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 ... 

[Frank3k]

This kit is a fun build, with only minor (possibly self inflicted) issues. This is where I stopped today, with most of the hull done. There's some PE, but it's not difficult to bend and place:





This is the original Leopard 2 turret, before most of the armor is attached, but with the mantlet and the Merkava gun gun attached:



The molding and detailing on the gun is softer than on the Meng kit, but it'll do. It still need a few parts and some detailing:



This is the only difficulty I've found, so far. I tried attaching the final armored skirt to the rear of the tank (parts A29 and A30, step 11) but it just wouldn't fit. The culprit seems to be parts A3 and A4 in step 7; it just goes back too far. I snipped it off to the end of forward armored section and it fit (you can see one of the sections I had to cut off on both sides just below the tank:



PDF of instructions

I don't know if it's my fault or Meng's, but since the hull is pretty much finished, I don't care; it was a quick and easy fix.

I'll work on the turret tomorrow and I'll scratchbuild the exhaust heat shield as well.

[Old Wombat]

[Kerick]

I’ll be watching!

[Frank3k]

I never found the missing piece (it'll probably show up once I'm 100% done with this build), but the Merkava sprue had two almost identical parts. You can see it below:



the kit part is the small square with an elliptical section, right above the top toolbox. The Merkava part is at the bottom and it's outer edges are slightly angled. I may just take the kit part off and replace it with the Merkava part, just to keep it even.

[Claymore]

Looking good. 

[Buzzbomb]

Like the others very keen on this build. The topic is really well thought through

[Story]

Can't remember if I posted this before, but bein's as the British didn't deploy MBTs and the Canadians did (call sign LEOPARD 2?) & an L7 (105mm), I do believe this is apropos.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o8OFJyutZg

See also https://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=1300.msg208653#msg208653

Double-dog dare you to add speakers. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176069410820

[Frank3k]

I hope that story is true!

This picture from the thread you linked is a pretty good example of the greenish blue fade on the NATO/CARC green on those Leopards:

[Story]

I hope that story is true!

So much about the flavor rings true that I'd buy it for a dollar.

[Frank3k]

I'm almost done with the turret. 80% of the parts that go on are unneeded and to not support the armor - just in case anyone building this kit wants to save some time. The only critical parts are the rails to hold the turret armor and the two disks per side to hold the forward rail. This is the turret ready for the MEXAS armor:





Check steps 28 and 30 of the instructions to see what I mean.

With the armor on:



the right rear armor section is still sticking out a bit - I'll have to re-do it. It seems to be a common issue with this kit - I've seen some online builds with that block sticking out a bit.

One oddity in the instructions is step 32, where you have to add the shield between the rear of the armor and the bustle rack. It calls for two parts "M1" and "M2". M2 is just the matching left side or part C16 (step 33) but I haven't found the "M1" part, anywhere on the sprues so far. If I do find it, it's easy to tuck it in behind the shield.

I mounted the gun barrel temporarily and I think it needs a sleeve to thicken the base of the barrel as it goes into the mantlet armor:

[Kerick]

Lots of good hard work going on there!
Looks like a somewhat over engineered kit.

[Frank3k]

It's not bad - the kit is based on Meng's Leopard 1 (A3/A4/A5) series and they just added the MEXAS bits. In a way, it's instructive to see how the armor is installed on the real tank. If you skip the details, adding the armor is pretty quick and the parts fit very well.

[Frank3k]

I found the mysterious M1 and M2 parts - they were on a sprue attached to the inside of the upper hull turret ring. I'd cut them off and set them aside at the beginning of the build. Doh!

[Kerick]

I would have done the same thing!

[Frank3k]

The M1/M2 mystery parts were annoying because they're not clearly marked on the instruction sheet.

I swapped out the incorrect rear left turret shield plate for the correct M2 plate, but left the radio out until everything is painted. The smoke grenade launchers took longer to finish than I had expected; I think I'll have to deviate from the artwork and put them towards the front of the turret (as in the real world tank) rather than towards the rear - the mount is shaped to follow the forward turret angles.

While trying to figure out the "sleeve" for the gun barrel, I made a plastic extension that looked OK, but the gun was still loose - then it hit me; why not swap the rear of the Merkava's barrel  with the rear of the kit's gun barrel? I kept the length the same and it fits without being loose. The white ring is where I joined the two. I used Tamiya tape to enhance the barrel straps:



Here's where I left off today. I made the IR baffles for the exhaust (and made sure they clear the turret):





It's not clear from the illustration if the shield is flush with the front of the toolbox or against the edge of the tank. There are convenient empty mounting holes right where the shields are, so that's where i put them.

Tomorrow I'll finish the MG and a few other parts, then start thinking about primer and paint.

[apophenia]

Moving the smoke launchers forward is a good call, Frank. My illustration depicted the original RW MEXAS made for the Leopard C1 (so fitting a Leo 1A3 turret) while the kit and its MEXAS represent the Leopard C2 with Leo 1A5 turret swapped in.

Great solution for your loose gun in joining the MG251 barrel to the L7 breech 

Love what you're doing with the exhaust IR baffles too!

[Frank3k]

Thanks, Stephen.

I gave the tank the first coat of paint - I started with an equal mix of Ammo Atom interior light green and their RLM78 light blue and to that I mixed half as much Ammo Atom NATO Green, but the shade wasn't blue enough. Then I mixed French Blue and the NATO green in a 4:1 mix and it came out better.

The color is closer to the screen color in real life - the shading and some afternoon Sun are affecting the color a bit:



It's closer to the color in the picture of the tanks in Afghanistan (minus the dirt) again, reflected afternoon sunlight is changing the tint:



I think I'll leave it at this shade and when it's fully cured, I'll add the leftover bits, decals and tracks.

[Buzzbomb]

Good work.

I now am thinking how this added armour and fittings would fit on the Leopard AS1 which is closest to the 1A3 type turret, as a life extension upgrade.

[GTX_Admin]

Good work.

I now am thinking how this added armour and fittings would fit on the Leopard AS1 which is closest to the 1A3 type turret, as a life extension upgrade.

Did you read the original inspiration to this build?

[apophenia]

... It's closer to the color in the picture of the tanks in Afghanistan (minus the dirt) again, reflected afternoon sunlight is changing the tint...

Your custom paint mix looks amazing, Frank! As you say, the RW tint of that CARC green changes depending on the intensity of the sunlight - the more olive-y hue (under the 'moondust') in Kandahar giving the perfect example