Kampfpanzer Leopard 1965

Thanks Bert!

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I have Mengs Leo1-5. I want to know your recommendations for the Leo 1 or the Leo1a1a1a4.

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Greg, I might be the wrong person to ask!

I know nothing about Meng’s efforts I’m afraid. For a standard Leo 1 I’d have to recommend the Revell kit as described above. An easy enough build, comes with lots of options (NL and Belgian versions for example); it has rubber-band tracks but I can live with those - some modellers won’t but there’s a massive range of replacement tracks out there.

My - by now - ancient build of a Leopard 1A1:

was based on this Italeri kit (erroneously described as a ā€œ1A2ā€):

For a 1A1A1 I have this quite old Revell version in my stash:

but I haven’t tackled it yet so can’t really comment as to its buildability or even accuracy (I suspect that it might be from an original Italeri mould - and I haven’t checked its provenance - there might be a missing pericope at the Commander’s position).

However, I have noticed that Revell have recently (2023) produced a 1A1A1-A1A4

and that might be the way to go - assuming it’s more accurate than their earlier effort above.

For the record, I also note that Revell now do a dedicated 1A1:

To sum up - I’m happy enough with the Italeri/Revell kits, and I’m fairly sure I’ll get the best from the 1A1A1 when I get around to it.

So, regrettably, this might not be of much use to you; however, I’m sure someone else will chime in re the Meng kits.

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Ask your buddy Pete, he made a fantastic Belgian Meng Leopard :wink:

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Yes he did, but I don’t want it to go to his head!

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Thank you!!

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I must just add that depending on what kit(s) you ultimately end up choosing, this effort from Perfect Scale Modellbau is well worth the investment:

Plus some fine chain for the smoke-dischargers; inevitably overscale but better than none at all - in my opinion.

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Not really if you want the early chevron tracks, though, which you need for almost any Dutch Leopard-based vehicle throughout their service, as well as early ones from other countries.

That one is, yes: it’s Italeri’s ā€œ1A2ā€ kit with the necessary bits to turn it into a 1A1A1 through 1A1A4. The 1A1 kit is a Revell original, though, and much more recent.

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