Gunnie:

Let me clear up my post at least. I have every confidence in Pawel because it is me that is in part providing him information - thus it was sort of an inside joke. I never thought anybody could interpret my post as an insult for suggesting I think he will do a good job. I apologize if offense was taken.

I am glad that Pawel did clear up a few points on where Dragon is (or isn't) in their progress on the Stryker. There has been a lot of speculation on when it will come out. Modelers at least now know it will be awhile, and can have some confidence that Dragon can learn from the current kits on this vehicle.

Onwards:

4/2 Stryker will be taking their MGSs with them to Iraq and the NBC variant too. I think that makes them the first bde to use all the proposed variants. In addition, they have been training with the Land Warrior system and will take it to Iraq as well, even though the system has had its funding frozen for the time being as it was decided funds needed to be steered towards more immediately important items.

What this means is that for those interested in really doing some extra work to do something unique, modelers can show Land Warrior soldiers working side by side with the Stryker, thus depicting the full spectrum of the technology envisioned.

I hope some figure maker decides to do some of these soldiers, but I suppose it would not be too hard to depict these items.

Bob

I guess my post didn't come out right. I wasn't trying to toot Pawel's horn, jump on Trumpeter or AFV Club, or recognize Dragon for the be all end all of model companies. (I definitely have no love for Dragon, they make some nice model kits but there business practices are very questionable, to put it nicely) What I was trying to point out, though very poorly, was that Dragon was willing to go back during the design stage and change and/or correct things on the M1. Since they still seem to be in the design stage with the Stryker I feel confident they will do the same here. In the meantime if someone wants to build a Stryker then by all means pick up the Trump kit or wait for the AFV offering. I fully agree the majority of modellers out there probably aren't even aware the other two kits are due out and will be very happy with the Trump kit.

Mike

Bob and Mike - thanks and very much appreciated!

Gunnie

I'm not all that excited about it. Trumpy is very hit or miss on their kits from being exceptional on one, average on another, and terrible on a few(ask the 1/32 aircraft or 1/350 ship builders), and I'm referring to the 'modern' Trumpeter, not the earlier copy-cat days...From what I see, its a pretty basic kit, possibly not even as good as the LAV. If it prices out at $25 though, like the LAV and KV series kits, I wouldn't really complain about it all that much.

But just the wheel details alone are soo far off-to the point that you have to ask yourself what the heck were they thinking-and an Eduard set aint' gonna fix it(not to mention how good the AFV club wheels look). They look like someone designed them from memory and did not even use a simple refference picture. When a vehicle has 8 wheels and gigantic tires drawing attention, the wheels need to be at least somewhat close to the real deal. They look terrible. And considering how many parts they used for the headlight assemblies, you would think at least ONE of the parts would look remotely close to the actual vehicle's.

I have built a few of the Trumpy ship kits including the Nimitz and North Carolina(two of the best styrene ship kits ever produced). I am pretty much writing this one off as the afv equivilent of The Sullivans, a lousy ship model released right between two absolutely brilliant ones. The ship community is still perplexed as to how the hell that model came from Trumpeter. I don't think there's a question as to the AFV club's effort being superior.

I think people are forgetting that model companies are (for the most part) run by teams of designers, not by one big design team.

Case in point, Trumpter. I cannot prove it, but I think they must have about 6 or so teams with different ideas. You have the HobbyBoss/Panda team, the Bronco team, and then there are, I think, 2 A-team designers, a B-teasm design staff, and a C-team staff. The A-team stuff is what thet expect will do them big business in China (the main market for them). The B-stuff goes to the kinda important (the LAV, Stryker, and SAM-6 Gainfull all go here) and then there is the C stuff which I thik is big dreams turned into "get it done now to recoup costs" (F4F Wildcat, the Sullivans, M1A1 series etc...)

Looking at it in that light, I would say that Trumptere can often be the victim of just making different "levels" of models, but then again, they probably do not care as long as they still sell loads of kits to their primary market, China.

That said, if anyone buys a Trumpy Stryker and does not want it, I will take it off your hands. But I am not spending $30 for one, I can wait until the price drops. I plan to get the AFV club and DML versions, but only depending on what they do.

Now, Get DML on the Russian kits, dangit!

I'm not sure if I will get a Stryker or not. I may just wait until all 3 manufacturers have theirs on the market and decide at that point. I've got enough armor and aircraft in the stash to keep me busy for a few years.

I admit I'm speculating here, but I think each Stryker kit will have its' own strengths and weaknesses. I hope that whichever one people here choose to buy, they will be happy with, and enjoy building - be it straight OOB or modified/improved to their own tastes.

I say: build what you want, how you want, and I hope you are all happy with the results. That to me is what the hobby is all about.

I know I'm going to get at least one Stryker (and if a MGS variant is released, more than one), but now my question is, which one? I've never worked on an AFV Club offering, so maybe I'll get that one, but I'm not in a hurry to buy one, so I can also wait until the Dragon version hits the shelves. Either way, isn't it better to have choices?