EDITORIAL

Here we are, in the homestretch

for the year. Today introduces new

items that Friday will hit the market, and this will be for the final

time this year. But, fear not, since

January will see the process renew.

Next year will be worth the wait!

The best should always be saved

for last, or Christmas, and that is

why our Royal Class boxing of the

P-51D in 1:48th scale is coming out

now. That’s not to say that previous

months have not been good to successful releases, and several new

releases in recent months have sold

out very quickly. The first Mustang,

Chattanooga Choo Choo, was even

released in three editions, the first

edition of Jabo disappeared very

quickly, sold out are both E-day

Limited Edition kits, the Fokker D.

VII MAG and the MiG-23BN, and

the sales pace of the new Bf 109G6/AS is very brisk. Of all of the

mentioned kits, that last one may

well be the biggest surprise to me.

On the one hand, releases of the

later versions of the Bf 109 were

influenced by modellers with special interests, and that is not always

a guarantee of commercial success. Truth be told, it actually tends to

go the other way. But, on the other

hand, it turns out that not everyone knows just what the Bf 109G-6/

AS was. Questions regarding the differences between it and the classic Bf 109G-6 or G-10 are plentiful,

but even so, supplies are beginning

to scrape the bottom of the barrel

and that genuinely pleases me.

But let’s get back to the new releases for December for a moment.

As is already known, these were

available last Saturday in Bratislava

during the ‘Plastic Winter’ show,

and are currently available as part

of the ‘Afterparty’ and Black Friday events. It should be said that

the Royal Class P-51D kit gave us

a bit of a ‘what for’. The markings

options selection alone was a complicated process. After extended

discussions back and forth, it was

finally decided to only focus on

the fighter variants, and to leave out the photo reconnaissance

F-6Ds. That will be a stand-alo4

eduard

ne ProfiPACK kit at the end of the

year coming. As a result, the Royal

Class kit has held on to the fighter

versions of the P-51D from various

production blocks, the P-51K and

the British Mustang Mk.IV. The kit

also includes long range tanks that

were used in the Pacific, and these

are included as a separate sprue,

not as resin parts! The marking options for the European based Mustangs is spread amongst various

Air Armies of the USAAF, and the

Western and Italian Fronts are represented. There are two marking

options for the British Mk.IV. The

kit follows the Dual Combo concept, and includes the sprue with

the non-filleted P-51D-5. Masks,

two groups of photoetched frets

(one for the D-5 and one for the

later variants) and Brassin details

in the form of covered and uncovered exhausts and two wheel sets

are included. And things are not

all that simple with the latter. We

are offering four different wheels

in the Brassin line for the Mustang,

varying in the tread patterns. Two

of these are being placed in each

Royal Class kit by chance and with

coincidental combinations. You

can certainly trade amongst yourselves, but please, friends, don’t

write us about exchanges! Exchanging wheel sets would just not be

a good, or possible, time investment.

The Royal Class Mustang is set to

be another quickly sold-out item.

After the New Year, we will continue on with the P-51 in the ProfiPACK line, with the Series 10 and

higher in March. As opposed to the

earlier releases of the kit, where

we generally strove to include stri-

king marking options regardless

of weather or not the pilot was

particularly famous or successful,

this ProfiPACK kit is being approached differently. The options provided will cover the biggest aces of

the European theatre. L. Carson,

P. McKennon, J.C. Meyer, J. Landers, G.T. Eagleston, J. Voll....each

name a legend. This is to let you

know that, should you miss out on

the Royal Class kit, you will still have

plenty of opportunity in different

forms to acquire a solid P-51D kit.

For those of you that like to focus

on the PTO, there will be a special

Pacific boxing of the kit in August.

British specific Mustangs are being

planned for 2021.

Another kit of an aircraft flown by

many aces with stories to tell will

likely dwell in the shadow of the

Mustang, that being the Nieuport

17. It is being once again released

as a ProfiPACK kit in 1:48th. Even

here, the list of names is very impressive – Guynemer, Nungesser,

Tarascon, Lufbery, Rufo di Calabria.

As with the Mustang....show me

a name and I’ll show you a legend

with a helluva story to tell. It is true

that this is now an older kit, and we

have not heard the last of this type

developed using older technology.

It is still a good piece of work and

shows the quality of a good ol’

handmade craftsmanship. This kit

will also be attractive by virtue of

the effectiveness of its boxart. I will

admit that, on hearing of the concept of showing a downed aircraft,

I was sceptical, but after familiarising myself with the story, I gave the

go-ahead. It’s good to experiment.

I will just add that the boxart depicts the emergency landing of

INFO Eduard - December 2019