Mick Modeller

Quite right there Graeme, mind you the original name "Trojan" wasn't much better, my comments were more along the line of a Govt spending millions on a bespoke replacement, that still hasn't arrived when refirbing with better equipment can on occasion be a better solution or the Israeli method of "Lets see what we can make out of all these buckshee wagons we've captured or in store. They may be hard to keep going well, are temperamental, yady, yady, yah. But there is nothing like a tracklayer for getting places and have that intimadatory factor when holding areas in the IS role. Mind you some of the wagons eing used in Afghan go to a new level, but have not much to offer in roles outside an IED rich environment.

It's about time that the Brit "powers that be" took a leaf out of the Israeli book and found a 2nd use for an old vehicle, just look at some of theirs, T55, T62, Cents and Zeldas all being modified again and again. AFVs aren't like aircraft with finite fatigue lives (although the Septics aren't doing too bad with the B52s) and can be moded again and again, if a hole is in the wrong place, weld in an armour plug and re-drill the hole in the proper place... Very reliable wagons the ole 432s, you just needed to know how to treat them, my ole wagon, I3A could out-run Leo 1s and Marders, but that's another story........

Thought you might appreciate my wagon dating back to the early 80s, I had just started to repaint her with my "Safari" scheme and after an initial bollocking the powers appreciated the colours, mind you considering our task in thouse days was the BAOR Counter-Stroke Brigade and we spent most exercises hiding in various forests until the final death-ride. But the muffled thuds as people walked into the wagon was always amusing.......

Like it Andy, the breech colour looks spot-on! Don't forget the muzzle or are you going to get it on the weathering, it would be a deeper shade of metal anyway. Haven't seen the 2nd Div being depicted so well for a long time.

Started my first attempt at PE work, so far the axe clamp and the beginnings of the wire-cutter clamp, the clamps are all or rather will (hopefully) working. The first catch came together rather easily I should have known better. The instructions say that the clamps should be glued or soldered together the latter for the RC version, well I'd forgotten the glue big and feeling good I tried the clasp and promptly pulled it to pieces....... Well now in the pictures it is glued and rivited with a 0.6mm brass rivet. Although the end result will be RC I am using glue, but I'm using a tougher version of loctite (480) I use this one for some shooting jobs and while it bonds slowly it does quite a tough job so like many parts of this job is a biit of a leap into the unknown. Guess we'll find out as we go along. Still nibbling away at the hull and chassis, but I don't have anything complete enough to start taking photos. I'm about to order the last major order for the hull, the main item will be real metal tracks, sprocket wheels (c/w removable sprocket rings) & return rollers. The first major setback was trying to drill holes through the rear of the headlights to allow fitting of the electrics, broke 4 drills with one firmly stuck in one of the lights, so I'll have to order a set that comes pre drilled, don't know why they don't supply the lighting kit with the pre-drilled headlights anyway the answer will come when I see what the drilled headlights come with.

Hi All, Just an update with the arrival of more gucci stuf. LE-16-AT04 is the large tool box that is on the rear plate & a holder for a tool that I haven't a clue what it is, but its above the bolt cutters. LE-16-AT05 is the twin tool boxes in front of the exhausts and the cleaning rod bracket. Ooh and 100x each of 0.6mm bolts and nuts, now they're small little b*&&$£s!!!!!

Lounge actually, bit I like the sentiments...... If you need a reason I'll go with reference material, I've also a growing collection of Bord Munition and 3,7cm Flak, if anyone wants a photo or two for their reference collection I'll dig a couple out. It is amazing how often the kit-manufacturers get items of ammo wrong, I recently saw 1/16 8,8cm Kwk44 HE or rather Sprgr rounds with Zt.ZS fuses, i.e. Anti-Aircraft fuses, I could go on.

Explain..... Would you be meaning grenades as in throwing or grenades as in German Arty shells? If it was the briefcase type box, they were field gray pretty much all through the war, although I've seen some the same yellow as AFV base yellow. Something to give you ideas, Tank/Anti-Tank ammo is my thing and some are post-war coatings to protect the ammo and are awaiting being preserved, but most are original paintwork so will hopfully be a good reference for you.

Hi, Firstly great model! Something along the line of a mild criticism, these guns/vehicles were treated like loved children, depending on the finish you are after the gun and its carriage would be pristine, even for a fairly old gun, peoples lives relied upon the fault-free functioning of the gun. You've got the colour of the breech block and ring, particularly the ring had the inner surfaces polished to a high lustre to aid loading ammunition in conditions of poor/no light. Ergo you could have a vehicle where the mud and glower could be to the top of the superstructure, the woking ares might be muddy, but the gun would be pristine. Another thing is rust inside the fighting compartment, this wouldn't be tolerated and any rust spots/areas would be dealth with during lulls in activities. Rust not dealt with could get onto projectiles/cases and there onward into the barrel and cause undue wear and tear another no-no. Hope this helps and keep going.

Thanks for that guys, it has certainly got me going, I always fancied the Gepard with all it's gizmos and looking at the suppliers web-pages, you should see the extras available for that one, you can make the very latest version of the Gepard, but this one was the first opportunity. Just a pity we didn't have Gepards (& tracked Rapier) in the Falklands!! The build has certainly got me in the mood, as before the Gepard is a definate, as is a Panther or JagdPanther and a MkIV and I'm looking towards getting a Leo 2A6 (I've caught the bug real bad......), but instead of buying the box, I'm thinking of buying as componants, but componants that I need as opposed to buying the box and using some of it and buying in the gucci bits. For example the Tamiya tracks are about 60 euro, whereas the metal tracks are 110 euro, but of course a lot depends on how much could get a full option, un-built Leo 2 for, if the latter is cheap enough, then why not. One thing that I will come clean with right at the beginning will be the painting, the main hull/turret painting won't be my work, I'll be shipping it to England for that, I'm just not good enough for that and don't have the necessary paint guns etc. Just thought of another omission, when I look at all the gucci items available including track grousers, there isn't (yet) a PE option for the front glacis mount for the grousers. Very odd when you consider that they offer metal grousers at 5.20 euro for 4x and you'll need 5x packs (26 euro) to make the full set....... Ouch!!! Finally got some nice pictures of the turret and will attach

Hi All, An update, Well the model arrived and memories started coming back, the Leo 1A4 was the base model of the range, forward, back, left and right and that was about it, well we'll have to see about that! The rest of the range were King Tiger and finally the Gepard. Have to admit that I'm not the most disciplined of modellers, as soon as the model arrived I was at it as you will see from the pics, been raiding the various screw and nut bags lurking around and have finally sourced some M1, 2 & 3 Nuts and bolts so that the suspension mounts will look a lot better having been fixed with bolts and not screws. I've made a couple of changes, I will not use the AFV Model swing arms and suspension, although the model was missing one bump-stop so I might have to use that kit as the Tamiya items arent' very firm. So far there seems to be plenty of extras in the kit that are surplus, namely the A4 Turret, lots of tools, Tracks that look more E8 Sherman than anything likely to go on a Leo. Only one problem so far, the holes for the clutch need elongating, there being far too much play in the clutch, but it will be only a minor job once a visit a friends workshop. Some nice touches on the AFV items, the rear convoy board has a strip of flexable foam added to the rear of the board to allow the board to hinge in the same way as the real ones do. I've ordered the rest of the photo etched items along with a lot of nuts, bolts, washers and the mini sockets to go with them. Next week I'll go daft and order the new Tracks, top rollers, Drive Sprocket, some tools and finally the remaining detail items. 3rd time lucky with the photos.

Not sure if this will help Steve, but unless spacifcally ordered in a spacific colour the Army get almost everything in Green, after that any colours will be in-roll/country camo done by the guys in country. Ergo you could have a Chally with everything coloured sand, but with the bar armour green and it would be accurate. If you look at the photo of the up-armoured Chally at Bovy you will see a classic of the tank using armour blocks from store, probably ex-Kosovo and the colours haven't been matched. Equally it is also possible that some of the bar armour was/is ordered in sand, who knows, the military procurement system is shrouded in mystery and almost divoid of good sense......

Maybe a bit late, but we are also using Warriors in Afghanistan.

Well where did this one start, I already have a Tamiya 1/16 King Tiger (Old School) and have always fancied something more modern and while a Gepard was an option I didn’t like the Leopard 1A4. Then Perfect Scale brought out their Leo 1a1a1 / A5 turret the choice was made, when I was stationed in West Germany in the 80s the Leo 1A1A1s were practically epidemic and they could move!! When you see a battle-tank overtaking cars you’ve seen a tank with attitude! So the plan was to build a RC Leo 1A1A1 with some photo-etched bits to improve the accuracy of a pretty old Tamiya kit. Jez, in the beginning it was hard to find the bits, but then I came across two German firms AFV and CG Models and between them they make/sell just about everything you would want to add to the basic model whether static or RC. AFV make nickel silver headlights, track-skirt brackets, swing arms, shock absorbers, drive sprockets, tracks, the list is almost endless, they even do a Leo 1 chassis, but that is perhaps going a bit far. CG make photo-etched additions, set 1 is tool clamps, set 2 is the large tool-box and the third set is the tool boxes beside the exhausts and the cleaning-rod rack, all of which are hinged or mounted to the tank with 0.6mm rivets or bolts again supplied from CG To date with a huge amount of mission-creep the Leo is going to have the A1A1 turret, AFV Models lighting kit along with details sets 1, 2 & 3. Since then mission-creep has seen AFV’s swing-arm set looking very nice, so saving has commenced for this addition. For the upper hull I will use the three photo-etched sets mentioned from CG. I guess it would be better to detail the stuf later as I get to it. The build is going to be a bit here and there, I’ve just about all I need for the upper hull, so I will most likely start there and go back to the suspension once I’ve got the swing arms, return rollers, drive-sprockets and possibly idler wheels. I can’t justify the 3-400 euro price tag of the roadwheels, although with everything else you would wonder why not….. I’ll start listing the bits that I’ve got and give all a better idea of what I’m at. OK, Here's what Tamiya meant the end vehicle to look like. And here is my end aim, albeit a 1A1A4, but a very similar vehicle.

I remember way back in the 80s that the Armoured Farmers (oops Armoured Engineers......) had a supply of 105 Cent Gun tanks and the reason given then was that they didn't have enough "Dustbin Chuckers" to go around, sound familiar........

Hi Guys, I'm probably a bit late replying to this thread, in my experiance the vast majority of Pak 40 metal cases are yellow as are many of the other cases. If anyone wants photos I'll take a few and post them. I have a few of them lying around. Pete