Strana 5
not to repeat those mistakes. You can find out
what the kit looks like, how it is built and what to
look out for in an article by Jakub Nademlejnsky.
If you want to refresh your knowledge of technical
history, today we also offer you a repeat of my
article on the technical development of the
Spitfire Mk.V. Today is the first part, dedicated to
the Spitfire Mk.Va and Mk.Vb, and in the January
issue of the newsletter there will be a second
part dedicated to the Spitfire Mk.Vc. We have
already published that article once, sometime in
2020 I think, at the premiere of the Spitfire Mk.I,
II and V kits in 1:48th scale. We decided to repeat
it because, firstly, repetition is the mother of
wisdom, and secondly, the information may be
useful to someone who may have missed the
first time around. After all, the demographic
of modelers building in 72nd differs from that
building 48th, even though the two partially
overlap. I promise that sometime in the spring
I will also write an article about the development
of Spitfire Mk.V camouflage schemes. We will
publish these articles as we publish various
versions of the 72nd scale Spits. As I have
already mentioned, we are publishing them
somewhat against the flow of time, starting
with the Mk.V and ending with the Mk.I, which is
a different procedure than we chose for the 48th
scale line. However, both when it comes to the
selection of color versions for the 72nd scale
kits, and when it comes to the release scheme,
where there will again be a number of theme
based Limited Edition kits, the smaller kits
essentially following the release pattern and
marking options of their larger predecessors.
In this case, we are starting with the Mk.V
because we want to avoid a collision with our
colleagues from IBG, who have recently started
releasing Spitfire Mk.I kits, also in 1:72 scale,
and we do not want to interfere with them.
If, due to the lack of international coordination,
it turned out that we and they produce the same
type of aircraft. I wanted to write the same thing,
but they are not the same kits. We have our
similarities, but you will find marked differences.
If you are wondering why we premiered the
entire Spitfire Mk.I to V family as a Profipack
kit this time around, it is because we wanted to
have it ready by the beginning of November so
that we would be able to have it at Telford. In the
end, that didn't work out, it was a too ambitious
plan, in the end we were two weeks short of
completing the final form and thus the entire kit.
But we managed to get two more kits to Telford,
the Limited Edition Kittyhawk in 1:48th scale
and the Spitfire Mk.Vb Mid in the 1:48 Profipack
line. Both kits are also December releases,
as is the A6M2-N Rufe in the Weekend line,
also in 48th. You can see them all in today's
newsletter, unless of course you have already
seen them on our Facebook page or perhaps
over the weekend in Bratislava. So I assume
that you have already seen them somewhere,
but we will show them to you again here, just
in case.
But I am afraid that today is not all good news.
One bit of bad news is related to my mention
of the Plastos series, where I made mention of
using Chinese sources for some mold production
in our 72nd scale kits. Many of you will not
be familiar with this line of articles, since not
everyone subscribes to the EMD. That's the
problem. Few modelers subscribe to the EMD,
while it costs us a lot of effort to prepare and
publish it. The result is that it's not worth it for us
and we'd rather devote that effort to something
more successful. So the EMD is ending, the last
issue will be published in January. Subscribers
will receive an email with information on how
we will settle their subscriptions. However,
because everything bad is for something good,
EMD will not disappear completely. We will
return to the original idea that it will be a paid
supplement to our regular newsletter. We will
transfer articles that are of interest to it, and
this will also apply to Plastos. We will explain
how it will all look and work after the New Year.
Not wanting to end on a sour note, I will end
on a high one. We're finishing with the Alien.
You know what that’s about, right? This was
a Czech Mi-24V with an absolutely wicked
Alien-inspired paint scheme We've been
working on this project for a long time, so long
that you may have lost faith that we'd ever
finish it, but we will. If anyone wants to protest
that we're cooperating with Russia’s Zvezda
company, which supports Putin's regime and
the war against Ukraine, and that we're pretty
fake when we profess to support Ukraine, let's
be clear, we support Ukraine, we haven't given
up and won't give up articles about the air war
in Ukraine despite various attacks and hate mail,
as you can see on the other pages of today's
newsletter, and we don't do business with
Zvezda. We just have some pre-war stampings
still hidden away, and those are the ones that
will be used. We have about 1,000 of them walled
up on the first floor of our sprue warehouse,
and we think it's time to open that wall and use
the what is stored there. By the way, Alien is
currently fighting in Ukraine in the ranks of the
Ukrainian Air Force. Because we have a limited
number of molds, this kit will not be sold via
the usual channels, it will only be sold via
subscription. Not all retailers will get it either.
Another thing you should know is that it will be
an expensive kit. Not because we are greedy,
but because it is a demanding and expensive
project, both in terms of design and production.
Given the nature of its colori scheme, it will be
a demanding project even for potential builders,
getting that decal on the model will require skill,
experience and patience. Those decals will be
specific not only in their design, but also in their
technical implementation – I won’t tell you that
now, you can find it in the information about
the kit’s contents when the pre-order offer
kicks in. It will start on December 12th and end
on Christmas Eve, December 24th. Definitely
something to look forward to!
And with that, friends and modelers, I want to
thank you all for your support, friendship, praise
and criticisms of the past year, and I wish you
a very Merry Christmas and a very prosperous
New Year!
Happy Modeling!
Vladimir Sulc
PS. I shouldn’t forget to mention that our
traditional and very popular New Year’s PE
greeting will again be available from our e-shop.
EDITORIAL
INFO Eduard
5
December 2025