what in your opinion is the best genaral modeling magazine out there and waht is the best area specific mag ?( armour, air )

I buy military modelling quite often ....... some nice features and great ideas. It has been a great help, especially for painting figures. Would buy more of military in scale but half of the magazine is dediated to aircraft of which Im not interested but has some useful hints. I like their style better but not enough ...... aircraft info is wasted on me.
Welcome onboard .......... good to see another tricolour flying!

Ola

I would say that the best modeling magazine in the world is Armorama......... Why?????
I explain to you. Armorama is the magazine that talks back to you. Ask your question and it will be answered by Armorama. It`s a magazine that has knowledge of many aspects of military modeling from Old to modern, WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Cold war, Gulf war1, Gulf War 2, IDF, name it......... tanks, figures, dio`s, planes, ships everything is in here. And the best of all it`s a free magazine.....

So to be short you have all the knowledge you ever wanted to know in one place and it costs you nothing do you want a special magazine then eh???????

To answer your question more precise..... I mostly buy Military modeling as that is by far the best magazine available in my neighbourhood

I really enjoy Military In Scale. They have a lot of useful info and reviews.

i like tamiya model mag myself (top class photography and great articles) followed by military in scale and finescale modeler.
My fav area is aircraft but i haven't come across a great aircraft modelling mag yet. i do read scale aviation international and scale aircraft modeller from time to time.
what would be nice would be a taniya mag on aircraft.

hey plasticbattle whereabouts in ireland are you and where do you get your kits?

Im from Donegal. But i have been living in Sweden for the last 7 years so i by all my stuff here. Whereabouts are you from? Cant imagine there being many "good" model stores in Ireland. There used be a little shop in Derry, but it must be 10 years since the last time I was there!

My fav overall modelling mag is Tamiya. Great pictures, great work, and a nice diversity of modelling subjects.

I only do armor models, and my fav specific title for such is AFV modeller. A bit spendy, but the pics and work is top notch.

I like Fine Scale Modeler and Scale Aviation Modeler.

~Chip

Here is what I subscribe to and what I like about them as well as the order I rank them in. My point-of-view is as a novice who recently got into this hobby , not someone who is advanced. Man - looking at all these magazines and stuff, I really only thought I was going to buy a model and a figure kit to kill a week or two when I had some down time at work.. Who knew?

For armor

1. Military Modelling - In my opinion, some of the best modelers submit articles to this magazine - Bannerman, Zaloga, Bay, etc... The photos and instruction are excellent. and inspiring.

2. AFV Modeller - Great color photos, better than any other magazine, always has some very inspiring dioramas. Each article usually tells you the exact paint type and color the author used to paint their model as well as highlight of techniques used.

3. Military Miniatures in Review - Good step-by-step instructions and plenty of numbered photos on how the author built a particular kit. Comprehensive review of new releases of both figures, armor and accessories coming to the market.

For general modelling:

1. Tamiya Model Magazine - Like Fine Scale Modeler, covers more than military models. Good articles with good color photos as well.

2. Fine Scale Modeler - Covers a wide range and has good articles every few issues for beginners to get a grasp on specific techniques.

For Figures:

1. Figure International (North American Edition) - Covers all time periods. Also comes with inserts (almost like a centerfold) where they show full page color artwork of a figure or soldier in full dress and detail for you to study (like a Volstad painting). One other good thing about this is that they have an interview with a famous painter every magazine - the one with Shep Paine was really great where he talked about dioramas and figures in general.

2. Historical Miniature - Covers all time periods and painting techniques for figures. If you focus just on WWII, this may not be as appealing but the articles are usually very good.

For Health:

1. The Family Handyman - Great at giving hints and techniques for maintaining your home and giving advice on repairs for common household problems You know, when you've spent too much time in Armorama and your significant other gives you that look !!!

GR8Voyager

For general info,Fine Scale is great for beginners with some advanced articles every so often.Tamiya is better and even though it carries a manufacturers name,I find it very even in it's content.Specifically,for armour,I like Military Miniatures In Review.Great departments on new kits,and figures and good articles on lots of vehicles.A little heavy on expensive resin but interesting just the same.There are many more out there,Military Machines,AFV, A lot of it has got to be personal taste.JOCK

Military Miniatures in Review.

'nuff said.

Chris Prince of Pigtenstein

Military Modelling is my favourite I enjoy the Zaloga articles I only wish they would do more stuff for beginers and the youngsters, I like fine scale modeller as well good tips but i get Jealous when i see all those ads for model shops. I only buy mags if they have a decent article in them which will interest me Armourama i can read every day.

I like Fine Scale Modeller the best for general and "how to" subjects. Military Miniatures in Review is a great magazine for Military subjects. I also buy Military Modelling international when i can find it and believe it or not I really like Modell Fan and Kit out of Germany.
Another really great magazine for Armor is Steel Masters from France. It has some English subtitles.

An interesting debate which very much depends on where you live.... I used to buy FSM when I could get my hands on it (at about 3 times the US cover price). I still get MM albeit on subscription. Scale Aircraft Modeller is the best for aviation. I personally don't like Tamiya or Verlinden magazines much. They have some nice articles but are very much 'In-House' journals and don't generally expand much beyond their own little worlds. I do seem to remember that Tamiya had a mania for dinosaurs and formula one cars. As neither of them are painted in fs colors or can be seen being launched off carriers, running up Iraqi highways or seen being embarked on enemy-held beaches I personally see little sense in them.(It was a joke folks.....honest)... Here in Spain, although there are superb aircraft, figure and Armor modellers, we have one (1) professional magazine which although it is glossy, colorful and expensive, is the worst example of 'general modelling' I have ever seen yeah, lots of people knock FSM, however it does carry serious reviews, it does have useful advertising and even a letters page. 'Euromodelismo' which is the spanish (i believe reprinted from the italian version) magazine does not review, the few adverts come from the companies which send products for what may be kindly called 'evaluation' the adverts almost entirely come from wholesalers which change little from month to month. So you are extremely fortunate to be able to pick up magazines such as MM, or even Fms painlessly.. One other aspect of Euromodelismo, is its tendency to only have articles about german armor or aviation which becomes tedious in the extreme. And yes before you ask, there are articles about dinosaurs and racing cars a la Tamiya......Jim

Why, (and I can't believe no one posted this yet) Playboy. I have seen some fine models in there on occasion... #:-)

Myself, I buy Fine Scale Modeler almost religiously. I simply enjoy looking at the mag, pictures of their builds, and of course reader submissions. It's nice to see whats out there. However I peruse almost all the other modeling magazines out there (at my local hobby shop or bookstore) if I come across something that interests me, I'll pick it up. For instance I had just bought Tamiya's Marder III M, was waiting on my p.e. order to come in before building, happened to see a similar build (same model, different detail set) in the Tamiya magazine, I gobbled it up...gave me all sorts of inspiration. Lastly I definitely dig Armorama! Like someone before me said, it's like a magazine that talks back

I'll jump in with my 2 cents.
I subscribe to FSM because that's all I've got available that is reasonably priced. The local reatilers don't carry anothing else either.
I used to read FSM cover to cover assoon as it hit my mailbox. I don't anymore. I skim it and pick and choose what I read.
I do find more relative information here.

Military Miniature in Review is by far my favorite. it is a large format with great glossy thick paper stock, meaning it can take a lot of reading and re-reading. it also covers a lot of diormama materials... but best of all, unlike Finescale they actually go into great depth in their refiews... fine scale is 2-3 pages per product at most. MMiR will dedicicate 8-10 pages per review, with 20-30 pictures per project not uncommon.

I'm with Faust when he says that Armorama is the best!!!
On top of that I read Military in Scale, Military Modelling, Tamiya Model Magazine, Fine Scale Modeler, and a couple of italian ones like Corazzati, Model Time and Steel Art. I cannot say that there is one I like most. They often publish lots of junk and sometimes great articles...
Ciao

I would say Tamiya. I even renewed the membership to Tamiya Model Club in Canada.

For generally modeling I usually read Military modelling and military modelcraft international. But for armor I prefer to read steelmasters from France. Thy have a bi-monthly and a tri-monthly publication. The tri-monthly piece always covers one specific subject.
(I only regret that, except the issue about vietnam, they don't do more modern stuff ).
The bi-monthly issue covers a variety of periods.

Greetz Jan

I love Finescale. I build all types of kits and find how to artilces and often specific articles on the models I am planning onbuilding

I probably get too many mags, but MM is my old staple - good cross section for the chosen subject matter, at mixed skill levels; every now and then it comes up with something special.
Tamiya mag is pretty good; yes slightly in house, but so what - the quality of models and photos is second to none and it contains so much info.
AFV Modeller - mentioned only once so far, is an amazing publication. Full colour, incredible models by the leading lights, each issue is better than the last. As it's mail order only, it won't get seen too often by the casual reader, but it's inspirational stuff!
MIS; never really got into this one - personally I feel it's let down by the photo quality.
MMIR: Very good general overview of the hobby in this one. Wish it could be published more often, but there's so much in it, it takes 4 months to read it. Good for UK readers as it show's a bigger picture of what's available than the UK mags alone.

Figures: Historical Miniatures from the US is OK, and has probably reached it's peak. Any of the Modellismo mags from Spain, Soldatini from italy are all great (soldatini has an English translation in the middle - good thinking)

It all depends on what you're after really.

Rob

MMiR used to be a favorite of mine, but the constant German WWII stuff was a bit too much for me as well as the $10.00 price tag. Don't get me wrong here... it's a great mag, but subject (and price) wise, it's not for me.

I usually pick up what catches my eye (my local shop has an excellent variety to choose from), but I find that the international A4(?) size is a bit of a pain to store...

With so many old magazines boxed up, I tend to not buy all that many any more prefering to go for reference books like Osprey etc. I'd actually like to find some place that would want the old mags like a library etc... They're all in pretty good shape.

My $.02 worth anyway....

This won't narrow things down much but these are all great: Fine Scale Modeller, Military Modelling, Military in Scale, Military Modelcraft International and Tamiya modeling Mag.

Russ