Very good progress michael. The slats looks very fantastic and great save on the turret slats (rear end). In my opinion its not to late to correct the space between the smoke launcher as this is important to accommodate the brace. It will look bare, trust me. After doing so much detailing it will be difficult to just accept to skip this area. I'm looking forward to the installation of all the slats. The distance is very crucial even at this scale. Remember that the stand of distance on the right side of the turret is a bit out if you look from the top as the side armour had a very small offset. The rest of the stand off distant on the hull is equal all trough out. Also make sure the accurate setting on the turret when view from the side. This is also important not the snag the bottom end of the turret on the engine grill. If you don't correct this area the turret will likely sit front end higher on side elevation. Looking forward to the next update. Keep up the amazing job!

@ Val: thanks for your encouragement. I will address your points.


Progress has been slow bordering standstill. Other projects, real life issues but first of all kit issues kept me from continuing. Most annoying are the difficulties I still face to align the road wheels properly. Revell obviously was not able to drill the pin holes in the center of the road wheels and fit on the pins is sloppy too.






So everything looks like a real mess. Alignment, spacing, you name it…
In my struggle for a solution I went as far as to buy the Dragon Leopard 2A6 but much to my dismay their road wheels represent anything but Leopard 2A6 ones.

See for yourself:
The real stuff:


(taken from www.panzer-modell.de where you find an excellent walk around)

…and Revells´s and Dragon´s interpretation:




Next problem was, that the rubber rims on Revells road wheels were cast unevenly with varying thickness. All attemps to sand that evenly did not work out satisfactory, so I finally decided to leave it as it is.
Afghan environment seemed to be tough on the rubber rims so they were worked over with drills, knife, sanding paper and a coat of plastic glue to soften the edges a little bit.



So that was a lot of complaining. But slowly things start to fall into place and I developed an idea of how to proceed. So I hope updates will be more regular again.

Thanks for sneeking in. And if you have any suggestions to make my modelling life a bit easier – I am receptive .
Enjoy your Sunday. Michael

Good idea for the road wheels beating them up. The Afghan countryside could do that to the rubber wheel. I've yet to build the Revell Leo so wasn't aware of the problem with the road wheels/suspension. Will have to watch your progress. Thanks for sharing Michael!

@ Kerry: this could be such a lovely kit. Detail is crisp and on the spot. As far as I realised there are no real faults (a minor neglectable one at the rear). Fit of the main parts is good and hardly any filler is needed. So it was really sobering seeing all these sink marks all over the place and the off center road wheels. Why? Does Revell not know to handle plastic? It is just ridiculous.


Some progress:
The slat armor received some “wear”. Dents and bruises were worked in and some segments have been cut out. Just like with the real stuff.



A grab handle and a little step was added to the rear hull slates. As I did not find any chains small enough for this purpose, I twisted two 0,3 brass wires around each other with a drill, flattened them with a plier and decided that this comes close enough to a chain.




After some research I finally felt confident enough about shape and size of the frontal add on armor and replicated it with some sheet. I skipped detailing it as it will be covered by Barracuda mats.






All the '*`(&%§ sinkholes in the tracks (outside and inside) were filled with putty and sanded.




The tracks consist of two part per side. I glued the two pieces together and reenforced the tiny attachment points with a PS strip as the pic shows. This will be hidden completely by the side skirts, so I do not have to worry about that.



Finally I ran over the track pads with very very very coarse sandpaper (grain 40) to replicate wear at the pads.




Next will be some colour. Thanks for stopping by and happy modelling
Michael

A quit update and as said: some colour (ok, lets say: the very start of the colouring process).
As a base coat I used a mixture of Tamiya XF19 with some gloss (X22) and paint retarder diluted with Tamiyas thinner.






Some imperfections were cared about and the turret received the missing attachment points for the slat armour (the walkaround by armour workshop was extremly helpful there)






Note the one between the second and third smoke grenade launcher. Here the third and forth grenade launcher had to be cut off and repositioned to accommodate the attachment for the slat armor that runs in front of the third one (heeding Vals advice ;-) ).

The hull received its final details with tools, some more grab handles and a little detailling of the cast on items (sorry pic quality is not very good)






When I was looking for Braille scale detailling and conversion kits I stumbled over a company called Mini World from Ukraine. They specialized in machine guns in scale 1:72 for tanks, planes, you name it. Russian, japanese, britisch, american, german, french and so on. WWI, WWII, modern, quite a selection is allready available (Here (http://henk.fox3000.com/miniworld.htm) you can get an idea of their product line).
In my quest to further canadianize my Leo I wanted to do as the canadian crews did and replace the MG3 that came with the tank and put a FN MAG 240 on it.
And that is what MiniWorld offers:



The body is cast brass, ammunition and other parts come as – rather brittle – PE and a short piece of wire for the handles is provided too (which I replaced with styrene rod, as the wire was a bit to thick to enter the holes for the handles).


And that is how it looks when assembled:




You simply cannot get more machine gun in Braille scale!

Now I “only” have to build a new support for the FN MAG as it is a different one from the german MG3 support.

That much for now and thanks for stopping by.

Glad to see this moving Michael. I like the bended/damaged you did to the hull slats. And also the details you've added. I can't wait for the thermal blanket and netting that you will add. Well done!

One of the reasons this build was placed on hold for quite a while was my desperation with the attachments of the slat armor; particularly the turret ones. The suggested construction of the conversion kit were quite some way of.

To warm myself to the topic I started with the construction of the supports for the rear slates from Styrene.




More demanding were the forward side slate supports.

Here you get an idea of the original:




(taken from: http://www.ipmsrealcote.com/walkarounds/leo2a6mcan/walkaround_leo2a6m.htm. Copyright by Jean-Marc Belletête, (would have saved me a lot of guessing if I would have had it a few weeks ago. Anyway: thanks Jean-Marc for the effort!))


And these are the conversion kit parts (with some scratch built ones):




Here my first attempt to come closer to the real thing:



A U-shaped profile was constructed from Styrene strips to connect the two vertical supports.
But at the end of the day I was not only not satisfied with its look but it turned out that the supports did not fit the slats properly. So I discarded the idea once more.

The second try involved a bit of more research and constructive effort. The conversion struts served as templates for a template. The wrong distance of the horizontal beams were corrected.







The vertical supports were then glued to DIY U-beams.



And here you see one side loosly positioned .



Now I am not unhappy with it anymore but handling is tricky business. And to attach everything in place will be quite a task too; particularly as I want to finish the slats and add them only after slats and tank have been painted seperately.

More to come
Michael

@Val: Hi, I am afraid, it will take a bit more time till I´ll be able to present some nettings, as my attempts have not turned out satisfactory so far. But I´ll get there…

I took a longer break on this project as the next step really gave me a head ache and I just wanted to be in the right mood to tackle it.

I tackled it – well almost.

Revell provides the kit with polysterole tracks. Two flat halfes on a sprue.


(http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/FirstLook/Revell/Preview_Rev_Leopard_2A6/Rev_Leopard_2A6_TS_05.jpg)

Instructions tell you to bend it with the help of hot water and you better do so because otherwise they will just snap. Which of cause does not mean, that they do not snap if you do!

Believe me, I checked the web pages of all modelling shops every other day for aftermarket tracks. But as I found none, I just had to go for it.

So, after a lot of bending, a lot of hot water and the use of some plastic glue to soften the bonds between the track links – particularly in the areas with a small radius, this is the result I could achieve.





Before I could paint the tracks I had to address all those sink holes that had resisted my efforts to close them again. After another round of sanding the tracks were finally ready for paint.



I started with Tamiya XF9 and XF79 as a rust base. This was further differentiated with all rust shades from Lifecolors Rust and Dust set. The ubiquitous A-stan dust was simulated with Tamiyas Buff. Next time I would leave it rusty and add dust with pigments only.
Track pads were blackend with a brush and Vallejo black grey. The inside guide teeth received metal pigments. To represent rubber abrasion and metal contact at the center of the tracks, where the road wheels run, I used black pigments and a graphite pen.








Now I will have to detail the drive wheel a little bit and then to mount everything.
I will keep you updated.

Cheers Michael

Amazing build!!! I bow to the Master!!!

MattP

@MattP: Definitely no need to bow to no one. But it certainly makes me happy if you like the results of my efforts.

Short update:
The battery of material used to detail paint the two sprocket wheels.



I chose to colour the shims rusty as I saw it in a walkaround at armorworkschop. Being freshly maintained them wheels received new screws (Revell silver). The central lock was painted yellow. Metal wear at the contact areas were done with steel pigments. A close up of the results:



Now mounting…
Scares me.

More to come.

Done!!!!
Actually sounds like nothing to mount some tracks but honestly I consider this propably the most demanding step of the whole build. I don´t think that I am all thumbs but this was really tricky. Anyway – they are in place and do not look all too bad. See for yourself. With the gap of the upper part and its slack I do not mind as it will be hidden behind the side skirts.

Maybe a bit picture heavy but this expresses only my relief to have finished this.








Next will be NATO three tone colours.

Hi Michael
I just found this thread and you're doing some amazing work. I've got a plan for a Leo 2 as well, without the barracuda mats, just the slat armour like on arrival. Perhaps I missed it but where did you find the PE slat armour?
Thanks
Massimo

Hi Massimo,
I am afraid that I do not have good news for you. One modeller from a small german company created the slat armour with the idea to build it just for himself. When he addressed the company Mini Art to have it etched they required an order of 25 at least. So this is what the modeller did.
Afterwards he build his canadian Leo 2 and wanted to sell the surplus kits. Thats when I saw them some 4 or 5 years ago in a German modelling exhibition.
Nobody wanted them.
So he sold all the remaining kits to a befriended distributor. And again nobody wanted them. But suddenly they were sold in no time all over the world and when I inquired for one I was very very very very lucky to be able to purchase the VERY LAST of them.
Lucky me, unlucky you, I am afraid.
There might be some light at the end of the tunnel as the creator of the conversion considers a rerelease.

Job well done with the build. If you need anymore photos or reference, let me know, as I have lots and first hand knowledge.

Anthony

Hi Michael,

What an excellent build on such a small scale. The PE really adds a lot nice detail on this kit.

I am currently building a Stryker with Slat in braille scale, so I a good idea on what kind of level you are working. I will follow this with interest.



Jelger

Thanks for the update Michael. Story of my life though, a day late and a dollar short. If they ever come back on the market I'll definitely purchase a set.

The build looks great. I'm looking forward to following along.