Photo: Autodesk Instructables.
Building a ship in a bottle. “Hobbies are about doing things: planning, painting, building, contributing an article to your favorite magazine,” writes Alexander Poots at UnHerd.
Niche print magazines seem to survive even after everyone else has gone online. According to an article at UnHerd, that’s especially true of magazines about hobbies.
Alexander Poots writes, “Phil Parker is the editor of Garden Rail magazine. He’s a passionate man — especially on the subject of steam engines. ‘The steam engine is the nearest anybody has come to building a living thing,’ he says. … He talks about the joy of seeing them in action. The smells, the hiss and chuff, the weight of them on the line. It’s a joy that many people want to recreate at home. …
“Layouts in back gardens across Britain range from tiny loops of track to colossal, intricate landscapes. Parker knows a guy whose line crosses Lilliputian bridges and snakes through mountains 10 feet tall. Layouts are much more than models, he says. They really are railways, albeit on a smaller scale than usual. A keen sense of ownership is important: ‘these are their railway lines.’
“Ardent hobbyists are often viewed as eccentric. I think they might be the only normal people left. As a rule, they are active and engaged. They are more interested in making than consuming. They dream and they do. A passive appreciation for steam engines or military history or orchids isn’t enough. Hobbyists want to take part.
“ ‘I grew up fascinated by history, and wargaming helps you make that interest interactive,’ says Daniel Faulconbridge, editor of Wargames Illustrated. ‘It’s not good enough for me that I just read about the Battle of Hastings, I want to collect the figures that represent the troops that fought in the battle, and then paint them and play a game with them.’ …
“Magazines like Garden Rail and Wargames Illustrated are at the heart of the hobby world. The variety is extraordinary. Hornby Magazine, Airfix Model World, The Orchid Review, Lute News. Monthly publications dedicated to remote control aircraft and koi keeping. Some hobbies have broader appeal than others — the UK has enough carp fishermen to support both Total Carp and CARPology. But even the more niche titles have a readership large enough to keep them viable in a brutal publishing environment. …
“The physical hobby magazine has in fact proved surprisingly durable. Both Faulconbridge and Parker acknowledge that their readers tend to be older, and prefer print media because it’s what they grew up with. There’s also a practical aspect: if you’re following a guide to painting a model Landsknecht, it’s easier to have a paper copy open on the table than faff about with a phone or tablet. …
“Again and again when talking to Parker and Faulconbridge, I am struck by the emphasis on the physical. Hobbies are about doing things: planning, painting, building, contributing an article to your favorite magazine. ‘You come into a hobby and you’re not being encouraged to binge-watch something on the tele — which is a very, very passive activity — you’re being encouraged to have a go at something,’ Parker observes. …
“Hanging out with like-minded people is the best way to have a go. Community is a word that comes up a lot in my chats with the editors. … Parker emphasizes that railway modeling exhibitions are as much social gatherings as they are celebrations of the hobby. As anyone who has worked an allotment knows, shared enthusiasms have a way of collapsing social barriers. Parker remembers one exhibition where he sat around a pub table with ‘a physics professor, a guy who ran his own bus company, a Liberal Democrat councillor, a theatre manager, a bishop and two lawyers. Our common interest was model railways. You find yourself meeting a really wide variety of people.’
“Still, it’s a mistake to think that these groups are purely focused on the hobby itself. Wargames and model railways are often the starting point for other things. Friendships are made, money is raised for charity, and support networks are formed. ‘Men are particularly bad at chatting,’ says Parker. ‘But they will chat about steam engines and they will chat about garden railways, and that chat can then move on to more valuable topics. We run the largest model railway forum in the world, and tucked away on it is a prostate cancer discussion group.’ …
“Hobby magazines survive because they are outgrowths of these communities. Most articles are written by hobbyists, in what Faulconbridge describes as ‘a fanzine approach.’ Neither the editors nor the contributors are in it for the money. They just love it. In a recent thread on X, Stone Age Herbalist observed that the continued success of the hobby magazine can be attributed to a particularly British — and more broadly Northern European — genius for voluntary association. Whether centered around giant vegetables or antique fountain pens, little communities bubble up everywhere. …
“A link between hobbies and productive industry can also be found in the world of railway modeling. Parker tells me that, ‘I’ve just reviewed a loco from a company based in Doncaster, Roundhouse Engineering. You’d be amazed, we do still build steam locomotives in this country! It’s a proper Rolls Royce engine model, beautifully constructed. They do pretty much everything in-house.’ This pride and attention to detail is at the root of what all hobbyists are up to. …
“Hobby magazines are heartening advertisements for that reward. Planning, making, getting things wrong, having a laugh about it.”
More at UnHerd, here.
Are bloggers hobbyists? We seem to check a lot of the boxes in the definition.
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