EDITORIAL

Dear Friends, Modellers, Gluers, Collectors,

here we are at the final newsletter of this year

and the accompanying final list of new releases. Some of these will be familiar to some

of you. They were available in Bratislava and

also on our e-shop for this year’s Black Friday

sale and during the Afterparty event in connection with said Bratislava show. For change,

I think we’ll have a look at these items first.

They are the obligatory topics, promises, forecasts and similar items usually reserved for

the end of the introduction to the newsletter.

Last year at this time we were promising

another 1/32nd scale item. This won’t happen.

It is being postponed indefinitely. We’ve been

asking about the L-29 Delfin from AMK for

some time, and so we didn’t hesitate to jump

on the opportunity to add it to December’s releases, although we had no plans to do so in

the foreseeable future and its inclusion now

is somewhat of an improvisation. The addition of the Delfin to the catalog differs from

the usual outsourced models in that it is being

released as a ProfiPACK kit. I won’t go into too

much detail regarding the markings options,

but we did try and pick the more interesting

ones available and at the same time avoiding

those that were already being offered elsewhere. Contrary to the AMK original, our kit

is configured for retracted landing flaps. The

necessary photoetching for the extended flaps

can be found on a separately available photoetched sheet. There will also be some three

hundred kits available for Overtrees boxings

and I would add that with the insertion of this

kit into the ProfiPACK line and thanks to the

option of sourcing more, we are anticipating a

release in the WEEKEND line and as a Limited

issue, too. We are also in talks with an author

for a publication for this kit, and hopefully it

won’t be too thick. There is another bit of interesting news surrounding the L-29 kit. We

are in talks with our colleague Mr. Bobek,

who owns the firm HGW, over the possibility

of releasing his own decals on the basis of ours.

These would be Wet Transfer type decals and

if I understand correctly, these decals have no

clear transfer decal film on the final product.

These will be sold, and already are, in fact,

within HGW’s own product line but will also

be available for BFC members via our e-shop.

A similar agreement has been made for decals

for our Fw 190A Royal Class kit, which brings

us to another hit among the December releases. This is a rich kit of the Fw 190A-2, A-3

and A-4 in terms of marking options offered.

These are a mix of the so-called short-nosed

versions which differed from later versions

(beginning with the A-5) in having a shorter

engine mount and consequently in overall

length. There are also detail differences in

things like the control surfaces, but there is no

need to go into them here. The development

of the aircraft during the war years was strewn

with a lot of innovative approaches to certain

issues that needed to be solved. This makes

the Fw 190, as it does a whole list of other ma4

eduard

jor aircraft, a very colourful affair that is reflected, I hope, in the issue of this kit. When I take

a close look, I count four distinct variations on

the aircraft, most of which are being offered

here for the first time, at least as a mainstream kit. This makes this Royal Class boxing

of the kit a premiere from several different perspectives; the initial A-2, the two-cannon A-3,

the A-4 Trop, and I am not even certain as to

what other manufacturers are offering under

the A-4 label, which we are offering with the

cooling slots or the variable engine gills. There are fourteen marking options, each more

interesting than the last and there are two

full kits in the package and the combination

of versions is naturally not arbitrary. The possible undue stress that this may cause will be

offset by the availability of the Overtrees sets,

of which there will be seven types on offer for

various types and their related configurations.

And so, to pick and choose will be no simple

matter, in many cases. But, it will be entertaining and fun! My personal favourite is the

A-3 from JG 5 with the drop tank and there

is even some speculation that it could’ve carried a yellow and black fuselage band ahead

of the tail surfaces. Of course, some will have

their own opinion to that matter. For those

that the favourite will be the A-4 with tropical

filters I will point out that the filters are cast in

resin integral with the engine cover and mounting this on the model isn’t completely easy.

The inclusion of the usual accessories and

bonus items are described further in the text

on the package itself. I will, however, mention

the poster of the artwork by Mr. Forkasiewicz

because I really do like it. If anyone feels that

the art is too computerized in appearance,

or looks overly naturalistic, OK. I can respect

that. And you should feel free to send it back

to me! There is also a beer glass, from which

you may deduce that our little beer game will

be connected to this Royal Class kit as well, the

rules of which you will be able to refresh later

in this newsletter.

I would also point out that most of the

subvariants that are included in this kit, will

in time be released as ProfiPACK and Weekend

kits and quite a few Limited Edition kits are in

the works as well. And I think that is about

it for now on the Royal Class kit this month.

There are two other kits for the month

who’s fate might be to stand in the shadows of

the above two noted kits. They are both quite

well known, and in the ProfiPACK line it is the

1/72nd scale Fokker E.III and in the ProfiPACK

range, the Bf 109E-3, which remains basically

unchanged from its original release.

The Brassin range naturally focuses on our

own Fw 190 kits. This is first and foremost

represented by the cockpit set for the A-3,

bronze landing gear struts including wheel

well covers for the A-2, pitot tubes for early

versions and control surfaces, likewise for the

early versions. There is the expanded BigSin

for the A-4, and similar sets for the other versi-

ons will follow. The radio compartment for the

Bf 109F and the BigSin for the same type

should also be of interest to many. Other

sets get a little more detailed, such as the

two types of gunsights for the Spitfire Mk.IX

in 1/32 (for the Revell kit), the wheels for the

L-29 Delfin and the UBT gun set for the recently released Pe-2. Interesting are the 12.7mm

ammunition belts. Already released ammunition belts have received favourable reviews

which is, of course, a motivating factor for the

production of further such sets.

There are several interesting items among

the photoetched and mask sets. Of course,

this includes the accessory set for the L-29,

and that may be considered a given, but the

1/48 sale sets for the Tamiya Beaufighter might be a pleasant surprise. This will raise some

eyebrows if only because that Tamiya kit is

not a new item anymore. However, it can still

be considered a good kit, and I am quite curious to see the new sets for this kit done with

our new technology. We have two collections

of photoetched brass sets in 1/32nd scale, for

the HKM Mosquito B Mk.IX and for the I-16

Type 24 from ICM. In 1/72nd scale, we have

some items for the new Fortress Mk.III from

Airfix, which reflect the differences from the

B-17G, the P-40N from Special Hobby and the

very nice Zvezda Yak-130.

In 1/35th, we have the T-54 from MiniArt

covered, as well as the M752 Tactical Ballistic

Missile launcher form Dragon. Also, we have

Soviet military flags that are colour printed on

both sides. We have two sets for the German

aircraft carrier ‘Graf Zeppelin‘ and the fact

that it never was completed certainly doesn’t

mean that it can’t be built as a model, does it?

And to round off my little introduction to points of interest and news in today‘s newsletter,

I will mention the four new BigEDs, among

which you’ll find one for the somewhat delayed but now available Walrus from Airfix.

And I don’t want to forget the masks for the

anti-glare panels on the B-17G in 1/48, which

is the good ol‘ Monogram kit.

In November, our BFC celebrated its fifth

anniversary. Besides a slew of congratulations, we received a lot of suggestions as to

how to liven up the place a bit, including types

INFO Eduard - December 2017