C-124 Article in July FSM

Pat Hawkey deserves a pay raise.  His patience has been tested to the limit with putting together that model.  I must admit...if I were putting it together, I would have thrown the darn thing away and opened up something else.

I'm glad you liked Pat's vac-kit piece. Like a lot of modelers, I have a few vac kits in my collection. In my unbuilt collection, mind you. I've never been enthusiastic enough to build one -- they're a ton of work, as Pat showed.

Pat's models are always really inspiring, and the C-124 was no exception. As long as he keeps building 'em, we'll keep running 'em in FSM!

Matt @ FSM

So this leads me to a question I've had for a while...

Are some of the modelers who write (and build) for FSM actually on the payroll?  Is that the kind of thing people can make a living at?  Or is it really just a hobby with a little extra pocket change?

Good question.

As far as the FSM staff goes, we're really journalists/editors first, and modelers second. We really don't have any full-time modelers (who just model) on staff.

I know a couple of people who build models for a living, but they do scratchbuilt, museum-quality pieces on commission, not kit-based work. Most were special-effects modelers in the era before CGI, and are used to building complex scratchbuilt pieces on a tight deadline.

We pay our contributors pretty well, but I imagine most of the guys look at the payment as extra money as above-and-beyond their regular "day job" salary. Money to spend on more kits, I'll bet!

Matt @ FSM