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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eduard
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