well just picked up four alan kits from evil-bay and was curious to find out how everyone else views this maker.if my memory is correct they are a ;sig 33 artillery piece,wespe,bison,and a panzer 2.[8D]
I gather that they are hit or miss. I have the Grille M and the tracks were alright when they were there, had a lot of half formed links or holes through the links from the injector. I had to find alternate ones. The fit is ok at best and some detail is soft. Other than that not a bad kit if you got them cheap and are willing to put some love into them.
I’ve got their SU76M. The detail and plastic are pretty soft. For an open top vehicle the interior is very sparse as well. The fighting compartment armor is way over scale. I’d guess the crewmen would’ve wished for armor that thick. I haven’t built it so I can’t speak to the fit etc. I picked it up cheap quite a while back when I thought it was the only SU76 in plastic.
I’ve built Alan’s Grille M and it will take some love and attention but can be built up into a good finish. Currently working on the Alan Bison I which uses the same sIG 33 artillery piece, just getting started on the gun itself.
The fit is so-so, some large parts in particular have gaps that have to be dealt with. Detail can be chunky or non-existent depending. Upside is that they have kits of subjects that no one else does in 1/35 styrene and are often the only game in town. Definitely can benefit from a PE set and some strong model-building skills. [;)]
thanx all if anything they’ll make good parts.looking forward to getting them
I did the Alan Pz II C and it wasn’t bad for a cheapie kit! Took some TLC, a little scratchwork and some parts from the spares to get to this stage:
At first I thought it was a dog, but it turned out pretty good. Hope this helps.
I built the Wespe and Panzer II J.Both were good kits that built up nice.Definately test fit the parts,you might have to make a few tweaks.Also,watch the alignment of the running gear to avoid problems when installing the tracks.
BTW,is Alan still in business?Squadron isn’t currently stocking the line.
If I’m not mistaken, no. Most of their kits have been re-release under Maquette.
I built the BA-20 armored car, the parts fit needed some care and adjustment, no interior detail. but I like scratchbuilding simple stuff like that, think model A ford. You can make nice projects out of them
G.L.
I’ll second all the above. For some subjects they do, it’s the only game in town. For now. But put some model building skills in play and they do look okay in the end. I’ve built about 6 of their kits and knew that they were not Dragon or Tamiya going in, so I was not disapointed in the results.
Doug.