EDITORIAL
Dear Friends,
The Covid situation can be likened to the end
of the Second World War. We all know that the
end is near, that the Chinese gift to the world
will be defeated in the end, but it just won’t go
away quite that easily. In March, we initiated
weekly Covid testing by an independent certified lab of our employees as per government
mandated requirements. No self test kits or
any other sneaky circumnavigation of the requirements here. Through March, we were
able to isolate three positive cases that have
subsequently been confirmed at our firm and
again by a state laboratory. This has led to the
temporary removal of a total of 26 employees,
either through actual positive test results or
through quarantining due to contact with confirmed cases. Among other things, this does
indicate the competence of the health care
workers that carefully trace points of contact
and those who may be potentially affected
by them. Within our company specifically, all
indications are that the state of things is improving. Departments such as plastic production is seeing a return of people to work and
production is ramping up. However, at the end
of last week, there was no one in the Brassin
production department who could spend time
pouring any resin at all. This will likely be felt
through April, and may even have an effect
on availability of items through May and into
June. To the contrary, photoetching is pretty
much complete in terms of manpower. That
is rather surprising. I myself had Covid in
March, and it went off, fortunately, in a mild
manner. I am pretty happy about that….who
wants to spend time in a hospital? I have to
admit that the condition did whip me a bit, and
even now I am a bit without energy. Fortunately, my colleagues are not suffering from the
same lack of energy, and thanks to their determination, we can present a list now of new
items that are akin to what you are used to
seeing from us.
Silver Arrows and Our Evolution
As the main centre of attention for this month,
I would put the 1:72nd scale Silver Arrows release at the top. The Silver Arrows Limited
Edition kit made its first appearance back in
2014. It was in 1:48th and the box was quite
large, and it was the main attraction for E-day
that year. Today’s smaller edition has a lot in
common with that earlier release, but at the
same time, there are many differences, too.
One thing that will be of interest to many is
the inclusion of the publication, and it’s second edition, developed for this release, is
updated to a very large degree, but just as the
kit itself, it leaves out the MiG-21R. This is one
of the differences. The MiG-21R was dropped
as a subject matter from the new release.
It was included in the 48th scale kit, along
with the PF and PFM versions, and this was
a source of a lot of headaches. The inclusion
of plastic for three separate kits was almost
suicidal, and to this day, the whole thing is remembered as a nightmare, both in terms of
packing and in retail. The three-version packaging also didn’t find a lot of favor among
4 eduard
our customers. We saw this possibility, and
to prevent anyone from having to purchase
complete kits to use what was already bought, we made available the idea of the ‘Empty
Box’, allowing the purchase of needed plastic
sprues to complete what was in the kit, and
in practically any combination desired. This
seemed like a comfortable thing to provide
our customers, but it intensified those headaches at our end. It was a creative solution
for supporting the contents of the kit, but it
ended up being a dead end. So, this is something we have no desire in repeating with this
1:72nd scale edition. It includes resin details
in the form of seats and wheels. Those that
think that these items are automatic inclusions in the Limited Edition line should take
note that in the 48th scale boxing, they were
not included. Other differences can be seen in
the improvement of the technology used and
in the conceptual evolution of our kits. These
two MiG-21s, the PF and the PFM in 1:72nd, are
in my opinion, the best of our MiG-21s in any
scale. This is not something that you will necessarily read in any review, but the Eduard
kits of the 2020’s are at a completely new level as compared to the kits that we were able
to offer a decade earlier. We have no other kit
in our catalog where this comparison can be
made so well to illustrate the point as with the
Spitfire Mk.I to V. The Mk.I apparently has its
battle to win the hearts of modelers successfully behind it. The usual search for mistakes
online ended in record time, and build articles
that have appeared show that modelers have
been enjoying this kit very much. April’s ProfiPACK Spitfire Mk.I carries on the mapping out
of individual versions and sub-variants of the
early Spitfires over the first two years of the
type’s service career. These are not just the
versions with the flat canopy and two-blade
propeller, as could be expected. We consider the main identifiers of those early versions to be those that were not equipped with
what would become standard features. That
includes full armor protection, Tr.9D or Tr.1133
radio sets, gun heating systems, and so on.
The camouflage options cover the timeframe
from the fall of 1938 to the spring of 1940, prior to the beginning of the German offensive
along the Western Front. There are seven options to choose from.
April Weekends and Stories
Both April Weekend kits are interesting items.
The Pfalz D.IIIa is a return to an older First
World War kit of ours, but the marking options are a result of the latest research and
uncovered information. The boxart is also the
result of new research, and depicts an actual
event that was an encounter between Lieutenant Eugene Siempelkamp and Camels of
No.210 Squadron, RFC. The pilot of the Camel
that was shot down, 2nd Lt. Saunders survived the fight and was taken prisoner. Also a
part of the reality that the scene depicts is the
little Pfalz in the background. It is from Jasta
7, and the pilot of that airplane unfortunately
did not survive. Similarly, an actual event is
depicted in the boxart of the Bf 109G-6 Wee-
kend it. Should you be interested, the details
surrounding this airplane can be found in the
article ‘Horror Over Kalamaki’ in this newsletter. This kit is also interesting in that it uses
three versions of a scheme that was used in
the very first Bf 109G-6 that we released. This
was the kit that was criticized as being oversized, and the one that we pulled from our
catalog and retooled completely. I think that
these marking options are far too interesting
to remain ignored. Red ‘13’ of Heinrich Bartels
was actual the subject of boxart for us on two
occasions, but at one point it was so experimental, that we couldn’t find the courage to
use it again.
There’s no Re-Edition like a Re-Edition
Along with our new releases for the month,
we are also releasing two reboxings of the
sold-out ProfiPACK Z-37A Cmelak (Bumble
Bee) in 1:72nd scale and the 1:48th P-51D. Both
items sold out quite quickly, so rereleasing
them is a bit of a no-brainer. At the same
time, we restocked the 1:72nd scale MiG-21PF
and PFM kits at the end of March. Specifically, the MiG-21PFM is in a ProfiPACK box and
there are also Weekend boxings of both the
PF and PFM. Also, an OVERTREES restock
has been realized for both. The MiG-21PF as
a ProfiPACK kit will come in June as a rerelease. Through April and May, we will give
the same attention to the MiG-21MF in 1:72nd,
which will begin with the MiG-21MF Fighter
Bomber in May as a ProfiPACK item. I think
I should point out the difference here between
a re-release and a re-stock. A re-stock for
a certain item means that we have everything
we need in the warehouse (including boxes,
instructions, decals) and all it needs is to be
packed. And packed they can be the moment
we have the plastic. An item that is up for re-release means that we haven’t got the material to pack the kit (Such as boxes, etc.). In
those cases, we revisit the instructions and
decals, and update the box to our current
standard. Then, we combine everything, print
it all, and release it under the same catalog
number. If there ends up being a more significant change to the kit, such as something to
do with a scheme or the boxart, then we also
change the catalog number. This will be the
case, for example, in may, with the ProfiPACK
Bf 109G-2. With respect to photoetching and
masks, we have a line up for April that is typical in various scales. In 1:32nd scale, we sets
for the Tiger Moth from ICM, complemented
by a Space set, and a set for the forward interior of the A-26C from Trumpeter. In 1:48th
INFO Eduard - April 2021