Meng 1/35 Leopard C2 MEXAS (21B)

[Frank3k]

Greg and Stephen have come up with some believable armor upgrades in their Antipodal Armoured Collaboration thread.

I really liked this tank:



and procured the gun from Sprue D of the Hobby Boss 1/35th Scale IDF Merkava Mk. IIID  that I got from ebay. The tank itself is the Meng 1/35 Leopard C2 MEXAS w/Dozer blade. A great kit - it goes together quickly, well and logically engineered and good detailing.

I started it yesterday:



and with a few interruptions along the way, i was this far by 5 PM:



The vinyl tracks are fine. There's a long OOP workable track set from Meng, but it's not worth hunting it down. Everything has fit well so far, and from looking ahead, the rear of the body may need some putty, but not much. I also put together the Hobby Boss 120mm IMI MG251 barrel. It needed some work and will probably need some extra detailing, but i think the hardest part of this build will be getting a good match for the weathered NATO/CARC green camo.

[Old Wombat]

Will be watching this build with considerable interest, Frank. 

Although the painting won't be quite as important. 

[Frank3k]

This kit is interesting - you can build a Leopard 2 almost straight out of the box... then you start adding the MEXAS armor, like on the real thing.

So far, I've managed to knock off a small L-shaped bit at the rear of the hull (should be easy to replace) and a square part that goes over one of the toolboxes. I have to do a deeper search tomorrow.

[apophenia]

And we're off ...