Which kit?

What about a M-3 Lee/Grant, Hellcat,, a Stuart or even a AMTRACK?  One of my favorites has always been the Priest, we had them in a few of our Armed Forces Day parades.

The M-3 was in the original WWII movie Sahara with Humphrey Bogart.

Another consideration might be the M-30 cargo tank that was built on a Sherman hull or a tank repair vehicle, also made from a Sherman.  Sometimes doing a vehicle that very few will can be more fun.  The same thing gets redundant after a while.

A Tamiya Pershing would be a nice build. I too am partial to the Stuart as well. Academy and AFV  Club are very good options of the Stuart.

I guess it's a crapshoot on what you'd like?

Here are some very good kits out of the box (requiring intermediate level skills) that I could recommend:

Tamiya 25174 Firefly VC Sherman (ex Tasca)

Tamiya 25175 M4A3E8 "easy eight" Sherman (ex Tasca)

DML 6637 M7 Priest, mid production

DML 6627 M7 Priest, early

DML 6760 Sexton II SPG

DML 6793 Sexton II SPG w/CDP tracks

AFV Club Churchill tanks (many to choose from)

AFV Club M3A3 light tank

AFV Club M5A1 light tank

DML US Halftrack kits (not a tank, though)

Other Asuka/Tasca M4 Sherman variants (plenty to chose from)

Easier kits:

Tamiya M8 or M20 armored car

Tamiya Cromwell or Centaur

Tamiya M26 Pershing (the Hobby Boss Super Pershing represents one tank -- and is only OK, IMHO)

Academy M3 Lee or M3 Grant

Academy M12 Gun Motor Carriage

As for Ikar's suggestion of an M30 Cargo carrier -- that would require a scratch conversion of the M12 GMC and plenty of reference material. Not unheard of but a poor suggestion for a first venture into US or UK tanks, IMHO.

There are plenty of older and cheaper kits available (Italeri e.g.) but you get what you pay for.  For a first taste, I'd recommend getting a very good base kit.  You don't want your first bite to be all fat and gristle!  hahaha

Anything Tamiya. If you buy the Easy 8 get the newer one.

Roy, no suggestion by anyone here is a "poor" one except under the worst of circumstances.

Poor?  My description. How about "unhelpful" to the question asked?

I don't build much US armor but when I do (and this might sound silly) I like to go with the cool factor, I really like the look of Dragons m4a3e8 "Thunderbolt vii" or Dragons Pershing which I think comes in their Value pack which contains some figures

The kit is nice. Just know however that the kit as configured, was not the lone T26E4 to enter combat during WW2.  Not sure if this will alter your calculations...  If you look at my avatar, the Hobby Boss kit attempts to replicate that one -- the actual single, combat vehicle.  (Mine was built about ten years ago, using the Tamiya M26  kit plus scratch upgrades)

Hello Roy, forgive my ignorance  but I am not catching your meaning? Do you mean the way the Tamiya  kit is configured, there was no version like that in WWII? 

Oh okay I got it. I checked and I see what you meant. There was only one actual Super Pershing to be sent to Europe  for combat.

During WW2, the initial two T26E4 pilot tanks were built.  The pilot tank, was converted from T26E1, tank number 1.  Thus, it had many "early" features.  The 2nd T26E4 was converted from a T26E3.  The pilot tank (nee T26E1 Nr. 1) was the lone T26E4 sent to Europe on 1/12/45.  Once in theater, the 3AD added additional armor to it to see how it'd fight toe-to-toe with German tanks.  The 2nd T26E4 stayed in the US and underwent further testing.  On March 1945, the army contracted the building of 1000 T26E4s.  With the war's end, the order was cancelled in 1947 after 25 T26E4s were built.  The Tamiya kit represents either the 2nd T26E4 or one of the production T26E4s.  The Tamiya kit does NOT represent the T26E4 Pilot 1 that was sent to Europe.  Considerable conversion would be required.

But if you want to build a tough looking tank, Tamiya's T26E4 certainly fits the bill -- it's just not historically very significant however.  One still remains in Illinois.     (BTW: the combat veteran T26E4 was scrapped in Europe after the end of hostilities.  You can read about its uparmoring in Belton Cooper's book "Death Traps" or you can read about one of its gunners in John Irwin's "Another River, Another Town".   It successfully killed at least 3 German tanks in the few weeks it was engaged in combat)

Thanks for the clarification  Roy. How much modification  are we talking? I'm no rookie at mods, so I won't be put off even though this is my first US build. Also where can I find the parts needed to portray the combat vehicle sent to europe? Any aftermarket resin detail kits that accomplish this? I checked ebay and came up with zilch  except some PE.

Why don't you build the T26E3? It's a nice kit, it's also pretty bada$$, and there were a lot of those in service in 1945.

That is a good suggestion,  and I will eventually,  but I just love the look of the the t26e4 SP with that killer 90mm L73 reach out and touch somebody main gun. Like I said I'm going to start diving of into US WWII armor and some of the later more modern era armor, but I want to start with the SP.

If you want to go whole hog on converting the Tamiya M26 or Tamiya T26E4 into the wartime configuration, let me direct you to my album:

http://s45.photobucket.com/user/ericadeane/library/T26E4%20Super%20Pershing?sort=4&page=1  (I finished this in 2006)

and Steve Zaloga's article (which has some good research pics)   http://www.militarymodelling.com/news/article/super-pershing/3690

Of course, the Hobby Boss kit purports to give you a model of the wartime T26E4.  Modifying/correcting that kit may be an easier route than the one that Steve and I took.  Here's a partial list of tweaks I identified for the HB kit: http://armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=226796   (mine is the fifth post).

Before the HB kit, there was a full resin kit by Accurate Armour.  Then when the Tamiya M26 came out, AccArmour re-issued it as a conversion kit.  I used that as the basis of my build but eventually did most of the conversion myself -- only using the AccArmour barrel.

If you really want the wartime T26E4, I'd recommend going with the HB kit.

(Can you tell I'm a little obsessed with the T26E4? hahaha)

Maybe just a small obsession! Thanks for the guidance. I may just pick up the HB kit as its only about $40 shipped off ThiefBay.Then I will use your post for guidance.