Editorial
Dear Friends,
spring is slowly approaching and with it the start
of the new show season. This year, it promises to
be very eventful, with three shows lined up for
March alone. Next week we will be in Verona,
a week later in Bytom and the week after that
in Prosek, hosts of the Panthers Cup. In addition
to Verona, where we will be in possession of our
already announced new items for this month,
we will have along something brand new in Poland
and in Prosek. In mid-March we will take the
Kamikaze Tokkotai Limited Edition kit to the shows,
which is already attracting more and more people
thanks to an intensive promotional campaign.
It didn't look like that even two weeks ago. In the
meantime, we released the marking options for
the kit and images of the plastic, and lo and behold,
the situation changed almost overnight, so at the
moment it looks like this Limited Edition item will
be an instant hit and will be one of those products
that sell out very quickly. After all, what else would
we expect from an item with such a name, right?
In Bytom and Prosek we will also have our 1:72nd
scale MiG-21bis plastic, which will then have their
premiere a month later. For Czechs and Slovaks,
the new MiG will have its premiere at Easter in
Prostejov, and for foreign customers, including
our friend Gabor, a week later in Moson in Hungary.
I am sure that Gabor is already sharpening his
teeth to chew this kit apart and spit it out, but there
will be no Gabaresque issues with the intake this
time around. We have remodeled the entire front
part of the fuselage, the nose is based on scans
of the real thing that flew in East Germany, and
we addressed everything we could, even adding
missiles and pylons in the process, as well as other,
fine details. There are more antennas on this thing
than you can shake a stick at. They are terribly tiny
little things, but they should cover the entire range
of avionics that were used on that aircraft from
air force to air force. I would say that this shows
the power of freedom and democracy, because
it seems that after the dissolution of the Warsaw
Pact, every user installed whatever they wanted or
could in their aircraft, when the Russians could no
longer dictate what client states could and could
not do. In our case, it shows how far tooling has
advanced and how fine a detail we can achieve in
plastic nowadays. And we don't even need to go
back to square one with the molds. We probably
won't please Gabor, but he will have to accept it. Oh,
and someone has already complained that the bis
will not be riveted. That has to simply be accepted,
too, just as we have done. We would like to give
it our current touch in terms of surface treatment,
but given that the bis is a continuation of the MiG-
21PF, PFM and MF series, which are not riveted to
the extent we’d like, it seems stupid to suddenly
change the appearance style in the middle of the
release scheme and rivet the three remaining
versions. I'm talking about three versions, because
we have two more ready, the R and the SMT.
And while we're on the subject of MiG-21s,
I think we could begin showing something of the
48th MiG-21F in Prostejov and Moson. We already
have all eight molds at advanced states, five
of them are already milled, and I assume that
in the next two months we will have at least half
of the molds completely finished and we will
slowly show the resulting plastic. I must admit
that I am looking forward to this MiG. Although
it was the first mass-produced MiG-21 version,
this counterpart in kit form somewhat illogically
closes out the MiG-21 development line in our
catalog, which we started almost fifteen years
ago. The difference in the technology between our
first MiG-21MF and now is pretty massive, I would
even go so far as to say insane. I almost feel like
going back to the MF and retooling it, but I'm afraid
that it might just remain a temptation. Although,
they do say ‘never say never’. Might be a good point
of discussion at the E-day Q & A.
And having mentioned E-day, I’ll drop a few
bits of information on that theme as well. Last
week we signed a contract with the Zahrada Cech
Exhibition Center in Litomerice. So there's no
turning back and this year's E-day will definitely
be at that venue. It’s a great venue and the event
promises to be awesome. To tell the truth, we have
the ambition and desire to make it the best E-day
of all time, and to surpass the legendary first
E-days in Pilsen and those that were held in the
Butovice garages, which more and more people
remember with a strong nostalgia. Certain details
are still being ironed out. We have resolved the
catering, which looks very promising for both the
main Saturday program and the Friday evening
pre-party. Things look promising with the displays
of historical technology. This year, it will probably
replace the flight program, which looks like it will
not happen this time around. Nevertheless, we are
exploring this possibility as well, albeit chances
are pretty low at this point. Flight demonstrations
could return to the program provided that we
extend E-day again to Sunday, making it two days.
We will decide whether to do this in the fall, after
this year’s event and the main argument for the
decision whether to extend or not will be dictated
by your feedback.
Jindra Sterbacek will return to moderate the Pot
Q & A. We are working together on a plan to change
the Pot format, intending to make it more dynamic,
and involve you, the participants, more with your
questions, and I think that the whole thing will be
up to date and correspondingly interesting. We
will try to get representatives of other companies
involved, too. We’ve run it up the flagpole, and we
seem to be getting some salutes. There should
be plenty to choose from, and we are already
registering increased interest from companies
from the Czech Republic and abroad, and it looks
like the participation of model companies will
also be record-breaking this year. According to
the first responses from modelers, it could be the
same with the exhibiting participants. By the way,
the main prize in the competition will again be an
ultrasonic knife, courtesy of the Annetra company.
E-day has always been largely about new
products, especially premieres. This year, the
48th scale MiG-21F-13 will premiere at E-day. You
already know that, but we are working on other
projects, and if everything goes well, two more
kits may premiere at the event. I won't reveal them
to you just yet, but I won't keep you waiting until
October either. As soon as we are sure that we can
finish these projects on time, we will present them
before E-day while meeting modelers in Prague
and Prostejov.
For now, check the map to see how to get to
Litomerice, check out the city's website for what
there is to see in and around it, of which there is
plenty, and if possible, arrange a day off for Friday
so you don't miss anything. This year's E-day will
be worth it!
I won't keep you waiting any longer. I'll just
remind you that next week we will publish another
episode of our sit-together podcast with Katka
Borecka, myself and Kuba Nademlejnský. We
have loosened up a bit and the podcast will be
a little longer than the last one, but I still believe
that you will not be bored. Next week, we are
recording another podcast, dedicated to the
Limited Edition kit Kamikaze Tokkotai, conceived
out of a conversation on the topic of the Kamikaze
between an expert and an informed enthusiast.
I am the latter, while Honza Bobek is the former.
It is of course a serious topic, but I believe that you
will enjoy it.
And with that, I wish you all, my friends,
a pleasant few hours with this issue of our
newsletter.
Happy Modelling,
Vladimir Sulc
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard4
March 2025