OF BOXART AND MEN

the best of the best in the field, who are

One way to look at it is that “covers sell pa- Piotr Forkasiewicz or Adam Tooby. These

pers”. It doesn’t necessarily apply univer- use that aforementioned progressive mesally (who amongst you has ever bought thod of generating art, meaning digitally,

a TV by virtue of its cover?), but there are same as our own resident artist, Katecases where the saying does have some rina Borecka. Some consider this a step

relevance to reality. And the more the pro- forward, some a step backwards. And so,

duct in question is replaceable, the more I repeat: There is no accounting for taste...

important the cover becomes. Cookies Currently, we are trying out a fourth artist,

and other tasty goods come to mind. In Antonis Karidis from Greece, because the

those cases, we are only talking about volume of required Eduard boxart is risa mixture of sugar, flour, palm oil, and ing. The different possibilities of creating

a list of difficult to pronounce ingredients these covers have led us to depict any githat often is too long. The entire thing then ven aircraft to a higher level. We are trybecomes fractionally more palatable with ing to emphasize actual events and remain

the addition of something of a higher, more historically true. I am not saying that this

acceptable quality. The only two roads to is something entirely new and we are not

“success” for producers of these “delicaci- taking the credit for the concept, but what

es” apparently lead through the inclusion is new is that to any chosen boxart, we are

of greater quantities of cheap sugar and trying to attach a story. As we have dethrough even more attractive packaging. veloped and ran with this theme, why not

Are you thinking of parallels with mode- share the information with you?

lling? Well, they’re not hard to find…

In the last issue of the newsletter, you

With plastic kits, an attractive package is were able to read an article penned by Jan

certainly an important thing to consider. Bobek that was based on the associated

It can lead to impulse purchases among boxart for the Fw 190A-5. Hard copy mathose that will, say, urge a parent to get gazines are often examined from the back,

them that model, but also among mode- but in the case of an electronic magaziling diehards, that otherwise are guided by ne, that’s not practical, and so I am quite

what’s inside the box. Of course, the ideal certain that if you have read this far, then

situation a nice kit inside a nice box. In my I think you likely have been aware of the

opinion, the worst thing on the market is article associated with the new boxing

a bad kit in a nice box….

of the Bf 109G-6. It is titled “Horror Over

What constitutes a nice box can be argu- Kalamaki”, and it explains a lot about the

ed, of course. The layout alone is one thing, unfortunate B-25 and, also about the Gerbut the most important element of it is man fighters around. In the next issue, you

the boxart. In this regard, it occurs to me will find out about events surrounding

that at one point, there was a boxart-less another new release for this month, the

component to the approach regarding this,

because some smart guy responsible for

general pleasure (it may have emerged in

Germany, I think, but may have appeared

all over today’s EU), forced through the

notion that a drawing on the cover was

a deterrent for the end user, and the only

acceptable form of representation was a

photo of the completed model. I am sure

you recall these “photo of assembled and

painted model” boxes. The saving grace

came when it was argued that the same

methodology would have to be applied to

all consumer goods (which, in some cases,

aroused a certain level of distress), and so

legislators did not implement this “sound”

approach to mandating boxart.

Among modellers, there are certainly

fans of the classic, hand drawn depictions

from the masters of the brush, angles and

pastels, as well as the more progressive

types that find an affinity for often photographic quality digital art. It’s against the

grain… you know the type. But, as a manufacturer, you have to pick. Eduard has long

been a fan of the hand crafted item, and

strove to hire the best. I recall the work

of Petr Stepanek and Martin Novotny. Neither, sadly, is with us any longer. But their

work has remained with us that stands

up well even today. Currently, we rely on

INFO Eduard - April 2021

Pfalz D.IIIa. This is another interesting

story to recount. Just the labor required to

conclude what the shot-down Camel likely

looked like was some job, same as it was

to figure out and conclude the marking of

the unlucky B-25. It’s not always possible

to put together all of the information before deadlines arrive. If you look closely

at the Horror Over Kalamaki painting, you

will note three differences from the boxart. The reason is clear. For the longest

time, we couldn’t figure out the fuselage

code of the downed aircraft. I personally

went through dozens and dozens of 340th

BG photographs from various sources, to

find 42-64540, but nothing turned up. She

was an anonymous ship, and so didn’t attract the attention of photographers. So,

we attached a code that was not eliminated as a possibility from the photographic

evidence at our disposal, and hoped for

a bullseye. We missed. Unfortunately too

late, we received information from Mr. Daniel Setzer, the son of a 340th BG member

(to whom we are nevertheless vastly indebted). The box for the kit as well as the

poster had by then been printed. Even so,

we had the artist change the artwork, so

that we could at least present the corrected item in this form. I sincerely hope that

the boxart won’t be slammed on various

forums under the headings like “boxart

fails”. I think this should not be lumped in

the same class of boxarts that were not

afforded much interest and energy by the

manufacturer of the kit or the artist. And I

would finish off by stating that we, at Eduard, do not try to add that added, cheap sugar I mention at the beginning, but rather

the quality ingredients while not forgetting that “covers sell”. The stories that the

boxarts depict are considered by us to be

integral to this. We all hope that this will

be appreciated by you.

Richard Plos

eduard

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