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Info Eduard - June 2011
EDITORIAL
The moment I nish off the April newsletter,
more events worth writing about just keep on
happening. The death of Osama Bin Laden right
on May 1st carries with it its own symbolism.
Incidentally, there were some new helicopters
around the event, and I am hopeful that more
information will come out about it, at least,
more than was printed in the news or what was
introduced by Dragon. I think it’s a foregone
conclusion. Besides being skeptical, society also
seems to have a helluva propensity for not being
able to keep its mouth shut. Within this context
it’s unbelievable that we have been able to
keep under our belts for two months now the
new E-day welcome kit. I consider that quite an
accomplishment in and of itself. I am curious to
see when it will nally break.
Another volcano has blown its lid. As before,
it is in Iceland. A bit of déjà vu. Same as when
modelers ask me about future plans. All seem
to be surprised that we intend to release
a 1/72nd scale Hellcat in August. Originally this
was scheduled for July, but for some technical
as well as staff reasons it was pushed to August.
With that, this Hellcat will be a very fresh and
hot new item for the IPMS Nationals come
early August. I know that that kind of speed is
unprecedented with us, but keep in mind that
I have been warning about a quicker release
schedule for quite some time now. The Hellcat
can be taken as verication that we were serious,
and fans of 1/72nd scale can take this as
a technological sample of what they can expect
from us in this scale, which we will intensively
focus on in the future. This Hellcat is the little
brother of our 1/48th scale kit, although
it is not strictly speaking a scaled down version
of the quarter scale kit. Also, some components
are redone, hopefully for the better. With other
future 1/72nd scale kits, prepared for this new
72nd scale line, the changes will be even more
radical, most evident with the Bf 110, which will
be signicantly simplied. This will not come at
the expense of quality, and I do believe that our
1/72nd scale kits will be very well received, and
a very pleasant build! Throw a tube of glue into
the box, shake it, and out comes a built kit….
well, not quite, but we are getting close!
Those who decide to compare our results at
the beginning of our endeavors to the quality
we currently are able to achieve, will be faced
with an excellent opportunity in August. There
will be a unique chance to compare our newest
kit with one of the oldest. After pressure from
customers as well as colleagues, I have decided
to re-release the ancient Tempest kit. Although
the kit can be considered ancient, it hails from
the nineties, not really all that long ago. From
this comparison, it will be easy to gage that the
evolution of our kits has not been all that slow
after all. At the time of its release, the kit was
met with almost non-critical quiet, maybe much
more so than our current kits with which there
is frankly no comparison. In any case, it was the
rst thing we did with which we could embark
on the road to higher quality, comparable
to the world standard. The re-release of the
Tempest will certainly not set its sights quite so
high. It’s really more of a collector thing. Take
it as your last opportunity to add the Eduard
Tempest to your collection, at least in the form
of the original moldings. In the tradition of
the saying ‘never say never’ I cannot rule out
a return to the Tempest as a new item, with our
current level of ability. But that would not be
a threat for several Eduard years, so take it
easy! The current and last incarnation of the kit
will be released as a Limited Edition kit, with
resin parts, and, of course, color photoetched.
The marking options in the kit are probably its
most interesting aspect. But, being a British plane,
it will not be a marking miracle. In any case, the
options are rst and foremost for Closterman’s
aircraft supported by new and, as far as I know,
unpublished, information, that should be included
in a future newsletter.
The Hellcat is still in the future, and, currently,
there are other items to focus on. As the
centerpiece of June releases, I would draw
your attention to the Limited Edition kit covering
the theme of JG 54. It is one of our bigger
endeavors encompassing 17 trees allowing the
building of two Fw 190s in A-5, A-6 and A-8
versions. The ten offered marking options cover
various camouage schemes of colorful and
highly decorated pilots. This will be a great
offering for collectors and experts alike. The
experts in particular will likely come up with
a number of controversial points with respect to
the markings. As has become the norm at our
rm, we have had a lot of ‘expert’ debates
already in our own little company circle. So,
we’ll see what the external sources have to offer.
As a bonus, we have included the ‘Green Heart’,
and a very nice rendition, too, if I do say so
myself!
I gure that the Weekend Edition of the 1/48th
scale Fw 190D-13, as well as the Lysander in
1/48th scale, will remain in the shadow of the
Fw190. This will probably surprise only the
most hardened of Anglophiles. The Lysander
is one of a variation on an older item. It hails
from the original Gavia kit, which we have
released twice since taking over the molds.
This ProPACK version is not quite as radical as
the original release, and although some of the
less effective plastic components are offered
as resin replacements, their number has been
reduced. The same goes for the photoetched
brass. We are employing the notion that too
much of a good thing is harmful, and having
too much resin and photoetched could hurt sales
and relegate the kit to the stash instead of the
bench. Truth be told, you’d think that who uses
no aftermarket accessories is not a true modeler,
going by adverts and articles, but reality can by
somewhat different.
Well, I described in detail our release schedule
for June and August, so what about July? Just
another holiday? No, of course not! There are
two quarter scale MiGs in our July schedule. For
all jet and MiG fans, surely dangerous moment
in your life! These MiGs are the MiG-21MF in the
Weekend line, and the MiG-29A in the Limited
Edition line. While the 21 is a classic Eduard
Weekend kit with simple plastic components
with decals and instructions, the -29 is the
original Academy kit highly supplemented with
accessories. It follows last year’s releases of the
Sukhoi Su-7, Su-22 and Su-25, with similar sets
from the Brassin line and photoetched details,
with quality Cartograf decals for ve marking
options. Cartigraf remains the only source for all
the Limited Edition and Propack boxing decals.
Brassin details are added for the cockpit shell
including the ejection seat, and the tail mounted
chaff and are dispensers. There is a pilot
helmet as a special bonus in the Brassin set.
The MiG-29 ejection seat is released
independently among June Brassin releases,
together with two other sets, the AIM-9M/L
Sidewinder and an F-16 radar set. Please
avoid the conspiracy theories that we purposely
produce simplied kits to open up the market
for separately sold accessories, increasing our
income. This is a theory I found in a review, and
one that I have been intensively thinking about.
Well, it makes sense, sounds clever and actually,
in a strange sort of way, I am proud that
someone would think that we have the resources
to go that route. But, it is just that....a conspiracy
theory. We simply can not do the plastic parts
any better, although that will always be the
goal. Yes, I admit we would like to release the
accessories simultaneously with their intended
kit, but even that is still beyond our abilities. But,
we are getting better and better!
Turning to photoetched, our June range
of offerings is consistently varied, with ve Navy
sets in various scales, plenty of sets for aircraft
and tanks and two new 1/35th scale fruits
and vegetable sets. There are the Sunowers
and Grape Vines sets, and to my mind, these
two sets are absolutely cool. Although both sets
are so nice, I can still guarantee you that there
is absolutely no BIO or EHEC hazard!
The current newsletter format is one year old.
Things being what they are, people are used to
it, and is considered a normal thing, which in its
own way is a measure of success. The Bunnies
have been with us a year as well. Even they don’t
command as much attention as earlier, but every
now and then, they peak, and so did the little
comic about the MiG-21SMT. The reaction to
that was even quite stormy. I don’t really feel
the need to dive in with my own assessment of
weather or not it was silly, and I would leave
it up to personal opinion. Take into account that
this was our rst attempt at something like this in
our newsletter, with no previous experience, but
it is something that I think we could work with,
as a genre. This can even be further applied
to some of our other activities, as mentioned
previously, and I cannot promise you that
at some point in time, something, somewhere,
will not quite work out. But I will promise you