Good Day, Dear Friends

We find ourselves in the same situation with November’s new releases as we did with the October ones, in that they also have been available for purchase a couple of weeks ahead of the newsletter announcement, meaning that they will already be known to a large percentage of readers and perhaps even in their possession. Some modellers may be putting them together, and some of the items may even be built already. With the Bf 109 G-2 or G-4 in 72nd scale, this is not a difficult concept to grasp. From my own experience, I can confirm that this little thing comes together on its own, presents no pitfalls, nor does it hide any nasty surprises. Not that I'm one of those who can say they built this kit. I did slap it together, but didn't paint it, and I wouldn't even bother with weathering for what I needed to do with it. But the gluing of the kit, kind of halfway to building the model, is something I practice quite regularly, because it doesn't hurt when the head of the company knows what he's actually selling. And I'll also openly admit that I do the same with competitor’s kits, because knowing what the competition actually creates and puts out there is also good to know.

Kits

Wunderschöne neue Maschinen Pt.2 is the name of the 72nd scale Limited Edition kit, covering an important developmental period of the Messerschmitt Bf 109, namely the first Bf 109 Gs. The Bf 109 designation changed from F to G after a new Bf 109 F-4 airframe had a DB 605A engine installed. You can read about it, if you should so wish, in my article on the subject in this issue of the newsletter, and if, after reading it , you are left with the impression that although the kit presents none of the aforementioned nastiness in construction, the original builders and designers seem to have laid plenty of traps for future researchers, then good, because that is what a part of the intent of the text was. The fact is that the two basic types, the G-2 and G-4, do not have clearly defined technical characteristics. Apart from a few minor details, the problem is that the G-4 got new, larger wheels, and with them, fairings on the upper wing over the wheel wells, and a non-retractable, larger, tailwheel. This sounds obvious, but in reality some of the older G-4s, and there were not just a few of them, still had the old smaller wheels and had no fairings on the wing. To make matters worse, older G-2s received bulged wings and new larger wheels during overhauls. This created a nice mess in the genome of the G-2 and G-4 types, including the G-1 and G-3, which were machines with a pressurized cockpit, from which there is practically no way out without knowing the serial number of the aircraft of interest. Fortunately, the serial number can be found for a large number of Bf 109 Gs, God bless German precision. That carried with it its own price too, but we'll get to that in a few months. In January to be exact, when we start looking at the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6. It will be a blast, literally on all fronts, and you can certainly look forward to it!

In the kit, we simplified the problem of differentiating between these complex issues between the Bf 109 G-2 and G-4 by strictly following the rule, when deciding on markings options, that for the G-2 we only chose aircraft without the upper wing wheel well fairings, and for G-4 only those with them. But as nobody’s perfect, we made one small mistake in depicting the Finnish Bf 109 G-2 coded MT-213 with the fairings in the color scheme, but there is no need to think too much about it. In fact, she flew without them, apparently even after general overhaul. This also eliminates a lot of thinking about the combination of different parts, there is enough in this kit to build one G-2 and one G-4. There are 14 marking options available, seven for each version. If you would like to build more than two models, Overtrees are available, even in a discounted Bundle offer.

The following information has a lot in common with what I wrote above, and it's not just that it's also a German subject. In the ProfiPACK 1:48th scale line, we present the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-7. Perhaps unbelievably, this is a type that we have never released before in the new tooled Fw 190 A line. At the same time, it is not such a peripheral type, with some 700 units having been produced, which is comparable to, for example, the A4, of which 970 were built. The truth is that the A-7 was, like the A-6 and also like the Bf 109 G-2 and G-4, a transitional type, a precursor to the mass-produced Fw 190A-8. And what it also has in common with the small Bf 109 G-2/G-4 is the design of the kit. They both look the way we imagine a plastic kit should look, they are exactly the kind of products we want to produce and sell.

Other kits released in November also fit into the concept described above. Both 48th scale Weekend kits have a balanced composition of colour options. The F6F-3 Hellcat has the usual four markings, three American, two of which are iconic, by which I mean Alexander Vraciu's White 32 and the sharkmouthed Hellcat of VF-27 from the aircraft carrier USS Princeton from October 1944. Also included is the British Hellcat Mk.I, and that is included because, for one, it further diversifies the markings offered in the kit, and two, we will almost certainly not release British Hellcats as a separate item.

Similarly, we have the Tempest Mk.V Series 1, which is somewhat out of line with the six marking option formula set out for the Weekend edition kits. This is because the famous Tempest of No.150 Wing RAF Commander Roland Beamont is depicted in three stages of development in its markings, from the period before the Invasion, through the markings from the beginning of it, specifically from June 8th, 1944, to the period between June and July, 1944. Overall, all markings cover a longer period of time from April, 1944 to January, 1945.

With respect to reissues, we present two vintage releases, the 72nd scale Fokker Dr.I, which as a type still holds the top spot as our best-selling 72nd scale model, and the 1:48th Bf 109 G-6/AS. This one is also selling well, and to be honest, it's one of my (forgiven) mistakes and miscalculations. I once considered these versions of the Messerschmitt 109s with DB 605AS engines to be marginal and commercially uninteresting types. Fortunately, reality later proved me wrong. For Fokker Dr.I we have modified the cover box art according to the latest research, details and reasons for this can be found in the Box Art Story by Richard Plos.

And we're not done with kits yet. With the second edition, the recently sold out Wilder Cat is back on sale, the 48th scale licensed FM-2 Wildcat version, and from the beginning of November, the 48th scale Profi;PACK MiG-21PFM will be on sale as well. There are only 310 of these left in stock. And while I'm on the subject of licensed Wildcats, I'd like to remind you that we're releasing the FM-1 in December. We already have the box art, which in my opinion is one of our most beautiful box arts to date.

MASKS, PHOTOETCHED, SPACE and LOOKs 

From the masks, I would like to draw your attention to two sets covering F-35A RAM panel masking for Tamiya's 1:72nd scale F-35A kit. We have both classic single and double-sided canopy masks for the Sea King in 1:48th scale from Airfix. For the F-14B in the same scale from GWH, there is only a double-sided mask (TF) being made available and only for the windscreen, which is dictated by the design of this feature for this model, where the canopy frame and the glass are molded separately. In 1:32nd scale, canopy masks for the MC-202 from Italeri and the TBD-1 Devastador from Trumpeter are available. We also offer photoetch sets for these kits, with the Sea King sets total three for three different versions of this famous helicopter. The Space and Look sets have a similar setup, and in the Space line we have added three sets for the three versions of Airfix’s 48th scale Hunters.

EDDIE THE RIVETER

I also have to mention three sets of generic 3D decals with triple rows of rivets, in 1:32, 1:48 and 1:72 scale, for November. We've already launched decal sets with single and double rows of rivets, which are followed up by November's positive rivet sets.

BRASSIN

We are adding to the Brassin line with cockpit and bronze landing gear sets for the 48th scale Bf 109K-4 of our making. Also on offer are some 72nd scale Bf 109 G-2/G-4 mini kits for the Wunderschöne neue Maschinen Pt.2 kit, as well as four new 72nd F-35A sets for the Tamiya kit. Between them are two larger sets, the exhaust and cockpit, and two smaller ones, the seat and wheels. The fact that we issue the seat as a separate set does not mean that the cockpit does not have a seat, of course, as it is also part of the cockpit. The 48th scale seat for the A-1J Skyraider (Tamiya) with integrated seatbelts is interesting. This is a kind of test, we are investigating what interest there would be in seats with integrated printed belts. For the Su-25K in 1:48 scale, we have the UB-32 rocket pod set, suitable for both the original Zvezda kit and our limited edition ‘Hrabe’ (Rake), and for the same kit is the BIGSIN Su-25K Armament set, containing four sets of missiles, bombs and launchers (OFAB-250 bombs, B-8M1 and UB-32 rocket pods, R-60 air-to-air dogfighting missiles and S-24 air-to-ground rockets). In this case, they are mostly cast items. In November's range you'll find a number of other smaller sets, as well as sets from the BIGED, BIGSIN and LööKplus ranges. Further information on these is presented below.

Articles

Mira Barič's series on the air war over Ukraine continues in today's newsletter. It is slowly but surely moving over Russia, and I believe that the time is approaching when the war will end with the expulsion of the Russian army from all of Ukraine. However, Ukraine is currently overshadowed by the events in the Middle East, which began on October 7th with an attack on Israel by Palestinian terrorists from their Hamas leadership. It is perhaps not so surprising that the scale of these crimes committed against civilians, women and children, comparable to the atrocities committed by the SS  during the Second World War, shows the inability of many Western politicians, organizations and even state institutions to call a murder a murder, call terror terror and a criminal, a criminal. How long throughout history have we known that dismissing and shrugging off evil only brings more evil?  We have seen so many times that evil comes out of its hiding places at similar moments to do its incredibly repulsive deeds to fulfill its warped agendas. I would still understand that members of the Arab communities in Western Europe are demonstrating for Palestine, but that the BBC would not dare to call a terrorist a terrorist, I would never have thought that in my wildest dreams. Winston Churchill must be rolling in his grave!

The development of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 is covered in the article ‘Wunderschöne neue Maschinen – Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 & G-4‘. It has already been mentioned here and it is quite clear what it is about. Also today we have an article by Ed Mautner, a story of his father's wartime fortunes. The history of the Aero L-39 is covered in an article by Tomas Dedera, and we have a modelling article about working with photoetched brass by Jakub Nademlejnský. We have four box art stories, dedicated to the cover images of the Fw 190A-7, Tempest Mk.V Series 1, F6F-3 Hellcat and Fokker Dr. I kits.

And with that, I wish you a good read with our newsletter, and we hope to see you at Telford!

Happy Modelling!

Vladimír Šulc