Takom Leopard C2

As I noted a few days ago Takom made a bit of a mess of the front part of the turret where the gun mantlet joins. Looking at reference pictures and a turret from the Meng Leopard 1A5 I decided the best thing to do was remove the shaded area; Actually I removed more material

Takom Leopard C2

Attention has now turned to the turret with some tweaks to improve it and I’ve also discovered a problem. Firstly the most obvious improvement is to add springs to the loaders hatch by cutting away the kit ones; The add-on armour on the gun mantlet features four oval holes so these were drilled to a

Takom Leopard C2

Due to the design of the kit the side skirts need to be added before painting as the front fenders need to look like one piece. You have two options here, the first option is to leave the drive sprockets and front idlers on the hull as with the side skirts fixed you won’t be

Takom Leopard C2

I’m up to the stage of every armour modellers favourite bit and that is the tracks. The tracks in this kit are individual links joined together with end connectors and feature separate guide horns.When you look in the box it all seems rather daunting however the most time consuming part is cutting off the links

Takom Leopard C2

The past two days I’ve managed to stick some more bits on and improved a couple of parts. Starting with the rear hull the tow hooks were scribed as per the front ones I did a few days ago, the mountings for the barrel clamp were replaced as I managed to lose one of them

Takom Leopard C2

Looking at the road wheels on the actual vehicle from the Prime Portal site they show some signs of wear and tear so I’ve tried to replicate this on the kit wheels; I’ve also been trying to do the weld seams around the vehicle as some look pretty evenly done especially on the rear exhausts.

Takom Leopard C2

A few updates today as I managed to get quite a bit done before I return to work. The anti-slip texture has been applied to the turret, turret stowage hatches and front fenders and for a first attempt at this I’m quite happy with the result; Moving onto the hull an easy improvement can be

Takom Leopard C2

After hunting around the net for ideas about anti-slip textures I was pointed in the direction of these products; Using a Revell Boxer as a test bed I sprayed each side with the colours. The results are pretty good to be fair, the Terra Cotta being a finer texture which is ideal for the turret

Takom Leopard C2

After visiting Tank Fest at the Tank Museum, Dorset in June of this year I have to admit that I’ve fallen in love with the Leopard. After seeing three of them charge around the arena I was smitten so obviously once home I started looking at the kits I have in the stash; One of