This came in with 707 sold pieces. Everything we

have released for this kit has sold well, including three sets of decals. The set of seatbelts

for it was also the best selling new photoetched

item for 2021. But what followed the Phantom II

set, I wouldn’t have expected in my wildest dreams, that being the spray boom for the Čmelák

in 1:72nd, selling a total of 616 units. By the way,

the under-fuselage aerial applicator itself also

sold well, to the tune of 581 items. While on the

topic of Brassin items, the best selling item of all

time is 648029 AIM-9M/L Sidewinder, that over

the course of its existence has sold 5,094 pieces.

That’s not a big surprise either, as the Sidewinder

is a famous item in its own right. I was personally

more surprised by the success of the somewhat

related TER and MER racks. The MER set, 648227,

sold 2,047 and its sister item, 648232 TER, sold

1,729.

BY COUNTRY

In terms of the order of sales per country, there

are only minor deviations in last year’s numbers.

The first five spots are the same. In first place for

the fifth year running, we have the Czech Republic, with 21 % of world sales, followed by Great

Britain with 15.7 %, then the USA with 15 %, followed by Germany at 12.3 %, and finally Poland

at 6 %. Sixth place was achieved by Japan moving up one spot with 5.12 % of our total sales,

which changed ranking with France who came in

seventh at 4.74 %. Eighth place was taken by Slovakia, 2.29 %, ninth were our friends from Down

Under at 2.24 %, and tenth was Russia at 1.76 %.

Eighth and ninth places were exchanged by Slovakia and Australia. The next spots are, in order,

China, Italy, Canada, Norway and the Netherlands

at fifteenth. Each of these latter nations account

for just over 1 % of our sales worldwide. In most of

the above mentioned nations, there was a decline

in sales that was in line with the 5% drop overall.

The exceptions are Poland, that saw a raise in

their share of 10 % and Japan, 12 %. Dziękuję bardzoand Arigato godzai masu! We are very appreciative of the strength of the home market, of

which I consider Slovakia to be a part of. A strong

home market and a solid home market foundation are hallmarks of potential success for any

company, if you ask me, and so we consider the

support we receive from homegrown modelers

essential. That, of course, doesn’t mean that we

value our export clients any less. In fact, we are

very pleased with the welcoming arms we are

met with everywhere we go, and we can’t wait to

be able to attend foreign shows and contests, and

meet up with some old friends.

The year before last we sold our goods to 69

countries. Last year, this number dropped to

62. We did gain Venezuela, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Gibraltar, Brunei and Bahrain. I am

a little dismayed at the fact that we have not sold

anything to Papua New Guinea since 2013, and

we seem to have lost New Caledonia in 2019. It

seems that maybe our hobby is suffering a bit of

a crisis in these localities and I hope it spreads

no further!

The initial placements of our partner companies

haven’t changed last year either. Traditionally, the

top spot is held by Hannants (Great Britain), then

Sprue Brothers (USA) and third by Glow2B (Germany). The high rank held by the Czech market

is reflected by the rankings of Czech firms, there

being five in the top twenty. Sixth overall is MN

Modelář, eleventh is Modelimex, twelfth is Special Hobby, thirteenth Art Scale and twentieth is

Artur Model Centrum. And coming in 21st spot

is Pecka Modelář. We would like to extend our

gratitude to all our retail partners for their hard

work through last year, and we look forward to

a continuation of this as we get into the New Year.

I think that’s about it for the year’s statistics. Let’s

INFO Eduard - FEBRUARY 2022

turn our attention to new releases for February.

NEW KITS FOR FEBRUARY

The Limited Edition 1:48th scale Tornado ECR

was planned for January but had to be pushed

to February, because we couldn’t ready the decal sheets and masks in time. Once you see

these items for yourselves, you’ll get an idea as

to why that happened. These buggers are huge.

I have already mentioned it, but I will repeat that

without these decals, this kit couldn’t have come

to be. In the case of the Tornado, it goes beyond

just the sheer size of the three sheets. Each approaches 11 x 16” format (Europe’s A3 paper size).

It also comes down to the quality of the transition between colors. On the actual aircraft, these

were sprayed, giving an effect that simply cannot be duplicated with traditional silk-screening

procedures, no matter how many cartwheels you

do. This is in the kit because we also went ahead

and somewhat shamelessly opted for some very

striking anniversary schemes, so that a portion of the decal sheets are taken up by all kinds

of items that all come together to form various

types of big cats. That’s not the only plus of the

sheets, though. Another good chunk of the decal

real estate is taken up by stencil data and the instrument panels, which are subtle and mesmerizing in decal form. The decals are, naturally,

of the peeling kind. The quality of our decals is

quickly gaining in popularity, and if you are one of

those who are becoming intrigued by this aspect

of our decals, read up on them first to get a feel

as to how they are handled, and then give it a try

with some unused decals, get comfortable with

the procedure, and then dive in for real. If you go

into it without some experience, there’s a strong

likelihood that you’ll be disappointed and you’ll

ruin the decals that you want to use. And please,

under no circumstance should you try to remove

the carrier film prior to applying the decal on the

model. I repeat, under NO circumstance! I guess

the only thing left to add is that besides the exceptional decal and mask sheets, the plastic itself

comes from Revell, and the resin bits cover the

seats, wheels and FLIR and ILRS sensors, and

the kit includes photoetching, of course.

The second Limited Edition kit, Spitfire Story:

Southern Star, also contains a large decal sheet. They’re not the three 11 x 16s, but do cover the

bottom of the box and include another sheet on

top of that. The reason is that these sheets don’t

contain the artwork created by artists, but rather

the expansive service use of the Spitfire Mk.Vb

and Mk.Vc over Second World War battlefields.

Note that this doesn’t even cover all the air forces that used Spitfires with tropical filters. For

example, we are saving Yugoslavia for a future

ProfiPACK. The kit contains choices covering the

RAF, SAAF (South Africa), USAAF and the RAAF

serving in North Africa, Malta, Italy, Australia and

through the Pacific islands. As with all preceding Spitfire Story kits, this is a Dual Combo item

that contains two full sets of plastic, one for the

Spitfire Mk.Vb and one for the Mk.Vc. There are

ten marking options, four for the Mk.Vb and six

for the Mk.Vc. Two of the Mk.Vb aircraft carry the

Aboukir filter, the rest the Vokes item. Both of the

Aboukir equipped birds have clipped wings which

are specific to them, and differ from the standard

clipped wings of the LF Mk.Vb. These aren’t represented in the plastic proper but are included

as 3D print conversions. Isn’t the Spitfire a bore?

Don’t answer that…

In the ProfiPACK line, February sees the release

of another Camel. This time, it’s the Clerget 9b

engined version. That’s in 48th, and in 1:72nd, we

have the Hurricane Mk.I, based around the Arma

Hobby kit, as they were in the Hurristory release,

which is now sold out. Surprisingly, this kit took

its place among a long list of sold out Limited

Edition releases. There are also two ProfiPACK

re-issues, the 1:72nd scale MiG-15 that is a part of

the concentrated effort to return the MiG-15 into

our range, and the P-51D in 1:48th, which will be

no doubt remembered from its first run.

ACCESSORIES

In the Brassin line, five of eleven new sets are

printed, with the remainder being cast resin. Of

the latter, I would suggest a good look at the Mi-24V cockpit for the Zvezda kit. Amongst the printed sets is another cockpit for the Z-126 Trenér.

Both sets are nice, and I wouldn’t dare to claim

that one technology in this case is superior to the

other. But, when it comes to the printed landing

flaps for the Zero, I would venture to say that at

the very least, the installation of these will be

easier than the installation of photoetched equivalents. There are three new seat sets that are

worth a look as well, and the ejection seats for

later model F-4B Phantom IIs from Tamiya are

printed.

In the Space line, I would point out two sets of

REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tags in 1:32nd and

a set of Japanese flags in 1:350th. There are two

classic Space sets, one for the B-25H in 1:32nd

for the HKM kit and one for the OV-10A in 48th,

being designed for the ICM release. There are

three LööK sets and these cover the 1:32nd scale

Revell P-51D-15, the Meng 48th F/A-18E and the

GWH 48th scale Su-27. The last of these also

has an ejection seat being released for it in the

Brassin line.

Among photoetched sets, there are several being offered for the Tornado ECR, not for our 1:48th

scale release, but rather for Italeri’s 1:32nd scale

effort. There is also a collection in the same scale

for the HKM B-25H, and for both we also have

masks of both concepts, classic and both inner

and outer surface masks. Noteworthy are three

sets for Kinetic’s F-104S in 1:48th, for the A6M2

Zero Model 21 from Eduard, and the Hs 129B in

1:48th for the Hasegawa kit, now being sold by the

Polish company Hobby2000. We also have a set in

1:35th scale for Zvezda’s T-62A, and we have a list

of new ZOOMs, amongst which you’ll find sets covering seatbelts for the aforementioned Hs 129B

and F-104S. Finally, I would also cast some attention on two decal sets, one for Tamiya’s 1:32nd

A6M2 Model 21 Zero and stencil data for the same

company’s 1:48th F-14A.

ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

This month, we have an article covering weapon

loadouts for the Tornado ECR by Michal Fárek.

Richard Plos, this time in an editing role, adds

another piece to the series of articles covering

the Trenér aircraft and the people connected to

its history. In this case, it recounts the story of flying a Z-526AFS coded OK-CXA, the aircraft which

was flown in the 70´s by Jiří Kobrle, a renowned

Czechoslovak aerobatics pilot, and a member of

the national team. We are going to release a kit of

the Z-526AFS as a ProfiPACK in March and you

can get a sneak peak at the boxart of the upcoming kit in the news section of this issue. Take a

look at it, I think it is worth it! The third article, by

Miro Barič, carries the title “The Battle of Palmdale” and tells what may happen when a Hellcat

remotely piloted drone refuses to obey radio

commands, and illustrates how a radical approach to the problem may lead to an even bigger

mess than would have resulted in leaving things

as they were... But, on the other hand, the article

does shine some light on an almost forgotten

aircraft.

I wish you all, as always, a pleasant read with today’s newletter!

Happy Modeling!

Vladimir Sulc

eduard

5