Hello Everybody

I had started this kit about a year ago. It all ended then because I was waiting for a PE set from eduard. I had a little start back then on This Link I restarted my project when the PE arrived. The kit is from revell and is a german version. I will adjust the model to make it look like a Belgian Leopard 1A5 BE. Here are the first pics:

The kit from revell:


The German version of the leopard 1A5 just like the kit:


A Belgian Leopard 1A5:


These are the first pics of the model so far:



Grtz Roel

Great work! Looking forward to seeing it completed.

Darryl

Great start. Are those bins from scratch?

Glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to try that with the engine decking. That's a lot of drill holes.

Paul

Hey Thanks for the answers. The stowage bins are completely from scratch. Everything that is not in the original dark green base colour is made of scratch and left over PE parts. Some small parts come from a eduard PE set for the Leopard 1A2.
@ Paul Remember my previous posting (The link is in my first post here in this topic) where I glued all the small pieces togehter to make the grill Istill used it in the model. To bad I lost the pics.

Grtz Roel

Looks good so far Roel. It reminds me that I have to start building a Norwegian version before they are transformed into nails...

Erik

I remember now. Several tubes glued together. One of the newer Eduard PE sets for the Tamiya 1A4 has a great representation of the deck but it doesn't have the depth.

Paul

Hello

The next set of pictures I want to show you guys. I concider the hull finished for 90% Without the side skirts offcourse. Just some minor details need to be made.









Grtz Roel

Looking great. You have even put on the former tool mounting points.

What did you use for the front fender anti-slip?

Paul

@Paul: hey paul the antiskid was made of fine sandpaper. It works and looks really fine. As for the former tool mounting points, I made 150 pictures of a tank in my army unit to make it as accurate as possible.

Grtz Roel

Hello all

I hade some time this weekend to work some more on my leopard. The result are the tow cables with all mounting points in place. It's a lot of work but worth the effort.
The pics:







Let me know what you think

Grtz Roel

Looking good. My sister panzer battlion in germany used these. We had M60A3s. Great bunch of tankers.

Hey Robert

Thanks for the answer. I'm current building the leo 1A5 Belgian version. It's slightly different then the german 1A5's. That's a long time ago M-60 and german leo 1A5? Did you shoot CAT or FRAT?

Cheers Roel

Hey,

That looks like a very good tank so far. I am just about to start one myself, except I am going for a Canadian C2.

I like the extras that you have added to the kit. What kind of PE sets and other extras did you use? What did you use for the cables?

Thanks,
cam

Hey Scott

I used the revell leopard 1A5 kitnr 03028 and the eduard PE set nr. 35338.
The tow cables are made with wire. I just used a drill and 6 pieces of wire of appr. 0.,3mm.

Grtz Roel

Nice tank, lots of brass though! Seems like the Belgian 1A5 has lots in common with the 1A2. Any reason why those bolt on armor turret plates were not added while in Belgian service? The C2 kept the plates and even moded them slightly to fit on with the huge turret bustle we mounted on our tanks.

PS Any idea what your going to do for weathering?

Hey all

@ Andrew I Have just 1 answer: Money!! The belgian defence tested 1 Leopard which was named the 1A6 Be. The turret and front had the same armor as the Canadian Leopard C2 with mexas armor. Tested and approved but budget cost where to high so..... I will try and dig up a pic for you.

I got my new items to continue my build. I hope to get new updates soon.



Grtz Roel

Hey andrew

Here is the pic of the leopard 1A6BE which has been tested. I don't have a pic of the front yet I'll try and search.
As you can see the turret armour looks like the MEXAS kit as the front armour. The turret got a spal liner on the inside. They did not change the sides.



Grtz Roel

Very interesting! But what I was asking about was the lexan (I think) turret armour the German 1A5 has but in your photo of the Belgian Leopard the armour is not mounted. In fact In your first picture of your model I see it off to the side with german markings on it. I was just wondering if they were taken off and prehaps why they might have been removed. Our C2s have that turret armour on when not fitted with MEXAS armour. I am now quite intrigued by the MEXAS on the Belgian Leopard 1, I wonder how different it is from the MEXAS kits on our tanks.

Hey all

@ Andrew: The side turret armor is from an old kit I use the rivets from that armor on the model. The Belgian army bought 322 leopard 1A1 at the end of the sixties. These were upgraded to 1A2 in the senties. At the end of the eighties 87 were sold to Brazil 132 were upgraded to level 1A5 and the rest destroyed or kept at museum. It never had the turret armour like the German A5 and the canadian version C-2. The upgrade 1A6BE you see on the picture was a test. After the tests program was stopped due to budget costs. The one and only upgraded model was kept in the Regiment Gidsen as an operational battle tank. I hope this is an answer to your question?

A new update is ready. I found some missing parts and wrong ones after looking at some ref pics. These were al added an adjusted now. The hull is ready accept for the side skirts and the 4 towhooks and chains. The side skirts will be made with evergreen completely scratch. When all this is finished we can start with the turret.











The last picture is a little unsharp. You can see my first attempt of making welded seems. This was done with sprue and glue. It looks a bit thick but that is not in real like that.



That was all folks on to the scratch building and drilling

Cheers Roel

Looks very neat. You build a 1A5BE before right? It looked very good!

Martin

Hey

@Martinnn: Hey Martin long time no see. You're correct I made a conversion a few years ago. I gave that model as a gift to one of my fellow colleagues. I had the luck to get another revell box. They are rare since revell stopped producing them. I try to add a little more detail in this model now You can still see some pics of the first build on my website! I also made some kind of a walkthrough between the different A5 versions. You can find that link here. You should be able to read it since it's in dutch

Grtz Roel

That's a pretty good answer Good work on your build so far! Can't wait till you start the turret.

Good evening everybody

I had a day off today so it was time to work on my leopard again. The pics should be a little clearer while the was shining when I toke them.
We are getting there slowly. Things done where the right side skirt and the front towing hooks!
We need to build the left side skirt and the rear towing hooks need to be installed. Then the hull should be finished. The most intensive work is making the 68 rivets for the sideskirts. I have just the entire weekend so that should work.









All feed back is welcome! Maybe someone notices a mistake. The piece of grey plastic on the drivers hatch should not be there Ijust saw that on the pics. I hope to cover some mistakes with the paint job.

Grtz

Looks fantastic as always, however I did notice something it might be a trick of the camera but it seems like the overhang between the side skirts and the front fenders is a bit too large. On the real tank the skirts look like they hang maybe 2-3 cms below the original fender. Take a look into and see if I'm right I'm not sure though I don't have a perfect side view.

Hey Andrew

Thanks for the kind words. I have another pic uploaded which shows it a little better
As you noticed the skirts are a bit lower but I made the model also



Thanks Roel