After much procrastination - I mean deep thought - I’ve decided it is time to tackle the Marksman Leopard demo. This combines the Marksman self-contained AA turret of the 1990s with a Leopard 1 hull. This is not the current Finnish Marksman on Leo2 combo or the earlier T-whatever version they used. The Marksman programme was designed as a simple swap to turn any “current” MBT into an air defence asset that could keep up with front-line armour, and was demonstrated on a range of hulls for clients around the world, but only the Finns bought it, and even then not many. Given that it uses the same 35mm Oerlikon gun pods as the very successful German Gepard, it surprises me they attempted to sell to the Germans at all. But the pics are out there!
I have the Takom Chieftain Marksman kit, but am using the hull for a “wedge” driver training tank, so the turret is spare. There are a number of Leopard kits in the stash, but I’d like to rehabilitate an old Italeri 1A4 that a friend gave me for spares - there are broken swing arms and it needs tracks, but I happen to have wheels and arms from Leopard Club in the stash, along with MENG tracks…
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By the way, if anyone has the guts, the new DraMi rail gun on King Tiger hulls would really fit into this campaign!
Well Tom, that’s different for sure; I hadn’t heard about it ever being on a Leo chassis. As you assess, strange when they were developing/fielding Gepard.
It does look a bit top-heavy but I imagine would do the business readily enough! A shame the Brits never bought into it, but since the demise really of SP Rapier there’s not much around to support a Brit battlegoup should push ever come to shove. I know we have Stormer HVM but not many, and whilst I’m no AA Ninja, one would assume a gun/missile mix is the better solution.
All a far cry from when we had regiments of Bofors L40/70 and of Thunderbird!
Anyway, looking very forward to seeing how this turns out.
Yeah, it seemed like trying to sell snow to Eskimos! IIRC it wasn’t long afterwards that the Bundeswehr started withdrawing Gepard after several decades of service, in favour of missiles etc.
I think it will be a fun build - remind me of those words when I try to revive the old broken hull…
Tom, as it happens I am in the throes of winding up a Leopard project which has left me with assorted pieces from 2 x Revell kits; give me half a day or so and I’ll get the sprues photographed of what’s left; my thinking is that it might provide help with your hull.
Yours if you want them buckshee, though I appreciate that at this stage you won’t know what I’m actually offering.
Thanks Brian that’s a kind offer! Let me give my spares and stuff a good look-over and I’ll come up with a list to compare with yours.
All Done!
M-247 Sgt York, with markings for the Air Defense Artillery School.
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Nice work indeed; remind me what rendition of the MERDC scheme that is?
I did the Tamiya kit in '83 or '84 and chose the same scheme, although I didn’t execute it nearly as well as you did. It was my second camo job with my forever airbrush, after the the little badger and spare tire setup.
I’d have been happier if I hadn’t put crows’ feet on the road wheels.
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I believe its called Desert Gray.
That looks great! If only the real thing wasn’t such a turkey…
