Hi - just getting back into AFV modelling, and was shopping around and found this kit...

http://www.ibg.com.pl/product_info.php?cPath=33_35_46&products_id=6352

anyone built one? I have made the sig-33 from Alan and thought it an excellent build, but this one has come out of the blue a bit. I am not even sure if its a new kit or it has been around for a while. Any info will be appreciated. I have the AFV pak 43 waiting to build but this Alan version certainly looks the goods.

Thanks in advance.

This model has been talked about on some German sites, but I have yet to see the kit in the flesh. Right now the east Asian manufacturers have all the press, and even worthy eastern European efforts like Miniart's T-70M kits are getting very little attention.
Most of the online gripes are about Alan's choice of carriage. The Pak 43 was usually seen on a cruciform base with two folding outriggers, basically a more squat form of the antiaircraft mounting. The Alan turntable version does turn up in one photograph I've seen, but it appears to have been a rarity. No idea how the kit actually measures up in terms of parts fit and detailing.
The AFV Club kit depicts the wartime expedient mounting, which uses components from field howitzer carriages, used because there were more tubes available than carriages.

Hi,

I have seen a first look review on Panzer-modell.de. They said in their reveiw that the detail looked to be good (tipical Allan) but they had expected a bit more for a kit in the 25 Euro range.

They also noted that the carriage was from a prototype and not the correct production carriage. (origanally intended to be used on the 5,5 cm gun). After seeing a few pics of the actual gun I would agree the carriage looks wrong.

The review and spru shots can be seen here .

(scroll to the bottom of the page)

Gray

Cheers guys - thanks for the info.

If you REALLY want to do a Pak 43, Verlinden does one in resin and PE. There's the old Azimut kit but it's just not worth the money. There are murmurings of another resin maker about to release a third rendition of the Pak 43.

If you just want another good artillery piece that's not too difficult to build nicely, I'll recommend the following:

Tamiya British 25pdr field gun
DML Pak 40 75mm AT gun
Tamiya 8.8cm Flak 36/37
Tamiya Pak 40 75mm AT gun
AFV Club M59 155mm Long tom
AFV Club M1 8" Howitzer
Tamiya 3.7cm Flak 43
ICM 100mm Soviet B-3 AT gun
DML 2cm Flak 38

If you're willing to try some more difficult (non-resin) kits:

AFV Club 8.8cm Flak 18
DML Flak 36
DML Flak 37
AFV Club 8.8cm Pak 43/41
AFV Club leFH 18 10.5cm German howitzers
DML Karl Morser
DML K5 "Leopold" 28cm Railgun
Trumpeter Karl Morser
Trumpeter K5 "Leopold" 28cm railgun

If you're willing to go resin, then there are many, many others.