Introduction:

The M4 carbine is a lightweight, gas operated, air cooled, magazine fed, selective rate, shoulder fired weapon with a collapsible stock. A shortened variant of the M16A2 rifle with 80% parts commonality, the M4 provides the individual soldier operating in close quarters with improved handling and the capability to rapidly and accurately engage targets at extended range. Like all the variants of the M16, the M4 can be fitted with many accessories and is capable of mounting an M203 grenade launcher. In 2005, M4 carbine became the standard issue infantry weapon in the US Army.

After producing the kit in 1/35 scale, Live Resin decided to release US Army M4 Carbine Easy Kit in 1/16 scale as well. The kit offers a “weapon modules” concept for assembling slightly different M4 carbine variants.

Review:

The US Army M4 Carbine Easy Kit (LRE16004) is packed in a zip-lock bag secured between a hard cardboard. The CAD box art shows all the kit parts, stating 20 different M4 variations can be assembled using the parts supplied in the kit.

The kit consists of 9 resin parts for building 3 complete M4 carbines in 1/16 scale. The cast is great and I found no imperfections in the resin whatsoever. The fit of the parts is top-notch with the pieces featuring protrusions and indentations which help to align the pieces correctly. Each M4 is assembled using three“weapon modules”: front end, receiver and buttstock. The set includes:

3x different M4 front end parts

- Front end #1: Knight type RIS handguard, standard front sight, AN/PEQ-15, forward vertical handgrip, Surefire weapon light

- Front end #2: Knight type RIS handguard, standard front sight, rail cover panels

- Front end #3: Knight type RIS handguard, standard front sight, M203 12’’ grenade launcher, AN/PEQ-15, Surefire weapon light

3x different M4 receivers

- Receiver #1: Picatinny-type accessory rail on the upper receiver, standard pistol grip, 30 round magazine w Magpul Ranger Plate, Trijicon ACOG 4x32

- Receiver #2: Picatinny-type accessory rail on the upper receiver, standard pistol grip, 30 round magazine, Aimpoint CompM2, flip-up rear sight

- Receiver #3: Picatinny-type accessory rail on the upper receiver, standard pistol grip, 30 round magazine, Trijicon ACOG 4x32, flip-up rear sight

3x different M4 buttstocks

- Buttstock #1: standard M4 stock (retracted)

- Buttstock #2: standard M4 stock (extended)

- Buttstock #3: LMT Crane SOPMOD stock (retracted)

Live Resin designs all their models digitally, using sophisticated CAD software and real weapon blueprints. High-resolution 3D rapid prototyping technology is utilized to print the models, which are wonderfully delivered in scale, making these models perfectly accurate miniature replicas of the real weapon systems. This set is no exception to the above… in fact, the larger scale of the model makes the level of details even more impressive. A big plus to the set is also a very intelligent engineering which enables easy assembly and perfect alignment of the pieces.

As with the 1/35 scale US Army M4 Easy Kit, this Live Resin set introduces a new concept for assembling different weapon variants – “weapon modules”. The modules in the set are fully equipped with various weapon accessories and by combining different modulesfrom this Easy Kit,modelers can build 27 different M4 setups. With additional Easy Kits and new, slightly different weapon modules, even more M4 variants could be assembled. The “weapon modules” present a really cool idea, although I would also like to see the M4 carbine and all the accessories in 1/16 scale released individually, as those produced by Live Resin in 1/35 scale. This would give even more flexibility to the modeler and enable building almost any M4 setup possible.

Conclusion:

This kit features the most common infantry weapon in US military arsenal today: the M4 carbine. It includes 9 modular parts for building 3 complete M4 carbines (with optical sights, laser designators and various other accessories) in 1/16 scale. The resin cast is really good with extremely well defined details. The fit of the pieces is perfect and the assembly is easy.

The Easy Kit concept introduces a new idea ofbuilding slightly different weapon variants using weapon modules. The modules are fixed with various weapon accessories, which are then combined to produce fully equipped M4s.

References:

Global Security

Federation of American Scientists

World Guns