EDITORIAL

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

4

INFO Eduard

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.

November 2023