What is MODELx?

Who started this? What's it all about? What do you hope to accomplish?

MODELx is a brand-new scale modeling publication that was launched in the late summer of 2007.

The idea itself is actually pretty old; the idea being to bring the world's top modelers together under one banner. Back then, it was impossible -- the costs of starting a magazine from scratch were simply out of reach, especially during the 80s and 90s when the market was dominated by a few firmly-established publications. More recently, however, the required elements to realize this project came together in one place, at the same time: the 2006 IPMS Nationals in Kansas City.

Everyone involved in the project agreed: the time was right for a new modeling publication. Magazine readers seemed to be growing tired of seeing average models in bland, formulaic magazines.

First and foremost, the principle staff of MODELx are first-rate modelers themselves. We've come together from all walks of journalism - editors, writers, graphic artists, and publishers. But at the same time, we're all avid modelers, too. So we understand you, the reader. And we speak your language (the language of plastic, resin and photoetch).

MODELx's approach is unlike previous publications. We are commission driven. All of our content is either generated by our staff or purchased from expert modelers around the world. This ensures the reader will get the best models and the best stories in the business.

Our goal is three-fold: to entertain you with great content, to educate you with the latest techniques in the hobby, and to inspire you to achieve results for yourself like those you see in the pages of MODELx.

So where do we go from here? Unfortunately, while we were able to crank our pilot issue and two regular issues, we've learned that producing a magazine of this quality every two months is a lot more effort than we thought it would be. In particular, securing modeling content of the caliber we want has proven challenging, to say the least. While we've had a lot of compliments on the content of our first 2-1/2 issues, frankly, we're not satisfied. Not even close. Things were supposed to be even more impressive than they were. We also need more editorial staff.

So while we're working on those challenges, for now, we've tentatively decided to go with a less-frequent-but-much-bigger approach to the publication. So though we don't plan a third issue of the magazine at this point, we're in the initial planning stages for something we're calling an "annual" that will be more than twice as large as a regular issue. But more important, it should be quite a bit better than what you've seen to date!

Stay tuned.