Working on ideas for my Leo stash. Have two already in NATO Tri Color, one is planned as Turkish. For something a little different I was leaning towards doing my 2A6 as a "what if" ex Dutch one in South America. (Chile has 2A4s. Second hand 2A6s would be a logical up grade. Scheme would be two tone tan. Second idea is Columbia. With Venezuela getting unstable and the Colombian army having zilch for modern heavy armor .... bunch of WW2 museum pieces and modern-ish armored cars ... refurbs would be a quick fix. Scheme ... two tone green and dark grey.) To give it that macho , latin flare I was thinking replace the MG-3 / FN-MAG with an M-2 , .50 cal. I know the 7.62 mount would not handle the load, but would the ring around the loader's hatch stand the strain?

In a word, No, both for weight and recoil, which is one of the reasons why the A5DK variant had a specific .50 cal mount forward of the hatch. If you look at other comparable(ish) MBTs that do use the .50 cal they are all on VERY beefy set ups e.g. On The M1 or JGSDF Type 90/Type 10.

You'd be better suited to mount an RWS on the Leopard 2A6 turret.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/review/12843

I was thinking RWS but am aiming for the low cost , DIY fit. I figure both countries have plenty of Ma Deuces handy and could fabricate a low cost mount. The 2A5DK's mount .... was that a simple post mount? (I'm hard pressed to find photos of the MG-3 fit.)

The mount was similar to that pn the M113

The M-113 mount was kind of what I had in mind. But it was part of the ring that mounted the TC's hatch.... part of the roof. How/ where was it fixed on the Leo?

The version the Danes trialled for a while reworked the loaders station and hatch quite significantly. I will dig out some pics later and post them up. Currently at work without access to my refs.
My understanding is that this particular mod was not particularly sucessful, in part because it was relatively fixed.

Local fabrication similar to M66 weapon ring mounts as used on M series 6x6 trucks. Forget the legs and fab something to mount to the turret.

Hi!
The Danish army trialled the "QRF" version with .50 machine gun. Please see Details of the machine gun mount here:

https://www.trackpadpublishing.com/danish-leopard-2a5dk-and-qrf?lightbox=image_nq4

Andreas

My refs are not much use sorry. However, if you were to fix the base of an M113 mount at the front edge of the loaders ring it should be ok.
EDIT: That should have read in line with the front edge of the loaders ring (not on it...my bad).

I think I managed to come up with a believable .50 mount. Started with the Tamiya GMC 2 1/2 ton ring mount. Cut it down to the corret dia. MG and shield are from the Academy M-113 ACAV. Looks the part, I think. Two questions. What are the wedge shaped things on the back of the turret? Look like chocks to me. Also, anybody have an idea on the dia. of the 1/48 black low vis roundels for a Colombian Mirage III? I've inquired from two manufacturers and a couple other sources. No one has deemed me worth of a reply.

That's a novel idea with the new gun ring!
One concern I would have is the position of the M2 fouling the loaders hatch and also a very "tight" shooting position.

Love the colour scheme by the way, always looking for something different to try on one of the many Big-Cats in my stash.

Thanks for reminding me.... there is a barrel travel lock I forgot to put on. Oops! As for clearing the hatch, remember when stored it would be slid along the ring, out of the way. As is it is a tight fit for the loader. the grips of the Ma Deuce are right against his chest. I'm going to have to scoot the gun and shield out a smidge. (Or get a skinnier loader. Cut back on the MREs.) Camo is based on the Colombian Army's H-60s. Green , grey, and dark brown. I replaced the brown with black green. Pattern is close to the NATO tri color with the black being FS 34127 green, green being black green (tamiya 27) and brown being FS 36118 gunship grey.

Thanks for the info Timothy.

I was just eye balling the hatch clearance. If you slide the mount to about the 2 o' clock position on the rail and lock the .50 pointing forward the body of the gun lays along the right side of the ring and the ammo box and mount along the front of the ring. No fuss.... no muss ....