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TAMIYA LECLERC UNIFIL 1/35

a build story by Walter Lampel
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INTRODUCTION
Since Sept 2006 French Leclerc battle tanks (T6 and T7) patrol and provide surveillance of the "blue line" between Israel and Lebanon. Relevant experiences in the Balkans and other theatres have shown that more "serious" power is needed to fulfil critical UN missions. No doubt the French main battle tank the Leclerc helps to do this in the Lebanon to support the UNIFIL (United Nations Interims Forces in Lebanon).
THE KIT
If you want to build a UNIFIL Leclerc then the 1/35 scale Kit from Tamiya (Item No. 35279) is a very good basis for this project. I would not recommend the use of the Heller-Kit as it is designed to represent the T5 Version of the MBT Leclerc.

See the Armorama in-box-review of the Tamiya kit from Pawel Krupowicz: Tamiya Leclerc Live links
AFTERMARKET PARTS
Since the Kit has been on the market a few years a lot of aftermarket parts are available and can be used for this Project, I will use these:
  • 35 073 Voyager PE set (because of the aluminium barrel)
  • 35 844 Eduard PE set
  • Blast Models BL35138K, Update Set for Leclerc Series 2 (resin parts)
  • Blast Models BL35079F, French Tank Crew Summer MBT Leclerc
  • Echelon Decals, UNIFIL Leclerc’s
REFERENCES
AFV Modeller Magazine Issue 36 Model (The model I chose 642 UNIFIL has been documented in this issue with some original pictures

AFV Modeller Magazine Issue 36 Model Live links

"Landing Zone Lebanon" by Moustafa Assad www.blue-steel.info See also the Armorama Book-Review of this book by Jason Bobrowich

"Landing Zone Lebanon" Live links

Website of Oliver Carneau with some great pictures of UNIFIL Leclerc in Lebanon

Website of Oliver Carneau Live links

Excellent building blog by Rodolphe Uguen-Laithier on Website Panzerdesign

building blog Live links

And do not forget the outstanding "Tweaklist" by Olivier Carneau & Rodolphe Uguen-Laithier

Tweak list Live links

But if you have chosen to build a particular tank - be aware of some slight differences in road wheel colours, stowage basket colors and so on. So take note of your reference pictures.

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About the Author

About Walter Lampel (flugwuzzi)
FROM: LOWER AUSTRIA, AUSTRIA

I've been building models since I was a child. I took several off-times (military-duty, un-services, occupational career, my family, set up my company e.g. ) but never lost interest. I am stuck with modern armor - especially white un-vehicles - but also with early aviation from austro-hungarian empi...


Comments

bison126
Great feature Walter. Your BLog was already fun to follow. If I could nitpick, the MBT name is Leclerc and not LeClerc. It has been named from Marshal Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque former CO 2nd French AD in WWII. Olivier
NOV 08, 2010 - 05:31 AM
chefchris
What a great peice! Your photos are great, the text is informative, and the model itself is superb. Bravo!! Chris
NOV 10, 2010 - 06:04 AM
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Copyright ©2021 by Walter Lampel. Images and/or videos also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely the views and opinions of the authors and/or contributors to this Web site and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of Armorama, KitMaker Network, or Silver Star Enterrpises. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2010-11-08 00:00:00. Unique Reads: 21239