Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Here it is. This kit is one of the most fun armor "models" I have built. Of course, it is the only one that I have built that actually does anything.

I downgraded it to an A5 by shortening the barrel. I have two barrels, so I figured I would give the shorter one a shot. Sure is easier to move in tighter spaces with it. I still have alot of detailing and painting to do, but it was time to take pics!

RE: Another Leopard
 

Ron, congratulations!! great build. take pictures under brighter light.
thanks for sharing.

RE: Another Leopard
 

Thanks Tom. They are kind of dark. When I get to a point that it is ready for outdoors, I will have brighter pics. I hate using a flash, because it seems to wash out the photos. Gotta figure that out on the camera.

Can't wait to weather the track!

RE: Another Leopard
 

is this the tamiya rc full function kit?

RE: Another Leopard
 

Ooops. Yes it is, Kurt. Sorry, I edited the title to include that.

RE: Another Leopard
 

Wow! Nice! I hope mine turns out that nice.

I will give you a big congrats for building the smoke grenade launchers alone :D

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Ron, isn't it HL 1/24 leopard?:D

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Habu,

They were not fun. It took me longer to build the smoke grenade launchers than any other part of it. The kit says you need to buy the staples for the chains. Why? When there are plenty that seal the bags! If carefull with them, and you have the will to straighten them out, they ARE included with the kit! :D

Tom,

shhh....don't spill the beans. ;)

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Oh my God!! ROFL!!

In all of the kits I build, I always take out the staples, and put them in a bag or the bottom of the box, then throw them away that way...instead of dozens of little staples in the trash. I now have a nice collection of them on the bottom of the Leopard box. Not ONCE did I think to use them for that....NOT ONCE! Ive been looking through the house for an old stapler.

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

At first I wasn't sure if they would work, but I tried one of the smaller ones (should have the most of these) and they worked perfectly. [8D]

Another thing that bothered me was the baskets. I couldn't bring myself to glue them to the plastic frame because I wasn't really sure how they would hold to it. I also wanted to be able to remove them cleanly from the frame if I purchased the metal ones in the future.

So, I wired them together! Using the etched metal piece on the backside of the baskets and seperated strands of wire, I laced the outside pieces to them. It's pretty strong and you don't really notice the small wire on each of the four corners at the backside of them. Of course, I haven't laced the bottom piece to the floor yet, but it should work OK, too. :D

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Here are some pics showing the way I not only laced the etched parts, but re-configured the way the baskets attach to the turret.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6334/baskets2sr5.jpg
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4308/baskets1na6.jpg

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

did you use brush for camo?

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Yup. The whole camouflage pattern. :D

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

For those wondering about the antennas, both are dummy ones. The kit comes with 4 antenna bases. Two that are regular plastic and two that are the flexible plastic. In the above photos, I had taken some thin plastic rod and drilled holes in the tips of the bases. I then inserted the rod and painted them.

Not satisfied with the thickness of the ones shown above, I used the flexible plastic bases and took an old #10 guitar string and cut two pieces to length. These were then poked into the bases. To me they look much more like the real ones than the plastic rod fabricated ones. They also whip like the real ones, too.

A word of caution: These antennas are very hard to see and have NO end protection. WATCH YOUR EYES! It would be wise to make them removeable when working on the tank, or add some sort of protection on the ends that can be removed for pics, etc.

On the rear of the tank, I took a short piece of wire to make the camera antenna. I then repeatedly applied CA glue to form the antenna ball. It is bent at an angle into the camera housing so that it can be folded down out of the way when working on the tank (or when the gun tube sweeps across it).

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Very nice work; excellent camo.

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Fantastic looking tank! I really like the camo - it's more subdued than some I have seen. Again, GREAT JOB!

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Quite nice, indeed. She's a beauty.

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Ron, can you build and paint my leopard?

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

I especially like the brushed camouflage pattern. It's more realistic. Thanks!!:D

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Tom,

You are kidding, right? This one was nerve racking enough. I couldn't imagine working on someone else's tank. How in the world do you do it?

- The camo was done with Tamiya paints, but because of some handling issues, has been touched up with Model Master paint. Euro I Dark Green looks like it might be a better match(slightly darker) to the Nato green than Tamiya's, but even the real Nato schemes have different shades due to application variances and batch mixing of paint.

An airbrush would do a much better job at hazing the separations between the colors, but the pattern itself is very involved. Stand off masking would be best. One thing I've noticed is that the airbrush patterns on most of the armor models hazes too much. That is the hazing is too broad between the colors. Either that or you can see the exact way the paint was airbrushed on. First the outline of the pattern, then the filling in of the various patches. Or the colors have different shades to them. That isn't a bad thing though. Some of the pics I've seen of Leopards seem to indicate their crews do the exact same thing we used to do for shows, inspections, etc. They go to the store and buy touch up paint and don't really care if it matches exactly. Can you say P.O.D.?(paint over dirt - ha ha)

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

CapnCrunch43
all i am saying is that you built and painted really nice!

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Tom,

Oh, Ok. Thanks. I misunderstood your post.

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

[sm=thumbup.gif]really good brush job

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

I stand corrected on what I called the rear "camera antenna". Read on Missing Lynx that it is actually a reference device for the commander when using the Commander's Peri, so the hull rear can be identified independently from the turret orientation.

RE: Another Tamiya Leopard
 

Took this thing outside for the first time today. Ran it all over the yard and into the woods. I must say that all in all it's a pretty impressive beast, but the King Tiger is much better when it comes to running in grass.

Well, maybe not better running, but the King Tiger sure leaves more grass left in the yard. [sm=lol.gif]

One of the things that kind of bugs me about it is the inability to do moderate to high speed skids. Don't know if it's the gearbox setup or because of the grip of the tracks, but try as I might, I couldn't get it to do what the KT does on the wood deck. Would look alot more realistic having the Leo do it instead of the KT. [&o]

The next project will be making 1/16 scale Trabis' out of aluminum foil and tooth picks, then running em' over! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dp2P13GCgM