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hesitate too long. For reasons I don't understand,
the Sparviero is the best selling February release,
and since we only made 2000, we don't have many
left. As of today, there are just over 400 available.
With this sales so dynamic, an item like this
usually doesn't make it past the end of the first
month of sales. The good old slogan of ‘take it or
leave it’ still applies. This is no joke, heavy retro
is heavy retro.
Another February new release, the L-39C
Albatros in 1:72, is a bit of a lighter retro.
The molds for this kit are actually almost as old
as the Sparviero molds. The Albatros L-39 was
made by us, the Sparviero comes from Special
Hobby. The Sparviero is a more difficult test, but
even the Albatros will benefit from modeling
skills nicely. In this issue, you will see the creation
of a near perfect model (assuming there is no
perfection) , despite the age of the kit in our article
by Karel Pádár about his build of the 72nd L-39 in
Hungarian markings.
If you don't have the stomach for these old
pieces, we also have current standard quality
items for you. This is in the shape of the Fokker
D.VIIF and Spitfire Mk.Vb in the Weekend range,
in addition to re-releases the Bf 109 G-10 (WNF) and
I-16 Type 10, both of these items being Profipack
releases and all four kits mentioned are in 1:48th.
For all of them, in today's newsletter issue we
have the popular corresponding Boxart Story,
with the exception of I-16 type 10, which is written
by Jan Bobek in his Tail End Charlie contribution.
This article is also worth reading. You will learn
a lot about the background of the creation of
our boxarts, their historical development and
the meaning of our striving for realistic and
historically accurate boxarts.
I won't go into any great detail about the
additions to our range coming from the February
lineup of new releases. You can find everything
important about them throughout this issue of our
newsletter. I will mention just one item which is
the 1:48th scale P-38J Lightning engine for use in
the Tamiya P-38J kit. We have been working our
way through many difficulties for a long time in
releasing this Brassin set, or rather kit, to be more
precise. It is probably the most complicated and
complex project undertaken in the Brassin series
so far. You can see what the result looks like not
only on the product page of this item, but also in
Jan Baranc's article about building his model of
this engine.
We keep coming across various criticisms
regarding our decals. The latter, in our opinion,
is associated with the fear of a new thing,
shrouded in the fog of new ideas and associated
prejudices and rumors that digital decals and their
properties specifically precipitate. This situation
reminds me a bit of the distrust and skepticism
that once existed about digital photography. Today,
Jakub Nademlejnský will try to dispel your fears
and mistrust with his article about working with
digital decals from our production. By the way,
the aforementioned L-39C model by Karel Pádár
also uses these decals, as well as all the other
models that we have presented both in this issue
and in previous ones of the newsletter for at least
the last four years.
In the historical articles, in addition to the
already mentioned Sparviero bit by Maurizio
Di Terlizzi, we have another installment of
the Air War over Ukraine series by Mira Barič
and the second part of Gustav VI., that is, the
developmental history of the Messerschmitt Bf 109
G-6 and its variants. I thought this would be the
last part, but it looks like I have a few facts left
that didn't fit into the two previous, so there will be
a Part Three. It follows that I am an undisciplined
author, not adhering to the set scope of my
work. In order not to make this situation worse,
I am quitting for today and going to attend to
my duties as an exhibitor at the fair. I wish you
a pleasant evening and a good read!
Happy Modelling!
Vladimir Sulc
INFO Eduard
5
February 2024