spfparker Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 Not really one to moan (!) - but picked up three of the this month's modelling magazines and put them straight into my suitcase to read whilst on holiday. Now in Greece, I opened them up and they all appear to be disappointingly of a similar style... Now it's probably me, but has current trends dictated that the contents of these magazines only show lots of photos of the the finished builds with scant reference to the building process nowadays? As I said its probably me... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cngaero Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 I'd be inclined to agree with you. I used to collect lots of different titles, but got annoyed when many of them became merely catalogues for kits and aftermarket items with no detailed modelling content. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 Most seem to have become ‘Model Magazines’ rather than ‘Modelling Magazines! Although I’m late to the party, as I only started reading it last November, I’d say that Airfix Model World magazine is the best though I still subscribe to SAMI and SAM. Stopped buying SAMI’s sister magazine several years ago and have just bought my last copy of Model Airplane International, not so much because of the content but due to the quality of the paper plus the layout, with poor use of font colours against a contrasting background, stupidly small pictures which show no detail at all though I guess its fair to say that all magazines of guilty of this though! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmodai Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 And they wonder why print is dying.... For largely the reasons mentioned, I've pretty much stopped buying all hobby magazines. The European ones used to be pretty good, but they are mostly cookie cutter clones of each other nowadays. I could write the entire text of most 'articles' out here - 'Here's a photo of the parts on the table and the box top!' 'Here's 18 photos with no captions of the kit and the $300 of aftermarket bits I added for no discernible reason!' 'Here's two photos of my finished model. Enjoy!' The End. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredag Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Or....'Here's some postage stamp ( remember them? ) sized images that'll have you squinting to see what it is,60% of which are the same angle,so serve no purpose other than filling up a tiny bit of white page space'. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr T Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 A lot of magazine content quality appears to have fallen off. I buy 'Airfix Model World' and SAM because they still do have some how 'I did it content' with appropriate photos and our own good General does some good articles. SAM I think needs a bit more care in editing as it is prone to captioning errors and some clumsy phrasing. What does annoy me are articles that spend one page on building the kit and three pages on weathering, with not a comment on accuracy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 2 minutes ago, Mr T said: What does annoy me are articles that spend one page on building the kit and three pages on weathering, with not a comment on accuracy. My pet hate along with certain brands of paint displayed behind a model with a dry paint brush pointed at the kit. Utterly pointless unless you want an extra advert or so. They'll never comment on inaccuracies as, IMHO, they put getting a free kit above the income from the magazines they sell. Most are no better than the Builders Trade magazines that are given away in Jewsons and the like for nowt. The last straw for me was the Yak-38 Forger two-seater. Three magazines reviewed it and not one mentioned a rather serious error with the rear fuselage. I noticed it as soon as I looked at some images and I'm no expert. it was then I realised that there were no side shots, or any other, that showed or even hinted at the problem. Coincidence? Thrice? Dramatic re-budgeting of my model-making account followed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinChipmunkfan Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Agree with comments so far- I bought SAM for the first 20 years of its existence - many of those when it was just black and white. I got fed up with yet another article on Fairey Fireflies and since then have only bought odd magazines when there is an article on a particular model I am interested in. This means I only buy maybe one or two magazines a year. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junglierating Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 On 7/19/2018 at 8:10 PM, spfparker said: Not really one to moan (!) - but picked up three of the this month's modelling magazines and put them straight into my suitcase to read whilst on holiday. Now in Greece, I opened them up and they all appear to be disappointingly of a similar style... Now it's probably me, but has current trends dictated that the contents of these magazines only show lots of photos of the the finished builds with scant reference to the building process nowadays? As I said its probably me... Nah I concur...do what I do and get the old ones out still a good read ....or look on the auction site for job lot airfix mag 1979...for example Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I have often thought of getting rid of my old magazines going back to the early 70s but there is so much useful information in them that they have become an asset. Robert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spfparker Posted July 25, 2018 Author Share Posted July 25, 2018 2 hours ago, junglierating said: Nah I concur...do what I do and get the old ones out still a good read ....or look on the auction site for job lot airfix mag 1979...for example Got piles of old (modelling!) mags in my shed - just can't seem to get rid of them....! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I've got a dude who hooks me up with free PDF copies of most of the modelling mags out there. I keep what I want and delete the rest. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missile-monkey Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 28 minutes ago, spfparker said: Got piles of old (modelling!) mags in my shed - just can't seem to get rid of them....! Ditto......lots of old (modelling) mags in the loft. Use for referencing and inspiration. Pick up old mags at shows, charity shops or wherever. Hardly ever buy new anymore for much the same reasons as already discussed. It's such a shame... Regards MM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I'd stopped buying mags some years ago for most of the reasons quoted above, but began getting Scale Aircraft Modelling International again when I realised it was running articles based on history, and sometimes offering more critical advice. Paul Lucas columns, Brian Derbyshire builds, and other articles based on research not just oft-repeated myth. Yes you have to wince at times by the short-sightedness of some of the reviews (or I do), but it is impossible to get every model reviewed by someone who actually knows something about the subject. Most importantly, also someone who can make it to a reasonable standard and then write about it in time for a deadline. At least it is a magazine that goes beyond the latest plastic trends and offers some connection with the reasons why we make these things in the first place. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 As for large collections of aircraft and modelling magazines: mine are in my loft in reasonably easy grasp as that's where the modelling is done. In easy grasp but actually rarely consulted, with a few exceptions. I wouldn't be too unhappy at seeing most of them go to a worthy home because the majority of the contents are well past any useful half-life, or were not particularly relevant to me anyway (or aren't now). However, few people appear to be interested and even fewer prepared to pay, particularly with regards to the postage cost of large heavy boxes! Every now and then I consider filleting the more interesting ones and keeping the better articles, but this just leads to filing problems and they just get forgotten. It is what I do with Air Britain Journal and SAMI nowadays - keep the PL articles and the better histories, but bin the rest. However the time required to do this to the entire collection is excessive: I'm better off modelling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I started with SAMI about 1996/7 when I was in WHS, looking for something to read. Up to that point, I used to buy models from a local newsagent or toy shop and reading that issue, was the first time that I was even aware that there was an ‘aftermarket’ market not knowing that resin, photo etch accessories or decals were available! Since then I have collected every issue of SAM from issue 1 to the present day bar for the Jay Laverty era, all of SAMI, complete bound issues of the Airfix Magazine for Modellers from 1964 - 1984 and am still looking for certain issues post 1984! And even though I only started reading Airfix Model World last November, I am only 12 issues short of the entire set! I have the first 11 volumes of MAM, every issue of MAI up to the last issue, the two volumes of the magazine that Spencer Pollard edited before is was incorporated back into the military modelling magazine, the titles of which, I cannot remember! Then there’s around 120 issues of the Profile Publications (red and a few blue issues) currently being collected, Aeroplane Monthly from the early days up to around 2004ish, Avaition News, several partworks, though I only got these as they were part of a package I bought. I did have every issue of Flypast from issue 1 up to 2006 but was made an offer I couldn’t refuse and sold these on. My problem is that I hate to throw reference material out but I also find that the older magazines, far more readable and will most likely continue to add to the library, as and when I become aware of other series’! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacificmustang Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 4 hours ago, Graham Boak said: As for large collections of aircraft and modelling magazines: mine are in my loft in reasonably easy grasp as that's where the modelling is done. In easy grasp but actually rarely consulted, with a few exceptions. I wouldn't be too unhappy at seeing most of them go to a worthy home because the majority of the contents are well past any useful half-life, or were not particularly relevant to me anyway (or aren't now). However, few people appear to be interested and even fewer prepared to pay, particularly with regards to the postage cost of large heavy boxes! Every now and then I consider filleting the more interesting ones and keeping the better articles, but this just leads to filing problems and they just get forgotten. It is what I do with Air Britain Journal and SAMI nowadays - keep the PL articles and the better histories, but bin the rest. However the time required to do this to the entire collection is excessive: I'm better off modelling. I find myself agreeing with your sentiments here Graham. I had kept a large selection of mags that had reviews of the kits in my stash, but found in a lot of cases I had built the models without consulting the magazines anyway. There are plenty of builds on the web these days, a lot of them far more detailed than you would find in magazines as there are no space constraints. Same for reference shots In most cases, the magazine articles would not have helped anyway, so I promptly bundled them up and sold them for 50c (Aus) at a model swap and sell. At that price, they all go. This is about the fourth time I have cleaned out my magazine stocks, and I don't miss them. A mate was recently flicking through some old copies of Scale Model International, which I consider the absolute apex of modeling magazines. It is amazing how much more the emphasis was on accuracy in those days, perhaps reflected by how basic the kits were then - 70s-80s -compared to what we have now. The build articles were also a lot more informative, and don't start me on what passes for decal "reviews" these days!! For those that complain about picture size and paper quality, digital downloads are the answer, you can zoom in on pictures to your hearts content! Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morlock Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 (edited) I used to buy Fine Scale Modeler in the late 90's and early 2000's. I stopped because I found a lot of the topics would repeat themselves. Also most of the reviews and articles were by master type modelers which makes sense except that those guys can make anything look good. I find more value in seeing kits built by regular people online. Which leads me to this point, maybe the magazines have found themselves in contest with forums and are feel they have to publish a lot of finished builds because they look better and they assume most modelers have seen the build ups online? I decided to throw out my small collection of model mags a week ago as I realized I haven't looked at them for well over a decade. Edited July 26, 2018 by Morlock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 I subscribe to FSM because they will fairly frequently have very good articles by the likes of Frank Cuden (who does wonderful "old school" modelling), and a couple of other folk. I also subscribe to AMW because of the quality of the content and builds. Then there are the others that I've tried and been left feeling a bit "meh", because they all seem to have the same approach and are light on the technique due to focus on what I see as styles or trends. But, each to their own I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixII Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 13 hours ago, spfparker said: Got piles of old (modelling!) mags in my shed - just can't seem to get rid of them....! 12 hours ago, Graham Boak said: ......I wouldn't be too unhappy at seeing most of them go to a worthy home.... Morning Gents, may I make a suggestion? We're all aware that nobody wants to give anything for old magazines........unless it's us! Consider doing what I did last year and donate yours to Alfie, he who runs the kit swop at SMW. Yes, 'twas me barrowing in the large boxes, Friday P.M., I cheated, half were dropped off at Newark! Over £900 raised for Marie Curie nurses, you KNOW it makes sense. Paul 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Des Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 Fine Scale Modeler has had a couple of mentions and from my own reading of it offers perhaps the best reviews available in an English Language magazine which highlight both 'Pros' and 'Cons' of the kits featured in their Workbench Review. The actual feature articles maybe highlight the differences in approach on opposite sides of the Atlantic and you either like the style (and general lack of full-size references) or don't and often describing the British Army as the 'Royal Army' does grate a bit and come over as a bit amateur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 Apologies for this slight topic shift; however I have a large collection of SAMs but I can never find the article or plan I want. Does anyone know of a source for indexes to magazines such as these? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixII Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 Afternoon Mike, was under the impression that there was an index printed in at least some of the early volumes? either issue 12 or issue 1 of the next volume. Would suggest you contact the magazine direct, and ask the question. If they have any, do be prepared to pay folding stuff! Don't think they take washers and brass buttons these days.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarLos Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 2 hours ago, bootneck said: Apologies for this slight topic shift; however I have a large collection of SAMs but I can never find the article or plan I want. Does anyone know of a source for indexes to magazines such as these? Mike You may have a look here: http://www.rquirk.com/smindx.html (and it seems that the same guy sells a more complete index: https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/ref/reeve/book_reeve_samindex.shtml) And here: http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mags/contents/scale-aircraft-modelling-contents-listing-1980s.htm http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mags/contents/scale-aircraft-modelling-contents-listing-1990s.htm http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mags/contents/scale-aircraft-modelling-contents-listing-2000s.htm Carlos, also a magazine collector... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 1 hour ago, PhoenixII said: .....Don't think they take washers and brass buttons these days.......... I've moved on since those days and now trade with U2 batteries and Harry Black Maskers! 1 hour ago, CarLos said: ...Carlos, also a magazine collector... Thanks Carlos, that is just what I am looking for. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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