I'm doing a build of a Leopard 2A5 for a friend in the Reserves who spent some time with a German unit last fall equipped with Leopard 2A5s. And I've got a ton of great reference photos, (I asked ahead of time!) which leads me to my question.

The tank I have photos of has a different configuration of the smoke cans than any other I've ever seen pictures of (and different from the kit as well which matches the "normal" arrangement you usually see) .

Instead of the usual arrangement on the left turret side of 4 cans on each of two different shelves, this tank has a single shelf with 6 on the upper side (pointing up) and two additional ones below the two rear most cans, mounted on the underside but inverted and also pointing upwards.

With the photos, it's really easy to modify and scratch what's in the photo, but I got to wondering if anybody knew anything about this configuration?

Tom

Tom, I did some checking on this subject back in December including posting a question on the ML modern DG. Apparently this is just a more recent grenade launcher configuration. Here is a link to the post on ML:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/thread/1166585768/

I think for the 2A5 you would be ok using the launchers as they come in the kit as the Leo's I have seen with this new configuration are A6's

Mike

Thanks, Mike, I suspected that it was a newer version of the system. Evidently there must have been some modifications or additions of this system to some 2A5s as well. The unit my friend visited has 2A5s and the photos show a couple of the tanks with this style. Since I'm doing a build of the vehicle that was in the photos, I've already gone ahead and scratch built the newer style for the left side.

The Prime Portal link was VERY helpful. I had checked the 2A5s and didn't see any with this style, but never thought to look at the 2A6 shots.

One other question has also been answered. I didn't have any shots of the right side of the turret and wondered if the same new arrangement or the older style would be on that side.

Now I know that I'm going to have to scratch build the new style on the other side as well!!!! :-) :-)



Edit: Here's a shot of the modification. I can already see that I have a couple of minor changes to make.




Tom