I am currently working on Dragon's 1/72-scale Leopard 2A4, converting this to the Dutch Army version. Reference images clearly show that many of these vehicles were marked with a narrow strip (tape, not a painted line) around the bottom of the turret, and in a chevron pattern across the mantlet. Can anyone suggest the purpose of this marking? Also, the mantlet has two holes (either side of the main gun. Presumably, one is the opening for the co-axial machine gun ... the other? On a general point, am I correct in thinking that vehicles on exercise only carry the orange flashing beacon when driving on public roads?

The strips are the Velcro for attaching MILES gear during exercises.

When looking at the mantlet head on the coax machine gun is on the right and the secondary gunner's sight is on the left.

In Europe the orange flashing lights were mandatory when driving on public roads.