Honestly, the main thing a Tamiya guy needs for his first Schumacher is a box of tissues
I frequent the RCKicks FB group, which is predominantly populated by Tamiya guys, and there is always a LOT of complaining about how hard it is to build Schumacher kits.
Once they get them together and run them the comments are generally very positive. "Worth all of the trouble" is a common summary.
You have to glue the diff, the shocks are bottom loaders with snap rings, the wing mount and crashback system both use o-rings, the anti-roll bar ends have to be soldered or epoxied into place, the belly pan is bolted into place during assembly of the chassis, the drive shafts are a pain if you don't follow the instructions, all of the parts bags are stapled shut, and the "plastic" is very tough (the screws don't go in easily).
There are no body holes to ream as Schuey was an early adopter of velcro.
The wing mount holes can be cut with an Xacto, drill, soldering iron, or... whatever. Same for the belly pan.
Tiny snap ring pliers are nice for building the shocks, but you can do it without them. Any 2 small poky things you have around will work. The pliers are more needed for disassembly for maintenance later than for assembly.
Lubricating the screws that go into plastic makes assembly much easier. Same for the turnbuckles. I just pour a few drops of my least favorite shock oil onto some plastic and dip the screws as I go. Any oil, grease, vaseline, etc. will work.
Use scissors to cut the parts bags instead of removing 11teen thousand staples
Sand the diff rings a bit to score the surface before gluing. It doesn't take much glue to do the job.
Examine the shock pistons before assembling the shocks. I have seen quite a few with the "notch" cut incorrectly, and a couple with no notch at all.
Use a string to pull the wing mount o-rings into place. You will know what I mean when you get to them
I actually use a twisty tie myself.
The instructions show how to do the drive shafts and the tools are included. It is tricky the first time, but easy once you get it. There are a lot of them (both ends of 4 shafts). On my original Top Cat (same shafts) I put the pieces in very hot (but not boiling) water to soften them first. I have not found this necessary on any of my re-re kits. Perhaps the plastic is different now vs 1988. I suggest trying it without heating first, but heating will help if you struggle.
Whenever you have trouble, ask here. I have built a dozen or so of them, so I know a little, but there are several folks on this board that could swallow the parts and poop out a race ready kit! (I don't recommend that technique, btw) There is nothing you will encounter that they can't answer.
Schumacher has excellent customer service. Unbelievable, really. If you have any issues, they will make it good.
Lastly, Schumacher instructions are very good. They use a different strategy from Tamiya, but it works very well. Instead of Bag A, Bag B, parts tree C, etc. that you open all at once, Schumacher has a separate bag for every step in the instructions. So step 1 uses everything in the bag labeled "step 1". Personally, I think this is better than the Tamiya methodology because you probably won't finish the kit in one sitting. Just open the bag, complete the step, and either stop or go to the next bag. You don't have parts strung everywhere. Also, the screws for the step are in that bag. You don't have to dig through all of the screws to find the one you need.
