retail department, packaging of kits and machining and molding, which would entail complete kit manufacture. Unfortunately, we encountered escalating problems with the build

proper, leading to the cessation of the project.

A new solution was found last year in the fall,

when we found a facility of suitable size for

our needs. Its purchase was delayed by typical

Czech bureaucracy, but the deal was finalized

in September. We expect the first renovation

to be completed at the end of January, and we

will move the retail and packing sections into

it at the beginning of February. This on its own

will bring a shortfall in the expediting of mail,

and it will likely last through a good chunk of

the first half of the month. The exact timeline

will be outlined in the January newsletter.

The second phase of the reconstruction will

be more complicated, because it will involve

the setting up of space for the installation of

the presses and tooling shop. This is technically more complicated and the project is in

preparation, and the optimist in me is hoping

for completion by the end of next year. After

this is completed and kit manufacturing is moved, its current space will free up and at the

very least, a good chunk of this space will be

occupied by the Brassin department. And then

there will be nothing stopping it from evolving

further.

New Prices

As long as we’re on the subject of changes,

we are entering the new year with a new price structure. This is a significant change and

a sensitive topic which we have been putting

off to the end of the year. Prices will increase

in intervals of 11 to 15% depending on the price

group. Price increases will impact retail and

wholesale costs in Czech Crowns and Euros,

but won’t affect US retail prices. They will take

effect during the shutdown of the retail department before Christmas, which this year

will be December 19th when we will be accepting the last of our orders which will have

dispatched guaranties by before the holidays.

As with every year, this will be followed by our

taking inventory, and this is when the new pricing will be implemented. So, your last chance

to buy at current prices will be December 19th.

Retail will reopen, with the new prices, probably the first week of January, 2023, and in all

likelihood, this will be on the 3rd or 4th of the

month.

Nuremberg, 2023

It is necessary to now say something about

our participation at the Nuremberg Toy Fair

for 2023. As you all know, I have always maintained the importance of our participation with

this event. Our regular attendance has been

consistent with this notion. Unfortunately, the

need to cancel the last two years due to covid

restrictions was less than pleasant. Participation of firms in the upcoming event will be low,

and what’s worse, many of our retail partners

and journalists won’t be there, either. For this

reason, we decided to tone down our own participation at the event. We are not cancelling

it outright, but we will reduce our floor space

and share it with our colleagues at Special Hobby. We are also cancelling our regular press

December 2022

conference. I am hopeful that this is all just

temporary and the fair will return to its past

glory and significance in our industry in the

years to come. But it may not happen that way,

in which case this may be our last participation

at this event.

And that ends our look at the upcoming year.

In our next installment, we’ll have a look at the

future production side of things, dedicated first

and foremost on new kits for 2023. Now, we

will have a look at new releases for December.

Because these have been available since the

last week of November, I won’t outline all of

them; just the more significant items.

Kits

December finds us continuing on with our Zero

project, originally known as Project Voldemort,

with a Limited Edition kit dubbed ‘Samurai’. As

with most kits currently coming out of this line,

‘Samurai’ is a Dual Combo boxing with two

complete sets of plastic in the package. The kit

allows for the building of two versions of the

A6M3 Zero, the Model 32 and the Model 22. The

marking options contain twelve aircraft, six of

each flavor. When I was a more active modeller

in my youth, the A6M3 Zero Model 32 with its

relatively attractive camouflage schemes was

considered the most striking of all versions.

I hope that you will see it the same way, at least

up to the point when we come out with other

variants that promise to be no less attractive!

In the ProfiPACK line, we have a 1:72nd scale

Bf 109E-3, a kit developed in association with

Special Hobby. SH have released this kit in

several boxings themselves, but I believe that

our version of the kit will capture your attention and interest. Of the most important aspect

of the kit, its marking options, I can say that we

gave it our usual high level of care and there

are six attractive schemes to choose from.

In the 1:48th scale ProfiPACK line, we are returning the Fw 190D-9 to our range. This was

originally planned as a re-edition of the original kit, but because we added an aircraft flown

by Waldemar Wubke of JV44, which is also the

subject of the boxart, we have given this kit

a new catalog number. In the same line,

you’ll also find another straight reissue, the

Bf 109G-10 Mtt. Regensburg, also in 1:48th. This

is a kit that was quickly sold out and is making

a long awaited comeback.

In the Weekend line, we have the P-51D-10

Mustang and Spitfire Mk.IXc in 1:72nd. Both

feature attractive marking options. For example, in the Mustang kit, there is an option for

Man O’ War flown by Claiborne Kinnard of the

4th Fighter Group, 8thAF. This is a bird firmly

etched in the minds of me and my peers thanks

to an old 48th scale Revell kit, sold in the late

eighties in the Czech Republic. I still have the

kit. For the Spitfire, we have the S/Ldr Karel

Cermak flown aircraft, in which he shot down

an Fw 190A-8 in June, 1944 above Normandy.

Accessories

The thing to note this month in terms of newly

released accessory sets is the 1:48th scale

P-38J Cockpit for the Tamiya kit. It is one of

the nicest sets of this type to be released in

the Brassin line. I think it’s an excellent example of the capabilities of 3D printing that are

presented to the modeller that I wrote about

above. This set is unique not only for its level

of detail, but also for the engineering that went

into it, which significantly eases the integration of the set into the model. The installation is even easer and smoother than the kit

cockpit, which is virtually unheard of in the

world of aftermarket accessory items. This

quality could make accessory items very interesting to more modellers in the future, because modellers who in the past avoided using

resin sets due to their labor intensity will now

find them attractive.

Another interesting and welcome item is the

wheel well set for our F6F Hellcat, a kit also

making its way back into our range. The popularity of this set is leading us to thoughts

of developing further sets, such as a cockpit

set and perhaps a wingfold set. It won’t be

easy, though, because when it comes to the

Brassin line, we have a lot of conceptually and

from a production standpoint, intense projects planned for newly released kits such as

Tamiya’s F-35.

One more thing I would like to point out that

is related to the Brassin line. These are nice,

subtle little items for German AFVs in 1:35th

and two sets of American Carly life rafts for

forty people in 1:350th.

In the Space line, we have six new sets for the

month, among which are two 1:72nd scale sets

for the Arma Hobby Ki-84 and P-51B. in the

photoetched department, we have a P-39 set

for the kit from the same manufacturer, and

a new set for the new Mi-4 in 1:48th from

Trumpeter. This is a kit that I am personally

looking forward to. Besides the aircraft sets,

we are also covering ships and AFVs, and we

have the regular lineup of new BiG Eds, with

their Brassin equipped BiG Sin counterparts.

Literature

In the popular article department, we’ve got

the second part about the Lexington from Mira

Baric, and the already ninth volume covering

the air war over Ukraine. This time, we also

have a technical article dedicated to modelling adhesives and their optimal usage by Joe

Blazek. Add to that our still new boxart stories

, dedicated to the description and explanation

of the events depicted on our box covers for

the month.

And that’s just about it for this year. In closing,

I will just reiterate that we are accepting orders until December 19th, after which it will

not be possible to guarantee delivery of goods

from our e-shop at the current prices. The reason for this is the aforementioned re-pricing

of our goods, which will take place during the

holiday shut down of the retail department. The

e-shop will come back to life after we conclude our inventory taking and re-pricing, which

will happen after January 1st, 2023.

So, dear friends, thank you all so much for your

support throughout 2022. I wish you all a very

Merry Christmas and all the best into 2023!

Happy Modelling

Vladimir Sulc

INFO Eduard

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