EDITORIAL

Dear Friends,

October saw some pretty important events, and

so I’ll begin today’s introduction with them. Also,

I will start off from the ‘bad news’ and make my

way up the ‘progressively better items’ ladder.

The recent trend of ruptured supply lines and

services continues. The week before last, we encountered an odd situation, in which a manifestation of this situation was being encountered on

a daily basis. On Monday, there were major shortages at the gas stations due to a lack of AdBlue

solution, known also as urea. Some things were

unthinkable even under socialism here, shortage

of urea being a good example… They say it is due

to the shortage of natural gas. Be that as it may,

I recall the feeling of euphoria when I was able

to get two canisters of this AdBlue stuff under

the table from a pump attendant friend of mine. It

was a similar feeling to the one I had when I was

able to acquire a color TV during Husak’s era (the

last communist president of then Czechoslovakia; editor´s note). When I proudly broke the news

to my kids, I was faced with the sudden realization that the younger generation had no clue as

to what ‘under the table’ meant, nor could they

fathom what was so amazing about acquiring

a color TV set. But that also does illustrate the

level at which the comforts of living are currently at. I just hope that society can appreciate that

level, and that it will continue for at least some

time yet.

Then on Tuesday, our supplier of brass sheets

changed their delivery times from six to twelve

weeks, with zero possibility of an appeal. Our current supplies of brass won’t last us very long,

and they are set to run out about mid-January.

We had to find at least a half a ton of the stuff

elsewhere. And that will, naturally, add up. It’s

like with electricity. Unless you have a long-term

contract in place, the prices will skyrocket.

Wednesday brought hints of a magnesium shortage on the horizon, and that will play havoc with

aluminum alloys. So, we will attempt to stock up

on them. These are what our molds are made of,

and without a supply of the stuff, we can forget

about having the S-199 premiere at E-day 2022.

On Thursday, a European Commission protocol on the use of diisocyanatos emerged, which

sucks because it is important in the process of

polyurethane casting. But here, there will likely

be no need for stocking up, because at the time

the regulation comes into effect, we probably

won’t be casting a lot of things. But we will need

to be aware of the contents of any documentation

that results from this. Thanks to our decision to

go from castings directly to 3D prints, we have

a head start on an advantage here.

On Friday, we were informed that finally, there

was some shipping capacity that was freed up in

China, allowing the loading of the plastic for the

1:350th scale USS Arizona. Our joy was decapitated by the disclosure of the price of shipping,

around four times that of what we were used to.

This translates to the plastic being roughly twice

the cost of what was anticipated, and should this

trend continue, we will need to get away from the

reboxing of kits that have their origins in Asia,

and look to other sources coming out of Europe

and our own manufacturing past. In short, we live

in interesting times.

The Intimate Walkaround at Line Airfield

So, on to the more pleasant items to discuss. The

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walkaround at Line was an intimate little affair

that was deemed satisfactory by all attendees, it

seems. Fears of the morning fog over the airfield

were unnecessary, though the condition did make

its way into Namáměšť air base and caused a delay in the arrival of one of the stars, the Mi-35,

which forced a de-synchronization of the timing

of other incoming participants of the show. Fortunately, this was barely noticeable by the people at the event. It was truly an intimate little

thing, with no ‘hurry it up’ feel or any stress at all.

There was plenty of time to examine the aircraft

there close up and to talk with the pilots. The latter were also pleased with the level of interest

that they themselves were the centre of among

the modellers, and were surprised by what they

were interested in as much as what they weren’t. I think that the coming together of the perspectives on aviation, one from the modelling

view and one from the service view, were mutually beneficial. It is evident from photographs

taken at the event that there was more interest

in the Mi-35 and the Hurricane than there was

in the Trener aircraft. This is to a certain extent

quite logical, but the difference was actually not

all that dramatic. There were twelve Treners at

the show, pretty much each one unique, including

in terms of version. This had the effect of spreading out the interest in the type, while the military aircraft, represented by one example each,

garnered a more concentrated field of attention.

I found a certain feeling of success from the fact

that I was approached by quite a few attendees

who said that on their way to Line, they had zero

interest in the Trener, but have changed completely on the matter, and would even buy our kit of

the Trener. And most, more than one kit. I went

through a similar revelation recently, so I totally

get where they’re coming from. Too bad that the

kit could not be ready for the Walkaround at Line

event. We did give out some kits to the Trener

crews, but these were missing one sprue as well

as the box given to the modelers of the Kaznejov Club, who were instrumental through their

help in organizing the event. And they wasted no

time, quickly got together for a good ol’ fashioned

workshop and slapped their kits together in very

short time. They off course got the missing sprue

and an extra box of the kit. You can assess their

efforts thanks to the photo report in this issue

of the Info. I would like to take the opportunity

to extend my thanks to these people from KPM

Kaznějov, and also to the members of the Classic

Trainers group, the management, and staff of the

Line Airport, and last, but certainly not least, the

pilots and crews of the participating aircraft. At

this point, who knows what will be on for next

year, whether or not we will be able to put on

a bigger event or not. Either way, this form of

a ‘Walkaround’ event is something we’d like to

continue with. Photographs of the event are

included with this month’s ‘Tail End Charlie’ article, this time penned by Jan Zdiarsky.

TORA TORA TORA!

We have a new Zeke, and you all know this since

October 14th. The way with which we made the

announcement was veered a little off course

for this one. We typically announce new items

first to retailers six weeks ahead of planned release dates. Within this procedure, December’s

new releases were announced on October 15th.

We wanted the modeling world to know of our

release directly from us, so we made it known

a day ahead of the announcement being made to

retailers. The basic details of our new Zero are by

now known to everyone, and more details will be

revealed through November. Keep an eye on our

Facebook page and Instagram accounts for updates. You can find the first of the more detailed

descriptions in this newsletter, and December’s

newsletter will be very much TORA TORA TORA!

themed.

November New Release: Trener

The Trener is a unique project. It’s essentially

a civil airplane, despite initially being developed

as a military trainer. That opens up the possibility

that a future kit will include military markings, but

that would be more the exception than the rule.

The vast majority of markings will be those of

various aeroclubs and private owners. From the

point of view of markings, this is a different kettle

of fish altogether, from what most modellers

will be used to. And as has been expressed by

the members of the Kaznějov club, masking and

painting such unique aircraft will be, to some degree, quite the challenge! But it also carries the

potential of a high degree of satisfaction in a job

well done. The kit is not quite as simple as the

design of the airplane might suggest. The Trener

kit actually, and surprisingly, has more parts and

sprues than the Zero that is just about to be released. But, this is due to alternative and optional

parts, to a large degree. There are an enormous

number of parts that account for unique variations and alterations that the Trener has met within actual use. And we don’t even include all of

them. To account for all the changes would have

greatly complicated the development of the kit

and made the instructions a mess. Perhaps, someone will complain based on this fact, but I am

sure that everything has a limit, and we reached

a maximum point of coverage with this kit. Anyo-

INFO Eduard - November 2021