The Osprey Modelling series has become quite popular in the few years that the series has been available and this one on the Bison and Grille Self Propelled Guns is one of the latest additions to the series.

As a bit of a background, these SPGs basically take the German 150 mm SIG 33 Field gun and place them on various obsolete tank chassis. In this case, the Bisons were put on Panzer I and StuG III chassis while the Grille used a Panzer 38 (t) chassis. This resulted in some very different looking vehicles.

The author has decided to concentrate his efforts on 1/35 scale and provides us with what are basically five builds. These are:

Sturminfanteriegeschutz 33B

sIG 33 (sf) PzKfw I ausf B

Infanteriegeschutz 33 (Sf) auf PzKfw 38 (t) ausf H

sIG 33 auf Fahrgestell PzKfw II (Bison II)

Infanteriegeschutz 33/1 auf Selbstfahrlafette 38 (t) Ausf K

Yeah, it sounds odd to me as well, but basically these are all SPGs that use the sIG 33 gun. The author does none of these out of the box and all of them involve heavy use of aftermarket parts and general scratchbuilding as well as the usual kit bashing that we see so often in these books.

Most of us will never be able to duplicate these, but for those that are willing to try, the methods and sources are right here in the book. A real help are the superb photographs that accompany each article. The first three builds offer skill levels and they go from Intermediate, to Skilled, to Master.

A short background history is provided as well as a small section on useful tools. In the back is a listing of currently available kits and accessories as well as where to go to see the real things. A bibliography is also supplied along with a color chart of dubious usefulness as it is not color chips but standard printing.

In line with other books of this series, it provides a great deal of inspiration to the reader. Even if one's skill isn't up to the levels shown, one cannot help but pick up something useful. A real treat for the armor fan and one that I can recommend to you.

October 2005

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