EDITORIAL

Dear Friends and Fellow Modellers,

Greetings from Nuremburg, and from our

pleasantly hectic Stall C-57 in Hall 7. Only

a couple of hours ago, we held our now

traditional news conference that is bound

to become the most important event of

the year, of course, within the relevance

of our activities. For now, this is a small,

single room event for a few dozen invited

retailers, distributors and journalists who

are informed of things that you all already

know from our last newsletter. That will

not fundamentally change. What I expect

to happen is that there will be a point reached where there will be a large demand

for a seat at the conference, and there will

be a ‘standing room only‘ option, too, that

will be of limited availability. I trust that the

demand will not be fuelled by the offer of

coffee, cake and samples of our products.

These should only be a small component

of the overall bigger picture. After all, why

would you haul your butt up to the second

floor of an event where you can stand on

just one foot, usually not your own, and

get nothing for it? It’s, of course, better to

overestimate the amount of snacks and

samples to have at hand and ready, but

this years one hundred Fokker D.VIIs went

like the proverbial hotcakes, and it can be

anticipated that you’ll learn about this model before I can enthusiastically describe it

in May’s newsletter. As to this event itself,

you’ll find out a lot in the coming weeks,

and here in the Czech Republic, the discussion will no doubt express the opinion that

it’s for nought, since the same can be done

through the internet better and cheaper.

The acceptance of the practicality of a show

like this is, of course, a matter of personal

opinion based on the relevant factors that

happen to apply, such as size of the company, it’s financial situation, language barriers and other criteria. Year after year, the

required financial burden rises and returns

are difficult to gage. And generally speaking, the old proven rules set down by people like Barnum and Ford still apply today.

Their era is gone, never to return, but still,

the investment from our end to the tune of

some $50,000 that Nuremburg demands

will bring rewards that will be clearly noticeable. We’ll see just exactly what fruit this

will bear, but for now, it is my intention that

Eduard will be the last model company to

take part in the toy fair as long as modellers

come and visit, and this feeds my motivation to remain. And if, god willing, global warming should improve the weather around

the time of the fair and I return home without some disease as I typically seem to do,

I will happily keep on coming back.

So, let’s take a gander at the new items

for February. The top of the list is the Tempest Mk.V, Second production Series. The

first issue of the type, the Tempest of the

First Series, seems to have put to rest initial criticisms relatively quickly. That in itself is a good thing, and the last of the kits

were accepted almost suspiciously well. On

the other hand, it did lead to quiet in the

media. In this hobby, it seems as though if

there is nothing bad to say about a kit, then

very little is said at all. A part of any of the

On the photo from left to right: Jan Zdiarský, Martin Finger, Petra Pavlíčková, Vladimír Šulc,

Alena Čechová a Martin Ferkl.

4

eduard

criticism is difficult to do anything about.

When someone complains about a complicated cockpit assembly, it’s usually hard

to do anything about it. The real item is

not of our design, and we, in fact, expend

a lot of effort in order to simplify the construction as much as possible while staying

true to details. This is not a simple process.

On the one hand, we are expected to represent most, if not all, of the detail of any

given item including small differences between versions, and keep it simple for the

construction process. Usually, these two

concepts are contradictory. We do what we

can, and perhaps the aforementioned D.VII

is an example of the fact that it is possible.

The kit is simple to put together, but assembly of individual subassemblies is dictated

by things like the nine types of radiators

and six pairs of wheels, four pairs of guns,

the same number of wheel struts and exhausts, and eight propellers. So, in the end,

eight radiators and five pairs of wheels are

unused. Unfortunately, all of it has to be

paid for. The up side for the modeller is that

there is still one, compact assembly that did

not need to be put together or modified

from cut apart modular items. And on the

other hand, someone will point out that on

first glance, the model is very complicated

because it is made up of a surprising high

parts count.

Even if the Tempest is itself a complex

model, even without alternative parts, we

accepted initial criticisms as relevant and

made some adjustments where possible.

Criticism was levelled against the undercuts of some parts. Some technological

adjustments were made in an effort to address this, and I think this has been largely

successful and some of the parts, notably

the rudder and ailerons, are an improved

affair. The top half of the wing still carries

some relief features that are in the vicinity

of the wheel well roof, but these are very

fine and disappear under a coat of paint.

A few items have been added, most notably

a small sprue with the drop tank. This is a

clear part, because the item that it represents had a small plexiglass panel. We added two types of dust filters and a prop hub

INFO Eduard - February 2019