Tom Geiger

What pleased me today? Well it gave me a chuckle!

Here’s why we don’t want a “Like” Button! On Facebook your post will get a zillion likes but no comments!

There’s a seat for every butt! Back when I was selling car brochures on eBay I learned that every car had it’s fans. Brochures I thought would never sell broke out bidding wars!

Mine was picked over but I bought all the spray cans of military flats.. figure they’d come in handy for interior contrasts. Not sometimes I’d pay full price for, but at a buck fifty-seven why not experiment?

I built the 79 Ford Pickup for Model King. Above is the side panel photo. I had a few weeks and handed it over at NNL East that year. I was instructed to make it red, with a bit of mud / weathering. It was a test shot that had no chrome, so I did the bumpers in Alclad. I wasn’t sure how do do accessories like the roll bar and tonneau cover, so they were on pin mounts so they could be used any way. I noted that the emblems on the cab sides were very light and FORD was missing from the hood. That’s why they are on the decal sheet. I didn’t know if I’d ever see the model again so I was surprised when I got it back in the mail! I also got a couple of the kits when they we’re released. It was fun to do once as a Bucket List thing, but I wouldn’t want the pressure on a regular basis.

I had the coupon bookmarked on my phone. When I went in the store I would always buy something. An extra can of Testors Dullcote, a pack of Evergreen or one aisle over I’d buy binder pages for my stamp collection. And if the cash register line was too long, I made sure everyone on that line knew about the coupon?

I watched the video yesterday and was sad to see the many people we’ve lost over the past 20 years. Aside from those mentioned in this thread, there are also the ever amazing Bob Paeth and Royle Glaser in the Revell forum. Along with Greg Nichols, Jim Devine is interviewed but not on camera. I’ve also been told Pat Dunnivan has passed. Not in the video but GSL attendees, Del Paone and Barry Fadden are also gone.

For me it’s more for supplies than kits. And there have been no discounts on supplies. I have more than enough kits and older versions of everything currently on the shelves that I want.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder! Face it, younger folks are now into older Japanese cars. And you never know the story.. maybe the guy’s first car or other sentimental connection.

It’s finished and Under Glass!

It's finally finished! This is the 1966 Valiant Speedster. It's a mashup between a Hemi Under Glass Barracuda and the Fireball 500. I'm pleased with the final product, it exceeds my vision. My first car was a 1966 Valiant V100 2 door sedan that I had painted silver, with it's original red interior so there is a bit of a home coming here for me. Paint is Duplicolor. The lighter color is Honda Silver Pearl Metallic and top is GM Storm Gray Metallic over their gray primer. There is a Tamiya gloss clearcoat over it all. I made the Valiant scripts. I have no idea where the wheels originated. Any ideas? I'm pleased with the final product. There are a few things I could've done better, and now I wish I went full detail instead of curbside!

A funny story- Back in the day the Fireball 500 was a rare and expensive kit. The lore back then was that it could never be done again because it was retooled into the Hemi Under Glass Barracuda. (Wrong assumption!) Also in this era, the Little Red Wagon was a high dollar kit. It was assumed that IMC tooling was gone. I was still fixated on collecting all the old Mopars back then. A local guy showed up at our club meeting with a box of old kits for sale. He had both, marked at $200 each. I set out to do the most expensive deal I’d ever done. I offered him $300 for the pair. The guy instantly went off on me! He yelled that he knew what he had and I was trying to rip him off. I told him all he had to say was “No thanks!” I was pretty upset though. He left with the kits. So what happened? Lindberg found the Little Red Wagon tool and Round 2 found the Fireball 500! I wound up buying both at new kit prices! I saved a lot of money. Still it feels interesting cutting one up!

Although a big deal in our herd, I don’t believe that’s universal. I met a lot of people in the store who weren’t even aware of the coupon.

News on CNN

Guys, I’ve used the Acme site but these others are new to me. Do any of them have specialty plates like Commercial, Trailer, Taxi etc. ?

I have found photos of plates on the Internet, especially eBay is a good source for odd plates like trailer and commercial versions. I’ve had decent luck resizing these for model use. You just need to find a bright enough image, I’ve had those that get darker as you shrink them. I've also scanned 1:1 items. Here you need to be concerned with how muddled they get as they reduce. For instance I own 1:1 Valiant emblems, and tried to scan my 1966 Valiant 100 piece. The lettering width shrunk down to unreadable. I finally found a Valiant script photo, but had to print and trace the lettering wider so it appeared readable.

We were being programmed that smoking and drinking were the normal adult thing to do.. candy cigarettes and bubblegum cigars? During the period of 1969-72, I was 11-14 and lived on a US Army post in Germany. European attitudes were completely different and my parents went with it. If I wanted a beer or wine with dinner, even in a restaurant that was okay. It became a dinner beverage. When I got back to USA my new friends thought it was amazing that if I wanted a beer from the fridge, it was allowed. They couldn’t imagine why I didn’t drink the entire case! And I wouldn’t because it wasn’t a big deal. I still have a beer with my dinner today. Smoking? Again in Europe I could have, but I never had a taste or desire for it. I’ve never smoked.

And without insurance

The year I lived near my grandparents I would get sent around the corner to Rush’s Deli with two bucks for two packs of Pallmall for my grandmother and two quarts of Schaefer for my grandfather. The change was mine to convert to candy.

It’s a good thing but goes right back to the beginning of Tom Lowe’s empire.. Polar Lights reverse engineered old Aurora monster kits.

In my youth I was only in the USA from 1968-69 while my father was stationed in Korea. During that year I would stay over at my grandparents Friday nights to see TV shows in color. That included waking up early on Saturday for the cartoon lineup. Back then Speed Racer was on weekday afternoons. I’d run all the way home from school to watch it.

Who sells them

I have a large scale slant six that was caked with an ancient Vaseline. It was quite a chore to get it all clean. In the end it was missing quite a few parts.. pretty much a parts kit.

It looks great! Build on!

Our K-Mart is gone.. knocked it down and had enough space to build a Whole Foods and a huge apartment building.