Hi, See that the Dragon website is showing a new Sd.Kfz. 251/D kit that they are calling the 3-in -1 kit, as it can be built one of 3 different ways. Either the standard halftrack, the 7.5 cm howitzer halftrack, or the night fighting version. Kind of interesting. I can remember the model car companies doing this with their model cars years ago, but tI think this is the first time I've ever heard of it being done by an AFV maker. Of course this means that 3 kits will have to be bought to make all three of them. Ha!

Just thought I would mention this if anybody out there hasn't already seen it.

Take care, Sgirty

Well, I wish it'd be 3 kits in 1 box, not 3 options to build 1 kit. That would be better :-)

Italeri's Panzer IV could be made as an F1, F2 or G and Tamiya's original Panzer III could be made into an ausf. M or N.

Recently Heller released an M4A3 kit that was a conglomerate of Italeri Sherman sprues. You can make either an M4A3 75mm or M4A3 76mm with the kit.

There are probably others as well. Tamiya's M1A2 builds into an US Army M1A2 or M1A1HA or into a USMC M1A1HA.

I hope this becomes a trend for manufacturers.

me too!

i cant understand why manufacturers dont do it more often, it means they will sell mroe of a particular kit, they only have to market one, and production costs would be reduced as they only need one set of sprues, one set of box art etc.

many vehicles have numerous version, with the difference between them usually being minor. shermans, cromwells and many of the panzers spring to mind!

cheers

joe

DML's Pz III ausf M/N can be built into either an M or an N as well,

The Pz III ausf J if I remember correctly from DML, can be built into a either L/42 gunned or a L/60 gunned J

The Pz IV ausf F2 from DML can also be built into either a shortbarreled F1 or an L/43 F2 if I am not mistake.

If you model aircraft at all, this is common to build 2-3 diffrent versions, oftenm its the decals that change, but also sometimes extra parts are included for nightfighter versions etc

What about Italeri's M109 kit #246? It could build into the M109 plain, G, A1, A2 or E4 variants (5 versions in Total), plus also combinations, very helpful for IDF vehicles.

Hopefully this will continue as opposed to their sprue combinations (Although many spares are gained). I would buy this kit (if it has the mentioned options) as it offers more options and spares for kit bashes etc. than present manufacturers.

What I love about this kind of kits is the number of spare parts that come in the box. (:-)

There Italeri give you the choice between all those variants on kit # 246 you can make the E4/G/A1/A2, then on kits # 248 the M107 and # 252 the M110A1 on the box art they took the picture of the tank going the other direction so you would think your getting a different tank.

When in reality the parts 94 through 97 on sprue C are the only difference between the two kits, and that is the barrel, and the shells. Everything else is identical.

Now I'm not a 100% sure, but it came this way in my kit no#252 but sprue D was # 248 kit number, which is the tracks, which they are all the same anyway.

Kerry

All I know is, get a bigger spares box

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Academy M113 series. The Nam version has 4-5 possibilities (?) ACAV, recoiless, Aussie w T50 turret (badly done), SVN and I think Korean . Also the Zelda and Fitter have two variants on one box.

Also Tamiya's Steel Wheeled Panther can be an Infra Red or Steel wheeled version.

I've always thought that Tamiya should have put Falke (IR 251 APC) parts into the IR Panther box. Kudos to DML for the 251, but with AFV Club doing a D and a /9 late, I wish they would have picked other versions.

Mike