224 active items in the kit range. Before the fire in

December 2020, there were 180 items, so now we have

a significantly wider range than back then. With that,

I dare to consider the renewal of the range of model

kits finished. Of course, it’s not the same range as in

2020, but it wouldn’t be even if there was no fire. The

range of kits has always been dynamically changing,

and given that we've regularly released an average of

six new kits every month for the past two years, some

of which were brand new and some of which were

rehashed older items, the current range is significantly

changed. The current situation also does not mean that

we will stop presenting older kits as news, kits which

are currently still missing from the catalog. In April,

the 48th Bf 110C returns in the form of a redesigned

ProfiPACK, kit, as does the 72nd scale UTIMiG-15, as

a reissue of the original kit. We are also nearing the end

of the packaging changeover. We have very few kits left

in the old boxes in our warehouse, the vast majority of

the range is in new boxes, whether they’re Weekend or

ProfiPACK kits. Those that we currently have in stock

in their original packaging will be sold out in the next

installment of the Sweep campaign in April.

So this finally brings me to the April news. In the

ProfiPACK range, we are expanding the family of Trener

kits (you’ll recall that this is the Czech word for “Trainer”,

and was the name bestowed on this line of aircraft)

with the first Tener with a retractable undercarriage,

the Z-326 in M and MF versions. The kit also includes

military machines, known locally as the “ThreeHundreds”, consistent with their military designation

C-305. In the Weekend series we have two new 48th

scale items for April, the Tempest Mk.V Series 2 and

the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4. The Fw 190A-4 thus returns

as one of the last Focke-Wulfs that was missing. This is,

among other things, because it is a rather complicated

version with different combinations of armament

and engine cooling exhausts. In this case, the kit is of

a version with two cannons in the wing roots, and cooling

flaps. One of the machines offered is a pure fighter, the

remaining three are fighter-bombers, covering a choice

of aircraft from the Western Front, the Eastern Front and

the North African battlefield.

I saved the crown jewel of April‘s new releases to the

end of this section, and that is the A6M2-N Rufe. I’ll

admit that I’m a little worried that you'll think of the Rufe

as another, and even less interesting, Zero incarnation.

I hope that we will convince you of the opposite, both

with the kit itself and with a two-part historical-technical

article by Honza Bobek with some very readable, often

unknown, information about this unique float equipped

fighter. The Rufe is being first released in the Limited

Edition line as Dual Combo boxing, and shares only

two sprues with the older Zero Model 21. One is of the

canopy, the other contains small detail parts. The

other four frames are new, and are Rufe-specific. We

incorporated a number of features consistent with

the Rufe’s differences from your basic Zero, based on

newly discovered findings made during the completion

of the project after consulting recognized experts on

the type. This is a good argument to consider for those

who are on the fence over whether it is worth replacing

their old Rufe kits with ours. For example, the external

April 2023

reinforcement of the fuselage in the cockpit area, which

look really nice on the model, are included and I strongly

I suspect that no kit thus far represented this feature.

For those who don’t feel the need for the expense of

a dual combo boxing, and its associated price, please note

that the classic ProfiPACK kit will be out in July.

BRASSIN

For the Rufe, we are offering a whole range of accessories

in parallel with the release of the kit, based on the

collection of kits for the A6M2 Model 21. Of course, we

leave out the wheels, but among the accessories, there

are, for example, the folding wingtips. Some publications

state that the Rufe did not have these. As you will learn

from the aforementioned article by Honza Bobek, the fact

is that at least several dozen aircraft from the start of

the production run were equipped with folding wingtips.

For the Zero’s main adversary early on, the F4F-3 Wildcat,

we have an engine kit for the late version dash-3 in the

collection of April releases , differing from the older kit for

the F4F-3 Early in the engine cowl and with two versions

of the face ring and some detail installations underneath,

such as a reduction gear. The 48th scale sets also include

a machine gun set for Anson from Airfix, two sets,

a radar and exhaust, for all F-16s from Kinetic, and

a Mi-24V cockpit in that Soviet turquoise finish, in addition

to a few other smaller sets. This set, as was the black

cockpit version for the same kit from Zvezda, is released

as a combination of a 3D printed base complete with a

Space 3D decal.

In 1/72 scale, this month we focused on the Bf 110E

(Eduard) with three sets. These are an upgraded version

of the older sets for this model. The set of wheels is

cast traditionally, as is usually the case with wheels.

Conversely, the nose machine gun setup is 3Dprinted.

Of interest is the cockpit set, the base of which has

remained cast, but the floor with the installation of the

deck guns and the rear machine gun are printed. So it

is a kind of hybrid, rare in the Brassin line, but for this

set this combination seemed appropriate to us. In the

Brassin line, you will also find several small sets for the

Hurricane IIb (Revell 1/32), two kits for 35th scale armor

and three new sets of the Look line.

Masks, Photoetched and Space Sets

In traditional photoetched sets, we are, among other

things, releasing items for the competing Zero A6M2b

from Academy, the bomb bay for the B-24D from Revell

(ex-Monogram), the F4U-1D from Hobby Boss and the Mi8MT from Zvezda, all in 1:48 scale. April also sees the longawaited renewal of photoetched sets for our Hellcats,

both the F6F-3 and F6F-5. Both of these are based on

older sets, but are upgraded to current standards.

Of interest will be the two Spitfire Mk.IXc 1/24 sets

from Airfix, and three sets, including two for the new

SdKfz 251/1 Ausf C from Academy, are for combat

vehicles in 1:35. Set 36499 for this model also includes

a small instrument sheet made with 3D printing

technology, used for the production of our Space sets,

and indicates that the trend of combining different

technologies can also make its way to the photoetched

range. Also being offered is one 1:350 USS Missouri set

from the Hobby Boss kit, three 1:72 scale aircraft kits,

and you'll also find three new BigEd and six Space sets

Historical and Other Articles

I have already made mention of Honza Bobek’s article about

the Rufe fighter floatplane. It is in two parts, the second

part will be published in the May newsletter. In addition to

a number of lesser-known or hitherto unknown technical

and historical facts, it also brings a very interesting visual

component. Several unique, in some cases unpublished,

photographs have been obtained from Japan courtesy of

Messrs Izawa and Yoshino, thanks to the assistance of the

editors of Scale Aviation magazine. I should also add that

in completing the kit we used the advice and materials of

Mr. Ryan Toews, who also helped Honza considerably in

the preparation of his article.

Part two of Tom Cleaver’s article Arrival of the Cavalry

comes out this month, about the activities of VMF-223,

flying Wildcats during the battles for Guadalcanal. Thus,

in this issue of our magazine, you have the opportunity

to see the war in the Pacific from the point of view of the

two opposing sides. Article of Tomáš “Hindman” Dvořák

is offering interesting insight into service of high-altitude

Hind E helicopters in service of Czech and Czechoslovak

Air Force. In addition to these historical notebooks, as

with virtually the entire previous year, we are continuing

with our look at the air war over Ukraine with the series of

articles by Miro Barič. The war is entering its next phase,

and I’m afraid Miro will have plenty to write about in the

months to come. I have no doubt that the just delivered

Slovak and Polish MiG-29s will soon be mentioned as

well. Most of you will know that the majority of these

machines will have hailed from the inventory of the

Czechoslovak and Czech Republic Air Forces.

We also have new Boxart Stories. Richard Plos prepared

a Boxart Story for the Z-326/C-305 Trener Master,

Tempest Mk.V Series 2 and the UTI MiG-15 kits. The first

two images were created by Adam Tooby, the boxtop

image of the Czechoslovak UTI MiG-15 comes from an

earlier work by Kateřina Borecká. We are transformed

back to the Battle of Britain era in a story describing the

Bf 110C painting, as Honza Bobek takes us back to the

Second World War with the author of the painting Piotr

Forkasiewicz, who, as is his custom, faithfully captured

the atmosphere of air combat from this period. The

encounter between the Sturmoviks and the Focke-Wulf

Fw 190s of JG 54 “Grünherz” is described in detail by

Andrey Dikov, who also helped us with the preparation

of the background for this image, created by Mark Ryś. It

depicts our subject, flown by Otto Kittel, one of the most

successful fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe, for whom one of

his many encounters with the Sturmoviks would become

fateful.

To vary the themes of this month’s articles a little, we

have the second part of Josef Blažek’s summary on

instant, epoxy and dispersion adhesives in the still new

section on modelling chemistry.

And with that, I wish you a good read with this month’s

newsletter, and I look forward to hopefully seeing you in

Prostějov and Mošon!

Happy Modelling!!

Vladimír Šulc

INFO Eduard

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