A co-worker who's in the Reserves just got back from a two week tour in Germany with an armored unit equipped with Leopard 2 (A5)s. I'd like to make a desktop commemorative and wondered what options are available to build one.

In addition to the make, I'm also interested in whether there are options with respect to scale (I'm a whole lot more comfortable with 1/35 but wouldn't object to a 1/48) and also what (if any) aftermarket items might be recommended to improve the kit and how pricey they are.

I do have a ton of photos to work with which will help things out. Given that this is likely to be out on a desk top as opposed to safely tucked away in a display cabinet, an all out superdetailed build probably doesn't make sense.

Any suggestions?

Tom

Best kit in my opinion the Tamiya Leopard " A5/6 but get there aftter market etched brass screen option which replaces the inaccuarate kiy vinyal mesh in the turret baskets. Kit i very good OOB but for the ultimate Leopard get the Voyager improvment set lathe turned barrell brass somoke launchers and lots of brass and resin. Sprue brothers have it for $75. Eduard also make a view nice brass sets. The one thing I would like is some aftermarket decals.

There are 3 availables Leopard 2A5 in the market: Tamiya, Revell and Italeri. The best in my opinion, the Tamiya one. You can get the Leo 2A6 from Tamiya, it´s the same with the addition of some parts to build the A6 version plus another fig (a bit small for being german I think ). But it´s more expensive (both, A5 & A6)

The Italeri and Revell renditions are the same, the differences are the decals. They have both the A5 and A6, if get the Italeri A6 have all the parts to build the A5 variant plus a new gun and parts to build a dutch version (MAG, smoke launchers....).

The Italeri´s are the cheaper of the lot, at least in here, the Tamiya´s are the most expensive. The Italeri /Revell are nice kits, nice detaila little bit problematic in the fitting field. The Tamiya it´s really good, some PE would be a nice to add, fitting almost perfect, but a lot more expensive.

Hope it helps

Cheers

positively Tamiya is best Leo 2.
Miloslav

Tom, Another vote for the Tamiya A5 or A6 kit, it is the best hands down. If it is going to sit on your friends desk I'd build it OOTB and it will still look great. The only things you might want to add would be a turned barrel, the Modelpoint offering is very nice but pricey (about $25.), and the small etched set from Tamiya that David mentioned (around $10.). But I would say neither of these is really necessary. I just recently finished one of these so if you have any further questions let me know.

Mike

Tom:

I recently built the Tamiya kit and it is wonderful. Easy straight forward build. I changed mine to an a6 version by getting the long gun tube from Barrel Depot. Check on ebay and you can get one a lot cheaper. I think I paind $25 or so. I would recommend getting the Leopard 2 gun tube from Barrel Depot as well as the basket PE replacement set which you can also find on ebay pretty cheap. I stayed with the kit engine grills as the detaihose were really nice and cutting them and all that wasn't worth the effort for what you'ld get.

There is a 4th from MiniHobbyModels, but go with the Tamiya like they suggested. I build the first one I mentioned, and it was a converted mechanized model. It wasnt that bad, but not exactly nice either.

http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/modern/okleo/okleo.htm
I hope this goes through ok. It is a very good write on the Leopard.

Tom,

Hobby Lobby carries the A6 I think if that will work for you. I think you can build an A5 with what comes in the box.
Hobby Lobby is running a 40% off coupon this week online. Hit the link, print it and take if with you, if you are interested.

Regards,

Shaun


http://www.hobbylobby.com/site3/weekly/weekly.cfm

Thanks everyone for all your great advice. I've just ordered the Tamiya kit with the Tamiya Photo Etch as well. They're back ordered on the Barrel Depot barrel, (seems like nobody had it in stock) so it may take a while for the order to ship.

But then again, I don't have a deadline for this and I've got plenty of other kits in my stash to do for me.

This will be a "first" for me, doing something on "commission" for someone else so I'll be interested to see how that goes as I've not given away one of my "babies" before. :-) :-) :-)

Thanks for all the help!

Tom

I went with the Tamiya 2A6 kit and I think I'm going to be very happy with it. My question is whether the ONLY difference between the A5 and the A6 is the longer tube?

In order to build the 2A5, is using the shorter barrel (I have the Barrel Depot 2A5 one) the ONLY difference from the instructions for the 2A6 kit, or are there some other unique 2A6 parts called out in those instructions I should ignore?

There is an "additional" sprue in the box which has the figure, the longer barrel and a few other parts which I assume are for the 2A6. But the instructions don't tell you "do THIS for an A5 and THAT for an A6". It assumes you're planning to build an A6.

If the only difference is in the barrel, I'll be fine.

Tom

I have both kits.

The Tamiya Leopard 2A6 kit is the 2A5 kit with some extra parts added.

I think its sprue D thats the new sprue.

You get the longer gun, 2 figures, clear parts for the lights, some roads signs etc.

You can build the 2A5 from this kit but Tamiya only gives you decals for the 2A6 but that might not be such a big deal as I believe you said its for someones desk to sit on.

Jeff

Tom, just to make things as uncomplicated as possible, yes that is the only really visible difference between the two kits. I've never seen the Barrel depot Leo barrel but if it doesn't include the MRS make sure you use the correct one from the kit, it's part #B-16.

Mike

Mike, thanks for the tip. BD's version comes in about 5 separate pieces and has the MRS which looks just like #B-16 from the kit.

Tom

i have the barel depot a6 barrel but did not use it as the details werent as nice as the kit barrel IMHO. may be the same case for the a5.

BTW, i would be willing to give away the BD barrel for the cost of shipping as I will not be using it.

Sean