Heh, thanks for pointing that one out. I was sure that something like those sock puppets would exist, but I'd rather think that it would be more like fanboys, coming to their beloved company's aid (just like with the usualy AMD vs Intel debates on computer forums). Not the company themselves.
Yeah, I guess searching for/finding aftermarket kits seems to be a huge chore. I tried searching google for sets for the Thud and came out pretty empty. I am not an idiot (at least not completely :P), but even finding that one thing, with several search terms (and variants thereof) was a chore. All one finds is mostly shops or reviews, with a few builds, who sadly usually build it straight from the box *argh*.
So, I guess that at least google is no good and one has to know where to look for new releases and also a listing of old kits. Mostly I just try to read every review and build I can find on several pages and see if (and what) they mention, make notes and then check it out - and hope to find more than just the one add-on I searched for (like it was the case with Eduard, who offer some 5 PE sets).
And in regards to reviews, you're right of course about some people writing good articles with little content and vice versa, but it always seems to me that the really good ones just seem to know so unbelievably much about the aircraft they are building - and they do that in every build report they do. It kinda frightens me a little bit. I mean, one needs to compare pictures to see if the kit is right: Are the hatches at the right position? Are there any imaginary things on the kit that never existed? And so on. But when I read about people who go "The entire shape is incorrect; instead of a smoothly flowing curve from the middle of the windscreen forward, it is a straight line, making the whole nose too thin and pointy from all angles. This was fixed by replacing the entire nose from mid-windscreen to tip with one from a Collectaire resin kit that I had gotten as a gift." This is straight from Frank Mitchell's F-105G build on hyperscale.com, and he goes on about even more incorrect parts, especially the entire fuselage that he then bends to get into the right shape(s). See what I mean with "it kinda frightens me"? Just how and where does one aquire all the knowledge to be able to judge that? Do they just spend hours looking at every part, comparing them with some blueprint and all the photos they can get? Measuring and calculating?
Oh, one more question, if I may, inspired by my current build-planning:
Are PE sets usually better than Resin stuff? I noticed that, of all the stuff I looked at, the resin stuff always looked worse than the PE stuff. Still superior to the supplied kit parts, but the PE sets looked better, thinner, more detailed - well, you get it. As said, I have experience with both materials, but only as in "detail set came with resin and PE parts" not as in comparing one set of each, both designed to fit the same role (like resin & PE cockpit versions). Of course there's stuff you simply don't want to build out of PE, like anything that would require several pieces of PE glued on top of each other. Like, for example, a tail hook. So that obviously falls to Resin. But to me, using a sanded down original cockpit tub, with PE details glued on top, looks better than a complete resin tub. Also, PE ejector seats usually look nicer to me - but I don't have the experience of judging details (yet), so I ask. ;P