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First of all, I have to admit something. I initially painted this model White, planning to make it into an UNPROFOR vehicle, but then "chickened out" and went with the more conservative cammo scheme..
This is the Tamiya Leopard 1A4 converted to the Danish Leopard 1A5DK with Accurate Armour's kit. Scratch-built items such as the searchlight housing and turret stowage box were also added. The Tamiya kit is far less well detailed than the Italeri offering, so it was upgraded as follows (in addition to the conversion parts):
Turret detailing:
1. Loader's hatch (molded closed) was drilled out and the highly detailed hatch from the Tamiya Leopard 2A5 was utilized to depict it in the open position (crew members will be added at some point).
2. Smoke dischargers from MR Modern German vehicles update set.
3. Eduard etched update set
4. Turned aluminium barrel from Modelpoint.
5. MG3 from Tamiya Leopard 2A5
Hull detailing:
1. "Outlet" on left / forward side of hull was drilled out.
2. Mirrors from MR Modern German vehicle update set.
3. Brass tow cables
4. Eduard update set
5. Resicast lenses
6. Drivers periscopes (integrally molded) were removed and replaced with resin and etched brass parts.
... and more...
The mine plough is a Dragon kit, originally designed for M1 Abrams and M60 kits, and was extensively converted to depict the version used on Leopards. I'll admit that I am not sure if it is entirely correct, as I did not have great references, but the most obvious modification was to change it from a 12-blade to the 10-blade version.
Believe it or not, the picture references I had of a real tank showed the hydraulic line being fed through one of the driver's periscope ports, so I did the same thing on the model. Maybe this was a temporary solution for the mine plough by Danish tank crews, I am not sure.
The model was painted with Tamiya acrylics and weathered with MIG pigments. It will be a while before I will be able to finalize my diorama plans for this tank, but the weathering helps to make it more "photogenic" and adds character. I guess I have limited myself down to a scene with a lot of mud and dirt.. hahaha
Stowage was intentionally omitted until the diorama setting has been established. Authentic Danish markings and flag were created on a computer and printed on decal paper. The registration plates were based on Bjoern Clausens references, just as on my Danish M92 PNMK model.
Sorry about the poor quality of the pics of the unpainted model - I had very poor lighting when I took them.
Comments are welcome. [View discussion] [Discuss my model]
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