Received mine in the mail today and immediately opened the box. The instructions ask you to choose from two markings options, A or B, and proceed accordingly. The only build difference that I could see occurs in Step #4. It involves Part B8. If doing version A, you must drill two holes and add part D23 over the driver's vision slot. As far as I can tell that's the only difference other than the markings. There is no PE included in the kit. The decal sheet has some German crosses and two Soviet stars that are not mentioned in the instructions. You also get a rather anemic looking piece of white string for the tow cable. Here is a photo of the main hull.



Several of the panels that make up the fighting compartment have grooves on the inside surface at panel joint lines and need to be bent slightly to shape.





I guess this is supposed to reduce the number of panels that need to be joined, and to make assembly easier. Whether or not this is a good idea remains to be seen. The tracks are one-piece, snap together, links.



I like the fact that the axles are molded to the inside halves of the track run (Parts C2 & C3).



This should simplify alignment and assembly. One hatch on top is separate, but other than the Hotchkiss MG's, no interior is provided. It does have the drive chains for the sprocket wheels but I'm not sure whether they will be visible after adding the tracks, unless doing a damaged tank, or one undergoing maintenance. I don't know how it shapes up dimension wise, but it looks like a Whippet and I think it will look nice parked next to my Mark IV eventually. Al

Are those tracks moulded in flexible plastic like they did on their MKV?

I'm not familiar with their MK.V, but the plastic seems fairly rigid in this kit's track links. The sprues flex a little, but don't feel soft. Al

Any perspective on accuracy yet? Or has anyone been able to compare it to the Takom Whippet? Been scouring the net for info to quantify which kit is the best starting place for a Whippet project...

The Meng Whippet, unlike the Takom example does not include the side storage boxes seen on some examples. Not a problem if your chosen example doesn't have these side boxes but a case of scratchbuilding if they were fitted. Some of the angled panels are moulded as flat pieces to be bent along a moulded indentation.

Only the decals for Brussels' Firefly and Bovington's Caesar II are referred to in the instructions but the sheet also includes decals for a Beutepanzer and Russian stars and (Czarist?) roundels as well as decals for "Clara" and "The Musical Box"- although I think the Musical Box decals are incomplete. There is also another seemingly unreferenced Axxx number. However none of these four (or is it six?) alternatives are even referenced in the instructions, despite the box saying THREE decal options - all very curious and a bit shoddy! Perhaps it was all a bit of a rush to hurry it to the marketplace to compete with Takom

sk

Good information. I have the Takom kit in hand now, and am trying to decide if I need to fork over the cash for the Meng version. I think I'll hold off for a little while to see what the inevitable reviews have to say. I don't have enough reference material on the machine to do a good scrub of the actual bits int he kit. So all I can contribute is that the Takom kit is well molded and the beveled joints for the superstructure don't have Sprue attachment points on them to distort the fit like the Meng FT 17 has.

I built the Takom Whippet...its a nice kit, but the Meng Whippet has slightly sharper details/moldings. The Meng kit is considerably cheaper then the Takom kit also, if you order overseas.

Take note, in Step #7, the two pieces that make up the 10 return rollers (Parts D11 & D12) are keyed, to aid in their alignment. The keys are very tiny and very easy to overlook. I did when assembling the first one. Al