My Subscription is close to running out....Debating on weather or not to renew????

Mine ran out in December and I did not renew it this time. I felt that it is becoming stale. I have been able to get more in-depth information here on this site along with the friendly personal help.

Interesting Matt. I was just seriously thinking of getting a subscription myself. Any particular issues affecting your decision to possibly not renew?

Steve

Dave- i agree that its becoming stale. Since i started my subsription a couple of years ago, the articles that ive been interested in , mainly armor, are declining. Its becoming a more Aircraft oriented magazine.

Steve- while some issues may be good, most of them arent great. Like i said above, its becoming more aircraft oriented.

Im just letting my subsription run out. Too bad i renewed it last september.

Just my .02

Matt

i agree with u guys...

i subscribe since 1999 and stopped last year. The magazine is not to par with my expectation anymore.... like many said, more plane than armour..
furthermore, i just dont like the idea like " The upper hull is not accurate, so i modify with stock plastics...." or " the fitting is bad so i scratbuild the...." things...

it doesnt help much if they didnt say how they modify/scratchbuild....

well, i'm not against FSM but just my 2 cents/.......

I, too think it's been getting Stale...... Then again I have the backlog of 10+ years sitting on the shelf.......

I understand they need to have a wide assortment of models and kits to hit all the various interests. However being an armor builder with a preference towards allied they do too many ships and airplanes to warrant the cost for the magazine.

Hey Guys,
In my opinion its a decent mag for the average MODEL builder. It is geared to the average guy that likes to build models in his living room on a t.v tray. Not that there is any thing wrong with that. I pick it up from time to time, and its got its merrits. But since I build armour the best mag for that is AFV modelling and a close second would be MMIR. I also pick up Military modeling as its a good solid armour mag. I wouldnt get a subscription myself but thats just me.
Cheers,
Bryan

Every once in awhile,I buy it from the news stand. But I am the type of person who likes instant gratification (I want answers now for those of you in Rio Linda :-) ) so I have found the web, especially Armorama to be an invaluable resource. If I don't know the answer to something or want to learn how to do something, I can usually find it here.

i say dont worry about renewing it, i might pick it up from my hobby shop now and then..but havnt in a few months, this site has so much more info on it then that magazine..in my opinion anyways..

I did buy the two Sherman specials a couple of years ago when Bob Collignon(sp) did a sandbagged M4A1 76mm. It was a two part article so I bought both.

I don't mind Great Scale Modeler.

I think i'm gonna let it run out then.... I'll just have to head to the bookstore on occasion....hehe

Hhhmmmmm,
I am kinda surprised at the comments. I have had FSM back to its original issues and still enjoy the magazine. Sometimes it is a bit dry, but I wouldn't be the modeller that I am today if it weren't for FSM. I do know that enough people wrote in a few years back about there not being enough automobile articles that Kalmbach came out with Fine Scale Auto. Maybe if enough of you wrote to FSM/Kalmbach publishing that they would come out with a "Fine Scale Armor" mag? Just my 2 pennies.

Chief

Perhaps this thread should be sent to FSM ... currently I get the mag, one of those Girl Scout Troop magizine fund raiser my daughter does ... I have to buy something you know! But all in all I get far more information off the internet than I ever had in FSM. I think it come down to the fact they are not keeping up with the times. The hobby is changing and getting more involved than just building kits OOB or doing a few minor add-ons. I agree they do far to many plane and cars for my taste. After they took over Military Modelling (I think they took over that publication if I remember right.) and combined it with FSM they did more military, but they seem to be drifting back to the cars and boats of old. There are far to many ads and not enough information that is useful for people that have build more than a couple of models. Just my thoughts.

Dave

I think another part of it is the fact that I focus on Armor 90% of the time...... And with all the Info on the Web....for "Free" I makes the 40 bucks....... seem like too much for something i'm not getting as much info out of as i used to.......

I have been contemplating the future of my subscription as well. One thing about them that I don't like is the fact that hobby shop issues get the special inserts but subscribers don't. That is pure crap.

Due to my armor interest, I would love it if MMIR was a monthly magazine. If that happened or if Military Modeler was re-released, I would drop FSM in a heartbeat.

Hey all,

Interesting thread as I was thinking about the same thing. I have two renewal notices sitting here on my desk, as well as the issue I received yesterday.

Looking through it, for anyone interested the rough break down is:
84 total pages including the covers
about 25% ads, which of course pay for the costs, but as far as content:
*Build write-up on Trumpeter's USS Nimitz -- 4 pages
*Detailing Hasegawa's Hellcat -- 4 pages
*T-28 article -- 6 pages
*An article on washes -- 2 pages
*Ki-44 updating -- 6 pages
*Gallery (19 images, 3 of armor) -- 6 pages
*USS Gato -- 5 pages
*Aircraft portfolio -- 4 pages
*Reviews -- 8 pages, 8 reviews, 6 aircraft, 1 car, 1 tank
*History You Can Model (Gatos) -- 1 page

So to total that up for the non review/gallery items: 10 pages on ships, 14 pages on aircraft, six on armor.

I think it does provide some good information, but it does seem to get very repetitive. The new product info is usually available on the net first, most of the tips I've seen here. I guess I get it mainly for the pictures and for inspiration. Sometimes I find some great tidbits, but most likely I won't even read much of this issue. No idea whether I'll reup or not.

I subscribed way back around 1993-1996 when FSM was an eight annual issue magazine. I felt the price was high for those eight issues. I believe FSM went to 10 issues per year now for $35 USD?

AND one would assume that if FSM skipped a month, the next issue would be a bit thicker and have more content, because FSM had TWO months to prepare the next issue. But...hardly!

To put things in perspective, one can get Popular Science's 12 issues for $25 at discount! And that magazine has content, not to mention is pretty up-to-date! In ways, FSM's cost deters my interest in ever resubscribing again. One can buy individual gun and airplane magazines with a lot more content from the bookstore for FSM's annual price. Concord's WW2 armor books only cost $16 each, and they're imported.

I view FSM as more of a "flip-through" magazine than one that needs to be bought and read, but then I'm into modern. If I need to read an article, I read it in the bookstore. The various DG articles, reviews, and posts more than make up for FSM, which seems to lag behind several months in the latest releases. Bottom line: FSM lacks content, up-to-date info, and cannot compare to the details of some DG articles and reviews.

Another bug-a-boo is FSM's policies and procedures. One cannot write any reference articles without some connection to modeling....that is one can't submit only reference or news photos. One can't submit digital photos unless they're like 5MB each, so that means only 35mm prints. FSM has strict photo-screening and article submission guidelines; FSM probably rejects more than it accepts, and as such, their thin magazine shows this. While it's true that web-photo quality differs from print-photo quality, I would assume more modelers would care to submit online articles than go back with a 35mm camera and retake photos due to FSM's rejection of their photos.

Bear in mind that FSM is the only generalized modeling magazine on the bookshelves almost everywhere in the world. I believe if another company were to publish a modeling magazine like FSM, FSM would have a serious competitor. FSM is "the only game in town," but I don't view them as the best though. There are easier, cheaper, and better ways to get modeling info. And honestly, if modelers only read FSM and not the DGs, they'll NEVER know about all the types of models out there. FSM often doesn't cover the unique resin or import kits, unlike a video game magazine in which the game mag is usually comprehensive and talks about almost all games ever made. A daily or even weekly visit to the DGs for monthly internet access fee sure enlightens a modeler to products than a paid monthly or bi-monthly read of FSM, sorry to say.

well having armorama online and some good friends i think that is a waste of money to buy 100 pages that have 40%advertisment . So .........Unfortunatelu mags become worst by time

FSM has run some good articles on painting/weathering ect in the past cuople of years which as been quite useful but it has took a dive of late too many review on A/c ect but to that they will argue that there are more A/c builders than armour ectas for cars why not drop them as they have a sister mag called scale auto's? so no doubt they are duplicating reviews ect.
As for the Miltiary Modelling mag I'm finding that getting as dull as ditchwater, same clicky group of authors & reviewers, the old british regiments feature hasd run it's course I think 2 years worth now. I'd like to see features on weathering/painting construction not the usual built/painted in my usual way? well whats that then? even the letters page is stuck in the stone age and full of of bickering/nitpicking over someones work and I've noticed that more pages are being turned over to advertising. It's about time that the mag had a rocket up it's arse.
As for Mags these days I prefer the Tamiya mag and military in scale at least they strike a good balance between the different types of kits and have some good articles on painting ect

I subscribed to FSM for quite some time (years) and it was a big help for a while. I agree with the previous post that FSM is geared toward the average moder, it is trying to be an all around magazine and cover everything. In doing so it eventually slid down on my must read list. It's a fine magazine and does its job well, I have simply out grown it. I will buy a copy off the shelf here and there but there isn't enough there to commit the kind of money they would like.

Ciao everyone,
I just renewed my subscription for 2 years (cheaper that way.) I admit that I did it for two reasons. 1) I like to look at the magazine when nothing is going on at work, and 2) after 20 years of military service I really like getting mail (at least once a month.) I can say that I do get inspiration from many of the models inside, but I have noticed that it has become too aircraft-oriented. Too bad Military Modeler magazine folded up all those years ago.
Ciao for now
Rob

Here's my 2 cents...

For a long time (10 years) I had a subscription for a magazine. I ended this because I noticed that old articles started to come back.

Currently, I have no subscription whatsoever to any magazine whatsoever (modelling or anything else).

I prefer a quick browse through the magazine section every week and buy what seems interesting. That way, I get only the best issues in a series.

Hi all
Long time reader, first time participant here at this fine site. I saw this thread linked in another site, and it has forced me to become more active in this forum.
I think I agree with the general consensus on this one. It does seem that as soon as you get one or two models under your belt, there is little that FSM has to offer. That, and their total under-representation of armor is just getting really boring. I just wish I'd realized this two months ago, before I renewed. But truthfully, I think I did, but renewed anyways simply because it's another mag that I can read on the toilet, or while commuting.

Well, well, well...timing of this post is prefect I too contemplated whether to renew my subscription to FSM. In the end I decided not to. I have been getting it for close to 14 years now but lately (past year or so) I've noticed that I spend less and less time reading it. I used to wait eagerly for every issue to come in the mail but not anymore. I actually find the articles boring. I agree that there are good tidbits of info in there but they are far and few in between.

I agree with those who say that there are too many aircraft related articles in it. Then again, I am not into airplanes so my view may be a bit skewed. Who knows if I were into airplanes, I would probably complain that there still weren't enough articles on the subject.

I guess I will be looking for another magazine to subscribe to. Any suggestions?