EDITORIAL

Good day, Dear Friends

The show season has revved up, and after a long

drought at that. Now, we are seeing a show and

a contest pretty much every weekend and modellers are again happy. We have even managed

some progress in terms of a date and venue for

this year’s E-day. So, I won’t keep you in suspense.

E-day 2022 will take place on October 1, at the Milovice Tankodrome. This is the place that our Mustang flight demo took place during the last E-day.

But not to worry… That is not to say the event will

be held outside. During the Covid lockdowns and

restrictions, the Tankodrome received a beautiful

new convention hall with some 3500 square meters of floor space, with another generous 1600 m2

in gallery space. The facility is primarily intended

to be used as a display area of both military and

civil machinery, and the plan is to keep some of

this in place during E-day. Any required space will

be freed up by moving some of the exhibits outside,

as needed. There is plenty of display space available outside the building, so this is not anticipated to

pose any issues. There will also be plenty of room

available for drop off or pickup of goods for modellers and retailers alike. Parking is also conveniently close to the exhibition hall for participants

and ample parking will be available for visitors in

the lower section of the property. This is where

everyone parked during that Mustang demonstration. The trip to the hall proper can be undertaken

on foot, it being about a five minute walk. There is

also a mini-train that connects the Tankodrome

with the adjacent kids’ playground Mirakulum and

the train has a new boarding platform located at

the parking lot. There will also be another flight

demonstration, but exactly what will take to the

air will be revealed in September. It’s not yet been

finalized, but it shouldn’t be limited to one aircraft

only, and it will be observable from the airfield

itself, or from the exhibition hall. That will be for

those of us who prefer a little comfort.

The venue offers a lot to visitors with families,

especially kids, and to anyone that doesn’t particularly care for modeling. At the moment, the final major question to address is if E-day will be

a one or two day affair. My personal vote goes to

two days, but there are relevant voices suppor-

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INFO Eduard

ting a one day show. All things that surround the

show’s organization, judging system, categories,

awards and the like will gradually be made known

through the summer.

Model Kits

Although the June assortment of new kits may

look somewhat standard, it contains two new

items that are far from it. The first is the 1:72 scale

Avia CS-199, a virtually iconic type for local modellers. The good ol’ Kovozavody Prostejov kit from

1978 of this airplane represents the beginnings of

the love for the hobby for my generation. It evokes

pleasant feelings of nostalgia. I believe that our current technology effort will breathe a new life into

this legendary type, and that it will garner attention among not only Czech and Slovak modellers.

There is some discussion here regarding how to

approach the surface of our kit, since the actual

machines were puttied, eliminating the appearance of rivets. That even goes for panel lines, really.

So the question is whether or not to putty over the

model’s surface during assembly. My suggestion

would be to simply not apply a wash in the final

stages of completion of the kit. It’s not entirely

accurate to say that after being puttied, the rivets

and panel lines disappear on the actual airplane.

They can still be seen, but they certainly are not as

pronounced. That goes for the panel lines as well.

If you apply a wash to these surface features, you

will accent them, and they will become that much

louder. If you leave out the wash, then you will

be left with panel lines and rivets at a state they

should really be at. They will be as subtle as they

should be and as they were on the real machines.

I understand that some may see this as a bit of

a cop out, but I hope you’ll agree that at the very

least, it’s worth some thought.

The second kit enjoying its premiere here and now

is the 48th scale Sopwith Camel Comic. I don’t

recall a standard plastic model kit ever being released of this thing in this scale. Only Blue Max

made a conversion set for our old Camel way back

in the day. Perhaps the Comic was released as

a short run kit at some point. And to be honest, it

is a type that may be best suited to the short run

concept. It’s not the type of subject that would be

considered a “must have” in the display case, or

even in the stash. But it is a cute little thing, and

anyone that would want this in their collection can

now do so. The only thing left to add is that both

of the kits described here are ProfiPACK releases.

In the Limited edition line, we’ve got another volume in the Spitfire Story, this time under the name

Per Aspera ad Astra. The star of this show is the

Spitfire Mk.Vc, and twice, to boot, this being a Dual

Combo release. The marking options cover Europe,

the MTO, North Africa and the Far East. Sometime

ago, someone griped, I think it was with the Spitfire

Mk.IX, that the marking options were boring. There

is certainly no danger of that here! We also have

a Spitfire in the 72nd scale Weekend line, this

time a Mk.VIII, and we pulled out all the stops to

keep this kit from being accused of boredom,

too. We have a P-51D-5 re-edition, along with an

Fw 190A-8/R2, both in 1:48th. The shelves are also

seeing a restock of the Bf 108, but note that this

is in 32nd! All three mentioned are ProfiPACK kits.

Brassins

If you asked me to pick out my favorite new Brassin

item, it would have to be the ski set for the Trenér.

It is 3D printed and it’s just darned adorable! I get

that skis for a sport plane are awfully specialized

items and that their rapid disappearance from store shelves is unlikely to cause any drafts, but there

is still just something about this set. And even if

I never build myself a model of a Trenér with skis,

I certainly would never turn down a ride in one.

Most of the new items in the Brassin line are 3D

printed, because we are slowly but surely abandoning casting resin. Things like landing flaps can’t

be properly poured anyway. There is a pair of 3D

printed flap sets for the month of June, one representing the wooden set installed in the Fw 190D,

and the other is for the Spitfire Mk.VIII. As with the

skis for the Trenér, both these sets are in 48th. The

same goes for the Lewis machine guns for the

Sopwith Camel Comic. In 1:72nd scale, there are

June 2022