Did I not mention I was undertaking this? Perhaps I forgot! Anyway, here we have a Canadian Leopard 1A2 – often referred to as the Rent -a-Panzer (der gemietete Panzer) reflecting the short-term nature of the Canadian Army’s procurement, pending the introduction of the C1.
In the interests of accuracy I shelled out for the 1A2 turret available from Perfectscale Modellbau; this is in resin, and has the difficult-to-reproduce-otherwise, oval shaped rangefinder covers.
So, I thought I was ahead of the game, however, I found that the donor kit I was using, Revell’s 1A5, involved more hassle that I bargained for; there was the inevitable problem with using Superglue, and the polystyrene from Revell; it was exacerbated by my not fitting the searchlight stowage box at all well, which meant at the end of my labours, the stowage rack was hopelessly distorted, which was extremely frustrating. Could I strip it all down, without trashing the rack? Probably not, given the unforgiving nature of Superglue. It’s only out by around 5mm but that’s enough to spoil it all, and sadly visible. The only option I could think of was to try and obscure the upward leaning rack with carefully placed stowage, and hope that any observers would not notice. Well, that’s the plan.
This is as far as I’ve got: tow cables from Karaya, (had to be shortened by around half an inch) are about to be fitted. I’ll glue them first then add brackets I think. We’ll see which is easier.
Elsewhere, I’ve had to use Mr Dissolved Putty to tackle a few errant seams; fit wasn’t brilliant in places. That said, it may have been me. I have rushed it a bit, which would explain a lot.
I’m all ready to go though; decals all ready, and a crew in waiting, the Driver also shown here:
Well, that’s where we are; having to camouflage a major error - not my finest hour(!)
