Jealous of the Panthers... that's a lot of dough to spend on a fleet! It's an excellent hull I hope you like it.
Magnets are the best thing ever, especially for tanks. I use tons of them & it makes HengLong hulls "easy access", usually the first thing I do. The transmission cover was a mixed blessing for me too... Once you get the Sherman hull trimmed as the instructions suggest it fits very nicely and is strong. I had to open up the two lower holes on the cover to fit the hull, and used two self tapping screws on the upper as they didn't align at all. Once I got it secured though it became solid.