Nah, his Allied half track reviews offer little more than cheer leading IMO. He makes a few really inaccurate statements in those reviews, like the dashboard comment for instance: "The model has the "civilian" style dashboard, so note that the instruments are a brushed aluminum color on preserved/restored vehicles and not the more common black with white numerals." lolwut?

Well, comparing the two, the Legend set wins by about 3.5 light years... Also, speaking about wheels: Now, all the 'puff' pieces in the world from Mr. Sewell and others, don't really change the facts. Someone didn't do their research for DML. Alternatively, and i've seen it happen before, the source was a preserved example. Very very dangerous sources for ANY manufacturers. Just to be aware of something, the researcher(s) responsible for the Jeep, gave DML some really duff information, so, in that respect, the fault ISN'T DML - they have to take the things in good faith... Tempting though it is to say the contrary, DML is as much a victim in all this as anyone.

[auto-censored], I was really looking forward to this kit OOB.

The new SAS jeep is very nice. I just got my kit in the other day and am waiting for a wet afternoon to start on it. Great detail and very well thought out. Should be most popular.

Why is it not their fault? Did they only find one person in the world to get their research from? Did they not think to get an alternative opinion? At the very least I'd say they should learn a lesson from this; a little extra effort and time would make a world of difference Chris

Why is it not their fault? Did they only find one person in the world to get their research from? Did they not think to get an alternative opinion? At the very least I'd say they should learn a lesson from this; a little extra effort and time would make a world of difference Chris[/quote] I do tend to think that one of two things happened: 1) The person(s) responsible for the research on this took the path of least resistance got images of a jeep and incorrectly assumed thatt one jeep being like any other, decided to simply bung-on the 'fittings' for an SAS one. 2) DML themselves decided to design it 'in-house' using the later Tamiya kit as the basis (unlikely as there are few errors on the Tamiya one) and turned out CAD drawings. Possibly again, thinking that a 'Jeep was a Jeep' and who the hell was going to notice anyway. If you think that's unlikely, the CAD drawings for the CH Mercedes G4 are, supposedly, completely haywire with around 10 major errors. I checked my own sources and yes, there are some pretty daft errors. It could have been just simply an attitude of NOT doing research on an Allied subject which is a counterpoint to their meticulous research on Axis subjects. Add-in, the 'Tame' Reviewers that they have across the 'Web (we ALL know who THEY are) and maybe they thought they could get away with it?

more likely, I think, is that they know things like the tyres are not right, and some of the minor production features, but they decided to ignore them Why? because DML never release a kit with the purpose of doing that one version, they tool a kit with the purpose of kitting 5 or six versions. Thus I suspect they have decided on a 'commonality' of sprues across those kits and are willing to make certain errors in order to satisfy that 'commonality' (regardless of whether or not those features are common to the various versions they have planned) I suspect this version is more or less unimportant to them. The real version they are working on is no doubt the more common willys jeeps as seen in standard US service across the various theatres. This one is just the 'special edition version' hence the CH white box nature of the release That would also explain the lack of stowage and other things you might expect in a release of an SAS desert jeep What any of this (my theory or yours) does not explain is the apparently highly shonky fit of the kit (seen on a build log on another site) and the dimensional issues noted on Terry's review at PMMS on the grill regarding the headlights and width of the side panels. These were reasonable standard on that type of grill (the common type) and I would have thought would be something easy to get right. But it looks like they got it very wrong I could forgive the problems with the SAS components, but the problems with the basic jeep underneath all the SAS stuff are more serious and are why I cancelled my order from Cyberhobby and ordered the Legend set instead (and now its arrived and I've had a look at it, boy am I glad I did, its a great set)

Now THAT is the $64.000 question which makes me go for the 'In-House' design theory. It also raises another question, just HOW to you get a Jeep wrong? Even the 'copies' of the Jeep such as the Spanish version, have a commonality that exists in few other vehicles. I can understand a less ubiquitious subject, but, a Jeep? Get outta here!

Having read Terry Ashley's review at PMMS, with photos of the kit parts, plus the review at ML, I retract my previous statement. Nice little details are offset by the larger issues.