Hi All,
I’ve been working on my 1/35 Meng Leopard 2A7 tracks the last few days, and I have a question for any of you modelers out there. I was somewhat stunned to see this kit (which has gotten great reviews from everyone) is molded in WHITE PLASTIC!!! I cannot recall seeing, at least since restarting the modeling hobby in 2009-ish, ANY kit molded in white. Has anyone else seen any kit in white plastic? I know that it makes absolutely no difference, since every bit of the model will be covered in paint, but it just seems so odd, in particular for an AFV, to be molded in white.
Just curious if anyone else out there has a Meng Leopard 2A7 in white, or any other current model molded in white. I’m sure that the color of the plastic has no bearing on how well the parts will glue together, but I’m wondering why Meng would have chosen white. Perhaps they got a good deal on a batch of plastic?
By the way, if you have this kit, and haven’t built the tracks yet, you’ll be thrilled to see how well they go together. No glue at all is necessary, and the ‘press fit’ works great, and if you’re like me, even kit tracks that are supposed to be movable/articulating requires a very careful application of glue, which I can never seem to get quite right, and so most of my movable tracks end up being pretty ‘stiff’. These tracks are perfectly movable once complete, though I did make some mistakes in the orientation of one part of one track run; I’ll take care of that by hiding that section at the top of the run, under the sponson and behind the side skirts. I had just intended to do the tracks, just to work on something different, and hadn’t planned on going on, right away, to the build, but the tracks were such a dream to put together, now I’m anxious to begin the build…
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The one in my stash isn’t exactly white, more like a very light grey.
These sprue images shows green plastic though:
Different production batches?
I got mine the second time it was available
Jim did this A7.
It was the sandy colour … Does seem strange
Bear in mind all plastic comes as milky-clear pellets, and pellets of colour pigment are mixed in before it gets melted for use in the injection machines. They may have missed out the colour pellets in some hopper-fulls of plastic, giving you a white kit!
Arsenal BRDM-1 I built years ago was white plastic
The Meng Toyota “technicals” are white as well
Interesting…I didn’t know the process. Thanks for the info. Again, I was not, and am not, concerned about the plastic, it’s just that I haven’t encountered this color in any of the many, many kits I have in my yet unbuilt collection.
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Our hobby is full of surprises …
I saw a study once linking white styrene to shelf queens…
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Many automobile kits are white. Some ship kits are white. There was recently the hull red armor kits. I think manufacturers think about the actual vehicles normal color to choose which color they use.
“Molded in three colours, paint not needed”
I didn’t know that about car kits, as I don’t build cars. Actually, I think having a plastic color that is significantly different than most, if not all, of the colors the vehicle will end up being, will make sure that all surfaces are covered with primer and/or paint. And you can’t get more contrasting a color for a tank than white! 
Now, can I set aside all the other projects I’m working on and build this Leopard?
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Yeah, the a7+ came in tan, but you would never know thanks to mr surfacer 1500 black…
Also, with the amount of photo etch on a lot of kits now some sort of homogenisation coat is called for anyway, so plastic colour is irrelevant. Although some are nicer to work with than others, for ease of seeing seem lines etc,
Interested to know what peoples favourite colour to work with using those parameters is?
Light grey.
“Swallows” less light so it is easier to see details/flaws with less intense lighting
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That’s a great reason NOT to use it! 
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I actually like to work with tan plastic. Dark green is more challenging to me. The tan is easier to see parts and their placement for me. White in a brighter light can also be more challanging to work with. Lt gray is also good to work with.
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I personally think a medium tan plastic, or medium gray plastic, are the best plastic colors to use. Most of the Eduard and Tamiya kits (the majority of the models I’ve done) have been one or the other of those colors, and they seem to be easiest to see where the seams and gaps are.
I have built a few that came in white plastic over the years. The Academy K200 and a few 1/32 helos stand out the most. I agree that tan or gray are the best / easiest colors to build up.
I have a few Meng kits that came in the white plastic. Warrior TES, ZTQ-15 and the Namer. My first impression was not positive, but we’ll see how it goes when I get to them. I too prefer a tan or a gray.
I always liked the gray plastic in Dragon kits,(at least the ones I have built) and the feel of it also
