ce line. These are interesting concepts that form

the basis of another line of useful products. They

look very authentic and are likely the best fabric

representations yet developed for the modeling

industry. At the same time, there are existing

RBF sets that have proven to be extremely good

sellers, and the basic red RBF set in the painted

photoetched line is the holder of the undisputed

championship of accessory sellers of all time.

The bronze legs are among favorites of the accessory sets as well. The December list contains

not only legs for the Zero, but also for the F-4B

Phantom II from Tamiya. This set is, to be honest, not a cheap item, but precious gems tend

not to be, and these sets are gems. You may not

be aware of this, but we don’t manufacture the

bronze legs ourselves. They are the work of a

successful jewelry manufacturer, and consistent with their design, they are manufactured

with fully up-to-date jewel making technologies.

In the 48th scale F-4B items being released today, you will also find a set of fin caps. The set

contains three variations of the caps used on several versions of the F-4. It’s a small but useful

little item for all who want to make model of this

type as accurate as possible.

Another interesting Brassin item is the cockpit

for the Mi-24D. It is designed to fit the Zvezda kit,

but may well be better suited for improving our

Limited Edition Hind D. For the Zvezda kit, it is

necessary to use a conversion set to create a

proper Mi-24D from this thing, a set which has

not yet been released. But we will release it in

the New Year, as a lone item and with the cockpit

as well. The remainder of December’s releases

are shown in this newsletter, and I am leaving

them to Your self-study. I have yet to describe

new items for next year, and I don’t want to tire

you all out with long descriptions of this month’s

individual releases.

New Releases for 2022

We live in interesting times, unfortunately for

many wrong reasons. We have rampant inflation, a world-wide epidemic, the collapse of many

energy companies and a list of other nasty things

that are beginning to accumulate on us. I can’t do

much about that, but in the lines that follow, I will

inject some good news into your day. Or try to.

Today, I will focus on new kits that are being

planned for the first half of 2022. In next month’s

newsletter, I will cover the latter half of the year

regarding kits, as well as expected development

of accessory lines. I must point out though, just

as has happened in the past, these things are not

written in stone, and things can change. We have

never been able to end up with having released

everything at the end of a given year exactly as

it was planned at its beginning. There is no reason to think that this will change this year. On the

INFO Eduard - December 2021

contrary, I am expecting a lot of issues to crop up

over the course of the year that will impact what

is being planned for the second half of it.

Zeros Everywhere You Look

I was thinking about how to introduce new kits.

There are many of them, and typically there are

five new things being released per month, plus

another re-edition or two that rejuvenates a

sold-out item. I decided to start off with the stars

of the list, on the basis of which new accessory

items are also being developed. We’ll begin with

the newest one, the Zero.

Already in January, we will be releasing the

A6M2 Type 21 ProfiPack kit. It will be the same

version as the one included in Tora Tora Tora!

but the kit will be conceptualized a little differently. The ProfiPack kit will include parts for

one model only, along with one set of photoetched parts and masks and marking options for

five birds. All of the aircraft that are offered in

the marking options have extremely interesting

histories spanning from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, New Guinea and Indonesia, all the way to

using the worn-out Type 21s for the Kamikaze

mission. The main hero of this kit is the famous

Saburo Sakai, a member of the no-less famous

Tainan Kokutai, one of the most famous Zero pilots of them all. The boxart depicts a well-known

fight between him and James ”Pug” Southerland

and is an event that was described by both pilots in detail. At the time, Southerland was with

VF-5, flying off the USS Saratoga, and the event

took place on August 7, 1942, over Guadalcanal.

It wasn’t combat that only included these two pilots by any stretch but included other Zeros and

Saratoga Wildcats. You will be informed further

on this in upcoming historical articles and marking descriptions.

The release of a ProfiPack kit in the month following the Limited Edition one has its reasons.

This is the same procedure as with the Z-226

Trener. The main reason is to offer as soon as

possible an alternative for those, that for one

reason or another, don’t want the Limited Edition kit. It doesn’t matter if it’s because they don’t

want two kits that the Limited Edition offers, or

if the price point is too high, or, as in the case of

Tora Tora Tora! the kit simply encompasses too

narrow theme spectrum.

And this Limited Edition kit really encompass too

narrow theme spectrum, let’s not kid ourselves.

But at the same time, it’s a major theme. Hollywood’s already turned out two blockbuster movies about it, and if Quentin Tarantino buys this

kit, we can likely expect a third. So, why not to

release another Limited Edition kit of Type 21?

It’s even necessary, as it will show this Zero in

all its beauty and will describe its combat career

in awesome detail spanning the years from 1941

to 1945. It will be a similar story with the ProfiPack kit, but with a slightly wider focus and with

a greater variation of marking options. This has

not yet been finalized, and we don’t know yet if

there will be 12 or 14 options included, but the

variability in the markings and locations of their

use will be spectacular. Everyone who is interested in not only aircraft markings, but the stories behind the aircraft and those who flew them,

are in for a treat.

Spitfires

Spitfires will continue with the first Weekend kits

of the Mk.Ia. In February, we’ll see another Spitfire Story release dubbed ”Southern Star”, dedicated to the tropicalized Mk.Vb and Mk.Vc. This will

be a surprisingly colorful affair, at least when it

comes to Spitfires. We really will venture pretty

far southernly with this one, through Italy, northern Africa, through Burma and into Australia.

In the second quarter, we will have the ProfiPack

Spitfire Mk.Vc. This will offer further possibilities

that we plan to take full advantage of.

Of course, we don’t have just new Mk.Is and

Mk.Vs, but also the good ol’ Mk.VIIIs and IXs. The

first quarter will see the return of the 1:72nd scale Mk.IX in the form of Weekend kit, the Spitfire F

Mk.IX, also known as the Spitfire Mk.IX Early. We

expect to release the 1:72nd scale Weekend Spitfire Mk.VIII before the end of the first half of the

year, while in 1:48th scale we’ll see a return of

the Spitfire HF Mk.VIII as a ProfiPack re-edition.

Mustang

It’s the way things go… There are those that think

Eduard keeps on churning out the same old Messerschmitts and Mustangs, and the other half

wants another one of each. We like releasing

kits of both types. We like ‘em, and we enjoy making ‘em. We believe that they not only bring joy

to us, but to many modelers as well. Given the

fact that the Weekend kit of the P-51D-5 has already twice sold out since its introduction back

in January of this year and the ProfiPack kit is

also sold out, we figure that we are on the right

path. Both D-5s will see a re-edition in the first

quarter, and the ProfiPack will see the same in

the second quarter.

The things that are getting ready for release are

a joy. In the ProfiPack line, this will be the post-war F-51D. We are also planning a Red Tails

Limited Edition boxing. The kit is being planned

for May. Whether this kit includes 332nd FG Mustangs exclusively or other USAAF Fighter Groups

in Italy remains to be seen. An overall analysis of

it will made in early 2022.

Trener and the Camel

In the same fashion, the Trener family of kits will

also grow next year. In January, there will be a

Limited Edition release dedicated to the Z-126.

Compared to the Z-226, it will offer more historical markings. The ProfiPack kit of the Z-126 will

follow in the second quarter. To keep this family

from becoming a little on the monotonous side,

there will be a single seat aerobatic version, the

Z-526AFS appearing, first as a ProfiPack kit. In

the first half of the year, the first Weekends will

appear, the Z-226MS and the Z-526AFS. We are

getting to the Weekend kits of the Trener rather

quickly because, among other things, there is a

large amount of interest in them from within various aeroclub members, of which the majority

are not even modelers. I expect the Weekend

rendition of the kit will be most suited to them.

The Camel will appear in the first half of the year

two times, both times as a ProfiPack kit. The first

will be a Camel powered by the Clerget 9b engine and the second will be a night fighter Camel

Comic.

eduard

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