Since the Sherman was my first 1/16 Tamiya tank I was asked to give an opinion as to what I thought. I have built 1/35 scale Tamiya's in the past so I expected alot of parts and this kit didn't dissapoint.



Not only lots of detail but lots of extras, extra screws/washers/nuts, extra sprues of equipment and details that are optional to add to the finished tank, like boxes and ammo cans. The details molded into the tank were amazing, weld lines and bolt heads. One small annoyance was the molded in writing on the hull and turret, they were easily sanded off. The metal parts in the suspension were well made, no offset mold lines or messy flash. The metal parts went together perfectly. The suspension action on this kit is second to none, I haven't seen a nicer one yet. Not only does the whole boogie unit pivot but the wheels pivot out from this unit, compressing a spring to provide the suspension, lots of moving parts to make it look life like. The kit included thread lock safe for plastic, a special grease and a small wrench. With all the things included I can say I wouldn't have done anything different, it came out just as I wanted and runs great.
After building this kit I find myself wanting another, it exudes quality and was fun to build. If I was to make a few suggestions to Tamiya I would have them hire an english speaking person to do a better manual, I would also use a full metal track, the current one is a hybrid with plastic pads inserted into a metal track structure. I would like to see them make more varied kits, we have a field full of Tiger I's and King Tigers and none of the cool early war tanks like the Matilda, Skoda, Semovente, Char B or later war PZ IV, Crusder etc. In closing if you ever wanted a Sherman tank, I can't imagine getting a better product for the price, thats about $400 on ebay.