Fantasy Modeling Magazine was a magazine devoted to the various disciplines of the fantasy and science fiction modeling hobbies. Each issue was a motley assortment of how to articles, features on outstanding artists, and industry information. In the pre internet years of the 1980s FM acted as a source of mailing addresses for many gaming, miniature, and modeling companies. There was no preference shown in FM for one part of the hobby over another, just an overall appreciation for the craft of making interesting models and miniatures.
Discovering Fantasy Modeling Magazine was one of the turning points in my adolescence. There were a few stray copies in the back room at The Game Preserve game store in Indianapolis and I would routinely read through them and wonder at the fact that "grown-ups" were making models out of spare parts and junk like I had been doing since I was allowed to have model glue. It made me realize that all of the "junk" that I had been building had some value to others and that I wasn't alone in my desire to create these things. The tone of the magazine is a bit "gee-whiz" which still comes across as refreshing in an age when I am constantly beleaguered by the rudeness and childish entitlement of many modern hobbyists.
The contributors to Fantasy Modeling often had to scrounge their hobby together from actual garbage, toys, and parts of things never meant for model making. As somebody who sees scratch building and kit bashing as a justifiable post-modern art form this stuff makes me happy. From the truly brilliant kit bashing of Rick Overton and Michael Sullivan to the charmingly odd work of Andrew P. Yanchus, Fantasy Modeling showed me high end trash-bashing that made me want to make stuff. And that sort of inspiration was and still is invaluable to me.
I decided to scan the six issues of FM to share the wonder that I get from them.
Here is the premier issue of Fantasy Modeling. I hope it inspires you to the level that is has me.
In this issue:
The Popular Imagery of Boris Vallejo
The Plastic Industry Strikes Back
Atlantis Lives
The Military Corner: Historex Walks New Paths
Origins '80
Kit Bashing Spaceships
War Games: the Greatest Fantasy of Them All
Book Reviews
Fantasy Collectables
Adventures in Gaming
And enough vintage ads to make you want to play first edition D&D again!
All five Fantasy Modeling Magazines are available in the FILES section of the Trash Bash Bits Facebook Group.