Thanks John @Johnnych01 and Ken @tankerken , it was hard to see on my mobile but the iPad is clearer. The kit comes with a length of metal braid for the cables Ken.
Thanks Ryan @Tank_1812 , great to have you following along.
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Gorgeous !!
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@iwatajim: I know Iām a million years late to this thread, but Iāve been working on my own Meng Leopard 2A7 for the last few weeks, and yours is an inspiration! Iām curious about what you finally decided about weathering, whether you left it minimally weathered or did you decide to really muddy it up. Iām planning, at least for now, to do some mid-level weathering. Iāve started to do a little bit of weathering as I go. Iāve already built and painted the tracks (which I LOVED, by the way, no glue at all!!!) and built and painted the road wheels and suspension bits. The parts already painted were done in Tamiya NATO green, and Iām going to use Tamiya NATO brown and black also, with appropriate lightening for fading. I did a little bit of weathering on the wheels, but nothing significant. Would very much like to see how yourās ended up.
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We were talking about the green eyelet ends, not the cables 
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I use 0.8 mm wire cable that I get as scrap gearshift cables at the pushbike repair shop. Annealing (holding it into a gas flame) makes it keep its shape on the model while also giving it the right color.
Peter
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Hi Curt, thanks for the interest. Yeah, have had this on the back burner for a wee while now. Made a start on the weathering but lost mojo slightly. Will get back to it though, I donāt like unfinished projects!
Some streaking etc started, and painted the cable steel colour. Wheels lightly weathered too.
If youāre looking for inspiration for nato camo weathering this is what I use;
Actually up at the Scottish National Scale Model show in Perth just now, lots of inspiration!
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Oh yeah, the Modeling News is ALWAYS a great place to look for ideas for modeling, and I have looked at the Leopard 2A7 that was done there many, many times! Iām just trying figure out how far I plan to take it. It so happens, because I lost one of the parts for the rear of the tank (part C15), I was unsure how I was going to proceed. I had begun working on the tracks, just to get them done, and was going to put the tank away for later on, but I made some errors on the tracks, and was so frustrated, I ended up ordering another whole kit, figuring Iād trash the tracks from the first one and start over. Well, in the interim, I was able to salvage the tracks from the first tank. And I was excited enough to want to keep going on the build. Then, as luck would have it, I lost the C15 part on the day the second kit arrived, and I stole the C15 part from the new kit so I could keep moving ahead on it. I was then able to order a new C Sprue for the new kit from Meng (great Customer Service response!), so now Iāll have a whole second 2A7 to build at some point, maybe more heavily weathered, or at least something different.
Jim, do you live in Scotland? Are you a Scot? I just started to watch the final season of āOutlanderā on Netflix. I donāt know if youāve ever seen it, or what Scottish people think about the characters and how the Scots are portrayed in that series, but I love that show, and I love the Scottish accent! Hope you are having a great time at the model show!
Oh, one other thingā¦ I note that the plastic your tank is molded in is tan. The Modeling News kit was in dark grey, and mine is in white plastic! Meng must get deals on different runs of plastic, Iām guessing. 
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Thatās quite the debacle with the two kits Curt @cabasner, but glad you now have a complete spare. I spotted one at the show and nearly bought it. I think the different types have different plastic, mine is the a7+, the build on modelling news of that particular kit has the same plastic as mine.
And yes, I am of Caledonian blood and reside in this fair land. I must admit I have never watched an episode of outlander, but some of the heritage sites I have been excavating at are glad of the āoutlander effectā, lots of tourists following the filming locations, one of the best known being Culloden battlefield, I found a couple of musket balls there last year!
The show was great, so nice to see it happening after the last few years. I didnāt enter anything in the competition as it would need to be there for the two days, and I could only spare one. Shame really as I have a couple of pieces Iād like to share.
I commit to finishing this modelā¦ Ha!
Now thatās a great idea Peter @PzAufkl , I must remember that next time I change my gear cables. Excellent thanks!
Thanks for the quick response and info, Jim, and glad you enjoyed the model show. the National IPMS show was held here (In Las Vegas) last year, in 2021, and I was so sorry not to have been able to attend it, but we were in the midst of some family crises. It is nice that there has been some return to a relative level of normalcy in the midst of the pandemic.
Really cool that you were able to find some actual weaponry on the Culloden battlefield. I know the show is 100% fictional, but they try to weave some tiny bit of history into it, and I guess Iāve learned a tiny bit as a result.
I look forward to seeing your Leopard once itās finally done!!
Curt
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That is one very interesting way to mask! Never seen that before. Makes note to himselfā¦
Peter
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That looks amazingly beautiful! Wonderlustā¦ Just ordered that kit. Thanks for the great build. Brilliant.
Peter
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Welcome to the network of mayhem Peter. Hope you enjoy it here. There a lot of great builders here and people with knowledge from all areas of kits and years and types of equipment. Look forward to seeing some of your builds.
Jim does do exceedingly good builds ā¦ and he also has a closet fetish for Berlin Cam ā¦ but thats another story lol
Thanks Peter, and welcome to kitmaker! Itās a great kit you should enjoy very much.
John @Johnnych01 , I admit it, I have a problem, and itās called Berlincamonitis, there is no cure, if I donāt feed the need I come out in random rectilinear hives!
You know I spotted an amusing hobby badger at the show on Saturday and meant to go back and buy it but got sidetracked with adding to my Bandai Star Wars stash. One day I will build this;
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I didnāt see any mention of adding internal support for the hull roof. I did note however that you mentioned the roof was slightly banana shaped, but that was before adding the weight of the turret.
This is in reference to other builds of the Leopard 2 (e.g. A7 and A7+) that describe the need to add internal supports for the roof. See The Modelling News: Construction review Pt.II: Meng's 1/35 Leopard 2A7 German Main Battle Tank
Do you notice any sag?
Also, did you consider using metal tracks, e.g. the ones from San Xin look nice.
Peter
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Ah, good question Peter. Yes I did have to add a support to force the hull roof up a fraction of a mm. I only noticed when I attached the turret that it was catching when turning. It is very, very slight and not noticeable, to my eye anyway.
A piece of bamboo stick, fixed just by friction, I cut a few and found the one that worked.
Those tracks look very nice, however Iām really rather impressed with the kit tracks, although would be interesting to see a side by side comparison.
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Jim I love that camo also. I would love to do some of the other vehicles that sported that camo scheme in Berlin. I did a Chieftain several years ago and it came out nice . That Badger looks like a great one to try it on.
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I think they trailed the Berlin scheme on an M60 or M1 ? I am sure I have seen a picture someplace ā¦
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Yeah Richard, itās a rewarding scheme, after some pain! Iāve only done the Takom Chieftain and Rye Field Chally 2, but have the recent Meng Chieftain mk10 in the stash. John also has a great suggestion for a left field vehicle sporting the schemeā¦
Here you go John, @Johnnych01 pics in this thread of the m60;
Looks to me like it has brown and tan and what looks like very dark grey or maybe the original dark green, very hard to make out the dark colour from the pics, would be a great subject to do and very unique!
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