We seem to hear more disappointment and discontent from the more experienced modellers about any one issue of MR these days. Seems to me that is as it should be…just like in advanced university texts, you’ll get more arguments, more dissatisfaction with what is offered in any one text-book.
MR is not meant to be all things to all people in the hobby. It is an organ of a business model meant to provide revenue. It has to appeal to a whole lot of people, and presumably to those who are inclined to subscribe to its business model. One should expect it to appeal to those relatively new to the hobby, especially to those who are generally still acquisitive as opposed to those wanting to hone or to refine pure modelling techniques. There are more advanced publications that should satisfy the appetites of the more demanding modellers.
From many of the comments there appears to be a great deal of disappointment with the quality of articles in MR. And those who are expressing their disappointment make it sound so easy to put out a quality publication. So, when can we expect all the new modeling magazines? I’m sure each issue will have nothing but quality articles that appeal to everyone. By all means let us know when we can expect your first issue.
Personally I like MR and will be renewing my subscription indefinetly, In fact I’ve thought that there have been more “how to” articles in the last year than previously, atleast one’s that were of interest to me. But, constructive criticism doesn’t hurt. If MR reads the threads they can judge the comments for themselves as to what’s appropiate and what’s not.
Shoot, Dave. There was a whole thread on “Classic Model Railroading” early last year . Unfortunately, a lot of pictures are missing due to links being broken.
My impression there seems to be a general trend in most “hobby” magazines, if you include woodworking, fishing, hunting, etc, toward more “genericized” photo/graphic friendly articles at the expense of good, well detailed writing. Writing in an engaging manner has disappeared from many publications, to be replaced by checklists. Heck, Wood magazine has so many articles titled “X easy tricks to do such & such” that they never actually show someone the underlying basics. Which is in my opinion a problem in the hobby publishing industry – 1-2-3 steps to build/do the one thing the article is describing, but no teaching for the long term. Within a generation basic techniques are lost so everything has to come from a kit with complete instructions or even ready to run since people can’t do it from scratch. Makes one wonder if the lack of scratchbuilding articles (for example) is the result or the cause (chicken & egg thing). Sorry to go on a tangent, but it’s like many of the young engineers we’re getting in aerospace today – they can model the heck out of something on a computer, but ask them to actually DO something and they’re lost.
With all that said, I do like the direction MR has been going recently. It is a big step forward (backward?). The Beer line is one of the best project railroads since the Clinchfield and one of the most creative in concept.
Don’t forget, the present day MR has to compete with the internet, the 1980s MR did not. Print media in general is undergoing a major evolution; just take a loot at all of the big city newspapers shutting their doors. Content today has to be more graphic oriented, and I think MR does a very good job of this. Jamie