Hi guys,

I am building and researching the Flakpanzer Gepard and found lot of nice pictures of both old and new vehicles. Seems to me that the Tamiya kit is a very early variant or even prototype - is this correct??
I would like to build an up-to-date version and I am wondering if there are update sets avaliable covering the new stowage boxes on the rear of the vehicle and on top of the turret??
On all pictures I have seen, the fenders are missing on both sides. Is this a common feature or has the fenders been removed completely from the Gepard??
I Hope you can help me here

Best regards from Denmark
Morten

According to Thomas Hartwig from Panzer Modell, the vehicle represented by Tamiya it´s a pre production vehicle, their Gepard has the incorrect suspension and road wheel layout and some other mistakes. And of course, have a lot of compromises for a 1980´s kit (soft and some wrong details, stiff tracks, etc), apart from using the same low hull from their Leo 2A4, motorization holes included...

The new storage boxes over the rear hull, up and rear turret correspond to the A2 version. If you wanna depict that particular one, you´ll have to change the muzzle brakes? of the 35mm guns too.

So, you have the option to correct the suspension, add some PE and some scratch for the A2 version, use only the very comprehensive Eduard PE set for the A1 version, etc. It´s up to you how far you wanna go...

I know a german company makes a resin conversion for the A2 version, RN-Modell if I´m not wrong...

All the pics I have seen don´t show the use of side fenders, don´t know if that´s just a field or a stablished offical practice.

I´ve built this kit before, and as usual with Tamiya, goes toghether very well indeed. It´s a nice kit that can be improved, though.

I´m almost ready to start mine, I´m gonna use the Eduard set and some scratch, but not going to correct the suspension, too much work Of course, will be a yet-to-be-aqcuired (but planned) chilean vehicle.

Hope this info helps, I know some experts can give you a more thorough explanation.

Best Regards

Klaus

Not my "thing" --but if this helps can give access to more



aye
BARV
BARV)

Hey Klaus,

I'm also building this kit - I'm interested in what you said about Chile - can you give me a source on Chile's purchase of this system? How many, from whom, when it's supposed to happen etc?

That would be a cool alternative to yet another German version!

Don´t know much really, just that the system it´s planned as part of the new organic of the Chilean Army. As I said, it´s planned, but not official date or announcement has been realased. It´s almost certain that are going to be ex-german vehicles, though.

Different story about the Leopard 2A4, those have benn purchased and the crews are in training in Germany now, and the Gepards are part of the air defence system for the new Armoured Brigades in developement, working with Leopard 2A4, AIFV, M-109A3, and Humvees (all the vehicles mentioned are alredy purchased)

Cheers

The side skirts were not used on the German Gepards, so the kit is wrong. There are photoetch sets from Eduard that can greatly improve the kit, but the biggest problem is the wheel spacing. The Gepard chassis is actually stretched at the midpoint, so there is a larger gap between the third and fourth road wheels on the real thing, but Tamiya just used their standard Leopard 1 chassis. Hard to fix it for real, though maybe you could fudge the positions of the forward and rear torsion bars to create a slight gap. It would be nice if anyone offered aftermarket track, but so far, no luck, so we have to use the vinyl ones.

If I´m not mistaken, HKCW has a set of injection indy tracks. I just bought and currently building their set for the Leopard 2, and are quite nice, but tedious to work...

Cheers

Morten,

The HKCW Leopard 1 tracks are great and come with separate tack links, center guides, and end connectors....lots of parts, and fragile, but worth the effort.

The fenders are on the front. What you are refering to are the side skirts. The fenders in the kit are also incorrect as they depict the ones mounted on the prototype...they need ot replaced with correct ones from a Leopard 1 kit.

Don't forget to add the anti-slip surfacing too.

The RN-Modelle Gepard conversion built up can be seen here:

http://www.track-link.net/gallery/2308

Hi guys,

First of all, thank you very much for the many great inputs to my questions. I will have to take the "short cut" of only adding the Eduard PE set.
I am too far into the building process now to aquire the RN Modelle set (darn..... should have posted before building). This is just one of those typical issues for me - I start a kit that I am not familiar with, buy the PE and follow instructions. At some point in time I need to find a reference to see where a part goes and find out that I missed all the important issues, but I wont stop me from finishing the kit. Will be doing a 3-tone Nato camoflage just to make all errors complete - but there is also this desert version which is pretty cool




best regards
Morten

The photos were taken a while back when a Gepard was sent to Crete for gunnery trials and testing. I believe it was the only one sent there and the only one repainted in desert camouflage.

It is a Gepard A1, visible by the upgraded laser mounted on top of the round radar dish...this is not included in the Tamiya kit.

That last photo - good side view - nicely illustrates the gap between the third and fourth road wheels. Not much, but definitely noticeable. Fairly easy to stretch the lower hull tub out a bit, but then you have to figure out a way to do the same to the upper hull...that's where the stickler is
Some more good reference here

Cheers
Jim