Meng Leopard 1 A5 1:35

[Mike]

Leopard 1 A5
1:35 Meng

The Leopard Main Battle Tank (MBT) was designed as an answer to a requirement by the newly reformed German Army to replace the outmoded American cast-offs they had been using. It was based upon the premise that manoeuvrability and armament were more important than armour, as the rise of the HEAT round had rendered most standard rolled steel armour fairly useless due to its penetrating ability. Instead the Leopard was designed to withstand 20mm rounds for all directions, and given NBC capability to counter the Soviet hordes that it was expected to be facing. The initial A1 variant reached service in the mid-60s, with an important upgrade to the A1A1 standard forming the basis of the A5 in the 1980s, which with the benefit of retro-fitting, became the de facto standard Leopard 1 up until its replacement by the Leopard 2 in Bundeswehr service in the early "noughties".

The Kit
We reviewed the initial release of the A3/4 variant here toward the end of 2013, which shares a number of components including hull and running gear, but with the earlier cast turret of the A1 as a basis instead of the larger welded turret provided with the earlier kit. This stems from the decision to base this upgrade on the earlier 1A1, which was adapted to fit the extra kit and move the rounds into the turret and away from the driver. There are six new sprues and two different Photo-Etch (PE) frets, with a totally different approach to the creation of the tracks. Gone are the single piece links and rubber-band style options, to be replaced by three-part track links that should, with a prevailing wind and careful gluing, result in workable track links.

Inside the standard Meng-style satin finished box are thirteen sprues in a mid-green styrene, one flexible sprue in the same colour, and three hull and turret parts. A clear sprue, two sheets of PE, a length of cord, a sprue of poly-caps, and a large sub-box containing 912 parts for the 192 track-links, although the instructions don't give a suggestion as to how many you will actually use, which is odd. Another black sprue with a "Supplier" logo in the top left corner is… erm… suppled? Containing twenty-four ice-cleats and a jig to construct the track. The logo is repeated in the instructions when the parts are mentioned, but I'm not entirely sure why. The last fun item in the box is a small sheet of greased paper on which two wing-mirror lens foils are attached. That is a rather nice touch to obtain realistic looking wing mirrors, which are quite prominent on the Leopard, as it happens. The instruction manual is also standard Meng fare, and is well laid out in four languages, with the painting and markings section in colour at the rear.

Construction starts in the same way as the earlier kit with the lower hull, as you'd expect. The bump-stops and return rollers first, then the working torsion suspension arms, which go through to the opposite inner hull. Onto the swing-arms fit the fourteen sets road wheels, which are made up in pairs with a poly-cap between them. The idler wheels are of the same construction, and the drive sprockets have an additional flange in the middle. The upper hull part has three PE grilles added to the engine deck, and the rear bulkhead is built up with tools, stowage and additional track links before installation after the tracks are made up.

The tracks in this model are different from the last Leopard, as already mentioned. They take on the form of individual workable links in styrene, each link of which consists of five parts. The central piece has track-pins moulded in, and two track pads are constructed from halves, linking the pin sections together one after another. A jig is included to help with this, and the winter ice-cleats are shown with seven links between them in case you wish to use them. The track-pin part has four attachment points to the sprue, while the pads have only one each, with a double pin/hole combination differentiating between the inner and outer portions. You will need to be very careful indeed with the glue, because there are very small contact patches between the pad halves, so take your time, and make full use of the jig, as well as taking plenty of coffee breaks to allow things time to set up. As also mentioned earlier, the number of links needed per run isn't made clear, so test them for length as you get nearer to the 96 link figure, which is half of the parts. Better to be too short and add more links, than too long and have to force the assembly apart.

With the tracks completed, the upper hull and rear bulkhead are added to the lower hull, and a set of pioneer tools are added to the sides, as are the prominent side skirts. Towing shackles and a rack of ice-cleats are installed on the glacis, but if you've already put these on the tracks, you'll need to investigate the best way of separating the redundant moulded in cleats from the rack, as the empty racks can be clearly seen on the glacis of the parked up winter camo Leopards (Note the Gepards on the right) in the Wikimedia image below:

The hull is further festooned with additional tools, vision ports, driver's hatch and grilles on the sides, plus the twin towing cables that are made up from styrene eyes and 130mm lengths of the supplied synthetic cord.

Attention then turns to the turret, which is substantially different than the A3/4, despite mounting the same license built British L7 105mm main gun. The mantlet is built up first, with lifting lugs and mounting points for the stand-off shroud that covers it, which has its own lifting lug in the centre over the barrel. The barrel is supplied split vertically, and as it is jacketed for cooling, it would perhaps be difficult to replicate in metal, so a degree of seam-sanding will be needed here. The muzzle is a separate part that fits on a peg at the end of the barrel, giving the impression of a hollow tip. An optional clip fits around the aft area of the barrel, which acts as the mount for the (also optional) grenade launcher, which has a heat/debris shield projecting forward to protect the barrel's jacket from damage during launch of smoke canisters. It mates with the mantlet via another peg and socket, and this in turn is glued to the upper turret. Yes… glued. You have two options for the elevation of the gun unless you fancy some scratch-building, namely straight ahead, or fully elevated, with nowhere in between, and no mechanism to leave the barrel poseable. Two canvas shrouds are included to cover the top area, one for each position that are suitably wrinkled for their position. An odd approach by Meng, but as a lot of folks will glue a barrel in position anyway, I can see their logic. A circular clear part is added to the inside of the commander's cupola, the lenses of which transparent blue and masked off until main painting is finished. Additional blocks and a periscope are added to the upper surface along with PE shrouds, with a pair of aerial bases in the rear "corners". The sides are dotted with circular stand-off parts, the reason for which will become apparent later, when the Lexan appliqué armour is added. The gun-sight sits atop the turret in front of the commander's cupola, and is glazed with another clear part that will need transparent blue lenses and masking, or an optional door for the closed position. If you are leaving it open, use the two additional parts supplied with the closed doors. Gun rings and mounts for the two top hatches are added, and the shell ejection port on the left side of the turret is added, which has a small circular handle on the inside, but posing it open would only expose the lack of detail inside the turret. The hatches for loader and commander are constructed from a number of parts, with the loader having a different hinge system that involves optional open and closed parts, presumably to give him a clear field of fire for his MG3 machine gun mounted on the aforementioned gun ring on his hatch.

The bustle at the rear of the turret is a large stowage area with a central box to stow the searchlight, which has open racks on either side, supported by two L-shaped brackets each. A number of fine parts are included to form the rails, and unusually you are instructed to keep the additional sprue parts that link the rail sections together in place until they are installed in the basket. Once the glue is set, you are to cut these links off and make good the sprue gates. This is to simplify the task of installing a reasonable number of fine rods in difficult positions, with only small contact patches between the sides and the rear. How easy that is going to be remains to be seen. Knowing Meng however, it's likely to work unless you are impatient or use too little glue. Now the stand-off Lexan armour panels can be added, as they extend aft to cover the baskets. Each side has a flexible styrene panel that hugs the sides of the turret, with a handsome texture moulded in that is also present on the inner face where it can be seen through the baskets. There are also panels for the rear of the baskets, but there will be some visible ejector pin marks if you look hard through the bars, and as sanding flexible styrene is difficult (I've tried), you'd be well advised to fill those stowage baskets with kit. Two flat panels toward the rear of the turret sides are the mounting points for additional grenade launchers, which are individually added to a little platform before installation. The final parts are a trio of grab-handles and stowage rails on the side of the turret, after which it can be dropped in place and twisted to lock it down using a bayonet fitting.

Markings
Three options are supplied on the small decal sheet, all sharing the same basic three colour NATO pattern in green/brown/black. The only differences are the vehicle markings, number plates and insignia on the turrets. From the box you can build one of the followings:

• Armour School, German Federal Armed Forces.
• 2nd Company, 183rd Panzer Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Boostedt, 1990s.
• 5th Company, 74th Panzer Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Altengrabow, 1990s.
  

The decals are printed by Cartograf, and quality is excellent, as you'd expect from them. I would have liked to have seen at least one winter camo as per the WikiPiccy above though, just for a little variation and justification for the inclusion of the ice-cleats.

Conclusion
Another great kit from Meng that has some rather fun parts such as the tracks, that will need a little care in assembling, and a good dose of patience. If you're indie-link phobic, you can always have my spare rubber-band tracks from the A3/4, or use your own if you have the other kit, and use the single-piece individual links included in that kit. The immovable gun might put a few people off the kit, but as has been proven many times before, you can't please everyone. These oddities aside, it's a good-looking comprehensive kit, and with the addition of a few crew figures to hide the lack of interior, it can be posed with open hatches quite easily.

Very highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Panzer Vor!!!]

Is that a helmet for decal 23/29 aka Grossdeutschland division??

[Mike]

Dunno mate - you know more about it than I do. The instructions don't mention them at all though, so perhaps they're Easter Eggs for the modern German AFV lovers?

[Panzer Vor!!!]

The GD had a German helmet has a sign on vehicles and flags it looks the same, i do know that some Leo tanks carry WW2 U boat emblems as insignia now

[Antoine]

A good addition to Meng's gro wing collection.

Sad there are only German options, the Leo served in numbers elsewhere.

[Mike]

They do seem to have gone a bit "generic" with the decals - as I mentioned in the review, those winter camouflaged tanks look very fetching