Well, it's here!
The kit arrived yesterday, so naturally I had to cut into plastic and glue something right away.
At first inspection, kit has great details and texture, parts fit reasonably well (some fit great, some need a little bit of liquid putty). On the other hand, some parts need scraping and sanding from excess plastic, but nothing major. Also, there is a lot of pin and sink marks, I am not sure which ones will be visible, so I am taking the safe route and dealing with them all.
Overall, seems like a great fun is in front of me.
Here are 3 pics I took in a hurry with my phone, more to follow when things start to take shape.

Cool! I will be watching this thread!

I'll watch this build. I've recently bought this kit as well.

Small progress:
Engine parts need a lot of cleanup. Some parts even needed some surgery to fit. Still have some cosmetic work to do but I don't want to lose my nerves too much because at the end not much will be visible after all.

Upper part of the body is mostly done. I managed to break that 3 piece PE protector on the right front so I had to take the plastic one from the old Dragon kit to replace it. Tools wil be fit later in the build, they dont have straps molded on them so I will try to improvise something with masking tape. Maybe.

Starting the work on the interior. Fitting of the parts that assemble the lower part of the tank is overall great, no complaints there.

Looks great! The engine is a beauty!

This is an example of flash that you have to deal with on a tiny parts.

Or take a look at the firewall. The side that goes toward the crew compartment is perfect, but then you turn it and see the sink mark horror on the engine compartment side...

Engine compartment mostly done. Had to sand cca 1mm from the exhaust pipes and firewall didn't want to sit in place so I had to glue it with CA glue for a strong bond. I dryfitted the upper hull and everything seems to fall in place. For now.

Very nice!

I do understand that the ejector pin marks look somewhat horrible. However, in your next photo of the completed engine and firewall, the ejector pin marks appear to be well covered by elements of the engine compartments.

Yes, luckily they are completely covered, so no need to sand them

I wanted to thank you for this blog, Nice work!

Small update...
Transmision is done, still needs washes when the paint dries. It went together without major issues. Chipping and some dirt on the bottom is next thing to be done before glueing the front part with transmission.



Dryfitting the upper part... Seems that everything fits.

Small update:

You're doing a lovely job and you're rather selling me on this kit!

Interior almost done. Some more chipping and dirt and that's it I think.

Beautiful work!!!!

Is it all OOB?

You’re a good salesman for this kit.
Great job!

Thanks guys!
Yes, everything is OOB which works for me, but I guess superdetailers could improve it a lot.

Fantastic work!

Small progress:
Lower and upper halves of the body glued together, perfect fit.
Black primer, main color Olive Drab Dark, light modulation with Olive Drab Base and satin protection before the weathering steps.

Fantastic kit and inspiring build, thank's for sharing.

Have you seen this site-
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/manufacturer/m4a376w/m4a3_76w.html

Dan, thanks for the link!

Glad to help.

An awesome job! My only observation is that it looks like you painted the .30 cal boxes next to the assistant driver white instead of olive drab.

Jesse