Not being a big sherman fan, what is the differnces in these variants?.

Who makes the best 1/35 scale Sherman?

The Firefly is a British variant armed with a 17 lb gun. There are three out by DML, the latest one is the best. It is the Firefly Vc.

Regular Shermans come in all varieties and are armed with either the 75mm, 76mm or 105mm howitzer. Best kit here depends on whether you want the M4, M4A1, M4A2, M4A3, or M4A4.

A Jumbo is an uparmored M4A3E2 Sherman with heavy armor added to the hull and a heavy armor turret. They were initially armed with the 75mm but some were up gunned with the 76mm. Only one on the market OOB is the Tamiya kit, but Blast and Tank Workshop make conversion kits to improve the basic kit.

Firefly is a Sherman up-gunned with a 17pdr gun by the British, used mainly by the British, Canadian and Poles in NWE (and by New Zealanders and maybe others in Italy).

Regular Shermans came in a huge variety with 75mm/76mm and 105mm guns and two sorts of suspension.

M4A3E2 (aka Jumbo) was a heavily up-armoured assault version of the Sherman, armed either with a 75mm or 76mm gun and used almost exclusively by the US Army (plus one used by the French).

As for the best model, depends on which version you want to build. Academy, Dragon, Italeri and Tamiya all make Shermans and all have their good and bad points.

In a nutshell, the "Firefly" was a British, Cdn & Polish Sherman upgunned with the 17pdr QF AT gun. Good AP characteristics. Usually mounted on M4A4s although later M4 and M4 Hybrid hulls were used too. Only seen in Europe -- the goal was one Firefly for each 4 normal 75mm Sherman gun tank.

Your "regular" Sherman would probably be any 75mm gun tank. This was how the Sherman was originally envisisioned. Later 76mm cannon T23 turrets were installed to some versions, these had better AP properties too. Although the 75mm gun was great for its variety of roles, its AP was weak comparatively.

The "Jumbo" was a heavily armored version, meant to be an "assault tank", taking the front of columns and such. Originally armed w/a 75mm gun, some units upgraded them with 76mm cannon and .50cal coax MG.

For a better article, go here:

http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Sherman%20Corner/shermanvariants.html

The best 1/35 kit is a matter of interpretation I'd say.

For ease of build, Tamiya M4A3, Tamiya M4 or Tamiya M4A3 (105mm).

If you want better accuracy, then these: DML M4A2 Soviet 76mm Lend lease, DML M4A1 76mm.

Feel free to ask more questions. The "Brain trust" on things Sherman is quite large...

Gday Johnny
The basic differences are:
Firefly~ British variant on a hybrid hull or M4A4... with a 17pounder gun. General concensus is that this is the only variant that could stand toe to toe with Tigers in firepower
Jumbo~ designated M4A3E2, this was a later M4A3 Sherman with additional armour for the hull sides and glacis, and 'duckbill' end connectors for imorved floatation over soft ground as the tank weighed 10 tons more than standard... Designed for attacking fortifications etc...75mm gun, with some later installing the 76mm higher velocity weapon...
Regular~ Well where do we start? :-)
Original Sherman was M4 (welded hull) M4A1 followed (cast 1 piece hull) and tweaks and mods followed, such as improved suspension, ammunition stowage, armour protection, then the gun changed (to the 76mm as described above) for some variants during 1944, which resulted in a new turret, the T23...
I suggest doing an image search on some of the things mentioned, and that way you can decide what you want to do (I assume you are going to build one?)
You are opening a Pandoras' box as to who makes the best in 1/35, as each have their own strengths and weaknesses... The latest Dragon offerings seem to be the most accurate to date, but are of later types only at the moment...
I'd go with a Firefly for variety... The "Jumbo" would be my choice for rarity, but the only plastic kit
available is the old Tamiya 'dinosaur'! Plenty of aftermarket stuff with resin conversions though...
Hang here for a bit, as there are a few other brains trusts who can help you with far more in depth info than me, as I've only scratched the surface here
Cheers
Brad

Johnny

If you build the Tamiya Jumbo,at least get a Tank Workshop transmission cover The kit part is too thin for the uparmored cover