EDITORIAL

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Every month has its own dominant feature…a sort of given. Some of these monthly

aspects are seasonal, and they repeat, year

after year. For example, July gets hot. Some

aspects are more variable, and change from

one year to the next. This year, the dominant

aspect has been, obviously, the increasingly annoying coronavirus, and no less intense

have been the demonstrations against global

racism that have been thrown into the mix

of insanity that this year has bestowed upon

us. We are halfway through the year, and at

the moment, my impression is that my initial

optimism for what the year would bring was

way off the mark. In all honesty, I can say that

a year like this, filled with dumb ideas and notions that have been taken to such extremes,

has not come around in a very long time. The

only thing to do is to hope that the second half

of the year will see a turnaround and things

will stabilize. Truth be told, that is beginning

to look unlikely. But, things will improve!

If not this year, then the new year will bring

a chance of something better. But, not to complain too much about how strange this year

is, from a sales point of view, this is not a bad

year at all. It is clear that modellers have not

given up on their passion due to the epidemic.

The result is that our production and retail departments are just barely keeping up with demand, and are running at full capacity. Among

other things, it tells me that the idea of new

project development is a good one. This is

clearly illustrated by the fact that even our

little Kunkadlo, which I initially had absolutely

no intention of boxing as a regular kit, sold out

during the first month after release. Fifteen

hundred pieces! What’s the big deal? We sold

a lot more Focke-Wulfs and MiGs. Yes, that’s

true, but these are types that were flown in

their thousands, with some very attractive

camouflage schemes, and are aircraft that

are generally very well known. But, who knew

what a Kunkadlo was until now? Who knew

what it was a year ago, or even six months

ago? After all, it was a semi-amateurish design of an ultra-light with a 14hp engine that,

incidentally, was less powerful than my wife’s

scooter. Furthermore, it was produced to the

tune of one piece. For us, it was a test, a technological demonstrator, a research project

that served as verification of new technology,

and, thanks to which, we ended up rejecting,

but which led to further testing of possible

variations on the theme. I asked modellers,

especially foreign ones, what had led to their

purchase of this kit. The most common answer was along the lines of “because it exists,

and I can. It’s a nice model of a nice airplane”.

That pleases me very much. I see it as a bit of

an achievement. To successfully put through

something like this, in a saturated industry, is

no small feat. As a side note, it should be noted that the 1500 kits of the Kunkadlo sold as

quickly as the 2200 ‚Wine, Women and Song‘

Marauder kits.

This year’s IPMS USA National Convention

followed down the same road as many events,

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I bought myself a scooter with an output of

11kW. That’s more than the engine in Kunkadlo.

and was cancelled. If all goes well, we can expect to be in San Marcos in 2023. Although

the cancellation is regrettable, as are all of the

cancellations of these events, I do think that

the decision is the correct one due to the critical situation brought on by the epidemic. Our

plan was, should the Nationals go ahead and

we had a way of actually getting there, to be

in attendance, though with a minimal contingent of two. In and out, no trips around this

year. I wasn’t even really looking forward to it.

It would have been difficult, because almost

no airline from here is flying there yet. And

when there is a flight, they seem to have no

idea what they should be charging for it. They

wouldn’t even let us in the country, and if they

did, they would stick us in quarantine. And

then, we could expect the same stuff on the

return trip. I am of the old school. I am used

to complications, dealing with and overcoming them, but everything has its limit. I am

probably not the only one who sees it this

way. So, I wish all modellers and modelling

companies in the States good luck for next

year in Vegas! I am really looking forward to it!

Of course, I am absolutely looking forward to

our own E-day much more. It’s a lot closer, and

I sincerely hope that that stupid little bug doesn’t throw a monkey wrench into that idea,

too. The loss of this year’s IPMS Nationals is

all the more a shame, given that we prepared

a collection of interesting and attractive new

items for July, and especially August. Just the

two main new items for August, the Limited

Edition ‚VLR: Tales of Iwo Jima‘ and ‚Spitfire

Story: The Few‘, are gorgeous items. ‚VLR‘, or

‚Very Long Range‘, is pretty self explanatory,

involving the history of the Mustang based on

Iwo Jima. These were tasked with escorting

long-range B-29 bombers to Japan and back,

and it is a well documented account. It is a colourful account, involving some very colourful

Mustangs. Our goal was clear: bring to America a very American themed plastic kit. And

to add to it a fresh new item, along the lines

of last year’s ‚Chattanooga Choo Choo‘, that is

a Limited Edition introduction in our style of

kits. This time around, it was to be the Spitfire

Mk.I. Initially, I had some reservations about

the potential of ‚Spitfire Story‘, but it became

clear during the development of this concept,

that it had even greater potential than ‚VLR‘.

Well, it is, after all, the Battle of Britain. That is

the subject matter that Spitfire concerns itself

with to a very high degree, together with the

Battle of France and Operation Dynamo, and is

one of the most riveting periods in the human

history. I was quite surprised myself, admitted-

ly, by the depth of the stories and experiences of people and units involved, that came

to light during the development of this kit.

Some people consider the Spitfire Mk.I a boring subject matter, at least to some extent, always green and brown, no artwork…well, you

will see. You will get more information about

these two Limited Edition releases, as well as

all the others for the month as well, further

down in this newsletter. Also, from about the

mid point of July, there will be more revealed

on our Facebook page, and elsewhere.

At the end of July, we are planning an introduction to our August releases, in cooperation

with Artur Model Centrum. It won’t be held

specifically at the outlet venue this time, as

it was in February, but we are moving to the

comfortable settings of the nearby Italian restaurant. The event will be held on July 24th,

from 5:00pm at the aforementioned Il Primo

Piatto restaurant, immediately next door to

the Artur Model Centrum retail outlet. It’s

not far at all from the retail outlet of Artur

MC, really, just a hop, skip and a jump away,

but the restaurant is very well suited to hold

such an event. The main attraction will be

the introduction of new releases for August,

with emphasis on the two Limited Edition kits

described earlier, and this will include a short

historical excursion into the themes of the two

items. We will also discuss decals. This will

include discussions on decals included in kits,

and also aftermarket decal sets. Over the past

few months, we have quietly increased our release activity of aftermarket decal sets under

the label of Eduard Decals. Besides the release

of sheets containing national markings, stencil

data, Lozenge patterns, and the like, we have

begun to release sheets in the classic pattern,

covering different schemes for specific types

of aircraft. There are two categories of models

for which these are designed. The first are interesting sets for kits produced by other than

ourselves, usually new items on the market.

This includes a set of decals for the P-38F/G

in 1:48th scale released in June, designed for

the Tamiya kit, and two sheets for the Mi-24V

being prepared for September. The second

line of these sets will be designed for our own

kits, especially for newly released Weekend

kits. The choices that are going to be offered

for these will cover schemes that did not fit

into released Eduard kit, usually a Weekend

edition kit, after the initial determinations

were made. In some cases, they may cover

subjects that are at the moment not available in kit form in our catalog, such as sold out

INFO Eduard - July 2020