Have been going through some of my old stuff from 15+ years ago and came across a cloth patch. I did some research but couldn't find any information.

Is RC Modeler Magazine still actively in print?

All the principals died, and the magazine did too.

No but there plans service is still going.

Yes the plans service is going, if you have the time to wait to get them. I ordered a set 3 weeks ago and I have not yet seen them. They have a reputation for being slow but they do have all the plans that were published in the magazine over the years. Good Luck, Dave

Whatchya mean?

I believe that the main editor died, and when he died, they stoped publishing, I think a few other primary people from the magazine have also passed. I fondly remeber that magazine

Jon

Don Dewey founded and published RCM, starting from his kitchen table in 1963. Here are a few covers from the first magazine about RC.

the plan service has a notice posted that they are in the process of moving and there will be a shipping delay.

I loved RCM..I have most issues since 1977 on. Was nice to see all the features being kits, and building tips, etc, etc.. Of course there were less than a handful of ARFs back then

RCM and MAN used to have a plane built from plans every month and a great how to article then you could buy the plans and build the plane if you wanted, looks like that is a thing of the past too??Hard for me to say, I quit taking MAN several years ago because of that reason, maybe scratch building so you can sell the plans is a thing of the past too??With the lack of kits these days it seemed to me something that would be a top feature these days. Most of the old kits are now ARFs.

Don Dewey died quite a few years before the magazine went out of business. I think the magazine hung on for 5-10 years after Don Died. I have the last issue and it was in 2005 sometime.

I agree, it was the best there was and it is sorely missed!

I think Don Dewey, Dick Kidd, and Dick Tichenor died and Pat Crews closed up shop because there was no visionaries left to make it work. At least the plans are still around for now. Their Mag , late70s-80s, late grade school to the end of high school for me molded my idea of RC.

TFF, I can believe what you say about the reasons RCM folded are correct. Those names and many of the contributors are gone now, Ken Willard, Chuck Cunningham, John Gorham, etc...

I started reading RCM in 1969 and held a subscription until 1990. I kept all the issues I had until 1996 when I hauled all off the the recycle center! What a mistake! Even though many years out of date, there was still far better reading in those magazines, then anything available today!

I don't even buy any new mag's except what the AMA sends me,it's all about what you can buy and not about what you can build anymore [&o]

I have every issue of RCM in my collection and still go back to reread some of the items; in my opinion, one of the best magazines ever printed. The only real competitor for their expertise was Model Builder which has also now gone out of business.

Interesting you state what you did. As I slowly roll back into the hobby, this has been my experience exactly.

Although I do admit if I'm on a business trip I'll pick up another magazine for the flight.

I'm in the same boat as you, TFF. I spent my high school and college years in the late 70's/early 80's reading RCM and all the others. I too miss RCM and many times picked up the magazine just for the plan(s) presented. At least there is still Model Aviation and Flying Models along with a few British magazines that have build articles in them. I don't bother purchasing many magazines today since to me they seem to cater to the ARF market and forgot the kits and scratch builders.

One thing I liked to do is scale the plans up by hand drawing them (something else that is becoming a lost art these days). If you see a plan in a magazine today many times it won't have a scale with it, or shows only part of the plan or has other markings making it difficult to read. I guess we can thank scanners and copy machines for that. My last copy of MA showed a plan that was printed so it would be difficult to hand draw.

At least RCM has kept the price of their plans down compared to what MAN wants for theirs.


Don't tell that to the Brits. They haven't completely lost sight of kit and scratch building yet, and I'd hate to see some of their magazines lose that aspect. Unfortunately they're a bit more expensive than US based magazines.

Hogflyer

Does anyone know if there is a bibliography of the RCM construction articles somewhere? Iknow that there are some for some of the other magazines but I have not seen one for RC Modeler magazine.

I do miss RCM. Iknow that there have been several threads on RCU that had many that did not agree with me but Idid enjoy it and was sad to hear when it folded.

Thank you.

I just got 3 sets of plans I ordered from them.  It took about 3 weeks but I am in Australia so I didn't think it was too unreasonable.  I'm going to have to put them away for a while though.  It was a bit ambitious of me to think I could build from a set of plans for my first build in ten years.  And ten years ago I only built the one plane!  Ah well.  Maybe one day down the track I can tackle them.

RCM was the best of the best for the reasons already stated, but as a 14 yr old, this cover kick started my interest in girls

A pretty girl on a magazine was always a big help for sales and a joy to see. A few years back when RC Report started doing it again they got a lot of flack from some readers. We can all thank Gordon Banks for telling them it was his magazine and he would do with it what he wanted, the girls were there until the doors closed on another great one. RCM plans service usually takes from 3 to 6 weeks to get your plans. A blue line machine cost a lot of money to fire up so I can understand the delays. Don't like it but I do understand.

Ken Willard's column was the first thing I read, after of course checking out the cover.
Then Col. Art Johnson and Scale Views. Check out the cover again. Then Cunningham
on R/C. Used to catch a lot of flak about the cover from "she who must be obeyed" but
it wasn't as racy as Dad's snap-on calender.

Their review of the Top-Flite GS Thunderbolt made my mind up to buy the kit. The GS
corsair too.

And the ads. It was like getting the Sear's Christmas "wish book" every month!

On line publications are ok, but I can't take the pc to the head with me.

Almost forgot about Clarence Lee's engine column. It was always worth a read.

Mike

Last time I looked Mr. Lee was writing for MAN these days. Been a while but he was there again.

When I was first involved in the hobby 20+ years ago, RCM was the first magazine I was introduced to, by the gent who taught me to fly. He gave me a bunch of back issues, and I devoured them. Was always my favorite mag, and was sorry to see it go. I do enjoy the more in-depth tech stuff in RC Sport Flyer and also Fly RC now. Summerwind, I remember the girls on the cover occasionally too! Always thought Laddie Mikulasko's daughters were cute back in the day...they made several covers with his designs.

RCM and MAN only paid about 5 bills for a constructionarticle. An articlegenerally took from 6 months to a year to write. Most of the regularscratch builders got fed up and stopped contributing to the mags. Then the mags stopped being about building. They were too cheap to pay foran articleand it came back and bit them on the behind. And that is the rest of the story.