Editorial

Dear Friends,

 Welcome to the August newsletter editorial. New releases for August are on sale from today, and to the contrary, yesterday saw the end of the pre-order offer of the MiG-21F-13 in Czechoslovak service, on our e-shop. This is of course a very specific target item, strongly geared towards our home market and Czech and Slovak customers, but we still managed to get very decent numbers for pre-ordered kits. Although we do not have any orders from retailers yet, according to our experience, orders on the e-shop are approximately 20% of the total number, so it looks like we will produce and sell approximately 1500 pieces of this kit. To understand the reasoning behind our actions, we find out the exact current demand through pre-orders, and, based on that figure, we produce as many kits as we can actually sell and no more. We apply this sales method to the new Royal Class releases, and we will also apply it to other ‘hyper specific’ and tightly focused products. To put it bluntly, we don't want to overshoot the production numbers of such kits, which have only a limited number of customers, and then not sell them or sell them later at a massive discount or even a loss, but we also don't want to underestimate the market and limit what we can earn for our efforts. Which is something that unfortunately happens quite often today. We determine the production figures of new products  based on pre-orders from retailers. In very simple terms, we produce twice as many pre-ordered items as the figures tell us for all new products. For accessories, photoetching, masks, Brassins, Space Sets and other aftermarket products, we then maintain the stock level according to current demand and monthly sales. For kits, we produce a set amount, which we then sell until the given item sells out. This is usually several months or even years. This is desirable for Profipacks and Weekends, less so for Limited Edition kits. We consider it ideal for them to remain in our catalog and available for three to six months. If they sell out faster, we ask retailers if they are still interested in these kits and how many of them they have, and depending on demand, we may reissue said items. This happened, for example, with the Kamikaze Tokkōtai kit, where we sold out the first edition almost immediately after the kit was released. Modelers are confused by this procedure, and they then discuss on forums and Facebook why we are releasing a Limited Edition kit as a re-release, while we are putting other Limited Editions on sale at a discount. This is because we are selling off the kits at a discount for which we have overestimated demand and they remain in stock. This happens especially in times when market conditions are changing and it is difficult to predict how a particular new product will sell. In the post-COVID era and in the months after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, it happened that estimates were optimistic, but the market was already slowing down quickly, which led to a slowdown or even a halt in sales of some items. Today, on the contrary, there is considerable caution, which in some cases leads to faulty estimates. However, as can be seen even in today's cautious market, it is possible to produce a kit that exceeds expectations. Such as the Kamikaze Tokkōtai or the Royal Class P-40N. These really confused us in July. Both are complex kits with a lot of components and, above all, sprues. Larger orders led to greater production requirements, which we could not quite keep up with, and we couldn’t keep up with plastic production, which slowed down the packaging and assembly of the kits and subsequently delayed shipments. In the end, it was quite a drama, exacerbated by the fact that a similar situation occurred in the Brassin department, where we also have large orders for some kits, such as unsurprisingly, for the P-40E and N kits. The situation there is also complicated by the fact that we are still in the process of replacing old 3D printers with new ones. We already have seven new ones, but that is still not enough. We should install four more printers in August, and that should stabilize production.

We should be well prepared for the sending out the F-13s. We have all the molds ready, we have six of them tested and we are slowly starting to press plastic from them. The pre-orders are planned to go out at the end of September and the beginning of October. From September 29th to October 3rd, to be precise, a week before E-day, and that looks like it will work out. Besides, the production requirement is lower than in the case of the P-40, and we have more time. At least for now.

As I said at the beginning, August's new items are available from our e-shop as of today. Two, or rather three of them, were specially prepared for the IPMS USA National Convention in Hampton, Virginia. All three are in the Limited Edition series, so we can proudly state that August is a major Limited Edition month. Considering that the Royal Class P-40N is also a Limited Edition, this is probably the largest concentration of kits of this series in one month in Eduard's history.

The first of them is the ‘Eyes of the Fleet’ 1:72nd scale kit, which is an E-2C Hawkeye with Heller plastic and four markings of aircraft operating from the base in Norfolk and on ships of the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. There is a very limited number of these kits available for purchase, only the last few dozen pieces are available for sale on our e-shop as of today. Given that the plastic is supplied as a subcontract by Heller, it will not be possible to increase the number of pieces available, there will simply be no reissue in this case. Therefore, do not hesitate and if you are interested in the kit, order it as soon as possible. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

It wouldn't be a good idea to hesitate with any of these August Limited kits, actually. It's practically the same, but even more dramatic, with another ‘Virginia themed’ Limited Edition kit, the F-18C Hornet in 1:48th scale. It was originally supposed to be a classic Limited kit in a production run of 2000 pieces. Kinetic was supposed to supply the moldings for it, but they didn't. They couldn't complete and send the delivery of the moldings in time, somehow things got all tangled up around their production. So we agreed that Kinetic would supply at least 200 sets of moldings, send them by air, we would produce the rest of the components, including the box, and complete the kits so that they could be sold in Hampton. Even so, it was a drama, the shipment, even by air, took three weeks to reach us, and we ended up packaging and sending the kits at the last minute so that they would arrive in the States not only before the exhibition, but also before the increase in the tariff rate, which was expected to kick in today. Although I am not sure whether this is the case and that the infamous beautiful tariffs are already in effect today or will start to apply at some later time, in any case the Hornets arrived in New York the day before yesterday, so yes, on time. The important information is that 120 of them flew to America, the remaining 80 stayed at home and they will be on sale as part of the IPMS USA Afterparty. Due to the low number of kits released, we will not be delivering them to retailers.

The third August Limited Edition release is again  in 1:48 scale. The model is the famous P-40N Warhawk decorated on the occasion of the 15,000th produced Curtiss aircraft with the insignia of the air forces that had Curtiss aircraft in service. In addition to this ceremonial scheme, there will be another marking option in the kit, namely the machine of a Virginian, Major Philipp E. Colman from the 5th FG from China in 1944. This version of the coloring is fashioned after a museum exhibit and bears the sovereign insignia of the Republic of China. And you probably already guessed that in this case there is no shortage of these kits either. We produced a total of 2000 of them, to be honest, I don't know how many we delivered to dealers and I also don't know how many are left, but there won't be many.

The last August kit to be announced today is the Bf 109 G-10 Erla in the Profipack line in 1:72. It is another of our 1:72 scale 109 family. Some modelers and Bf 109 aircraft experts may be pleased that we have modified the bulge on the engine cowling on the right side of the nose to match the assumed shape of the cowl. There are not many photos available of the right side of the nose of the Bf 109 G-10 from the Erla factory, but we did get some and decided to try to bring the shape of the nose to a state at least close to these photos. Hopefully we succeeded. However, I am afraid that in this case there will definitely be someone who will criticize the nose without so much as a hesitation.

So that wraps up the new releases for August news and we even delivered the reissue of the Kamikaze Tokkōtai kit to retailers. And to keep up the scarcity mode of today's editorial, I'll add that we don't have many of these kits left in stock either.

EMD

 You have certainly noticed that the August issue of the EMD has not been published yet. I will not mince words and tell you straight away why that is. We have quite significant technical problems with ensuring the content of two publications, put out as monthly magazines. Part of this problem is caused by undisciplined authors, such as myself, who write long articles that are then not finished in time and thus complicate the work of the graphic designers and the editor-in-chief. Therefore, I have decided, somehow while wearing my director’s cap, that EMD will continue to be published as a bimonthly magazine. And in order to compensate for this decision of mine, which, as I fully understand, will be received with reluctance by at least some of its readers, I have started writing a new series about the history of the production of plastic model kits and accessories in the Czech Republic. This saga, which I have named Plastos, will of course include the history of Eduard, and also other companies and the life stories of important personalities who participated in the development of this industry of ours. Believe me, you will learn a lot of interesting and previously unknown information. It will be interesting, sometimes exciting, sometimes thrilling, sometimes funny and sometimes even dramatic. We will start this up in August, I have already finished the first two parts.

Afterparty

 The IPMS USA afterparty will start on Tuesday, August 5th and end on Monday, August 11th. Please note that the discount will not apply to August releases!

If today's editorial seems a bit unkempt, it's because I'm writing it during what is now almost a fourteen-hour flight from Prague to Phoenix, Arizona, so please forgive me that.

Happy Modelling!

Vladimir Sulc