I'm curious, are any of these types (A,B,C, or D) of Mk III's currently available in kits? Have they ever been? I've done a little bit of searching and have not found any (though there were at least 2 at the recent Tokyo show, judging from the pictures).

I find it kind of strange that at least a couple of these models aren't in current production. They actually had combat experience in the war, as opposed to the so-called paper panzers that never left the drawing boards that are now being made.

There is Ausf. A from Sovereign and Ausf. B from Brach both are resin but from the reviews are great and easy builds.

If you're not on a budget, Atelier Infinite has released a resin "A":



a "C" :



and a "D" with "B" turret :



HTH

Frenchy

Thanks to both of you for the info! The ones in the pictures Frenchy posted look great .... it's just a shame that they're resin only and, as mentioned, way beyond my budget. Guess I'm just out of luck on these for until someone decides to put out a plastic kit.

The Sovereign will turn up on E-Bay every once and a while for under $100 but not much I am saving my prnnies and dimes.

Even $100 is more than I'd pay for any static tank model in 1/35 scale. Hopefully Tamiya or Dragon (or any other company) will put these out eventually. As I mentioned before I can't believe someone hasn't already.

The problem is that there probably isn't enough purchasing interest in tooling up a production line (or portion of one) to justify a dedicated kit for the Ausf A-D's.

Neal, I find that hard to believe when I look at other "oddball" kits that are already on the market. As I mentioned before, if there's enough interest to make kits of tanks that that never even made it into production, how can there not be to make one of a tank that actually fought in the war? It seems to me that a Mk III C or D would be a "must have" for any builder of early war German armor, especially if it could be had for a decent price (as opposed to the $150 to $230 they want for the resin kits).

Have you contacted the manufacturer reps? Not being argumentative by any means, but any manufacturer of mass produced product (regardless of product) spends a significant amount of time and money into market research before they consider even doing a proto build. If the market isn't ready, the "idea" gets shelved. If there is enough interest in a limited run or special production with limited quantities, they may decide to move on just those limited quantities. With market research being what it is today, the manufacturers can easily evaluate the sales of the resin kits and their demand. Tooling up any manufacture product line is costly. The company must insure they can make a profit on the product line.

With that being said, manufacture reps do frequent these forums...that is good news. Also, it never hurts to contact a manufacturer and ask. Either they will respond with a competent response or ignore the contact. I, personally, would love to see them on the market...I love the oddball stuff...like the RAD 8's. Maybe enough positive comments on this thread will spark one of the reps to bring it up in a production meeting and....

I did put out feelers to Dragon, Hobby Boss, and Tamiya. Let's see if anyone responds.

One of the problems for any manufacturer would be the amount of new tooling that the early IIIs require. DML, for example, has released all the major (and some minor) Pz. III variants from E-N; but at least some of these kits have been in their lineup for at least a decade (when they were Imperial Dragon). Others just require a few new sprues to handle differences between Ausfuehrungen. The road wheels on the E-N models, for example, are all more or less identical.

That can't be said about the A-D variants. They're prototypes for the most part, and very different cats. Among the major, visible differences are a leaf-spring suspension (instead of the torsion bar one used in all subsequent models), and in the A, for example, much larger road wheels - more like the 38(t). That's a lot of retooling for a series of tanks that never totaled more than 80 vehicles.

Would modelers buy an A or D? I don't know the answer to that. Comparisons to so-called "paper panzers" are valid, and certainly Trumpeter has jumped in that pool with both feet. But it still comes down to committing to the tooling costs, and lobbying the manufacturers is certainly the only way of getting them to make that sort of commitment. There's no doubt the Three has been a winner with hobbyists, so perhaps there is a market for the first four variants?

Ah, Trumpeter, I had not thought of them in the original contacts I sent out. I'll have to shoot them a line, too.