The Little World

Contrary to what you might think, I do read other weblog columns. Not the ones that deal with pre-teen poetry and /or how to make money online from home. I also shy away from the ones that have a conspiracy theory about the numbers on the side of cornflakes packets.

I read other modeller’s reports. Some come direct here to my email and I read every entry. Others are set on a sideboard of the computer and I dip into them occasionally. I am rarely disappointed in the content – modellers capable of writing three coherent words are capable of some very interesting and innovative thinking.

As a contrast, some of the YouTube presentations I’ve seen are a triumph of container over content. Some people have nothing to say and nothing to show and do so at length. Some people speak poorly and have no visual literacy – but that doesn’t stop them. In today’s internet, there is probably no mechanism that could even slow them down.

I am amazed at this – the introduction I am given to them is through a well-known search engine – a device that presents me to the world as well. I’ve looked me up on it, and there I am. Sometimes I wish there I wasn’t but what is done is done. I suspect that the robotic mathematics of Google are no closer to artificial intelligence than my shoelace – if they constantly throw up the worst of the model YouTube in favour of the best.

But back to the good bits. I see from one writer that the Revell kit I saw in the local hobby shop is indeed a beauty – and if you were a builder of model cars you would do well to get one and try your hand. Indeed, it suggests other models from the same division in this firm would also be wonderful kits. I am encouraged.

I also see from one of the latest builds that there is a brand of short-run helicopter kit that would be a minefield sown with barbed wire and rattlesnakes. The kit he is struggling with has been built and reviewed by a well-known video modeller and was given top marks there – but it is equally evident that the kit is somewhat of a nightmare as well. I appreciate both views.

Is there a weblog column that I want to see that is missing? Well, so far I haven’t encountered another one specifically based here in Western Australia that deals with the kits we can buy and the materials we have access to.  This is important for people who wish to buy locally and build for their own satisfaction. We cannot always be sending out to Hannants for resin parts to tizzy up our next build – we need to find a way to tizzy closer to home and on a smaller budget.

Come along, Folks. I cannot be the only hobby writer in this town. Surely there must be more. Stand up and be read!