This 1/35 scale kit just came up in the online shop I frequent. Is this an all new kit or a remake of the older Italerie kits? Has anybody build it/already bought it?

It is just a repop of the old Italeri kit as it was released by Revell in the mid-80s or so.

The kit is pretty poor based on the pics ive seen of it, had a look in the box as well at a model show and it didnt look great. Best option if you want a decent M1097 is to add the bench parts to the Tamiya M1025, or try to find the old verlinden M998 conversion.

The old Verlinden conversion was made for the Tamiya/Academy HMMWV, which is a problem. The old Tamiya HMMWV is the Italeri (now Revell) HMMWV kit and the Academy HMMWVs are more related to the Italeri HMMWV (similar dimensions and parts layout).

The best option is to find the available conversion sets for the newer Tamiya HMMWV kit. Any one made for an older kit will not fit the new Tamiya kit.

You can make the Verlinden conversion fit the new Tamiya kit. I did it for my up-armored humvee build (which is an M1097A2 with armor plates added) The rear door inserts fit ok, and the bench layout doesnt need much in the way of tweaking to fit the Tamiya kit. With very little effort the Verlinden conversion can be made to fit the new Tamiya kit.

Heres my build to illustrate:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/116411#959130

Thanks for the information.

Michael