EDITORIAL

My Friends, with this newsletter we will

open a window allowing a glimpse into the

upcoming year that we have just entered.

It’s not so slow entry how it was expected

before Christmas, because all the necessary inventories were finished in last week

of December, so we open our e-shop as well

as our sales department today starting the

shipping of the parcels already tomorrow.

This situation just confirms the well known

fact that the situation on the battlefield is

ever changing, there may be some variations to the things you thought you already

knew that may be news to you.

After the limited edition kits prepared for

2018, introduced in December Info, now let

me introduce the other prepared project,

new kits as well as various improvements

in our aftermarket production, expected

for this year. It is a basically straight forward

affair to describe the developments and

concepts that pertain to accessories. At first

glance, they may appear to be insignificant

changes, but they do have the potential

of long lasting implications on production.

For example, January sees the start of our

masks being produced to not only cover the

exterior surfaces of clear parts, but the interior ones as well. These dual surface sets

will be suffixed TFace (‚T‘ for Two) as an easy

identifier. Because we are really not as certain as internet forums would suggest as to

their potential popularity, we will also be

releasing each set in the classic outside surface only style as well. The TFace masks will

begin their production run only with the

bigger scales, 1/32nd and 1/48th, and will

be limited to types that would suggest the

highest demand. Their price point should

be somewhere around 1.5 times the usual

classic sets.

All of the photoetching will now be printed on new equipment, the advantages

of which were already made clear last fall,

during Novemberfest and even with some

new items that were released during the

final quarter of last year. The new machinery has better fidelity of detail and picks

Glazed dashboard instruments.

4

eduard

out surface detail better, gives a significantly

reduced raster effect and better prints over

relief detail. This is a capability that is also leading us to experiment with this technology

on resin parts, specifically on resin instrument panels. This would be particularly

useful in connection with the lensed over

instrument dials which will quickly become the norm for photoetching in 1/48th

and 1/32nd scales not only for the straight

PE lines, but the Brassin as well. Our intention with the painted resin is to eventually

create a new line of products around it.

We will discuss this in greater detail when

it comes time to initiate actual production.

Besides the lensed instruments becoming

a standard item, so will weathered seat

belts. These effects will be most noticeable and appreciated in 1/48th and 1/32nd

scales. I won’t go into specific details regarding accessory releases for the coming year,

if only for the fact that my own view into the

future is not perfect. I also have no crystal

ball into what other companies are planning

and that would have an impact.

The production of our own model kits

is quite well defined and a closer look, however, will probably not bring about any

major revelations. The first half of the year

will see another two 1/48th scale Fw 190As,

the first being the A-5 in March and the A-3

in June. In both cases, these depict the lighter version of the fighter with two wing

cannon. It should be noted that neither the

A-3 nor the A-5 have yet been released in

this configuration

by any company

save for our December released

A-3 in the Royal

Class boxing. Over

the second half of

the year, this will

be followed by one

more boxing of the

Fw 190A, but which

version this will be

is not yet certain,

and it is also not out

of the question that

the Fw 190A-8 will be used for another Royal

Class edition of the model. And while on the

topic of the Fw 190A, I was originally very

skeptical with respect to the A-2, but today

I am in fill acceptance and willing to consider its release as a stand alone ProfiPACK

kit.

In May, we will be releasing the 1/72nd

scale MiG-21MF Interceptor. These were

aircraft produced by factory No. 21 in Gorky

(Nizhny Novgorod nowadays). This kit will

however contain a mix of international markings, not just those of Czechoslovakia. This

will be reserved for a Limited Edition boxing

mirroring the MF kit released in 2016

in 1/48th scale. This will be followed by

a Royal Class edition in the summer covering all MF production blocks, and in the fall

by a MiG-21MF Fighter-Bomber ProfiPACK

kit from factory No. 30 in Moscow.

This year will also see further releases

of the Bf 109G and F. Besides taking advantage of already released versions in the

Limited Edition kits, mentioned in the December newsletter, and Weekend Edition

releases, we will see the Bf 109G-10 through the summer. This will be a version that

will certainly garner a lot of attention and

discussion, more than the others besides

the first G-6 and F-4, since it is not simply

a markings option kit, and utilized a lot of

components of previous Gustav and Friedrich variants.

Fw 190A-3 1/48.

In the last newsletter I mentioned that

we will be releasing the He 280. Similarly, we will be giving the Fokker D.VIII, also

in 1/48th, the same treatment. That’s how

it goes....when we were looking for the

He 280 moulds, we stumbled on others....

In the summer, we will release the final

ProfiPACK kit of the SE.5a, this time in the

nightfighter version, but the most interesting item is being reserved for the fall, when

we will release the new Tempest Mk.V

in 1/48th at E-day. Specifically, this will be

the Tempest Mk.V of the 1st production

series. The second production version will

INFO Eduard - January 2018