Tamiya Leopard 2A6 in 1:35

[Stands24]

Hey guys! Another tank for y'all. Here we have a Tamiya Leopard 2A6 in 1:35 scale. This was a project I started while waiting for my Panther II accessories to come in the mail. The Leopard 2A6 in my opinion is the coolest-looking modern MBT. Those angled turret cheek plates make it look mean yet futuristic! On top of that, this one mounts the Rheinmetall 120mm L/55 which is an improvement over the L/44, due to increased muzzle velocity. Also makes the gun look less snubby! Here's the box art.



The plastic is a dark green with excellent mold quality. Everything is very clear and I haven't found any flash! On top of that it seems to cement together very nicely; responds quickly and sticks strong.

First came the rear plate. They wanted me to paint the tail lights but I will do that later.



Then the running gear! These went by much faster than my other kits. Three parts per wheel including the poly caps.



At first I had no idea how to attach the poly caps. Everything I tried didn't work! Then it took me 30 more minutes to finally find a thread on some forum (I think it was Armorama; lovely site to use for quick help!) that said all one has to do is drop the cap between the wheel halves then cement them together without getting cement on the poly caps, like so.



A finished wheel. Easy! Cameo appearance from my Panther II running gear. They say hi!



The gang's all here now; running gear finished without a sweat. Featuring Tiger II running gear this time; I put those in storage due to lack of space. They'll be back when the Panther II is done though!



Then work began on the lower hull. The return rollers are not roll-able; they are static.



Lower hull done! The kit comes with slotted bars to keep the suspension arms in line during the cementing process. Handy! On top of that the poly caps in the wheels makes attaching everything so much easier. I wish Dragon's WWII kits had them!!



Here's the sum of that day's work. Did some of the turret and most of the frontal part of the upper hull. The gun was 2-piece plastic but still looks nice. The kit comes with an option to use the L/44 or L/55. I went with the L/55; looks better!



WARNING, THIS PART CONTAINS BLOOD if you are squeamish at the sight of blood and/or pass out, pls scroll past

The next time I worked on it I did some work on the turret. Here's a look at the top. I added the PERI-R17A2 panorama periscope (circular thing behind the commander's hatch), the gunner sights (decided to keep the box open), the commander's periscope, finished the loader's hatch, the smoke grenade launcher holders, and added the rear turret box thingy as well as the spool for something inside said box. I also finished the add-on futuristic-looking armor. The lifting hooks and gunfire simulator were added yesterday.



Aaaaaand I had a whoopsie. My worst to date. :L My sprue cutters are kinda bent on one of the tips so I use my desk (it's a $25 desk from Goodwill but awesome) to straighten it out as much as I can. This requires a lot of pushing force which leaves dents and scratches in the desk. But like I said, that's fine because it's an expendable desk. This time it went horribly wrong. I pushed down on the curved part a little too hard and the sprue cutter shot downwards after passing the "sliding point" on the curve. My index finger caught the brunt of the blow. All of it actually. Almost my entire hand was covered in blood after a minute or so, as well as my other hand from trying to prevent the blood from dripping. I spent the next two/three minutes arguing with my brother to try to get a band-aid to stop bleeding on his floor. Fun... Now for the damage!



This makes it look much less worse than it was lol. Here it is all cleaned up. Doesn't look too bad but it definitely bled a LOT.



The culprit!




Anyways, back to the German engineering! Here's a front shot, showing all the nice lenses.



And a top-ish shot to show the futureplates. c:



It took me a couple days but the turret baskets were finally done. That was challenging lol, the mesh kept unraveling. So at first I cut them out based on approximations and constantly holding the mesh up to the instruction design... Take note of the unraveling beginning.



SO after doing the first two parts of the first basket, I had a genius idea. I thought, HEY, why not take a page from my old playbook and cut out templates... Then use them to cut out what I need!!









And the results were much better this time!









That's all I got for now! Now that super glue remover has come in the mail, I can resume work on my Panther II. Post your thoughts!

[arilo76]

Stands24 Really nice progress, the incident didn't stop you or slow you down, any well done. Looking forward to see it painted