Strana 4
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
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard4
January 2026