EDITORIAL

Dear Friends and Modellers,

It’s finally time to leave the nest, meaning

our homes, isolations and lockdowns and

head to the bars and among people. In our

case, among modellers. Or at least to get

ready, and let our leaders, health ministers,

and members of advisory panels know that

we are indeed ready, healthy and hopefully

vaccinated. Not all are vaccinated, but I am

very hopeful that by the beginning of the

summer, most of us will be. Governments

are rather slow in their easing of restrictions, which is with what has transpired

over the past months understandable, but

at the same time, a bit of courage and a few

shots on goal are also increasingly appropriate. Time to take some chances. I understand that India and some other countries

are going through their worst covid drama

at this moment, but I doubt that there are

many modellers planning on big modeling

event participation in India or Nepal any

time soon. The thought of a modeling show

somewhere near the Taj Mahal may be

a nice one, but for now, I think we will all

be happy with something like Lysa nad Labem or Las Vegas. We are nervously anticipating the next steps put forth by not only

state authorities, but also of the European

Union. We have a lot of reasons for this. For

example, we would dearly like to be in Las

Vegas for the IPMS Nationals, and we have

the venue booked for E-day at Lyse nad

Labem for the 24th and 25th of September. We also have several interesting flying

displays planned and Friday night events

associated with the show. As long as the

higher-ups allow it, we have something to

seriously look forward to.

of ‘Eagle’s Call’, along with B-25J Mitchells

dubbed ‘Angel of Mercy’ in the Limited

Edition line. There will also be the Tempest Mk.II ProfiPACK kit in 1:48th and two

Weekend kits, the Fw 190D-9 and Spitfire F

Mk.IX, both in 1:48th as well. And that still

won’t be all, as I am anticipating the new

tooled Sopwith Camel and more Limited

Edition items, such as the Hurricane Mk.I

in 1:72nd. Those are September releases,

during which we will also release a Limited

Edition kit of the Camel, under a package

named ‘Biggles & Co’.

The Restock of Kits

The above gives us an overview of new

kits slated for the summer. Among others,

this is information for those who complain

that all we release are Messerschmitts.

I understand where the impression comes

from, and it is largely due to the effort of

restocking our catalog after December’s

blaze. The method with which this is being done results in individual items being

replenished in large doses, and when it

came turn for the Bf 109F and G, then the

production included new items, as well

as re-editions of sold out kits and a completion of packing those for which we had

ample boxes and instructions printed. So

the number of related products contributed to these spurts. And there tends to

be a lot of them, with respect to the Bf 109

and the Fw 190, and this, in turn, makes it

appear at times as though we only produce

Messerschmitts.

We would like to proceed via a different

route, and inject some variability into our

product line, but alas, there is no other

way to go forth that is more effective under

Eduard in the Innerblock

current circumstances. But don’t worry,

In the foreseeable future, we’d like to re- as variation in the catalog does exist, and

new the popular ‘Innerblock’ get-togethers will continue to develop. In May, we ‘dosed’

at the Vnitroblock (literally translated as not just the Messerschmitts, but also the

‘Innerblock’) venue in Holesovice. The good Tempest Mk.V, and now, in June, the time

news is that Vnitroblock survived the loc- should come for the 48th scale MiG-21s

kdown, the Cavern is functional, and if the and Spitfire Mk.IX, VIII and XVIs, as well as

restaurants and if the bars really do open the 72nd scale Hellcats. These are not new

up on June 14th, we would like to conduct releases, but their replenishment will fill a

our introductions to new releases for July void. Somewhere in there, as June turns to

and August somewhere around the end of July, other 1:72nd scale kits will come into

June or the beginning of July. That would play, such as the Spitfire Mk.IX.

end up being quite a spectacle, because

we are preparing some interesting items June New Releases/Kits

for those months. For July, this includes While on the subject of new releases, let’s

the second volume of Wilde Sau 1:48th look at June’s in more detail. First, model

and Adlerangriff 1:72nd in the limited Edi- kits. Probably the most anticipated will be

tion category, the MiG-21bis in 1:48th and Desert Babes in 1:72nd. This is the Tornado

Fw 190A-8/R2 in 1:48th in the Weekend Edi- GR.1 in the Limited Edition line. The kit has

tion lineup. In August, we have 1:48th scale much in common with last year’s Desert

American Spitfire Mk.Vs under the name Babe in 1:48th. It has a very similar title, the

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plastic again comes from Revell, and the

marking options are the same. Also the

same is the rate at which it sells. As of this

moment, there are just some 300 pieces

remaining for sale through the internet, and

we have no more. For this reason, we can’t

even offer any Overtrees on this subject. All

of the sprues that we had went into complete boxings. For the ProfiPACK line, we also

have the Spitfire Mk.IIb, the cannon armed

verson of the Mk.II. With this kit, though, the

marking options were atypically limited.

There were not a lot of Mk.IIs built, under

two hundred, and the search for a more interesting machine is a largely fruitless one.

We did manage to put together an option

that includes a more striking aircraft from

the Polish No.306 Squadron, and interesting

from the point of view of the pilots that flew

them. An example of the latter is Tony Gaze,

an Australian with an interesting personality and fate that would see him shoot down

an Me 262 and Ar 234, who flew Meteors

after the war, and would become the first

Australian Formula 1 driver. Then there is

the Rhodesian Eric Dicks-Sherwood, whose aircraft appears on the boxart, which

depicts, as on both of the Weekend boxes,

an actual event. Actually, it may have been

preferable to have the other Spitfire depicted in the artwork as the centre of attention,

but we could not locate a photograph of it

to confirm certain aspects that would need

confirming. There are two Weekend kits, the

Bf 109G-10 Erla in 1:48th and the Fokker D.VII

(OAW) in 1:72nd. In neither case did we run

across any issues coming up with marking

options for these, as you can see below in

this newsletter. There are three historical

notebooks included in today’s newsletter

dedicated to the situations depicted in the

boxarts. They are by Jan Bobek exclusively.

The lineup of June model releases is rounded out by two re-editions of ProfiPACK kits,

the Tempest Mk.V Series 1 in 1:48th and the

MiG-21PF in 72nd.

INFO Eduard - June 2021