom Geiger

A while back I went to Aruba and brought home this little bus as a souvenir. I wanted to do an island style pickup so I adapted the color scheme onto this 1965 Chevy pickup. This photo is probably 10 years old, so this one has been coming for a long time! and here she is finished! Being a truck from the islands I didn't want to rust it too bad. The hood is kinda bent up, the fender was rewelded over the tire, The rack on the back was scratch built from Evergreen plastic. Engine bay is stock from the kit with wiring and hoses added. You can see here that it was originally a light blue truck before the interesting paint job. Top view - ladder by Evergreen, large rusty tool box in bed was scratch built. Spilled tool box just to add some personality. Tools from my parts box, I believe mostly from the '53 Ford pickup kit. Hood is a bit bent, and that is a genuine Aruba license plate. Rear view - I don't know where I got the rear bumper, and the missing tail light was from the parts box. Upon reviewing the post I saw I forgot an interior shot. Bench seat was from the 70 Impala kit Floor shifter was added as the old column shifter just sits there limp. I had a car like that once, so I went with it. I had a lot of fun with this one. I like creating unique old work trucks, and vehicles from places I remember fondly.

And no mufflers? I just love this truck. Great job on the weathering and you rusted it in the right places.

The one I hated was when I bought a built up '62 Chrysler convertible. It came in a padded envelope and of course the windshield and surround were smashed. I emailed the seller who replied, "You're a modeler, fix it!" This was many years ago before we had any recourse through Paypal etc, so I left appropriate feedback. All the other times I had an issue, I emailed the seller factually and asked them what they wanted to do. They all resolved the issues. Not too long ago I bought a huge bag of loose and somewhat used parts and I chuckle at what was in the bag. Aside from usable parts, there were shards of broken kit parts, sprue, thumb tacks, nails, dust balls, parts of a broken calculator, a finger nail clipping and other unidentified junk. All in all I got value out of it so it's all good.

Very cool project, MPC kits of the 1980s are mostly overlooked but actually were pretty well done! I'll have to go through my hoard and see if I have this kit. I kinda got a thing for Celicas myself.. My 1:1 1995 Celica GT Convertible. Sad to say this photo was taken on the beach at Union Beach, NJ. Most of the homes shown in the photo were swept away by Hurricane Sandy last week including the one with the whale on it. Celica is safe and sound!

Love the work on the Bee! Your attention to detail is great, especially the new welds on the quarter!

Thanks guys! I have more of these old builds, some that I just cleaned up a bit, and some that required a bit of work to bring back. I'll post more since there is some interest!

Nicely done with your usual eye for detail!

I haven't posted these on this forum yet, so let me explain. I have been collecting old customs that were done by builders back in the day. Many folks take these and break them for parts or strip them into new builds, but I see these as our folk art. Last year at NNL East my friend Dave Burket gave me this body. He said he just wanted to put it where it belonged and urged me to do something with it. It was just the body, I put this chassis under it for the photo. What it lacks in build quality and especially paint skills it makes up for in imagination. In the "Very Cool" category is how our original builder created this beauty. They didn't have Evergreen sheet back in the day so he used the cover from the S&H Green Stamp Catalog. Note that on Dave Shuklas's Bobtail Cat, a bit of an AutoWorld reply card is visible on the underside so this is period correct. Also note where the fins were cut off the back and filled in with some kind of filler. And here we are with the finished product after a few days of fun low pressure work. Note that the goal of my Olde Kustom Kollection is to restore and preserve in the original builders intent and skill level. So we save everything we can, and only add parts and materials that would have been available in 1962 In this view I added a cover for the grill opening. The original builder reshaped this poorly so a Valiant part (which I have) wouldn't fit. So I made a cover which also covers up the badly shaped opening. Note how rough the putty job was, which is typical and needed to be preserved for our period look. I made a quick interior and roll bar. I cut down a '57 Chevy dash and used a single bucket and steering wheel, all from the parts box. I cut down the roll bar to fit and I left the splice seam showing as would have been done back then. I gave that a quick coat of red to contrast with the stripe. The roll bar actually sits on a little platform I added inside the body so that I can still unscrew the body and take it apart. No doubt the original builder would have just glued it to the inside floor. The once concession I made. Side view - Since this car just screams Salt Lakester and didn't come with wheels, I decided to use the ones from the old Monogram Green Hornet kit. The tires were way too large, so I found that the discs would fit into the side of tires that had white wall inserts like they were made for them. Rear View - The original builder had the holes nicely done, all I did was add some little rinestones for tail lights. I don't believe the original builder ever completed this car since there were no glue marks near any of the missing parts. Also the body had never been screwed to a chassis. So I fixed history by finally finishing this one and adding it to my Olde Kustom Shelf! And now she's ready for the next 50 years!

My club recently did a same kit contest with this kit. One of our members went to Michaels and they had these, no doubt left over from a Build n Take, for $2 each. So he emptied the shelf so we could do this little friendly competition. I decided to do mine as a retro T-Top car. The indent on the roof just screamed for this, so I did what the voices in my head told me to. I had a 35 year old can of Duplicolor in 1971 Chevy green from when my dad had a '71 BelAir. Funny thing is that the can still works! Side view - I used the kit tires and wheels since they worked well with my retro chrome theme. I did add chrome to the door handles and mirrors in this view. The chrome grill in the first photo just does it for me! Rear view also gets the chrome treatment with BMF between the tail lights and Alclad on the lower pan. I wanted to test masking off a body for Alclad and it worked well. Now I know I can do convertible windshield surrounds. Top view of T-Tops and interior. I followed the roof crease for the top cut. My original vision was to make tops for it, using the pieces I cut out of the roof to vacuform clear parts. Then I decided I was doing my usual over complication and went back to simple to get it done for the club meeting. Interior was done in two tone beige tones which I think works well with the green body. The chrome theme continues here with a BMFed console. I practiced my Tamiya tape skills on the the color seperations. This was a fun project that got another build into my case!

I didn't work on the camper yesterday, I watched election returns instead. So today I scratched out an air conditioner face for inside the camper. It's just taped to a temporary wall right now to see how it fits into the scene. Remember, you'll be viewing this through the windows. And here it is close up. Main part is a car grill half from my parts box. I believe the logo says "DODGE" but I colored it red to represent some obscure brand of ancient a/c. The rest of it is just some Evergreen strip and rod, some scrap mesh, two different sizes of pin heads and a slice of Evergreen rod for the big dial which I imagine is the temperature dial. I hit it with The Detailer wash to give it depth and detail. Some of the chrome was missing off the grill so I left it that way to look like the plastic chrome is coming off the cover. The funny thing is that I originally was going to black out the windows on this unit and not do an interior. Then I figured I might as well go all out and now the interior has been my favorite part of the project! Back to the workbench, I hear "Dancing With The Stars" on in the den, which is my license to hide in the hobby room! My next thing to solve is that this a/c unit is just blowing warm air!

Very nice! I enjoyed the build posts and the end result is cool. I've build a couple of 50 Fords and 55 Chevy pickups but have yet to start a 50 Chevy! I need to do that.

This is the chassis on the Monogram 1/24 scale Dodge Ramcharger. A bit simple, but well engraved. If I was to use it, I'd use the entire chassis.

The starting point. See the messed up van body? It was left over from building the little purple pickup. I used the front and the rear of it to create the cab so all that was left was this center section. It did duty as a paint stand for a while. I held it up one night, squinted a little and started cutting plastic. Very rough start here but got it up on wheels. The mags are only temporary. The trailer tongue was made from a car chassis from the parts box. Sheet plastic was used to create the wall at either end and the little dog house roof extension. Rear view includes the little back porch made from plastic diamond plate and the rail is actually Evergreen scale ladder. I want to put a small motorcycle back here. Just a place to stack stuff. The front gets a scratch built window a/c unit. It was made from the side of a Model A hood and an auto radiator from my parts box. There will also be a big tool box, an electric cord reel and some other details up front. Interior is nearly done. Cabinets were made from basswood, Knobs are brass ship nails. Bed is two layers of basswood wrapped in a white glue soaked tissue. Pillow is a small piece of folded over paper towel covered with tissue. Blankets are just painted paper towel. Floor was from Jim's Printable Mini website as is the Welcome mat. The sink was half a gas tank or something, from the parts box. We're using the inside of it. This is where the project sits right now. There's a ton more detailing to go and then paint and weathering. It will be quite a hobbled together trailer. And the project was nothing more than a whim to use that old van body for some good!

The Premier kit (top photo) is indeed a 4 door. It's an odd scale, supposed to be 1/32 but who knows. It's too narrow and is more like a characture than a replica. The bottom photo is an Aussie resin, thick fiberglass. But I did get the windows opened and it sitting on a chassis.

Love the work you've done on the Volare! A few other issues with the kit are that it has no pedals and the interior bucket inside door detail is almost not there. Also, the under hood panel closest to the windshield has no detail. The 1:1 has a vent there. I added one. I understand that someone did photo etch one off for it. My interior. I did a lot of work on the door panels with Evergreen. The cranks are resin from Norman Veber. The arm rests were carved out of toothpicks. I went for a bench seat. I modified the one from the Revell '66 Chevelle wagon. Busy engine bay! Main reason for the photo is to show the vent close to the windshield. Kit just has a blank part there. Also, the kit doesn't have the two stiffener bars that run from the firewall to the fenders.

The Rambler Unibody Promo sold by Okie was resin and was cast by I believe it was Best Resin for him, as were the resin interiors he offered for a number of the old promos. I bought the interior and clear vacuform glass for the '56 Desoto from Okey years ago. I believe Okey also had a few of the classic car molds, a Mercedes and at least 1-2 others. When he first announced the New Johan, he put out a flyer showing these being released as Rat Rods. Of course we never saw them. I was told that Okey also had the '59 Dodge kit, and it was ready to go, only needing funding to produce. We never saw that one. I was told that he also had the Johan Showcase molds and did a run of these early on. Apparently the molder misunderstood and produced them in the same green glass that the windows in the Plymouth Police Car were done in, making them useless. Many of the molds were defaulted on a workmans lien either for work done on them, or for molding of kits that wasn't paid for by Okey. Ernie of Lindberg fame was going to start a new company and offered up the Oldsmobile and the 59 Rambler Wagon. Apparently that effort died. Feel free to dispute the above or add to it.

Here's some more stuff I actually own. Every kids bad birthday nightmare! Actually I bid on this as a lot on eBay and it seems nobody else did! Premier Ford Anglia. Lindberg Trail blazer is actually around 1/25 scale. There actually was a 1:1. I believe this is a Premier Caddy. It looks like something Stuart Little drove! I could use parts for this if anyone has a parts car! Premier Corvair. Slightly off a bit! I don't know how anyone worked for Premier and had the nerve to get up and go there every day!

Hey, he's copying my model! Obviously I like it, and would consider it a ratrod

I didn't build this but I've owned it for a while. It was nice enough that I didn't dump it into the parts box but it sure could use a rebuild. You've given me inspiration! Yours looks super!

Your model is pretty cool! Not a criticism, but a tip on a detail. Look at the hood (bonnet) side trim. Note that the two horizontal bars are seperate, the round piece in your photo is a bit of the tool sprue. Also, between the two bars up front, the FORD plate is a seperate piece so put a bit of body color paint between the pieces. See the above photo for that detail. Cheers!

Kit box circa 1949 and how it actually built up!

I went to Ollies last year when they had that big hoard of Lindberg kits. Didn't buy the kits but I found the Duplicolor large cans for a buck apiece. I bought every can that was any where near a pleasing color and will never have to buy primer gray or clear coat again in my lifetime! Total damage? $25!

When storing cases of models in your garage, never place the cases directly on the concrete floor. It's easy enough to find used wooden pallets to have air circulate between the cases and the concrete. I do the same in my basement. It may also be best to buy cheap plastic tubs to seal the kits inside. Kits are so light even the cheapest onces would work. That would seal out vermin. I've had mice in my garage, they can squirm in between your garage door seal. I had silverfish damage (chewed boxes and direction sheets) in my attic and even termite damage on kit boxes in a bedroom closet back when I was a kid in my parents home. One winter when it was very cold, I had squirrels chew through my attic air vent to get inside.

Sometimes it's not model building, but hitting the wall on a specific project. I keep my 25 odd unfinished projects on the shelves directly above my bench. When I hit that point, I pull down some boxes and rummage. I'll find some detail that intrigues me and suddenly I'm working on that project. I may follow through to completion, or just finish a little bit and put it back up on the shelf. Still, I'm working on something and worked through my block. I have kits that have been on the bench many times and still aren't finished. But every so often I actually finish something. When I do get the modelers block, as in I don't even want to go in the hobby room, I just shut the door and ignore it for awhile. Soon enough some event will get me thinking about building and I'll go back to it. As someone said, it's a hobby not a job.

Not the worlds greatest kit but builds up into a nice shelf model. Here's mine. As mentioned under the hood is typical Monogram of that era with the molded in battery tray. I did a bit of detail painting and wired the engine. And as mentioned, the chassis is lacking. The frame is okay but there is no floor detail, just the bottom of the interior tub, with huge gaps all around. I did add plastic to fill it in as shown above. Still I didn't do enough detail, I just decided to get 'er done.