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TAKOM C2 MEXAS Build Review
sauceman
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 03:06 AM UTC
Good morning troops!

What can I say, after Darren laid me out in an epic guilt trip, I will now bring to you a build review of the TAKOM Canadian Leopard C2 MEXAS kit. This kit will be built strictly OOB with absolutely no aftermarket photoetch, resin, or even any evergreen card. I will resist

For references I suggest the C2 MEXAS CD by Anthony Sewards

Anthony's CD review

Here is Jim's unboxing of the kit;

Unboxing the TAKOM C2 MEXAS

And here is a tweak list put together by Anthony to help in getting the kit together more accurately.

Anthony's tweak list


So to carry on...

The gratuitous box cover shot.



All the parts trees laid out, seeing as it's going to be OOB this might be fairly quick to put together, seeing how I just finished putting together Dragons M1A1 AIM kit LOL.



Step #1 has you put together the road wheels, idlers and sprockets. Nothing out of the ordinary with the poly caps sandwiched in between the halves. A few observations so far, no inner wheel detail and the plastic is a little on the soft side. Be careful when cutting from the sprues as the plastic likes to tear instead of a nice clean cut when using sprue cutters. And on one of the sprues there was an excess of mold release agent so a nice bath in warm soapy water is recommended.



Step #2 is attaching the idler mounts, drive sprocket mounts, control arms with torsion bars, and the return roller stanchions and wheels. Very nice detail on the return rollers with all the mounting bolts well represented.

Now be careful when attaching the return roller stanchions, the spindle is offset and should be sitting down towards the roadwheels, not up towards the turret.



So here is the end of step two;




cheers


Oh almost forgot, thanks to Jim for the kit!
gcdavidson
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 05:56 AM UTC
I bet you a dried tube of tamiya putty and half bottle of my homebrew that you can't do this OOB. Good God man, its just not natural!

I'm thinking of building a plain C2 and using the lower mexas on a Meng C1 hull. Wonder if it will fit?
LeoCmdr
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 06:09 AM UTC
Great to see you are doing the build review Rick.

I was able to build the Meng Leopard 1A3/A4 for my review 100% OOB...it was actually a refreshing change and amazing how fast a kit can actually be built when you simply follow the instructions.

Resistance in not futile!
sauceman
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 06:10 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I bet you a dried tube of tamiya putty and half bottle of my homebrew that you can't do this OOB. Good God man, its just not natural!


Your on!!!


Quoted Text

I'm thinking of building a plain C2 and using the lower mexas on a Meng C1 hull. Wonder if it will fit?


What exactly are you trying to build?




cheers
sauceman
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 06:19 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Great to see you are doing the build review Rick.

I was able to build the Meng Leopard 1A3/A4 for my review 100% OOB...it was actually a refreshing change and amazing how fast a kit can actually be built when you simply follow the instructions.

Resistance in not futile!


Yes i'm actually looking forward to this build!



cheers
CMOT
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 08:40 AM UTC
Anyone would think I was a bully Rick
sauceman
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 11:01 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Anyone would think I was a bully Rick


Nope, just persuasive

Step #3 deals with installing the road wheels and sprockets which will be done at a later date.

It was here that I glued the two hull halves together. I like to get this done as soon as possible just in case it requires a bunch of putty to fill any seams. Luckily this kit is good to go and the MEXAS armour will cover up the front glacis joint when installed.

Step #4 and 5 are the rear hull attachments. No big issues here except that you use a centre link from the Orochi tracks. This is when I noticed that there is a nipple on the bottom of the guide that if left in place makes it impossible to position the link (part PF1) and the bracket (part A25) correctly. So with this cut off the planets fell back into alignment and all was good.



Steps #6 and 7 has you install the rear side hull details such as the exhaust and intake grills. There is a supplement in the box that points out that you have to fill some slots in the hull as they will not be used, make sure you do this before attaching the tool bins. I left off the tools on the rear deck (part #C45) until after paint because I'm going to paint the hull 3 tone camo and they will get in the way.



Also the call out in step 7 for the inner cooling grill is marked C23, in reality it's C44. It's not like anyone would try to install the rear hull lifting eye (the real part C23) instead of the cooling grill, but little mistakes like this make me mental and I thought I would point it out anyway

Until next time




cheers

gcdavidson
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 12:08 PM UTC

Quoted Text



What exactly are you trying to build?

cheers


C1 MEXAS KFOR
sauceman
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 12:24 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text



What exactly are you trying to build?

cheers


C1 MEXAS KFOR


The hull armour should in theory be the same.



cheers
recceboy
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Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 01:15 PM UTC
Rick

Nice work so far, planning on building one, but not OOB.

The C1 MEXAS hull armour is the same as the C2 MEXAS.

Cheers

Anthony
gcdavidson
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Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 09:57 AM UTC
actually, should I even bother putting Takom MEXAS parts on to a Meng Lower hull (and the risk of the parts not fitting). Could I not just use the Takom lower hull + mexas for a Leopard C1 Mexas? Is that all we did from C1 to C2 was swap in the new turret?

Then I would just need to s/b the MEXAS for the C1 Turret.
LeoCmdr
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Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 10:21 AM UTC

Quoted Text

actually, should I even bother putting Takom MEXAS parts on to a Meng Lower hull (and the risk of the parts not fitting). Could I not just use the Takom lower hull + mexas for a Leopard C1 Mexas? Is that all we did from C1 to C2 was swap in the new turret?

Then I would just need to s/b the MEXAS for the C1 Turret.


Yup, that would work.
sauceman
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Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 12:56 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Rick

Nice work so far, planning on building one, but not OOB.

The C1 MEXAS hull armour is the same as the C2 MEXAS.

Cheers

Anthony


Thanks Anthony, this build is just for the review hence the OOB. My next one will be tricked out!

Started todays building session with attaching the MEXAS hull side armour covered in steps 8 to 11. The first pieces that I installed were the two glacis parts (F16 & F4) and made sure to fill the gap between them as on the real thing this is one piece.




As well I found that there was very little purchase between the side armour pieces and the top parts. So what worked for me was to install the top pieces (D17 & D21) to the hull first and after they were secured attach the side armour parts (D13 & D22).



I knew this 25mm shell casing would come in handy one day





And here we have up to step 11 complete. I also started on the turret with filling the huge step between the turret bottom and shell. I realize that on the real tank there is a small step but the kit representation was highly over scale.




Until next time





cheers
CMOT
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Posted: Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 05:21 AM UTC
A novel weight Rick and progressing at a great pace.
sauceman
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Posted: Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 05:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text

A novel weight Rick and progressing at a great pace.


Thanks Darren. I have finished the build and will get some paint on it tonight, pics to follow



cheers
sauceman
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Posted: Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 01:07 PM UTC
As promised, the build is done and the base coat of Tamiya NATO black is on. The rest of the build went rather smoothly with no real hiccups worth mentioning other than the turret MEXAS armour parts have no locator pins. So when putting together the armour modules just make sure that the edges are lined up correctly and you'll be GTG!

I left the front turret armour off until the final paint is on as there are Maple Leaf decals that need to be installed on the gun trunions, and it would be a real PITA with the forward module in place.











I like to use the black as a primer and make sure the model is fully covered. This way it can act as a pre-shading for panel lines and if I miss some spots with the green it won't be as bad.






cheers

Navyphantom
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Posted: Friday, May 02, 2014 - 08:54 AM UTC
Hay Sauceman
I have been lurking in the background watching your build. I am greatly impressed. I am building this model also and using your work to help correct my mistakes. Do you have any updates for us. My intention is to put my tank into a diorama. I'm using a picture showing the C2 in an overwatch position at FOB Leopard? The picture is common on the net. I have a LAV III to go with it. You are a source and wealth of info on this subject. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Anthony
sauceman
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Posted: Saturday, May 03, 2014 - 12:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hay Sauceman
I have been lurking in the background watching your build. I am greatly impressed. I am building this model also and using your work to help correct my mistakes. Do you have any updates for us. My intention is to put my tank into a diorama. I'm using a picture showing the C2 in an overwatch position at FOB Leopard? The picture is common on the net. I have a LAV III to go with it. You are a source and wealth of info on this subject. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Anthony


Hi Anthony, thanks for following along.

I believe this is the photo that your talking about;



According to the Combat Camera website it was taken in December 2006 in Ma'Sum Ghar, Afghanistan.

I had some tech issues with my camera but I think I have it fixed now.

I just finished last night the MIG pigment process. The tank was painted with Tamiya NATO Green over the black primer coat. The panel lines were not coated as heavy to have that pre-shading effect. Then I lightened the mixture with white to post shade the center of the panels. After that was a dry brush with khaki and a black pin wash just to the panel lines like the engine deck and MEXAS modules. A coat of clear gloss over the decals and pigments and here you have where it stands now. I will build and weather the tracks and give the Leo a light dusting with buff and we should be GTG!






cheers
sauceman
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Posted: Friday, May 16, 2014 - 12:53 PM UTC
So troops I guess Graeme owes me a dried tube of tamiya putty and half bottle of his homebrew

I just finished it up tonight with some stretched sprue antennas and the string tow cables. Normally these would be replaced with metal ones, but as this was an OOB review build if it didn't come in the box it wasn't getting used.

I will take a whole bunch more pics out in the sun this weekend and submit it and the write up for a build review here on Armorama.













cheers
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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Posted: Friday, May 16, 2014 - 06:10 PM UTC
Rick we have no issues with you improving the base model bud. Can you send me a quick build feature for the site please when you get time?
Thanks.
sauceman
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Posted: Friday, May 16, 2014 - 11:48 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Rick we have no issues with you improving the base model bud. Can you send me a quick build feature for the site please when you get time?
Thanks.


No worries Darren. I just took this opportunity to actually build a kit OOB to see what was possible with just what is included in the box.

I'll get some photos taken today a sit's actually sunny now (lately I've been feeling like we're living in the UK) and put together a write up.



cheers
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