Hi all!
Does anyone know how many issues of Military Modeler were published? I am haven’t been able to find any info on this.
Thanks for all the help.
Lenny
The old Challenge Publications magazine? I don’t know off hand, but I was a subscriber from the fall of 1987 until they folded. I recall towards the end of my subscription Military Modeler merged with their sister publication Scale Modeler and became Scale Modeler and Military Modeler. After a few issues like that, the Military Modeler subtitle vanished and it returned to just being Scale Modeler (but continued to feature both military and car models).
Eventually, even the Scale Modeler title vanished and the balance of my subscription was filled with a car magazine title. This happened sometime between 1997 and 1998.
I should have the final year of publication somewhere in my collection of modeling magazines.
It would appear they started printing in 1973. At least into the '80s, it seems that they published 12 issues a year. There could be around 240 issues published.
OK, I just ran across my box of military Modeler magazines. The June 1994 issue was the last pure issue of Military Modeler, volume 21, number 6. The July 1994 issue carries the title Scale Modeler (as the main title) & Military Modeler (in much smaller text) and is now volume 29, number 7. Scale Modeler must have bee 8 volumes ahead of Military Modeler.
The final issue of Scale Modeler that has Military Modeler as a subtitle is September 1997, volume 32 number 6. The next issue is November 1997 volume 32 number 7 (so I know there isn’t a missing Ocotber issue). Military Modeler is now missing from the rest of the titles and it’s just Scale Modeler.
The last issue of Scale Modeler I have is September 1998, volume 33 number 6. The next magazine I received was called Scale R/C, November 1998, volume 24, number 9. It merged Scale Modeler, Scale Ship Modeler and Scale R/C Modeler, according to the editorial. This was the last model related magazine I received as part of this subscription. I believe the balance of my subscription was completed by sending me car magazines (which I pitched). So Scale R/C must have lasted just an issue.
I have every issue from November 1987 to the end with the exception of November 1990, December 1990 and January 1991. Those are missing because of deployment from Germany to Desert Shield/Desert Storm and they never made it to me.
You can still find them cheap in ebay… I got a couple lots recently, about a dozen mags. Dated of course, but I like the “reviews” and build-ups of the “classic” Tamiya armor kits that populate my current newbie stash.
That sounds about right. If memory serves, the earliest issue I have is from 1974. I was buying them off the newsstand at that time. Was subscribing by '76. Not sure how many of these I have, but it’s a box full.
[:)]
That’s what I figure if their final “pure” issue was June 1994, vol 21, no. 6, then the first volume would have been in 1973. I enjoyed the magazine and I think it helped me become a better modeler.
I recently rediscovered my old MM collection from the 70s. My oldest ones go back to '76, and I had dropped my subscription by early '81. Amazing to go back and read, as though for the first time. Not only have the kits changed and grown and gotten more sophisticated, but the techniques and “conventional wisdom” have also undergone some serious revision. Back then, the rule was drybrush, drybrush, drybrush. Washes were commonly dirty, used thinner with the occasional black “detail” wash. Rust was fresh, bright orange. The old days . . . .
I guess mine are too worn and well-thumbed to be of much eBay value, and I’d rather keep 'em anyhow.
I need it appears just just a few issues to complete my return to childhood.
Jan 90 and according to the back page of some issues, the 1978 special issue.
I think I have them all, as my 1974 issues seem to cover 3 months at a time, and I am missing Oct-Dec, Then 75, it went to 2 months per issue and 1976 the first 2 issues cover jan thru April and it becomes monthly. Anybody help an old man finish his childhood collection?
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