I had 50 pesos and was curious.

Ran across this cheap, china made "kit" of a T-98 tank at a store in Shoppesville Greenhills. It costs around 49php so I said "why not?" and went and bought it. The box is pretty small. I forgot to put a battery or something to show its size but it's about a tad smaller than a thin paperback novella. The packaging is amusing to say the least. What does 4D mean in this context? Does the model utilize spacetime in some aspect? Is that why it's called a 'Battle Tankr'? Another amusing note pointed out by a friend is that it pirated the World of Tanks logo on the upper right of the box. For this post let's take a brief look at the contents of this cheap box kit. 

The rear of the packaging shows the other offerings of the line, though the M1 Panther was the only other kit in the store, save for some other 1/165 scaled aircraft kits. 

This is the picture of the top of the packaging, showing the "model kit" nature of this item, and sort of sums up the entire experience you'll have with it. It'll need a lot of work.

All of the contents of the box are kept in a neat, resealable plastic baggie, with the bigger parts pre-cut from the sprues. 

You get the hull in 2 parts, the entire turret assembly on one sprue, the wheel assemblies and rubber treads plus a sticker sheet.  You'll notice that it's 'pre-painted'. The paint feels grainy, and acrylic-like in finish. The plastic itself feels like the same sort of plastic used to manufacture those plastic toy soldiers, suffice to say clean-up on this will be a bitch with all the flash and seams on it. There are nice surface details on the kit, but if you really want to make it look good or accurate at this scale, I hope you enjoy scratchbuilding. 

The instructions are very straightforward and helpful for the inept. 

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The sticker sheet is mostly one sheet of clear, glossy film, and you have to cut out the designs yourself, the choice of stickers makes me doubt that these are actually used on the Chinese army's tanks and seem to belong to some other toys. 

The turret is hollow though includes functional rotation and gun elevation and even a working hatch. 

This is what the completed kit looks like. It looks pretty okay, I guess as a casual builder you wouldn't think it's lacking and may just need a good paintjob.

It is far from model kit quality though, and really only good for getting other people into the hobby for the near-instant gratification you feel from building this simple toy. Buy it for your kids or anyone who's curious about DIY and/or scale models.


Bought this @ Regina, 2nd floor of Shoppesville, Greenhills Shopping Center for 49 PHP