Magic Factory's 2005 reference is a combo of two MR ZR D4s plus a trailer. It comes in a large box almost full of sprues sealed in individual plastic bags. Aside from a good number of sprues, several of them duplicated in order to make the two vehicles, there are two photoetch frets, a sheet of decals, ten metal springs for the suspension, clear parts, a sheet of metal stickers for the mirrors and 12 vinyl wheels.
The instructions are in black and white with shading for clarity, plus a separate sheet on glossy paper and printed in color for paint schemes and decal placement. The paints referenced are AK Real Color, Tamiya and Mr Color. The instructions are quite clear, with indication of the color of parts that can not be seen on the paint sheet like the engine or chassis. The first two pages contain a brief history of the vehicle, color chart and sprue representation. Next come 11 pages detailing the assembly of the two vehicles and the trailer in 26 steps, a single sequence clearly marking the alternatives for assembling the drone control version.
The kit
With the contents of one box you can assemble one drone control MRZR and one armed one, or two armed ones, plus a trailer. In addition to the machine guns of the armed version, a good set of additional personal weapons are included in the two armament sprues. It is also possible to assemble a demonstration MRZR that was seen at trade shows.
Part count is quite high even for two vehicles and despite its small size. Although it means more working time to finish the model, it offers much finer detail than parts moulded together.
Due to its shape, this is kind of a mix of an open-top and interior vehicle kit. As such, it includes the engine, transmission and suspension, although many of these items are almost hidden in the finished model.
The parts are very well defined, crisp and detailed, with no flash visible. There are however some mould lines to remove on the cylindrical parts and some ejection marks here and there. Also gates are a bit thick. The scale representation seems correct, therefore many of the parts are very thin and care must be taken to handle them. The metal springs are an optimal choice for representing the real ones, way ahead of ordinary plastic parts.
Building needs to be carefully planned because once assembled several parts will still be visible but hard to reach for painting, so it seems necessary to paint at the same time of the assembling.
These close up photos show the level of detail on the kit, which is absolutely amazing.
The vinyl tyres have a nice detail and a very subtle mould mark in the middle, which should not be a problem. The gate is on the inside so removing it will not damage the visible detail, a wise design decision.
There are two identical sprues for personal weapons, finely detailed. The machine guns can be used on the armed version and the rest can be shown loaded on the vehicle or for different proyects.
Conclusion
Excellent first impression of this combo of an unusual type of vehicles in modelling. Two vehicles that can be built either as twin armoured versions or one armoured and one dron control version. The detail is very fine, parts are crisp and despite the high part count, this allows for a better representation. Including engine and transmission, photoetch parts, wire springs and metal stickers for the mirrors is definitively a plus.
A build review will follow soon.