Cool, thanks Mark, I will have to check out the videos later tonight. I've been mostly getting my answer about this beast through Anthony as I don't know anything about your guys armor nor anything on this kitty cat. I'm actually almost finished with this model, I'm just doing up the last bit of details I have been holding off like the wheels, T-base antennas, etc. I still haven't worked on the slat armor yet since I want to paint these parts seperate from the rest of the model. Yes the camo nets would have been nice to have so I could cover up some of the problem areas. Anyways everyone check back tomorrow afternoon as I will have the final photos before I start painting this weekend.

Well here is the final update just before I begin painting later this week. Once the entire problem has been fixed, the rest of the model falls together very quickly. There are however, a few issues everyone must look out for while constructing the model that could affect the over all finish. First, the wing armor panels on the side of the turret have a small tab that needs to be removing in order for the panels to fit just right against the turret.


There is one major flaw in the direction that needs to be paid attention to unless you have plenty of reference photos to go by which I did not have on hand. The commander and gunner’s hatch are reversed in the directions; I thought this look somewhat strange when I compared this to build up models. It is an easy fix, but if you do not know anything about this tank like me, the mistake is very easy to make.



The next problem I ran into were the two side storage bins for the bustle rack. The bins have two location tabs at the top of the part, but the side of the rack only have hole for locating the bins. In addition, the holes were not deep enough and the support tab at the bottom of the rack needs some trimming in order for the bins to fit snug against the side of the rack.



Once all side and done, the rest of the turret can be finished out with the remaining photo etch parts, clean up of the smoke grenade launchers, T-base antennas, and the rest of the Canadian equipment.




I began to assemble some of the bar armor for the turret to see how everything fit and look. The part of the kit is a real gem and very easy to assemble with just some minor clean up. There is however one issue I ran into, I am not sure if the bustle rack sits too low or if the armor panels are too large, But the rear panel for the turret hit’s the very top of the engine deck and will cause a major headache with aligning the rest of the panels. One thing I would recommend is not to drill out the location holes in the side of the turret of cut of the location tabs for the armor supports in order to adjust the panels to sit properly. I really thing the rack sits too low on the back of the turret, but it is already too late for me to remove it, so I will fix the supports the best I can.

You have to remember that this kit is based on one of HB's oldest series of kits, which itself was roughly based on the Tamiya kit. Still, it is much easier to revise moulds today.....

I began the painting process of the leopard today and have completed the basic scheme so far. I nearly ran out of NATO green as the model had a lot of area to be covered with just a few drops left over to use later for touch ups. Once dried I went back with NATO black and brown for the rest of the camouflage painting all the patterns freehand with my airbrush. The a/c units and the rest of the basic equipment on the turret were painted with Vallejo panzer ace British tanker highlight diluted with tap water and airbrushed on. The only thing I do not like about Tamiya paint it it’s not a very tough paint and scrapes off during handling, so I sealed it all in with a semi-gloss clear coat to protect the painted better. This clear goat also serves a good base for the decals and the weathering process. The decals were a no frills event and almost pointless to apply since there all black and do not show up too well against a dark background and through in some dusty and they all but disappear forever. I still have the bar armor to paint up and hopefully I will begin that tomorrow, start the detail painting, and weather.

Looks good Chris....but something you should correct before you move on with the weathering......the glacis plate add-on armour should just be solid NATO green.....no black or brown on it.

Thanks Jason, I wasn't sure about the plate since HB painting guide shows the camo carring over onto the plate. Good thing I left some green over from when I airbrushed for touch ups.

Well progress is slow going here since my wife had a few days off and we decided to take our boys down to the beach before the weather starts getting bad here. I have only managed to get a few things done and started some of the basic weathering before I dive into doing the dust.

First, if anyone is thinking about building this kit, I can only stress the point of getting rid of the kit tracks. I cannot for the life of me get any of the primers I used to stay on the tracks with out peeling or scrapping off. I have even used some of my automotive primers I have along with a can of CARC green I had left over from my last unit. If I build another leopard kit, which I plan to do, I will go with tracks either from AFV Club or Bronco as I know the paint will stick to plastic better. This seems to be the biggest problems with HB kit tracks since I ran into the same problem with their ZLC-2000.


I began some of the basic weather on the tank with the aid of Mig filters. First base coat of brown for dark yellow and then another coat of grey for light green to fade and give it a basic dust look. I picked out three road wheels to detail from the rest to give some life and break the monochrome green of the wheel. Here I added the aluminum color around the hubs to show replacement wheels. I came across a couple of pictures showing these. In addition, the drive sprocket was picked out with some rusty colors on the outer ring of the gear to match one of the tanks I have a picture of. Once all said and done I came back in with a pin wash of gulf war sand and buff oil paint to add the dust.



Some of the basic tools and equipment on the hull were detail with Vallejo paints and some rusty pigments from mig. I still have to go back in with some dusty pigments on the hull to finish everything. I plan to keep the dust down, as I do not want to over do this process and ruin a go paint job.



In addition, I began to make a very simple scenic base for the tank made from floral foam cut to shape of a road, ditch, and earth embankment. I covered the groundwork with cellaclay, plaster, white glue, sand, pebbles, and misc debris from the spare parts bin. I also used some plastic from a shopping bag to make some of the litter along the ditch.

Hi. Great job!

I am building the kit too and am having trouble figuring out step 8 where they note part B20 that you have to cut a section off but then they do not tell you where it goes...

Any help would be good!

Thanks.

Hey Robert, B20 is the travel lock for the gun barrel. It is mounted in between the two big intakes for the engine on the deck. Look at the picture I have of the deck and you can see where the lock goes.

HB directions have some iffy locations for some of the parts, if you have any other questions, just let me know and I'll try to help out.
Chris

Chris

Looking good so far.

Anthony

Thanks Anthony,
I do have question though, what is the triangluar item just before the travel lock, is it a tool? I've seen some pics of leo's with a box like item sitting just above it.
Chris

Chris, this is looking wonderfu. Your work so far is top notch and looking very clean. Also your base looks great.

cheers
Walter

Good work so far, Chris. That item on the engine deck is used to lift it. A picture of how it works here http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/roger_johansson/strv_122/images/strv_122_19_of_58.jpg

Here is just a small update for today. I began to do the final weathering of the hull last night and tried out a couple of different approaches to dusting the model. First try was on the front hull; here I applied straight gulf war pigments from mig with paint thinner. After it was dried I went back in with a stiff brush to remove the excess pigment to leave just enough with in and around the raised detail. The next try I did was on the rear hull; here I used a plaster of Paris and pigment mixture with tap water to make a slug for the deck. Again, with a stiff brush, I remove the slug just to leave what I was going for, that caked on dust in the cracks look so often seen in pictures.

looking real nice. Motivation to work on mine

Hello again. The weathering looks great. Well done. I am using the Tamiya WEathering kit for the dust and it appears to be working well too. The stores here do not sell the mig stuff.

I have a question about the PE parts. The parts that go over the large engine intakes appear to be such a fine mesh that it obscures all the fan detail. Seems a shame. Would rather not use them but do not want to screw up the model. Puls I am worried about painting them and clogging up the mesh. Thoughts?

Thanks guys for the great comments
Robert believe it or not, this model is straight from the box and I used the mesh that comes with the kit for the engine deck. I had no problems with the paint glogging the screen at all even when I used the automotive primer on the model, just make sure you paint is thin enough and you should do just fine with the parts. I've never tried the tamiya stuff before, but I see plenty of people using it mixed with diferent stuff. I have to order all my stuff offline as the hobby shops here are not the best and working from home while watching my boys, I don't get that many oportunities to go to what shops we have here.

Thanks for the info. I will brave it. I really am new to this and do not have your skill or specialized tools and am learning. Here are a couple pictures of the Tamiya sand in the works.




Tips? I have not attached the upper hull to the bottom yet as I wanted to finish the track first and then get the top on. I know that is probably not how the pros do it but I am following the directions. in the kit......

Robert, your leo is looking good so far. The tamiya sand looks good, does the stuff come in powder form? If so, you could mix it with some paint thinner and use it as a wash to get into all the nochs and crannies. As far as attaching the upper hull, I just used super glue since it dries faster than regular glue. That way I can hold the front and back with some pressure to work out any warppage in the kit. I'm no pro myself, been in this hobby since I was 8 and I'm 33 still learning new things in this businesss. Next time you build another leo or another kit for that matter, you can always attach the upper and lower hull and leave the wheels, tracks, and side skirts off until everything is painted.

Robert
Small hint with the add on armour, should just be green not camo'ed. If you have any questions PM and will be happy to help out.

Anthony

hey, sorry to keep bugging you! I noticed on your Leo that you have kept the the large front plate of armour all green instead of having camo on it. Is this the way it is supposed to be? I have put camo on mine as per the colour diagram in the kit but I like how yours looks. Can you explain. Also maybe a bit of info on this part in general would be lovely.

Thanks again!

That's okay Robert, feel free to bug me all you want, I'm here to help out. Anthony is the man you need to ask about the panel being all green as I believed he crewed the leo and has help me out alot with this build. HB directions are wrong about the plate having camo on it and I made the same misstake myself. I think the plate is a balistic armor package or ERA, I could be wrong since I know nothing of this tank, but I'm pretty sure it's just like our TUSK package for the M1. Again Anthony could help out better with the info, but anything else with the build I can help out.
Chris

Hallo, Christopher,

I followed your excellent build from the start with much sympathy. The result so far is really fine.
Let me make one remark only. Why do you weather the engine intake so dark? It's an INtake that gathers all the lightbrown dust. I think it should not be so much darker than the deck.

The base looks very realistic.
I'm looking forward to the finished model.

Harald

Harald, are you talking about the two big round intakes on the deck? If so, I didn't apply my slug to this area of the deck since I knew it was going to be a real pain to remove the excess dusty from the screens. I still plan o go back in with some light dust to tie everything in better. Thanks for following and the great comments. I hope to have it all finished some time this year as I'm also working on a king tiger on the side to kill some down time in between drying
Chris

As far as the cam paint goes this one had parts of the rear plate and hull sides covered in straight green paint with no other colours.





cheers