October 2004 FineScale ~ What do you think?

Although I found the Doolittle Raid Hornet a great accomplishment, as well as the other models that require a lot of skill, I liked "Washing a Tiger"best. The reason is, that the article is very instructive and shows me, really a beginner, what tools and techniques to use building armour.

As usual it was very hard to select just one. Most the articles held my interest with the odd build hint filed away fr the future. The expanded Workbench Reviews is good too.

Matthew Usher's Tiger artical was interesting....I learned a few new tricks....That got my vote.

A real hard choice as several articles were very interesting, but I was thinking of doing a Tamiya 1/48 Corsair conversion as described in the article, so that really got my attention.

Regards, Rick

I enjoyed the Doolittle Raid because of all the "Scratchbuilt" work envolved. It is easy to order pre-made parts, but it takes skill to build parts yourself. This is what a hobby is albout. How well you can build a limited kit into a showpiece.
Joe Fronczak (Big Joe)
l
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The article on how to do oil washes was most informative for me as I've never done a wash with oils and would like to try. The cutaway article once again whetted my appetite for someday doing a cutaway. I liked the article on painting the German uniform but I wish it had been a little more informative.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best), I'd give the October issue an 8. A good to very good issue.

Dave

The wash article was very informitive in giving me another perspective on how to do it. Of coarse I have to say the gallery is my favorite section though since I have seen a couple of the builds personally.

I liked the cutaway article because it showed me what is possible to do with any kit and some research. This is another way to detail and add interest for all to appreciate. Thanks for the inspiration!

The German uniform camo was realy good it was a toss up that or the Tiger

I enjoyed the entire magazine ... usually do ... I really liked the article about weathering the war-weary Phantom ... one of my favorite a/c. Great job FSM ... keep 'em coming !!!

I would like to see FSM produce a compilation of "techniques" book from past issues. Soft cover that would have all of the armour weathering and other "how to tips" for producing contest winning pieces. Ofcourse, they would also produce one for aircraft and all other categories. I love FSM and look forward to each issue.
Ron Sherron
North Carolina, US.

i voted for the cut away but i think the best part was the look into the forums. was good to see the familiar names.

joe

The entire magazine was as usual, very good. I voted for the Gustav simply because of the uniqueness of the information.

However, I am somewhat disappointed by the lack of detail and comprehensiveness in the articles. I would personally rather see four or five extremely informative articles rather than the 8 mildly informative articles in this issue.

I was very pleased to see what appears to be a slight reduction in the amount of advertising in this issue. The 15 or so pages out of 82 is a much better percentage.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Foster7155 I was very pleased to see what appears to be a slight reduction in the amount of advertising in this issue. The 15 or so pages out of 82 is a much better percentage.

Hey, there were 20 pages of paid ads in the October issue! In all seriousness, there is a direct correlation between the number of ads in a given issue and how big that particular issue will be so be careful what you ask for.

Like most magazines, FSM builds each issue based on an advertising to edit ratio (ie the more ads we have, the larger the issue will be.) Other than special issues such as the annual Jumbo issue, the formula and ad/edit mix remain pretty much the same from month to month.

So if you want a bigger FSM, encourage your favorite manufacturer, hobby shop, internet retailer, or mail order house to do more advertising with FSM. And it never hurts to let someone know you saw their ad in FSM.

......may we be allowed the option of more than one choice each issue...
rarely do i pick a favourite...............more likely i'm gonna enjoy the whole issue with "multiple" & even specific preferenceS........& i'd like my vote to reflect that....... + i wanna FSM T-shirt......
ty for another Great issue.....

I dont mind the ads. In fact, I like to read them. It lets me know who and what is available to me out there. I liked the Tiger article as I am gettting into armor and I wanted to see how to do a wash. Next I would love to see a basic series on how to model tracks on a tank. As alway, mail call is a better place when FSM shows up. Keep em comin guys, and great job as always!

i am very new to plastic kits BUILT RUBBER BAND back in 39. am trying to build a model of every plane i flew. need a pb4y2 kit any help?

I voted for the Padific War Bunker because of a couple of reasons.

It really gave me chills thinking of someone actually building a diorama of a place they'd seen with the help of one who was there when it happened. That in itself is a rare and wonderful experience that I've never seen or heard about before.

Second; I see dioramas of german bunkers and fortifications all the time. This is the first time I've seen a fortification/bnunker used by the Japanese in WWII. They are so rare to see.

Aside from that, there were two other features I was happy about.

I loved the peek into the Forums. As fightinjoe said, it felt good seeing familiar names, as well as seeing some posts I may have missed from people whose posts I love to read. I'd like to see that expanded a little.

I also enjoyed the expanded reviews as well. Even though I like looking at some of the new things coming out that are in larger scales and glance through those reviews, I mostly read only the reviews of kits in the scale that I keep to. With more reviews, there is a greater chance of seeing a review on a kit in 'my' scale that I might want to go get. Thanks FSM for listening to us.

I voted for the Gustav article. The techniques used and shown were very informative. From someone who actually builds airframes (EH101 Helicopter fuselages to be exact), I really appreciated the author's use of scratchbuilding to build authentic 'looking' structure. If one really tried to build to exact scale...the plastic would be way to thin to even hold itself up!! Try scaling down .030" aluminum sheet to 1/32" scale!!!!!. Congratulations...very good.

Btw..the whole magazine was good, and as a budding armour modeller, the article about washes on the tank was very informative.

I've always enjoyed the weathering articles; someone always has a new idea or technique to add to the collection of methods. I voted for the tank article.

I run scale - R/C submarines, and the weathering tricks I've learned and appled to it, have made my boat look really great!

Hi All,

I voted for the Cutaway Models Article, since I am a cheap old goat, any way to improve a finished kit without spending a ton of money appeals to me. I went out that week and picked up a Contour or Profile Gauge and have already gotten one new model underway thanks to it's abilities to give you a perfect line to follow to cut out parts that fit! I am hving way too much fun, thanks for the hints Dan and FSM.

Jay modelnut 4
AKA treadhead 1952
Las Vegas, NV

QUOTE: Originally posted by Duke Maddog I loved the peek into the Forums. As fightinjoe said, it felt good seeing familiar names, as well as seeing some posts I may have missed from people whose posts I love to read. I'd like to see that expanded a little.

Duke--glad you like it. Mark Thompson's just happy that he's finally getting some return on the time I spend on the website.

QUOTE: I also enjoyed the expanded reviews as well. Even though I like looking at some of the new things coming out that are in larger scales and glance through those reviews, I mostly read only the reviews of kits in the scale that I keep to. With more reviews, there is a greater chance of seeing a review on a kit in 'my' scale that I might want to go get. Thanks FSM for listening to us.

The expanded review section is a lot of extra work, but it's something a lot of readers seemed to want. So we're glad we did it.

The more ads, the more informed we are about what's out there. Some of the ads are so well done, that they compete with the articles. My vote is for more ads. I wish there had been more comprehensive photos of the model Japanese bunker, as some of the article referred to things that we couldn't see in the photos. In general, I agree that the articles should be more inclusive and extensive. This issue seemed to cover the subjects more superficially than FSM's usual thorough job.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ToMeleck@sbcglobal.net The more ads, the more informed we are about what's out there. Some of the ads are so well done, that they compete with the articles. My vote is for more ads.

I think this may the most thoughtful, insightful, and well-written post I have ever seen . Say it with me, "More Ads! More Ads! More Ads! More Ads! More Ads! More Ads! More Ads! More Ads! More Ads!"

mr. boyers' corsair conversion caught my attention.this has been an on-going project on my work-bench shelf for about the last 8 or 9 years. a couple of questions do come to mind: did he remember to include the "pear-shaped lookdown window in the fuselage bottom ? also, the brick-red gear housing on the r-2800-4 ( !) in my entire stack-of-stuff i've only f ound one single reference to this color, namely rico watanabe's superb rendition in the "the great book of WW II airplanes. any comments from mr boyer? cheers, rickadoo

richard to the forums!

i thumbed through the mag in a bookstore here and didnt buy it cos it was too expensive. i used to buy it about a year back, but it seems to have gotten less substantial over the past year. it might be me, but anyway. i think ads are fine. the more ads the more subsidised your cost is right ? logic should suggest that this would either bring the quality up or the price down. neither has happend. as a result im afraid that i just cant rationalise buying it. i do realise that pricing is outside of the web team's jurisdiction. from what i got thumbing through the magazine, i didnt see too many articles relevant to me, which is another reason why i didnt buy it. its nice ot read about a superhuman feat of styrene, but id really rather have an article about using PE or something more useful to most of us out here.

They were all excellent articles, but since the Hornet is my current project, I just had to vote for Kelly Quirk's masterpiece.

The article on oil based washes got my vote as i have a as yet unbuilt kit of that very tank and am looking forward to doing the washes and cant wait for the next issue on dry brushing and pastels. keep up the good work. very informative doesnt make it as hard as i thought it would be.

The magazine is full of good articles bu the top three were my favorites. The Doolitlle Raid Hornet, and the cutaway aircraft feature are exceptionally good but the best for me was weathering with washes. I used the article's techniques to weather a Tiger I, a P-47D Razorback, and a BF109-E. They turned out great and now I'm waiting for the October issue to see and hopefully use the techniques for dry-brushing.