I thought the lead in title would catch your eye. Well again I throw this out for general consideration and creative dialog.
I currently subscribe to several model aircraft publications along with a publication that is provided by membership to a LARGE national modeling association.
I just received the newest issue from this organization and while perusing through it, many of the ads represent current trends in" complete aircraft to the field quickly aspect". Primarily, assembled componets pre built, or an RTC, ARF or completed aircraft. Also with general content of like matter, with smaller sub sections to different areas of our great hobby. Please note that I am considering ALL aircraft ie: planes, heli's etc.
I guess I am "old school" and personally emphasize a "hands on" style of application.
Now my point, for an example, before the demise of RCM, this particular publication had a good mix of hands on construction. Granted a different time period must be considered also while this publication existed.
How bout' a publication, whether, in print or electronic that PRIMARILY emphasizes building from kits, plan, and scratch building.
This idea may be covered elsewhere within the realm of "hobbydem" but I've not found it at this time.

Sign me up. When will you be publishing?

Dave Olson

There is not enough of a market of builder for a magazine, that niche has been taken over by forums on the internet.

I like the concept, But I see several issues regarding getting it happening. The main one will be having a steady and reliable contributions, from builders/testers. The 2nd one will be to have models built that will catch the attention of the general modelling public to ensure enough subscriptions to make it viable. While we have a good supply of threads on kit building here, it is noticable that most threads/posts are the domain of the usual 'villians' while I may make the occasional post and put my 2 bits worth in, I personally wont be able to do a build article for some time, due to various constraints like supplies (balsa is hard to get here in quality and quantity) my health aint the best and current accomodation all restrict what I can do. That doesnt stop me reading what takes my interest ( giant scale and gliders) while I get all the h'ware etc together for the plans I have.
you'd be looking for a number of contributions, for the various disciplines in this hobby, whether they be fun-fly, giant scale, warbirds or aerobatics not to mention gliders and heli's etc. It would also be handy to have someone knowledgable in the field of setting up the electronic side and also the mechanical side, such as making up custom undercartsa etc as well as modding exhausts and engine set ups. Another aspect would be to have listings of speciality products, eg f/g goods like cowls, spats etc as well as vac bagged canopies etc.

I have no doubt you will have a viable audiance out there, I see the big issue being getting enough material to read.

just my 2 bits worth

cheers

Great idea, but it won't fly.

You need "plenty" of individuals, interested in the same topic, basiclly, to support a publication, not to mention "advertisers," which is what the $$ support is all about.

Nothing wrong with being one of the three people on the planet scratch building. [sm=bananahead.gif]

A Mag, dedicated solely to the assembly of ARF's, now that's an idea! [

Charles

www.cfcgraphics.com

Excellent idea, RACE 66!

Not a magazine, but the following is the best website that I have found so far on the subject.

It is interactive enough as to allow readers to ask questions and give opinions about the many articles.

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/

RACE 66:
If you limit your focus to scale models then www.rcscalebuilder.com comes pretty close to what you seek.

About as close as you're gonna get...
http://www.rcreport.net/

The demise of RCM was only about 10 years ago so it wasn't all that far back in time. ARFs were making a lot of head way about then. They usually had one or two build articals every month. MAN also had one build at least every month too. I'm not sure if they still do it or not but MAN used to have there plans catalog printed in the back of the magazine once a year for a pull out. Today RC Report is on line, fentons address, every month Dick Pettit tries to do a kit build, it may run a couple of months. RCR still has most of the writers that were there before they quit printing. If you go into the scratch/plans building forum here on RCU you will see there isn't as much going on as we would hope. To get a magazine of building you would need more people design and testing planes willing to sell there plans or kits, those days seem to have gone the way of RCM.

I've subscribed to RCModel World, a magazine from the UK. While it is not dedicated to "builders", each month, there is a Free Plan for planes ranging from foam profile up to 60" 3D nitro powered. In addition to the Free Plan, the will also have a monthly "Feature Plan of the Month" build article. There will usually be another article about a scale, scratch built plane.

This magazine is expensive, but worth the cost when you consider that one issue will have more build info in it than all our US based magazines combined for the quarter.

Even their ARF build and test articles are informative. The point out every weakness in the desighn and the steps resquired to over come that problem. I generally don't read the ARF articles, but when some of the critisium jumps out at you, well then I tend to did a little deeper.

http://www.rcmodelworld.com/

Don

Why do we need another one of those magazines we all ready have a few.

I do not think that the magazine idea would work, as all ready stated there are a lot of places on-line that do that and The major advertisers are all ready on the ARF magazines lists. Now doing another web site with different types of kits than just the scale would be a fine idea. IMHO

I want a magazine like the other magazines I get that I can read elsewhere in my house, in my car or other places I can find time to read. If all the magazines go electronic, I will no longer be interested in reading them and would likely loose interest in this hobby. I do not desire spending all my reading time sitting in front of a vibrating CRT!

However, I realize I am a minority and what the rest of the public wants is what will happen!

So, give me it in a true magazine; or, stuff it!

Once in a while, I pull out the crates of RCM's and MAN and read them, they were absoloutly the perfect thing back then, it allowed you to just sit there and let your mind go, thinking about all the articles and planes offered. I do remember the build articles, sometimes they were 3 issues long. But with today's instant communication lifestyle, it will be hard to unplug people from the internet and I-phones for any leingth of time. I still would subscribe, and I would be one of the few to ignore the laptop and just sit there and thumb through pages of articles.

That would be so awesome.  If it's in an electronic version, just add a printer friendly version.  And set it up so people can just go through the table of contents and press a button the articles they want to print out.  That way, people will have the option of printing it out to read as a hardcopy, but not have to waste all their ink and paper each month to print out a whole magazine.

Don,
I too pay the steep price for RCMW and do so gladly as it is far superior to any magazines RCM, RCR or otherwise to anything we have here. When the reviewer doesn't like something in that mag he doesn't hold back from saying it was a poor design or poor construction and then follows thru with how to fix it.
They also write in a very "cheeky" manner that I enjoy. Great magazine for sure.

Yes, I have build a few models from the free plans too.

Fly Scale Models

http://www.flyingscalemodels.com/fsm/whatsinside.php

This thread has piqued my interest. How about this:

If anyone out there has a set of ORIGINAL plans (No copyrighted material please), pictures of the build, and is willing to write a detailed assembly article, contact me and I will work it up as an article for RCU Magazine (Which is FREE!).

NO! I want a real magazine, sent to my house monthly, with color photos, advertisements, news and build articles!

Doubled post.

Well if you want one delivered to your house there are several magazines published in England that publish plans and articles on building. And they are in (almost) the same language as your own!

Aviation Modeller International www.flyingscalemodels.com/
Flying Scale Models www.flyingscalemodels.com/

RCME usually has a free pull out plan in each issue.
RCME is now called RC Model Aeroplane in the USA www.modelflying.co.uk/news/article.asp?a=5232

Radio Control Model Flyer www.modelflyermagazine.com/

and as already mentioned
RC Model World www.rcmodelworld.com/ which usually has a free plan each issue

RCME, well RC Model Aeroplane to you in USA, is said to be avail in some US newsagents, so you could buy it only when it looks interesting.

I recommend RC Model World and RCME if you are only interested in RC. Their free plans alone should make it worthwhile. And Aviation Modeller and Model Flyer if you are interested in control line, free flight and RC.
Of course scale builders will want Flying Scale Models which covers scale in RC and sometimes free flight & control line.

Regardless, the offer still stands. I have spoken with the RCU administrators and they think it's a great idea.

So if anyone is willing to step up to the plate, contact me.

I work for one of the largest Magazine Printers in the Country, and just to give it a little perspective, the Publication industry has seen an attrition of about 35% over the past 2 years.

Basically, one 1/3 of all previous titles are either gone or reduced in pages by that amount.

We as a company do not seeing this coming back as advertisers have flocked to the internet with search engine optimization, banners, email campaigns, social networking sites, and other online media advertising.

We have seen very few new publications popping up, and definately less of the smaller "hobby/niche" titles we use to enjoy.

I wouldn't count on it anytime soon I'm afraid.

E-publication is the only way to go now.

Even the publishers of technical magazines that I receive, have been asking me if I would like to switch from paper to electronic editions.

Cost is everything nowdays.[]

It sure would be nice to have a magazine worth reading. R/C Modeler was a great mag but in the end became more of a catalog than anything else. RC Report to me was a God send. I was really disappointed when it ceased publication. I haven't looked at it since it went electronic. I spend enough time on the computer as it is. I need building time too. I dumped MAN because it is loaded with ARFs and electrics - Not my thing. Model Aviation isn't a lot better and I can go from mail box to trash can in about 10 minutes with that. We can dream. It sure would be nice to have a dedicated "build" mag. Oh how I miss R/C Report.

You are talking about someone who has designed their own plans and built a plane, not a build on like a Brian Taylor Spitfire or a Roy Vaillancourt FW 190?