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I know I’m not alone, when a concept and its
associated assumptions turn out exactly opposite
to what the expected outcome was. The last time
it happened to me was a month ago in Nuremberg.
You may remember what I expected from the fair
from my previous editorial. Virtually nothing came
of my skeptical predictions. Not that the fair is
back to where it was in the old days before covid
lockdowns, but it was significantly livelier, more
interesting and ultimately more fun and useful
than I would have dared to expect. I would venture
to guess that among the vendors who participated,
I am not alone in my adjusted assessment. Among
other things, the situation from last year was
repeated, that conversations and meetings were
much warmer, friendlier and more open than at
any time in the past. Maybe it's just my feeling,
but it seemed like we enjoyed seeing each other
again, in many cases even after several years.
It was the type of thing that leads you to realize
how those people you maybe took for granted
and didn't think anything special of grew closer
to your heart and you understand just how much
you missed them. That led in turn to conversations
opening up and that can only be good. Otherwise,
everything was at least a bit different. For example
almost nowhere in the venue, in any restaurant,
at any stand, could you pay cash, everything had
to be paid for by plastic. And the steaks, those
wonderful steaks I have written about in the past
that were being served up at a little stand between
the halls, were turkey instead of the earlier pork.
But, at least, they were back.
This year, our long run of Model of the Year
awards from Modell Fan came to an end. It will be
the first time in thirty years that we left without
a medal. But, don’t mistake that for me bitching
about it. Take it more as a sign of how things are
changing. I could even take it from an optimistic
point of view, and entertain the possibility that we
have exited the mainstream competition and are
in a league of our own. But coming back down to
earth, it's more likely because we stopped sending
Modell Fan samples, so really, we asked for it!
March New Releases
The new items for March have already been
on sale for a week. Of all the seventy-five new
releases in March, we devoted the most time and
effort out of everything we did to the Freedom
Fighter kit. This is a 1:48 scale F-5E Tiger II, with
moldings from the Taiwanese firm AFV Club.
A large chunk of real estate is also dedicated to this
aircraft in today's issue of the newsletter. There
are two articles and one interview that directly
focuses on it. You can see this as a significant
imbalance, but the plane is worth it. Of course, the
others too, whether it's the 48th scale Fw 190 A-5
in the Weekend line or the 72nd scale Bf 109 G-2,
the successor to the recently sold-out Limited
Edition Wunderschöne neue Maschinen Pt.2.
The 1:48th Profipack Spitfire LF.Mk.IXc, one of the
most successful kits we've ever released, returns
yet again in the form of a reissue, and after a long
time, so does our 48th Bf 108, a part of which, the
engine, once became the first computer-generated
model at the turn of the century used for the
production of an injection molded kit.
As usual, some of the accessory items released
are for our own new kits, so there are masks for
both the Bf 108 and F-5E, as well as photoetched
and Space sets. These include not only sets for
current new releases, however, and among the
new sets in the Brassin range are several larger
items for previously released kits, such as cockpits
for the 1:48th Bf 109 G-10 (WNF) and Fw 190 A-8/R2,
not to mention the engine for the 72nd scale Bf 109
G-6.
We also have several collections of sets from
our varied lines designed for models released by
other manufacturers. For example, we have the
popular Gannet from Airfix and another heavy
hitter, the F-35B from Tamiya, covered. Among
other things, we offer a set of masks for spraying
the RAM panels on the surface of the latter. Another
set collection is designed for the Hurricane Mk.IIb
from Arma and the F4U-1 and 2 Corsair from the
new Chinese company Magic Factory. For their
aircraft debut, they chose a concept similar to
our Dual Combo format, which intrigued me. It is
said that the phrase ‘the greatest form of flattery
is imitation’ applies to the Chinese, so we should
be pleased with their approach, right? We also
have a new printed cockpit for the F-16C Block 30
1:48 from Kinetic, and a whole range of larger and
smaller sets in all of our accessory lines.
P-51B Mustang 1:48
Currently, we are finishing up two 1:48th scale
P-51B Mustang kits that are officially new items
slated for May. As of today, we are missing two
sprues that we expect will be completed and
successfully fine-tuned around mid-March.
We will release the new Mustang in two editions.
The first will be a Limited Edition kit called
Overlord: D
-
Day Mustangs. The kit will be released
in a Dual Combo format, with two sets of sprues,
masks and photoetched, and will be dedicated to
the P-51B and Mk.III Mustangs participating in the
Allied landings in Normandy in June, 1944. The kit
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard4
March 2024