Darren Baker takes a look at the Leopard 2A5/A5NL in 1/35th scale released by Revell of Germany.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

The initial German A5s had all 6 batch hulls onwards (increased armor) ... welded front deck cover plate.
All the Dutch A5/A6s all were rebuilds with their original hulls .... bolted front deck cover plate with gap.
No manufacturer can get it right ... all want to take shortcuts ...
Hulls from 1st to 5th batch always bolted including exports.
6th batch onwards hulls always welded ... why don't they just offer the two variants to inserts offering the correct recessed/gap possibility with the bolted version. Would make a backdate to earlier batches much easier and the OD paint option possible.
With later German A6s there are suppose to be some bolted variants with additional welding ... but I haven't seen any proof of that yet ... anyone got pics maybe ?
So building a correct Dutch version would dictate reconfiguring the cover plate with a gap (tricky !) and adding the bolts ... plus other changes on the turret amongst other things.

Cheers
Christopher

The sink mark in the barrel is not really a problem - this part of the barrel is a canvas sleeve, so it is in fact too smooth anyway and some additional texturing would be needed to make it look right. But in 2A5 this part is barely visible (unlike 2A4) so it isn't worth the effort to improve it.

There is no canvas sleeve on the 2A5/2A6 gun. The gun slides inside a large metal collar fixed to the mantlet. Even the large bolted collar at the base has gone. This is purely 2A4 and earlier. Revell are short-cutting here because this part of the gun is largely hidden.

Ah, yes... indeed. Well, then the sink mark certainly isn't a problem

Image at Prime Portal (dismantled barrel)
http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/ulrich_wrede/leopard_2a5_nl/images/leopard_2a5_nl_04_of_87.jpg

http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/ulrich_wrede/leopard_2a5_nl/images/leopard_2a5_nl_80_of_87.jpg

The first of the index pages
http://www.primeportal.net/tanks/ulrich_wrede/leopard_2a5_nl/index.php?Page=1

Replacement, accurate guns (LW018R) will be available again from Leopard Workshop by the end of next week.