It looks like HVSS put on a middke production M4A1, I think they mixed the former up with the E9 suspension fitted to some small hatched tanks post war.

It looks like HVSS put on a middke production M4A1, I think they mixed the former up with the E9 suspension fitted to some small hatched tanks post war.[/quote] It's a composite M4 hull with an M4A3 engine deck and HVSS suspension. As a scale model, it depicts nothing in the actual world. In the olden days, one could pirate the bogie units and swap them onto Tamiya's motorized M4A3E8, since the wheels were nearer to scale. Now, of course, we have accurate kits, and this release is a pure nostalgia item.

Looks like a kit my nephews might like as they're of the age where the build is all that matters and screw the details. Enjoy it and maybe even eventually paint it. Some of us could learn from them.

I had one that I tried to convert into an Israeli sherman, failed of course

That is the closest this kit is to any actual Sherman configuration. It's kind of a M50 as converted from a M4A1 or even a hybrid M4. Except the M50 wasn't yet configured with HVSS when the kit was released in the mid 1950s. Someone may have read about that saw a picture maybe and put together something kind of like what they saw a picture of. Or they saw an M4A1 and said "cool" but couldn't find an M4A1 for measuring a suspension or exhaust but there was a National Guard M4A3E8 up the road... so they put those bits together with this and a classic mish-mosh was born. The original version of the movie "The Bridge" had Sherman mock-ups based on this kit. The first Roco minitanks was an HO copy of this. A children's book on the Battle of the Bulge was illustrated with this kit model kit as the American tanks. It's an icon. By the way, the box art looks to be the original from one of the first 1950s era releases.

It looks like HVSS put on a middke production M4A1, I think they mixed the former up with the E9 suspension fitted to some small hatched tanks post war.[/quote] It's a composite M4 hull with an M4A3 engine deck and HVSS suspension. As a scale model, it depicts nothing in the actual world. In the olden days, one could pirate the bogie units and swap them onto Tamiya's motorized M4A3E8, since the wheels were nearer to scale. Now, of course, we have accurate kits, and this release is a pure nostalgia item. [/quote] Not even a composite Sherman - it just segues smoothly from the M4A1's middle hull to the angular A3 engine deck.

At the time, didn't know, didn't care! Fond memories of this kit and the Monogram series of armor kits. Al

At the time, didn't know, didn't care! Fond memories of this kit and the Monogram series of armor kits. Al [/quote] Revell/Monogram has reissued the Shermans and the Panzer IV over the past few years and they sold well. So seems they're on to something. Heard the Stug IV is also making a reappearance soon. I revisited the Shermans and enjoyed every minute of it.

Wonder if the owner of this had one too?