When I discovered this amazing company in Czechoslovakia, making all kinds of kits in 1/144 scale of Canadian Aircraft types, I reached out to them and embarked on bringing them into The Hobby Centre.
In conversation, I found out what an interesting and innovative person the owner Radek is. He consented to doing a written interview with me and I share it here with you.
We are very excited to be bringing in his quality aircraft kits and look forward to working with him more in the future.
1 - How long have you been producing kits?
Miniwing has been operating since 2008, but before that I made my kits for the FE Resin company. FE Resin discontinued its business when the owner retired so I started my business.
2 - Why did you choose to specialize in 1/144 scale?
I got a 1/144 kit from my friend (an F-100 from Otaki) 30 years ago, I fell in love in this scale. I am more of a collector than producer. I have built more that 500 kits in 1/144the scale.
30 years ago, there were about 20 kits on the market in this scale so, I started to scratch build the aircraft I wanted. The owner of Fe Resin met me and asked me if I want to produce my models as resin kits.
3 - Did you start doing them in resin and then switched the most popular ones to injection moulded plastic? What is your approach to this?
My approach is simply - I select planes, which I need for my collection. The selling of kits earns me money for the expense of kit development and mold production.
So, when I am looking for a type of plane, it isn’t about how much money I make on it (a best seller), but that I need it for my collection. I started produce my kits as resin kits, but each is hand cast. Each one kit is original. It takes too much time. So, I started produce plastic kits.
4 - I have to ask, you really seem interested in Canadian subjects, that is what I find most exciting about your company, what is the fascination with Canadian aircraft?
I have many Canadian friends. For example, one of them builds ships in 1/144 scale. He started to build HMCS Bonaventure and he needed Trackers, Banshees and S-55s on its deck. I developed them for him and then started selling them for other customers. Some people ask me, can you make this or this? If it is something that I would be interested in as well, I do it.
5- Are you a modeler yourself? When did you start and what are your interests, beside 1/144 aircraft?
I started building plastic kits as a boy. When I was 4 or 5. My father is also modeller. I watched him and I wanted to build my own kits, of course.
Besides modelling I liked to play sports. I liked to play soccer. Now, I am almost fifty, my both knees are after surgery, I don’t play soccer very often. Now, I run. 100km per month.
Miniwing is not my primary job. I work as Prototype engineer in Automotive. I have developed things for cars for more than 20 years. There I learned about technologies for resin molds and tools for plastic injection moulded parts. So that is the reason why sometimes orders are not filled and shipped quickly. That is not a problem with plastic kits. They are usually in inventory, but the resin kits must be produced as needed for orders. I try to keep 2-4 of each resin kit in stock. Sometimes however, I get many orders in at the same time, so it takes more time to fulfill the orders.