Thanks much for all your kind comments, compliments and information about the tank. I really appreciate them! I think this is a good-looking tank compared to other Japanese WWII ones. "PJ" does a good job on almost anything now, but my main armor modeler is still "Art Instructor". Today he delivered 6 new armors. Only one is WWII, the rest are modern ones. Expect to see these in a day or two:

- Italeri's Willy Jeep w/ M2 Machine Gun 1:24

- Meng's D9R Armored Bulldozer

- Trumpeter's MK23 MTVR Cargo Truck

- Trumpeter's M1078 (Armor Cab) + Voyager's resin road wheels

- Trumpeter Russian T-62 Model 1972

- Panda's Soviet Heavy Tank Object 279

MM put some sand on the figure, that would be cool. He's to clean next to that working AFV.

Really nice build MM, I especially like the shading and weathering. Very nice.

Hey MM, nice work there by PJ, I really like the mud splattered over the lower hull and running gear. Looks very realistic.

Basically it was an improved turret with a 75mm gun mounted on the proven Type 97 hull. Mechanically it was very reliable and fixed one of the main problems of the Type 97 - it's weak 37/47mm main gun. It didn't fix the other glaring defect- the extremely thin armour. It was the equivalent pretty much of a late Panzer IV and seems like it wouldn't be that inferior to a Sherman or Cromwell. It would have been totally overmatched by a Pershing though.  Somewhat over 200 were built and stockpiled for the invasion of the home islands so never saw combat.

Nice one MM!  PJ did a good job on it!  Like Rob says, the Japanese were a few years behind in tank development during the war.  The design looks akin to something from European countries in the early 40s

Nice. Fun to see some different armor - like the Japanese stuff, too.

One of my favorite genres of armor modeling; WW2 Japanese Imperial Army tanks. Such primitive armor at the time the world armies were making leaps in tank development.