Category: Organisation
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Do Not Tidy Up

Or do tidy up. Choose whichever piece of gratuitous advice you like – the price is the same. There is a danger to the business of tidying up a hobby workshop – you may succeed. Then you have a tidy workshop and nothing actually doing. This is a very sad situation. I’m sitting here on…
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Plod, Nod, Or Sod It All?

Do you build models in parallel or do you build them in serial? Is your workbench pristine and pure – a minimalist’s paradise? Or is it awash in 14 kits and a broken toy that you prised apart for the gears? It can be a seriously diagnostic thing to see – a window into your…
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” We Can’t Attract Young People…”

That’s the catch cry of the plastic modelling club members over their coffee and biscuits as we glue together $ 100 model kits of equipment that existed 74 years ago and has never been seen since. Quite frankly, I’m surprised that we can attract ourselves… It’s not quite that bad in the model train world…
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Sandown Park 2019 – Part Three – Why Are We Here?

I don’t mean to get all angst-y and existential on you, but I did find the thought expressed in our heading crossing my mind at the recent model exposition. I was prompted to it by three sights: a. The line of patient modellers coming into the hallway with their creations. This was well and…
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MiG 15 – Part Five – Science To The Fore! Onwards To Socialism!

Whoops, sorry about that. The Radio Havana broadcast was turned up too high… But let us not allow politics to interfere with science – particularly with the science of the model airplane. The Little Workshop is proud to announce the introduction of a new instrument into the world – the Stein Staterometer. You won’t find…
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The Independent Mind

I spoke to a person who reads this column regularly. It was in his modelling room and he was in the midst of his favourite activity; making models for wargaming. In this he has a mind of his own and is not afraid to use it. He also uses everything else that can possibly come…
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Hobby Money – Part Six – Setting Up.

You’ve seen my figures before on setting up for re-enactment or radio-controlled aircraft or amateur photography but I’ll give them a brief reprise: a. Reenactment – $ 200 to stand around home as a medieval, $500 more if you wish to slay dragons. Add $ 1000 if you wish to camp out and another $…
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Hobby Money – Part One – The Price Of The Hobby Versus…

Versus the value of the hobby – an eternal debate in many fields. Whenever we engage in an activity that does not immediately yield food, shelter, or sex, there has to be some calculation as to the worth of the time and money spent. In most cases the good stuff takes a considerable amount of…
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Oh Sheet, It’s the Instructions…

I am fairly bright for a dim person. I can play Scrabble and do connect-the-dots puzzles. I have, on occasion, found Wally. But I struggle with the instruction sheets for the model airplane kits. It was not always thus…in the 1950’s and 60’s the instruction sheets for the kits seemed to be a lot easier…

