Category: Self Reliance
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If It Is Not The Best Model That You Have Ever Made…
Is it the worst? Let’s face it – we do have failures from time to time. Things start out fine and end up slightly horrid. We may have done what we always do, expecting a win…and ended up with a loss. The finish was off, the shape was off, the build was off. We were…
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The Sound Of A Human Voice
Will draw money from the tightest purse. I wanted to buy some hobby items. My local enquiries proved fruitless – the range of goods had once been carried by local shops but they’d gone on to better paying stock…or failed to sell the previous items. In any case, I was not robbing local tables of…
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How Much Fun Is It To See Other People’s Hobbies?
I wonder at that when I see exhibitions of scale modelling or other Little World pursuits. I know it is fun for the exhibitors as they vie to outdo each other and to buy things that they need for their next project. There is a deadly rivalry in some camps and shows are the battlefield…
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Like Kipling’s Cavalryman
I spend idle time studying how to reduce my horse’s burden. Even though mine is an iron beast that runs on petrol rather than hay, it is still limited in what it can bear. There is only so much a Suzuki hatchback can carry and that I can ferry from carpark to clubroom or exhibition.…
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The Best Model Club In The Metro Area
I have heard a number of groups referred to in these terms – by a variety of people. I think most were sincere when they said it. This is heartening – a club member ready to boast about their association is ripe for further involvement. A place on the committee, perhaps, or a volunteer position…
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What Can You Do In Five Minutes?
I mean on a modelling bench. Never mind the bedroom or the toilet… In five minutes you can: a. Finally rescue that paint that settled in the jar. Dilute it, stir it, clean the cap and threads. Label it properly. b. Get fresh blades on your knives and safely dispose of the dull old ones.…
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I’m From Missouri
Show me. If you recognise that phrase, you’ll know it embodies the scepticism and practicality of the Missourian. It must be hard to sell used cars in Kansas City… But the miniature builder can satisfy even the hardest prairie mind – because the miniature builder need not be restricted to where they are or when…
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Is It A Skin Lesion?
Or dried glue? Modellers are sometimes healthy and sometimes not, and it is surprising how many of their ailments are self inflicted: a. The cement scab noted above. I have found them weeks old in some pretty odd places. b. Acrylic asthma. You can do a great deal of no good with an airbrush full…
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Do You Dine Clean Or Dirty?
Old British officers will know the difference. For scale modellers the question may be posed differently; do you build clean or dirty? Are your models fully weathered, tinted, oiled, and matted, or are they factory-fresh. It can be a great topic if you want to get tempers up – the two groups striving to justify…
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Don’t You Have Something Better To Do?
Well, frankly, no. I used to have professional practice to do, attended with terrible anxiety. It paid me money for awhile, and then didn’t. A signal… So I took up trade, and it was attended by less angst, and more money. Eventually I had accumulated enough of both to be satisfied. Now I have decided…
The Little World 