Looking at the Border 1/35 Leopard 2A7V kit, it doesn’t have the three stiffening ribs under the rear hull, while the Meng 2A7 and the new RFM 2A7 do have the ribs. Thought the 2A7Vs were upgrades of existing 2A7s, so would they not have kept the stiffeners?
Took a quick look at mine and I think the belly armor itself is thicker under the power pack than in previous Leopards. It’s definitely not the same aa the RFM 2A6 Leopard.
These are not belly armor, just stiffeners as Dwill104 stated. The fact that the stiffeners are present or not depends how old the research is.
The present of the stiffers has to do with the time of research?
The 2A7/V hulls are new builds … so NO additional “ribs” attached.
But you would have the 20 ex-Canadian A6 rebuilds to A7 configuration WITH the ribs.
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Right, the stiffeners aren’t there because the new 2A7V belly armor doesn’t need them.
The “Ribs” have a different origin … during maintenance / factory overhaul it was discovered that over the years the rear section/area of the bottom hull plate was being “worn” through. So the “Ribs” are used to strengthen and protect this section. The belly armour still wouldn’t extend that far … why even the newly produced hulls don’t sport the feature doesn’t really make sense if it already has been established what future wear & tear will cause.