Before Tamiya the only game in town were after market kits that are very difficult to work with if you wanted a Tusk variation. This kit has a high parts count, 9 spurs of parts, rubber tracks and various clear parts for use in building the kit. The difference between the Tusk l and the Tusk ll is slight, leave off the turret armor. A nice touch was a workable Hollebone (draw bar) tow bar. I almost left that off to use in a future diorama. But if you want to take it off later, just pull the 2 small pins that hold it on. I did not glue mine for that reason, they are tight enough to stay in. The build is straight forward, as I found everything fit well. Even the turret basket, which on other tanks can be a pain. Tamiya's went together with out undo problems. I have to admit that the level of detail is very good, even the raised details will really show up after dry brushing, etc. I put on a Eduard PE set, but there was little difference to be gained from it. There is an other brand of PE to try, which I might try in the future. Anyone who has built a few armor models will have no problems with this kit. Just take your time cleaning up the smaller parts. Tamiya has done a very good job with what could have been a complicated kit to build. So, what stops this kit from a five star rating ? Lack of extra parts to stash on the model to make it look as it might be in the field. But don't let that stop you, this is a great kit to build.

This is a great kit. The details are really good, and there is little clean up on the parts and they all fit together as they should. The instructions were easy to follow. I didn't have any problems with this kit, and would highly recommend.

I really like this one! It can be built as a full SEP TUSK II, Tusk or Sep just by deciding which parts to glue on. Since the early TUSK kits were shipped to the field for installation som of the parts were devided up between more than one tank. do some research on-line and you will find lots of variations for building this one. As with all Tamiya rubberband type tracks, I put a couple of staples across the track join to hold the ends together. Another hint is not to glue the drive sprockets in place before the track is added. If you thread the track around the wheels and fit the sprocket in place last with the track around it, it save stretching the track and possibly breaking it.