Massey Ferguson Tractor on front cover of ME 4382

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

If you are into building models of anything, surely any chance to get alongside the real thing should be taken at any oppertunity. Ian S C

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Perhaps it would be a good idea if some people climbed out of their prams and picked their own rattle up!

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

I don’t see a problem with a tractor on the front or a rally inside.

Most Model Engineers are interested in full size vintage machinery.

 

I have certainly said in MEW, not sure about ME, that I take a lot of articles, pay out about £2,000 to contributors, add another 2 or £3,000 worth of value editing them, correcting photos, redrawing, printing and delivering to Smiths. This is around £5,000 of value then we sell it to you for £2.95. If the odd articles is not to your taste, there is still another £4,500 worth of content for you to read.

 

Having checked the last 4 issues, there is the South Hams rally and the Heyword article that are not model engineering.

 

However, I could get back to the old style Model Enginer from a couple of years ago.

 

‘Hacksaw review anyone’.

 

I do try to make the magazine as interesting to as wide a variety of people as possible.

The circulation of the average tractor magazine is over 50,000. That means there are far more people interested in renovating a tractor than building a steam locomotive.

 

I get far more compliments than complaints so I am doing something right.

 

Also, there is a bit of overlap between ME and MEW readers but not as much as you might think.

 

regards David

Edited By David Clark 1 on 21/07/2010 15:35:24

[Richard ParsonsParticipant @richardparsons61721]

   

Many long years ago I think there were often adverts on the cover. Does it matter what is on the cover? It is what is inside that counts!

 

[Engine BuilderParticipant @enginebuilder]

Posted by Richard Parsons on 21/07/2010 17:05:44:
   

Many long years ago I think there were often adverts on the cover. Does it matter what is on the cover? It is what is inside that counts!

 

 Its not the cover thats the problem, Richard,  A vintage Rally report should not be inside a model magazine.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

There is of course another way of ensuring what is on the inside is to your liking, get your pen out and give us all the benefit of your experience. The Editor is always asking for submissions.

[Engine BuilderParticipant @enginebuilder]

Posted by KWIL on 21/07/2010 19:05:32:

There is of course another way of ensuring what is on the inside is to your liking, get your pen out and give us all the benefit of your experience. The Editor is always asking for submissions.

 

 I have in fact recently had 2 articles published.

I could describe my expirience of this but I think my comments would be censored.

Its not like you read in the editorial.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

‘Hacksaw review anyone’.

me please

 

This IS getting serious! These are some of the things I’ve seen in ME:

 

Articles on the Isle of Man Railway, one of which dealt with the moving of a  WW1 bedding delousing boiler.

Several articles about full size steam cars.

Short stories about traction engines

Lots of rally reports(!)

Stories about full size engineering achievements and past engineering practices (mills, ships and full size railways.

Descriptions of museums (Engineers Day Out)

Descriptions of various prototypes without any ‘model’ references

“Rebuilding a TWIMP” (possibly the funniest thing I’ve read in ME)

 

 Frankly I don’t think ANYTHING with an engineering connection is out of place in ME, buit it’s all a matter of balance. I agree with Chris(?) who mentioned that many of us aspire to full size but don’t have the cash or the space. That’s why I fixed a scrap lawnmower engine and put it on a wooden sled – it’s my little bit of ‘heritage’. Don’t know that I’d have the guts to take it to a rally though!

 

Neil

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by David Clark 1 on 21/07/2010 15:35:02:

 

I have certainly said in MEW, not sure about ME, that I take a lot of articles, pay out about £2,000 to contributors, add another 2 or £3,000 worth of value editing them, correcting photos, redrawing, printing and delivering to Smiths. This is around £5,000 of value then we sell it to you for £2.95. If the odd articles is not to your taste, there is still another £4,500 worth of content for you to read.

 

regards David

 

 

 David,

 

You have quoted this before but can we have the figures in a true context .

You pay out £2,000 to contributors and value add [ note the buzz word ] another £2 – £3,000 making a total of £5,000.

 

Now can we deduct all the advertising revenue from this figure?

 

Last months copy had 26 full pages of advertising so not counting the cover this was 41 pages of reading material.

Now deduct the editorial and scribe a line and we are left with 39 pages.

 

Those 39 pages, as you say cost £2,000 at £50 per page.

Now I dare say you won’t want to publish advertising rates, which are variable depending on position in the mag but it’s not possible to buy the cheapest page for £50

 

If we take a guess and an average and say each advertising page is worth £400 then that’s £10,400 before you even sell a copy

 

John S.

 

 

Probably be edited or deleted before cock crow.

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi Guys,

Just to poke fun at the whingers, if they had actually looked at the pictures in the article before they threw their rattles out of the pram, they would have seen a lathe (pic 16) and a drill cum grinder cum hacksaw (pic 6).  Both of these items are a critical part of model engineering, and therefore have every right to be included in an engineering magazine, certainly more so than some articles in the past, that did not provoke any rattle/pram tantrums.

Our esteemed Editor gets the mix broadly right and as ‘they’ say “variety is the spice of life”.

chriStephens 

PS yes as you may have guessed I am bored, waiting indoors all day for District Nurses to attend to their “client” , no, they are not Psychiatric ones and no, they are not visiting me.

[GoCreateParticipant @gocreate]

Well Chris, if you are having a dig at me I don’t consider myself a whinger, I am just expressing my view, “weren’t there any models at this rally?”, If there were they should have been included considering the nature of the magazine. I think rally reports should have some model content.

I just renewed my subscription to MEW and ME so I still have my dummy firmly in hand and will be sucking like mad when I read the forth coming issues. 

I take any opportunity to see the full size thing and as such enjoyed the engineers’ day out articles, I have a few places on my list to visit now, roll on retirement.  When I look at full size I am always thinking how interesting it would be make the scale parts and how I could do it.

It’s great to see discussion, history and photos in ME when they relate to a model that is being or has been built, it’s very interesting to see how the model compares to the full size prototype and the scale problems encountered along the journy.

I know it’s difficult to get a balance in ME especially when relying on hobbyists providing content.

Twice I have suggested articles for ME that I could contribute but had no response one way or the other. Maybe I will have another go, I don’t want to spend time writing if the material is not suitable.

 

Nigel

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Rather than suggest an article, write a short precis of the article and submit to David, he will come back, he does to me.

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