Every time i poke my head into this thread, i am tempted to buy yet another Tamiya M4 Early Production, to convert into a proper Marine M4A2; the previous one i build was OOB, but as explained on my build thread 
And another Sherman is born - Armor/AFV / WWII Allied - KitMaker Network.
The stock Tamiya kit has a handful of inaccuracies that are annoying to a quasi-Sherman puritan like myself, but can be fixed. The overall kit is fun to put together; so much that I decided to leave the above build as-is and make it into an ETO build; then buy a second kit and fully commit to it as a Marine PTO build with the whole “KIn N’ Kaboodle” - Plank armor, spare track applique up front, etc…