HELP!! What would make a good miniatures magazine to you?

[hobbyistschoice]

Hey,

I\'m currently the editor of upcoming miniatures magazine hobbyist\'s Choice. Although I\'ve spoke to a lot (and i mean a lot!) of people i still feel theres some stuff truly missing from the important first issue.

so what would you all like to see?

Also feel free to contact me at hobbyistschoice@googlemail.com including to send mini\'s you hope to have featured in the magazine.

Thanks
Dave

PS check out are very wip site here - http://hobbyistschoice.x10hosting.com/index.php

 

[squig hunter]

Hobby articles, and lot\'s of them. I does help though if its well written and witty.

Squig

*Edit* I just thought of anoher thing, competitions are fun

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by squig hunter
Hobby articles, and lot\'s of them. I does help though if its well written and witty.

Squig

*Edit* I just thought of anoher thing, competitions are fun

Hey,

What kind of hobby articles most interest you? painting, modeling, terrain etc...

Also what level of skill should these articles be aimed towards?

Also any idea\'s for competitions would be greatly appreciated as we have the major problem of this being a free magazine done in are free time so lack the funds for large prizes of other magazine.

Thanks
David

 

[mattsterbenz]

a variety hobby articles would be great. everything from blending, to nmm, to basing/terrain, etc...

beginner articles are always helpful (mostly to gamers and people who dont paint much), but I think as far as the crowd on CMON is concerned, some advanced level articles would be pretty popular.

-Matt

 

[squig hunter]

Originally posted by hobbyistschoice

Originally posted by squig hunter
Hobby articles, and lot\'s of them. I does help though if its well written and witty.

Squig

*Edit* I just thought of anoher thing, competitions are fun

Hey,

What kind of hobby articles most interest you? painting, modeling, terrain etc...
A variety is always good.


Also what level of skill should these articles be aimed towards?
See what mattsterbenz wrote.

Also any idea\'s for competitions would be greatly appreciated as we have the major problem of this being a free magazine done in are free time so lack the funds for large prizes of other magazine.
A lot of companies will give away things to be prizes if you ask nicely


Thanks
David

Comments in blue.

Squig

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by mattsterbenz
a variety hobby articles would be great. everything from blending, to nmm, to basing/terrain, etc...

beginner articles are always helpful (mostly to gamers and people who dont paint much), but I think as far as the crowd on CMON is concerned, some advanced level articles would be pretty popular.

-Matt

Hey,

Thanks for the reply, yeh i think most of the hobby articles will be geared towards the advance level.

How would you feel about the idea of splitting most painting articles into two with the majority section being advance ways to do something then a quicker way included using more basic techniques for gamers?

Thanks David

 

[Swordwind]

Harbinger was good until they started to focus on rules and battle reports instead of the hobby aspect. SCREW THE GAMES WE WANT MINIS!!!

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by Swordwind
Harbinger was good until they started to focus on rules and battle reports instead of the hobby aspect. SCREW THE GAMES WE WANT MINIS!!!

Hey,

You\'ll be happy to know that the majority of the first issue is planned to be hobby contact. Although we hope to add more gaming content eventually but not at the expense of hobby content.

Thanks
David

 

[matty1001]

Interviews with painters and sculptors.
Showcase\'s with photo\'s of certain painters stuff etc...

Explainations and examples of techniques.

Reviews. I.e. paint makes, or brushes.

Comp\'s, best painting comp, converting comp, photoshop comp?

All in all a good design without floods of huge adverts every other page.

 

[Roger Bunting]

You could tie in some hobby articles to the gaming articles, like how to make the terrain used or paint the figures seen etc.

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by matty1001
Interviews with painters and sculptors.
Showcase\'s with photo\'s of certain painters stuff etc...

Explainations and examples of techniques.

Reviews. I.e. paint makes, or brushes.

Comp\'s, best painting comp, converting comp, photoshop comp?

All in all a good design without floods of huge adverts every other page.

Hey,

In regard to interviews were currently looking into people to contact who might be interested in an interview. Also Hopefully we\'ll have some interesting reviews for you from issue one onwards currently we\'ve got a brush review lined up and are looking into various kits to review at the moment any other suggestions for us?

I think I\'ve got a painting / modeling competition lined up at the moment just looking into prizes at the moment.

Also what do people think about us allowing small miniatures company\'s to place free advertisements in our magazine?

Thanks
Dave

 

[lono]

First of all, you need to be more thorough when it comes to checking your writing. There some fairly basic grammatical and punctuation mistakes in your posts here and the site you have put up. This may seem a little petty and perhaps it\'s my journalistic background coming through, but I think it\'s important that the editor of any sort of magazine, regardless of the size and scope, has a good grasp of these things.

As for the actual content, it really depends on what audience you are aiming it at. From what you have written it sounds like it is more a showcase of skilled painters than anything else, so I think you will need to back that up with high quality articles and tutorials by skilled hobbyists that are aimed at high level hobbyists. Advanced techniques and theory relating to the artists you choose to showcase would be good. If you had the work of someone known for their NMM then add a NMM how to etc.

Top tips collections are always good. As long as you do your research and get a varied selection even the most experienced people are probably going to find some new ideas.

I think the most important thing is you keep it creative and different.

And adding a competitive aspect could certainly be a good way of generating content.

You may already have thought about this, but one thing you will need to consider is how you are going to display the information. Will it be web articles or a full on downloadable PDF magazine? If it\'s the latter you will need to ensure the images within it are of sufficient quality, whilst the file size isn\'t too large.

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by lono
First of all, you need to be more thorough when it comes to checking your writing. There some fairly basic grammatical and punctuation mistakes in your posts here and the site you have put up. This may seem a little petty and perhaps it\'s my journalistic background coming through, but I think it\'s important that the editor of any sort of magazine, regardless of the size and scope, has a good grasp of these things.

As for the actual content, it really depends on what audience you are aiming it at. From what you have written it sounds like it is more a showcase of skilled painters than anything else, so I think you will need to back that up with high quality articles and tutorials by skilled hobbyists that are aimed at high level hobbyists. Advanced techniques and theory relating to the artists you choose to showcase would be good. If you had the work of someone known for their NMM then add a NMM how to etc.

Top tips collections are always good. As long as you do your research and get a varied selection even the most experienced people are probably going to find some new ideas.

I think the most important thing is you keep it creative and different.

And adding a competitive aspect could certainly be a good way of generating content.

You may already have thought about this, but one thing you will need to consider is how you are going to display the information. Will it be web articles or a full on download able PDF magazine? If it\'s the latter you will need to ensure the images within it are of sufficient quality, whilst the file size isn\'t too large.

Hey,

Thanks yeah i know my spelling at grammar tends to be on the poor side whilst writing comments etc but rest assured that when it comes to printed work it will be thoroughly read corrected and reread etc... and my e-mail address will be provided for any complaints and comments and unlike other magazine we reply to every one of them!!

This is one of our current major problems we really want to cater for the experienced hobbyist however we don\'t want to forget about the less advanced completely and were working hard on keeping this balance.

Yeah thanks a top tips article is planned as a regular occurrence. These tips will be researched from a number of different sources possibly showcasing a single colour or area of painting or modeling each month.

Yeh i also think this is important. Were hoping to center the content of the competitions around current events.

It will be a pdf magazine however were currently not planning on using any interactivity to allow easy printing. Coming from a graphic design background creativity, quality and file sizes will hopefully be up to standard.

Also another question is what would people say was the way to get support from the hobbyist community?

Thanks
David

 

[johnboyjjb]

Things I would like to see in a FREE mini magazine:

Articles with a rating system on how difficult it is to achieve the effect desired. This beginner article is a one star (shovel, pickax, paintbrush, etc.) difficulty.

At least one review of an older mini that has been painted. This review would need to include the pluses and downfalls of each sculpt. Real easy - the GW forest dragon with riders I am working on looks pretty cool but is turning out to be a big project (time consuming) and also has one of the worst multi-part fits I have ever seen. Tons of green stuff required to make this go together.

Consistency. I would be more interested in a 2 page magazine that came out weekly than a 50 page magazine that came out sporadically. D20 had a mini review article post as most recent that is from December 8th, 2005.

Copyrighted PDF distribution that would limit theft of contributors work.

I believe it was Dr. Faust\'s site that would take a mini that had been painted and in 3-4 steps show how it could be improved. More shade here - more highlight here. That would make a good article.

Most companies will give a little bit of swag away in exchange for free advertising in the mag. This could then be used as prizes for painting competitions. One of my favorite concepts for a contest is repaints like the ones found here.

Internationality. If a magazine is going to be distributed on the web it will need to cover more than events going on within a 5 mile radius of you. I couldn\'t care less about a con in Florida. I don\'t live there. But the people down in Florida, I care about. I interact with them via this site on a daily basis. Several people on this site have been proven to be effective writers in English, even those who don\'t speak it. Some of the best painting is by people who don\'t speak English well. It would be wise to get interviews with them via a 3rd party interpreter or even a 3rd party writer.

Also another question is what would people say was the way to get support from the hobbyist community?
Ask! What kind of support are you looking for? Financial? Materials? Articles? I know of three people who devote a lot of free time to just keeping the daily flow of this site in order. They do it for free because they enjoy the power that was given to them. The power to create and destroy posts at will. The power to veto photos. Or maybe they just like the site and the community it has created.

Polls: Give me options on what I want to learn about next. Give me options on who I want to learn about next. It will be a web distributed magazine so a simple poll will be easy to establish.

Finally, I get frustrated trying to read some of your comments due to the blatant errors in grammar. And spruce up the website - at least one picture would be nice.

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Hey,

I think your rating system idea is very good I shall make sure it gets incorporated into the magazine.

yeah something we especially don\'t like is the idea of just displaying the latest miniatures. Hopefully we\'ll rekindle your love with some of the older miniatures with new reviews.

We hope to get our magazine released on the same day every month. Its just the start date were having problems deciding on content for the first issue along with having an operation on my shoulder meaning i can\'t write for long periods is threatening the date to be pushed back.

can i ask what you mean by the bit about copyright? were planning to use the copyright of there artists etc.

Sorry what i meant by events was the likes of halloween and Christmas.


Thanks I\'m concentrating on asking for submitters at the moment but i\'m going to need other help in future.

In regard to polls i can easily place a pole on the website however i wish to keep the magazine purely static with the exception of the odd hyper link this is to allow for easy printing.

Thanks

David

And i can only appolegies for the grammar in my posts

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally by hobbyistschoise
And i can only appolegies for the grammar in my posts

I do hope that was tongue in cheek.

David: Having been as subscriber to Harbinger magazine and loved the initial \"freshness\" that it brought to the Miniatures Wargaming hobby (and all it\'s aspects) towards the end I became rather disillusioned with it. (And in point of fact I haven\'t looked at the online PDF version since issue 27, since I have better things to do with 40 minutes than wait for a download).

What I would hate to see is an initial explosive burst of publications and then a tailing off due to lack of pre-planning, because you\'ve packed out the first issues and left \"Jack All\" for later publication.
It\'s well known that White Dwarf (& other mags) plan a minimum of three months ahead of the expected publication date, try to do the same and you\'ll be in a better position to manage your content.
As Johnboyjjb said I\'d rather read a handful of High Quality pages leaving me wanting more, than a large amount of mediocre writing.

So some suggestions: Contact the people who run \"Smaller\" miniature companies asking to do an interview on their company and their view of the hobby. The likes of Werner Klocke of \"Freebooter\", comes to mind. (He\'s very approachable)
Look to people who Freelance as painters and interview them.
Try to contact people who love the hobby and enjoy passing on what they have learned, in turn to others. You don\'t have to use \"Big names\" in the community to generate an interest in painting/modelling.



@Johnboyjjb: On behalf of the moderators, I\'d like to say thank you for those kind words.

 

[johnboyjjb]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
@Johnboyjjb: On behalf of the moderators, I\'d like to say thank you for those kind words.

No problem. You guys are easily worth 5 times what you get paid for this job.

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach

Originally by hobbyistschoise
And i can only appolegies for the grammar in my posts

I do hope that was tongue in cheek.

David: Having been as subscriber to Harbinger magazine and loved the initial \"freshness\" that it brought to the Miniatures Wargaming hobby (and all it\'s aspects) towards the end I became rather disillusioned with it. (And in point of fact I haven\'t looked at the online PDF version since issue 27, since I have better things to do with 40 minutes than wait for a download).

What I would hate to see is an initial explosive burst of publications and then a tailing off due to lack of pre-planning, because you\'ve packed out the first issues and left \"Jack All\" for later publication.
It\'s well known that White Dwarf (& other mags) plan a minimum of three months ahead of the expected publication date, try to do the same and you\'ll be in a better position to manage your content.
As Johnboyjjb said I\'d rather read a handful of High Quality pages leaving me wanting more, than a large amount of mediocre writing.

So some suggestions: Contact the people who run \"Smaller\" miniature companies asking to do an interview on their company and their view of the hobby. The likes of Werner Klocke of \"Freebooter\", comes to mind. (He\'s very approachable)
Look to people who Freelance as painters and interview them.
Try to contact people who love the hobby and enjoy passing on what they have learned, in turn to others. You don\'t have to use \"Big names\" in the community to generate an interest in painting/modelling.



@Johnboyjjb: On behalf of the moderators, I\'d like to say thank you for those kind words.

Hey,

Thanks for the comments, I was also a harbinger reader and also stopped reading around that time however rest assured that coming from a IT and graphic design background I\'ll make sure it has acceptable download times without reducing the level of quality.

My general plan at the moment is to try and make this planned 3 months in advance however and were considering putting the first issue back to Halloween with this in mind.

Thanks for the advice I\'m going to try and contact some painters and sculptors this month to arrange interviews (probably electronically) also I\'m currently contacting some company\'s looking for there support.

Thanks
David

 

[hobbyistschoice]

Originally posted by johnboyjjb

Copyrighted PDF distribution that would limit theft of contributors work.

Sorry i get what you mean now yeah that shall be included.

 

[Infidel Castro]

Why do people who want to release publications always ask the same open-ended question on this site? What would you like to see in this publication? Well, my opinion is that you need a strong vision of what you want to do with it. If you\'ve done all your initial market research, the question you asked is pretty naive. Be strong will you! BE STRONG!