More about this kit

It is the Italeri kit.  The suspension is from their M4A1 kit, originally tooled in the Early 80''s.  The A3 hull came about in the early 90's.  The kit is buildable, but the movable suspension is best glued.  The gun tube is incorrect as it contains a "step" that is not on the real item.  Unless you are getting the kit cheap, for what that release of it costs you would be better getting the DML kit of the same M4 variant.

As stated, the suspension was used with Italeri's M4A1, M32 recovery vehicle, M7 Priest and the Kangaroo personnel carrier back in the 1980s.

The M4A3 hull arrived around 1989-90 when Italeri released it as the M4A2 'Jumbo' (which was neither an M4A2 nor a Jumbo) and also as the M36B1 Jackson tank destroyer. The M4A2 was simply their M4A1 76mm kit with an A3 hull in place of the A1 hull. As an M4A3 76(W), it was a decent kit for its time.

The M4A3 hull was retooled around 2002 when Italeri released the USMC M4 (which was either an M4A3 or M4A2, but not an M4). They included the option to rework the back deck to make a pseudo-M4A2.

The kit is a conglomeration of components made during different stages of Italeri model production expertise, but is essentially a re-release of the kit originally known as the M4A2 'Jumbo" kit #253.

One of the issues with the suspension is that it is designed to rock back and forth at the center whereas each arm should be able to articulate up and down independently of the other.

The step in the gun tube was created by the actual vehicle they based the kit off of having the gun barrel cut and reattached in order to have the tank demilitarized.

The kit was given to me, so the price is right, lol.