Revell Leo2A6/NL, plus

Armor/AFV Constructive Feedback
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I blame AFV Modeller and Chris Jerrett for this. Chris did a very nice Finnish Leo using the RFM kit and PSM’s conversion in winter splinter camo and I was off to the races. I had the Revell kit in the stash and it looks to have all the necessary pieces as the Finns used ex-Dutch Leos.

I’ve heard good and bad about the Revell kit, and right away I found some bad. The lower hull was a bit rough to get together and keep square and there were some serious sink marks too. In the end I ordered some RFM suspension sprues from a kit-breaker on eBay and got the lower hull together. For fun I built up a set of Chinese tracks and they fit a pair of spare Hobby Boss sprockets nicely after I narrowed them about .5mm.

Below, sink mark city.

IMG_4869 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

After afair amount of foul language I had a basic hull together. On the plus side, the Revell kit uses a couple of internal bulkheads so once the hull is all together, it’s very rigid. If it’s warped here, it’s staying warped.

IMG_4870 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

The pic below shows a lot of putty but it’s all good now.

IMG_4873 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Next, tracks on. I had to use the Hobby Boss drive sprocket since the RFM oart, being wider, protruded past the hull sides and would have interfered with the side skirts.

IMG_4875 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Next I decided to do the turret shell, thinking I’d encounter the same fit and warpage issues, and I did. It wasn’t as bad as the hull, but it’s setting up now, lots of tape involved.

IMG_4878 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Lots of tape…

IMG_4877 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

I don’t know why but I’ve gotten on a Leopard kick after getting the Vickers Mk7/2 as far along as it is.

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Always nice to follow your builds, especially when you do a Dutch Leo.

I hope you are not using this kit:

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I have that kit in the stash and don’t fancy having to go to your troubles as well…

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That’s the one. Truth be told, to do it again, I’d use the necessary parts to get the Dutch version on a Tamiya kit and go from there. It’s not horrible like the older Hobby Boss or Italeri kits but it’s, well, NOT Tamiya.

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In between other things going on I’ve managed to stick a few bits on here, and add the extra anti-slip apparently added by the Finns, (Fins?) due I suppose to things getting covered in snow and ice. Also done are some miscellaneous details here and there, using RFM and Revell parts with a Tamiya driver’s hatch which looked a lot better than the Revell part. Oddly enough, it fit with very minor work.

IMG_4916 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

The extra anti-slip is A.Mig paste in a tube. Easy to use, acrylic so mistakes are easy to fix and it dries in a few minutes. Something from the build I’m copying, the Dutch Leos had the bolted access cover in the upper glacis, so I added bolt heads. Since I have a bunch of PE, bought at shows, I did some folded rear mud flaps, easy enough except for the very tiny hooks.

IMG_4919 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

Lots of different color parts on the glacis. Some of the Revell parts were not very good, so I subbed RFM parts if I had them.

IMG_4917 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

And here I just made more work for myself, mixing parts for the front armored skirts. The Revell parts were fine, but I didn’t like the fact that the upper parts were used to close holes in the hull sides.

IMG_4915 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

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Looks great again, and it looks to me like you never have to paint your builds, they are always colourful enough from all the different kits you use :grin:

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Are they that bad?

I was thinking about getting the Hobby Boss 2A4 and 2A5/6 NL and swap around parts to get a Dutch 2A4…. Leaving me with a potential German 2A5/6.

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Hobby Boss poorly represented the brackets for the front armored side skirts and has some fit issues on the turret, same as the Italeri kit I used for the Vickers Mk7/2. My example also had lots of pin marks and sink holes in very visible areas.

I used a lot of Tamiya parts and did a fair amount of scratch building.

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The Leo comes along nicely, Russell! :+1: I can recommend “Finnish Leopards” from Tankograd (No. 8009) if you don’t have that magazine already.

Don’t worry, there’s still a lot of painting left … :laughing:
This is a 2A4 but the camo is about the same. I made this photo on my first visit to the tank museum in Parola 2014. The gun points to where the museum is, so you can’t miss it coming from the highway.

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I’m going to start shopping for that book now, thanks.

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As always a great job there Russel. I enjoy your builds as well and very informative.

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Here’s the direct link to the magazine, Russell
Finnish LEOPARDs Vol. 2 - TANKOGRAD Publishing - Verlag Jochen Vollert - Militärfahrzeug

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Payday comes soon! I found several on eBay, thanks.

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going through the rfm version and plan to turn my revell in another what if ukrainian one to compare (I have the hobby boss leopard 2A5 from denmark tho, thi sone will diiversify my collection) and I also have the tamiya and border kits, tbh at times I do feel rye field may have done way too tiny parts of pe

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I’m a fan of the Tamiya A5/6 kits for pure ease of assembly along with good detail. An added bonus is that with the release of newer, better detailed kits the Tamiya kits are pretty affordable now.

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Well. One more reason to use the Tamiya kits as the base for any further conversions (after I do the HobbyBoss Strv 122 that showed up today).

In the pic below, the scale is held on the part of the main sight that should be “flat”, or horizontal, or at the very minimum parallel to the horizontal centerline of the turret. Is clearly is not. I made sure it was not due to warpage of the turret upper, mis-assembly or just plain sinkage, got perturbed because it’s pretty obviously off, then thought about a fix. Again, a Tamiya parts kit to the rescue. I cut the main sight out of the last Tamiya turret top I have, cut the Revell sight out and got busy with a small cutting bit, files and a new #11 blade.

First pic:

IMG_4920 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

The Tamiya sight in:

IMG_4921 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

And what it’s supposed to look like, which matches how it looks on a Tamiya kit turret:

IMG_4922 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

And for anyone curious, the Tamiya sight is about 10% larger overall than the Revell sight. Nuts, I know, but I had to do something or it would have bugged me forever.

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More fun! I spent a fair amount of time building a pair of Tamiya turret baskets only to realize the Finns fitted covers to them. Okay then. I slapped the Revell baskets together (I was going to toss them because they’re solid and thick with shallow holes to represent perforations) and cleaned them up, made covers for the tops from heavy paper and masking tape and mounted them. Tonight I’ll make the actual covers from Aves putty. Also, in the pic below, my tweezers are pointing at a storage box the instructions say is for the Dutch version. I can’t find it pictured in any of my references and didn’t open the locating holes in the turret roof when I should have. Any ideas?

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If I’m not mistaken that’s officially the documentatiekist (“documentation box”) in Dutch service but commonly known as the ritselkist (ritselen means to rustle, both as a noise and as in “to rustle up something”/“acquire something”). AFAIK it usually serves to stow odds and ends the crew finds itself in possession of, regardless of whether they were issued with it.

I have no idea if this was retained on Finnish tanks, though.

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Thanks. Sounds like a kitchen junk drawer.

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Progress! From pics in a Tankograd book, the junk drawer is not present. Also, I have good pics of the modified side rails on the turret wing armor and the big Finnish mud flaps up front. And while I was there, I did the turret basket covers, tie-downs to be done after the putty is well-cured.

I used extra Tamiya side rails on the turret so they would all match.

Retainers and fasteners on the front mud flaps still need to be done. I may have some spare PE for that.

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I’ve been playing with this in between sessions with the AFV Club Sho’t, mainly for a break from all the fiddly AFV Club parts. Realizing I was just staring at it and not adding anything, I shot a coat of Tamiya field gray as a base, then decided it was pretty close to the dull green I needed. Once that dried, I got the black mostly on. The bright green is next. I’m going from pics of the actual tank and a build article, so I may not be exactly right on the pattern or colors, but it will be heavily weathered.

So far:

IMG_4954 by Russel Baer, on Flickr

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