I've just picked up the new Revell Leopard 2A5/2A5NL and was happy to see they've finally ditched that godawful green plastic all their other own-tool releases are moulded in for a nice neutral grey. And instructions in colour! Little things, but I'm easily pleased...

Overall looks like a nice release - sharply moulded and accurate. Not a Tamiya, but neither is the price.

TRUMcoughETER???

It's a little thing, but glad to hear. Although never a deal breaker on its own, I always disliked that bilious green color...

Damon.

has the formula for the plastic changed as well? I always found the green RoG plastic to be kind of..gummy.

Yeah, don't know. With my current build backlog it'll be a while before I get round to this one.

I always felt Revell (of Germany) shot themselves in the foot with their own releases: They make pretty accurate kits with some sharp surface detail, then mould them in terrible plastic and put them in a flimsy box with shoddy-looking instructions. Well, they've fixed two of those things (the flimsy box is still there).

Personally and as I always primer kits in light grey, I prefer coloured plastic... it is easier to see if the primer is covering evenly all the surface.

Plastic quality is a different issue, I can not remember now having built any RoG kit. But that may change soon :-)

Actually, the Tamiya prices are hardly more than ROG in their native Japan. It's just when they get exported to the west that Tamiya have to jack up the price to cover all the shipping costs etc.

Cool! Have the changed the style of instructions too, or just started making them in color?
I think their traditionally needlessly complicated instructions are something I'd very much like to see changed. And I don't mean complicated in a sense of being confusing or hard to understand, but rather that they tend to be broken down into totally unnecessarily high number of assembly steps, presumably in an effor to make them easier to understand. Ironically, they accomplish only the opposite - with needlessly long instructions it's easier to miss something.

Take Hasegawa's 1:72 scale He 111 for example. The instructions in Revell's reboxing have 26 steps, while the original Hasegawa boxing has 12.
And Revell's own Ju 88 A-4: 61(!) assembly steps.

No, they're still broken down into a large number of steps - 59 for the Leo2A5. But the new instructions look computer-generated rather than hand-drawn, and have some nice touches like using little German and Dutch flags next to the parts to highlight the build options - a simple idea, but the first time I've seen it.

Great to hear. These B rate companies - likes of Rev G, Italeri, and Academy - should do more to keep up with the competition.

And in Asia, Revell kits go for twice what we pay, swings and roundabouts