Now why couldn't they have done that in the first place?

Certainly looks like it... opportunity lost for Axis modelers... Never mind, i've got my prime-mover for MY Flak 18....

Yep, competition IS healthy, however, as I don't believe for two seconds that DML has gone beyond the Box-Art, why announce EXACTLY the same vehicle? Problem is, that all the AM sets in the world won't turn this into anything more than an early pattern Sd.Kfz 7. Problem is that neither DML or Trumpeter are going to vanish any time soon and BOTH of them are going to have to learn to co-exist. I'm also a bit concerned that some of DML's propaganda is getting believed and some people will seriously NOT buy the Trumpeter kit - waiting for the DML one (whenever that actually is - my guess will be autumn/winter of this year). If DML do actually do it, then i'd personally sooner wait for an accurate model rather than something which has been put together to go against Trumpeter, Saying all this though, Trumpeter, IMO, haven't done themselves a lot of favors by publishing photos of the built-up (TEST) model. It doesn't honestly look brilliant. The test shots of the partially-built model were, IMO, far better... As the expression goes in Spanish: 'Better to watch the bulls from the safety of the fence...'

How do we know that Dragon didn't plan their kit first and that Trumpeter didn't just jump the gun and rush out their own prototype. The only historical precident we have is the DickerMax and to be honest I don't know which company's kit was announced first, which was released first and which was the better kit. Of the two companies I would say that Dragon does the greather ammount of (and lengthier) research and planning (I could be biased) and personally I've been seeing a lot of Dragon SdKfz.7 'propoganda' in my local hobby shops for a while and nothing from Trumpeter, but I live in Tokyo so I'm not sure what comes in this direction. Infer from this what you will...

Don´t be worrying needlessly Jim .... "the details of actual vehicle was thoroughly reseached"

Yeah, my favorites are the replies and quotes I've seen on other sites, the best was the one that proclaimed the Dragon kit to be "stunning." Then there are those already saying they will wait on the Dragon kit when the actual Trumpeter kit hasn't even hit the shelves yet. How about at least waiting 'til the kit has been reviewed. Mike

I am constantly intrigued with the modeler's capability of convoluted thinking. Believe me, as I've been involved in 1/35th scale modelling since 1971, I've done my share of it myself. I've been associated with Dragon for twenty years now and know little more about the business of our hobby than I did when I started down this path. I guess that would suggest that I am rather thick but mostly it indicates that Dragon would rather keep things to them self. Nonetheless, through the years I have managed to acquire a bit of understanding about how business is done in parts of Asia (from non hobby sources) and it has allowed me some comprehension of some circumstances. I think if most of us knew these, most of us would understand why certain things occur, even if we don't agree with them. That being said, I find myself particulary curious to know why anyone would be surprised that Dragon would produce a halftrack to pull their already existing Flak 88's and sFH18. Or why they would choose to produce the most numerous variant first? And who would belive that DML won't produce numerous variants of the vehicle before they're done? Of course, I'm not so thick that I can't see that the "timing" is one of the issues here, but that has happened in our hobby since Italeri and Tamiya went head to head in the Panzer IV wars of the 1970's. My understanding is that it can take 6-12 months of full time effort to bring a kit into production (perhaps auto CAD has reduced that some) so I guess we'll have to wait for our answer. I fully understand that this is a place to offeer one's opinions so I thank you all for the opportunity to share mine. Respectfuly, Ron Volstad

What actually surprised me, is they didn't do it a couple of years ago... If they'd delayed the release of a Paper-Panzer and brought this out, a lot of people would have been scattering rose-petals at their feet... That equally makes sense although sadly, we may see some of the more interesting variants come out in one production run (Cyber-Hobby?) thereby limiting their availablity. This, IMO, would be a serious mistake. The most common (early) variant will make sense and unless Trump REALLY screw the pooch in accuracy terms, DML are going to be playing some serious catch-up. Thanks for your contribution Ron, to an immensely interesting debate...

Lizard vs Bugler reminds me of Ford vs GM.