answers....

The instructions were actually pretty good. They were similar to Hasegawa instructions IMO. There was a separate sheet for the ERA option. You can build the kit either with or without the reactive armor.

The dum-dum 'snakes' are actually Elmer's Tack (like Blu-Tac but made by Elmer's). They come in strips about 3" long and 1/4" in the blister pack. I get them at Michael's. I rolled them into 'snakes' then applied them on lines I drew on the model denoting the cammo demarcation lines. Then mask with tape between the 'snakes where you want the base color to remain. Very nice for cammo patterns on tanks or planes.

I tend to call blu-tac dum-dum since that's the term I'm more familiar with from aviation and vacuum bagging composite parts (we use dum-dum to seal the plastic sheeting used to make the vacuum bags)

ERA=explosive reactive armor...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_armour

scale is 1/35

and yes that figure does have a unique expression...more like shouting rather than whistling....