Kind of makes you wonder how you keep from going under.

We're truly in a golden age of modeling and the various manufacturers are going hard for coaxing the maximum cash out of our ever-older hands as we are, effectively, the last generation that is apparently interested in modelling at this level. We'll be held in the same quiet confused reverence that we currently hold for the previous scratch-builders that I call the "craftsmen" who, as a group, put us where we are in modelling by showing the companies not only what we wanted, but that they were able to make it themselves if the companies didn't cooperate and offer it. Saw the same thing (and then some) in the model railroad guys. There's a hardcore group! Any thoughts? And, oh yes, the tropical plants are lovely but as I personally am interested in the forests of Europe I'll wait for a really nice pine tree, thank you.