The Little World

Do you have a collection of scale models? Congratulations. Whether they are your own production or the result of careful shopping and buying, they should be a real source of pleasure to you.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to display them you gain another source of pleasure – the interest others may take in them. In this respect you may try to show them to others in a museum or library. Good luck with that – museum curators and librarians are creatures with their own agendas – don’t expect them to feel as much love for your models as you do.

Likewise your family. They may see your models so much that they get sick of them. Don’t be disappointed in this – make arrangements to record your achievements in ways that do not need their regard:

a. Take good photos of your collection, or arrange for it to be done by a professional. Cover each model adequately and do it in such a way that the individual piece is seen separately. Try for a standardised form of record so that the images can be used for various projects.

b. Make a hard-bound book of pictures of your collection. Write something about each model you have. Get it done by an on-line publisher – they are easy to deal with – and obtain two copies. One you can use as a brag book and one you can save in the family photo albums.

c. Make a website dedicated to your collection.

This can be a primary site that sets out a catalogue of the whole thing and then breaks down to individual coverage. You can pay for this to be on the web forever.

Or you can use the free provisions of WordPress or Facebook to show a daily weblog column of the models. It helps if you also write something about the building of each model. The weblog may be come popular amongst readers and you’ll find yourself turning up in a Google search. As the world beats a path to your door, rejoice.

d. Donate models to museums and schools and libraries if you wish, but be prepared for them to be destroyed by neglect. Not everyone is the Smithsonian or the Science Museum.