Meng 1/35 Leopard C2 MEXAS (21B)

[apophenia]

Dang that looks good Frank! 

...This is in indirect light, late afternoon...

And shows that you've nailed that CAF CARC green colour. Drop the light levels and that olive tone goes with them 

Brian - the Meng armor would probably fit an earlier Leopard quite easily. The sections are mostly flat plates and could be duplicated with styrene sheets...

Hmm ... that raises an interesting (if pricey) option for building RW MEXAS Leopards in 1/35. Build your Meng kit as a Leopard C2 as intended but, first, measure all of those MEXAS components. Then, scratch-build the MEXAS panels out of card stock to fit a Leopard 1A3 turret for the earlier Leopard C1 build.

Actually, that raises a semi-related question. Does the Meng Leopard 1 A3/A4 kit (TS-007) include turrets for both types?

[Claymore]

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:

My time in Talibanistan was later than the Canadian’s C2 deployment but I do remember their Leo 2s in 2010, also the Danish Leo 2 just as they were finishing off at Camp Bastion in 2014 and the US M88 recovery vehicles at Camp Bastion/Leatherneck. As regards the faded colour scheme, pretty much anything goes although green does indeed seem to fade to a strange blue colour especially when seen under a coat of talc-fine dust. However, those vehicles that came back into camp for maintenance and a wash down sort of regained some of their normal colour.  Before returning home all vehicles were completely sanitised and looked almost as good as new - sort of…

[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.

Did you read the original inspiration to this build?

Yes and get the concept of the article , most logical and well thought though.
What my thoughts were was more in place existing vehicle life extension upgrade as defence budget get more pressure on it as threat assessments get watered down


Still liking the build,  I really like to see builds from inspiration posts.

[Frank3k]

Finished! I didn't weather the tank like the Kandahar examples - just some light dust and mud.

I got some of the interference paint on the cover for the driver's vision blocks:



I used part of the kit's decals for the serial number and added 2603 for the date I finished it. The giant tow loops seem to be in white, gray, exposed aluminum or camo. I went with the camo color:





"What am I forgetting?" Says the French Mechanic:



I forgot to attach the antennas! The antennas and the can holders at the rear of the turret have been the two most difficult and frustrating part of this build. The PE for the straps on the holders was stiff and difficult to work with - and poorly detailed. I eventually replaced the straps with painted Tamiya tape. The antennas had bad flash, difficult to remove attachment points and they weren't very flexible; both broke during cleanup. So I kept the bases, the ball at the top (may be a sprue bit but I thought it looked good) and the connectors between the two antenna sections. I replaced the antenna wires with 0.025" (0.64mm)  and 0.20" (0.5mm) plastic rod. The bottles for the glow sticks also came from a Meng accessory kit:



Thanks for all the comments and to Greg and Stephen for the inspiration.

[Kerick]

This model is outstanding! Very nice building and painting skills!
I’m surprised this kit even gives you antennas. First I’ve ever heard of one doing so. I’ve tried stretched sprue but that breaks too. I finally switched to spring steel wire from my LHS. Just drill a hole in the top of the base, perfect. That little ball is one of these;



It’s meant to protect the tip of the antenna and the operators from each other. I simulate them with a drop of UV resin. I hold the wire with the end with the drop pointing down and then shine the UV flashlight on it. Works great. Paint it black or very dark green. Hope this helps.

[Claymore]

A beautiful job Frank - crisp and clean build, great paint work and subtle weathering. Stunning! 

[Old Wombat]

Excellent finish, Frank! 

A little splodge of dust/mud will fix that mis-placed paint issue in a jiffy! 

[GTX_Admin]

 

[Buzzbomb]

big tick from me as well 

[apophenia]

Excellent result, Frank!  And good saves on both the jerry can holders and antennae ... nothing says Kandahar quite like glow sticks in upside-down PET water bottles :)

One minor note: Some Leo C2s had C6s without butt stocks but, for those that had 'em, the stocks were finished wood (not black polymer like US M240s). IIRC, the Leopard 1A5DKs in Afghanistan also had wooden stocks.</annoying-pedant-mode>

Brian: On a Leopard AS1 life-extension upgrade, the MEXAS kits and process would be identical to the Canadian Leo C1s (which also had Leopard 1A3 turrets until upgraded to Leo C2s).

[Frank3k]

Thanks for all the comments!
Kerrick - good solution for the antennas!

Stephen - thanks for pointing out the stock types. I just went with "looks like a modern gun, so plastic stock" I'm tempted to build a Kandahar tank at some point.

The Meng kit has many left over bits (dozer blade, unused turret parts, drive wheels) that'll come in handy in other builds as well.