Hello, everyone. I apologize that this is slightly off topic, but my father was on the cover of the October 1999 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. I have been looking for a really pristine copy of that magazine online to have protected and framed for my dad, but am really struggling to find a good copy. There are a few on eBay which I may have to settle for, but they all look slightly dinged up in one way or another.
I thought I would come here as a desperate last ditch effort to see if anyone has a copy of this magazine in their collections that is in really good condition. If you have one, I’d love to chat.
Sorry for the atypical post.
Edit: To clarify further, my goal is to send a physical copy of the magazine to CGC to be slabbed and then to have that mounted in some way. You all have been so helpful with suggestions. I think I just need to watch a few online sites like Ebay over the next few months and wait for a copy that is in really good condition to show up. I’m in no real rush, so I’ll take my time.
Thanks again for all of your help. As soon as I am able to buy a near-mint copy of the magazine, I will follow up here to share the good news.
I would scan the cover at high resolution, clean the result up and correct the colors in Photoshop or equivalent, and then have it printed perhaps on a continuous-tone printer.
Why strip an actual cover off a magazine that should be treasured in its own right just to have a piece of trophy wall art?
Great question. I actually have already scanned the cover and article at 1200 DPI and done a restoration digitally.
My plan for the full magazine was to have it slabbed in whole with a grading company like CGC. So it would be encased, undamaged, and intact. I would then frame the slabbed magazine.
I scanned them at 1,200 dpi and they came out at 45.1 MB and 40.2 MB. I’ll try uploading ones at 400 dpi. I have a feeling that if the file is too big, Firecrown won’t accept it or they’ll shrink it.
PS: As I thought, the long side was reduced to 1,920 dots. At letter size, the maximum is 200 dpi. Have someone record it on an SDHC card and mail it to you. It would take too many days for me to send it from Japan.
Thank you very much for the scans you grabbed. I appreciate you taking the time do do that. I have some scans already, but it’s good to have yours (even if they are compressed here) to verify my touchups were correct in Photoshop.
From what I’m reading here and online, my best bet to own a good copy of the magazine is to watch the following sites over the next few months:
Ebay
Bilbio . com
Wolfgangs . com
I appreciate how helpful you all have been. It sounds like I just need to keep watching those three sites and eventually some clean copies will show up.
Have you contacted RMC with your request? While they may not have that available to offer to the general public, they may have one available for you if you explain the situation.
Just wanted to say I have seen his videos on YouTube and some of his Instagram posts and it is a very cool layout. Sorry I can’t be of any actual help on acquiring the magazine though.
