Editorial
One year has come to an end and another has begun, bringing us to the right time to describe what we want to accomplish in the near future. But don't expect anything groundbreaking today. You already know about most of the new products being prepared for this year, whether from our involvement with E-day or from other sources. Today I will only reference projects that we are more or less certain we will complete this year. As part of the presentation of this year's new products, I will only deal with new kits today, and I’ll skip accessory items, except to say that in all of our main branches of accessory lines, that is to say in photoetched, masks and Brassins, we are working on various types of
Good Day, Dear Modelers
One year has come to an end and another has
begun, bringing us to the right time to describe
what we want to accomplish in the near future.
But don't expect anything groundbreaking
today. You already know about most of the new
products being prepared for this year, whether
from our involvement with E-day or from other
sources. Today I will only reference projects that
we are more or less certain we will complete
this year. As part of the presentation of this
year's new products, I will only deal with new
kits today, and I’ll skip accessory items, except to
say that in all of our main branches of accessory
lines, that is to say in photoetched, masks and
Brassins, we are working on various types of
innovations. These are often quite fundamental
steps that, if successful, will bring interesting
advancement both in the form of improved
quality and increased quantity of production,
as well as in the form of new products and
perhaps even new product lines. However, none
of these innovations are yet at a stage where
they can be put to good use, so there is no real
point in writing about them today. But don't worry,
as soon as any of these new manufacturing
processes are ready to launch, we'll let you know
and introduce you to the new products that these
processes will allow.
KITS
Last year we premiered two kits, the P-51B
in 1:48 scale, and the P-51D in 1:72nd. In addition,
we completed the Bf 109 G-6/G-14 and G-10
series in 1:72, and we produced molds for the first
all-new release of the year, the P-40E Warhawk
in 48th. We will start shipping these to those that
preordered the Royal Class kit next week, and
these kits will arrive at retailers with other new
releases for February, 2025 a week or so later.
P-40E WARHAWK, 1:48
Our Warhawk kit brings with it a few subtle
innovations. One of them is the speed of
implementation. We started working on this
project in the fall of 2023. From the initiation
of the design to the completion of all the molds,
it took us a year. It may seem like a long time
to you, but in reality, this is pretty quick. Usually,
it takes us about twice as long to take a project
of similar scope to completion. We achieved that
one year window from start to finish thanks to the
design process that we first tested five years ago
when designing the first version of our Zero, and
also because developing the molds for the P-40E
had shared top priority in production during the
second half of the year. It almost means that we
were able to squeeze into production a mold for
the fuselage with fillet for the 48th scale P-51B
and a mold for three variants of the 72nd scale
Bf 109 G-10. Such small things. I understand
that some of you are not very excited about
these ideas, but the kits are really very nice and
of course require their share of honest work.
It's not just a minor change involving the changing
of the name on the box and the instructions.
The second subtle innovation is hidden within
the surface of the kit. We experienced a certain
lack of uniformity when it came to larger surface
areas, namely those of the fuselage and wings.
This was especially noticeable in the riveting,
which tended to be inconsistent over large areas
of real estate of the large parts. Sometimes it
was more noticeable, sometimes less, of course
it did not look good and was subject to justified
criticism. Something had to be done about it. After
all, riveting is one of the most striking highlights
of our kits. We have worked intensively on solving
this problem in recent months, we have made
several adjustments to out machine settings
and the system of continuous measurement of
sparking parameters, and we have introduced
a mandatory procedure for checking the
machine parameter settings and calibrating
the measuring probe during the set-up of the
electroabrasive process. You can judge the
result for yourself. We like it and we will closely
monitor compliance with our set technological
specs in order to maintain this surface style at
the highest possible level.
We are releasing the Royal Class in quantities
that have been determined by customer pre-
orders on our e-shop and dealer orders.
The result will be that we will most likely not
have any left at the end of January out of the
entire run of 4,000 units. However, these kits will
still be available through retailers for some time.
As a new product in March, they will be replaced
in our catalog by the Limited Edition release
called ‘Pacific Star’. It will, as expected, be a Dual
Combo boxing, with a production run set at 3,000
units, and I assume that it will remain available
for several months. Or at least weeks. Anyway,
next in line will be the Profipack version, which
will be a June release. In the summer, the P-40N
will be released along a like line of standards,
starting with the Royal Class, followed by the
Limited Edition kit and then in the fall by the
Profipack. Or rather, Profipacks...plural, because
there will be two versions, differing in the design
of the canopy, the P-40M and the P-40N.
KAMIKAZE TOKKÔTAI / A6M5 Zero
Model 52 & A6M2-K Zero Model 11 1/48
After a long break, we will continue also with
our Zero family of kits. The completion only
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard4
January 2025