The December issue is going to be released a few days earlier they have announced, along with them following the trend and going to an issue every four weeks, so yet another mag decides there are actually thirteen months in a year.
I subscribed to BRM mainly because of some freebies I wanted, but also to get it a bit cheaper, but I have to say I have been disappointed with it over the twelve months, the giveaway DVD they produce each month and advertise as "Worth £7.99" is really a half hearted affair, and much of it repeats what is in the mag anyway.
The " how to's" they do, both in the mag, and on the DVD only seem to gloss over the subject.
I don't think I will be renewing my subs for 2016.
I subscribe to it as well but normally find it a good read. With regard to the DVD worth £7.99 if I'd bought it I would have returned it. How can the few minutes of repeated info from the mag be worth that much and can you actually even buy it separately?
Gareth
I bought the first 12 issues when it first came out way back when but can't recall buying an issue since.
I agree the DVD's are only useful as coasters under my coffee mug ;)
They make rather good mixing boards for paints too.....
We use 'em as bird scarers on the allotment .
I've never found any of the railway mags consistent enough to subscribe to, prefer to wander into WHS once a month and evaluate them all for content. The result is I think I've bought four in total in the past year as most of the time there's not enough interesting content :sleep:
Paul
I subscribe to Railway modeller I find it better than BMR.
I do occasionally look at BRM but its not in my top two rated main stream mags -It strikes me that they are trying too hard to be like Model Rail, which is IMO a much improved mag latterly.
Ill stick to RM and the MRJ for my regular bedtime reads.....as well as the diverse Society magazines I get :)
I'm a long way from the local WHS but did pick up a BRM last time I was in the UK; wasn't overwhelmed by the CD and there wasn't much N at all. To be honest I doubt I'd subscribe to any of the "mainstream" magazines, as there's too much non-N stuff which doesn't interest me, so would probably get individual issues if there's something I want to read. Mind you I do the same with Japanese magazines, even though they're much more N-orientated.
Yeah, I only buy watch catches my eye these days, even though I 'fess up to having every issue of RM from 1959 yo 1998!
As I live so far away from the UK I subscribe to the digital versions of Model Rail and Hornby magazine and buy occasional digital copies of Railway Modeller and BRM.
Ideally I would like to browse them all in a shop before buying but only BRM and Railway Modeller get here about six weeks late and at exorbitant prices.
I have bought a few digital copies of BRM that looked interesting from the covers and turned out to be quite disappointing.
I think they all go through phases of being interesting and good value for money and that can be dependent on individual taste.
I certainly wouldn't like to be a magazine editor, the latest Model Rail featured some Aeroplane and airfield related content which I found very interesting but there were lots of grumbles on one of the other forums about how they should stick to railways.
One of my Xmas presents from my son last year was a years subscription to Model Rail (in magazine format) and it arrives here in Tenerife pretty soon after publication.
Quite like Model Rail.
Yeah, they have a good format, with lot's of "how to's" :thumbsup:
Quote from: silly moo on October 27, 2015, 04:57:06 AM
I certainly wouldn't like to be a magazine editor, the latest Model Rail featured some Aeroplane and airfield related content which I found very interesting but there were lots of grumbles on one of the other forums about how they should stick to railways.
Were they discussing airport light rail systems?
I have been on one at Kuala Lumpur airport, unfortunately late at night in a rush to transfer to the next terminal, so didn't get a good look.
Can't remember seeing any layouts based on airport light rail systems. Very intensive operations.
CFJ
It's more about airfields WW2 and more modern and related buildings and painting 'planes. They didn't show any examples on a layout which I thought was an oversight. I also thought something about transporting the actual 'planes by rail would have been good too.
Quote from: Graham Walters on October 26, 2015, 07:36:48 PMthe giveaway DVD they produce each month and advertise as "Worth £7.99" is really a half hearted affair
They sell you a Mag for £4 and include a 'Free' DVD "Worth 7.99"... My interpretation of that is that the magazine itself must be worth -£3.99... i.e. this rag is so poor we have to pay you to take it off our hands... :doh: :thumbsdown:
Quote from: Sprintex on October 26, 2015, 10:04:08 PM
I've never found any of the railway mags consistent enough to subscribe to, prefer to wander into WHS once a month and evaluate them all for content. The result is I think I've bought four in total in the past year as most of the time there's not enough interesting content :sleep:
Ditto...
My 2014 buying record was 3x Railway Modeller + 1x BRM. in 2015 so far I've 1x RM and one Model
Bus mag :o (there was some specific local content so please forgive me...) :sorrysign:
Likewise. I used to subscribe to Model Rail, but found there was increasingly not enough N gauge in it and too much narrow gauge stuff.
I too prefer to wander into WHS once a month and evaluate them all for content.
:hellosign: Because of the price of the magazines I also look first. Model Rail is printed on poor quality paper and there is a lot of advertisements.I subscribe at the moment to Railway Modeller, the post man keeps rolling the mag even though it states quite clearly "DO NOT BEND ".One interesting feature for me in BRM was "CROSSFEILDS" a BR blue pre-tops layout.The guy has got too much money.
It's a nice layout for sure. But I agree, it's one where the money thrown at the locos all but overshadows the craftsmanship of the layout owner. Virtually all the photos highlight the Mercig weathering and detailing done to the locos, which at over £100 a pop surely adds up to thousands of pounds for the locomotives alone.
On the other hand, standard issue Metcalfe cardboard kits have been used imaginatively to produce the factory and warehouses that fill the background. Similarly the track work is nicely done. But both these aspects seem to be underplayed, photographers tending to zoom in on the amazing locos. So whenever I've seen this layout published or discussed online, it feels more like an extended Mercig advertisement that anything else. Is the the BRM article any more insightful than that? Or do the locos hog the limelight yet again?
I'd be much more impressed by this layout if the weathering was done by the same guy (or team) building the layout. As it is, in all honesty it feels like a 'quite good' layout that just happens to host an expensive collection of 'truly outstanding' model trains, if that makes any sense.
Cheers, NeMo
Quote from: Toneeze on October 27, 2015, 04:20:17 PM
One interesting feature for me in BRM was "CROSSFEILDS" a BR blue pre-tops layout.The guy has got too much money.
I'm finding with all of these magazines that the editorial content is overshadowed by the advertising content, and it's the same adverts in all the magazines, it makes me wonder what Hattons budget for advertising is as one example, it must be well over £4k per month.
So they should be raking the money in.
I also think they concentrate too much on the loco's, and not enough on the actual scenery, as I am a novice scratchbuilder, that is what I like to see, not piles of metcalfe kits and the like, it's OK to have a few but some of the layout owners have made no attempt to build anything themselves, and the layouts they now feature show more about the owners wallet size that his skill and craftmanship.
Also the DVD's are really disappointing, I pointed out to them that they should produce proper "How To's" in the style of Joey Ricard, the reply I got was that it takes planning etc etc etc, I was going to post a really sarcastic reply, but somehow knew it would fall on deaf ears.
I get given free copies of BRM on the insistence of an older relative, which as an example of kindness, I cannot be ungrateful for. I have yet to broach the fact that as I model the American stuff there isn't much in the magazine for me; this I think is best passed over in silence. The magazine is certainly useful as a conversation starter/memory trigger for said older relative.
My thoughts on BRM and most other mags I've looked at are that I would happily have 50% less pictures and 50% more writing. This is partly because you can basically get photographs of other people's layouts and how-tos directly from forums these days making magazine format slightly redundant. Whereas in-depth accounts of how trains work, what it was like to work on them in different eras, and so on, are something you can't just get online (the info may be about there but we usually need a middle-man to present it to us in clear engaging text).
That said: how difficult it must be to try to put together a magazine 'about model trains'. Almost all of your readers would have one gauge and one era and one location in mind, so a general interest model train magazine is always going to go over the heads of a chunk of people.
Quote from: Trent on November 12, 2015, 01:14:24 AMThat said: how difficult it must be to try to put together a magazine 'about model trains'. Almost all of your readers would have one gauge and one era and one location in mind, so a general interest model train magazine is always going to go over the heads of a chunk of people.
True, when I dabbled in OO I was a regular reader of Model Railway Constructor and Railway Modeller as most of every issue was of some relevance to me. These days there are far more articles about specific manufacturers products (modifying or detailing a specific loco etc.) and very scale specific stuff which is less applicable now that I am a member of the Church of the One True Scale. I have yet to find anything in BRM that has made me want to take it any further than the quiet corner of Tesco's magazine aisle, I generally end up with Model Rail (which remains n-gauge friendly despite Chris Leigh's previous digs) in my basket and the occasional Railway Modeller if there is something n-gauge related.
Mind you, if you think its bad for railway modelling magazines just spare a thought for the wargamers. At least railway modellers have scenery and track in common, the main divide being steam/diesel/electric and a small handful of gauges, with only three very popular ones (O, OO, N). Wargamers are divided into bands of approximately 100 years of interest from around 800BC to the present day over nine popular scales and they can't even mix and match like you can with a preservation society or rule one layout. Ancient Greek hoplites in WW2 will never be as acceptable as a steam special on a modern layout.
That's a very interesting point, and I wonder if that helps to explain why one wargame brand in particular (with rather a large market share) specialises in anachronisms ...
Quote from: Derwentbob on November 12, 2015, 09:28:12 AM
Ancient Greek hoplites in WW2 will never be as acceptable as a steam special on a modern layout.
They could always pretend they were re-enacting the final scenes in Blazing Saddles.
:laughabovepost: :laughabovepost: :laughabovepost: