Excellent finish Torsten. Another beautiful addition to the collection. Thanks for joining in.

Glad to see this one moving Gaz and no track issues.

You guys are doing a really great job. The addition of some Leos to the campaign is great.

Olivier

Hello again to everyone here,
I just decided to change my model for this group build to Revell UNIMOG 1/35 scale.
The only AM parts will be the tires by DEF - just ordered them, so I will wait for them.
For now:



Happy modeling weekend

Nice little truck, Martin, I have built it a few years ago. I recommend you a ring mount with a MG 3, which really improve the model.

MR MODELLBAU 35257. Two complete weapon mount in the kit with ammo box or drum magazine.



Ring mount on my model.




Other problem is about side windows, they are partial, with only the front narrow section.
The windscreen has marks location on the visible area.
And missing transparent part for the rear window.

I have rebuilt all the transparent parts with thin clear plastic sheet.

Great choice Martin. Based on Alex's pics, it should be a very nice model to build.

The three color camo is done.





It was only after I was finished painting did I notice a key fact. The pattern that I painted was a three color NATO pattern...as in green, brown and black. I thought that it was a desert pattern: tan, green and brown. Next time read the damn instructions!

Anyway, I'm doing the detail painting (headlights, taillights, turn signals, etc.) this weekend. I'm hoping by Sunday night I've got it clear-coated and getting ready for decals.

I like it, Richard!

I've taken a fair bit of artistic license myself, marrying two historical photos together in one tank... though my fonts be off and my skill lacking, all of the markings are painted thus far. Anyone know when they started putting license plate numbers on these things?



The Real Red 414:




The real 'Jager':


Happy modelling!

Hi Alex,
thank you for the tips, I will see what I am able to do. I am not building 1/35 scale now is just for fun

Excellent work Gaz. The markings do pop out nicely.

Sorry, can't help on the registration number question.

Hi Gary,

Good looking M47! They got German number plates painted on front & rear almost as soon as the dust settled after the "we just bought this" joyride. They were certainly there way before the crosses on the turret sides, or even the German marker lights on the fenders. So dig out those plates and get decaling!

Good evening everyone here ,
Some small sub assemblies here from the weekend:





Still a lot of fitting, sanding, filling and sanding again.
Have a nice week

That last pic looks like you started cake decorating Martin!

Those flow marks are really noticeable on the cab. Is the moulding smooth or does it have flaws?

@ Gary; Your M47 looks real good! And I love those figures.
@ Martin; looks like a challenging build you got there!

Speaking of challenging...
Tamiya's Kampfpanzer Leopard 1 is not a kit for the beginner!

First of all the fit it not good. There's a lot of filling and sanding to be done and that excludes the holes for motorized use! The barrel was oval shaped, when glued and the wheels have badly fitting poly-caps.





A neat feat; a real metal screen to be popped in from below, followed by the "engine", which shows through. Only problem is that it is not correct and quite visibly so. The screen should be flush with the top, not under it. It also is not fine enough and lacks all detail.





Sanding is a PITA, since the plastic is rather soft.



The turret underside has considerable gaps to fill.


Thinning down the turret basket sides. Here the plastic's annoying feature of fraying when sanded or scraped comes to life in full! It is very hard to get a smooth even finish, because after each pass over there's more to be removed, leaving behind fine curls or hairs of plastic.



Thinned down and bent the "rubber" mudguards too.


And then disaster struck!

I wanted to replace the original chevron trakcs with square padded ones and I was given a free set of Tamiya's Marder 1A2. These do fit and would look OK with snow on them. But they were bent and twisted. So I thought a warm bath would soften them and laying them on a flat surface when cooling would make them straight.

However I was not having a clear mind and used water that was far to warm.....



Does anyone have a spare set of either they'd be willing to part with?? AM tracks are up to 3x the price of this kit and I do not want to spend that on this one!

Martin, some good progress.

Ron, thank you! I built the Tamiya Leo 1 in the 80's. Can;t remember much about it though. You're doing great and I love the added touch of bending up the rubber fenders some.

Gaz

Ron, the Meng tracks are not too expensive. But I may have some old Italeri Leo tracks lying around if that helps. They're a tad stiff, but don't soak them in boiling water!

Ouch Ron. Not good.

As Tom says, Meng are not too expensive and they are the best option in a lot of people's opinions.

Another option - Bronco AS 90 tracks are actually the same track as used on the Leopard 1.


I found this out when I went looking for replacement tracks for my Takom Gepard and saw Fruil specifically called this out on their box:


It was also called out on a few sites I visited.

I had the AS90 tracks for the Trumpeter kit already so started them. Only issue is they did not quite fit the Takom Drive sprocket, so not sure if they will fit the Tamiya DS.

Ah well, lesson learned.
It looks like I already sourced a replacement set locally. Thanks for the advice anyway!
The reasons I did not want to buy extra tracks are that the kit is not worth it and practically all detail will disappear under snow anyway. However the distinct track pads would show.
Hence the planned use of Marder-tracks. And they fit the sprocket too, but needed to be shortened.
But now a set of genuine Leopard 1A4 tracks is on its way!

That's good Ron!

The crew for my Leo 1A3 arrived yesterday so now all I need is the current gale to die down enough to spray primer on it all...

Those are nice looking figures! Tank is looking good, too.

The figures look great Ron. They are really going to set this off nicely.

Looks good, Tom!
I see I missed the cable to the light and my 1A4-kit did not come with towcables either.
The Leo 1 kit does, but they are useless. Too bad the tow eyes have a shape that my spares box does not have. But since the tools are equally bad I have gone into a problemsolutionmode (scrabble word, 3x word value), so I might just figure something out.

@Peter; they're Tom's figures, not mine!

Finally!

This build is completed! Well, apart from the future tarpaulin over the turret basket, that is. I was getting pretty fed up with this kit and I am afraid it might show a little here and there. I think it is a bad kit by today's standards; dimensions are way off, details are bad, horrible or non-existent and the fit in many places was not exactly precise either. The rear comes immediately to mind, as do the wheels and their cursed polycaps.

Many of the details had to be redone, cobbled together from existing parts or made from scratch. The new tracks I got, coming from a Tamiya 1A4 were too long and the kit's dimensions explain why. The stowage in the baskets are not accurate, but these only serve to give the upcoming tarp its lumps and bumps.

Detaisl I made from scratch were the canvas cover at the base of the gun, the muzzlecover, the2 lifting eyes on the front, the entire basket bottom and the pole arrangement on the left side. The rest, the colours will show that, was made by mixing and matching parts or parts of the parts to get something that looked reasonable instead of horrendous.

Now it is time to get this thing painted.

A lot of work Ron, but it does look good. I had to look a bit closer to see the turret is skewed a few degrees right. The barrel looks cantered upward in the pic based on the lines on your mat and the shape of the turret doesn't make it that noticeable that it is rotated slightly.

BLAST!!
Can you believe it? I have been posting this second Leopard IN THE WRONG CAMPAIGN!!
This one's meant for the Operation Snow White....

No matter, I enjoyed seeing it here anyway