I'm a cold war fanatic - usually building US items so I've got tons of books about every detail of the M60, gama goat, Goer, M151 and other favorites of mine.

I'm wanting to do a German Leopard and I know there's a ton of aftermarket detail kits and lots of variants. There seems to be a large fan club of the Leopard so I wanted to capitalize on all the passion for this tank.

Q: Thinking about Reforger and exercises in mid to late 1970's what would be the model/details I should be striving for? Heck, as far I know, maybe it wasn't even used then I should be thinking about a German version of the M48?

Also - on another curiosity - that little shield shaped thing on the rear of a lot of German tanks with the white cross on it - what is it? I see it on most German tanks.

"Also - on another curiosity - that little shield shaped thing on the rear of a lot of German tanks with the white cross on it - what is it? I see it on most German tanks."

It is a marker light for following in a convoy at night.

Eric

Leopard 1 was introduced in 1965 and leopard 2 was 1979 if you believe Wikipedia

You're going to want an Italeri Leopard 1A2, 1A4 or Revell of Germany 1A1-A4 for 70's service. Every version of the Leopard 1 was present at different points in the 70's except the A5 whicj didn't see service until 1986. It all comes down to what version you like best. I would recommend on tracking down Tankograd's excellent Leopard 1 in German Army Service- Early Years and also the Late Years book. It gives a great breakdown of what features were present on each production type breaking it down further to what year each upgrade was made. As for upgrades I highly recommend Perfect Scale Modelbaus's line of resin upgrade turrets and the many other resin goodies they make for Leopards.

Not sure about M48s, but I suspect they were still around at the time.

For mid-late 70s, you want a Leo 1A1, 1A2, 1A3, or 1A4. The 1A1 was the original cast turret with internal upgrades and those classic side skirts, and most of these would have the add-on spaced turret armour by 1977. The 1A2 had a thicker cast turret shell, so didn't need the extra armour. The 1A3 was the first with the boxy welded turret and the 1A4 had the welded turret with a big sighting periscope in front of the TC's hatch. They'd all have the IR light (big square box, left side of mantlet), but not the PZB 200 (funky cylindrical picture tube in cage on RHS of mantlet) because they came in around 1980 or so. There's lots of tiny detail differences between build batches if you want to get anal, in which case the Tankograd books on the Leo 1 are worth having.

If you model say 1975 you'll be looking at 1A1 and 1A2 tanks, but by say 1978/9 you'd also have 1A3 & 1A4s in the mix.

Italeri/Revell make the Leo 1 in its various flavours, and there is a host of AM for them. If you want a 1A1 with armour you can start with the 1A1A4 Revell kit, and just leave off the PZB 200 - I think the "standard" parts are still in the box. Italeri and Meng both make the 1A4, and apparently the Meng kit can be built as a 1A3 too.

Leo 2 was later (very end of 70s), so only really started replacing Leo 1 in the 80s. Some units held on to the Leo 1 quite late.

In addition, a lot of NATO countries used the Leo 1 in that time period. Canada, for instance, used a version of the 1A4 but with a different, Belgian, I think, rangefinder in place of the PZB 200.

Ours started showing up in Germany in 78-79, but we had a regiment (battallion, for you Yanks) of borrowed 1A2s in Germany from 1976 until replaced by the 1A4s, which we called Leopard C1s.

Just about everyone in NATO except the French, Brits and Americans used the Leo 1.

Paul

Hmmm. Thanks for all the good leads. I'm getting excited now.

I'm thinking now I might want to do a Canadian one, Eh? I'd love to work an FN FAL rifle into the picture as well as a Canadian M151 with the large rear view mirrors and roll cage with the integrated antennae mounts. Also - I'll have to check but I think the camo was a hard edged black and green.

Hmmm - getting excited now! Just need to figure out which kit. I'm just not familiar with all the pros and cons on the Leo from one model manufacturer to another.

The little shield thing is a convoy position marker light. I'll ask my brother. He used to crew Canadian Leo's in Germany in the early 80's.

The Italeri/Revell of Germany Leopard 1's are your best bet. The Tamiya Leo 1's aren't worth their weight in plastic. While older molds, the Italeri kits aren't really that bad. They are missing some easily replicated weld lines around the lifting eyelets, the tracks are garbage and their turrets aren't very well shaped etc but otherwise they are pretty accurate. Throw in a PE set and maybe a resin turret and you've got yourself a fun project. I know the Meng 1A4 has its issues as well so pick your poison carefully.


Erik

You might want to look at some of these from Tankograd:

Nummer der Publikation: Nr. 5028

Panzerkampf im Kalten Krieg
Heeresübung Schneller Wechsel `74 des III. Korps

Nr. 5013

Kampfpanzer Leopard 1 in der Bundeswehr – Frühe Jahre
> mehr


Nr. 5011

Der Kampfpanzer M 48 in der Bundeswehr

Good stuff !
Cheers
Christopher

Hi Bruce,

as the convoy marker had been explained, let me move to the German M48A2 in the mid-late 1970-ties.

Reforger 1977 PzBtl 354 participated under the auspice of their U.S. partner battalion, 3-64 ARMOR with two platoons of M48A2.

In 1978 started the Bundeswehr started a program to up-gun the M48A2 to M48A2GA2 at Wegmann, Kassel. The M41 90-MM gun was replaced by the British L7 105-MM gun and one's got rid of the unefficent M1 cupola. It's place was taken by a German design, very similar to the Leopard 1 TC cupola.

The last M48A2GA2's were delivered in 1980.

M48A2GA2 were used by Germany's NATO Forces until 1984.

But the German Army's M48A2GA2 were used till 1992 with the so-called Home Defense Brigades. These brigades were part of Germany's territorial forces and not under direct NATO Command.

BTW - the best publications regarding Leopard 1 and its variants is the Leopard 1 trilogy by Michael Shackleton published by Barbarossa Books. These books are worth every Cent!

http://www.barbarossabooks.eu/leopard-1-trilogy-vol-1-prototype-to-production-p-4506.html

http://www.barbarossabooks.eu/leopard-1-trilogy-vol-2-special-purpose-variants-p-4507.html

http://www.barbarossabooks.eu/leopard-1-trilogy-vol-3-foreign-usage-p-4508.html

Best regards

Hauke

Perfect Scale models
http://www.perfect-scale.com/