Hi,
I'm going to downgrade Tamiya's Leclerc into RT5 from KFOR. The main area to be reworked is turrets roof. That's what I had OOB:



And after a half hour of work:

Now it's time to fill this huge gap with a new roof.

Good luck with this project, it's not a simple one !

I will follow your progress with great interest.
Olivier

Thanks!

A little update - first fitting of new roof:


And one piano hinge's done, two more to do. I know it's overscaled but nothing that I can't live with.

Very interesting subject, looks promising.
Will keep an eye on this

Cheers
Christopher

Hello Yuri,

This is a very interesting project you're starting !

Do you know a resin conversion exist ? It is from Azimut from France :


from Azimut website.

Regards,

Richard

Yuri,
on your pictures it looks like you've already glued both turret halves. If so, you'll be in trouble to fit the vision blocks.
If you have not, take care of these parts as Tamiya made here the largets mistake in the whole kit. There are gaps way too large between the covers and the vision blocks themselves. Take a look at some pictures to fix this error.

Nice start on the roof !
Olivier

Hi Richard!
Yes I've read a review of Azimut resin set on Oliver's site. I think this is an excellent choice for everyone who wants to show all the side bins' contents. But I do love Leclerc for its elegant clean contours without all those open bins filled with jumble of stowages we can see on other MBTs. So I'm not going to open the bins. On the other hand, it seems to me that the new roof of Azimut turret loses to Tamiya kit in terms of fine external details, that's why Azimut kit has no value to me.



Hi Oliver!
I visit your site time and again And I've read the Leclerc tweaks list more than once. So... Turret halves aren't glued together

Thank you all for your interest,
Yury

hi, i've been thinking of getting a leclerc, is tamiya the only company that makes one; iif so i'll just have to get that then.

Hi,

Heller also has some in its range. But as you can guess Tamiya's much better.

Cheers,

Richard

If you're brave you also can find the Wasan Leclerc

Heller's kits are not top notch but they are buildable and features details omitted by Tamiya. The details are not so crips as on the Tamiya kit though. If you decide to go with Heller, I'd advise you to buy the Bronco replacement plastic indy tracks.

Yuri, I'm glad you like the tweaks list. It's not perfect but honestly it helps if you intend to improve the details of the Tamiya kit.
I'm currently building my first Tamiya Leclerc and I'm cheating a bit by using the excellent Blast models upgrade set. Even if it's intended for the Tamiya Leclerc series 2, it will be useful for your RT5 project.

Olivier

Hi!
Unfortunately I didn't have enough time for hobby so far. So process is so slow.


And some details:

Hi,




But the result is soooooo good !

Richard

Very nice scribing job on the roof panels. When I see the result, I hope you'll have more time soon to keep on modeling

That piano hinge detail is incredible!

Very nice project.
I like the details you build and also the crisp pictures.
Hope to see updates soon ;-)

Cheers
Walter

don't often see the Leclerc so I'll be following your build with great interest. Looking fine so far...
Terry