Hey Jakko-
That’s why I used the appendix “type’ when describing the turret. It’s a bit bulkier, and the proportions look slightly different from the 1A3/1A4 turrets.
The Panzerplace.eu source cites the following:
Bibliography
Lobitz, Frank. Kampfpanzer Leopard 2: Entwicklung Und Einsatz in Der Bundeswehr. Jochen Vollert – Tankograd Publishing, 2009.
Spielberger, Walter J. Waffensysteme Leopard 1 Und Leopard 2. Motorbuch Verlag, 1995.
So, some convergence on our sources. The PT13/T17 pic at Yuma is described more fully in detail there, and how turrets and hulls frequently did a Chinese Fire Drill (sc) at the end of which new combinations existed.
That’s why I’m skeptical of whether a 1A4 turret would be usable at all. Just off with things this big frequently means it would be as much work to rebuild as to make it from scratch to begin with. I’m almost tempted to scan the relevant drawings from Spielberger’s book and overlay them in Photoshop to check.
There might be an intriguing question. Did ALL the 7 turrets fire live rounds? If not, was the construct simply cosmetic. The color pictures are certainly real (no deep fake back then!), so their similarity might be a convenience for mounting an Rh-120, and no more.
Please let us know what you think IF you do a comparison. The DAS (data acquisition system) on the top seems similar to those I saw on the MBT70/Kpz.70 on Fort Knox in my early career.
Testing a load plan for after priming and painting. I plan to install an RWS forward and left of the TC hatch. That’s turret left: three man crew, and the gunner was so deep in the turret he refused to swap sides!
This turret of ths kit is less bulky than that of the AGDS, with space that might allow turret internals/open-hatch display. We’ll see.
This is a long-term project, and I’ve much to learn about advanced skills regarding resin: making holes, drilling, etc. We’ll see.
In black the drawing of the Leopard 2 prototype with 120 mm smoothbore gun from page 257 of Waffensysteme Leopard 1 und Leopard 2, with in blue the Leopard 1A3 turret (minus some of the sticking-out bits) from page 78 of that same book:
They’re not to the same scale in the book, but because of the dimensions I could easily scale the 1A3 down slightly to match the 2. I then lined up the turret centres. For the side view, I also lined up the roofs, as the underside is just about impossible because on the 1A3 there’s stuff in front of the lower edge, making it hard to see where that is, exactly.
As I suspected, changing a 1A3 or 1A4 kit turret will be a ton of work because just about nothing is the exact same size, shape or position.
Scaling up a turret for a bare bones, non-armor testing (except ballistic testing) would be relatively easy. The first problem was really the sleeker hull, and with it the larger turret ring. The second problem was the length of the ammunition stowage in the bustle.
