senting them would be consistent with photographic evidence. And if anyone has other

ideas, they are always free to putty up the

panel lines as well. Other items of discussion

might be the canopy, propeller, weapons and

other alternative parts . There will be three

canopies included in the kit. The same goes

for the propeller, and radio equipment variations. An interesting item is the dust cover

within the tailwheel well. These were always a little different from aircraft to aircraft

and I am leaning towards leaving these out

completely, and adding these at the modeler

level should pose no issues for anyone. The

kit includes items for the Mustang Mk.IV, and

we also have ready the recce version which

has its own fuselage. These sub-variants will

be released through the course of next year

outside of being included in a Royal Class package. Weapons will be concentrated on one

theme related sprue that will include drop

tanks, bombs, rockets and bazooka tubes,

among other payload hardware. The marking

options selection process is still ongoing but

will be consistent with our past patterns, meaning that there will be a nice mix of famous

and not so famous aircraft. Naturally we will

release a slew of aftermarket accessories for

it, in brass and especially within the Brassin

line, including things such as the engine and

its installation. Sets will cover details such

as wheels with detail differences, exhausts,

bronze landing gear struts, the aforementioned engine, the cockpit, and the collections

of these in the BigSin line.

The Mustang is an item promoting a wide

range of themes. After the inaugural ProfiPACK releases, there will be Limited Edition

releases that will be theme related, such as

we have done with the iconic Bf 109. We’ll

start off with the Mighty Eight, and that will

be something! And with that, we get on the

topic of Limited Edition releases.

As we speak, this year’s first Limited Edition kit is being made available, called ‘Bodenplatte’. You can get a comprehensive glimpse

into its contents elsewhere is this issue of our

Newsletter, and we’ve already touched on

the Bf 109G-14/AS that is included within it.

Other contents include the classic Bf 109G14 and the Fw 190D-9. Bodenplatte is an interesting theme and it can’t be ruled out that

other incarnations of it will surface in the fo6

eduard

llowing years. On the topic of Limited Edition

kits that are put together from our own resources, March will see the 1:72nd scale item

dubbed ‘MF’, dedicated to the MiG-21MF

in its different sub variant service in the Czechoslovak, Czech and Slovak air forces . Since this is an extension of the successful 48th

scale release, the publication in its second

edition that was integral to the earlier release

is included here as well. It also parallels the

quarter scale decal options. The author of

the book is Martin Janousek. In May, we will

find further uses for the Bf 109 kit, specifically the Bf 109F-2 and Bf 109F-4 dedicated to

Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion

of the Soviet Union in June, 1941. The kit will

centre around units that were involved in this

German endeavor. For the latter half of the

year, we are preparing a 1:32nd scale Limited

Edition release called ‘Legion Condor’, based on our Bf 109E-1/E-3, and ground attack

Fw 190As under the heading JaBo.

We also have some Limited Edition items

coming out using some very popular kits

from other manufacturers. This year will

start out in a somewhat non-traditional manner with a 1:48th scale Revell Tornado kit in

April. About mid-year, we’ll follow up with

one using the Hasegawa F/A-18C Hornet, also

in 1:48th scale, a Hasegawa F-104J in the summer, and will cap the year off at E-day with

a Trumpeter MiG-23BN. I will point out that

this will not contain any corrective parts, and

will be offered as molded by Trumpeter. Its

bonus will be a publication from Mr. Janousek, an expert on the subject. Royal Class kits

fall under Limited Edition items and about

those we have already made some mention.

These will progressively include the Tempest

Mk.V, the Mustang and the Fokker D.VII. I can’t rule out that either the Mustang or the

Fokker will eventually be pushed to the beginning of next year. These things are a bit

of ways off and it’s tough to tell what will

happen between now and then. It should

be assumed that we take advantage of that

legal babble stuff about ‘subject to change

without notice’ when we must, except with

notify when it becomes possible.

The Limited Edition line also includes the

‘membership activation’ kits for the BFC.

We’ve been working for some time now on

an activation kit in 1:32nd scale and this year

we’d like to add one in both 72nd and 48th.

We also have a 1:35th scale Sherman in reserve and I promise to do everything we can

to get these kits available over the course

of this year.

Also falling under the Limited Edition category is the SUPER44 line in 1:144th scale.

This will bring some interesting items and we

have come to the decision to rethink this line

and to modify the concept. We will sell off remaining kits through a sale dubbed Sweep,

after which they will again become available

with a change in packaging. We will abandon the Dual Combo idea of these kits and

release them in a simpler format with one

kit per box. Furthermore, these items will be

bagged; a bit of a throwback to the classic

days of modeling. In order to not just modernize the line but also to infuse it with some

new blood, we are going to purchase several

kits in Japan, including the A-4E/F Skyhawk,

F-104G Starfighter, P-47D Thunderbolt, F6F

Hellcat, Fw 190D, and F-8E Crusader. The

plan is to release these progressively from

the end of the first half of the year.

And that leaves us with the Weekend kits.

These are made up of past ProfiPACK and Limited Edition kits. At this moment, the Spitfire Mk.IXC Late Version in 48th is coming to

market, and this will be followed in February

by the previously mentioned 1:72nd scale

F6F-5 Hellcat. This will be followed by a float

version of the Hanriot HD.2, the Bf 109E-4,

Fw 190A-3, Spitfire HF.Mk.VIII, Bf 108, Albatros D.V, Fw 190A-5 and the Bf 109G-14, all in

1:48th scale. There will be two 1:72nd scale

Weekends, the MiG-21MF Fighter Bomber

, aka ‘Grey’, and a MiG-21MFN. The latter

will be available in time for E-day, to give the

event in Lyse some umf.

Not limiting ourselves to just a discussion

around kits, allow me a few words regarding

accessories. There is no sense in going over

these item by item. Just a listing alone would

take up half the newsletter, but we can certainly touch on them a tad. These will be consistent with our established style covering

our own kit releases as well as those of other

manufacturers. We will continue to focus on

designing our accessories to fit quality kits

on the market and this has been explained

in the past. We are going into another round

of upgrades following last year’s successful

investments into improving our capabilities.

This year, we want to put into use a laser

plotter for the manufacture of masks that will

bring a sharper and more accurate cut with

less items slipping through QC and into stock,

with a more visible outline on the backing

sheet making for a more user friendly item.

There will also be an upgrade to the electronic component of the photoetching process

which, although not specifically improving

the quality of the product directly, will improve the fidelity of the film used to produce

photoetched brass and that effect should be

noticeable in the end product. In the Brassin

line, we are looking at improving the printing

on resin bits to allow us to expand the line

into more complicated instrument panels

as well as items like side consoles and ulti-

INFO Eduard - January 2019