EDITORIAL
Dear Friends,
Welcome to today’s edition of the newsletter. I will
go straight into the model kits, because model kits
are what most concerns us at the moment. And
come to think of it, it’s what interests most people
the most anyway. The main question centres around
the replenishment of our catalog, so devastated by
December’s fire. Our colleagues at Special Hobby
are a big help, and currently they are pressing out
some of the plastic frames for the Mustang, and
in March, will be supplying all the plastic for the
Tempest. However, the main bulk of the work still
rests with us. The replenishment of our catalog
is intertwined with the production of new items.
You may have noticed the increased availability of
the Airacobra, Z-37A, and various versions of the
Fw 190A through the latter half of February. Some
new items slated for March release are dependent
on the availability of these plastic pressings. A good
example is the Fw 190A. There are seventeen molds
that we have that are dedicated to different versions of this line of kits, and differing combinations
of their use yields different version-specific kits.
At the moment, the focus is on the Fw 190A-5 with
the four-cannon wing, and is being released today
under the name Fw 190A-5 Schwer. That is then, of
course, molded, and the Fw 190F-8 came along for
the ride. The latter will come later, and is intended
as a new release in May when it will be released as
a ProfiPACK kit. This will be followed by the Weekend
Edition of the Fw 190A-8/R2 in July. This allowed
the replenishment and re-release of the ProfiPACK
Fw 190A-8/R2 and the straight A-8 in both ProfiPACK
and Weekend versions, as well as the older ProfiPACK A-3 and A-5s, which were the A-5s with the
two-cannon wing and the A-3 with the four-cannon
wing. But I probably shouldn’t confuse the issue any
more than this. If this is making your head do some
three-sixties, than you are beginning to understand
what we go through when we sit around thinking
up our production schedule. And that’s not the only
item that causes this. The same ball of fun is produced by the Bf 109, and is maybe even a little bit more
confusing, where we have twenty active molds, not
including the Emils. This number will grow by about
another ten over the year and the next few. This
will be brought about by the completion of the Avia
S-199 and CS-199, three versions of the two-seat
Bf 109G-12, and the Bf 109K-4. The MiG-21 and the
Spitfire are no version-slouches either, and in two
scales to boot. So, if you get the impression that
what we offer is somewhat monotone and we are
focused on Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs, you
are for the moment quite right. That’s how it is now,
and that’s how it will stay for a while. In a few weeks,
though, we will turn to the Spitfires and the MiGs,
and then the Hellcats and the Tempests after that.
In the case of the Fw 190A-5, there are actually six
and they are focused on some big names amongst
the pilots of this airplane. Also worthy of mention is
the boxart of this kit, which depicts an actual event.
The event in question is written up in an article by
Jan Bobek named ‘Combat over Lavansaari’, which
is one of three articles in this month’s newsletter. In
the article, you will also read up on how Fw 190 foes
were sometimes Soviet I-153s biplanes.
In the Limited Edition line of kits, we are making
a return to Ernst Udet and the Du doch nicht!! kit in
1:72nd scale, after a year’s hiatus. The makeup of
this 1:72nd scale kit follows closely along the lines
of the earlier 1:48th offering of last year, and the
differences are small. In the 1:72nd scale version of
the kit, there is no figure of the pilot, but it does offer markings for a Fokker D.VIIF, which was basically
Udet’s final WWI military machine. The Fokker D.VII
is a product of new molds, the early version Fokker
D.VII (OAW), and was developed with thoughts focused clearly on this release. The other two members of the trio included in this kit, the Fokker Dr.I
and the Albatros D.V. are older kits, developed a while back. Even so, these are nice kits, and are true to
their status as our best selling 1:72nd scale kits ever.
This same situation does not threaten the Z-37A
Cmelak (Bumble Bee), and the likelihood of it reaching tens of thousands of sold kits is evidently quite low. It is currently sitting in the neighborhood of
8500, which really is pretty good after such a short
time after its release, especially when you bear in
mind that this is a civilian type of local significance.
Today, it becomes a Weekend Edition kit together
with the Eduard classic P-39Q Airacobra in 1:48th
and is the third offering in the second generation
of Weekend kit concepts. As with the Fw 190, the
boxart depict actual events, although these events
are tame in comparison. The Z-37 is shown taking
off from Plasy and the Airacobra is depicted overflying the base at Canton. In both cases, there are four
marking options. With the P-39, besides the bird
shown in the boxart, there is also the more famous
‘Snooks’.
A new feature of the boxes themselves is the glossy
finish. This should, along with a higher grade of paper, promote the quality of the graphics on them.
The new releases for March finally includes the Limited Edition kit ‘Desert Babes’ with a poster. I apologize for this release’s delay and the confusion surrounding it, which came about in releasing new stuff for
February. I also must apologize for the limited number of kits produced. There are only not quite 150 of
them available. There is not much we can do about
this, and truth be told, we are happy we have what
we have after the fun in December.
Airacobra
One of the oft asked questions that comes our
way is whether or not it is time for a new kit of the
Airacobra , making full use of our current capabilities. It would be nice. This kit really has done its
work, and the forms have more than doubled their
theoretical life expectancy. The kit itself also suffers
from some shape issues, although these, it appears,
have not been fatal flaws. The designers of the kit
way back when did some good work. Also good
work was done by the man who produced the galvanized molds, and was the one who calculated the
lifespan of them at 60,000 units. As I say, a good job
all round, and the lifespan ended up being doubled.
The only thing that was redone, if memory serves,
was the canopy. As far as a new release goes, yes,
at some point we will do it to our current standard.
But for now, we are focused on other things. You can
argue that we redid our Fw 190s, and the initial kits
weren’t that old. However, with the ‘190, we had
computer data from which to kick off, and the project didn’t start off from square one, as will be the
case with a new Airacobra. Also, the molds of the
Fw 190 needed replacing, as they were in higher demand than those of the Airacobra. There, the choice
was to redo the Fw 190 line, or drop it altogether.
My personal idea is to redo the P-39 after we have
done all of the other American Second World War
fighters. We are just missing the P-51A. B and C, the
P-36 and all the versions of the P-40. The same goes
for the P-47 and the P-38, and almost all of the naval
types. But, do not fret! Good things come to those
who wait!
March Releases – Kits
As opposed to the replenishment of stock items, the
release schedule for the month is relatively simple.
In the ProfiPACK line, we are releasing the aforementioned Fw 190A-5, and, as usual, a detailed look
at this new item can be had throughout this newsletter. The Fw 190 is an established brand, and the
new line of kits of this type has made a very good
name for itself, and I can highly recommend any
member of this line as an excellent build with a clear
conscience. In their own right, these kits represent
our design philosophy and our overall kit concept,
and the new Fw 190A-5 is also a good presentation
of the current idea behind the ProfiPACK line. That
line excels, among other notable things, with the offer of five (or more) marking options, which is not
a common number among today’s manufacturers.
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INFO Eduard - March 2021