My name is Thom (aka Big Orange) and I'm the same person that was on Fred's. I'm a NJ native living in the Greensboro NC area for the past 15 years....they say I'm a "damn Yankee" now
Unfortunately, work and life restricts my time for building and checking in on forums. I turned the big "five-o" this year, and I work for a globally recognized company known more for building automobiles and motorcycles than building 7 passenger business jets.
I've been tinkering with models since my teens, and developed a passion for scratch built replica northeast modifieds. I have only completed 3 builds over the past few years (2 Richie Evans and a Charlie Jarzombek Vega) but I have 2 in the works. I'm between PC upgrades and a Flickr account, but I will try to post pics of my past builds for those who may not remember or have not seen before.
I used to hand letter race cars, trucks, boats and signs (remember brushes, paint and technique...lol) but gave up my talents with the advent of the computer generated graphics era. I grew tired of creating things only to have others copy and capitalize on. I spent a few years helping out a local dirt modified racer and learned most of what I incorporate into my builds from him.
What's left of my spare time, ha-ha, is spent cruising with my wife in her recently acquired 2015 Corvette, riding my Goldwing or doing a track day at Virginia International Raceway on my 2008 Suzuki GSXR 600