"Anyone Want to Do a 15mm Sci-fi fanzine?" Topic

As the title says.

I envision it as having reviews, AARS, scenarios, pictures, tutorials, terrain, and related articles all as a downloadable PDF. We could cover multiple settings (hard sci-fi, space opera, pulp, etc.) and multiple game styles (grand tactical, company level, platoon skirmish, character skirmish, etc.) Hopefully we could try to form a group of people who would be willing to give some time to try and produce it quarterly. I'm not the greatest 15mm painter and there are others like me, but I think we could write articles and the like, maybe even a few short rules sets for the beginner. Any other ideas?

Another option is opening it up to all sci-fi, but then I think it would lose some of its distinctiveness. Possibly we could cover 15mm and below, as these scales tend to have differences in painting, terrain making, gaming, and their hobby in general?

I do think we should try to stick to 15mm or closely related topics (using 1/144 scale mechs along 15mm for example).

I think if a bunch of people helped, I think we'd have a fairly good chance of making it work.

What do you think?

i think it is an alright idea. i wouldnt be able to contribute, as i'm just barely getting my toes wet with 15mm and not good with words.

i have seen a few other web-zines like that start up and di down, moving from person to person. i think they are great things, but they tend to lose out over different peoples' blogs, which are updated more regularly. if there was some way of bringing some of the more popular blogs into one page, or getting contributions from some of the more popular bloggers on specific topics into one central blog, then that might fare a bit better. especially if people ar contributing their free time to it and arent getting much in the way of compensation. it would be easier for contributors and easier for people to follow, reading a 5 minute article every day instead of sitting down for several hours to read through a whole magazine.

That's a good idea, a unified 15mm sci-fi blog. I still think a fanzine (even a short one) has its purpose as an edited compilation of some of the better work. It also could give a more panoramic view and while it could be somewhat daunting it would give beginners a good starting point. You do raise a good point though, maybe we could try to come up with a solution which is in between them, maybe a weekly release of a small compilation of articles followed with a less frequent compilation of the weekly articles plus additional content arranged more like a magazine.

I'd be willing to contribute. I think that we'd also want occasional contributions from some of the other bigs, such as Jon from GZG, the guys at Rebel and Khurasan as well as Marc from Dropship Horizon amongst others….

If I left you out, I'm sorry it's 12:30 in the morning here and my brain fuzzes a bit after 11:15 or so.

Anyone else?

That sounds fun. Not sure what I could contribute, but I'd be willing to pitch in.

but they tend to lose out over different peoples' blogs, which are updated more regularly. if there was some way of bringing some of the more popular blogs into one page, or getting contributions from some of the more popular bloggers on specific topics into one central blog, then that might fare a bit better.

I think that is probably an important set of alliances to make. Work with the bloggers instead of against them. This is easier if the zine is quarterly: Get several bloggers to "divert" or "compile" one post per quarter to the zine. They get exposure, you get material.

The dangers of letting a small group dominate would need to be fought by the editor(s). If your contribution pool has its favorite lines, *someone* gets left out, and we really don't want that. The editor(s) would thus need to be hunting out the obscure lines and nascent lines and getting them in front of the readers.

Suggested irregular feature: "But wait, that's not 15mm!" to cover those cross-scale finds that need to be shared. Sadly, this would probably need to exclude GW products, as they almost certainly have no sense of humor or community remaining about such things.

I'm in. I can't do anything until the end of September, when I finish my dissertation.

Here some 15mm Sci-fi stuff on my blog.

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I would certainly post links to the magazine on my site if you would like.

miniaturereview.com

Ok guys (an possibly gals), it seems we have some interest established so how about some ideas for regular articles preferably something you would be willing to contribute. This won't be etched in stone but it would be good to see what we can do.

@ MiniatureReview: Do you think that you could possibly do a more in-depth review of sets of miniatures or maybe a certain small range* and/or a summary of miniature news in this scale or ones closely related to it. You would also get publicity for your site as a result of this. What do you think?

*such as the NSL infantry, the Lhurggs, the Sepulveda Resistance, or something else that might give a beginner an idea of what a certain range or set of miniatures is like

I can contribute modeling articles. I can also do some of the photography.

I would also be interested in doing a series of articles where i discuss converting things meant for 28mm into 15mm, such as rules, vehicles and figures.

-Joe