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