Some new pictures of my Leopard I posted some pics a few weeks back but they got shuffled along in the wrong forum. Here's the build to date. I'll mainly concentrate on the painting in this blog. The build is straight forward lots of after market kits to make it pop.

Chris

Nice frickin build man! What barrel did you use?? Are you going to try the MCS??

Keep up the good work! Looking forward to watching your progress. Cheers!!

Salute to you Chris for having the guts to do the slat armour. Are you using the Eduard slat?

This Leopard 2A6M was posted last year by Rick Saucier, thought you may be interested.

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=2340

Paul

Carman the barrel is from Barrel Depot. This Leopard won't have the Cam cover I'll do one of those later when the Echelon netting is released. I'm looking forward to that.
Paul I will be using the Slat set from Eduard,its not that bad its much like any other PE set. I have seen Ricks Leopard and its great.

Hey Chris,

Awesome start on the Leo. That Storm Miniatures set looks really good.

One small thing, those brackets on the rear turret bin (not sure what they're for) aren't installed on our Leopards in the sandbox.




Glad you liked my build, those slat attachment brackets are a real PITA lol.



cheers

Hi Rick, up early today? Thanks for the pic any more would be good if you have some time. I'm struggling with the lack of ref. pictures. I'd like to have that book from Real models. I figure I'll do my Cuda Cam version when I get the book.
As for those brackets I think a mortar plate goes there, I did read it somewhere but forget now. Anyway I'll remove it or cover it with crew gear.
Yeah that Storm kit is a real plus and Andy must be doing well with it, this particular build seems to be as popular as an Abrams in Iraq. Andy deserves it he's nailed that resin.

Hey Chris, i'm always up early, the curse of being in the military LOL.

For detail pics have you checked out Anthony Sewards pics on photobucket? Leo 2

If there is any particular area your stuck on let me know and i'll see what I can find.



cheers

Got all those pics and all the ones on Combat camera plus the mag articale Jason did. I'll let you know if I'm stuck.

Hey Chris

I heard Real model will be releasing those photo reference books in September'ish. I also have the Storm conversion... bang up job! Keep going dude, I'd love to see more.

Also - Your eduard slat armour is it brass or nickel plated? I purchased mine through Blast models out of France and it's brass, but I hear through the grape vine that if you pick it up in North America it's nickel plated... Is there any truth to that?? I need to pick up another set for my future Leo 2A5DK build (sometime in the future)... Just curious. Cheers mate!

Could you post the link to the Combat Camera website where you got your reference pictures??

Hello,

"One small thing, those brackets on the rear turret bin (not sure what they're for) aren't installed on our Leopards in the sandbox."






In case you have meant the bars marked I suppose that they are holders for the rear slat armour.

Marco I think Rick is talking about the brakets that are centre rear of the turret.

Carman my slat set is brass,there a few bits on it already. I think some of the older Eduard sets are silver in color.
I don't have the Combat Camera web address. all you have to do is goggle it it comes up first. then do a search for Leopard. There the best photos around all high res.

Chris

Aaargh... ...I am very sorry Rick, really.

I was only focussed on your photo and have not seen that your statement was refered to Chris opening pic





and that the photo I was writing about had been provided by yourself.


I know that you know each detail about your tank Rick.


(Deleted posting below was duplicated)

He's referring to the brackets for stowing the chocks.

Jason


Whats the Chocks?

Still waiting on my Leopard book from tankograd.

"Whats the Chocks?"

The Hemmschuhe are wedge-shaped blocks which are put under the tracks to avoid that the vehicle skids.

Right makes sence. I tossed the Tamiya bits and just mounted the brakets.

Heres a few progress pics. I'm only able to do a little here and there, it is summer after all. Got the tracks from AFV Club on there. These are very nice and I wouldn't build a Leopard without them. Also I have a couple of the brackets on.





Enjoy

Hello,

could you please tell something about how the tracks were to assemble?

I have read much about breaking connectors/pins.

Marco the tracks are easy to put together you have to cut them from the sprue properly to make sure they don't snap. Then you have to clean them up well to insure the tolerance is good. Over all there very nice. There are plenty extra to compensate for a few broken ones. This is my second set I put together and I have a few more sets.

All right, thanks a lot Chris.

A little update on my Leopard
I scatched some brackets to replace the PE ones. I think there going to be sturder and they will look better .

I layed up some slat to see if the brackets are in the right place. this is the hardest part, making sure the brackets are on stright.

Hi Chris,

Looks like a really nice start on the slat armor. You got to tell me what you use to keep your nerves under control so I know what to do when I build my slat armor set for the Warrior which I plan to use on a Warrior MRV.

Gr,
Marcel

Good times LOL. There are so many variables involved in attaching the slat. You have the vertical and horizontal axis, then the depth and angle of each section. Then you have to make sure they line up with each other down the line.

For the hull I fixed all the side sections as one piece,



And for the turret I kept them seperate as the sections curve around the turret.



Your build is coming along very well. Wish that I had more time to spend at the bench, but alas, it is summer. You know what they say, in Canada we have two seasons, winter and July

cheers

Marcel its one small step at a time that's all I can tell you. I know i'm going to have to detach a section or two.
Rick I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it yet but your plan looks good. I'm doing the turret like you and I'm going to paint it then do the haul.

I have the turret ready to paint and finish heres some pics

Looking good Chris.

Just curious as to why you went with the older 4 x 4 configuration for the grenade launchers.....I think there is only one 2A6M in Afghanistan with that configuration.

Just the one hey, oh well this is it. Jason I just wanted to incorporate some of the different features into the one model got a few other things in mind.
Anyway I need the 2x6 for a another project,when I saw the pics in TMMI I figured why not.