Hello all,
I was looking for detail photos of the Leopard 1 turret from the original/first 4 batches to improve the Tamiya kit, especially the AEG XSW-30-U IR light itself and how its cable gets routed back into the turret (the connector thing behind the round range finder on the left side) and the shape of the turret bustle in the back, which may or may not seem to have the lips as depicted in the Tamiya kit based on the pictures I have found so far. It’s been really difficult to find photos of the original batches before they got the A upgrades and replaced the XSW-30 with the PZB 200 or got the turret armor. David Doyle’s books seem to be out of print and the usual suspects for walk around photos do not cover the original batches.
Thanks in advance
Deniz
I’m pretty sure you’ll find what you need in this volume here:
However, I would suggest that you consider utilising the Revell kit as opposed to the Tamiya one - assuming you’re referring to this one:
The Revell version, whilst not perfect, is, in my opinion, a far better model to use for any early Leopard version:
The Tamiya version is really past its sell-by-date.
Absolutely, I recently got into a huge binge of Leopard 1 and 2s to complete my earlier Leopard 1 and 2 collection. I am already trying to find this particular Revell kit (I already got a couple of the Revell A1 and A1A1-A1A4 versions). Until then, I just happen to have a bunch of the Tamiya kits that I am trying to complete for practice before the better kits and I usually talk myself into scratch-building black holes 
Shackleton’s trilogy books seem to be around ~$90 (ouch!) on Amazon and other places. Would any of these titles have the details I am looking for - or better there is an online walk around I have not found?
Maybe this could be a way forward:
Buy one and scratch build the other three?
“Resin conversion kit for Italeri / Revell Leopard 1 kits. The kit features the old style tracks Diehl D 139 E2, new turret, new gun barrel, typical old style parts as the track guards and PE Parts for the tool clamps. The combination of the parts enables one to make either batch 1, 2, 3, 4. Detailed assambly instruction includes description for different batches.”
I’m not too sure about the books other than the Tankograd one, which I think I’ve got, but not handy just yet.
Michael Shackleton posts on here so you might be able to contact him direct by PM - he is a Leopard Ninja! I’m not sure how to find him; however, he also runs Scorpion Miniature Models so if you identify that site I’m sure you’ll be able to get hold of him there; he is a very helpful sort of chap.
He also runs the leopard club site.
Some information on here
Life is short - sell the Tamiya kits and buy more of the recent Revell ones! Tamiya did something odd to the cast turret shape that no amount of surgery can fix. You could build them as-is to play with paint techniques, but if you spend time “fixing” them you’ll regret the lost time later.
Oddly Tamiya’s A4 kit is actually OK, and just needs some extra detailing to make it great.
The Perfect Scale set contains a turret which I presume has been fixed
True - it’s fixed because it started as a better turret than the Tamiya one! (The Italeri/Revell one I believe…) But I got the impression the OP was intent on spending effort on the Tamiya kits they already had.
I have pretty much downloaded the entire leopardclub.com website, but couldn’t find those couple magical photos that show the details I was looking for. I will try to reach him as well.
yes, fixing/improving the Tamiya kits as best as I can was the idea. With this kit being that old, it is really tough to find any good reviews online that talk about the turret shape issues. Other than the differences I noticed in the bottom of the turret bustle, which might or might not have a lip and the contour from the turret ring is weird, I didn’t notice anything big myself.
It apparently also has some accuracy issues, though. Photo by Walter Jonkers of his Leopard 1(NL) conversion:
The turret from the newish Revell kit apparently is more accurate than either the Tamiya or Italeri (and thus older Revell) kits.
Not the same as the kit itself, but I found Darren Baker’s review on Armorama here and it has the instruction sheet of the Perfect Scale kit, which shows all details of the first 4 batches.
