I am re-evaluating my magazine subscriptions and purchases. I find that I have many in my "library," but I very rarely refer to them after the initial reading. That leads me to believe they add little value to my day-to-day (or even month-to-month) modeling activities, particularly given their ever-increasing costs. Similarly, I find the Internet a more valuable and interactive resource.

If you subscribe to magazines, how do you use them in your modeling activities?

I do subscribe to a number of magazines, that reflect my broad interests in this hobby.

Regarding figures, something like MilMod has over the years furnished me with a selection of "Classics", that sit apart from the rest of my collection.

Not surprisingly they consist of issues with eyeopening articles (Horan, Latorre, Blank to name a few of the Authors). These get looked at more regularly than other issues, but they are as important as my valued books. I am thinking of thinning down my really old stuff.

Of course the old Figure specials and Euro specials are seperated out.

My Historical Miniatures Mag (all bar issue 1) do get looked at but still there are the standout issues that get seperated from the rest.

My Euro Modelismo Figuras do get looked at cos there's a great deal in these, and gets me learning a new language as well!

The single best thing about magazines is that they are there in your hands! Internet is great but still limited to a 72dpi screen resolution, and invariably in one room (that is a staircase away from where I model)

I’m with you on this Rob, I have a few subcriptions, but still buy the occasional MilMod, but by far the best are the specials for show reports and figure specials. I get a chance to look at one everyday on the tube, so I get plenty of reading in....

Dave

There is one thing for sure....as soon as you throw something away....you need it.
But you can't keep everything. What do you do?...no idea... :lol:

Roy.

Move House........ :lol: :lol:

Hi

I find the same thing, there's a stack of magazines, and I rarely examine them.

One thing I did was create a database of the contents of all the issues of Military Modelling I have and had. That way I can find things if I think to look for them! When there was nothing of interest to me in an issue, I sold it.

I keep Figurines issues for the most part. I find that I cull the herd every little while, with older issues getting sold/traded or whatever.

At least I know I have lots of information available, the question is whether I choose to use it!

Cheers
Andy

I subscribe to one, hist. Min, and buy an occasional Mili Mod, it is has an article I think I might be interested in. as far as subscribing vs buying, really only Mil. Mod is available locally at book store, so there are others I might buy if there were available. I do use some of the older issues with tutorials, but for the most part I don't look at old issues either.
Rob

Hi Steve

I subscribe to the four main European magazines plus HM, so the collection is growing volume on a bi-monthly basis. I do read the articles and quite often refer back to some of the more important ones for techniques and particularly colour mixes. My wife tells me I should weed them out but they are a bit iconographic with me and somehow I can't bring myself to dump or trade them.

I guess the wise advice might be to search the market for the one mag that you feel gives you all the info you need, and sub that. My recommendation would be Figurines, but as yet they don't do English subtitles. It is however unbeatable for photo quality IMHO. That said, they are all good value and it's interesting to look at some of the older ones to see just how far this hobby has come


Move house, Dave? Done that! (Ask Roy :lol: )

Best regards all

Phil

I don't have any subscriptions, I just buy the occassional MilMod or something when I see something that looks good. Subscriptions would be nice, but with a limited budget, I find that I would rather use the money for figures, kits, and paints, instead of some magazines I'm not going to read every issue of.

I have subscribed to magazines since I started painting figures in 1973. Many have been weeded out now and I still find myself going through back issues to re-read an article that may pertain to what my interest is today. My favorites are HM and Figurines. The other two, FIM and Soldatina have interesting article from time to time and I find them as helpful as my books when researching for a new figure I have purchased. I also find it interesting to see how the hobby has evolved through back issues of Mil Mod and Campaign issues. And the hobby is still growing.

I subscribe to HM and go through Neil at Sentinel to keep up with Figurines which IMHO is the best hobby magazine out there. (downside, I don't read French but at least the pictures are in English) For the first 20 issues or so, I also got EuroModelismo Figuras from Neil but although that magazine had superior photography there was often so much overlap on show reporting with Fig and HM that I could no longer justify the luxury when they raised their price. Ditto with MM, especially since it attempts to cover all bases of military modelling, I found its figure coverage wanting. Otherwise I'm considering a subscription once again with Andrea's mag Figure International as I like their History of the Hobby articles. (and I want to get that Roman Aux. subscription fig)
Cheers
John

I am still a subscriber of AFV modelling but since one year i never touched a AFV model. So it is the last year i subscribe.
I buy Figure International (from Andrea) by my dealer Gino Poppe, but i find it not so interesting. It have a lot of text what sayes nothing.
No, then Historical Miniature Magazine. That is the magazine to have. But it is not available here in Europe so i buy it by Colorado Miniatures. Because the PP costs are hight i buy a whole year in one time, because the PP cost's are the same as for one magazine.
There is another good magazine here in Europe but it is German language and i can sometimes buy it with Gino Poppe it is called Kit Miniature Figuren.

Then i have a bunch of Mil.mod. but i have them under my desk. For better and for worse, i never see them again.
To little for us figurists.

Marc

n/t

I got some back issues of Figure International from Squadron a couple of weeks ago (they're selling the 2nd year of issues at $2.99 each). Man there is NOTHING in them. The pictures are nice, but the content in the text is useless! And the translation is pretty poor too.

Robert, I just finished 'reading' the article you mentioned. The Cannone brothers Belgian soldier is a great figure, and I was so looking forward to learning about it! The article was useless. Nothing there at all.

I forgot to mention above that the one thing I have a subscription for is Figurines, but with the tumble in the USdollar I'm not sure I'll resubscribe. It's over 60 bucks now, which is a little dear. I was hoping Figure International would improve, but that hasn't occurred. And Historical Miniatures is somewhere between the two in quality, in my opinion, and not worth the investment in subscribing. Unfortunately, there is no shop in Rochester that carries ANY of the figure related magazines, so I'm left with buying lots on eBay or seeing what I can find online.

Andy

n/t

I think we all aspire to be as good as Stefano and Pasquale Cannone.

IHO there is no magazine out there worth the money at least for a wholesale subscription. There are things I like about various magazines and will buy on occasion various ones depending on the content. In this age of the internet and with going to shows, I find I get most of what I need from that. One thing that lacks in most of the publications is uniform referances etc...I think Figurines does the best on that. But I get tired of translating too.

Soldatini is also a good magazine with high quality pictures.

I really think what has seriously reduced my interest in hobby magazines is the steep decline in the number of quality historical articles - particularly those submitted by uniform historians. Military Illustrated in its first few years (Michael Barthorp's contributions, in particular), Military Modelling (when the Fostens and Bob Marrion were writing regularly), and the classic Campaigns all featured a steady crop of excellent research material, supplemented by How-Tos and show reports. I would never dream of parting with these, and I still find myself using them regularly.

History always drives my car, and magazines without good historical content are like new cars with nothing under the hood.

Bill

Bill you may know of this already but others may not but one of the best periodicals I have found on historical aspects from all periods is Quaterly Journal of MIlitary History