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Good evening, dear Friends!
Over the summer period, I was asked on
a discussion forum to write in today's editorial
what new kits we have in store for the last quarter
of this year. After careful consideration, I decided
not to do it, and that's because E-day is coming
up, as well as the Czech Republic Plastic Modeling
Championship. At both events, I will present news
not only for the rest of this year, but also for the
first half of the next. The problem is that revealing
these plans here and now would rob me of what
I have already planned for E-day and the way
I want to present them, including any surprises we
might have up our sleeves!
So today I will limit myself to September
releases, and also to October’s, as they will be
available at E-day at the end of this month.
NEW RELEASES FOR SEPTEMBER
New releases for September are no secret,
since they have already been available for a week
now. The centrepiece of the list is the Royal Class
Bf 109 G-10 in 1:72. If you want to know my opinion
about this kit, you can find it in a column I wrote
about it for today's newsletter. It's written in a bit
of an American style, inspired by my being in the
States for three weeks on holiday and I always
soak up the attitude to life there. In the Czech
Republic, for about two centuries now, American
attitudes have been considered to smack of
a certain level of self admiration. According to the
widely held cultural belief by the Czechs (and not
just), a good creator should sit nicely in a corner
somewhere and wait for praise. Typically, that
takes a decade or two after the person’s death.
This is the tale that Antonín Dvořák could tell. But
we Czechs, the proud nation of F.X. Šalda, know
our stuff. It’s an attitude with a stifling quality to
it alien to Americans, and it's one of the reasons
why I always feel freer in America. Much more
free. I enjoy it there, because there, I can say that
I did something well, even extremely well, and no
one will accuse me of being an arrogant bragger
if the results are there to see. In fact, I would urge
Czech modellers to adopt a bit of the American
perspective. What if we included a national self-
confidence and a healthy pride in one's own work
among those American innovations we have
already managed to adopt. If we could adopt
things like a food processor, air conditioning, big
cars, hot dogs, McDonalds, hockey (Canadian,
I know, but hey!), good rock and even F-35s, why not
add that sense of self worth and make it our own?
God bless America!
In addition to the aforementioned Royal Class
kit, we are also releasing an FM-2 Wildcat in 1:48th
scale as a Profipack boxing. It comes out of the
older Limited Edition releases we dubbed ‘Wilder
Cat’, and we have two other older pieces in the
form of a reissued Bf 109 G-2 in 1:48th, also in
the Profipack line, and a P-39Q Airacobra, also in
1:48th, but as a Weekend kit. It may surprise you
that we are re-releasing the Airacobra that is over
twenty years old at a time when a new kit from
Poland is coming to the market. Well, releasing it
we are. Ours is not a bad kit, has its own qualities
and has survived Japanese competition, so
I think it can and will do the same here. Otherwise,
however, we wish our colleagues from Poland good
luck and will be watching with interest how they
fare with their effort. This is in no way an act of
us going after someone else’s product. In fact, we
are wishing them success, because their success
is our success. After all, we make accessories for
their kits, and we don't make them to not sell!
NEW RELEASES FOR OCTOBER
October's new releases will be here lickity split,
and I don’t much believe you don’t now about them
by now. One of these are raising some eyebrows.
Yes, I mean the old 1:72nd scale Turbolet, originally
released by Gavia and in October in the new-ish
Eduard Heavy Retro line. The kit is very original and
an unadulterated retro, and the era from which it
hails is clearly visible on it. It has its flaws, and
they are not few in number. But even with them
it's good old-fashioned, honest work. That model
didn't come about because some geek bought a
kit, cut it up to look different, bathed it in epoxy
and released it as a super 3D new tool kit of the
year. Its creators honestly worked on the creation
of this model with determination, from the drawing
to the wooden masters, through the design of
decals, instructions and the box, all the way to
releasing it. That kit contains a large portion of
the work and a piece of life of its designers, Michal
Vláčilík and Petr Podvala, and the same portion
of honest work, artistic finesse and care of the
creator of the molds, Pavel Vandělík, who kept
them in good functioning condition throughout
their existence. Now, after almost a quarter of
a century since the creation of the original kit, we
are offering it once again with the addition of a few
modern details, mainly a printed landing gear, new
transparencies, some photoetched, quality decals
and contemporary box art. Among other things, we
did this to make everyone who bought a copy of the
Gavia kit from the people at AZ/KP Models realize
that buying rip-offs is not cool nor necessarily
the only way to get a specific kit. We actually own
those molds and have for some twenty years now.
Patience is a virtue and it is always good to support
good, honest work. Ultimately, when you purchase
pirated kits from the people who shamelessly and
blissfully rip off other peoples’ efforts, you support
and reward that behavior. It’s a lot better to lay in
the tall green grass than drown in scum….
This L-410 is specifically the UVP version.
If these do well in terms of sales, we’ll do others
as well. At the moment, we are ready for the L-410
UVP
-
E.
You may have noticed the distinctly Czech flavor
of the new releases coming up. That can’t be
a surprise to anyone, with E-day just around the
corner. In addition to the Turbolet, we also have an
L-39ZA Albatros in 1:72, and a 48th scale Spitfire
Mk.Vb in a Limited Edition format dedicated to
the legacy built by members of the Czechoslovak
Air Force who served in the RAF during World
War II. The kit, named THEY FOUGHT TO REBUILD,
conceptually belongs to The Spitfire Story series,
even if it is not strictly portrayed as such. We are
releasing it in a Dual Combo format and I believe
that it will interest not only Czechs and Slovaks.
So that the lineup of October new releases is
not exclusively Czech or Czechoslovak, we have
another classic, the P-51B/C Mustang in a 48th
scale Profipack rendition. It differs from the
previous P-51B, released in August, by the fin fillet.
This is not such a small change, and precipitated
a new sprue frame with a fuselage on it. It's
a classic Profipack with six marking options, and
you can see what these are below.
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard4
September 2024