100 not out – Your Techniques Bank has hit a century!
You may have seen the lead story on your cover this week…
I am really proud of the fact that we have hit this total – many contributors have willingly spent time creating a fantastic collection of fully illustrated step-by-step ‘how-to’ articles and demonstrations of the techniques they use and find really helpful in their modelling. The TB is a fundamental core part of SMN magazine – the latter rapidly becoming a major resource centre too.
Your TB is full of all manner of techniques including HD videos that you can apply to any type of scale modelling, whether you build Aircraft, Armour or Maritime projects.
Whatever your scale, the TB is designed to bring all these tips, hints and how-to help into one place, making any help easy to find. You want to know about something to do with using glues? Check out Model Construction in your TB – it’s all there…whatever your question, your TB will probably have the answer. If not, then ask me and it will have!
Got a modelling question or problem?
Do you have a modelling problem or question that you’d like to ask? (Don’t worry, I won’t identify you!) … just send it in and I will do my best to add a technique into the TB, so that everyone can benefit from your answer.
Just simply contact us and send it in. I, or one of the SMN team, will contact you by return and, as I say, if appropriate, I can get an entry sorted for the TB for everyone’s benefit.
Remember, if you are thinking about that question, then I guarantee you that there are ten other people out there who also have had that problem – probably more!
So… ask away, it’s part of the package of being a subscriber to SMN.
But it’s not just your TB where you’ll find tips, advice and modelling help
Oh, no, not at all. Did you know that the average length of any review or article in SMN is 26 A4 pages?
That’s a huge amount of know-how going down into the pages with dozens of pictures and close-ups, so that you can see exactly what the modeller is doing. How many paper magazines give you that kind of depth and coverage? None, because unfortunately they can’t. You only have so many pages in a paper mag and the editorial coverage gets squeezed more and more, which means you get less and less for your money.
I will return to this theme I’m sure, but for now, just think about it.
And… just look at the cover stats for Finished Now today – the area in SMN where all the completed articles and build reviews are accessed:
- Images: 11,718
- A4 pages: 6,159
- Words: 500,314
It’s not just your Techniques Bank then that offers such a huge amount of illustrated support, it’s all the build articles as well – a massive resource.
So how can you get the best out of your TB and Finished Now?
- Visit regularly – that’s how!
- Read around anything that looks remotely interesting
- Read outside your specific area of interest
- Watch the HD video demonstrations
- Look through and find out how others do it by trawling through your TB
- Contact us and ask your questions
- SMN is an awesome resource centre right at your fingertips that can be incredibly interactive – if you want it to be – you only have to ask!
- Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. There’s a growing and really friendly community of likeminded modellers that regularly check in, so what are you waiting for?
So, you can see TB is doing very well at the crease, and it looks like he’s determined to stay there, amassing a bigger and bigger total! Now, let’s see if the national side can live up to their World No.1 ranking in Pakistan…? No? Well…ok, that’s another story for another magazine!
See you very soon and go on – enjoy your modelling time, that’s what it’s all about in these trying times…
Geoff