WAS ABOUT TIME !!!

Cheers
Christopher

hehe, after about 5 years this one continues^^.
Looking good so far
/Stefan

Nice to see you starting to make progress again Kirill, I haven't seen too many of these built!

Hi Kirill,
Still with you on this build. Never give up.

Nice restart!

That paint job is beautiful. Your soft edges are done very well. I really like all of the small detail you added to the kit.

Regards,

Eric

Beautiful Job Kirill!

Very nice colours on your Leclerc!

For information, french army is testing new camo (olive green and grass green on tan base):
https://www.google.fr/search?q=nouveau+camouflage+arm%C3%A9e+fran%C3%A7aise+leclerc&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:fr:official&dcr=0&tbm=isch&source=iu&pf=m&ictx=1&fir=cNQTHoBRZlyExM%253A%252C4-HmUyBigHGkoM%252C_&usg=__x5OGorCziWVWE8H6C45AF0qWPwU%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3_MKx7pjXAhWIuRoKHYTEC6kQ9QEIKTAA#imgrc=cNQTHoBRZlyExM:

Nice paint but if you look at pictures of actual tanks you can notice that there is a continuity between the turret and the hull color patches.



Olivier

Hello Olivier!
Thank you for the remark, I also noticed this, but already when I took off the masks. For me, this is the first experience of painting a camouflage model with masks. In addition, I still complicated my life and tried to portray an easy modulation ... so I leave this option on this model, we will consider that this is a certain tank from the training group. Do not know if there are such in your army. In any case, I think after aggressive vesering, namely this I plan, the non-symmetry of the spots will not be so obvious.

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Hello Olivier!
Thank you for the remark, I also noticed this, but already when I took off the masks. For me, this is the first experience of painting a camouflage model with masks. In addition, I still complicated my life and tried to portray an easy modulation ... so I leave this option on this model, we will consider that this is a certain tank from the training group. Do not know if there are such in your army. In any case, I think after aggressive vesering, namely this I plan, the non-symmetry of the spots will not be so obvious.

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An appropriate coat of dust like we have in the Champagne training camps will do the trick

Right now we don't have "modified" Leclerc to act as opposing forces. The ones used by the French OPFOR are similar to the Blue force tanks. A bit tricky for the crews but if they know how to use their situational awareness system it must not be an issue to identify the good guys from the bad ones.

Olivier

Wow, fantastic work, both on the build and the paint! I have spoken with Olivier years ago about the Leclerc, and I have a just barely started my first Leclerc, and have just ordered another one to have as a spare, because I like the lines of this tank so much. I didn't notice whether you followed Olivier's build notes, about how to make this tank more accurate or not, but you did a great job. I think your camouflage paint work is really great, and I only hope that my first attempt at a 3 color masked camo paint job comes out even close to as good as yours. Really nice work!

Kirill,

Nice work on the fading and weathering. I hope you plan on leaving it at this level, or perhaps just a bit additional. I think the subtle amount that you have done looks really realistic! I have a copy of the Char Leclerc book by Robinson/Guillemain, and your weathering looks a lot like many of the photos in the book, even for tanks that were in the field, but that had not been exposed to heavy mud and dirt/dust. If anything, you could add a very small amount of dust/dirt so that the black part of the camo is just slightly more 'dirty', thus being a bit lighter in shade. Other than that, which is not at all necessary, you've dome fantastic!

I received my second Leclerc kit, so I'm happy that if I should mess up the model that I have just barely started, I'll have another one available. I was worried that Tamiya might decide to cease production of this kit, and then I'd never have another shot at building it. This new one wasn't cheap, but if they stop making it, I'm sure the prices for any remaining kits will get even more pricey!

Kirill, your Leclerc must be way darker in person than in the photos because it looks really good in the pictures. Regarding my own second kit, I appreciate your thoughts on painting, but I was and am more concerned about the construction than painting and weathering. For example, I really messed up the 3 ‘covers’ on the rear upper hull that need to be put in place by scratch building. I really did a terrible job in trying to get those parts ‘notched’ properly, then an even worst job in super gluing them to the hull, where the parts are all covered in a mass of glue. I tried removing them, which left unsightly messed up plastic which is not recoverable. The only possible way to ‘fix’ it would be piles of pigment, to simulate dirt or mud, but I can’t see how such piles would get there in real life. This is kind of like I pictured my model buildings by when I was 6 or 7 years old. One of those things I will always know is there, even if I were able to ‘fix’ it!!

You may not think the photos came out well Kirill, but your build still looks good!