There are lots of guides on YouTube but this should suffice.

Costs are sort of just down to how into it you want to get. Kits range from $10-$300. I usually build ones in the $30-$80 range. You can get lots of fancy tools but really, just get a decent pair of sidecutters and a hobby knife (exacto or other brand) and maybe a sanding stick. I actually started with a nail polishing block that you can get at any store that has nailpolish.

Kit wise, really just start with a HG (High Grade) or EG (Entry Grade) that looks cool to you. If you find you enjoy the process more than the end product you can get into RG (real grade) or MG (Master Grade). All but MG are a 1/144 scale while MG is 1/100 scale. MG and RG are much more intricate.

As a last word of caution, the earlier RGs were not designed very well, each kit has a number, currently their are ~40 of them with the last 10 or so just being tiny MGs. The earlier ones can be great but need a bit more love to get right.

My personal favorite kit I have built is the RG Hi-Nu Gundam

First and foremost I want to second anyone who brought up cooking. Learning to cook a meal perfectly to your tasted is both accomplishing and sharable.

For the geekier stuff, I have taken up Gundam model kits in the last year. You can start off with simply building them straight from the box. There are also a ton of ways to customize them such as repainting, adding decals, create “weathering” effects and “kit bashing” (mixing models together to make your own new model). It has been a very nice outlet whenever I want to be crafty.

The capitalist will sell us the rope something something

You say unfettered capitalism but then say that big businesses and government have combined. Those seem contradictory, do you think it was better when the government wasn’t involved?

Capitalism is flawed and has outlived it’s usefulness just as every preceding economic system has. One of the more poignant Marx quotes puts it well

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, that each time ended, either in the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

Capitalism is based on the accumulation of resources known as the “means of production”. As time goes on, those with capital are able to leverage it to further subjugate the working class as they amass a disproportionate amount of wealth and capital. The average worker is worth far more than they are paid, while the capitalist who they work under continues to pocket the majority of that profit.

For a working class person to begin to earn their fare share they have a few ethical options, be self employed, unionize to collectively bargain for a larger piece of the pie, join or form a co-op (effectively a small scale form of socialism).

The last point I’d bring up that is more central to my own politics is the inherent link between capitalism and imperialism. Even in a capitalist country where you may be able to comfortably live as a member of the working class, the global third world is often footing the bill in order to lower the cost of goods. Examples would be clothing, chocolate, coffee, etc where most of these are made in desolate conditions and sometimes with slave labor.

That being said, there are many reasons to be against capitalism and it is hard to express in a single comment. I highly recommend Lenin’s State and Revolution to anyone interested.

If I do a web search I’ll still go to reddit if it as a useful thread but I don’t actively go on it.

If anyone misses /r/chapotraphouse they have their own version of Lemmy they have built for the last 3 years which should be back to being federated soon. hexbear.net for anyone interested.