Still in the shops or not?

[FiddleSticks]

Is RCM&E still available in the shops these days or not? I'm not out that much but the last few times we've gone past magazines I keep looking for RCM&E and never see it - anywhere. Nor do I see others such as Model Helicopter World anymore.

 

The frustrating thing is that everywhere I look I see plenty of farmers tractor magazines - cos like you know, farmers are in ASDA all the time..

 

So is RCM&E still available out there in the wild or is it now subscription only? - Hardly a good way to encourage new customers if its subs only. For me personally I only used to buy it when there was something of interest in there for me (often seen on the front cover) which is why a years subscription doesn't work for me. 

[RottenRow]

It seems to be available only at certain outlets.

 

Larger WH Smiths have it, but not many copies and it seems if an issue sells out it isn’t restocked. I’ve not seen it motorway services WH Smiths though.

 

A few larger Tescos have it, but a couple that I know used to keep it have stopped. Presumably less were selling than other titles.

 

Sadly it does appear that the days of ‘look before you buy’ have pretty much gone. I wouldn’t want to buy every month’s copy, some have little content that is of interest to me, so a subscription isn’t my preferred option.

I hadn’t noticed the tractor magazines specifically, but there still seems to be a good number of model railway mags, and one or two on plastic kit modelling.

 

Brian. 

[John Lee]

Individual issues, both printed & digital, are available direct from the publishers, this is the link from modelflying.co.uk home page:

 

https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/issues/RCM?source=Digital22

[Eric Robson]

In my area there is 4 railway model shops, the last RC aeromodeller shop closed a few years ago. As some of these have adverts in the magazines that will keep some revenue coming in for the magazines. Sadly there used to be 5 pages of RC model shops in the directory now there is less than half a page in the magazine,I believe this was a free service but many also had paid for adverts. I did subscribe to the RCME but found after a lifetime of modelling there was not a lot to keep me entertained and like others I turned to looking in Smiths and if there was something of interest I would buy it, the last few months it hasn't been on the shelves when I have looked. Looking back at the early magazines the lack of the cottage industry in the model world is another part of the demise of the adverts and interest to modellers, the Chinese foamies have seen to that.

[Futura57]

 

I think there were two competing Heli mags. Model Helicoper World magazine ceased publication some years ago.

 

.https://www.magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/model-helicopter-world-magazine?mobile_version=on&mwr=Y

 

It would be a shame if RCM&E went the same way. I for one continue to support it through subscription, even if much of the content is not of immediate interest. I keep a few recent copies in a bedside drawer and in the smallest room in the house. I usually dip in and out and end up reading them cover to cover, often enjoying content I might be tempted to skip. I buy the occasional second copy if I get a plan or article published.

 

 

Edited October 10 by Futura57

[GrumpyGnome]

21 minutes ago, Eric Robson said:

...............the Chinese foamies have seen to that.

Sort of. We saw to it by buying all the Chinese foamies......... nobody forced us

[payneib]

24 minutes ago, GrumpyGnome said:

Sort of. We saw to it by buying all the Chinese foamies......... nobody forced us

I've only got two, and I bought those second/third/more hand. 

[leccyflyer]

37 minutes ago, Futura57 said:

 

I think there were two competing Heli mags. Model Helicoper World magazine ceased publication some years ago.

 

.https://www.magazineexchange.co.uk/cw/model-helicopter-world-magazine?mobile_version=on&mwr=Y

 

It would be a shame if RCM&E went the same way. I for one continue to support it through subscription, even if much of the content is not of immediate interest. I keep a few recent copies in a bedside drawer and in the smallest room in the house. I usually dip in and out and end up reading them cover to cover, often enjoying content I might be tempted to skip. I buy the occasional second copy if I get a plan or article published.

 

 

Good man yerself. 👍

 

Personally I think it's really important that we support the magazine, as pretty much the last survivor of a proud UK aeromodelling publishing heritage. I keep my subscription going, keep every issue, which are read and re-read time and time again and I usually find something interesting in every one.  I have a wee moan every month, when unwrapping the mag to note that it's down to 99 pages a month, when it was 130-140 pages a month before Covid, but I suppose that sort of reduction was inevitable. I don't really like it when articles are spun out over several months, when they could perhaps be concluded in one issue, giving a more substantial read, but understand that there are constraints on how many pages the magazine can hold.

 

Sadly, if RCM&E eventually does  not continue in the long term, I hope that folks realise that this forum is quite likely to go as well, which would be the loss of two very important resources to the hobby in this country.

[Christopher Long 1]

16 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

pretty much the last survivor of a proud UK aeromodelling publishing heritage

Don't forget Aeromodeller, a magazine with a much longer history and heritage than RCM&E, which also deserves to be supported and would be missed if it disappeared, it is also available in print and digital formats.

[leccyflyer]

I'd  thought that Aeromodeller had been incorporated into one of the other magazines - ?AMI? or Flyer? - some years ago and disappeared when that ceased production, but it looks as though they are back again, so will certainly bear that in mind.

[Christopher Long 1]

9 minutes ago, leccyflyer said:

but it looks as though they are back again, so will certainly bear that in mind.

AeroModeller has been 'back' since January 2013 (or 12 years!) Yes it was published as part of AMI for a while (2001 - 2011). Edition 1 of AeroModeller was published in November 1935 (89 years ago) now that is real heritage!

[FiddleSticks]

5 hours ago, Eric Robson said:

the Chinese foamies have seen to that.

 

To be fair, they are a cheap and satisfying way into the hobby. We go to the southern model airshow at headcorn each year and my son really wanted to get into it (along with dad wanting to return to the hobby on a tight budget). I bought him a WLToys Cessna for £50. FIFTY quid!!!

 

We now have a used Delta ray one and a XKA800 electric glider in the cupboard along with a replacement cessna as the original one went awol.

 

However I also have two larger foamies in the shed which are more the size of traditional RC aircraft plus a couple of raptors helo's.

 

But RC in my mind is still about building and flying them, i just lack the space as the shed is full of tools and car spares.

 

But I fail to see how the foamies would reduce newbies into the hobby who want to fly the real serious RC aircraft and likewise I fail to see how that could affect magazine sales - which to me would only be countered by the internet.

 

I used to find RCM&E was difficult to obtain two decades ago as it was only in a few of the larger magazine retailers but these days those places prefer tractor mags which I find really odd. Tractors!

 

Like @RottenRowsays, plenty of model railway mags out there and plastic kit mags but RC aircraft mags seem to have vanished. Moons ago there'd be around a dozen of them at a good retailer.

[Bruce Collinson]

My LMS stocks it.

[Jim Hearnden 1]

I sub to RCM & E. I started the sub when they had a freebie gift with it. Generally I find it a good read & it is in a pile in the smallest room.  We no longer have a W H Smith in Chatham & no one else keeps model mags. I must admit I flick through Aeromodeller when in a town with a WH Smith but buy very few. 

I found some copies of Model Flyer a while ago & although 2001 really enjoyed reading it. 3 plans, lots of interesting articles. 

 

Incidentally if you're into electronics this is all the electronic mags going back to year dot!!

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Home-UK.htm

 

 

[Geoff S]

1 hour ago, Jim Hearnden 1 said:

I sub to RCM & E. I started the sub when they had a freebie gift with it. Generally I find it a good read & it is in a pile in the smallest room.  We no longer have a W H Smith in Chatham & no one else keeps model mags. I must admit I flick through Aeromodeller when in a town with a WH Smith but buy very few. 

I found some copies of Model Flyer a while ago & although 2001 really enjoyed reading it. 3 plans, lots of interesting articles. 

 

Incidentally if you're into electronics this is all the electronic mags going back to year dot!!

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Home-UK.htm

 

 

 

That's an incredible site.  I used to take Wireless World back in the 1960s and two of my colleagues had a phase-locked loop solid state stereo decoder design published there - they went on to form a company called Integrex and supplied kits to build it.  I experimentally opened a 1969 issue of WW and it's all there to read as a pdf file.

[GrumpyGnome]

The statement about chinese foamies was that they resulted in the killing off of the 'cottage industry' british kit manufacturers..... not magazines per se.

 

I would imagine it's the cost chain of a printed publication, compared to, say the internet, that causes a magazine's demise. Along with a declining readership of modellers who grew up with paper..... and found their next dream purchase or project in the magazine. 

 

I'm with leccyflyer - I'll continue to buy it until it stops, irrespective of the content. Would I miss it? Yes. But I think I'd miss this forum, and friendly helpful forumites, more.

[Engine Doctor]

I used to enjoy the reviews of engines and kits . Increasingly though these couldn't be trusted. One engine test in particular comes to mind . Remember when an engine tester would put an engine through its paces then strip down for pics and it to check for wear ? on this occasion ,I believe it was an Chinese engine , the report said words to the effect " no appreciable signs of wear engine has good compression  ... etc etc "usual blurb then the pics showed a great big gouge/pick up on one side of the piston ! One that never was picked up by the proof readers. So who was fooling who? After that engines were not stripped ..... possibly to avoid embarrassment ?

[FiddleSticks]

3 hours ago, GrumpyGnome said:

The statement about chinese foamies was that they resulted in the killing off of the 'cottage industry' british kit manufacturers..... not magazines per se.

 

Ah right, I'm with you now.

 

The foamies are great IMO but still nothing like the real balsa / foamboard aircraft kits / home builds. I thought he foamies would encourage more people into the hobby if i'm honest - you know, start small and grow bigger..

 

The little foamies we have are great. Ok the replacement Cessna doesn't fly as well as the original did but it still goes up in mild winds. The XKA800 leccy glider is a bit odd - the ailerons work better in one direction than the other so I end up using the rudder there (I guess thats what being apilot is about - learning how to adjust quick and compensate and stay in control..). I'd still like it to fly properly but despite several tinkering sessions it refuses to play ball. The (2nd hand) Delta Ray One that my son found at Headcorns bring & buy however.. jeez I was seriously nervous of test flying that thing as it has clearly been through a couple of head on crashes but it flies absolutely brilliantly. It's polystyrene but flies so well and in a pickle, letting the sticks go sees it return to level flight in a split second. An amazing bit of kit that one. Crash wise they survive brilliantly too. 

 

Yet somehow I still yearn for the bigger balsa stuff in my life.  The foamies are great for a few minutes of fun in the nearby public park (note that I fly over the conservation area where nobody walks because its overgrown) but they're just not the same as the big boys with their fancy bits like retracts, lights etc and the ability to fly in stronger winds. I'm kinda gutted the way iots all going, my nearest model shop now is Faversham - bloomin miles away and even that was looking a bit run down. We used to have one here in town but that closed down and even then they specialised mainly in railway stuff - they did sell aircraft bits but not a lot.

 

What I liked about seeing mags on the shelf was that you could quickly browse through and if there was anything likeable, I'd buy it. Trouble is that RCM&E seems to concentrate on the older stuff - biplanes etc which just don't appeal to me at all and the free plans were always for such things. The T.A4 Topcat plan I bought recently (and the 2nd hand accompanying mag to go with it from mag exchange) was an example of the sort of stuff I liked - not necessarily a scale model but fun and modern looking and that was the sort of thing that would cause me to buy the mag but most of the time I was seeing biplanes and wartime relics in there which I found pretty boring. I know i can buy it online but i can't get a good preview of the content 😞

 

[FiddleSticks]

9 minutes ago, Engine Doctor said:

I used to enjoy the reviews of engines and kits . Increasingly though these couldn't be trusted. One engine test in particular comes to mind . Remember when an engine tester would put an engine through its paces then strip down for pics and it to check for wear ? on this occasion ,I believe it was an Chinese engine , the report said words to the effect " no appreciable signs of wear engine has good compression  ... etc etc "usual blurb then the pics showed a great big gouge/pick up on one side of the piston ! One that never was picked up by the proof readers. So who was fooling who? After that engines were not stripped ..... possibly to avoid embarrassment ?

 

Crikey that sounds bad!

 

What happened to nexus then? - It doesn't look like RCM&E is published by them anymore so I'm going to guess that the bean counters got involved?

[GrumpyGnome]

The magazine publishes plans sent in by readers - if people don't send stuff in, there's nothing to publish.

 

If you want bigger stuff with lights, retracts etc. have a look at MotionRC....... need a decent runway of course

[payneib]

Just now, GrumpyGnome said:

 if people don't send stuff in, there's nothing to publish.

 

 

 

That's the same complaint leveled at the BMFA mag - "We don't like what's in it" - but it's entirely reader submitted. They print what people send in to print. 

[RottenRow]

Just now, GrumpyGnome said:

 

The magazine publishes plans sent in by readers - if people don't send stuff in, there's nothing to publish.

 

I’m not sure that I fully agree with this.

 

Of course some excellent plans and articles are sent in by readers, including members of this forum, and are published. But isn’t it the editor and his team who should also be actively collecting material for articles, following up leads etc.

 

There are some excellent and often innovative threads that come up on this forum from time to time, basically free leads which the RCM&E team could investigate further as content for the mag.

The BMFA News is, or should be, slightly different as one reason for its existence is to convey news and information on the BMFA to the membership.

 

Brian.

[Robert Cracknell]

My sight impaired partner has a bi monthly newsletter from her local blind association and they ask for suggestions as to what articles the readers would like to see reported on.

The magazines we read have reporters and researchers and perhaps likewise we could suggest to them articles we would like to see. Perhaps a report on one of the remaining UK engine or turbine manufacturers or an accessory manufacturer. Perhaps an interview or biography on some of the names in the hobby. Perhaps one of the reporters could be persuaded to take his holiday in Ecuador and report on the operation of a balsa plantation while he is there...!!