Hi guys. Don't know if someone's beaten me to this, but my reference says that 90 (+1 prototype) were built between February and April 1943, with other designations being V111 Serie TNHP, Gerat 805 and Grille. Hope this is of interest.

The Grille H was a follow-on to the previously limited results experienced with mounting the SiG 33 gun on the Pzkpfw I-B chassis (commonly known as the Bison I). The 38t chassis was chosen because of higher reliability and load-carrying capacity and the request was issued at the same time as that that created the Marder III and III H SP AT platforms. The design and prototype phase began in Feb 1942 and culminated with the full production beginning in Feb 1943. The 38t hull from the engine bay back was retained while the front of the hull was modified to accomodate the SiG 33 in a revised mount and the space needed for the fighting compartment. 25 vehicles were shipped Feb-43, 40 Mar-43, 25 Apr-43 from the Ausf H production run...followed by another 27 in Apr-43 on the Ausf K run (but all still in the "H" configuration, the Ausf designation was only used for production orders to track chassis numbers). May-June-43 saw another 110 vehicles delivered at which time production was supposed to have stopped in favor of the Ausf M runs, but another 10 vehicles were finished as Ausf H configuration in 1943 that were originally supposed to be Flakpanzer 38(t)s. Total production of the Grille "H" comes to 237, a not insubstantial quantity given that the production was happening simultaneously to the orders for the Marder series in the same plants. The "H" variant was actually more numerous than the "M" variant which only had 192 produced between Nov-43 and Apr-45. (Source: Marder III & Grille by Vladimir Francev, Charles Kliment, published by MBI) I've been hoping that DML would issue the Grille H for some time once they started down the road of the 38(t) family of vehicles...when I saw the Grille M box-art with the H in the background, I wondered if it could be imminent...and now, here it is! Definitely will be one on my "to get" list as I've had the older Kirin kit in the stash for a while but hadn't gotten around to it.

Interesting. This looks like a completely new tooled kit. I have the old Kirin kit, but boxed as Shanghai Dragon, it came complete with the Sturmartillerie Crew in Winter Uniform. I seem to remember it going together well, it was the first kit I made with seperate track links, & it's definitely an interesting vehicle. Incidentally, the Panzertruppe didn't differentiate between the marks (H & M) when recording on hand strengths. They were after all basically the same vehicle. I thought that they were named "Bison", the Grille (Cricket) series were supposed to be generic Waffentrager on a 38t style chassis that never got into production. Not sure about the SIG33 against the StuH43. The SIG was a 1927 design that stayed in production through until 1945 according to Ian Hogg, German Artillery of WW2. He doesn't seem to mention the StuH 43, except as a projected new piece that bears no resemblance to either of the pieces mentioned, however he doesn't include Kwk (tank) weapons either, presumably because they don't fit into the "Artillery" pigeonhole (there are no references to SP weapons). The Germans made a habit of calling guns used for different purposes by different names even if basically the same piece, however there was some logic in their naming system, so I'd supect they are different weapons, even though the calibre is the same. The clue is in the nomenclature, a "gun" is not the same as a "howitzer". The implication of gun is a flat trajectory weapon whereas the howitzer is an indirect fire weapon for lobbing shells over an obstruction. Despite this the SIG33 was capable of high angle fire, so was really a howitzer in all but name.

I have been looking forward to this kit for years! I built the old Shanghai Dragon kit years ago and the fit was "complicated". It built into a nice model and I hid some of the hundreds of sink holes under a lot of stowage. The wheels had no detail on their backs and the treads were very fragile and I finally gave up and purchased some Fruil replacements. The fighting compartment doors were NOT a fit. As long as you kept them open they were fine. Ampersand has some nice reference photos in one of their books (came out after I completed the model) Ithink Tiger Models has a very nice replacement SiG33 for this kit now. My build is over at Track-link if you want to see the old kit. re: LINK Mike

I used to have the Dragon re-box of the Kirin Grille kit in my stash. It was built upon Italeri's Panzer 38(t) hull (I don't remember if the whole Italeri kit was in there). I look forward to getting this one someday. Osprey has a modelling book covering this: "Modelling the German 15cm sIG33 Bison and Grille". The author kit bases the Kirin kit with Tamiya's Marder III hull. Another nice booklet is Zimmerit Press' "Panzerkampfwagen 38(t) Variants: 2.0cm, 3.7cm, 7.5cm, 7.62cm, 15cm (Out of Print?). Looks like Tankograd's Militärfahrzeug 1/2009 issue has something on the Grille Ausf H also.

I have seen photos of the Stuh 43's rounds and they look similar to the SIG33's was woundering if they were. Amourscale do lovely SIG rounds and thought they would look good on the back of my early Brummbar. Cheers Geraint

Details of the Model added...

The detail looks great , a real kit among kits. lots of sub assemblies. Like it alot, when will it hit the shops? Hope it can become a X mas Pressie .

I've still got this version of the kit in the stash - along with a fairly huge pile of aftermarket extras in an attempt to make a decent kit out of it. It's one of those "I'd much rather get the new kit and build that, but I've no money and I've put so much into the old one over the years..." things. Replacement Aber PE, a Tiger Model Design SiG 33 upgrade, replacement wheels, replacement tracks, replacement exhaust and a Lion Roar PE set that completely replaces the fighting compartment armor with brass. One of those kits that when you're finished with it, there's so little left of the original kit you go "Uhhh..." when somebody asks about the manufacturer. The Italeri Panzerjager I and both the Alan and Italeri/Maquette kits of the Bison I are about to fall into similar territory - existing kits that can be built into decent models if you throw sufficiently large amounts of aftermarket at them but that are now made completely obsolete by a Dragon kit build OOTB or with minimal extras. Wonder how long until we get the SiG.33 parts (hopefully with a choice of both wooden and steel wheels) sold separately, maybe with appropriate figures for the horsedrawn version. Al