You may know the TAM - a medium tank created by fitting a Marder Spz with a turret and the trusty old 105mm L7. This has long been a goal of mine, as part of my mad idea of building everything armed with the L7.

Yuo may also know that, while no kit is available, there is a resin conversion for Marder kits. It's under the Armaq brand, which I think is a one-man operation by someone called Gabriel Montanari, who lives way down south and a little to the left. There was a thread here about a very attractive build a few years ago, and I’ve seen another recently on Modellversium. But I’ve never seen it anywhere and I’ve no idea how to get hold of one. So:

1 has anyone any experience of this conversion - is it any good? The pictures I've seen suggest it may be.
2 has anyone any experience of buying it - how to order, delivery times, problems with customs or South American postal services? and, most importantly -
3 does anyone know the price? Mr M doesn't seem to have a website so I can't look it up.

Thanks!

I thought it was basically a Marder with a Leopard 1 turret
In a legacy our club got from a deceased modeler (models to finish/improve/paint/weather) i took just that: a Tamiya Marder with a homemade top-plate on which a Leo 1 turret was placed. In my eyes at least it looks close enough

First things first:
The TAM is not just a Marder with a Leopard 1 turret. You'll find a number of things to change/convert on the Marder hull, and the turret is completely different to the Leopard welded ones.
Now going to your initial questions:
The resin kit is quite good and accurate for the versions in actual service within the Ejercito Argentino.
Gabriel carried a "one-man enterprise" making these kits, I have had no contact with him the last year but I guess he is still producing the TAM and some other derivatives as the VCTP
He used to ship overseas, try to contact him here for prices and details : [email protected]

Hi
Another possible option would be to try this guy
http://www.track-link.com/gallery/5911
Looks like he has built a bunch of different versions in the gallery some scratch built others using hulls he cast.

I can confirm you that Gabriel Montanari is still producing these kits and other versions.
You may contact him at the email I placed previously

Super, thanks. I have no Spanish at all - will it work if I send him a message in English?

Yes, you can write him in English, he already have had "Spanish-speaking impaired" customers, LOL

If you have any trouble, let me know and I can act as an "interpreter" between both of you.
I'm not related at all to Gabriel, but he is a nice and serious guy, so no problem to help other fellow modellers