Strana 5
the quality of the new Azerbaijani restaurant,
which opened in the area of our Nuremberg
hotel instead of the original German restaurant,
has at least as much to do with the decision to
attend as the exhibition itself. This also points
to changes in which we are direct participants,
all of us, from the manufacturers to the retailers
and you, the modelers.
In order not to just give you abstract wisdom
here, I will give you two examples of current
progress. Last week, a new 3D printer arrived.
We bought it as a test drive; we want to know
exactly what to expect from it, because we want
to expand our printer fleet based on this type.
The goal is to increase the capacity and quality
of our 3D printing, especially the elimination
of the layering, which still remains on some
parts and is the target of justified criticism from
customers. The first tests show that it will be
a good machine that will significantly advance
us in solving both of these requirements. This is
a new type of printer that arrived in Europe at
the end of January, and we are probably the first
to have it in the Czech Republic. When we took
over the machine during training, the supplier
pointed out that the current development of
these printers is so rapid that a new type,
replacing its predecessor, is often launched in
the market to the tune of months and sometimes
even weeks, and that this causes problems
with the availability of spare parts, especially
displays. We concluded from this that interesting
times lie ahead.
The second example is from the store. On the
very first day in Nuremberg, one of our valued
business partners came up to me and told me
that we were processing their orders too slowly,
that customers needed faster service and that
we had to try harder. I didn't put up much of
a resistance, but in the evening I did some
statistics on our deliveries. I found out that 51%
of the 42 orders last year were shipped within
two days, and a total of 86% of orders were
shipped within four. I would say that before covid,
this would have been a great result, but not
today. Today it's just not enough. I would like to
relay one more story from this year's Nuremberg
fair. It turns out that the mysterious IBG project
they were working on is a series of Spitfires,
from the Mk.I to the VI in 1:72 scale, and we
have unfortunately been working on an almost
identical project over the last year. As it stands,
if we finish our molds according to plan, we will
have our 1:72 scale Spitfire Mk.I on the market
more or less at the same time as IBG. That’s not
the most optimal release schedule you can think
of, and neither we nor they planned it like that.
Neither of us see the need of going to war with
each other with our Spits. We are not competitors
with IBG as much as we are friends; we cooperate
with one another. We are their suppliers and they
are our customers. We don't need to harm each
other. And therefore, since they already have the
molds for the Spitfire Mk.I in progress, and we
are only at the end of the design stage, with the
intention of going to our tool makers this month,
we have decided that we will not start our series
of 72nd scale Spitfires with the Mk.I, but rather
with the Mk.V. I think this is the best solution to
this precarious situation for everyone involved.
For manufacturers, distributors, retailers and
customers.
Now, a little something about February's
new releases and this yields one major point of
attention. That is the P-40E in the Royal Class
series. As you know, we made this kit available
for November pre-orders, producing the exact
quantity for retailers based on those numbers,
prompting a production run of 4000 kits, which
we shipped to both online buyers and retailers
over the course of January, and so, even
though it is a new item for February, we have
nothing left in stock. So, friends, if you haven't
bought the Royal Class P-40E yet and your heart
is set on one, you have to look for it at your
retailer’s. We are completely out.
But that doesn't mean we don't have any
Warhawks in our catalog. Right now we are
working on completing the successor to the
Royal Class, the Limited Edition ‘Pacific Star’
kit, dedicated to the Warhawk serving in the
Pacific Theater. The kit will cover the P-40E and
Kittyhawk Mk.I from the Aleutians, Australia,
New Guinea, China, and so on. Details about
this kit can be found among March releases,
presented in this issue of our newsletter.
You'll like it! I promise….
In January, we published the first issue of
the online magazine Eduard Modeller's Den,
abbreviated simply to EMD. As is customary
among modelers who need to bitch about
something….anything…. someone immediately
criticized us for the abbreviation on Facebook,
but I absolutely do not get why. Abbreviations are
used everywhere you look, so why should we be
banned from using them? Anyway, you can find
the magazine
HERE. As expected, significantly
fewer readers have paid for and downloaded it
than the inaugural issue, which was free. It didn't
throw us off, we were expecting this and we are
continuing to prepare the second issue, which
will be published...well, I would also like to know
when. Probably February 21st, but the editor-in-
chief has yet to confirm that.
Happy Modelling!!
Vladimír Šulc
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard
5
February 2025