Part 1. Rescue

Well here I go again with another project to refresh and modernize a classic design. This time a late 70s vintage Leopard 1A4 that was found tucked away in the back of some garage for more than 35 years. I have wanted one for some time as the Leopard 1A4 was my first r/c tank I owned back in 1979. Due to my lack of funding and experience at the time (early teens) with r/c tanks and the limited support for r/c anything 35 years ago, it ended up running less than stellar to say the least. My first Leopard was lost to the annals of my modeling history and eventually with the exception of a few parts ended up in the trash over 10 years ago.

This Leopard was found heading for the same fate when it was rescued (cheap). It had 98% of all it's parts, a few original boxes and a complete instruction manual. It was missing only a few very minor accent pieces that can be easily replaced. Funny part is the prior owner bought this Leopard about the same time I did and around the same age I was. He too had the same difficulties as I and soon became frustrated, boxed it up and forgot about for 35 years.

Because of the difficulties, this Leopard has seen very little run time or wear to the suspension and road wheels. The original transmission is in working order, but I have decided not to use as these have never seemed to have much life to them in all my old Tamyia tanks.

So the first phase of the refresh plan for this Leopard 1A4 is to install a new drive system either twin gearboxes or a single box set up ( your thoughts?). The track is being replace for now with HL T90 track as it fits the Tamyia sprocket perfectly and I have a bunch of it sitting in my parts bin. I am also planning to add turret rotation to the Leopard and have a few ideas on this that should prove easy enough. Once the Leopard chassis is up and running I will be starting work on the "modernization" of the turret and hull. So any ideas you might have or want to see let me know.

Here are a few photos of what I am starting with. As always your constructive input is welcome.






^^^T90 track on Leopard 1


^^^^T90 track on Leopard 1

All I find at garage sales is old kids clothes and beat up particle board furniture...nice find.

I have the Tamiya static version of this kit and would love to RC it. I'm thinking along the same lines as you - replacing the static drive with a pair of taigen gearboxes. I'll be watching your thread with interest.

CaptB

I've got a few extra shafts of different sizes (max 58mm) but the gear position is different for each side of the 3:1. I can get either one of those if you need, just let me know! I love projects like this and would be happy to help!

Thank you Erik.

The 58mm shaft "seem" to provide the best overall options so far. My measurements indicate it should allow enough flexibility (with up to 390 motors) to play around with gearbox placement to best accommodate one of three different sprockets sizes (backspacing), Abrams, Leopard 2 and T90. So far it just seems to easy of a modification and I am waiting for the surprise problem to show it's head.