Tom Geiger

Stoned little girls!

One of the coolest fast backs ever! The largest glass panel ever used at the time! Need I say more?

I grew up as a US Army brat and lived in places like Turkey and Germany. American model cars were hard to come by, so I built, rebuilt, then used them for parts on my newest model-of-all-models! There were incidents, living in Germany firecrackers and even M-80s were openly for sale. The models that got destroyed were mostly Airfix military models as they were sold at the post exchange on post. The only incident I remember in detail involved my spoiled friend Henry. He had received a new Cox airplane as a gift, and within a half hour had crashed and busted it. Being mad at it, and having a full can of Cox fuel, he decided to burn the plane. I was an observer. He put the plane in the sandbox, poured some fuel into the fuselage and dropped in a match... nothing! He did this a few more times with similar results. Then he decided it needed a lot more fuel. As he was pouring a previously lit match caught and the whole thing exploded! Boom! Big ball of fire and Henry did a somersault backwards. He was quite shaken! Then we kids noticed he had burned off his eyebrows! He had a big round face and I exclaimed that he looked like Peter Rabbit! We called him Peter Rabbit for some time!

Best Models produces sets for specific cars. They sell on eBay. I haven’t seen these in person, but should be top quality as their resin models are! Here’s some of their products on Scalemates: https://www.scalemates.com/brands/best-model-car-parts--10201 I print my own gauges. I find images on the Internet. EBay Motors is a good place to find nice images of gauge clusters for sale. Personally, I like my gauges on paper, which I glue with canopy cement.

Pot baked in

Thanks Jim... and here’s the two tone I did today! Duplicolor paint, over their gray primer.

Mighty powerful explosive ?

Mike, to get two pieces to match, I tape them together and sand the edges until they are the same. Above are my Jeep sides, see where they are still taped together.. then folded over. And here they are as part of the body. It’s important to get things straight and true when scratch building. Note the inner fender.. I made two sets of these until I got what I wanted. The beauty of working with Evergreen sheet is that you can try again! We seldom get it right every time!

Got a couple coats of silver on it! Pleased with my bodywork, no real issues! Going for a two tone.. for those who think Tamiya tape is too expensive, here’s an illustration.. use it for your critical edge and then use cheap painters blue for general masking

Well used! Still I toss it all in a scrap box, bits and shapes will come in handy later!

Note that The Chopper is for strips not sheets. Evergreen sheets can be easily cut with an exacto knife and a straight edge. It’s made to score and snap, not unlike cutting sheet rock! I do it all the time.

Proper use of The Chopper... here are strips of Evergreen I wanted all the exact same length. I taped them together. Here they are sitting on the Chopper bed. Here are the two sizes I wanted, cut nicely. I made a square jig out of basswood.. And here’s a window frame! The final result.. several window frames exactly the same!

It’s a matter of the right tool for the right job. Thicker stuff needs to be cut with a saw in a miter. I learned that, I literally bent a blade misusing the Chopper. The Chopper works well if used as intended.

And useless opinions

Greg, I printed this pattern on regular bond paper and glued it down with white glue. I was careful with the amount of glue used, and didn’t treat the paper with anything. I didn’t have any bleed through. I found thousands of fabric patterns on the Joanne’s Fabrics website. I was able to save this pattern and get several rows of the pattern assembled tight in Word to get a large enough piece. Then it was a matter of printing it in different sizes until it appeared to be scale. I used this Evergreen brand Canopy Cement, a white glue they sell at Hobby Lobby

Times are a changing! I have been taken by surprise with some commercials lately.. probably because I have to been paying attention.. First eye opener is a commercial from Lucid Motors announcing a very Tesla looking car. Then I saw the GM revival of the Hummer name to Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song! You have to admit it’s cool! The difference between today’s electric cars and those at the early 20th Century is performance! My cousin put me at the wheel of his first generation Tesla and said, “Floor it!” OMG, I hadn’t felt that take off from a light since I drove my friend’s 69 GTO ! It was incredible and I knew at that moment that the game had completely changed! Suddenly sedans faster than any Ferrari were going to be commonplace! Once they get past the charging issues the game is over!

Who need humbling

I still will have dual windshields, just up front, cut down to fit on the bumps ahead of the dash.

I didn’t know about that one! Another Sky clone, which is the better looking of the two designs. The Solstice looks like a cheese grater.

True! I could hold this one up and say. “Honey look! My latest model!” And without looking up she’d say, “That’s nice.”

I finished my Red Chariot.. Take Two, this weekend. My newest model always gets the place of honor on my family room wall unit in front of the TV. I added the companion Blue Beetle, well because it pleases me! Valiant Speedster bodywork is complete after much care and patience. Here it is in its first coats of Duplicolor Metallic Silver, shot today! And I’m still doing bodywork on the Studebaker Gullwing. Patience!

Not thinking about it lately but back when people first started using 90% alcohol for paint stripping, I put a kit glass shot that had some brush paint on it into the drink. I was surprise that not only did it remove the paint, but the yellowing was gone! Maybe try it.

Back in early 1980s in one of my failed attempts to get back into the hobby, a local hobby shop had a % off coupon so I went and bought some 5 Johans at $5-6 each. I thought I spent a lot then!

Or pooped in

Here’s the trio... left to right.. Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky and Opel GT.. first Opel built in USA