M4A3 Sherman 75mm Tank

The was a fun kit to put together. There were some vary small problems like alot of clean up on the parts, but everything snaps together and is easy to build. There's alot of extra gear to put on the tank and make it look used. My only complaint was the figures are of the lower quality and I had truble painting them and making details not look like there melted together. But on the end it's a great kit for it's price and would totally recommend if on a budget.

This was the first Sherman I've built and the first Tamiya kit I've put together. I'm new to scale modeling and this was my second piece of armor I've put together. It was pretty straight forward and all went together very nicely. Poly caps for all the wheels were nice. The rubber band tracks went together with regular plastic cement, although they will melt a bit, so dont hold them with your finger when you put the glue on. I built but didn't paint the figures - I'll use them later for some diorama. This kit had a lot of accessories with it - lots of canvas packs, satchels, eight or ten each of 30 and 50 cal ammo boxes, K rations, stowage crates, Jerry cans and oil drums. Lots and lots of stowage so your Sherman won't look bare. I was going to put half on and leave half off for diorama pieces. The accessories are great bits to use for other vehicles too if you dont load up your Sherman. I ended up randomly placing the stowage where I thought the crew and troops might keep things, and where they made sense not to fall off if the tank was moving. Overall, good kit - a couple cupola, road wheel, and drive sprocket options too.

Recently got back to the hobby Step away from cars for a moment and built this one. The first Tamiya i ever built was the motorized easy8 Sherman. I thought it was great until i bought the M3 Lee and M3 Stuart. Wow what a difference in detail especially for kits back in those days (the 70s). Then i bought this kit and though i had built other Shermans from other companies thru the years where the details really improved immensely, this kit STILL wowed me so many extra parts (which is nice because i'm basically starting all over again collecting Sherman spare parts). It does have its cons but, to me they aren't a big deal, since the two major ones are fixable. These are: The Classy Peg and Caballero Decal aren't mirror images of the left and right so. you have one correct side and one wrong side. the fix, don't use them or make your own corrected ones (you'll find how to's on youtube for making decals). The second (which is common for Tamiya armor, is no sponson. I have no clue why, even through all these years, they continue to do this? Don't they know you can see thru the tracks to the other side? I'm sure a lot of modelers have asked them about it. But, again no big deal. Just buy styrene sheets and make your own, besides it might give you ideas to scratch build an interior i'm not too nit-picky about other details you may find in books about a fresh factory built Sherman since in combat (i'm a US Army veteran), maintenance crews will use any good parts available from a disabled Sherman and one might have actually existed in the field but was destroyed. Also, factories will use older parts when they run out of the newer ones. Again this happens in the field so, it wouldn't a surprise to see a Sherman with different sets of road wheels on a bogie. This i think adds interest in a model (which again would happen in real life). so just enjoy your build and don't be afraid to be creative, especially with this Tamiya kit