Building My First Mini 4WD Experience

Hello there! How is life? Today I'm already in the sixth week of my internship. Can't believe this will goes so fast because after the internship has finished I must work on my final project. But to be honest I still don't have any idea about what should I write on my final project. I hope I can get any inspiration as soon as possible so I can begin my final project.

So last week I did another interesting to spend my weekends. For the first time, I bought a Mini 4WD or popularly known as Tamiya in Indonesia. In this post, I want to share my experience in building my first Mini 4WD kit. Before we go to the main topic, here are some photos of my finished Mini 4WD.

You may ask why I decided to build a Mini 4WD? It's because I want to try to build another kit besides Gundam and I want to know what's the difference between those kits. But the other reason is also that my high school friend. So back then, I'm hanging out with my friends and we talk about some hobbies we had before. We talk about building a Gundam model kit, collecting action figures, and much more. Then one of my friends tells us that he wants to try to build a Mini 4WD. I'm also interested in that because I have never built a Mini 4WD before. The last time I played Mini 4WD is when I was an elementary school student, I bought a cheap "Tamiya" from the toy seller in front of my elementary school. I bought that for Rp.5000 and back then that's already good enough for me and I did some modifications to it.

Then my friend explain to me some Mini 4WD types based on the chassis, there are AR, MA, Super 1, Super X, and much more. While my friend explains to me, I check some Mini 4WD products in the online shop, and then I had "love at first sight" with one of the Mini 4WD products named Shadow Shark from the Tamiya brand. What makes me interested in that product? Of course, it's because of the visual aspect of the Shadow Shark. It has a cool livery and the most interesting part of that livery is the shark mouth in the side part of the body which makes this model look so dope. Then I bought this model from an online shop last week because I'm looking for any activities for my weekend.

A few days passed, and my Mini 4WD kit finally arrived. I unpack it from the packaging and start building it. My first impression about this Tamiya Mini 4WD the price is cheaper than a Gundam model kit. The cheapest Tamiya Mini 4WD price can be half of the HG scale Bandai Gundam kit price. The parts in the kit are also not so many like the Gundam kit. It only has the body and some parts for the chassis. That's why building Mini 4WD can be finished faster than building a Gundam kit.

But, the experience of building a Mini 4WD and Gundam kit is really different. I who already have basic building kit skills from building a Gundam kit should not worry about building Mini 4WD. But some moments when building Mini 4WD have made me have no idea what should I do.

So first of all, when I cut the parts from the runner. Usually, after cutting some parts from a runner I only need to clear the remaining cut. I usually use a pen cutter or sanding sponge for it and the result will be fine. But that does not happen when cutting Mini 4WD parts from a runner. After I cut it, it will leave a black mark and I can't clear it with a pen cutter or sanding sponge. I think that's why the manual paper recommending to use Tamiya Paint Colors. I think that will be used to repaint the black mark.

Then the most stressful parts. It's the stickers. The amount of stickers for this Mini 4WD is really insane. For a person who has built a Gundam kit, I really know that dealing with stickers is the most stressful part. That's why a good Gundam kit is a kit with fewer stickers. But when building Mini 4WD, you need to brace yourself because more than 50% of the body will be covered with stickers. After I apply the sticker, it will be stuck strongly and I can't move it a little bit like when I apply a sticker for Gundam. Once I can't apply the sticker fitly to the place, it's also hard to reapply the sticker because it will make the sticker crumpled and lose some colors. So I must have a high accuracy skills to apply these stickers. Not only that, some spots for applying the sticker are hard to access. That's what makes applying the stickers for this Mini 4WD more stressful because I must reapply sometimes.

And the last thing is not the struggle when building a Mini 4WD kit. It's my bad behavior after I apply the sticker, I usually rub it with the tweezers cap. All this time I always think it will be fine to rub it to the sticker because it's soft and will make the sticker stick more to the surface. But it's wrong. It could leave a lot of scratches that will make the sticker look not so good.

Even though I faced a lot of struggles, I think building a Mini 4WD is still worth trying especially for those who like building a model kit. Building a Mini 4WD kit could give a vibe as a mechanic because we must put a gear, tires, dynamo inside it and we are also able to give some modifications to the Mini 4WD.

But if you want to build a Mini 4WD for racing purposes, you should have the track and at least a friend who also has the same interest in Mini 4WD because racing your own Mini 4WD on the track is not as interesting as racing your Mini 4WD with your friend.

If you ask me, Will I build a Mini 4WD again? If it's for an alternative to building a Gundam kit I think it's a yes because there are a lot of interesting models that make me want to try building it. But if as a new hobby that I will be focused on, I think not yet. Because I still don't have a friend who also has the same interest in it and the budget to modify a Mini 4WD is quite expensive for me.

Well, I think that's all I can share about my experience of building a Mini 4WD kit. I can't believe it will be this long but I hope this can inspire you to try a Mini 4WD too. As always, thank you for reading!