M4A3E2

John,
If the M4A3E2 is anything like Tamiya's West German Leopard A4 (kit wise not actuall models...lol) then you should have no real problems, the Tamiya kit's are well made and go together quite easily..Look for my thread titled Update Pics of my Leopard'
You can see that even tho it was my first armor model it went together smoothly.

As for pearls....ok
One of the MOST IMPORTANT.things...RESERCH ...web search that particular armor...look at photos, diagrams, writeups...anything you can find will make it easier for you to visulize the project:)
Prepare everything trim all your flash, if it has any. Test fit everything to see where you may have to adjust a piece to get it to fit.
The most important thing is to have fun!!!

Good luck and let us know how it comes along....and don't be afraid to ask questions:)

The M4A3 E2 from Tamiya is a relatively straight forward build John. It does have some inaccuracies but nothing that stops you from building a reasonable representation of the Jumbo. There is one glaring mistake with all Tamiya Sherman, and that is that the sponsons are not filled in on the bottom. Here's a link for the template for making the sponson bottoms.

http://www.archertransfers.com/WEB%20pictures/ShermanFix.pdf

1. if it is a sherman, do what shermanfreak says
2. I am starting to hate Tamiya
3. DML makes much better models in my opinion

just my $.02

good luck, have fun,