XF
A quickbuild manufacturer "Xiang Feng", located in Guangzhou city, China, which has bought the old molds of "LEE" brand andreproduced these models under his own label "XF". They have released also some new models
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The quality of the 4D kits is quite average for our time - the relief details on the castings of the hull and turret, as well as small details, have slightly blurred edges. The plastic is shiny, although quite durable and easy to process. There are no decals in the kits. In general, the quality of the kits of this company roughly corresponds to the "MRAP Coguar" model
The sets of the company "Red Star / XF", on the contrary, in my opinion are quite good - I would say that this is the "S-model" which abandoned most of the
small details for the sake of ease of assembly. The quality of casting sets of this company is much higher and the edges of even small parts are clear,
although in places you can notice hollows or other plastic defects on the parts. The quality of plastic is also better. The kits are equipped with decals
with a fairly clear texture, but they are covered with a very thick layer of shiny varnish, which spoils their appearance.
The overall dimensions of the models of both companies are quite consistent with the prototypes in 1/72 scale. Interestingly, both companies produce a
model of the same tank (ZBL-09 Snow Leopard IFV), which allows you to compare their quality more clearly. At the same time, the dimensions of the cases
of both models, as well as the relief on their upper halves, are exactly identical (apparently both companies used the same 3D model), however, as
mentioned above, the casting quality of the company "Red Star / XF" is much better. Overall, in my opinion, kits both firms are quite suitable for wargamers
and novice modelers, for which ease of Assembly more important compared to the number of copies per cell, and for modelers like me, collecting a model
of a "for fun", they are also quite suitable - well, if only to tweak and Refine some the most notable of their shortcomings -- (note Alexander Terekhov)
In all four kitts, only the halves of the hulls and turrets fit together normally, while some of the small parts either have any casting defects or do not fit well into their seats, which is why they need to be adjusted. In general, after assembling the kits, my opinion about them remained the same - they are suitable primarily for wargames and young modelers. More experienced modelers will have to spend some effort to bring these models to an acceptable level. At the same time, if there is no other alternative in the case of the tracked AIFV model, then in the case of wheeled armored vehicles of the Snow Leopard series, there is an alternative branch of models of the same vehicles from the Dragon company, similarly simplified assembly, but with a much better quality casting.
For more information and comparison kits visit the page of "4D Puzzle Models"
Built model by Alexander Terekhov
Built model by Alexander Terekhov
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