All I can say is how disappointed I am in reading this thread this morning - and it reinforces my desire not to enter into the aftermarket production side of the hobby.

As a reviewer, I refrain from even commenting on test shots - especially photos of mockups - as often as I can. It creates negative impressions right out the gate. I'll reserve judgement when I see the production item.

I'll buy their Sheridan and I'll go up to look at the real things to form my impressions of what they did in miniature - when the kit becomes available. "Chicken Little" threads as Sabot so aptly stated do not bring credit to the reviewers and the doomsayers jumping on the bandwagon. They cast more of a disparaging light on the participants in a crap fest than insight for the modelling community.

Gunnie

Tamiya did this with ALL their (future) 1/48th scale releases at Nuremberg...Jim

Good on yu Red4,
Like the style. It is nice to have first -hand knowledge of the beastie in question----who is going to be first to ask you for advice--if and when the kit hits the shops. Iam very wary of "experts",(x-the unknown factor, spert-a drip of water under pressure),but enjoy "chewing the fat " with some-one who KNOWS.
Good thing I don't do gun-tanks----I would probably be getting all steamed -up by now. We model-makersshould be grateful-if not out of pocket money-for the kits that become available. What happened in the old days ,eh,we scratch-built with half the information we have now.
Never buy a pig in a poke-------.

Model makers build for enjoyment-NOT for others to count the rivets.

BARV.

The more I read this thread I get the feeling that perhaps the naysayers would perfer Academy produce another WW2 German panzer.

Good Lord no!

Well, for something that (in your opinion) that isn't wanted, the DML Tiger seems to be selling a lot of examples... Modellers don't follow 'like sheep' in my experience. They tend to build acording to what interests them. If that happens to be Sheridans - fine. If it also happens to be variants of the PzIII then good luck to them. Plenty of plastic out there for all of us...Jim

academy has to be praised for not following the sheep but instead producing something that is actually wanted !

Amen, amen, amen.

I must say my thoughts on this thread. First I have a great deal of respect for Pawel, Vodnik. He is only saying the way he feels and that is fine. Honestly , looking at the photos he put up on TL, I would only know the difference by comparing the model photos to the actual tank. I can also see where a lot of the comments are coming from, ie. knocking models that aren't even released yet. Let's wait until it actually hits the stores and then look more closely at it.

I don't think there has been a perfect model since the beginning of time, and based on what people who know a LOT more about the Sheridan than I do this doesn't seem like it's going to be perfect. So those who want to correct every item can go to it, those who don't don't have to.

I also agree that model companies, at least the major ones, have no reason not to come up with an accurate kit. Especially if they are starting from scratch, and not just re boxing an old kit. It doesn't sound like Academy is just freshing up their old copy of the Tamiya kit, so they should have been able to do it more accurately. IF they fell down, and we won't know that until the kit actually comes out, then they should be criticized.

so they should have been able to do it more accurately

Rodger, no-one has actually:

a) Built it

b) Seen the sprues it comes on

c) Seen anymore than this (certain) mock-up...

Where is the debate coming from? I am totally confused. This is like Chinese Whispers....Jim

To sum up what many of you wrote above:

If (big IF) the Academy kit indeed has several serious accuracy problems, like these I had pointed out, then:

1. we should be happy that it looks like Sheridan at all (I thought that old Tamiya kit also looked like one... If this is enough then maybe we don't need a new kit at all?)

2. we should be happy that it is a new kit

3. we should be happy it is not a Tiger or Sherman (OK, here I can agree :-))

4. we should be happy that Academy give us opportunity to show our true modeler's talents and allow us to perform plastic surgery to fix all the errors (I would say that Tamiya kit was even better for such ambitious modeler)...

And another thing. If manufacturer presents a new model (after all they didn't marked it as prototype or mock-up so it was quite obvious to assume that it at least to large degree represents final product) on a model show we should never ever comment or criticize it. Otherwise we would risk that they could actually correct some errors after receiving such feedback... That would be terrible, right?... Let's keep our comments to ourselves and only offer them once the product is on the shelf and any chances of manufacturer fixing it are gone.

Let me reiterate: I would be really happy to find out that flawed Nurnberg model was not built from a real new kit, but just a mock up using scratchbuilt parts or pieces of other older kits. But anyway, I can only be truly satisfied with the new Sheridan kit if it has all the basic dimensions and shapes right. If there are some details wrong, missing or simplified, I can live with that - I like detailing models. What was shown in Nurnberg however had more serious problems. I am by no means Sheridan expert. I have never seen one "in the flesh" and it is not even one of my favourite vehicles. But I immediately noticed that there is something wrong with the model on photos (maybe I just have a good eye for such things). Then I started to compare model photos to pics of real tanks - the results were posted on M-L.
As Rob wrote earlier - real Sheridans are easily accessible, so it does not require huge effort to do the homework and make at least basic features of the kit right. Hunderds of photos, including some very good walkarounds are available on the Web. There are several books about Sheridan, including excellent Hunnicutt's one - most still available. Scale plans are also easy to find. I really find no reason why we should quietly accept the model with serious flaws considering all that...
I know there are people among us for whom accuracy is not important at all and they just like building models. For those good model is the one that builds easily. That's great - have your fun! Just please accept the fact that for others, like me, the accuracy does matter!

And now repeat everyone: let's hope it was not the real kit, let's hope it was not the real kit, let's hope it was not the real kit, let's...

Pawel

Just what review are we talking about here? Is this something I missed? Don't tell me that this is now a Review? Just what can we expect tomorrow, Tamiya's 2008 release list? Oh lordy, the 'net is a wondrous thing...Jim