M4A1 Half Track

This kit includes parts enough to build one M4A1 Halftrack with some build options. Summary Pros: Good detail for Scale, Good value, Many parts. Summary Cons: Very small kit. Parts are fragile, Painting soldiers and building rubber tracks are a nightmare. The Detail of the undercarriage is good for the size. Their is no engine build or much interior parts. The detail on the interior is fair but passable due to the tiny scale of 1/72. There are soldier models included as well but they are small and detail is fair. The seated troops have rifles that are crooked and will need some modeling skill to correct. I don't normally include crew models in 1/72 because they are small and the detail is lacking no matter what brand you buy. The exterior detail is quite good and bolts and panel lines are visible. The sprues are packaged well and there was no damage to the parts on unboxing. There is some flash on many parts that require some sanding and trimming. The pieces fit well and require only minimal filling and sanding. The one part that is an absolute nightmare is building the track. The tracks are one piece rubber bands that heat connect. It is so hard to heat the tracks together i ended up just super gluing them in an area that is not so visible. The tracks also seem tight and on both sides they pull the drive gears inward which is a bit of a bummer. The kit comes with a rag top and machine gun ring which allows for some customization. I have built mine with a free floating rag top because I did not include crew but still wish to display the interior. There are a few decals which apply well. The kit is simple due to it's tiny size but still takes some skill to build satisfactorily. From my experience Hasegawa makes better armor kits then aircraft. Hasegawa details are better on the Armor especially in 1/72 scale. I am actually quite happy with the overall value of this kit.

The contents of the box is well packaged and there was no breakage to any of the parts. All parts of the kit is molded in light gray with the tracks molded in a soft rubber black. The instructions are easy to follow, but also look at the diagrams that are shown. A couple parts have to be positioned a certain way and if they are not they will not line up correctly. Most of the parts match up pretty good. (dry fit before gluing) Due to the small size of some of the parts in the kit I suggest painting these parts while on the parts trees. Touch up are easily done after the kit is assembled. One of the parts tree had a lot of extra flashing that needs to be cleaned up. While gluing the smaller parts use a very small brush to do this. It will keep down excess glue. With this kit a lot of the parts have to be glued and painted. I assembled the the main parts of the kit and then primed gray and painted a olive drab. Then added the smaller parts and the paint touch ups. The instructions suggested heating up a screw driver and met the lugs to hold the tracks together. Use caution if you use this method, to keep from melting to much of the tracks. The decals for this kit are very crisp and clear. This is a overall nice kit.