4D Quick Build Models

The latest 4D Models from China have entered the market, and they seem to be from the same company that did the 4D Assembly Models from my last post on 4D Models.

In this release, the models are labeled 快拼系列 (Kuaipin Xilie; Quick Build Series), with the M35 Cargo Truck (No. 1), and the BTR-80 APC (No. 2).

A build review in Mandarin Chinese on Jingmo Wusheng's Toy Sharing Channel (静默无声的玩具分享; Jingmo Wusheng de Wanju Fenxiang) at bilibili states the manufacturer is a company called "Lili" (but maybe he said 4D? I couldn't hear what he said clearly because of distortion in the audio).

I put the M35 together in 15 minutes or so. Half of that time was probably spent on scraping green paint from the tires (probably due to some issue with masking during production).

30 pieces

The suspension is very simplified.

There was a lot of play in the front wheels after assembly. Possibly because the axle was too long, but I think it is more an issue with the design since the front and back wheels seem to line up pretty well. Wusheng seemed to have even more of an issue in his build video, so I think that in some cases, it may be necessary to either file down the axle, or drill out the wheels.

On step 3, I placed the parts so that the ejection marks would be hidden from view. The illustration does not show it, but there is a perpendicular bar that should be on the side facing the rear of the cab.

Make ejection marks face direction of arrows

For step 5, the end of the exhaust stack should be rotated to angle away from the cab rather than point straight backward. Unfortunately, the ejection mark on the exhaust stack is on the outward facing side so it is quite visible.

Gas cap up, exhaust stack angles out

Also, when installing the fuel tank, make sure the gas cap is facing up. The illustration does not show any details, so the upward facing side might be mistaken for the underside of the fuel tank.

Compared to the Hobby Master M35, the trucks are identical in size and wheelbase.

I put the BTR together in about 15 minutes as well. I probably could have done it in 5 minutes, except I had to clean off a lot of flash. The 14.5 mm KPVT is thick and poorly shaped, while the handrails are thick and overscale. There is an extra handrail on the sprue in case you break or lose one.

26 pieces

For step 2, when viewing the parts from this inverted position, the coaxial gun should be on the opposite side.

Coaxial gun not visible from this side

The shovel and handrails had a bit of flash on them, and needed some clean up. It was fortunate that the parts are thick and made of ABS because I'm pretty sure I would have ended up with a lot of broken pieces if they were polystyrene.

horizontal bars should curve away from hull

When installing the handrails, make sure the horizontal bars are curved away from the hull of the vehicle. I may apply some ABS glue inside the hull later to make sure some of the looser fitting parts don't fall off.

Compared to the Trumpeter BTR-80, the two vehicles are almost identical in dimension. The wheelbase of the 4D model is a bit longer than the Trumpeter model (I think there is more separation between the front and rear pairs of axles on the 4D model), but it is not really noticeable without putting the wheels right up against each other.

All in all, I'm quite satisfied with the models. They are well suited for wargaming because of how robust they are, but they also have a lot of potential for modification (although the ABS plastic may be an issue).

A 6x6 Cougar MRAP appears to be available as well, but so far I have only seen it on Taobao.


In Wusong's review, he also mentions the manufacturer makes cannons and 1/72 figures. From what I can tell, the cannon is probably a Zvezda copy, while the figures seem to be Caesar copies.

Hatsune Miku Jagdtiger

I normally don't have much desire to model late war German armor, but when I first saw pictures of the Miku ita-tank displayed in Volks Hobby Square Osaka, I knew that one day I would have to make my own version in 1/72 scale.

I ended up buying two Trumpeter Jagdtigers (07293 and 07273) for my build because I wanted the Henschel suspension, but not the Zimmerit. Trumpeter does produce a kit of the version I wanted, but because these two kits were on sale, it was actually cheaper to buy two models, as opposed to one.

Below is a picture of the infamous Trumpeter Jagdtiger rear deck with inverted grills, where the fine detail will never be seen again once the hull is closed up.

The instructions say that the tracks can be glued with normal model cement. I found this to be untrue for liquid cement and CA glue, so I used my hot-knife to melt the tracks together.

To create some track sag, I drilled holes through the lower hull and used some pins to depress the track.

If I thought about this earlier, I would have pre-drilled the holes and used a single length of metal across the hull, but because I did it after the wheels and tracks were assembled, the holes were a bit random and I had to adjust the angles of the pins to even out the sag. The pins were later embedded in epoxy to ensure that they wouldn't come loose after I closed up the hull.

Sourcing the decals was the hardest part of this build. The Volks model uses 1/24 decals from Good Smile Racing, but obviously they wouldn't work for my 1/72 tank (not to mention this particular set runs for more than US$100 on the secondary market nowadays). Luckily, I came into possession of a Nendoroid Petit: Vocaloid RQ Set a couple of years back, which included decals that I could use for the tank. Additional decals from Easy Decal were found on eBay.

The decals for the sides were smaller than I would have liked, but they went on easily. The Volks tank bears the number "39" on it in a bit of word play, as the individual numbers can be pronounced "Mi-Ku". I decided to go with "808" in reference to the GSR sponsored BMW Z4 E86s used by Studie for the 2008 and 2009 Super GT seasons. The numbers were from a Fujimi Hetzer kit, but they were pretty old, and fragmented around the edges when I applied them.

The black numbers just looked too plain, so I removed them with some Scotch tape. I'll probably replace them with red numbers with white outlines. The tank still looks a bit underdecorated for an itasha. I'm going to have to look into adding some more bits of art onto it.