Hmm, wrt the writing embossed on the hull, I notice my 1:35 Tamiya Sherman has the same, but I also noticed when looking at real shermans a lot of them had the embossed writing on them! (Not if it said Made in Japan!)

cheers
Con

PS I would love a Tamiya RC kit, maybe one day.... at the moment my wife thinks I'm a geek wasting money on HL stuff! Never mind the sort of cash Tamiyas cost!