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Howdy all, This is Tamiya's 1/35 scale Sherman Jumbo - a significantly up-armored Sherman tank designed to be at the head of advancing columns and function as an assault tank. Two hundred and fifty-four were built through the spring and summer of 1944 with the first batches hitting the European front in the fall of '44. All were initially armed with a 75mm gun. A number were later converted to the long barrel 76mm gun because it fired a more effective high-velocity anti-tank round. The Sherman Jumbos served through the end of the war in Europe. Tamiya's kit dates back to 1987 and is based on Tamiya's standard M4A3 Sherman tank issued in the early 80s. Tamiya added a new larger turret, new armor plates for the upper hull sides, and a new glacis plate for the hull front. Unfortunately, they neglected to provide a new and much larger front transmission cover. Numerous reviews have also mentioned the turret shape and size are off, but I've yet to read/hear where it's off or by how much. I spent some time looking over book and interweb pics and the height of the turret might be a bit low. Maybe. I believe the Jumbo is out of production, but the originall M4A3 is still available. Not worry; new, more detailed and more complex Jumbos are available. I've built a new transmission cover using the old cover as a foundation, then adding sheets and strips of Evergreen .040 plastic to beef it up. The turret height was raised with .030 strips of plastic between the upper and lower turret halves. Additional details were added to the hull and turret - basically anywhere you see white, copper wire, brass, or green putty. I also used a Dremel tool and a small dove-tail cutter to enhance the very prominent hull weld beads. The case transmission cover and the turret sides were coated with liquid glue (in sections) and stippled with a siff wire brush to replicate the cast texture of the real items. You can see the turret texture in the photo. The pic shows the mocked up upper and lower hull components and the turret, three of the six bogie wheel assemblies (three more on the other side), the mantlet, and turned aluminum gun barrel. Painting next - any color you want as long as it's olive-by-God-drab. Qs and Cs welcomed; no secrets here...