PEOPLE OF TRENERS, TRENER FROM

EDUARD

For several months now I have been living a topic that gives me a great joy. It is

a 1/48th scale model of the Trener, a topic

I have already written about once in this

section. That was when I came up with the

challenge of marking designs. And I have

to say, it fell on fertile ground. There were

a lot of suggestions and the first one made

it into the very first edition of the kit. The

next ones will come gradually, because

strangely enough, most of them contained

different versions than the Z-226 series,

which will kick off the whole series of releases.

What I particularly enjoy about this project

is the opportunity to meet and get to know

people who have something to say about

this legendary machine. As pilots, history

experts, memoirists... And as I have gradually searched for individual machines,

I have been able to penetrate not only their

fates, but also the fates of the people connected with them. It's a completely different job than reconstructing the markings

of second- or even first-war aircraft from

a few, sometimes even just one photo, and

without the possibility to talk to the survivors, because unfortunately they are no

longer with us.

INFO Eduard - October 2021

When I called for suggestions for markings,

I had no idea what the response would be.

I believed I would meet with friendliness,

but the reality exceeded all my expectations. Owners and operators of Treners are

duly proud of their machines and the fact

that theirs has a chance to be depicted in

an Eduard model kit makes most of them

happy or even excited. The friendliness

I encounter is unbelievable. For example,

the Aero Club Nové Zámky took pictures

of their OM-MPX including a tape measure

for each marking detail to make our work

easier when scaling it down. They have

plastic modelers among them, so they

know what is needed... And they are not

alone, of course, as it turns out, there are

a lot of modelers among active pilots, so

it is not surprising that I usually get a reaction like "I am really looking forward to

the Trener model!" This is true not only for

modelers in Czech Republic or Slovakia,

but also from Hungary, where the Trener is

very popular by the way, and also from this

country we got great help from the owner

of the aircraft that is included in the first

box of the Trainer.

On the other hand, thanks to this, we are

experiencing the opposite to the critical

lack of documentation, which is perhaps

too much of documentation... Just listing

the colors for the interior of the individual

machines included in the first kit (including the colors of the seat cushion) started

to complicate the instructions extremely, and we were still thinking of creating

a corresponding set of operating labels

and interior labels for each aircraft. This

proved to be unfeasible in the end, however, those who want to bring the model

up to full detail will not come short. We

will offer a decal sheet with all conceivable forms of interior labels and stencils,

so everyone can choose according to the

machine they want to build and the period

it was flying. Because, and let's not forget,

every Trener has gone through a series of

revisions, overhauls or minor modifications during its lifetime, and its appearance (or even version) has changed more or

less at every such an event. I believe that

everyone will be happy with this solution

in the end. And I look forward to meeting

more people around the Trener. They are

great and so are their aircraft!

Richard Plos

eduard

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