Thank you for the help. it will be truly appreciated here. 
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You know? This thread got me thinking about adding a Soviet Lend Lease M4A2 Sherman on my collection of Shermans. I’m looking at several options.
Right off the bat, the Zvezda kit is out of the question. But other choices, like Tamiya, Academy and Italeri come to mind; the Dragon is not bad, but I’ve always had fitment issues with Dragon kits.
Which one would you choose?
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Really depends on what you want from the project. I think detail wise from that lot Dragon is top. Italeri and Tamiya are the same kit. Academy is probably the same to a certain extent.
I would tempted to get a Asuka M4A2 kit for an 75mm or same kit and do a turret swap for a 76mm.
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I was thinking of getting the Asuka M4A2 for the hull and then get the A3(76)W turret. The main Issue i guess is the engine cover, which I think is different between the A2 and A3.
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There might be more differences but those two engine decks are different.
Petbat had posted this on the old site.
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This is the upper hull from the Tasca/Asuka A3 Sherman. You can probably get away with fabricating the engine cover, but i am NOT an armor expert, so I wouldn’t know what features go on which variant. It’s a turkey shoot for me… Try my best to get everything right.
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That illustration definitely helps out with fabricating the rear engine deck on a L-L A2. 
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Do exactly as you were thinking and you will be good to go. Buy an Asuka M4A2 75mm and an Asuka M4A3 76mm and swap the turrets. You will have the highest quality, most hassle free M4 kit possible. The M4A2 has twin 6 cylinder diesels, and the M4A3 has a V8, that’s why they have different engine decks. But go ahead with that plan and you’ll be golden.
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So something like ASU35019 1:35 Asuka M4A3(76)W Sherman - Sprue Brothers Models LLC
(Not sure if the direct vision was exported)
Ideally you would want this out of stock kit.
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I was looking at the Caesar for the hull, but like you stated; it is out of stock (at least on Sprue Brothers) and they’re expensive on eBay (shipped from Japan).
I could cobble together the turret from parts sold on eBay, plus a barrel from Aber; then get a set of T54E1 tracks from Panda Plastics. But the trick will be to get the Caesar kit as a starting point. I’ll be on the lookout for it.
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Not sure when SB will restock. They had them a month ago when I got mine.
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For example, at least one SU-152 fought in the 394th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment -
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I bought sprues separately for the top plate for the M4A2 - https://tasca-shop.ocnk.net/data/tasca-shop/product/20121006_28d7e3.jpg, and lower hull - https://tasca-shop.ocnk.net/data/tasca-shop/product/20121006_ee4a4a.jpg, due to the fact that I needed specific road wheels, I had to use the Jumbo set as a base - AMPS Reviews - Tasca US Assault Tank M4A3E2 Sherman "Jumbo" - Armor Modeling & Preservation Society, (that’s why I also bought a turret)
But, you can do with the usual M4A3 - AMPS Reviews - U.S. Medium Tank M4A3 76 W Sherman - Armor Modeling & Preservation Society, slightly modifying the stern -
“Звезда” released a very good 76 mm. Sherman, correcting the errors of the previous model -
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Fantastic contributions from all, the true value of these forums & I bow to the Collective, resistance is futile.
That said, this looks like another example of something that occasionally preys on my mind. Namely, when exhaustive research neither confirms nor denies, what to do? Some may say that without proof they wouldn’t place an AFV in whatever context, while others might say screw it, nobody can call me out for being wrong by including it. In the end it comes down to what are the odds of a speculation being authentic?
The OP started this thread by saying he wanted to include some more unusual AFVs in a Berlin 1945 diorama. Seems to me anything in the Red Army inventory is likely including lend-lease, but perhaps a really unusual vehicle could be a captured Panther/Tiger/whatever re-purposed against its former owners…whether or not there’s any proof. It’s a possibility though 
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No worries! Even though it may be slightly „off topic“ it`s a fascinating story nonetheless. The preparation for an European war during the Cold War is a fascinating subject, both the soviet plans for attack as well as NATO plans for Defence, turretless tanks, rocket launchers an scooters an, seemingly rocket launchers on bikes.
Thank you for those insights!
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My pleasure, but I do tend to wander off route sometimes(!)
That said, to be honest, from an historical perspective, it was an absolute privilege being able to talk to, and even learn from such officers. This particular Colonel’s predecessor had been one of Rommel’s ADCs in the desert, and had a large oil painting of the Field Marshal in his office - which was a bit startling when I performed my first task as Branch Duty Clerk and set his trays etc out on his desk. There was the FM glaring down at me, accompanied by a signed photograph of Geyr von Schweppenburg. I mean, what the hell? Almost blew me away!
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While my original plans for building a valentine slowly seem to be less plausible there more ideas open up from this thread.
Would you be able to provide some pictures of those armored car conversions you mentioned?
I`ve looked into the informations you provided and I will be adding them to the list, thank you for that; building a T-34/76, maybe with a mineroller if I can source a kit, and some later war details like partial panther road wheels seems like the best plan to me
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Well my biggest fear is building a diorama wich, considering my modeling speed, is going to take me around a year only to post it here and Someone providing exact resources why vehicle A could not have been there under any circumstances. Thanks to this thread my fear seems to be not substantiated 
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While I am not able to contribute much to the other comments made here as to my opinion it`s the best course of action I can only say the ASUKA Sherman kits are truly outstanding having build some myself. Only the cast texture seems a little too even but that´s something that´s easy to rectify.
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If you want a Valentine you might want to look up some of the other units involved and see. It’s not unlikely somebody had some.
I also wouldn’t dismiss the Dragon M4A2. I think it’s a decent kit; there are some minor (IMO) errors and I hate the crappy band-type tracks it comes with, but it’s easy to find better ones. The Zvezda 76mm-armed M4A2 is pretty good too. Of course the Asuka is the best, no question about that.
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