EDITORIAL

Dear Friends,

Welcome to today’s newsletter,

dedicated to the new releases of

our company for the month of May.

I hope that it provides you with a bit

of a distraction, towards something,

for us modellers, more pleasing and

closer to our hearts.

First off, I would like to come back

to our virtual contest, the Quarantine Bunny Cup. It enjoyed quite a bit

more success than we had anticipated, but it also proved to be more labour intensive than expected, and it

indicated that time, in the middle of a

pandemic induced quarantine, runs

somehow differently from normal

time. We received an almost endless supply of comments and suggestions, the vast majority of which were

positive and helpful. In terms of objections, there were two that were

a recurring theme. The first concerned the significance of photographic skills in the results, and

the author’s ability to manipulate Photoshop. This objection

is completely relevant, and has

a simple answer - yes, that’s true. If

this type of event is to continue, it

would be necessary to compete with

decent photography equipment capable of taking quality photographs.

Your chances of success will be decreased by snapping a pic with your

cell on the kitchen counter, even if

you build a model that the modelling gods would be impressed by.

I am fairly convinced that modifying

a model to any great extent in Photoshop would be counterproductive

. I just don’t think that a poorly built

model can be changed to the point

where it would be made that much

better. But good photographic skills

will certainly be needed. The winners in such contests will be well

photographed well built models.

You can like it or complain about it,

but come up with something better,

because otherwise, that’s how it will

stay.

The other objection is a little tougher to deal with. In the first contest,

we depended solely on the number

of ‘likes’ to determine the winners.

It appears that some of those who

entered intensively dedicated their

4

eduard

time to the accumulation of ‘likes’.

Originally, I assumed that this would

not be an issue. I figured that modellers would ask their buddies for

‘likes’, and that they would check

out the contest on the web, and

the contest would get more hits

that way. To top it off, they wouldn’t just be limited to liking their friends’ entry. They could lend their

support to other entries, as well.

It’s a good thought. Unfortunately,

it appears that we are on the naïve

side, in terms of users of Facebook.

The reality of this situation, turns

out, is more complicated than that.

We’re not talking only about tolerable requests for support here. We

looked into this, and we strongly

suspect that there was some bartering going on in the quest for more

likes, and that some may have even

been paid for in some way. That

would be something that I cannot

put under the category of competing fairly. It smacks of doping, and

other unethical practices in high level sports. It’s also not something

that we will support, and for that reason, the next such event, planned

for June, will be built on the basis of

a judging commission.

In April, the modelling world was

rocked by the demise of Wingnut

Wings. WNW is an intriguing tale

of huge investment, hope, and well

executed work. It also opened up

a new segment of the market. That

is something that few are able to

accomplish in any industry. Come

what may out of this whole thing,

Wingnut Wings models will not be

soon forgotten.

Let’s turn our attention to the new

releases for the month of May. We

are coming out with five new kits, the

most interesting of which appears to

be the Bf 108 in 1:32nd scale. This is

a ProfiPACK kit. As you are probably well aware, this is a kit who’s

development was undertaken by

another company, and was never

finalized before the moulds were

put up for sale. We bought those

moulds and are releasing the kit

under our own label. We also purchased the boxart for this item. This

kit, under the original label and with

the original boxart, was introduced

and partially advertised before. We

are planning to release this kit as

per our established practices, meaning that it will first be released as

a ProfiPACK kit, then as a Weekend Edition kit, and finally as one,

or perhaps more, Limited Edition

special boxings. The first, being released this month, is the ProfiPACK

version. It follows the standard

norm established for the ProfiPACK

line, meaning it includes photoetching, masks, and five decal options. The kit also includes a resin

wood propeller option. The reason

that this is rendered in resin is that

a wooden prop option was not part

of the plastic components, but is relevant to many marking options.

We have two ProfiPACK kits ready

for the month of May. The second

is a 1:72nd scale Fokker D.VII(Alb),

a license produced version built by

Albatros. Here, the rendition of the

kit also adheres to the established

norm, and includes photoetched

brass, masks, and a large decal sheet. A section of the decals contains

the lozenge patterns, and these are

rendered with filters that accent the

structure under the fabric and a certain degradation of its colours. I am

convinced that this attribute, applied

to the decals and first used in February’s Du Doch Nicht!! kit, will be, at

the very least, a pleasant characteINFO Eduard - May 2020