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SUBMITTING KIT REVIEWS AND BOX ART

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Missing box art table last updated: 08 Feb 2012

- Please refer to the topic above that most suits you.  All submissions and enquiries can be made through e-mail: smakr1@optusnet.com.au  or postal - PO Box 411, Whyalla SA 5600, Australia

Missing Boxart Table
- can you supply scanned box art images of any or all of the following kits? 

If so I would love to hear from you!!  

• Please attach the boxart images to an email, preferably in .jpg format and about 50kb maximum size if possible.  

• You do not need to worry about tidying the image up as I am happy to do that at this end but of course would appreciate it if all I had to do was attach an image to the review. 

• Please remember to include the full details of the kit (scale, manufacturer, aircraft and version) as it is not always identifiable by the boxart!  

• If you are sending through a whole heap of images, please attach them to different emails as 10 emails with two images each will download at this end much better than two huge emails with 10 images each.  

All Contributions are greatly appreciated!!

PS: If you happen to read a review which is missing its boxart, but it's not included in the list below, please email me and let me know so I can add it to the table.  Every now and then I appear to miss one!

Submitting Kit Reviews 
Both fully built and INBOX reviews - they are always welcome and there is no reason not to submit one! 

Here's a few paragraphs for you to digest, but please don't let that put you off. But please take a moment to read this information to ensure as smoothly a published review as possible. There is some information and disclaimers that has to be provided to you, even though many speak for themselves.  Once you have read it once, you will probably not need to again!

Please remember that ignorance or failure to read and abide by the following is not an acceptable excuse.  By submitting a review you will have been taken to have read and agreed with this section in full.  Please clarify or ask questions if there is anything that does not make sense. 

SMAKR relies on review contributions from YOU to continue to be a valuable resource.  You do not need to be a super kit builder or an aspiring author to get your own review page on SMAKR!  All contributions are greatly appreciated and the author is always acknowledged on each review - it's one way to get your name up on a web site visited by thousands of visitors every month!  

Submitting a kit review is easy!!  
Here are some brief dot points to help you get one in:

• Please ensure you have read the conditions of review submissions further below.

• Headings are also listed below and detail the type of information expected in a review.  

• SMAKR is a relaxed, informal site, so there is flexibility about the topics/headings you cover in your review.

• Some information is essential, including reasonably detailed information about the kit (ie: contents), construction, colour schemes/painting/decals and a conclusion.

• Reviews should be written in a MS Word 2003 compatible document or can simply even be text in an email.  Please do NOT send in a .html document.

• You do NOT need to format your review as it is easier to copy and paste into templates.  Font used in built reviews is Georgia 12 pt, and Inbox reviews is Arial 12 pt (this is just for your info, you do not need to use these fonts).

• Please do NOT send in reviews with embedded images.  These images will not be published.  

• Please ensure images are separated from the text and are their own attachments to your email and if possible no more than 50Kb in size each image.  I can crop images at this end but I prefer it if I don't have to.  If you want your image at a particular spot in your review (subject to normal SMAKR formatting) just note this in your review (eg: put the image name in italics at the point you want it inserted). 

• Images are NOT compulsory as I am more interested in the text and the review itself so no need to be concerned about having to send in images.  However, an image of the boxart is appreciated (although again not absolutely compulsory).  

• Please keep any emails you send to less than a Megabyte in size, I am still only on dial up!  If necessary send a couple of emails rather than one huge one.

• SPELLCHECK your review please - it can look fairly silly when your review is up on the site with errors and unfortunately I do not have time to grammar and spell check every review sent in.

• Remember to send in a complete and full review article.  The idea is to publish an informative review for SMAKR readers so please provide a generous amount of information in your review.  Apparently incomplete and very short articles which do not provide much information may not be published. 

• Don't be put off if the kit you wish to review is already reviewed on SMAKR - the more opinions the better the decision that can be made by others.

• Individual styles regarding writing, headings and setting out is welcomed by SMAKR, however, the review will still be published to match the general layout of other reviews on the site. 

• Please allow a week or so for your review to be acknowledged, as I work full time, run a business and have other commitments (let alone the hassles I sometimes have with FortuneCity), it can be a few days before I read emails and publishing a review.  All review submissions that are accepted will be acknowledged by return email, with an indication of publication date.

• SMAKR tries to provide a fairly relaxed atmosphere for review submissions, you need only write your article and send it in by email.  There are not too many reviews I knock back, so if your article meets the basic requirements of a review then there should be no problems!!

Reviews of 1/72 and 1/48 are primarily requested, particularly 1/48 as a few more of these would be nice!

So what are you waiting for - look forward to receiving your review soon!

SUGGESTED HEADINGS AND SUGGESTED TOPICS TO COVER (these are negotiable but should be used as a guide)
* Kit Details: A quick rundown on the full title of the kit and catalogue number, if it is a reboxed kit from another manufacturer 
* Aircraft History: A quick spiel on the aircraft the kit is reproducing such as a very brief overview or history
* The Kit: A quick insight into what you see when you open up the box, reissue etc; eg: How many resin/clear/injection parts, colour of plastic, raised or engraved panel lines, is there any flash, etc
* Instructions: A brief overview of the instructions, the format, how many pages, whether sprue diagram included, what paint range is quoted and whether it covers construction; how many assembly steps etc
* Construction: Text review of the construction process.  Ease of fit, are parts numbered well, join lines, filling & sanding requirements, etc.  Overall experiences during the construction stage and any traps for others to be wary of or suggested alternatives, etc etc.
* Options: Does the kit provide any parts that are optional, unique or gimmicky? Perhaps moveable flaps, an open canopy, positionable speed brake, pilot figure/s, rotating gun turrets, moveable wheels & propellers, etc
* Colour Schemes: What examples does the kit reproduce and the colour schemes quoted.  Air Force, Squadron, base, etc
* Decals: Who produces them, are they thin or thick, is their colour register good, do they apply easily (did you use a solvent), do they disintegrate
* Accuracy: How does the kit compare to reference material, are the dimensions scaled down accurately, is the profile captured well and the planform accurate, did you compare against scale drawings? Are all the bits and pieces there like the extra detailing components (air ducts, antenna, fairings) to make the right version, are the bits also in the correct place etc (obviously only comment if you have an opinion and have done some research, not everyone buys kits for accuracy or has a set of scale drawings!)
* Overall Recommendation: Your summary or conclusion of the kit, would you recommend it, if so who to (novice modellers?)
* Images: If you do supply an image or photo of an aircraft that the kit replicates please ensure it is exactly the same aircraft type in terms of variant and so forth as readers will often use the photo as a quick reference check themselves. Please refer to the Image submission section below
* Other: You are also welcome to supply any other info you feel is relevant such as rating, price, build date and so forth - it's up to you!!

Please remember that the above topics are suggestions only, you can cover whatever you feel is appropriate, after all you are the reviewer so it is your choice.  

Conditions and other things to know about submitting a review to SMAKR:  

Here are a few basic conditions and 'legal stuff' that SMAKR needs to get across - most of it is just common sense but no point in assuming people know it!  You should at least read this section before sending in your first review, a lot of it you probably already know or would have assumed anyway, but these things do have to be stated for you.

If you need a copy of these conditions sent to you by email, please request this by email.

IMPORTANT Note: By sending a submission you are acknowledging that you have read, agreed to and understood the following, and will be deemed thus.  Please contact me if you have any queries or concerns about the following. 

• Reviews are YOUR intellectual property and SMAKR will not claim propriety use of your work at any time in the future (ie: seek profit from your contribution). However, by submitting a review to SMAKR you are giving permission for your work to be displayed and used by SMAKR for as long as the webmaster wishes, and to be included in the site's archives for the enjoyment of all SMAKR visitors and readers.   

• SMAKR reserves the right to use submitted reviews in a non-profit way for appropriate reasons such as archiving articles on CD or other media, publishing on a medium to enable the costs of operating SMAKR to be recovered or providing a copy of a review to other SMAKR contributors.  

• Any removal of reviews will not usually be done by request, SMAKR reserves the right to remove upon its own discretion. Any review may also be appended with comments from other modellers (see below).  

• I make no claim to owning your work or preventing it from being sent elsewhere.  You are more than welcome to send your work to other publications as you see fit.  But it is nice just to let them know that your work is on SMAKR and let me know you have sent your work elsewhere - this just clears up any possible problems that might occur between the two webmasters :)  Where you send your review to another site who requests removal of article from my site, please outline the dot point above regarding removal of reviews to them.  I do not have time or patience to deal with other websites, written publications or media who put this imposition on sites such as SMAKR.

• By submitting a review you acknowledge that you are being honest about your assessment and are not affiliated with any model company in submitting a biased or otherwise unfair assessment.  The review is also YOUR OWN work and not someone elses nor will it breach any copyright obligations you may have with another publisher.  SMAKR will accept and take no responsibility for this in any way whatsoever, nor be drawn into any legal problem between you and another party.  Any enquiries from them will be sent to you to deal with and resolve.  

• I reserve the right to edit your articles as I see fit - which will generally only be of a formatting nature to conform with the overall theme of the site, or of course clearing up spelling and grammatical errors.  Please do your own grammar and spelling checks before sending your work in.  Any reviews requiring spelling, grammar and editing of that nature will be delayed in getting published, and often because of time constraints they may simply go up as they are!

• SMAKR makes no guarantees of the timing of having a review published to the site.  In most cases a review is published within a few days (even hours!) of being received.  It will depend on the level of editing, my own time restraints, backlog of reviews and when I next access the Internet.  You should allow a week or longer if any editing is needed. Also please bear in mind things outside my control may affect publishing of your review (such as FortuneCity uploading problems, personal and work commitments etc!)

• SMAKR reserves the right to append other comments or additional information to your review which have been submitted by other SMAKR readers - which may also include someone else's model pictures of the same kit or further boxart images to include. This will enable your review to be more accurate and a better review and it enhances the overall information that can be provided to all readers (and it will still be considered YOUR review!!).  Note only constructive and helpful comments are appended and this is done solely at SMAKR's discretion.  If you disagree with something appended to your review, then please email me to discuss further.

• No matter how bad a kit may be, please try to be as objective as possible as many people read this site and rely on accurate and unbiased information.  It really doesn't give your work a lot of credibility if the review is so negative and degrading as to make it sound like the kit should never have been made - nearly every kit has a silver lining (somewhere!!).  Just be honest and fair - there's often a way you can be subtle and still nail the kit with the sledgehammer - without actually using a sledgehammer (if you get my drift!).

• SMAKR is a free resource so I am not in a position to pay for any contributions - however should at any time in the future your work appear on any SMAKR medium that incurs a cost by the purchaser - other than to cover costs of producing the medium (a magazine, a CDrom etc for example) then you will receive a free copy of the medium, or otherwise be compensated accordingly (only where profit is being made). SMAKR reserves the right to archive reviews on CDRom and to provide to readers for cost of producing the CDRom only, handling etc.  No compensation or free copies can be provided in these circumstances since no profit is being made.  

• All pop up advertising and other website issues are Fortunecity imposed only due to the nature of having a free website.  SMAKR does NOT see a single cent or otherwise make any money, gain or profit so this cannot be passed on to contributors. This is a Fortunecity imposed commitment in order to have a free webhosting service.

• Your email address will NOT be divulged in the review unless you either specifically give permission or include it as part of the review itself.  Once you have provided permission once, all future reviews may include your email address by default. I will not remove (or add) email addresses from/to existing reviews because of the time involved in doing this.  Please note that if you change email addresses, your old email address will remain on those reviews it was attached to forever and a day.  These reviews will not individually be updated to reflect new email addresses, the site is too large and the reviews too many to remember or find which ones to update. 

• Please remember to quote reference sources and owners of any images you send to SMAKR.  It is not my role to determine who owns the copyright to an image or whether it can be displayed - by including any image it is assumed you have obtained permission from the owner (because if there are any subsequent enquiries they will be given your email address and asked to contact to you!).  

• Your review may include links to other internet sites if you wish.  But these are NOT checked or updated at any time in the future (eg: if they become broken).  SMAKR also does not endorse any links you provide for obvious and practical reasons.  The links are your responsibility to be accurate and relevant.  See the policy information on links in reviews below. 

• I always send a note to acknowledge and thank you for your review contribution and let you know approximately when it will be uploaded to the site.  If you do not get an acknowledgement within say a few days or a week, send me a note to confirm whether I have received it (or feel free to resend the review).

Of course the above is as exhaustive as I can get it without including a lot of common sense stuff that could drag on forever.  But if you need clarification on any of the above or feel that something not stated should be then please contact me by email at smakr1@optusnet.com.au.

So hurry up and get that Kit Review in!!!   :-)

SMAKR POLICY ON LINKS INCLUDED IN REVIEW SUBMISSIONS:

• All links supplied by the reviewer are usually included in the review to keep it as informative as possible and how the reviewer intended

• All links must be RELEVANT to the review and preferably not of commercial in nature

• These Links are not endorsed, visited or checked for accuracy by SMAKR

• Links are assumed to be working at time review submitted.  Links are NOT updated in a review because of the time resources this involves even if they become broken.

• Readers are asked to contact the reviewer direct for further information on any links

• SMAKR reserves the right to include or exclude any links as it sees fit

• Reviewers, you may want to simply divulge the phrase you used on a search engine to obtain the information sought - or the names of the internet sites.  This ensures that links will not become broken in the review!  

Submitting Images
To enhance the site's appeal and information basis, image contributions are always welcome, whether they be missing boxart, aircraft reference pictures or images of completed models.

Missing Boxart: As stated above, SMAKR loves (read "obsession") to have every review accompanied by its actual boxart - if you spot a review that you can supply the actual boxart for, please do so!  Ideally boxart should be be in .jpg format and typically about 500 pixels in width or a little bit more and no more than 50-100kb file size.  I do have software which can crop and resize images so no problems if it is a bit larger although of course I appreciate it if you can do all that stuff at your end!  

**  Please remember to include sufficient information to identify the manufacturer, scale, aircraft name and version in any email accompanying the image.  Please also limit emails to only a few images at a time, and no more than about 500-900kb in total per email.

This is an example of about the minimum size that boxart should be submitted in which is 210 pixels width
Notice there is no scale information on the box and only the stars identifying it is a Tamiya 
- that's why the details in the email are needed!

Finished Model Images: You do not need to be the author of a review to send actual model images in!  If there is a review of the exact kit you have images for, then you are more than welcome to have your model pics added to the review (providing there are no images on the review already).  Space is a premium on the Internet and I am relying on a free web hosting service, so you must ensure that your images are as compact as possible, but at the same time do not detract too much from quality (easier said than done I know but there's not much choice!).  Please feel free to dictate where the images best fit on the review as well (subject to SMAKR format) and include captions if you wish.  Your images may be cropped and have its size altered to meet the desired limitations of SMAKR. Again, best to send in .jpg images and include an email clearly identifying the review the images should be attached to. Model photo contributors are acknowledged under the reviewer's name.  Delays in publishing images do occur because reviews are given priority and because of the new computer system I use, I no longer have access to FTP for uploading (I have to do it all through the browser, which takes thrice as long!).  Further delays can occur when information is not included, the images need editing or resizing.  

Aircraft and Other Images: Sometimes reviews are clearly enhanced by simply having a pictorial reference photo of the actual aircraft that is subject of the review.  This may also include those artistic sideview profiles that show colour markings etc.  If the image is not yours, please make sure you observe any copyright practices (ie: obtain permission to allow picture to be shown on SMAKR) and identify the owner of the image so I can at least acknowledge them with the photo.  By submitting an image to SMAKR it will be assumed that you have obtained permission from the owner for the image to be displayed - SMAKR will not be accountable in any way for this, if there are any subsequent enquiries made they will be referred to you and your email address will be passed on.

Product Samples for Review 

SMAKR now accepts product samples for review.  For further information and discussion please contact me on my email.  

These can be sent to 

SMAKR 
PO Box 411
WHYALLA  SA  5600
Australia

E-mail can be sent to smakr1@optusnet.com.au. My thanks to everyone who is able to provide assistance.

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