Revell 1/72 Leclerc

[sith1144]

Hello everyone!

This is my first groupbuild! Ill be building a French AMX Leclerc MBT, 13 of which serve with the UNIFIL peace keeping mission in Lebanon. These tanks have been around since 1992 in the armies of France and the United Arab Emirates, and it was the most expensive tank ever until surpassed in 2014. Since last month the UAE tanks also serve in Yemen, but their camouflage scheme isn't as unique as the UN white IMO.

Im building this because I love the look of the white Leclerc, they look very futuristic. Aftermarket decal sets are available, but I think they are too expensive, so I will try (and hopefully succeed) to cut a stencil out of a thin sheet of cardboard.

On to the kit itself


Im happy with the level of detail, though the lack of anti-slip texture is a tad disappointing. I wont be using any aftermarket detail sets.
Now then, Im off to the bench to start building, good day, and good luck to all of you!

[chief5437]

Good luck with this, I'm liking the look of these 1/72 armour kits. I think it'll be cool in the UN colours, nice choice

[sith1144]

Yeah I picked up their M60A3 patton as well, it seems like a very nice series of models, though I'm finding the link and length tracks to be a bit difficult to work with, which is most likely down to my own inexperience!

[chief5437]

Ah, yes. The link and length tracks I imagine they'll be quite tricky at 1/72! Plenty of patience required, lol!

[sith1144]

Finished the wheels and tracks today, couldn't quite get the tracks to run around properly, next time Ill probably just start someplace and neatly work around rather than try to link bottom to top

painted the wheels vallejo model air panzer dk grey and will brushpaint the rubber rims, about half of the wheels will be covered up anyway (which is good because I spilt superglue into one of the wheels

Ill paint the tracks with Vallejos new metal color range (which by the way is very good) steel, then drybrush dark grey for the rubber pads, then wash it with a rusty looking wash

I went to my local hobby store and picked up some fine texture paint to try to make my own anti-slip, Revell has kindly marked location of anti-slip textures my putting an indented line around them. Ive never made anti-slip before, so Im curious to see how it turns out.

[Coen]

Very cool choice for a build.
With the UN marking it will be coo platelet wicked.
Nice work on the antislip, if it works out for you IV Ebbe curious as to what you used. There are many products being used for making it at the moment, but for that scale I've heard of none.

[sith1144]

Construction is now complete, the anti-slip texture I tried to recreate with Vallejos sandy paste is probably way out of scale but i think it'll look pretty neat after painting, just have some final cleanup to do before I can start painting.

[Liamcraven666]

lookng good so far , witch group build is this for and is it too late for me to join

[MarkVerploeg]

Intresting choise
You din't see that much about the Leclerc
I didn't even know there where more countries then France that had them
The UN white is a nice option
There is still a lot of room for weathering them and you can see it all on a white vehicle
The kit looks nice too for a small scale like this one
Keep up the good work

[sith1144]

Getting along with the weathering, just some final touchups needed, ended up going for the field-applied UN markings visible on some photos, it looks like the black paint is very prone to chipping so they respray it with spray cans. When Im done Im going to try basing it, which is another first for me.


my weathering has been inspired by this picture:

[Liamcraven666]

Great model and an interesting choice. Love it!

[Jan01]

Great model, like the mud effect that you have done.
May I suggest when doing the tracks you start with the single links on the sprocket and idler wheels. Before the glue is completely dry work the tracks around and get them into the right position for the length of tracks.

[gaz45]

great work on the weathering mate

[sith1144]

gave a display base a go, quite happy with the result, camera is out of battery power though so phone pictures will have to do for now:

had this at first but thought it could have a bit more going on, so I ended up with this:



Now I'm not so sure I like it better than the simpler one

oh and heres my reference for the display base:

[Avgas]

Looking good. I'm always in awe of 1/72 modellers. Too small for my peep holes.

[Coen]

Mine too... Looks awesome, that base is pretty sharp stuff