Tom Geiger

Len sold the business. A fellow, Terry Fehley, contacted NNL East advising that he purchased Fantastic Plastics and asked about securing the vendor space.

My models are my art! Every one of them has a piece of me in them, so I don't sell them or get rid of them. Once completed, I proudly display them, and take them to shows or club meetings. Even the older builds get out sometimes, just like if you had a warehouse full of 1:1s you'd take them for a ride. I've just graduated to my second old china cabinet for display.

As always, nothing but Thanks to everyone who made the show a great success, especially to our folks in green who worked tirelessly and without complaint all day! My favorite part is Sunday morning. I get up late, a bit sore, but relieved that we had a successful show and that it's over once again. I love to sit here and read the reviews and look at the photo albums. It lets me see the show through other's eyes and that's important. Most of all, I'm pleased that we have so many friends in the hobby. We always say that NNL East is our little party where we've invited 1,200 of our closest friends for the day. And that's what counts. I will be updating our web page with the show stats as soon as I can. So if you'd like your photo albums included, please email me the web address. Also, I'll mention that we no longer will report the show statistics as to how many people and how many models. There's really nothing to prove at this point. Let's just say we sold more hotel rooms, had more attendees and more models than ever before! The economy didn't affect NNL East at all. You folks really came out! I'm also sitting here fueled and full of ideas for next year, our 25th anniversary. I made the hotel deal for next year. We have the whole Ramada Inn next year and many folks already have their reservations, same rate as this year. You may have seen me walking the show hall with the hotel owner. He was very impressed and commited to working with us in the future. And he did leave with two model kits! We are planning some really cool stuff for 2011. Plan ahead a vacation day for Friday, we are planning on having a whole day of seminars at the hotel. Some very cool people have already committed! So see you all on April 16, 2011! NNL East Albums

Yea, but you get $4.99 in eBay Bucks with that purchase. That makes it worth it! LOL But seriously guys, he's had 11 offers. So someone wants the kit.

We just had a cancellation on two tables. Email me for details, don't call because I will be out of the country this week. Modlcitizn@aol.com Thanks! Tom

This describes what I do and it's okay. On the shelves above my model bench I have about 30 boxes of unfinished projects. I keep them there so I don't forget them. When I'm between projects, fed up with a project, or just need to get my juices going, I'll sit at the bench and pull them down one at a time. I may fiddle with one for a few minutes, or an hour, then put it back on the shelf. But I'll usually find one that I suddenly see the solution to the problem that set it aside, or I'll get a spark of interest in an old project. Next thing you know I'm building! Now that project may last a few days, only to get packed up again, but it's that much further along! Eventually it will get finished. But most important I've relaxed and enjoyed myself. And I don't need to finish anything since it's just a hobby! But why do I build model cars? I enjoy seeing the image I have stuck in my head appear in 3D before my eyes! I never tire of that. Lately, my hobby is more running a model show and club, attending other shows and participating on modeling message boards! And that's cool too, because I have a ton of friends I keep up with. At shows I spend more time talking to people than looking at the models. And that's what's most important to me. If it wasn't for the people in this hobby I would have lost interest in the little plastic cars a long time ago!

Nothing! In fact if you look at Dave Shuklas' famous Bobtail Cat model he did exactly that. The drivers door is open and glued in that position!

What more can I say except Thank You! Our gratitude to everyone in this hobby who traveled to Wayne for the show. You trusted us with your vacation money and we hope the show was everything you anticipated! Thank you to our vendors who come from the corners of the country to make this the biggest after market party of the year. A big round of thanks goes out to the Tri-State Scale Model Car Club. Where many clubs have trouble getting their members to help, our club of 22 members somehow becomes a staff of 40 on show day. Our "Sea of Green" puts up with me and somehow lives up to my impossible expectations each and every year. Everyone a professional. I am humbled to work with you all. Follow the link below to the NNL East web site for the complete results from NNL East 23. Then check out our official Fotki album with 2,000 photos neatly categorized in albums by the infamous Steve Yau. And if that's not enough, surf through our Friends And Fans albums for at least another 10,000 photos! Again, thank you to everyone who made NNL East 2009 our best year yet. Show Results At Our Website: http://www.nnleast.com NNL East Official Photo Album: http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/nnl-east-2009/

This is the first time I saw this thread and I'm just amazed at the response. My thanks to all who made this a great weekend and your enthusiastic comments! That will only drive us to make ths show even better next year! Tom Geiger

And if you're apt to plan early: NNL East 2009 -- April 18. 2009 http://members.aol.com/nnleast2008/

Close to 2,000 photos of NNL East. My thanks to our photographer Steve Yau. He doesn't stop all day! And if that doesn't keep you busy, the site also has our official albums dating back to 2001! Photo: Vendor Room One of Two http://public.fotki.com/tssmcc/nnl-east-22/

The Tri-State Scale Model Car Club thanks everyone for their support of NNL East. The vendors, the sponsors and most of all the attendees and people who displayed the models. Without you guys, we just had an empty hall! A special thanks to those who traveled long distances to attend the show. You trusted us with your vacation time and dollars. I hope we lived up to your expectations. The new hall made running the show a pleasure. We had so many positive comments! I'm still grinning ear to ear. My final thanks go out to the NNL East staff. Our Tri-State Scale Model Car Club meetings are maybe 20 members. Somehow the ranks swell to 35 on show day. Everyone comes out to run the show. There are members we see once a year. People who aren't even members volunteer to run the show. Everyone performs professionally and flawlessly. I'm absolutely humbled! The final results and numbers are on our website. Hit the link below. Our official NNL East photo album is also up and running. Steve Yau knocked himself out again this year. There's close to 2,000 photos. We also included links to attendees personal albums on our results page. Since posting the page, I found a few more. We'll update the page again soon. If you'd like your album to be included, drop me an email. Again, thanks to one and all! See you on April 18, 2009! http://members.aol.com/nnleast2008/nnleast2008.html

Gee Gregg... I was thinking of going to NNL East but don't know if I will. Can you make me a name tag just in case I show up? Thanks Tom

The Holiday Inn we used previously is not convenient to our new location. We are currently interviewing area hotels to be Host Hotel. We're looking for the right combination of price, location and their ability to do the Friday night event. We represent a good size repeat business for the right hotel. One hotel I met with offered to shut down and give us the whole place. Yea, we're that big. Watch the web site for that announcement.

An important announcement to All Our Modeling Friends Last year we were faced with the challenge of losing our show hall after 17 years at the Parsippany PAL. The hall management decided to no longer rent the gym for shows. We saw this as an opportunity since we outgrew the Parsippany building a long time ago. It was a long and tedious search for a new place to hold NNL East. We won't kid you, there were times that we came very close to announcing the end of the show. We investigated no less than 35 venues, finding many to be too small and others to be way beyond our budget. We came close to signing a contract with a new venue, only to have them increase costs significantly at the end. Once we ran out of places, we started over the same list again. We revisited the Wayne, New Jersey PAL Building, which we remembered as a building smaller than Parsippany. Could we make this work? We were delighted to find out that they had put on a huge addition! Suddenly we had found a hall that would work for the show! So it's with much pride that we announce the future of NNL East! This year's show will be on April 12, 2008 in the PAL Building at 1 PAL Drive in Wayne, New Jersey. This is a short distance from our old location. We are pleased to announce that we have a five year agreement and past 2008, NNL East will be the third Saturday in April through 2012. The new building is ideal for NNL East. The good news is that the hall has about double the space, tons of on-site parking. and a good food vendor. There will be a room with tables and chairs just for eating and socializing. The model display room will be double the size of the old one and we will expand it to 100 display tables. The vendor floor space will also double and will be split into two rooms, each the size of the old one. We will double the aisle and circulation space, so our big issue of congestion in the building is gone. The building is air conditioned. There is an ATM in the lobby. This great new facility has come with a price, and our show budget has increased significantly. Here's advance warning that the admission charge will be $15 this year to cover those costs. We also will keep the tradition of NNL Eats, our Friday night social, but will depend on more club, individual and business sponsorships to keep this important evening alive. There is still a great deal of work to be done for this year's show. The ink on our contract is barely dry so we are in the process of seeking a host hotel and location for NNL Eats. We're also behind on our full detail flyer, simply because a lot of the details still need to be figured out. And we've gotten a late start on promotion. Please book mark this web site and check back often. Information will be posted as it happens! Welcome to the new era of NNL East. We are confident that the new location will make the show a greater day for everyone! Stick with us and watch as the best show in the country gets even better! Check it out at http://www.nnleast.com See you at NNL East! The NNL East Show Team / Team Tri-State

I got a really neat 1961 Mercury coupe built up from eBay. I logged in last Sunday evening and saw it finishing up at $25 so I checked it out. Fuzzy photo, no detail in the description. That usually means 'buyer beware'. But I was in the mood to play, so I bid and got it for $25. It arrived yesterday and I was stoked! It's complete and it's a great vintage build. Nicely sprayed red paint and all the trim was carefully picked out with silver paint. The interior and chassis are black. I sure got my money's worth!

New Jersey! I belong to two clubs. The Tri-State Scale Model Car Club is a 22 year old club that meets on the second Saturday of every month in Perth Amboy, NJ. We meet at 1pm to 4 or 5pm, depending on the level of enthusiasm. This is the club that sponsors NNL East. The Jersey Shore Model Car Club is about 10 years old and I'm a founding member. We meet on the third Friday of each month at 7pm in Brick, NJ. After the meeting, a group of us hits a local diner. This is as much fun as the meeting. If you are going to be in New Jersey, please do drop me a note!

The 'secret compartment' on the pickup is where the spare tire is stored on that particular bed. This is the "camper special" bed with a different bed and wheelbase than a normal pickup. So it might be odd for a fire service vehicle to use that bed. You may want to convert the bed and wheelbase back to normal configuration or take another approach. For instance, every Ford since 1953 uses a similar step side bed. A bed from either the '53 or '56 pickup kits would work for this kit. Or you may want to do some straight panel scratch building and create a utility type body for the truck. Just thought I'd share the additional ideas!

I buy most of my new and recent releases from Dave Burket - Model King at our club meetings. I also buy a lot of kits at shows. I buy vintage kits and built ups on eBay. I seldom buy a kit at a hobby shop. I'll buy supplies there as needed, but none of my local shops have any loyalty to model car builders, so I don't feel obligated to buy anything there. I'll also echo the thought that I'm way past the point of filling all my storage so I've slowed down my buying considerably. I no longer need a dozen of any kit!

I use a small battery powered drill to open panels. I drill a series of very small holes, I like to use a number 72 or smaller bit, as close together as I can, using the panel line as the guide. Here's the trunk lid with all the holes drilled. Here's a view from the inside of the body. Once the holes are drilled, gently score the line, both inside and out, with your exacto knife. Don't use pressure. Soon enough you'll break through the remaining plastic, just like the perforations on a postage stamp. Soon enough, you'll feel confident enough to start wiggling the part out of the hole. You can coax it along with the knife as needed. Here's the panel all cut out. Since we used a very small drill bit, just sand the edges flat and you have your scale jambs. The drill you see here has an exacto brand name on it, but I understand they discontinued it. I've cut open a lot of panels this way, following curves and even cutting the door frames on sedan doors. It works well for me! Hope this helps someone!

Here's TJ the Wonder Dog in his favorite greeting spot. TJ is a Cockapoo. That means that you get the traits of both breeds. That gives you a dog who's sneaky and smart enough to get away with it! Here's TJ looking out the truck window on the Model King / AMT '79 Ford Pickup kit box. A little behind the scenes trivia.. TJ wasn't really in the model truck (he's small, just not THAT small). To get the right shot of TJ, I must have taken 50 pictures of him hanging out that window.. only he was hanging over the back of the couch! Doug Whyte got rid of the couch!

The Tri-State Scale Model Car Club is proud to present NNL East 21 on March 24, 2007. The main flyer mailing has gone out and many people are reporting receiving theirs. If you would like a flyer, click the below link, and from the main page, click on "Click Here For Table Of Contents". Once there, scroll down to "Request A Show Flyer". On the flyer page you can download an acrobat version, or if that doesn't work for you, use the email link to request a paper one. While on the site, check out the show themes and announcements. We have a great raffle courtesy of Georgia Marketing Productions that ties into our main show theme of "Deuces Wild". Take a look! http://members.aol.com/nnleast2007