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[roycv]

I have recently received and read the January 2025 edition and must congratulate the editor on an issue just the way it all used to be.  On top of that a free plan of a ferry, I like the inter Island ferries., nice one to Ray Wood, as I am also building his Wild Duck.

It looks like we have come through Lindsay's learning curve and this will be an example of future issues.  Sailing a square rigger around the lake is interesting as I am having difficulty sailing my Top sail (square sails on the upper mast) schooner, so am paying that attention.
Distant friend John Parker I always read in Flotsam and Jetsam, and nice to see mentioned of long time friend, the Chairman of Black Park club.

I do echo the editor's comment that if you subscribe all the money goes to the magazine.  Some retailers require a substantial amount for putting the magazine on their shelves.
Nice one Lindsay!
Roy

[Martin (Admin)]

 
https://www.modelboats.co.uk/category/latest-issue/
 
 

 

[Dave_S.]

I have recently received and read the January 2025 edition and must congratulate the editor on an issue just the way it all used to be.  On top of that a free plan of a ferry, I like the inter Island ferries., nice one to Ray Wood, as I am also building his Wild Duck.

It looks like we have come through Lindsay's learning curve and this will be an example of future issues.  Sailing a square rigger around the lake is interesting as I am having difficulty sailing my Top sail (square sails on the upper mast) schooner, so am paying that attention.
Distant friend John Parker I always read in Flotsam and Jetsam, and nice to see mentioned of long time friend, the Chairman of Black Park club.

I do echo the editor's comment that if you subscribe all the money goes to the magazine.  Some retailers require a substantial amount for putting the magazine on their shelves.
Nice one Lindsay!
Roy

I agree, the last few issues have each been an improvement on the one before, really worth reading from cover to cover.

[Circlip]

Salways going to be a problem for us who remember how the mags "Used to be". Read every page of the 'propper'  Model Maker.


 Regards  Ian.

[roycv]

Hi circlip I still have most of my Model Maker magazines I first saw and bought it in 1957 and later got hold of many of the earlier ones back to 1952.  You are right a good read no matter what the subject.  Always succinct and each sentence was needed and of course interesting to read of other hobbies.

In one early edition there was a photograph of a notice taken in Australia, way out in a deserted area.  The notice said.

 "It is an offence to throw stones at this notice".

Vic Smeed played a valuable part in the magazine, we do not have anyone like that now with his prolific contribution to the marine and aircraft hobbies.
Regards
Roy

[Colin Bishop]

First Issue - December 1950. Bad workshop practice - not a great idea to wear a tie when using rotating machinery! 

Colin

[Dave_S.]

As a mere youngster of 67, I can't claim to remember Model Maker, but I have managed to accumulate a fair number of copies of it. I bought my first Model Boats magazine in 1970, and have an almost complete collection, which now goes back into the mid 60s (early 50s for Model Maker). I find them all both fascinating and informative, a great pleasure to dip into into what was going on in the hobby before I was born.

[TheLongBuild]

Likewise, took me a while but I have every single issue since Issue 1 of Model Maker, wonder how many complete sets there are ?.


You can see the front Covers of all the Model Boats Mags & Model Maker on the link below to around 2018 as have not updated it lately but will be doing so hopefully soon.


Model Maker & Model Boats

[Circlip]

Have ALL issues on disk (8 actually) and 20 out of 24 of its predecessor 'The Model Mechanic' 1946 to 1950. The Bodlien have the other 4 but won't allow full copies 


 Looking through the ads shows just how many suppliers and Muddle Shops we've lost over the years - used to have 3 in Bradford, zilch now, for next years, - 2025 - "City of Culture"    yea, honest. Can smell the Bovine Excreta piling already.


    Regards  Ian.

[Dave_S.]

Have ALL issues on disk (8 actually) and 20 out of 24 of its predecessor 'The Model Mechanic' 1946 to 1950. The Bodlien have the other 4 but won't allow full copies 
[size=78%]    Regards  Ian.[/size]

My wife used to work at the Bodlean, she still has friends there, might be worth following up.


And yes, the loss of model shops is very noticeable even as recently (well, 30 years!) there were pages of model shops advertising, now there's precious little except for Howes (my local model shop).

[ChrisF]

Whilst it is good that the editor is deservedly being congratulated on the quality of the magazine I think it is wise to say that there is no guarantee that this will continue.

Firstly that edition has ticked a number of boxes for the OP but the next one might not, we all have our own "boxes" within the hobby.

Secondly, the editor, it could be argued, has a harder job than ever, because of the way the hobby is going  and has much less material to work with in putting an interesting magazine together and it will only get less and less. Apart from Glynn Guest, I can't think of anyone else who is like the plan producers of old who contributed on a regular basis and hopefully he won't mind me saying this, but he no longer produces as much as he used to.

Ray has produced quite a few plans, along with Ashley and articles by Colin and Richard, amongst others, but there is no guarantee that they will continue to do so. There just aren't the number of plan or article producers in the hobby anymore and unlikely to increase. Whilst there are still a good number of builders within the hobby plans and articles is another thing requiring different skills and is a lot of work and not many want to do it.

Sorry if this sounds negative but just being realistic. Hopefully the standard does continue. I've subscribed since taking up the hobby 7 years ago including also the digital for the last few even though I rarely use it.

Chris

[Circlip]

Although NOT PC    the quality of printing in the old MM allows the reduced size plans to be scanned, cleaned and resized and saved as full size PDFs. better than the original dyeline prints. (DAMHIK)


  Regards  Ian.

[Colin Bishop]

the quality of printing in the old MM allows the reduced size plans to be scanned, cleaned and resized and saved as full size PDFs. better than the original dyeline prints.

Indeed so. I used the plan printed in the magazine to restore the Bardic Ferry to the plans range when I featured it in on the the Special Issues I edited some years back plus more recently the old magazine plan was reproduced in my Bilsdale Paddler article both in the printed and digital edition. I am currently using a 1:1200 scale plan by R Carpenter as part of my ss Miltiades liner build.

https://www.sarikhobbies.com/product/m-v-bardic-ferry-mm636-steam-passenger-ferry-plan/

However, while the line drawings were top class, the photos were often terrible...

Colin

[phil_parker]

Whilst it is good that the editor is deservedly being congratulated on the quality of the magazine I think it is wise to say that there is no guarantee that this will continue.

Firstly that edition has ticked a number of boxes for the OP but the next one might not, we all have our own "boxes" within the hobby.

Secondly, the editor, it could be argued, has a harder job than ever, because of the way the hobby is going  and has much less material to work with in putting an interesting magazine together and it will only get less and less. Apart from Glynn Guest, I can't think of anyone else who is like the plan producers of old who contributed on a regular basis and hopefully he won't mind me saying this, but he no longer produces as much as he used to.

Ray has produced quite a few plans, along with Ashley and articles by Colin and Richard, amongst others, but there is no guarantee that they will continue to do so. There just aren't the number of plan or article producers in the hobby anymore and unlikely to increase. Whilst there are still a good number of builders within the hobby plans and articles is another thing requiring different skills and is a lot of work and not many want to do it.

Sorry if this sounds negative but just being realistic. Hopefully the standard does continue. I've subscribed since taking up the hobby 7 years ago including also the digital for the last few even though I rarely use it.

Chris

Well, this is down to the model boating community to stop it happening. The editor can only publish material sent in - so if model boaters want a thriving magazine on the newsstands to show the hobby is a healthy one, they need to be willing to contribute articles. Let's face it, you do get paid for this, so it's a handy way of adding to the model boat building fund!

Finding articles is not easy, part of my work is editing Garden Rail magazine, so I can say this from experience. Lindsay has been doing a superb job, and is very pleasant to deal with. If you fancy seeing yourself in print, drop her a line and you'll be welcomed.

[Subculture]

I am amazed the magazine has been able to survive to this point. With most large newsagents gone from the high street, gone are the days when you could have a flick through to see if that issue was of interest.

I think modellers able or willing to produce articles, plans etc. have always been a rare commodity and will only becoming rarer still with the reduction of those employed in manufacturing and industry where many of skills required are practiced.

Perhaps there will eventually be a return to magazines that covered many disciplines like the Model maker magazine of the 1950's and 1960's, although sadly the rebooted version of the late 1970's/early 1980's didn't last long.

[Colin Bishop]

The magazine very nearly did stop publication during Covid after missing a couple of issues but I managed to persuade the Managing Director of My Time Media, who asked my views on its continuation, to carry on with it. It has a much smaller budget now and writing for it is a labour of love as page and plan rates have dropped drastically but there are still people who are willing to pitch in with material on a regular basis and articles from newcomers are always welcome.

Modelmaking is very much a 'hands on' type of hobby and appeals to those who enjoy making or crafting things. In the past, most of these people would have had a technical education and many had professional drawing skills before computerisation. There were consequently far more people with the ability to produce designs and plans for modelmaking. Now we seem to have only a couple of people producing plans on a regular basis although there is still a very rich back catalogue to draw upon from Vic Smeed's designs onwards.

Writing articles does not always come easily to people with a practical background just as modelmaking can be hard to get to grips with by those with those who used to be described as 'white collar' workers. There are a some people who are equally good a both, the late Dave Milbourn comes to mind as an example, but they are rare birds indeed. My background has been in local government and local government computing and I have had no technical training at all (even my computing was self taught , starting on a Sinclair Spectrum!). Consequently I am good with words and reports but could never match the modelling skills of someone like Brian King or Alex McFadyen. I can turn out a decent model on a good day but I am First Division rather than Premier League.

I have however been writing for the magazine for some 45 years on various subjects and was active in the MPBA during the halcyon days of the R/C scale Section. I also deputised for Paul Freshney when he was Editor and on holiday and edited several Special Issues 15 years ago which was a lot of fun (and work).

Away from the magazine there are many unsung heroes keeping the hobby going with their efforts at club level and encouraging new members. Without them there would be no hobby really. Many people on Mayhem and other website forums also give freely of their time in helping and advising other members which plays a big part in keeping the hobby alive.

At some point it may all fade away as things, do but there is still a fair bit of life in the hobby and fun to be had, especially for those of us enjoying retirement so we should make the most of it.

Colin



 

[roycv]

Well said Colin! 
I do not agree with you as far as your modelling skills go as I have seen on exhibition some of your models which I am still trying to emulate.
I used to contribute to Int. Marine Modelling and had a lot of fun pruning the first version of an article down to the 2000 words and whatever for the pictures.  About 30 years ago I reviewed a model yacht and loaded up my camera with film and took the pictures as I went along.

However the film had not picked up inside the camera and all the pictures were on top of each other.  After I got home I realised that this needed immediate confession to the editor and we worked out the solution between us and I do not think anyone was any the wiser, as there were excellent 'build' pictures on the box and I utilised some of these. 
Our daughter had a young man in tow who was a professional photographer and his excellent photo of the yacht sailing was on the cover and all was well with the world again.

As Colin says the writing can be fun as well as a challenge to get the most information across with the least number of words.  The editors are interesting guys starting with Vic Smeed, what a gentleman!   
He was telling me on one occasion that an aircraft model he designed and published plans for, ended up as a full size one!  The full size one had a VW flat twin air cooled engine fitted and the builder flew it for some time before he landed at an airfield and another pilot did not recognise the 'model'.  When it was established that it had never gone through any scrutiny regarding design and materials the aircraft was impounded and the engine removed!

His very last yacht design Star Baby was designed to sail on our club water here in St. Albans.  However, I waited for the plans to be available but nothing happened.  I contacted him and he said that he had sent in the article and heard no more.  After probing I realised he had an old address and as at the time I was more in contact with Int Mar. Models that is how Traplet published the plans (as a free one) as soon as they got them.

As an earlier contributor has said unless the articles come in from the likes of us then there is no content and then no magazine!  These days too many sit back and expect others to do things so they can enjoy them.  Belonging to a club or a society can be as rewarding as you want to make it.  There is a big but here!  Why would you expect others to do what you can't be bothered to do yourself?

I do recommend that if not doing so already join in, offer your services to keep things running.  Similarly we have the Model Boats magazine as a case in point, just supporting itself is on the edge, if you want it still in the form it is then contribute!
No doubt there are those who might say that modern technology and communications make the printed word a dead dog!  Old is not necessarily bad and the past may just have been a tad better than the present is.

National Treasure Alan Bennett recently coined the phrase 'Extreme Adult' for still functioning 85+ year old persons.  Got there 18 months ago and still making models, still helping to run model club and still enjoying life.  My values and views may be dated but they have seen me through up until now.  By the way my wife says I am still just as annoying too.

(But then I hear that vynils are coming back!)
Roy