EDITORIAL

Dear Friends and Modellers,

Under normal circumstances, today would be the

day that I inform you of the goings-on at our press

conference at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. But as we

all know, the term ‘normal circumstances’ simply

does not currently apply, and any expansion of the

tradition that is the press conference is being torn

apart by the cancellation of the fair. I must admit to

a certain sense of, perhaps, not so much as harm

from all this, but a bit of a relief. I don’t even know

what became of the plans to move the fair to the

summer months. But even that is a moot point,

because if the fair were to be held in the summer,

we still would not be in attendance. In the summer,

we are expecting to have other pressing matters

to attend to. The pandemic situation is still a very

dramatic affair, and the vaccination programs are

falling behind schedule. This, in such a behemoth

endeavor, is to be expected and should surprise no

one. I expect the systems in place will be fine-tuned

within a few weeks, and the program will begin to

run smoothly. And maybe even here, in the Czech

Republic! And with that, what I am trying to say is

that I expect there to be an increasing relaxation

of the restrictions through the course of the summer. That first event that modellers will be able to

attend, that will be one for the history books!

NOBODY’S PERFECT

I will begin my monthly description of events and

new products by addressing a mistake, which was

made in January. Consequently, the addition of

the SPACE sample in purchased P-51D-5 kits had to

be cancelled. I don’t want to blame everything on

December’s fire, but of course, it is a factor. Everything came together thusly: After the fire, we had

no P-51D-5 kits in our inventory. No Weekend kits,

no ProfiPACK kits. After the reopening of the retail

department on January 11th, it appeared as though

we would not be able to sell any of them. Production then pulled all the SPACE sets that were ready

to be included in orders that contained P-51D-5 kits,

and immediately began selling them on their own.

We then decided that we would take the salvageable Overtrees P-51s, and turn them into Weekend

Edition kits. The repackaging along this line went

quickly, and some 82 P-51D-5 Weekend kits were

put up for sale. Unfortunately, no one realized that

the SPACE sets, by then down to almost nothing in

inventory, were not being replenished, and by the

time the realization kicked in, most of the Weekend

P-51D-5s were sold. And all this took place over the

course of a day, just so you don’t get the idea that

we are somewhat slow over here. In this situation,

it seemed pointless to change the terms of sale.

Unfortunately, during this hectic and complicated

period surrounding the resumption of sales activities, there was also a communication breakdown

that led to customers not being informed about the

Mustangs being sent out without the SPACE sets,

because the marketing department received the

information too late. I truly do apologize for the

mess. It came about as the result of everyone dealing with too many things at once, and the sale of

one item was not our main goal. And how will this

situation evolve? The Mustang should go back into

stock in middle of February Not just the P-51D-5

Weekend kit, but other versions as well, such as the

F-6D. Once the Weekend D-5 again becomes available, we will reignite the offer of the addition of

the SPACE set samples for inclusion. Those, that got

their kit in January, have been sent an email about

further procedures. That will be that anyone who

will put in an order will receive a SPACE sample with

said order, and who doesn’t, will receive it separately. I hope that this will settle this issue to everyone’s satisfaction.

4 eduard

SPRUES, SPRUES, SPRUES

The retail department was reopened after the fire

on January 11th, and resumed operation. It needs

to be taken into account that this was done under

some very difficult conditions. Just during the first

week, residual water infiltrated down into the restored warehouse section on three separate occasions. The overall conditions in the warehouse were,

and continue to be, somewhat unpleasant. We have

had to battle not just that first week, but through all

of January, with various little surprises and pitfalls

associated with the return to operational conditions. The biggest issue faced, and really was predictable, was the lack of plastic for the completion

of kits. This was expected to be the main issue into

February, and the lack was also anticipated to be

increasingly apparent in our endeavors. The majority of items were sold out already through January,

and others will follow suit in February. When you

have almost a million plastic sprues go up in smoke,

it’s gonna get noticed somewhere! Of course, we

started molding plastic immediately with the beginning of January. Priority is given to new releases,

and that is how it will stay, so the beginning of the

molding activity was dedicated to February’s new

releases, and right now that has shifted to those

for March. Those have to be ready to be shipped

by mid-February. This includes the buildup of stock

of all the associated accessory items, too. So, as

an example, for the Spitfire Mk.II, this means not

only getting ready the ProfiPACK kit of the model,

but also Spitfire Story: Tally Ho and Spitfire Story:

The Few. Then, there’s the Spitfire Mk.Ia ProfiPACK.

This is a pattern that will continue. March’s new

Fw 190A-5 will see with it the addition of another

six Fw 190A versions. For some items, this will likely

mean some length of time when they will be delayed, but I am convinced that this systematic replenishing of our catalog will be the most effective, and

by the middle of the year, our catalog of available

items will be more than satisfactory. With respect

to pressing plastic, we are not alone, and already

in January, we have had Special Hobby working

closely with us, and more molding equipment has

just been added to the mix. Our ability to put such

an arrangement into motion has been dependent

on preparing the molds along technical lines such

that firms outside of our specific field can effectively work with them with little to no risk of any

damage. So far, all seems to be working smoothly,

and I am hopeful that molding will be running along

at a good clip through February. We are truly doing

what we can. Unfortunately, what has fallen behind

is the development of the new molds intended for

this year’s new releases. The machinists are busy

with preparing the molds for production, and the

development of the new ones are suffering from a

serious lack of time. But even here, I see reason for

optimism with regards to bringing this up to snuff through February, or by March, anyway. As if all

these complications weren’t enough, in January,

covid was not to be outdone by some dumb fire.

Four of our press operators were sidelined for that

very reason, which amounts to one entire shift. To

compensate and to try and maintain the required

press tempo, machinists, including their supervisor,

took turns in that department, besides their regular

duties. Here, as with other companies who are facing adversity, everyone has to roll up their sleeves.

FEBRUARY NEW RELEASES/ACCESSORIES

So, let’s turn our attention to the new items coming

out in February. We’ll start off with accessories.

I would like to point out the six new EDUARD SPACE

sets. These are designed for various versions of the

Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.II in 1:48th scale, two are for

the MiG-21, PF and PFM in 1:72nd, and one is for

the P-51D-5 Mustang in 48th. That was the set that

was intended for inclusion with Mustang kits purchased in January, and will now happen in February. Because this was part of the process of putting

these new items in production for February, it will

now figure as a part of the normal release schedule

of new items as well. If you intend to take advantage of the offer of these with the kit, then you can

simply ignore it as a new item off of our e-shop.

I must point out that the offer is only valid from our

e-shop. Retailers are not making this offer to you,

and for P-51D-5 kits bought outside of our e-shop,

the offer does not apply. We also have three new

LookPlus sets being released, including for the Mi-24V and the Do 17Z in 1:48th scale. In the classic

Brassin range, you’ll find a list of smaller sets, most

notably of weapon sets. Here, I would also like to

single out one item, and that is the set for the Spray

Booms in 1:72nd scale for the Z-37A. This is Set No.

672253. This set is a sort of a window into the future. A part of the set is not in cast resin, but a direct

3D print. This is a road we’d like to go down, and

take full advantage of the potential offered by this

technology. Our goal is to produce a good part of

resin accessory sets as straight 3D prints by the second half of the year.

Photoetched and mask sets offer several collections

of items designed for interesting models that have

recently been released, such as the 1:32nd scale

Tornado GR.4 (Italeri, 1:32nd), F-104DJ (Kinetic,

1:48th), Il-2 (Zvezda (1:48th), F-4EJ Kai (Fine Molds,

1:72nd) and the Merkava Mk.2D (Takom, 1:35th).

Also, please not the extensive releases of masks

and the six new BigEd sets. In February, we also

have four new decal sets coming out. These include

to sheets of stencil data for the P-38 and the Harrier

GR.7/9, both in 1:48th scale. The other two sets

are classic marking sets covering the Fokker Dr.I in

1:32nd. This is for the MENG kit, originally to be released by WNW. The first sheet is dubbed ‘Die alten

Kanonen’, and is dedicated to the aces in general,

with the second sheet focused on Dreideckers from

Richthofen’s JG 1, called ‘Flying Circus / JG 1’.

FEBRUARY NEW RELEASES / KITS

The new kit releases for February are adversely

affected by the fire and its aftermath. It only affects

the release of new kits, fortunately. The number

of new kits has been reduced to three, and the

MiG-21bis in the Weekend Edition has been postponed from the original release plan due to a shortage of plastic. The MiG will likely be released in the

second half of the year. For the same reason, there

is a postponement of the release of the 1:72nd scale ProfiPACK MiG-21MF Fighter Bomber. So, in the

Weekend line, there remains only one release, and

that is the Nieuport 17 in 1:72nd. This is, in my opinion, one of the nicest kits we have ever produced

which remains, unfortunately, a bit of an outsider

in terms of general popularity as a subject. It was

created out of some rather unlikely circumstances.

We prepared this item in, for us, the record time

INFO Eduard - February 2021