EDITORIAL

Dear Friends,

We have behind us a month chock full

of Spitfires, and you are probably expecting me to write about nothing but

– micro details about hydraulic pumps,

the colour of lettering, and whatever

else has been beaten to almost death

recently. But, I won’t. The internet forums can take care of that very well

on its own. This is a time for Messerschmitts, because without Messerschmitts, Spitfires would be very little.

This is the reason why we have brushed

off the Emils in both 48th and 32nd scales. This is to create the correct atmosphere to help us commemorate what

really went on in the skies over England

eighty years ago. It’s about civilization

and about good being victorious over

evil, that much is clear, but it is about

more than that. Turning to the human

perspective, it’s also about people,

technology, will, character, luck and, in

the end, life and death. These things

were on both sides, somewhat surprisingly, similar, although also somewhat

out of synch in terms of timetables.

This may be used to explain why, when

all was said and done, former enemies

had a high level of understanding for

one another. And so we decided to release our good ol’ Emil one more time,

conceptually consistent with the recent

release of its fateful opponent, the Spitfire. Because the theme on which we

are currently focused is wideranging

and time is flying by, we decided to risk

it and release the Emil in two scales

at the same time, with the same markings in both kits. The 1:48th scale kit

is a Dual Combo boxing while the 32nd

scale item is a classic single kit. Both kits

offer the same mix of E-1, E-3 and E-4

versions, including fighter-bomber sub

variants, all markings options are new

and don’t draw on options that we have

used in past releases. They cover all of

the significant Jagdgeschwader units

that were pressed into service by the

Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. It’s

a good mix of well known aces, lesser

known aces, and your normal run of

the mill service pilots. The aircraft and

pilots cover various phases of the Battle

of Britain, and represent the evolution

of camouflage schemes throughout it,

and also the evolution of the Luftwaffe’s tactics. The main ace represented

is Adolf Galland, but the marking option

for it is one that we have not offered in

any past releases. As far as the big guns

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eduard

are concerned, we have two decal sheets ready to go in each scale. One sheet

is dubbed Adlerangriff Experten, and

the other is called Adlerangriff Alte Hasen. The big aces will be covered there,

and there will be ten of them. The 48th

scale sheets will be out in October, followed in November by the 32nd scale

sheets. The Adlerangriff is the common

component in the names of the kits, and

the reasoning for this is described in the

Jan Bobek article in this newsletter.

We will make a return to the Spitfire in

October with the release of the Spitfire

Mk.Ia as a ProfiPACK kit. It will include

an uncommon total of seven marking

options, that will take you through the

development of Spitfire markings and

schemes from the spring of 1940 to the

summer of 1941. If you are still among

those who have this version of the airplane as somewhat boring, this kit will

lead you away from that mistaken impression. This kit‘s release will be the

first of several events we are planning

as a compensation for the cancellation of this year’s E-day. It will be called

SPITFIRE DAY, and it will be held at the

airport at Pilsen-Line on September 19.

That’s the home of a Spitfire Mk.XVI,

but I don’t think that’s a big issue. The

Spitfire is worth seeing in any of its versions, and there is a lot more to see at

Line, too. The event will be realized in

conjunction with the Classic Trainers

Club, and besides the Spitfire, there will

be a Texan, and a Tiger Moth, among

other items in the Club’s collection. There is also a small, local museum. We will

bring kits, and besides the Spitfire, the

Limited Edition Cmelak in 1:72nd scale

and the 1:48th scale MiG-19, there will

be T-shirts associated with them. Admission tickets will be available on our e-shop, and their number will be limited,

so those should be gotten sooner rather

than later. Pre-orders will be taken from

the latter half of this week.

We will baptize the Spifire with champagne in Line, and the Cmelak with

mead a week later in Jicin, on September 26th, the originally planned date for

E-day. There will be some flight displays

here as well, and you will be able to get

up close and personal with static displays, most notably with the Cmelak (pronounced ‘Chmelak’ and means ‘Bumble

Bee’ in Czech), as well as other aircraft,

talk to the pilot, and we will have our

new releases for October which will be

available for purchase. There will be

one more event before this day, and it

will be in the spirit of the Pot Q and A,

and this will take place in Prague’s Holesovice Café called Vnitroblock. It will

be an extrapolation of the meeting at

Artur in July, and will take the place of

the cancelled Q and A session slated

for E-day. It will concern itself mostly

with new items that are being planned,

not just for October, but for the remainder of the year. So, there will be talk

of the F-6D Mustang, and the Aldertag

Limited Editions which will focus on the

Bf 110C/D in the Battle of Britain in

both 1:72nd and 1:48th scales, the Spitfire Mk.II and the ProfiPACK Cmelak.

Among others, of course….much is being planned. Here, the admission tickets

will also be in limited quantities, so hesitation is not a good idea.

Our new decal sheets are making their

way around the modelling world, too.

Much conversation revolves around, as

it is with new things as a general rule,

what is wrong with them, and above all,

with the peeling of the clear coat. There have been instances in August where

there was damage done to the sheets

during production, which has fueled

a certain level of paranoia towards

them. Those instances have been traced to the high temperatures that have

melted the wax on the protective paper and damaged the decal. We were

able to simulate this condition, and it

occurs at temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius, and these temperatures

can be achieved under certain conditions of storage. There is no shortage of

INFO Eduard - September 2020