EDITORIAL

Ladies and Gentlemen

Today, we’ll get right down to the heart of the

matter, as we are approaching the end of the

year, and that requires a description of plans for

the next twelve months. With respect to the fact

that there will be a truckload of new items next

year, I will begin with December, because otherwise, January’s newsletter would want to compete with War and Peace. That could get a little

long in the tooth. Besides new items, we can also

touch on the planned changes and modifications to our work for next year. Such notifications

should be made carefully, though, but with Santa

just around the corner, we can be a little more

charitable with our news. At least, this can be

applied to what we know for sure, and to what

we anticipate. There’s a lot that even we don’t

yet know. Just take a look at this year. Last year

at this time, it didn’t look like much was going

to change this year. If it weren’t for the Spitfires and Cmelak (Bumble Bee) kits, it would be

generally boredom followed by boredom, with

sporadic injections of more boredom! Compare

that to the reality of the situation. Everything is

different. The vast majority of last year’s plans

have been altered, and our plans for the year

have been rerouted to an extent that would have

made the 15th Congress of the old Communist

Party proud. And that’s not meant as a bad thing.

We rather enjoy it. It keeps the flavor in what we

do. So, we will raise the level of our innovative

might even further, as they would have said at

that 15th Congress. Let the wheels of the economy turn, and let the modellers be happy!

NEW ITEMS FOR DECEMBER, 2020

So, today, we will begin with the new items coming out in December, and we will keep this very

short. First, the accessory items. In the Brassin

line, of note is the resin cockpit for the November release of the F-6D Mustang in 1:48th scale.

At this point, I would like to extend my thanks

and appreciation to the modellers that reacted

to my request for information regarding the installation of the cameras in the F-6D. My sincere

gratitude goes out to Ron Young and Christian

Alam, who’s kindness has given us all the required documentation and we are now feverishly working on the set of cameras for this kit.

Other than that, the collection of new Brassins

is pretty conventional, in combination with the

LooK and LooKplus sets, armament sets, and

smaller accessory sets, that include the likes of

the wheels for Airfix’s 1:72nd scale Beaufort or

the Cmelak for our kit in the same scale. The list

of new offerings includes the first of the BigSins

for the Spitfire Mk.I. Among the photoetching,

I would point out the sets for the Fiat CR.42 from

ICM in 1:32nd scale and the Mirage 2000D and

N from Kittyhawk, and the steel belts for the Fokker Dr.I, all in 1:32nd as well. In 1:72nd scale,

we have a collection of sets for the new Beaufort and Hawk Mk.100 from Airfix. Noteworthy

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too, is the ZOOM set for the Eduard MiG-21PF

Weekend kit. In 48th scale, we are releasing sets

for the S-2E Tracker from Kinetic and the HH-34J

from Trumpeter. The sets for the 35th scale Leopard 1A5 (Hobby Boss) and the Jagdtiger (Takom)

should generate much interest, too. For the ship

people out there, we have a railing set for the

Viribus Unitis (1:350th, Trumpeter). We have five

new Big Eds lined up for December, and four new

decal sets that, outside of the Mi-24V ‘Around

The World ‘ cover stencil data.

Each month, the height of our production is

represented by model kits, but this month there are only two to brag about. But, they are nice

little items. As they did in October, these two

centre around the Spitfire and the Cmelak (Bumble Bee). The 1:72nd scale Bumble Bee was the

‘star of the show’ back in October, as the Limited Edition kit SERVUS CHLAPCI!. After several

weeks, this kit, rather surprisingly, outsold the

48th scale Spitfire Mk.Ia ProfiPACK kit. Things

seem to have returned back to normal, and retailers are ordering the Spitfire at a rate of about

two-and-a-half times the Cmelak. Which is fine

– that’s how it should be.

The two kits have reversed their labels. The

Cmelak is this month a ProfiPACK release and the

Spitfire is a Limited Edition kit. The Z-37A Cmelak,

ProfiPACK 1:72nd, this time includes six marking

options, and as opposed to the Czech-Slovak

Limited Edition kit, is markedly an international

affair, offering markings for Czech, Slovak, Indian,

Hungarian, Russian and East German aircraft.

Outside of that, it’s a regular ProfiPACK kit, with

pre-painted photoetched, masks, and so on.

No big surprises. But there is one thing in the

Cmelak kit that is special. In January, we will be

introducing a new line of accessory items called

Eduard SPACE. In time, there will be much talk

about this line. The introduction will take place

in the form of the addition of a SPACE set for the

Z-37A Cmelak to every kit of the type ordered,

Limited Edition or ProfiPACK. This will allow you

to judge the new line for yourself and to try it

out. I hope that those that go this route will find

the new item to their liking. But I will reiterate

that this offer applies only to orders made in

December.

of Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.II development. It’s quite

comprehensive, and is based around illustrations

and notes, and I think presents the point it makes

clearly and concisely. It is a simplified version of

the similar article that chronicled the differences

in all the subvariants of the later Bf 109Gs. The

second article was penned by Jiri Rajlich. It is

dedicated to the establishment of No.313 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, RAF. This unit flew the Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.II at its inception. The article is

a translation of a chapter from the book ‘General

Fajtl’, and so the text centres around this individual. This is relevant to the theme, and one of

the marking options in Tally Ho! is Spitfire Mk.IIa

coded RY-O, flown by Frantisek Fajtl. This is the

first part of a two-part article. The first, describing the service of No.313 Squadron on the Spitfire Mk.I, is in today’s newsletter, and the second,

detailing the use of the unit of the Spitfire Mk.II,

will be published in January.

At this point, I’d like to ‘fess up to three errors

I made in past articles I had written regarding the

evolution of Spitfire Mk.I camouflage schemes.

God, it’s high school all over again! I got a ‘D-’!

Fortunately, these types of things are more easily

fixed in a digital world than they are on paper. As

a result, thanks to the input of some colleagues,

the article has been corrected. And please, don’t

take this as an attempt to increase the number

of visits to our site. It is simply, and nothing more

than, a correction of an honest mistake. Scout’s

honor!

In the Limited Edition line, December sees the

continuation of the next chapter in the Spitfire

Story, this time with the subheading of ‘Tally Ho!’

It is dedicated to the Spitfire Mk.II and comes to

us as a Dual Combo kit with two complete kits

in the package. One kit makes the Spitfire Mk.IIa

with eight 7.7mm machine guns in the wings and

the other covers the Spitfire Mk.IIb, with two

20mm cannon and four 7.7mm machine guns.

There are ten marking options, eight for the

Mk.IIa and two for the Mk.IIb. There are also two

articles dedicated to the Spitfire Mk.I and Mk.II

in today’s newsletter. The first is technical, and

is dubbed ‘The Rise of the Spitfire’. It chronicles

the evolution and differences in the various steps

INFO Eduard - DECEMBER 2020