LIFER--Thanks for the heads up, though I did know about those kits already. The Maquette one is a sIG Bison I. This is the early war self-propelled gun with the very high profile. Alan doesn't make this one. I believe Alan's kits are completely their own (I've heard a suggestion to replace the Maquette gun barrel with an Alan one). Since you mention it, though, I wouldn't mind some of those Alan kits, either. The Grille-M is supposed to be their best yet.

Nic

Is DML making a come back? I spotted this on another site this morning as an upcoming release. Maybe they just slowed off for a bit?
Very useful dio possibilities and the the ultimate in stowage. But another German subject!
http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/html/6156.htm

The Alan kits are their own and the new Grille M is simply beautiful. It is definately Alan's nicest kit and is one of the nicest kits yet to come out of Eastern Europe. If you like to detail your kits you should look into buying the kit from Tiger Model Designs. They are currently selling what they are calling the "Super Grille". Basically, it is the Alan kit, with their Grille update (includes a bunch of ready rounds, a bunch of covered rounds, new charge storage boxes that are mounted around the fighting compartment, new gas mask containers, a German Fug. 5 radio, intercom box, antenna relay, and other misc. bits), Friulmodel tracks, Eduard Grille M PE, and Eduard Grille M fenders. They are charging $90 + free shipping even for international orders. If you look at the prices of each of the components and the model itself this works out to be a good deal, but it is a great deal when you include shipping of those components into the calculation. I just bought one from them and must say that I am pleased with all of the extras as well as the model kit itself. If you are interested, follow the link above and then click on the "Showstoppers" link in the right hand column.

Hey - you didn't offend anyone! It's good to shake things up every now and then. Ruffle the Feathers to shake the dust off...

Gunnie

It's easy enough to leave the turret basket off, and of course I think most folks understand that there is some cross sprueing with the Academy kits. It's a good kit, but the rest of the interior is totally wrong for the Honey. And the kit is engineered strangely. The kit is much better than the Tamiya version, but it's disappointing to find glaring errors in a new kit. The M3A1 should be nice though!

I buy kits of interest to me. The new PzIA by Tristar is supposed to be very nice. I don't care to build it though! The new Marder IIIM by Tamiya will be a nice kit I'm sure. But again, I'm not interested in that variant for whatever reason. The quality of the kit alone is not enough to make me buy it, but with so many kits on the market (and in my closet ) I'm not going to buy something with crap reviews. So I use reviews to guide my purchases. Of course one can't trust everything published, so it's nice we have Armorama, TL, Hyperscale, Perth MMS, and so many other sites publishing reviews so we can get an idea of what's in a box before dropping some cash.

The Alan kits are nice, and I'd say better than Italeri on average because you get nice indy links, and different subjects for CHEAP! The DUKW and other recent Italeri kits are getting pretty expensive ($30 for a swimming box with wheels???!). I know, now the DUKW fans will hate me...

MilitaryHobbies, Hobby Junction in Dorval, QC (call them, no e-presence), Greatmodels at times, and Hobby-HQ are all sources for DML kits.

Cheers
Andy put bold text here

Rivet counters, I appreciate their accuracy but, sometimes their comments become negative and IMO destructive. Last year, I was eagerly awaiting the DML Ketten. There was a review in an international mag by a respected modeler that was not harsh or unfair but too critical for a first look, again IMHO. It turned me off the kit for a year. Perhaps we could agree on criteria on "first look", or "out of the box "/reviews that would deal with the kit "as is" rather than what the after market guys will produce for it. Could we have lighter initial reviews and then tougher,in-depth, articles later on? I realize that this would be impossible to do. Every writer wants their article to be the best,so it's unreal to think thay'll hold back. Also, they have editors who certainly are expecting every piece written for their magazine to be Nobel material. I guess the only thing to say is "lighten up...have fun " As an educated consumer #:-) I've got to take stuff with the proverbial grain of salt and keep smiling. JOCK