A peek inside the box - Trumpeter 1/35 Soviet JS-4 Heavy Tank

As a fan of novelty vehicle and unusual ones, when this was announced I couldn't resist but to get this. I sold a kit that I didn't want to build and get this instead.

Like the Terminator, I don't really see too many inbox looks so I will do just that. As you all know, I'm one of the guys who don't give a damn about how a side skirt of a tank is 2mm too short or too long or blah blah. So, I will just keep this as a look of what is inside the box and some very obvious pros and cons of the kit.

First we have a rather beautiful box art of the machine -

That box is wide and a typical 1/35 model box but a bit thinner then some Trumpeter's boxes.

And then we have the manual, the colour guide and the usual sheet of a catalogue page showing the new releases 

Here are the sprues of the entire kit -

Sprue A -

There are 4 of them which include the road wheels and some of the running gears.
Sprue B -

There are 2 of these sprues which include the sprocket, idler and the transmission hub and others.

Sprue C -

There are 4 of them with the return rollers, many little grab handles and the external fuel tanks.

Sprue D -

Sprue D, as you can see, consist of the fenders and the side skirts.

Sprue E -

Sprue E has the bigger pieces such as the unditching log and the muzzle break and hatches.

Sprue F-

This small little sprue is sorely for the DShK machine gun.

Sprue T-
a total of 10 sprues of these are provided -

And the most important things - 

The upper hull, the metal barrel, the lower hull and the turret.

And last but not least, the PE Fret, the decals and the metal wire -


Since I will surely be building this kit, I opened up the bags and took some close up pics of the parts quality -


































The Pros of the kit: first styrene kit of this tank in this scale, numerous options for open/closed hatches, crisply moulded details and a METAL barrel, relatively low parts count at 530+

The Cons of the kit: missing some details ( but these are minor ), a little bit soft details on some of the hinges, no clear part ( I doubt it is even needed for a vehicle such as this ) and a very softly moulded casting details. I would strongly recommend to rough up the cast texture as the kit supplied texture is not enough. High price which retails at £54.99.

Retailing at a £54.99, this kit is over priced. I have their earlier T-62 kit which include the same details ( including a metal barrel) along with separate black pieces for rubber for the wheel and it only retailed at £36.99. I don't really know why Trumpeter decided to sell this at £54.99. ( I have just finished the 2S19 and that kit retails at 59.99 which was worth it as it was a large vehicle with 1000+ parts ). Never-the-less, it is a kit of great quality.

If you are into unusual vehicles and a modeller who like to build non main-stream topics and subjects ( like me ) then this is one of the kit that you surely must have. If you are not this kind of modeller, this high amount of money better be spent on another kit.

This will definitely be a great addition to any shelves and I can't wait to get cracking myself.