Finescale Modeler

[Mike]

It is kind of sad that the whole of North America only has one widely distributed 'native' modeling magazine left.

Matt

Really? That's such a shame... d'ya think it's falling between too many stools? Trying to please all the people (read genres), but in fact pleasing none, because it doesn't have the space to cover anything in depth?

[Matt Roberts]

Jack of all trades and master of none...

Pretty much describes FSM to me anymore. If I was starting out it'd be the first magazine I'd pick up, but today it just doesn't stand up over time unless it has a specific article I am interested in (mostly written by people I see around the sites on the net).

Anymore I like to see articles on the new kits which help me figure out if I want to spend money on them, Tamiya Mag is a great example of this, I have passed on a few issues but I may give the next a look as it has some builds of kits I am interested in. Model Aircraft Monthly is what I consider an inspirational mag the articles make me want to build something, hey I looked up the Aeroclub Venom after reading the Suez issue! Didn't buy it or the CA kit, hey Trumpeter how bout it! SAMI is a bit of a wierd one right now as it is as much a catalogue of new stuff as it is of builds anymore and it may be the next to drop to the 'as desired' status.

Maybe I'm just getting picky in my middle age...

Matt

Edited July 27, 2007 by Matt Roberts

[entlim]

Actually, nowadays it's mostly ads

[Mike]

Actually, nowadays it's mostly ads

Wot is?

[entlim]

Pass mike the pills please...........

[Col.]

Actually, nowadays it's mostly ads

Seems to be a common problem with most US mags these days. My dad used to get Popular Mechanics but stopped a few years back because of that and I hardly bother with the otherwise very good Bicycling.

It's damn near impossible to find the articles for the sheer bulk of adverts, usually for things unconnected with the magazine's subject.

I can hardly believe that the whole of North America has only one indigenous modelling magazine, sounds like a massive missed opportunity for other publishers.

[Leigh]

I will repeat again that FSM seems to have really gone down the tubes in the past year. Even though they tried to accomodate every genre of builder, I would still read it cover to cover and usually find something in each article that I could apply to my modelling. Nowadays it varies from the ridiculously inane, two articles in 3 years on how to paint D-day stripes, c'mon if you can figure out how to open the box, understand the instructions and glue the kit together you can probably master a piece of straight tape on yer own, to the super detail end which only applies if your using XYZ aftermarket products.

This month doesn't even have the readers tips section!

[Mike]

This month doesn't even have the readers tips section!

Which are usually along the lines "When I'm building my F-14, I find it better to open the box first"

[dylan the rabbit]

You can put me down for a couple of bottles of wash for the winner

Phil, you star. Thank you.

[jeffclark7]

Since Neil took over at MAM, there is no other magazine to equal it. Saying that SAMI comes a close second whilst SAM has never recovered since Neil left them. However, I feel that our 'Hobby' is well served by these three magazines.

Jeff

[Biggles]

I currently subscribe to all 3. I would say MAM is my favourite, as they do real 'in depth' articles over 20 pages on a subject. OK that subject might not appeal to me, but it will to someone else and I will like next months. I have no problem with that. Plus there is almost always some Brit/Commonwealth-related aircraft article in there somewhere.

From the editorial in that latest MAM (received yesterday) it appears Neil might be 'backing off' a little as he has received a promotion (but no pay rise :shithappens: - anyone want to start up a petition on his behalf?!). It appears they might be inching their way back to how the first years mags were before Neil came to the helm, with more photoshoots of modern aircraft, possibly at the cost of space for modelling articles? I am not sure about this as I was about to cancel after year 1 (before I heard about Neil coming along) as the photographic articles did nothing for me - I can get photos from my own shots or the other mags I subscribe to (AFM, Air Illust, Aero Monthly, etc).. However I will give them a fair chance and see what happens.

FSM I used to buy occasionally, but I have not bought one for over a year now. I never liked the way their reviews said 'this model took me 14 hours to make'. Errrr, so what. It might take a 10 year old 30 minutes to make, or a super-detailer 1400 hours. It just seems an irrelevant piece of information, that's all

Mike

[miduppergunner]

Have not read FSM for over year - and am now not inclined to renew for MAI - not any reason in particular - just find all Mags only of intermittent interest and so will return to "browsing" before buying. I do feel that an editors job must be somewhat masochistic - it must be really difficult to persistantly produce good copy that is not a re run of either that in a competitor or was in your own journal not long back. I find kit reviews/builds a bit monotonous - where (selfishly) I am most unlikely to build the subject. However were it not for sites such as britmodeller then it may be a different view. Ads must be used to make it economic! However they are useful.

Edited August 4, 2007 by miduppergunner

[John]

I always found I could read through the interesting buts in FSM much faster than I could read the interesting bits in almost any other mag!

John

[Mike]

I always found I could read through the interesting buts in FSM much faster than I could read the interesting bits in almost any other mag!

John

Agreed... and on a regular basis too.

[palacefan]

Interesting reading all of your comments on the mags, even though my little brain struggled with the SAMI, MAM,FBI and LAPD abreviations.

I think the reason i pay through the nose each month rather than subscribe is that they do change in relevant info each issue.

I buy SAMI most months but there is the odd occasion when nothing in it appeals to me, so i will buy MAI instead.

[5150]

Model magazines!! Talk to me about model magazines!!

Here's the list;

MAI

MMI

TMMI

scale aircraft modelling

scale models international

scale aviation modelling

model aircraft monthly

military in scale

military modelling

finescale

scale auto

figure international

panzer aces

military miniatures in review

model

afv modeller

air modeller

extreme modelling

sky model

x model

amazing figure modeller

military modelcraft international

How's them apples??

[Mike]

Model magazines!! Talk to me about model magazines!!

Here's the list;

<blimey>

Please tell me you don't subscribe to all of them?

My FSM subs ran out this month, and I'm not unhappy about not renewing. Coincidentally, my last issue was their 25th anniversary (or summit like that), so they went out on a high. Some interesting articles this month... shame they can't do that every month

[Iain Wyllie]

After getting all issues via subscription of SAM, SAMI and MAM from their respective No.1s I stopped them all about three years ago and am still alive and well. I have this great pile of magazines that I rarely use for reference as I have bought Squadron Walkarounds, Detail and Scale, Aero Detail, Mushroom books, etc., as well as historical books like 2nd TAF, Vols 1 to 3 and many others. I can now look up most things I need to know without trawling through the pile of magazines, even though I have them indexed.

As for tips and techniques, I get enough info from web sites about new tools etc., but I find that I now have enough experience to do what I want to do with what equipment I've got. I never look through mags for reviews as most are misleading anyway - the number of kits or bits I've bought due to good recommendations but turned out to be rubbish are legion. I used to think, in my early naivety, that the reviews were conscientiously done by experts until I discovered that, in most cases, reviews are based on a cursory examintion of the bits in their bags or, say, dry assembling major components to see how they fit. There are too many reviewers who simply don't know the subject that they are reviewing, hell, some of them even admit it!

As for blow by blow build articles, forget it - a total waste of paper; some are simply an account of building through each stage of the kit instructions. Others, which have had extra detailing, rarely give enough detail to enable the reader to do the same and thus rendering them useless. I get the impression that most of them are an ego massage for the builders.

The only mag I get now is Aeroplane Monthly, which I get hard bound every year, and it is a good reference source. Don't look too closely at the "scale" drawings in Database articles, though.

[dylan the rabbit]

Aye, top magazine that Aeroplane monthly. One of the few we can get out here in sandlands..

[5150]

Please tell me you don't subscribe to all of them?

Well...........Yes

But I do have good reasons. I need all the help I can get.

[Mike]

Well...........Yes

But I do have good reasons. I need all the help I can get.

...and you must be spending almost all your pocket money on them too!

[Paul821]

This thread seems to be the best place to add this.,

 

Back 2007 @Mikevwas lamenting how skinny FSM was getting. Despite that over the years I have found is one of the better mags to learn more about modelling skills. But the November 2021 edition says that due to the rising costs of producing paper copies and the general move online that FSM will now appear in print form 6 times a year.

[Eric Mc]

That's a bit sad.

[T-21]

I stopped subscribing to FSM about 2 years ago. The subject's did not interest me far too many jets and FW190/Me109 builds.  In the past had some good article's like converting a 1/72 GMC truck 6x6 into a bomb loader ,sadly now few and far between.  Aeroplane Monthly is excellent although Flypast should be renamed Spitfire International ! but i suppose Spitfire's sell, but there are other aircraft . Airfix World i subscribe too well balanced subjects something for everybody. I was an avid SAMI fan but not in recent years, MAM was great in its early day's. I have all the early SAM's  great articles's 

 

Wish Neil Robinson and Ernie Lee would re-incarnate PAM  Plastic Aircraft Modeller.

Edited September 27, 2021 by T-21

[dogsbody]

I stopped getting all aviation and modeling magazines a number of years ago. Aeroplane Monthly had dropped off quite a bit from what is was back in the 70's up to the early 2000's. Flypast was even worse. The local shop where I bought most of my magazines was having an issue with his supplier, who stopped sending him things.

So I just started coming to on-line places, like this excellent forum, to get my airplane fix.

 

 

 

Chris