I think you will find the people on subscription from newsagents are only a couple of issues ahead. Hachette are the only people doing this partwork as they publish it.

Daryl

Hi Charles,

My partner at work is also subscribing to this kit.  His method is, as each batch of 4 issues arrive, has a quick check of the parts and then "files" them – he’s not intending to start the build until he has all the issues.  When you think about it, its a great idea, as any problems or part changes would have been sorted out,  also you have other problems solved on forums by other builders.  (1 problem was how to seal the inside of the hull on Martins build (Mayhem).  While he’s collecting the issues, he’s working on another model.

Do you read German ? – if so you could order your issues from there, as they are well ahead of us (current issue 67).

The kit builds into what looks like a well worth the wait model.  for a look into the future have a look at one of the German sites.

http://www.subifa.de/heftvorschau/die_bismarck_aktuell.htm

Cheers – Ken

I agree with you Peter, they are not good value for money, costing £687.12 for the kit and I’m not sure if this includes the radio and running gear (I seem to remember this was an extra option which had to be decided upon early in the build).

But not everyone has the option to lay out £700 for a kit in one go – buying it in instalments will allow many modellers to build and own a large model and learn a lot along the way.  As for the long build time, many modellers take in excess of 2 years or more to complete theirs, you only have to read the forums to confirm this.

Problems ! – they are to some builders, to others they are the enjoyable part of the build, trying to solve them. We would be lost without something to moan about.

Christmas time – again your right here, they are aimed at the Christmas shopper.  But we are to blame here. We read the blurp, watch the adverts and believing its all so simple without realising how limited our building skills are – they are not for beginners – but the ads make it seem all so easy.

Cheers – Ken

Being able to spread the cost is not a bad idea as it no doubt suits many and its also likely to be one of the very reasons why they put these things on TV around Xmas.

I have to admit there clever marketing & hype seems to work well as I know my own newsagent appears shift loads of these weekly mags, but my thoughts on these mags has not swayed one iota, all you ever seem to read or hear about are problems or complaints.

They way I understand it is that these mags are supposed to make the build simple for the novice or idiot proof for want of another expression, and for £700+ there should be no problems with parts as the cost puts it into the high end league of retail model boat kits.

No doubt you can put right anything wrong yourself and like you say some see problems as a challenge, but many novices may give up the build and be put off future kit building if they find it hard going so hardly a good intro experience into kit building.

Is it really worth all the hassle??