Category: finances
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OPPs Beat Apps
We older Australians are often thought to be past it. Or more accurately, past IT. Yet every day we confound the young with our imaginative use of the computer and the winsome way that we reset the modem. They never know what is coming. In my case I do not play much with telephones and…
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Scale Modelling As Moral Reform
Salvation Through Styrene All you need is a 1/35 Elmer Gantry…And for those of you who are puzzled, google Burt Lancaster and ICM Models. If you still do not get the joke enclose $ 5 in a plain envelope and I will explain it to you. Do you need Moral reform(TM)? Of course you do.…
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Making A Hobby Out Of A Job
It’s generally the other way round, isn’t it. People go along loving something they do for themselves and then someone suggests money should be made from it. The hobby becomes a side-hustle, and then a venture, and then a full-blown job. Eventually it palls and the former enthusiast comes to hate it. So they take…
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The Orphaned Kit
Shed a tear for the poor bedraggled box-scale kit that sits abandoned on the hobby shop shelf. It may have been there for months or years – left all alone in the world when its maker passed into the great bankruptcy in the sky. It is getting dented and dusty…shabbier with each passing day. And…
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When The Model Price Is Measured In Hundreds Of Dollars
Something happens to the hobby. It becomes a serious business. Good thing? You might think so if you are a devotee of contest modelling and the pursuit of prizes. Newer and bigger can get you closer to the awards. Complexity figures in this as well – if you can overwhelm a judge with extra after-market…
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Full Moon Is the Worst Time
That’s when the special modellers shop. The hobby shop staff know what’s coming; they brace themselves. The cowards call in sick, but the old hands just stand to the till and face the storm. ” Do you have this in 1/296th? Why not? “. ” I want the best kit. I’ve got $ 12. Hit…
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Use It Or Hoard It?
What do you do with the valuable old kit? If you have been stashing or buying for some time, you will eventually stumble across an unbuilt kit that is actually valuable in some respect: a. It has climbed in resale value as it has aged and other similar kits fallen by the wayside. If you…
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The Temptation To Re-Stash
And just when they thought you were cleaning out the old one… Many people I know go through a cycle where they alternately empty and replenish their stashes This conforms to the universal rule of physics that you can never have a completely full shelf nor a completely empty one. There must always be either…
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Classic Without Being Classy
The decision to squeeze yet another year out of an old mould must be agony for the planners in a big scale model factory. But of course it can be eased by the realisation that the price for the old tat will be paid in new money. There will be the cost of new box…
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Pondering – Part Three – On The Pond
A damp look at the model ship. I used to build scale model R/C boats. They were fun, expensive, and needed a lot of maintenance. They also needed bodies of water to sail on – and councils had to give permission for this. I hated being at the let and hindrance of councillors. So I…