Editorial

Good day, Dear Friends

Welcome to the new year! In addition to the usual wishes of much happiness, health and well-being, I also wish you a lot of modeling successes, many new inspirations and a sufficient supply of kits and accessories. I can promise you that we will do everything to ensure that you have a regular supply of them from us. The January newsletter is usually about what we have in store for you in the upcoming year. I am now a little worried that I will not actually have much fresh off the presses information for you today, since much of what is coming has already been revealed at E-day, but perhaps you will still find something. So let's get to it.

Hybrid

 The new Hybrid series, combining plastic with 3D printed parts, had its premiere at E-day in the form of our new 48th scale Avia S-199 and a 1:72nd Enstrom 490. I probably won't surprise anyone when I admit that we chose these essentially off-the-wall types because we wanted to test the concept of the new series on them, find out what works and what doesn't according to the original conceptual assumptions and what will need to be changed. I dare say that most of the elements on these projects turned out as we expected. It turns out that there is not much point in producing very small parts via 3D printing. This does not give the modeler much of an advantage, the details are not that much better, and it is more difficult to separate such parts from the print supports. It is precisely the separation from the supports and cleaning of the parts that is problematic, especially for modelers without previous experience with 3D parts. 3D printing of complex cockpit and landing gear leg assemblies is far more effective. These items can be designed and produced to an exceptionally high level of detail, with the details integrated into one or a few basic larger parts. They do not need to be designed or manufactured as separate small glue-together parts, which saves time for both us and the modeler. And that time is not small. Here Hybrid brings significant advantages and technological progress. It is similar with landing gear legs and wheels. We will stick to this method of production of landing gear legs, as it has proven itself. And at the same time, we will expand their availability within aftermarket accessory production.

What does provide a bit of a dilemma are seats with integrated seat belts. These were received positively by some of the modeling public, and as is often the case, negatively by another. The negative part is louder than usual, but it seems that the ratio between them is in around that fifty-fifty ratio. To tell the truth, we do not want to fight for a long time to promote this innovation, but we also do not want to back down from it, because we think it is a good innovation. But you can't break through a wall with your head and we have a lot of experience with customer resistance to new products. So we are looking for a reasonable solution, within which we try to avoid the option with two alternative seats as much as possible. We are currently working on separate printed belts, glued to the seat. However, we do not have a definitive result as yet.

So then the obvious question becomes what specific kits await us in the Hybrid series? Already in January, the next release being worked on is the second production version of the Avia S-199 in 1:48th scale, the one with the bulged sliding canopy. It follows on from the first version and differs in a few small details, of course the canopy and its accessories. We have also modified some of the problematic parts of the first version, we have strengthened some, added protective covers to minimize breakage and adjusted the packaging method. In February, we are releasing the first version, the S-199 Erla, already in its second re-edition. The kit is selling well and this gives us hope for a good future for the Hybrid series.

This year, it will be mainly about kits in 1:32 scale. The closest to release is the P-51B Mustang. It will be in two basic versions, with a birdcage canopy and a Malcolm hood. The first release of the Mustang will be in the Limited Edition series. I already pointed out that we will go this way with the Hybrid series during the detailed introduction of this idea at last year's E-day. This initial Limited Edition release will be based on the Overlord/D-Day Mustangs that was the subject of a 48th scale Limited Edition kit earlier. The composition of the markings will be the same as in that kit and the content will of course correspond to the Hybrid series standard. The subsequent kits will all be Hybrids, in which the composition of the markings will more or less correspond to the 48th scale Profipack releases. The first 1:32nd scale Mustang should be released as a new product in May.

Another project in the Hybrid series is the Spitfire Mk.IX, also in 1:32nd scale. I am already working on more than two production versions within this project. We will gradually release the early F.Mk.IX Spitfires, then the LF.Mk.IXc main production version, and,of course, also the Mk.IXe and, as with the previous 48th scale kits, the Mk.VIII including the high-altitude HF.Mk.VIII. In this case too, there will be Limited Edition releases, again following in the footsteps of their 48th scale little brothers. So count on the Czechoslovak Mk.IX Spitfires from the The Boys Are Back Limited Edition, and the Australian Spitfire Mk.VIII in the Aussie Eighth Limited Edition. If all goes well, the first 32nd Spitfire will be released as a July new release and will have its premiere at E-day. And while we are on the subject of Spitfires, we will not stop with the design work on the eights and nines, but we will also make the Spitfire Mk.XII and Mk.14. In this case, however, we will start with projects in 1:48 scale, so that we don't have only 1:32 scale items popping up in the new release category.

The third project we are working on in the Hybrid series is the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A. As part of this project, we will release all versions of the Fw 190 A from the A-2 to the A-8, including the Fw 190 A-9/R2 and the Fw 190 F-8 fighter/bomber. We will then continue with the Fw 190 D-9. We are also quite far along in terms of the design work with the Focke-Wulfs, and I think that the first of them, the Fw 190 A-8/R2, could be on the market sometime in the last quarter of this year.

The Classics

 In the Hybrid series, we have quite a few projects in preparation that are based on older 48th scale releases. And we will not neglect this classic kit either. In the advanced stages of preparation, which means that we are already working on the molds, we have the 1:72nd scale MiG-21R and Bf 109 K-4. The Bf 109 K-4 should be a new item for March in the form of a Kurfürst Limited Edition, and we are counting on the MiG-21R for May or June. We will release the R version first as a Limited Edition, in this case with a book by Martin Janoušek, dedicated to the Czechoslovak service life of the MiG-21R.

We will continue with the 1:72nd scale Spitfires. First in April or May we will release the Spitfire Mk.Vc in the Profipack range, then we will continue with Limited Edition kits based on the Mk.Vb of various versions, and the Mk.Vc. These will include Eagle's Call, dedicated to American Spitfires, followed by Spitfire Story: Southern Star dedicated to the tropical Mk.Vb and Mk.Vc versions. We will follow them up with the Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.II both in the Profipack ange and as Limited Edition releases, which will again follow from the 48th scale versions released previously..

As for 48th scale news, we are working on the P-40K. We will release it in both short and long versions in the second half of the year in both the Limited Edition and Profipack ranges. Another upcoming new item this year involves the MiG-15 family. We have the MiG-15 ready in both the basic MiG-15 and the MiG-15bis versions. The set of parts also includes parts for the Czechoslovak specific ground attack versions of the MiG-15SB and MiG-15bisSB. The first kit of the 48th scale MiG-15 will be released at the very end of the year, in November or December. We also have the design drawn up for a two-seat MiG-15UTI training version ready for the future, but we will probably incorporate this into the Hybrid series.

Reboxes

 We have quite a few Limited Edition releases planned that will make use of other manufacturers’ plastic. Just a gnat’s hair from being released is ‘Alien’, a Mi-35 in 1:48 scale. We published a lot about that in December, so I assume you know what it is. We sold 720 pieces through pre-orders, the rest of the total circulation of 1000 pieces will go to selected retailers, where those who do not trust pre-orders or had other reasons for holding back will still have an opportunity to get their hands on this unique item. We will most likely ship the kits at the beginning of February. I do not know the exact date yet, because it is not yet clear how quickly the printing of decals with integrated positive riveting will go. We know that this is a complex technology that is not fully tested, and therefore it is not clear exactly how long the production will take. It may happen that we will ship these kits in January, but that is still uncertain.

In February we should also ship ‘Strafers’, the HKM Eduard B-25J Mitchell in 1:48th scale. The plastic is on its way to us, they are now going by train and should now be somewhere in Turkey, maybe even somewhere in the Balkans. And to top it all off, we also have plastic for the 48th scale F/A-18C from Kinetic on the way. This will be included as part of April’s new releases.

Other upcoming projects include a 48th scale A-20G Havoc and a B-25J Mitchell with a glass nose. This kit will be an extension of the 72nd scale Angel of Mercy release, with the same markings.

Accessories

 I expect our accessory production to undergo a radical transformation this year. It is in response to technological changes and the associated changes in demand and sales. To make a long story short, we are selling fewer and fewer photoetched items and cast resin Brassin sets. Demand has shifted to 3D prints and Space sets. So, last year we retrained most of our PE designers to 3D design, and as you know, we are expanding our 3D printer farm to increase our 3D printing capacity. It is not an easy matter, it also involves building modifications and changes in the organization of work, but we are working hard on it and with a clear goal in mind. This does not mean that we will stop the production of photoetched sets altogether. There are still types of etchings that are in demand, for example, colored steel seatbelts are still selling very well. We will also leave the photoetched compnents in kits, in the Profipack and in the Limited Edition releases. They are also interesting for some new kits, and flaps are also selling well. So PE is far from being done, but overall we will purposefully reduce them and we will carefully choose which etched sets we will release for production.

E-day and Other Events

 We have mentioned E-day quite a bit in the recent past and all of that is quite clear. I'll just recap that this year's E-day will take place from June 26th to 28th at the Zahrada Čech exhibition center in Litoměřice. And it will be two days, or rather two and a half days, opening on Friday afternoon.

Monthly Info Newsletter and the EMD

 Our regular monthly newsletter will continue more or less unchanged, it will just take on some of the columns intended for the EMD, which is ending this month. If I had to briefly explain why the EMD is ending, it is because it is not profitable for us. It sells too little to sustain itself in its present form. When we started with EMD, we believed that, given the readership figures of our regular monthly, the EMD could be a commercially interesting project. But that did not come true. The truth is that readers do not want to pay for Internet content, even at relatively small costs. We were unable to break through this block, so we decided to end the project and devote the time spent on it to something more useful. For example, the publications that come with many of oour Limited Edition releases. There is a lot of interest in those.

Model Exhibitions

 On Saturday, January 10th, we will be in Prostějov at an event organized by the on-line retailer MN Modelář. We will be giving lectures there about much of what you have just read, a large part of which will be dedicated to 3D printing and the Hybrid series. At the end of January, from the 27th to the 31st, we will be in Nuremberg at the Spielenwaren Messe, as we do every year at this time. We still haven't given up, even though we are one of the few who are still at the fair. If you are going to Nuremberg, stop by for a coffee and let’s chat.

And that will be it for me for now. I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter, and I wish you all happy modeling!

Vladimir Sulc