My favorite parts of this terrific magazine are the new Workbench Reviews/New Products, Reader/Show Galleries and Workbench Reviews. The articles about finishing are great. I’m strictly an armour modeler but I get good finishing ideas and info out of all the articles.
Given all the articles on airbrushing/finishing I think it would be a big benefit in the kit review section to show the models assembled but with no finish, no filling of sink marks, no filling of gaps and so on. This would give us a more accurate and objective look at new products.
In a similar vein, in the SPOTLIGHT page showing one sample sprue but much larger would give a better idea of the detail of a kit rather than a picture of all the sprues, the pictures are too small to be of much value.
One view of the Reader Gallery models is seldom enough. In the December 2015 issue, for example, 2 or 3 views of Michael Crane’s M4A1 Sherman would be appropriate.
One thing I’ve noticed over the past few years is that my reading time of the magazine is getting shorter (and I read every article). It takes me, on avaerage, about 2.5 hours to read the entire magazine. When I first subscribed (close to 20 years ago), it took me almost 5 hours to read through it (although not at one sitting). So, the content has gone down, but I’ve also noticed the price has gone up. Hmmmmmmmm…
I think it would be awesome to have a column on each of main types of models we do. Planes, ships, tanks, cars, sci-fi, figures, etc. It may be a thicker magazine, but I would pay a little more per year.
That’s actually an excellent idea, but good luck selling it; I don’t think that bare plastic has the visual impact and appeal of a finished model, and might be something that would turn off casual viewers. Another thing I would be prohibitive in that regard is that a reviewer might not want to finish the model after it’s built with all of its “deficiencies” and uglier aspects of it which might be very difficult to correct after the model is together. I would think that the model itself is probably part of the compensatory nature of payment for this kind of position within the structure of the magazine’s various “paid” employees?
I’ve been noticing the price for all magazines is now beginning to nudge the $10.00 price ( though not yet FSM ) and can’t help wonder how long printed magazines will continue to be sold.[^o)]
I have read the replies and I feel this way .We need to be glad we have a mag to talk about and a website to come to . Everything has a wish list of things . I believe this site and mag are the Cat’s Meow . Sure it could be more . Couldn’t everything ? T.B.
I am now doing a monthly column on figures for Fine Scale and the first installment was the Jan 2016 issue. I hope you all like it and please let me know if I can be of any help. Joe
Call me old fashioned but I still like have a magazine in my hands. I work on a computer all day and try to avoid them at home.
Mike
I second what Mike said. I like having the ability to “dog ear” pages for future reference, and being new to modelling it will be a big help to be able to lay out the magazine next to a build to follow the step-by-step process of a certain application. Laptop and Pads need to be refreshed when not touched after a certain amount of time.
Hey, Highlander! I have read those articles and they are great! Perfect amount of detail in the article to keep me from having a lot of questions. I’m not a figure painter at all, but what you’ve talked about and demonstrated is very useful for every area of modeling. Keep up the great work!
I am not at all interested in armor, and would not miss it a bit if it disappeared from the pages. Perhaps a separate publication for those who are interested would be a good idea. I think there has been way too much armor lately. To each, his own…
