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mick garner

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Hi all,

I'm not saying that there is anything bad about this but sometimes don't you just get a bit tired at the amount of articles about modern bits of kit in CLASSIC Miltiary Vehicle? I find Jacks article about the jimmy very interesting as well as the show reports etc.

I'd like to see what you think....

Mick.

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Hi all,

I'm not saying that there is anything bad about this but sometimes don't you just get a bit tired at the amount of articles about modern bits of kit in CLASSIC Miltiary Vehicle? I find Jacks article about the jimmy very interesting as well as the show reports etc.

I'd like to see what you think....

Mick.

 

Mick,

 

I totally agree, regarding the articles on modern vehicles, how can these be classics? If a classic car magazine started filling its pages with the latest from the Detroit and Turin Motor Shows the readers would react. I have actaully stopped buying the two mags now, unless thee is an article of particular interest in there. As a coincidence, I have just been going through some Wheels & Tracks mags looking for some info and have to say that they had it right, just a little on modern kit but the bulk on collectors pieces....and the information was spot on, unlike some of the newer mags, with glaring mistakes in them.

 

Just read the latest MVT Windscreen mag and it is by far a better read.

 

My thoughts.

 

Richard

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I agree, Windscreen is the best read. I just buy the others for the pictures. Military machines is a rubbish magazine, most of what they write it wrong, the rest is Land Rovers, and of that most of it is wrong or not really applicable, e.g. prototypes. They even stick pictures of tender sales in to fill up pages. CMV is better, I like the modern stuff (70's, 80's) but I think there needs to be a balance, and that is hard to achieve. They manage much better than the other lot...

 

My personal gripe.. the price guide. It's a load of rubbish. You can't rely on it, so many other factors are involved... for instance they put CVR(T) and a price. Anyone who knows the CVR(T) price market will know a nice Sultan can be had for about £8000 but a Scorpion might be £18000. How can you just divide the price up between the number of vehicles and assume it means anything?!?

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sirch wrote

 

My personal gripe.. the price guide. It's a load of rubbish. You can't rely on it, so many other factors are involved... for instance they put CVR(T) and a price. Anyone who knows the CVR(T) price market will know a nice Sultan can be had for about £8000 but a Scorpion might be £18000. How can you just divide the price up between the number of vehicles and assume it means anything?!?

 

AH! but if you read the the notes by Nigel Hay who does the price guide I quote " THE GUIDE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE COMPREHENSIVE, AT PRESENT IT COVERS ONLY THE MOST POPULAR COLLECTOR'S VEHICLES. SIMILARLY THE FIGURES GIVEN ARE NOT VALUATIONS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT CONDITION THEY HAVE BEEN DERIVED FROM THE ASKING PRICES FOR VEHICLES RECENTLY ADVERTISED IN CMV"

 

So I think he is saying that it is only a guide and not gospel, it just gives a representation of what vehicle is being sold for what price at the time, and if you take any notice of it :shock:

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Well guys I see you have similar thoughts to me!! I don't mind the odd bit in the news section about some kind of new challenger variant or something.. Thats fine, but a double page spread etc. of a load of modern vehicles and modernish ones from south africa or something that nobody's heard of!! It just gets too excessive sometimes! I am not saying they are bad magazines, but instead of filling it full of modern stuff to fill some of the pages in, maybe they should make the mag a little bit shorter and a bit cheaper and basically keep us interested. :!:

Thanks,

Mick.

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Hi all,

I'm not saying that there is anything bad about this but sometimes don't you just get a bit tired at the amount of articles about modern bits of kit in CLASSIC Miltiary Vehicle? I find Jacks article about the jimmy very interesting as well as the show reports etc.

I'd like to see what you think....

Mick.

 

Mick,

 

I totally agree, regarding the articles on modern vehicles, how can these be classics? If a classic car magazine started filling its pages with the latest from the Detroit and Turin Motor Shows the readers would react. I have actaully stopped buying the two mags now, unless thee is an article of particular interest in there. As a coincidence, I have just been going through some Wheels & Tracks mags looking for some info and have to say that they had it right, just a little on modern kit but the bulk on collectors pieces....and the information was spot on, unlike some of the newer mags, with glaring mistakes in them.

 

Just read the latest MVT Windscreen mag and it is by far a better read.

 

My thoughts.

 

Richard

hi all,

just one question,how old does a vehicle have to be to be classed as a classic in your eyes, 20 ,30 ,40, 50,or 60 years old . as i rememder a car is a classic if over 25 years old!at some shows you could get in if it wasn't in production any more.

personally i find that most of the articles are about wartime vehicles, jeeps etc not that i'm complaining as i'm interested in all military vehicles but i do get annoyed by owners who won't even give you the time of day if you haven't a wartime vehicle and look down their nose at you,but this is my personal opinion.as for the people who write these articles i say well done at least you want to share some knowledge even if you sometimes get it wrong.so all i can say is if you can do better then do so, as its far easier to critisize than to put yourself in the firing line!

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I hear what people are saying, but look at it from an editorial viewpoint.

If all you could write about was WW2 vehicles, then very soon you would run out of features.

Plus you would have a hard job attracting advertisers who deal in post war equipment.

 

There are only so many articles you can write about a jeep, dodge, gmc, or any of the other vehicles that were used during the war.

 

Very soon people would complain about reading the same old stuff.

It takes a lot to fill a magazine every month, and just because your not interested in some new bit of kit from across the sea, it doesn't mean that the next reader isn't.

 

I'm an occasional writer for one of the magazines named, and I write about what I know, I'm not a pro, but hopefully I get most of the facts right.

 

When Jeeps are changing hands for 10 grand, its not surprising that a lot of people buy post war vehicles.

 

My Rapier is only 16 years old, but they are all out of service now so does that make it a classic?

I can see both sides of this one, but the only way of changing things is to buy what you prefer, and let the market decide.....

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With regard to this subject, I actually emailed Pat Ware a few years ago to tell him what I thought of the Magazine - that it should cover CLASSIC MILITARY VEHICLES vehicles older than 20 / 25 years, and that he should be writing about such vehicles either in a historical sense - documenting their use in service, or about vehicles that people are likely to own today, so do buyers guides, restoration articles and bits about owners vehicles. As for modern vehicles I suggested they were kept to the news feature only.

 

What I did not like (but still continue to see) are the articles such as those on some obscure type that never made it in to service - such as American armoured box tanks of WW1 in the April 2006 issue, or anything to do with ex-WD vehicles turned in to weird French Fire Engines (June 2006). I also do not like artices on toys, as apposed to proper kits of MVs.

 

With regard to the comment that CMV could not keep just to WW2 vehicles that is true - though in passing I would say that I cannot remember seeing anything on Canadian CMPs at all, and CMV could pick anything from a BSA to a Scammell Pioneer and do a feature on the type, in service and / or a feature on a preserved type with the owner giving details of what they did and what's it like to own (like Jack's GMC)

 

So you should email as well to say what you do or do not like -

 

cmv.info@kelsey.co.uk

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Nice topic Mick.

 

It is a difficult one as for me I like to look at WW2 MV's first and then flick through the rest if and when I get the time. I quite often pick up an old copy from the stack and flick through and I realise how many articles I have never read but I usually go through the mag in this order;

 

1. For sale - like staring and dreaming at what 'could' be mine.

2. Letters page - as I love to read about people opinions and to my mind there should be more inches given to the letter section.

3. Articles that have grab my attention

4. Look through the rest of the mag

 

 

It is difficult for editors and titles to get the mix right and it can be very difficult to find/receive content for future editions. It would be interesting to know how big the movement is but I dare say that it isn't one of the biggest hobbies in the UK so by association magazines haven't got a big target to aim at. From what I have experienced over the last year I would say that it is a movement that is going forward a 'growth industry' as we say in business and judging by the interest that we had at Weymouth this weekend confirms that.

 

A name is everything and the title of CMV maybe to title specific for some but in general I think the title covers most aspects, perhaps look at this way, if you were new to the movement and wanted to learn about, all, MV's and the movement then this CMV certainly does that and if it was all WW2 vehicles then I think I would get slightly bored. I can recognize the fact that magazines have to evolve, adapt to survive and as time goes by and WW2 vehicles get rarer and more and more 'new' classic become available of indeed, affordable then editors have to recognizes that and move with it.

 

They may be one or two extra features coming up in CMV..................but there have nothing to do with me :wink:

 

Best wishes.

 

Jack.

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I bought CMV today purely for the Champ navigation article I find that FVRDE stuff absoloutly fascinating & I think there are more things like that will turn up.

 

I don't normally buy either mag unless there is something really of interest. I don't even buy it when there are Humber things as I either have the info or there are embarrassingly wrong things said.

 

Apart from my prejudices I thought it was good value in that it gave a good spread of subjects. Far better than Wheels & Tracks. Now I know W&T was great but it didn't have to come out each month & was unduly weighted to WW2 US stuff. So in the final years I cancelled my sub because there was so little in it of interest to me. I can understand this as it was almost exclusively written by Bart & that was where his main interests lay. He once told me he had in stock all ready enough material for several years without needing any contributors. To his credit he did publish one of my articles when I was having difficulties getting it published in a club magazine. But that's another story.

 

So by & large I think these two mags do well. It must be a near overwhelming task having to produce this spectrum of interest month after month and trying to avoid doing similar articles that the other mag has recently covered.

 

I think they are especially good as bait to draw the public into the hobby. Because when I started there was only W&T which was a bit stuffy in detail to a beginner & joining the then MVCG with a mag which in those days was basically a newsletter with minimal technical stuff.

 

So good luck to both mags as I am sure they do bring people into the hobby which will help us all in the long run.

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I think that if it is over 20 years old, it is a classic, past that and you really start getting into all the more modern almost more 'electronic' stuff, also, another very small thing I have to moan about, I am not being disrespectful in any way towards the Willys/Hotchkiss jeep, but the sheer amount of articles in both mags on jeeps is quite a lot, sometimes I just get a little fed up with it, If it is something interesting like the Wasp Flamethrower jeep mentioned in recent mags that is interesting, but normal jeeps again and again can get annoying. I find that some of the larger kit such as Saracens and Stollies from the late 50's and early 60's is interesting, as I can just dream on about being a step up from the trusty ferret!! :roll:

Thanks,

Mick.

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Right i'm probably going to rock the boat here but this is my personel opinion,when it comes to ww2 stuff i,m afraid i start to yawn especially when JEEPS are mentioned but that is my personel opinon so to read a magazine that has such a broad range of subject matter on varied vehicles is in my book very good,it's a case off you can't please all the people and for those that complain please give the editoral team a thought if they filled it with just world war info and articles what happens to the youngsters who want to start in this hobby,is it a case off forget post military vehicles they must get themselves involved with much older vehicles? :shock:

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Don't get me wrong either - a feature on a CLASSIC MV from any age would be fine but don't fill the pages with oddities that are not Classic or with articles on quasi - military vehicles like bulldozers made from leftover M4 bits etc that should be featured in one of their sister publications.

 

I can imagine that people with post war vehicles like me could get bored if it was just WW2 - but the subject of WW2 vehicles has hardly been covered. Perhaps we are so used to British American and German types, we forget that there have been no articles on Japanese, Italian or French trucks as far as I can remember!

 

Incidentally I think the for sale / wants section is a great improvement!

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One of the joys of a forum such as this is that it lets us talk about what really interests us.

 

The situation is even worse in the motorcycle world. One paper calls itself "Old Bike Mart" - Not Classic - Old - but the editor keeps getting "new" Triumphs to test and takes up half the paper with them. (It's still essential for the classifieds though. And don't get me started on Japanese stuff !

 

I always look forward to "Windscreen" Even when the article is about something that doesn't really interest me like units serving in Aden in the 1960s, I still read it from begining to end because it is so obviously well researched and written by an enthusiast.

 

That enthusiasm shines through in a way that it never can in someone who is just as likely to be working for Mobile Home monthly or some other group title before the week is out.

 

Rich.

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I totally agree Paul, I like WW2 stuff, but I love post war stuff too!! Up until the early 80's is my limit until it starts to get modern and boring....

My son is a member of the OLD lawnmower club (yes I know thatn you're all laughing :lol: ) And in their newsletters they usually go up to about 1960's machines and then it starts to get more modern, it is different in each hobby really. Motorbikes is a very big example, in Classic Bike Guide they feature lots of articles and ads on modern sportsbikes..WHAT??

Thanks,

Mick.

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I was always dissapointed about the lack of WW1 truck articles. Ok, there are not many surviving WW1 trucks (about 30 genuine ones in the UK), so the few number of owners will restrict the interest somewhat. However, i always thought (maybe wrongly - you tell me) that anybody interested in MV's would be curious about what was about at this period.

 

So anyway, because there was little on the subject i started writing articles on them instead. I just had an article published in MMI on Liberty trucks and for a couple of years i have been doing a "Postcards from France" page for Windscreen with a couple of related images of WW1 transport and a few lines of comments. I currently have two more articles in the pipeline and several more mulling around in my mind. By researching and collecting information so that i can produce a coherent article i am improving my own knowledge and hopefully passing some of that on. If people know a bit more about these early vehicles it can only do some good for the hobby and spark some interest when they see one.

 

So my point is, if you dont like what you read in CMV, MMI or Windscreen, then write an article and send it in. Heck, you might even get paid for it!

 

Tim (too)

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So my point is, if you dont like what you read in CMV, MMI or Windscreen, then write an article and send it in. Heck, you might even get paid for it!

 

Tim (too)

 

I think that is pretty much the point, in your case Tim there many about so it is even more important to record their history through articles.

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sirch wrote

 

So I think he is saying that it is only a guide and not gospel, it just gives a representation of what vehicle is being sold for what price at the time, and if you take any notice of it :shock:

 

What he really is saying is that he lists all the asking prices for a certain type of vehicles advertised on MilWeb. Depending on the type, there is a (big) difference between asking price and the price it actually sells for.

 

Back to the subject: I am an Wheels & Tracks fan, have all the issues and really miss the mag and its author/editor Bart Vanderveen.

 

I quit my subscription to CMV I think two years ago, not mainly because there was too much modern stuff in it, but I really was annoyed by endless number of errors in the articles. Not good quality, and add to that the high price you have to pay to get it delivered to Holland...

 

My €0,02 worth anyway  :-)

 

Hanno

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