Usually I build aircrafts from the WW2 era in 1/48 but recently I finished my first tank in 1/35. So please join me for a little walk around my KPz Leopard 2A4 from Hobbyboss (KPz = Kampfpanzer = MBT) ....
.... during my army time 1985-89 I was a gunner and loader for about 1 year on one of these tanks. Of course I've built a Leo of my old unit, 4./PzBtl 83 in Lüneburg (PzBtl = Panzerbataillon = tank battalion). After the German Reunification the battalion was disbanded in 1992
and after a major overhauling the tanks were sold to the Spanish Army in 1996 ....
.... in the meantime the good old Leo 2A4 are no longer in service with the German Bundeswehr and the Dutch Koninglijke Landmacht (who was the first foreign user of that Leo) and the tanks have been sold to NATO partners Norway, Portugal, Poland and Spain but also to other friendly countries like Austria and Finland. Some modernized Dutch Leos even found their way to Chile ....
.... the Hobbyboss kit is nice to build but it has some issues. So the upper hull doesn't fit 100 % to the lower part and the rear number plate is too big. But I noticed that when it was already too late to repair. But the rest of the 400 parts go together nicely. The kit is build completly out of box, I only added a camouflage net made of gaze bandage but I still need some towing cables. The twine from the box is no good and I still haven't found something adequate. The paints I used come all from Revell Aqua and are Bronze Green 65, Tar Black 6 and Leather Brown 84 ...
.... I'm quite satisfied with my first 1/35 tank but I try to improve my skills a little with the next one. There are two more Leos in my stash and I have ordered Revells Leopard 2A4 to see how that kit goes together. I would like to continue this thread with more Bundeswehr tanks, trucks and cars if that's okay for you. I plan to build 2-3 of these kits per year, all others will be aircrafts. I hope you enjoyed walking around one of the best tanks in the world. Comments are welcome. And enjoy the typical Leo 2 sound
Happy modelling!
Torsten
