I'm considering doing some Leopards. I am woefully uneducated in this type of tank. In my day they just had the one which was painted a medium green or a green drab color. They were just fielding the A-2 as I was leaving at the end of 1979. I would love to see a site with line color drawings so I can compare types and changes in color schemes throughout years. I read / speak some German so I could navigate through a german site. While I do that, if it includes Chieftan and Challenger info that would be cool too.

try here

panzerbaer

or

panzer-modell

good sites, great for the info your looking

cheeers

http://www.primeportal.net/the_battlefield.htm

There are some really good pics on Leopards here.Scroll down and look on the left side.

CDN Leopard C2
(The CDN C2 is much the same as an 1A5)


Jim

Don't forget about the Leopard 1 list that Frank Lobitz put together:

Leopard 1 kit and conversion list

If you want line drawings of the various Leopards, volume 1 of Michael Shackleton;'s Leopard trilogy (published by Barbarosa Books) is a very thorough albeit pricey reference book.

Cheers - Dan

A Norwegian Leopard would be a fairly easy and colorful conversion of the 1A5 kit.

If you can get a hold of Concord's Armor of the West book, it's got pictures of Belgian, German and Canadian and Norwegian Leopards as well as the Chieftain and the Challenger 1.

Paul

One site has some great pictuers another one talks about available kits. According to the kit guy all that is out there is garbage. Surely you jest ! Is this guy a rivit counter type of guy or does every Leopard kit have gross inaccuracies. Any recommendations on kits to get if I want to do a small collection of Leopards featuring 3 - 4 different types (as in major changes in shape). Probably depict Bundeswehr as I understand most of the other countires require aftermarket goodies to convert things. Why does Canada and Austrailia use Leopards instead of Challengers?

If you don´t wanna get aftermarket, I recommend you get the Revell of Germany Leopard 1A1A1/A1A5 & Leopard 1A5, from there you can get most of the versions A0, A1,A2 and A5. With those kits you get the applique armor plates for the turret and some other goodies to get the versions I named above. Some scratch work will allow you to make the dutch version, the Leo 1-V (Verbertbed, Improved), now in use in the Chilean and Greece Armies. Somee countries that are used/ using those versions would be Chile, Belgium, Brasil, Norway, Greece, Italy....

The Italeri Leopard 1A2 shares most of the moulding with the Revell kits, but also you get some decals for the italian version. Also from Italeri, you can get the Leopard 1A4, that you can convert to the A3/A4, both versions has the same welded kind of turret. From here you can get an Australian, Canadian, German, Danish and I guess a Turkish one too...

Other choices for the A3/A4 are the Heller and Tamiya kits. The fit in the Heller it´s poor, the Tamiya it´s much better, but the details are worse than the Revell/Italeri kits. Also from Tamiya you can get the first batch production of the Leopard 1, but my choice would be better backdate the Revell or Italeri kits rather than buy this one (I got one of these, and it´s not a nice one...)

In my modest opinion (I´ve built all of the above mentioned kits), the better it´s the Revell/Italery, then the tamiya a4, Heller A4 and Tamiya Leo 1....

Hope this helps, cheers

HI

There have been some really useful replies so far so it would be hard to give you more info but here are a few ideas:

Norway: splinter (green & green & brown & black) (use white in winter)
Canada: dk olive green or NATO
Greece: MERDC or NATO
Australia: light olive green or Aussie cam(sand & green & black)
Chile (Brazil??): (sand & brown)
Denmark: overall black, (bright green & black), white

You have lots of options. If you cannot find anything on-line and if one of the above interest you, drop me a line and I will see if I have some pics.

Welcome to the wonderful world of LEOPARDS!

Tom

As has been stated, stick with the Revell or the Italeri kits; these kits share the same hull molds with only different turret parts distinguishing the different kits. The Heller kits are trash and the Tamiya kits are very crude in comparison so both would be best avoided in my humble opinion.

The Italeri 1A4 has been out of production for a little while now so you will likely need to watch eBay or some other vintage model source to pick one up. I believe the Revell 1A5 is also OOP although Maple Leaf Models now sells the conversion parts necessary to turn the Revell 1A1A1/4 into a 1A5.

The afformentioned Leopard list will give you an idea as to what is available for kits, conversion parts and such.




I think most nations stayed away from British tanks after the absolutely dismal automotive performance of the Chieftain which was described as being the world's best tank as long as it broke down in the right location. Although the Challenger 1 was a very capable (scored a first round hit at 5000+ m in Gulf War 1) and reliable (93% availability during Gulf War 1) tank in battle it must be remembered that it exhibited near dismal performance at the Canadian Army Trophy (CAT) tank gunnery competitions during the Cold War. After redeeming itself as a star performer in the first Gulf War, it was often stated that the Challenger 1 was built for battle and not for competitions! I think the poor performance at the CAT competitions prevented potential buyers from taking a serious look at the Challenger 1.

Also, there is conjecture that Canada's decision to purchase Leopard 1s (instead of waiting a few years for the Leopard 2s) was politically motivated. I have read that the purchase was pushed through to appease Germany over the reduction in Canada's troop numbers stationed in Germany (as part of their NATO commitment). Why the DND (Department of National Defence) didn't wait a few years for the Leopard 2 or the M1 is a question asked by many as it would have allowed Canada to obtain next generation tanks with vastly improved armour protection (Chobham), fire control systems and mobility.

It seems that Canada is soon to lose it's heavy armour capability entirely. The Leopard C2s will be phased out and replaced with the as yet unproven (is it out of prototype stage yet?) LAV-III based Mobile Gun System (MGS). This is seen by many as a collasal mistake (for many reasons) but common sense is not particularly common in the Canadian government?!

The Australian MOD announced a short while ago that they will purchase the M1A2-AIM (I think that's the variant they're getting). At least they will maintain some heavy metal and hence an offensive capability in their military.

Cheers - Dan (the somewhat opinionated)

Because the Leopard runs rings around the Challenger...

( the above statement is heavily biased, and should not be used for procurement decisions... :-) :-) )

And the Leopard looks better.

For reference pictures for Leo and the other (inferior) tanks , look here .

Cheers
Henk

Thank you everybody for your great responses to my questions. I now have a definite idea on what I want and where to get it.