Kalmbach Media (formerly Kalmbach Publishing Co.) was an American publisher of books and magazines, many of them railroad-related, located in Waukesha , Wisconsin.
28-576: The company's first publication was The Model Railroader , which began publication in the summer of 1933 with a cover date of January 1934. A press release announcing the magazine appeared in August 1933, but did not receive much interest. In 1940, business was good enough for Kalmbach to launch another magazine about railroads in general with the simple title of Trains Magazine . From its first issue dated November 1940, it grew quickly from an initial circulation of just over 5,000. Kalmbach became exclusively
56-409: A Scene with Kathy Millatt, It's My Railroad with Steve Brown, Rehab My Railroad , History According to Hediger with Jim Hediger, The Hills Line with James McNabb, Tuck's Toy Trains with John Truckenbrod and many more. MRVP made its debut back in 2013 and is available to magazine subscribers as part of trains.com . The model train hobbyists the magazine has profiled over the years include
84-404: A model, or as complex as tearing the model down and adding scratch-built components, followed by custom decals. An important aspect of kitbashing in model railroading is the reconfiguration of structure kits, most often to fit the geometry of a specific space. Walls can be shortened or lengthened, and corner angles can be changed, to fit a given location on the layout. Another application is to use
112-535: A model. Sometimes, kitbashing has been used to create works of art . The Toronto sculptor Kim Adams has used HO gauge freight cars, containers, detail parts, figures and scenery to create artistic landscapes. American artist Kris Kuksi also uses kitbashing to detail his maximalist sculptures. A popular venue for kitbashing is diecast emergency vehicles such as fire apparatuses. Kitbashers often use models from manufacturers such as Code 3 and Corgi . The kitbash in such cases can be as simple as painting or redecaling
140-493: A number of celebrities, including Michael Gross and Rod Stewart . Model Railroader also has several other "sister" magazines, also published by Kalmbach, including such titles as Trains magazine , Classic Trains, Garden Railways, and Classic Toy Trains . They are often advertised in Model Railroader , and on occasion, an article will refer to these other magazines. Kitbashing Kitbashing or model bashing
168-518: A publisher when it discontinued its printing operations in 1973, opting to contract production from other printers. In 1985, Kalmbach purchased AstroMedia Corporation, adding its four magazines: Astronomy , Deep Sky , the children's science magazine Odyssey and Telescope Making . Kalmbach began publishing its annual Great Model Railroads in November 1990. In 1991, Kalmbach purchased Greenberg Publishing of Sykesville, Maryland. Also included in
196-483: A sideline business to their commercial printing operations, soon they were devoting seven days a week to the venture. The magazine was well received by model railroaders, and the young publisher carried the entire first press run (272 copies) by streetcar to be mailed. By July 1934, paid circulation exceeded 1,000 copies. Growth continued, but the magazine was not an immediate success. The magazine became profitable after three years. It took Kalmbach seven years to pay off
224-435: A variety of scales and modeling techniques for engines, rolling stock, right-of-way, structures, and scenery. It reviews products including ready-to-run models as well as kits, tools and supplies. The magazine presents blueprints and photographs of prototype equipment, as well as photographs of models and layouts. A longstanding philosophy of modeling is manifest in its editorial features of layout design and operation, in which
252-543: Is the practice of making a new scale model by taking pieces out of kits. These pieces may be added to a custom project or to another kit. For professional modelmakers , kitbashing is used to create concept models for detailing movie special effects . Commercial model kits are a ready source of "detailing", providing any number of identical, mass-produced components that can be used to add fine detail to an existing model. Professionals often kitbash to build prototype parts which are then recreated with lightweight materials. For
280-516: The UPC 074820085486. The Model Railroader began publication in the summer of 1933, with a cover date of January 1934. A press release announcing the magazine appeared in August 1933, but did not receive much interest. The bank refused to loan Kalmbach any money, many felt sorry for him, and a few told him he was crazy. His first wife, Bernice, herself a journalist, encouraged and helped Al put The Model Railroader together. Though they originally saw it as
308-583: The Rather Dashing Games website, the company is now a division of Catalyst Game Labs. In 2017 the company hired digital media veteran Dan Hickey as its sixth chief executive officer. Hickey was the first Kalmbach leader hired from outside the company in its 84-year history. The company was renamed Kalmbach Media in 2018. On May 1, 2024, Kalmbach Media announced the sale of several titles to Firecrown Media , including Trains , Model Railroader , Classic Toy Trains , Classic Trains , Garden Railways , and
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#1733125707743336-507: The U.S. and Canada, the 300-page guidebook's 2009 edition provides reviews by Trains magazine staff and contributors. It was the original publisher of Jim Scribbins ' The Hiawatha Story in 1970. Model Railroader Model Railroader ( MR ) is an American magazine about the hobby of model railroading . Founded in 1934 by Al C. Kalmbach , it is published monthly by Firecrown Media of Chattanooga, Tennessee . Commonly found on newsstands and in libraries, it promotes itself as
364-473: The hobby are released on an irregular basis. Titles have included 102 Track Plans for Model Railroaders, How to Build Realistic Layouts, and How to Build More Layout in Less Space. A bi-monthly web video show, Modeler's Spotlight Video - Inside Cody's Office, is available to magazine subscribers via MR's website. The show introduces new products, offers modeling tips, and a viewer mail segment (along with
392-505: The hobbyist, kitbashing saves time that would be spent scratch building an entire model. Hobbyists may kitbash to create a model of a subject (real or imaginary) for which there is not a commercial kit. Although it has a long history, kitbashing came to the attention of a wider public via the fine modelwork seen in TV series such as Thunderbirds , Star Trek and the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope . Many of
420-500: The loans used to launch the magazine. World War II introduced paper rationing, which dampened the growth of the Kalmbach Publishing Company. At the end of the war, MR's circulation was 18,000. 1949, MR's circulation had grown to 82,000. 1950, MR's circulation had grown to 104,000, thanks in part to a boom in interest in model railroading. As of 2007, the magazine had a monthly paid circulation of more than 160,000. 2017
448-682: The magazine's website and available through their digital archive. Model Railroader staff members participated in the production of the Dream-Plan-Build video series, which was offered by subscription. The DVDs focused on prototype railroading information, layout visits, and modeling techniques. Model Railroader also produced Model Railroader Video Plus (MRVP) which does layout tours, tips and tricks, and shows like: Cody's Workshop with Cody Grivno, Drew's Trackside Adventures with Drew Halverson, Off The Rails with Gerry Leone, Ask MRVP with David Popp (now called Ask Trains ), Let's Make
476-409: The model is viewed as a three-dimensional and temporal compression of the real world, so that, for example, the motive power, freight, trackage and scenery of a real-world railroad are formed into a layout which captures the spirit of not only the equipment and region of the railroad but also its purpose and how it operates. The magazine is published under ISSN 0026-7341 . Individual issues use
504-469: The occasional blooper at the end). Many of the blueprints, layout plans, articles on operation and signaling, and methods of construction of bridges, structures and scenery are also collected in books published by Kalmbach Books. These are useful to modelers in general, railroad historians, and are valuable references on the steam and diesel eras. Past MR articles are also collected in PDF form and distributed via
532-529: The oldest magazine of its type in the United States, although it is the long-standing competitor to Railroad Model Craftsman , which - originally named The Model Craftsman - predates MR by one year. MR is considered to be a general-interest hobby magazine, appealing to a wide range of hobbyists, rather than specializing in a particular scale, or facet of the hobby (such as prototype operations or scratch building and kitbashing ). Model Railroader covers
560-415: The pieces from one kit to build a different model. This is typically used to create unusual or especially complex models. With radio-controlled aircraft , such kitbashing can be done to kitted aircraft as they are being built, or, more often, to so-called "almost-ready-to-fly" (ARF) aircraft to change their appearance or flight characteristics to suit the owner. This can even extend to "plans-bashing", where
588-566: The purchase was Greenberg Shows, which sponsored nearly two dozen combined model railroad and doll house shows on the East Coast. Intending to focus on the adult hobby and leisure market, Kalmbach sold the publication rights of the children's science magazine Odyssey to Cobblestone Publishing of Peterborough, New Hampshire in September 1991. In January 1992, Kalmbach began publishing Earth magazine. Kalmbach purchased Discover Media, publisher of
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#1733125707743616-454: The science magazine Discover , in August 2010. Gerald B. Boettcher, the company's president, retired in June 2012. Charles R. Croft became the new president. In 2016 Kalmbach acquired Rather Dashing Games, a board game company based near Lexington, Kentucky . In 2018 the company sold the board game company to Loren and Heather Coleman, owners of game publisher Catalyst Game Labs . According to
644-554: The second version of the "Myrt" was demolished when Kalmbach sold their building at 21027 Crossroads Circle and moved to Brookfield, Wisconsin, with everyone being employed by Firecrown media. In May 2024, longtime publisher Kalmbach Media divested of Model Railroader and other railroad interest magazines to publisher Firecrown Media. Typical feature articles in each month's issue include: Regular monthly columns and departments include: Model Railroader publishes two annual special issues: Other special issues on various aspects of
672-472: The spaceship models created for these programs incorporated details from tank, speedboat and car kits. Another example is the Batmobile from the 2005 film Batman Begins , as seen in the special features disc of the film's DVD. It is not uncommon for parts to be cut and filed into shapes leaving gaps that are later filled with putty to hide defects. Textural details known as greebles may be added to enhance
700-477: The staff moving to nearby Brookfield, Wisconsin . Another thing Model Railroader has is their own model railroad layout, the Milwaukee, Racine and Troy (AKA the "Myrt"), was located on the second floor of the former offices and just celebrated its 45th anniversary since being built (the original was located on the 3rd floor of the old offices at 1027 N. 7th Street which was in operation from 1975 to 1989 ). Sadly,
728-655: The trains.com web site. Also included in the sale is Astronomy magazine, FineScale Modeler , the Kalmbach Books division, and related e-commerce sites. The sale left Kalmbach with Discover magazine as its sole remaining publication; Kalmbach later sold Discover to LabX Media Group. The company also produces some annual publications. In addition, it publishes numerous books, including the Tourist Trains Guidebook . An illustrated compendium of more than 450 tourist railroads, dinner trains, and rail museums in
756-427: The wall parts to create a "flat", or shallow relief model to be displayed against the backdrop. In this configuration the parts for the rear wall of a structure, often an industrial building, can instead be abutted to the front to double the length of the building. Plain sheet styrene or other material is typically added to the rear to strengthen the resulting model. In model rocketry , kitbashing refers simply to using
784-576: The year's final issue garnered a reported circulation figure that fell below 100,000. The magazine, and Kalmbach Publishing (now Kalmbach Media ), celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2019. The magazine had to relocate 4 times, the original location was on 545 S. 84th Street (now a car wash) and later relocated to 1027 N. 7th Street (now part of Milwaukee Public Television and Milwaukee Area Technical College ), from 1989 to 2024, they moved to 21027 Crossroads Circle in nearby Waukesha and in 2024, Kalmbach recently sold their building to Silgan Containers and
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