ne who wants to take the kit further is more than

welcome to do so by their own means.

The kit as a Limited Edition release represents

several versions of the Zlin Z-226 Trener, which

translates into English as ‘Trainer’. Anyone who

may rate this kit as too expensive and complicated has only to wait for the ProfiPACK Z-226MS,

being readied for December. This kit will offer

something less expensive and less complicated,

without losing anything in terms of engineering

and detail. This will be followed by other versions,

in Limited Edition, ProfiPACK and, towards the

end of the year, Weekend kits. Personally, I think

I am most looking forward to the short version,

Z-526AFS, a favorite among moviemakers, playing the part of many Second World War fighters

in Czechoslovak and Soviet war films. Most often,

it played the part of Bf 109s, but portrayed allied

fighters as well.

Spitfire Story: The Sweeps

The Spitfire line continues to impress with the

Mk.Vb in early and late versions. The kit is issued as a Dual Combo offer, same as the preceding Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.II Limited Edition kits.

The marking options were once again taken to

represent an overview of the type’s combat career in association with the stories of the aircraft

and their pilots. More on these options in this

newsletter. If you are wondering about tropicalized versions with dust filters, these will have

their own dedicated releases and should be out

in the spring. I can say that these are shaping up

to be the most striking and colorful Spitfire kits

that we will ever release!

Other Kits

November new kit releases don’t end with Limited Editions. In the ProfiPACK line, we’ve got

a Tempest Mk.II in a later version. Besides offering RAF markings, there are also those of India

and Pakistan. The Pakistan aircraft is sure to

spark some discussion on its camouflage colors.

Two kits are being released in the Weekend line,

The MiG-21MF in 1:72nd scale and the P-51D-20

Mustang in 1:48th. The Mustangs will be gradually

released in the Weekend line by production block

number sequence. Two items are seeing re-editions, the recently sold out Tempest Mk.V Series 2

and the Bf 109E-4, both in 1:48th scale. The latter

sees the return of the 48th scale “Emils” to our

inventory. Some of these will be released on the

basis of available supplies like boxes, instructions and other components that survived last

December’s fire, and others will be either re-editions, meaning in our new boxes but with the

same marking options, or as Weekend kits in the

new guise of that line. The first of these kits will

be the Weekend Bf 109E-7 in December. tavebnicí

bude v prosinci Weekend Bf 109E-7.

Brassin

As is generally the case each month, the Brassin

line contains very noteworthy items. In 1:72nd

scale, for example, we have an engine set for

Hasegawa’s B-25J, also relevant to our release

of that kit under the name “Angel of Mercy”. This

is a cast resin set. The 1:48th scale Le Rhone for

the Eduard Sopwith Camel is produced as a 3D

print, as are the F-4B exhausts for the Tamiya kit.

I think that these can be considered the “engine”

category, can´t they? Also offered as 3D prints are

the landing flaps for the Tempest Mk.II, and this

is the first breakthrough set of its type released

as prints. These were not possible to release as

resin cast items in the past. I suspect that the

printed flaps are spelling out the end of photoetched flaps. I consider the photoetched flaps as

a bit of my baby because it was the flaps set for

the Zero that I and a colleague created as an

experiment and used in a competition model.

As a modeler, I liked these sets. However, and

admittedly, these brass sets are demanding to

INFO Eduard - November 2021

assemble and require a fairly high level of modeling experience. To the contrary, the use of the

printed flaps is comparatively easy, so which do

you think will sell better? Bit of a no-brainer… It’s

a classic case of the old making way for the new.

Check these out, they are certainly worth a look,

even if the Tempest isn’t exactly up your alley. It’s

another little look into what the future holds in

store for us. Also being produced as 3D prints are

1:48th scale US Mk.17 Depth Charges. More details on Brassin sets, including LooK and Space

are detailed below in this newsletter.

Photoetched sets and Masks

Among the new photoetched and mask sets are

items for the 1:48th scale Airfix Chipmunk. In this

case, there is also a Space set being released,

too. The November Space sets, by the way, are

printed with a modified printing method, yielding

improved, better looking result as opposed to older sets. Besides this Chipmunk set, Space sets

are also being released for the Fw 190A-3, the

Fw 190A-4 and the Bf 109E-4, all of which are for

the Eduard kits. With respect to the photoetched

and mask lines, I would point out also the sets for

the AH-1G Late (1:32nd ICM kit), the P-40N from

Academy (1:48th) and the CH-47A and F-18E from

Hobby Boss in the same scale. There are also

sets for armor kits in 1:35th, such as the M4A3(76)

W from Zvezda and the Elefant from Amusing

Hobby. For ship modellers, we’ve got another

two sets covering the 1:350th scale USS Intrepid

from Trumpeter. There is another ship item being

released as a Big Ed compilation for the Austro-Hungarian battleship, the Szent Istvan, also

in 1:350th. The Big Eds are very interesting this

month, thanks in part to the two designed for the

HKM Lancaster B Mk.I in 1:48th scale and for the

F-4B Phantom II from Tamiya in the same scale.

Photoetched sets and Masks

In describing new releases for this month, the

new 48th scale F-4B has been mentioned several

times. Besides a beautiful set of printed exhausts in the Brassin line and the aforementioned

Big Ed set, there are other items of note for this

month. There is a new LooK set and two BigSins.

The latter include weapons sets for air-to-air and

for air-to-ground loadouts. These are certainly

worthy of examination, as are the two new Eduard Decal sheets, one of each has its roots in the

very successful Limited Edition release of “Good

Morning Da Nang”, while the other is dedicated

to the United States Marine Corps use of the aircraft. And while on the topic of decals, you’ll find

another two new releases, a 1:32nd scale stencil

data sheet for Tamiya’s Spitfire Mk.IX and a set of

markings for the Meng 1:24th scale Fokker Dr.I.

Both of these are a part of our own line of 1:48th

and 1:32nd scale sheets. Have a look!

Telford

I am not certain if I am repeating myself here, but

unfortunately, once again, we will not be able to

attend Telford. An analysis of the requirements,

conditions and costs involved, tells us that it simply makes no sense from a retail or financial perspective. I really hope that I won’t be saying the

same thing for Nuremburg in two month’s time.

I am getting ready to go to the Nuremburg Toy

Fair, and I am looking forward to it, but you know

how things have been going these last couple

of pandemic stricken years. If someone decides

that we should stand around for six days wearing

respirators and getting tested daily, than Nuremburg is out as well.

Contests

Although we ourselves are not attending any

shows, contests are continuing. As an example,

the Facebook group Eduard Model Builders, with

some 13,400 members, put on the second virtual

contest which ended in the second half of October.

Group builds was organized by Shane Doak, and

just as there was with the first show, there was

a lot of interest generated with a record number

of likes and shares. It is our honor to provide the

awards to the winners and we congratulate them

one more time. We will gradually add photographs of the winning entries on our Facebook page

and if you don’t want to wait, you can go straight

to the Eduard Model Builders Group profile.

In Russia’s St. Petersburg, they are putting on

the equivalent of our Iron Bunny event, in which

groups compete in the assembly of a kit in 24

hours. This year in St. Petersburg, they built the

MiG-21 during the Express Model 2021, as the

contest is called, and you can view the results at

Modelforum web. Even here, we were happy to

support the event. Iron Bunny was not realized

this year on its home turf not because of covid,

but more due to the reconstructive efforts of the

venue that are in progress. Here’s hoping for

a great show next year. There will be a lot of great

options of what to build, and I don’t know yet if it

will be the Zero, the Wildcat or the S-199. In any

case, if it goes ahead next year, you can bet it’ll be

a big match!

Historical and Other Articles

In this month’s newsletter, we have an article

“Me and the Trener” which was penned by Martin Hruška, an airline pilot, and Captain of Boeing

737. It starts the series about people tied with the

Trener aircraft somehow. There are also two articles by Michal Krechowsky that are concerned

with Spitfire Story: The Sweeps kit, Operation

Starkey and Operation Rutter. There, you can find

out something about the first “striped” Spitfires,

and not just about Spitfires. Maybe you can even

straighten an old favorite, but erroneous historical fact. Tomáš Dvořák makes a return to the

Hind subject with an outline of the differences

between the Mi-24D and Mi-24V with a technical

article describing what makes the Hind D a real

D. And that’s all from me for now.

Niitakajama nobore!

Vladimir Sulc

eduard

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