I don’t now how about you, but for me modelling magazines are traditional source of inspiration and ideas. I used to “collect” them, but these days I am more picky and usually buy one only when there is something really new and original, which is not as often as it used to be. Part of it is that after few years in the hobby, I have seen and read quite a bit, so it’s not that easy to impress me. (One magazine to which I am loyal is Model Military International of which I have all the issues published.)

Recently I have written about new magazine that was about to bring something new – The Weathering magazine. I think this magazine took the modelling market by the storm and it’s not that surprising – the promise of quality was there – being backed by the AK brand and Mig Jimenez, the expectations were high. The concept itself distinguishes the magazine – no construction, scratchbuilding, reviews, just pure weathering – and for many others like me this is the most entertaining part of the model building. And in many cases also most neglected.

I would not even try to count the number of build articles, which I have read, when a meticulously built model was painted in the most dull and boring way. I know it is matter of opinion, but I believe that perfectly built but poorly painted and weathered model will be good at best, but model built out-of-the-box, but painted with attention and dedication (and some experience) can really become outstanding.

That’s why I was one of those eagerly awaiting the arrival of The Weathering Magazine. Having read two issues by now, I must say I cannot be disappointed. There are aspects where some criticism can be raised (some of the narrative articles could be more descriptive and in-depth, in most cases the names of the products are not mentioned – with the exception of AK’s products,…), but overall the magazine in my opinion ranks among the best on the market. Let’s just hope that the editors and authors will keep on the high standard they set for themselves and will be bringing us new ideas for long time to come…

The appearance of this magazine might have contributed to the demise of another one – Military in Scale, which have recently ceased publication and moved exclusively to the online domain – at least based on the offered explanation…

In view of this unfortunate end, it was intriguing to learn that there is another magazine on the horizon – Scale Model Addict. Not a lot is known about this project – first online sample was recently published on the website of the magazine. Scale Model Addict is not going to be purely dedicated to the armour modellers, but will attempt to appeal to other genres as well – planes, figures,… Some of the work that will be in the first issue(s) can already be found online, but let’s see whether the magazine will bring something more.

It seems that the world of modelling magazines is evolving as much as the hobby of modelling itself did over the past years. As a modeller I can only hope that these new magazines will attract enough readers to keep them alive.

You can find more information about the newcomers on their respective websites:

http://www.theweatheringmagazine.com/

http://www.scalemodeladdict.com/