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Info Eduard - November 2011
EDUTORIAL
Shortly after e-Day, we took part in Chicago’s
i-Hobby 2011. This is a small American version
of Nurnberg. Actually, I would say a very small
version, and personally, I have the feeling that
it gets smaller from year to year. This is despite
the fact this year’s event was an awakening,
and livelier than earlier years. Maybe this could
be due to a severe fatigue of all the economic
gloom and doom talk, to say nothing of the
pending end of the world. Next year, the event
moves to Cleveland, which is a debatable move.
The usual debate over e-Day quickly quieted
down, and if it wasn’t for discussions surrounding
the venue and the stink, it seems there would be
no discussion at all. That either means a general
satisfaction, or a general indifference. These two
states, though, have more in common than people
would like to admit. In any case, next year’s
e-Day will have a list of changes implemented
that will see a rise in the comfort level for all
participants, shorter lines at our stall, and at the
front gate, and just plain better service overall.
A total removal of lineups at our stall, I am not
totally in favor of, but a shortening of them is
certainly something that needs to be addressed,
especially in terms of waiting for service. We’d
also like to line the lineup, as long as people
have to stand there and wait anyway, with
a part of our presentation and a discussion
about our current and future items and plans.
It makes sense, taking into consideration that
most of the talk is over future plans. We are also
toying with the idea of creating a pre-order
system, where you can do just that, and pick it
up at our stall during the show at show prices.
Of course, things could be added to the order
at the show. This, I think, will be inevitable, as
we are planning a new item for the show that
I plan to meet, in terms of timeline, at all costs!
One of the problems with the long lineups is
the possibility of having the availability of
a desired item go to zero by the time you get
to the front of the line. We are even developing
a solution to that problem, too! Instead of one
restocking, as we did this year and last, next
year we’ll have four. This will ensure that the
availability of popular items will be there even
on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
Or at least, that’s the plan. There is always some
stupid variable that can creep into the process
of selling photoetched that surprises everyone,
as you all probably know.
From the previous paragraph, you can see that
there is a plan in place to return to the two-
day format, but we expect to nish things off
by about Saturday, noon. We haven’t etched
anything in stone (etched....get it???), but we are
thinking the end would be in around the 1400h
or 1500h mark. We feel that this should be
generally acceptable. Also, with the absence of
nest year’s ModelBrno, a longer e-Day should
be a welcome thing. So...see you September 28
th
and 29
th
.
We now have behind us the rst full month of
our new website. The reaction has been, for the
mostpart, positive, but there has also been some
criticism. As I would expect, most of the criticisms
are homegrown. However, that doesn’t mean
that the criticism isn’t justied. Not everything is
working as it should just yet, and I must say that
we are in some pretty deep discussions with the
web designers over shortcomings with respect to
aspects of how the site works, and how it should
work. Some of it will be up to us, and there will
be changes. We will incorporate them after
thorough preparation, and then start up the new,
current version of the site then. The rst of this
evolution in the site should be up and running
sometime after New Years, and should focus on
the search engine of the site, which at the moment
is not entirely effective. Gradually, improvement
will also be seen in the information displayed
for each product. Personally, I see great need,
rst and foremost, in an improvement in related
information for model kits.
A storm had been unleashed by our discount
coupons. As it turns out, most people didn’t realize
that this was just a game gimmick, in which the
number of winners was limited. The question to
be answered is if it’s about us, or dissatised non-
winners. The other side of the coin saw positive
feedback concerning the Overtree offer for the
Hellcat, a similar concept to the one introduced
with the MiG-21s. But even here, the idea was
misread by a lot of people, who concluded
by the lower price of that offer, that our other
products are overpriced. Well, there’s not much
we can do about that, to preserve some peace.
But even the protests, weather justied or not,
could have their own positive inuence.
November has a list of interesting items that are
noteworthy. We’ve got the repop of the 48th
Tempest, in its nal incarnation. The last 2500
pieces are being offered this month, and that’s
it for the rest of eternity. At least this kit in this
form. I still can’t rule out some sort of return to
this kit in the future. Personally, I wouldn’t be
against it, unless someone in China gets some
crazy idea. Of course, that wouldn’t rule out the
possibility of a new Tempest....
The main attraction for November, however, is
quite a bit smaller. It’s the 1/144th MiG-21MF.
True enough, its premier was at e-Day, as the
price of admission kit, and was considered
one of the highlites of the show. This month, its
retail counterpart is being released, and is in
a nicer, ne-tuned form. Eight marking options
are certainly a luxurious feature of a kit like this,
and to top it off, they are attractive and even
downright striking. This brought out a discussion
about the coloring of one of the options, the
Czechoslovak aircraft numbered ‘8208’.
Of course, the outcome was that we were
wrong, and others know more than our research
uncovers, and that Eduard is nowhere near as
accurate in that as we claim. This is largely
a misunderstanding. I won’t be screaming and
yelling my notion, that the aircraft could not be
differently painted than we have presented,
especially on the upper surfaces or the entire
right side. With a lack of documentation,
there’s not much that can be done about that,
and even the most vocal of critics can’t be sure,
either. What I won’t agree with, though, is that
we didn’t put forth a solid effort. At some point,
we have to close the research phase of the kit,
and gure out the best way to present it. Only
a few specic aircraft are documented
completely, and there are typically points that
are open to interpretation, or can be overlooked.
On top of that, the look of a specic aircraft
evolves over time, and it’s impossible to aware of
GO WITH ALL THE
CAMO EXPERIMENTS
SOMEWHERE AND
RELEASE THE KIT
NOW OR I WILL SKIN
YOU ALIVE!!!