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TAMIYA LECLERC UNIFIL 1/35

Turret For further detailing my punch-and-die set was again excessively used. Especially the prominent locks on the turrets side bins are missing on the kits parts. The smoke dischargers were detailed with wire. A grill of the Eduard PE-Set also found its way to the top of the air condition.

The base for the side wind-sensor comes from the Blast set. Surprisingly, there is a large opening on the right back side of the turret (air conditioning), where later a PE grill will be installed. I had fears that light might shine through this opening, so I closed it with Evergreen sheet and painted it with dark color.

Vision blocks For the vision blocks I used the Blast Update Set - they are more accurate than the kit parts, but because here the mirrors can not be subsequently installed on the inside of the openings (as can be easily done with the original kit parts) I had to paint the mirrors before gluing them into place using Citadel Mithril Silver diluted with blue from Tamiya, and masking with fine MICRON Masking Tape.

Optics made from confetti To represent the colour shift effect in modern optics I tried the "Confetti method". Children's party confetti in the correct color were cut to size and glued into place - a first attempt, but it looks promising. At least the colors match to some extent. Next time I would seal them with clear cote because the confetti’s surface is delicate and can easily be scratched with your tweezers.

Storage box and snorkel For detailing the storage basket I used PE-Screws from Eduard and a grill from the Voyager set. The gluing of the grill into the basket was a bit tricky, because the mesh must be bent into the correct angles before gluing, otherwise it absorbs from the position permanently. The white-glue-method was not going to cut it- solved the problem by using thin superglue. The larger part of the snorkel (why the heck do the French need a snorkel in the southern Lebanon? a mystery to me) was sanded off of the cast-on chunky and unrealistic looking basket holders. They were replaced from spare PE-parts.

Barrel The metal barrel comes from the Voyager Set - I'm not able to glue 2 barrel halves into one clean part, so I'm always looking for possible replacements. Unfortunately, the pipe does not fit neatly into the cuff. The barrel looks distorted and shaky. I have thickened it with Tamiya Tape and now it fits tight and clean.

Side skirts When I thought I was finished with the worst of the building I stumbled on the side skirts in the kit's box ... ups.
OK so let’s go again. The left and right side skirts were shortened by one element, as well as on the right hand side, the rearmost rubber apron. Since it still had to be supplemented with mounting points made of thin Evergreen strips, I opened the gap between the aprons with a micro saw to make it look a little livelier.