Got this month’s shipment from Eduard yesterday. Neatest thing (for me) was the Nieuport 17 in Russian Service from the Limited Edition Series. Nice PE in it, but the main attraction of these re-releases of the Profipak planes are the markings. They are dazzlers and, as is the fashion in modeling now (the decal makers are doing it too), Eduard finds a subject and then makes really colorful decals that all have something in common and unusual. These Russian Nieuports have the bawdiest personal markings I’ve ever seen on WW I a/c, and nicely rendered colors too.
And, four – count 'em, four – PE fret sets for the new Academy 1/48 CH-46. True, one of them is nothing but seat belts for the fold down seats in the cargo section, which is pretty boring, but then I’m no rotary wing guy so my opinion don’t count. But, I do know nice frets and the color on the cockpit set for this kit is really nice. Those color sets get more and more sophisticated and I feel less and less guilty about using them.
Another handful of the new Tamiya-tape pre-cut masks cheered me up, though. They apparently are redoing their whole line of masks starting with the most popular stuff, so there were masks for Hasegawa 1/48 F-16’s and Me-109’s, some Trumpeter masks in 1/32, a Revell/Italeri 1/72 A-10 mask set (to go with the umpteenth new PE fret they’ve sent out for that kit, which I’ve never even seen boxed or built) and so on. So if you wait a month, the masks you need won’t be those lousy olive green non-stick type, but these nice new ones.
One piece of news about Eduard: They are no longer going to keep a running catalogue like Tamigawa. According to the company, they are selling off the old kits they have in stock, like the P-39/P-63 series, all the WW I stuff, the P-40’s, the great X-1 kits, everything, and then the new releases will be available only until they run out of them. Of course, anyone who believes they won’t be re-released ad nauseam from time to time – see above “Limited Edition” – hasn’t been modeling long. You don’t make those expensive long-run molds and then break them after the first run.
Still, it’s nice to know you can obtain a certain kit from a maker any time you want, rather than hoping it will be re-released sooner or later (Revellogram has always done that to us with their huge-run kits). So, if you want a certain Eduard kit, better get it now because they’ve already started some aggressive marketing to get rid of the inventory. Go to their web site at www.eduard.cz and click on the latest and next-to-latest newsletter entries and I think they have this info there.
TOM
Sounds like Santa was a little late, but still delivered a nice haul. So when are we going to see some published reviews of all these goodies ?
Regards, Rick
Um, delicate subject of a proprietary nature there, Rick. Let us just say you can see said reviews every month if you care to. But not here. I pass on information of what new products I know of when they are sent to me for review. I do it for those good people on this site who may not be plugged in to what comes out right away like a lot of other people. However, I am a journalist who doesn’t happen to work for FSM or Kalmbach, but rather for another publication, and I don’t think FSM or the other publication wants me writing a column on this web site. Email me and I’ll give you the 411 if you want it. And, yes, Santa was a few weeks late, but apparently the sleigh service from the Czech Republic to Brooklyn is not always efficient.
TOM