Category: finances
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Buildings
Particularly if they are made by obscure companies. I needed a building for a desert museum layout. I have many small structures but they all look vaguely North American or British. It was with dubious enthusiasm I rolled into my local hobby shop. As I suspected – the Superquick and Meltcalf offerings were mostly railway…
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The Year-Round Scale Model Show – Part Two
So the annual weekend in the hall is to be kaput. Now we think up the new show. You’re soaking in it; the internet. The always-there screen that steals your images and time. The ever-present menace to your credit card. But this time it will be fun. If there is a reasonable pot of money…and…
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The Year-Round Scale Model Show – Part One
Here in Perth, Western Australia, we have been told that the big local scale model exhibition that’s been going for decades will fold up after this year. This is sad. The reasons given for this is the retirement of the organising committee and the lack of any volunteers to replace them. There may also be…
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Hall Of Fame
I am starting to despair of ever getting into the Modelling Hall Of Fame. No matter how much I desire it, no-one pins a medal on my chest or shakes my hand. The pedantic types point out that I don’t enter competitions. True, but that shouldn’t stop people from praising me. I think I am…
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It’s Not A Stash Sale
If you don’t buy something you don’t need. If you buy something that you don’t want, it ratchets up to a higher level. If it is overpriced, you are moving into the professional league. If you buy aftermarket for it, and build it, you have become a master in the art of Zen modelling. The…
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AI And The Scale Modeller – Part Three – The Supervisor
If AI can think for itself, can it think for you? If you are unaccustomed to the task, there may be an opening… You generally decide to buy a kit by walking down the aisle of Hobbyhell and letting your imagination loose. As there are other enthusiasts in there with you it starts to take…
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AI And The Scale Modeller – Part Two – The Electro-Boss
Let us imagine for a moment that the model making firm of Plasti-Prag decides to download a computer program for AI to help out the staff. In it goes to the works Mac or PC, settling in amongst the porn and unpaid invoices, and the design section tries to use it to draw up box…
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I’m Not Fussy
Really I’m not. You would be convinced of this if you saw some of the clothes I wear and some of the people I pal around with. There is a lot of slack there, and most of it is me. And I am getting a lot looser with what I build as a scale modeller.…
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No Change Out Of $ 665
But you will have a small locomotive and several carriages. Plus an oval of track and a controller. What we used to call a toy train set, but would now be referred to as a toy train investment. I should be careful of it – the 1:120 size of the set will mean it is…
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Lemme See That Invoice
Suppose you were a person who imports scale model kits from Ruritania to sell in Australia. Suppose you have been selling them for years at Price A. Then suppose that a great national tragedy strikes Ruritania – war with neighbouring Latveria. Factories are deserted and stocks of Ruritanian scale model kits are threatened. Fortunately you…
The Little World 