Wot no Figurines?

[Blind Pew]

In response to another topic, to save going off topic, I thought I'd post another question.


CRF is spot on. Historical Miniature was, and is, a top magazine. What a crying shame it went OOP.


Gino is right again. Why oh why do Figurine not publish in English? I'd subscribe to it bigtime. And the English-speaking world must be a big enough market.


Do any of our French colleagues across the water have idea idea why Figurines don't publish in English?

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Figurines would be a gold mine to those liking Napoleonics and European show reports. Less so for the WWII crowd I think. If you could find a bilingual hobbiest translator who could work with a computer program, translation of the main features should not be too hard or expensive. Soldatini does it, although some of the translation reads a bit like it was done with google translate in terms of grammar and syntax. I think the big issue would be getting it distributed as the English speaking hobby population is geographically very spread out. i think it would have to be through direct purchase rather than retail distribution channels. I wouldn't buy it.

 

[Claude Portsmouth]

I think part of your answer is in the news that Figure International finishes at the end of this year and Historical Miniatures which to my mind was the best ever publication in English catering for this hobby went bust also in spite of trying to go digital.-I seem to remember that there was along discussion about this on here a couple of years back.

The publishing business is not in good shape due to on-line competition. It may well be that they sell enough copies in French and translating and publishing in English is an unnecessary risk in todays uncertain times. There was another start up a while back in Italian & English (QTM) which only lasted 2? editions.

The more cynical might suggest that this is part of a fiendish French plot to prove that French is a more popular language than English.......LOL

While on PF we see this as a worldwide hobby I suspect that in global terms this is a very niche market. If I were running Figurines I would just carry on as I am and force us lazy English to learn French (this coming from someone who worked internationally for a French company for 41 years and never learned the language.....shame on me .. and now regretting that half of my reference library is in French

Claude

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Don't worry Claude....French pictures look the same as English ones.

Colin (a suposedly bilingual Canadain who struggles to order fast food in French)

 

[Blind Pew]

It may, sadly, be something we might not ever get to the bottom of.
I do recall somebody saying they thought they could speak French until they picked up a copy of Figurines. It turns out we have in our hobby myriad technical terms that never do quite translate.
Oh well, I live in hope.

 

[Colin_Fraser]

It may, sadly, be something we might not ever get to the bottom of.
I do recall somebody saying they thought they could speak French until they picked up a copy of Figurines. It turns out we have in our hobby myriad technical terms that never do quite translate.
Oh well, I live in hope.

When I worked in financial reporting we had to translate our quarterly financials and MD&A into French for filing with Canadian Securities Commissions. Job had to get out sourced to a Quebec CPA firm given all the financial jargon. I expect you are quite right given all the military, uniform and art jargon we use.

 

[bonehead]

It may, sadly, be something we might not ever get to the bottom of.
I do recall somebody saying they thought they could speak French until they picked up a copy of Figurines. It turns out we have in our hobby myriad technical terms that never do quite translate.
Oh well, I live in hope.

The editor of Figurines, Dominique Breffort, speaks five different languages fluently, including English. He is fully capable of translating "figure or Model jargon" as he is both a modeler and figure painter. I wrote many articles for him over the years, all in English which he translated to French for publication. He can as easily translate in the other direction if he wanted to.

It would be up to the publisher to decide if they wanted to produce a second version of the magazine in English. My guess is that it would be too risky to justify the extra costs involved. If you guys are really serious about this, then you should write to the publishers of the magazine......

I never had any problem with the magazine in French. With a French/English dictionary, it is not hard to figure out. And all the photos, the "meat" of any modeling magazine, are in the universal visual language, and thus need no translation......