dougsmodels said:
Clearly this is one of the most well-done and well-rounded magazines that you'll pick up.
Thank you
dougsmodels said:
From the editor is good to go except there is a grammatical error in the last paragraph... sorry guys but it looks more professional when the editing is right.
Yes, I made a mistake, there are a few actually. This was my first time editing an entire magazine with a looming deadline and tremendous pressure.
dougsmodels said:
Tales from the Man Cave... honestly though I was not very interested in this type of thing and I suspect if polled many readers would not consider this type of article/choice a priority of things to know or learn about.
Interesting, especially considering it was one of the favorite models on the table to everyone at AMPS East, which as you know is an armor contest.
dougsmodels said:
The writing of the article was clear in terms of telling the reader what was going on, but not very well written in terms of holding interest. Creative writing helps to keep the reader's attention.
I wrote that article just like any of my published articles, which are often reported to be written fairly well, I even threw in some humor at times. Of course, it is possible that I missed the mark with this one, even Babe Ruth didn't
always hit a home run.
dougsmodels said:
KV-8 was a great model build by the way and makes me jealous. If nothing else was displayed but the pictures this would have been a great addition. With that said, the story loses me a little, especially at the part where the author states "here's where things get a little unorthodox." Despite this, this build was very complicated and I suppose it takes a bit of a complicated approach to explaining it. Did I mention this tank build was awesome? I can't wait by the way to see his work on facebook. Great touch by the way throwing him a bone to have readers check out his other work.
I wouldn't call it "throwing him a bone" at all. I know Kyle personally and he's a great modeler, we just wanted others to see that as well. His work will be in the magazine again in the future.
dougsmodels said:
Rust and weathering section was the best how to part of the magazine ... Museum piece for sure if it was something which held more interest and wasn't catered to showing off techniques.
It's a reoccurring column that caters to techniques 'in detail' (and that was part one, hence the foot note about part two) That's the whole point of that column.
dougsmodels said:
Another great display of talent in rusty dumpsters but honestly guys two articles in a row about rusting it up and no offense to the builder who modeled the best dam looking dumpster that you'll ever see in a layout, but the subject of a dumpster is simply boring. Sorry.
Much of the article is about bare steel though... and to be honest, you can apply those techniques to any other genre of modeling, not just dumpsters. I know many modern armor modelers who would love to have those dumpsters sitting next to their Stryker in a modern urban warfare setting.
dougsmodels said:
The title of the article is a little boring and Undaunting comes up wrong in my spell check.
The plane is a Dauntless, Chris was undaunted by the task at hand, making the whole experience undaunting. It's a play on words.
Maybe your spell check needs to be updated?
undaunting; English; Not daunting.
un- +‎ daunting
Adjective
undaunting (comparative more undaunting, superlative most undaunting)
dougsmodels said:
.Guys from the Ground up. Very cool idea on using the foam to start up the base project, but the finished product from a magazine with this much quality stuff was...boring. You guys are kick ass with ground work and aftermarket supplies. This finished base did not look like a real show stopper and I'm sure the modeler is a real expert so that was unfortunate. It missed the mark although this column has some real potential and I"m very excited to see what's coming down the pipe.
Again, another reoccurring column. It wasn't '
finished' at all, hence the "in my next installment..." at the end. It is part one of what might be a three or four part column. There will be groundwork covered in depth in the following issues. Make sure you come to the table next year at AMPS east and I'll show you the finished product. I guarantee it wont be 'boring'. 8)
dougsmodels said:
Very cool but I'm not too sure a ton of guys care too much about this kind of stuff. I know there will be plenty of those who will disagree and the techniques learned here were taken to heart so in all it was a success.
I've underlined two sentences that are a rather good representation of something fairly thematic throughout your review, it is sometimes confusing from the readers point of view. You state you are unsure of the amount of people interested in a subject, but then follow up by saying that you know many will disagree.
Sci-Fi will
always play an important role in the SMA magazine, it is an all genre magazine. Scott and I feel it is important not only to showcase all genres, but to get you out of your comfort zone of one topic and broaden your ideas a little. Many things can overlap different genres and many things can be learned from modelers in those genres. As a heavy metal guitar player in the eighties, I often listened to Jazz, Blues, and even Country music, it help me sharpen my licks and add things no one else was doing. It made me an all around better guitarist but more importantly, an all around better
musician. The same principal applies here.
dougsmodels said:
the war room was another column that I felt missed the mark when it came to holding my attention. I think again the quality of modeling is excellent but the idea of going off and focusing a whole column on wargaming stuff...well I'm not convinced. I understand that this is a big up and coming and already landed new area of modeling lately...just not dare I say as popular with everyone who builds...me included.
To be perfectly fair, it's basically a small scale build of a German 251 halftrack, if we took the word 'wargaming' out of the equation, would it change much?
dougsmodels said:
To sum it up this magazine's visuals are off the charts and second to probably none. The models presented for the articles are master quality...beyond what one usually sees anywhere. It is also a very well-rounded and versatile publication and tries to cover all the areas modelers might be interested in.
That is awesome then, we hit our mark dead bulls eye. That is exactly what we wanted to accomplish, thank you.
dougsmodels said:
I understand many modelers complain that there is little sci fi in other magazines, etc. I would like to see the focus of the magazine more in the area of armor and aircraft.
I can't say that will ever be the focus, sorry. There will always be a heavy armor presence in the magazine, and there was in this issue but there will always be other genres represented as well. With seven feature articles, (plus four columns) I think we have plenty of room to do just that, many other magazines don't even have that many features per issue.
dougsmodels said:
I know it's terribly hard and important to judge the potential audience for a magazine, but if the goal of the magazine is to keep selling, then what the reader wants to read about has to be the priority. I believe the majority of modelers out there and the majority of models built out there...at contests, etc are from the WWII era and include armor and aircraft from the period.
I have to wonder if you are attending armor contests only? I just recently attended Baycon and there was a huge population of Cars, Ships, Sci-Fi etc. While armor and aircraft did have their presence well represented, they did not dominate the tables. Not to mention the overwhelming responses on Facebook about wanting cars and ships etc.
dougsmodels said:
Please don't take the critiques too personally as they were given with the idea of being constructive and I feel that everyone's effort was well worth the money spent on the magazine.
It's hard not to take them somewhat personally as you can imagine, but I still welcome them and thank you for taking the time to write them all out. Just as I hope you don't take my explanations/responses as anything more than just that.
While you're here, feel free to post some of your work and share your modeling with us here.
