Donnie7

I take Fly RC but sometimes it is lame. Anyone have any faves??
Donnie

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

R/C Scale International.

http://www.scale.traplethouse.com/

rcalfred

I agree with P51-B---R/C Scale International is great. Another that I subscribe to is Flying Scale Models which is a monthly. FSM is about all scale models not just R/C. Still has excellent coverage. Rep in the U.S. is Wise Owl Worldwide Publications (www.wiseowlmagazines.com.) The mag has a website: www.flyingscalemodels.com. Regards.

Mr_Scale

My Feedback: (7)

RC Report is good.

jsevey

I can't decide anymore. Seems like most of the good ol' magazines have turned into advertising pieces where they mostly review ARF's. I still get MAN but stopped Fly RC. I wish someone would start something with more building and scale modelling sections in it.

Jim

Uncle Heinkel

RCM, Flying Models, and Model Airplane News had always been an important part of my life ever since I was a kid....I don't even look at them anymore.

Now they are as bland as bland can be in my opinion...I used to buy them without looking at them first, then I looked for interesting articles before I bought them. Now, I just don't buy them at all or even look at them. Jim is right, they are mostly about ARF's and trainers. When you can flip through the pages of a big RC magazine in 5 minutes or less and not see anything of interest, I'm not going to buy it.

I DO like RC Scale International and RC Report but our local hobby shop doesn't carry them on a regular basis. Guess I should subscribe. RC Scale International is expensive for a thin magazine but I will gladly pay for it considering the wealth of info and great pictures it contains.

I've seen threads like this before...it's too bad that RCM and M.A.N. don't take notice.

We could use a good, dedicated scale RC magazine in this country.

H.

jsevey

Amen. Maybe somebody from MAN or someone else can read these posts and give us a little hope. The next time I see a title on a cover that reads "15 exciting new ARF's reviewed inside!" I think I'll get sick. Maybe Im just getting old, but this used to be a hobby for builders. I am not trashing ARF's becuase they do generate a lot of interest- but somebody out there should want to cater to builders once in awhile.

Jim

JGrc

My Feedback: (29)

RC Scale international and Flying Scale

JG

rcmiket

Check out R/C Report they at least have guys writting for them that know what scale is.-Mike

CK1

My Feedback: (60)

RC Report , features Scale columns by Mr. Scale Frank Tiano
It also has far fewer adds than the other Mags. (Thats a good thing)

dennis

My Feedback: (90)

For my money Flying Models is still the best bang for the buck. No it dosn't cater strictly to scale but it covers every dicipline in the hobby and still has more construction articles then any other magazine. It gives small manufacturers a place to advertise and have their wares promoted, and is completely non political.
I stopped reading MAN and RCM years ago as they are glossy catalogues and do not cater to the core interests of the hobby.
RC Report has no construction articles at all, I grew tired of Gordon banks politics and in general the magazine became tiresome. Incidentally I was one of the origional 1000 subscribers to that magazine.
Of course if your around the hobby for any length of time then you tend to become either 'jaded' or fixated on one particular aspect of the hobby. It's only natural.
Dennis

Edit, seems I need a spell checker

gow589

My Feedback: (1)

A while back I used to keep a data base of all articles. I kept magazines from RCM, AMA, MAN, RC Report, Scale R/C and a few others. I kept articles where they reviewed a possible airplane, radio, discussed engines, showed electronic circuits, etc. I found I saved by far the most articles out of RCM. I saved the least out of R/C Report. RCM has always got the reputation of being one big catalog but between the adds there are more articles with substance than the others. RC Report prides themselves on not having too many adds but why do you pick a magazine anyway? You want to see what's new, what's available, what's for sale, where you can get it and all the writ ups where people tell you if it's good or bad. RC Report didn't have too much of anything. Scale R/C doesn't have too many contributers because they would wrather consider your article a donation wrather than publish it (I know first hand about that). Most people who write just don't send them anything so their field is narrow. MAN also did a pretty good job. While some of the other magazines such as international modeler may not have as much they have a lot of interesting diversity and always something different.

Gary

Walter D

My Feedback: (16)

I am on the same boat too, do not buy neither RCM nor MAN anymore, they are found at my local food market, which is good, but there is no meat there, in the magazines I mean, Fly Rc I suscribed for a while but is geared to the new crowd (understandably) which like ARF's, electrics and foamies, not my cup of tea either, and to top it off out of 162 pages, exactly 81 are advertisements, so I am lucky to have 4 or 5 pages that offer something to my intellect, and the AMA mag is so geared to apeace the entire membership that it rarely ever has any good offerings for the scale enthusiasts and it must have the worst taste ever in picture selection that I have ever seen .
My local hobby shop doesn't carry any mags, don't understand why?
So I am going to suscribe to RC Scale International, which is a God sent modeling magazine for me, I used to be able to buy it at my local shop where I used to live, RC Report is not all that bad, will probably suscribe to this one too. Could it be that as one gets older and more experienced there are less and less articles to perk our interests?, have also found that a lot of the good old writers have now passed on, sadly. We do need new blood in the scale magazine publishing arena.
Fortunately I have saved quite a few mags from the 80's and early 90's, which I re read constantly, and am always able to find articles that are superb reading.

Donnie7

Walter,, I think you hit the nail on the head. Exactly how I feel. We need a mag with substance not all adds. I want a mag that monitors building decisions and progress as well as sucess. Also the scale planes history.
Just my 2 cents
Donnie

abufletcher

There are two sad facts which drive magazine publishing. One, the mags are purely supported by advertizing. The paulty dollars you pay don't even begin to cover the costs of publication. And two, statistics show that the average magazine suscriber will only remain subscribed for about two years. The inevitable result is magazines that are 90% ads and focussed on the newbies not old hands. Thus trainers, park-flyers, and ARFs - with an occasion scale shot as a come on.

jsevey

There is a woodworking "magazine" I think it is called the Workbench. It's only about 10 pages or so and printed in one color. Pictures are b&w but very clear. Really kind of a pamphlet. No advertising and the articles represent pure meat in the woodworking field. No fluff and it caters to a small audience of craftsmen. Usually only 2 or three topics covered per issue, I think monthly. Subscription fees pay the whole way. A friend of mine gets it and he says he would rather get his little ten page pamphlet than the best glossy 200 page advertising magazine. Maybe that might work for someone who is motivated to publish something excellent in the world of scale modelling.

abufletcher

The pamphlet concept would have a hard time competing against the wealth of extremely high quality info available on the internet. There are sites for EVERYTHING!

fly109

My Feedback: (1)

I'm curious, what would the average modeler like to see or read about in a magazine? Any suggestions or thought would be apprieciated, Thanks in advance.

Walter D

My Feedback: (16)

By the looks of it the average modeler is what ARF's, park flyers and small electrics manufacturers are targeting at today. At one time I was amongst the average flier modeler, enjoyed flying as much as building a good kit and every once in a while do a scratch built job and entering either a scale and or pattern contest when the season was on and I know for a fact that most of the people that belonged to our clubs were doing pretty much the same, at the monthly meetings there was always a few projects for everybody to gaze at and stimulate conversation regarding the way this or that was built and why, slide presentation was there too, a lot of camaderie went on, the loss of flying fields destroyed these events and or local scale and or aerobatic meets, clubs went by the wayside too. Of course some areas still enjoy the meetings, etc. but for the most part in big cities accross this country that change brought on the rapid market change that introduced the widest array ever imaginable of ARF's, which allows people that do not have the instruction and guidance of fellow flyers and/or club members to have and fly a model which they probably couldn't build themselves.
For me, I would like a magazine that is centered around the building of either scale or sport scale kits and trainers too so as to keep the younger generation engaged in the learning process, construction articles, how to's, tricks and tips, tools and their uses, and while we are at it, buildable plans, which could be easily enlarged and used for scratchbuilding, lots of good pictures of both model and full scale aircraft, 3 views of full scale which can easily be turned into a nice scratch built project, this is very easy to do now with the advent of the home PC, as a matter of fact I am now scratchbuilding an 80 " wingspan version of the Skyfarer, which was built back in 1941 by General Aviation, I enlarged the plans of Earl Stahl rubber powered design from way back when, and the airplane is turning out to be a very good looking project, I'll have some pictures for you all later.

carlbecker

My Feedback: (3)

I will let my MAN run out. I like RC Scale international mag. The internet helps a great deal and Dave Platt's tapes are great. Leo Spychalla is showing the construction of a fiberglass fuse in the Warbird section and NEO has the Sniper 41 site which is great. Lots of meat! A mag that contains information like these would be nice.

abufletcher

I too would vote for a mag focussed on scale building techniques -- but again my experience with magazine publication leads me to believe this is impossible. There was a time when magazines ran only 3-4 main articles and these could be somewhat in-depth. But in doing this you run the risk none of these 3-4 articles may appeal to your portential readership. As a result magazines have started including many more "articles" often as many as 10 (with lots of "interesting" little mini-columns) in the hopes of snagging more readers. This of course means that the articles themselves must necessarily become extremely skimpy and superficial.

For my time and money just about the most valuable building resource is the online builds like those found here at RCU. Print is dead.

Intruder38

When I got into RC in the early 90's, there was a mag called Scale RC Modeler. It was a thoroughly enjoyable publication which lit my fire as far as scale RC goes; not too deep for the newbie, but dragged me along to challenge my building skills. Unfortunately, it appears that politics applies everywhere and, according to the publisher, led to its demise in 1998. Since then, I have tried every magazine on the market and, IMHO, none really fit my bill. I can't blame the publishers; they must satisfy the marketplace and, apparently, ARFs, electrics and Park Fliers are what is selling. I guess the combination of MAN, RCM, and RC Report comes closest to what I would really like to see, namely a magazine that deals mostly (let's say 75% or more) with scale RC that includes 60-sized kits as a regular topic.

Flak

My Feedback: (1)

R/C Report RULES!

"Keep 'Em Flying!"
Flak

CSpierings

My Feedback: (29)

RC Report

RC Scale International for all scale coverage

Chris

TomCrump

Pat, You are one of the few that write useful information. I look forward to your article every month in RC Report.

I've picked up many useful tips from you and the other scale oriented authors there. Keep up the excellent work !!!

An article on making gear doors on compound curves would interest me.