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German Leopard 2A4 1:35


Mike

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Leopard 2A4
1:35 Meng


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Germany's first indigenous Main Battle Tank, the Leopard 1 was originally to be replaced by a joint venture with the US, but when Germany pulled out of the project they decided to go it alone. After an aborted attempt to re-create the "super tank" project, they reverted to a more evolutionary design, which gained approval in 1977 when a large order for newly built Leopard 2s was placed. The design was improved over the initial batch, and the A4 was one of the most widely produced, along with the A5, which gained sloped appliqué armour that makes it easy to tell apart.

The A4 includes some important changes over the earlier models, which includes improved armour that incorporates titanium and tungsten. Targeting systems were also improved, as were the crew protection systems that were automated to extinguish fires and prevent explosions. With over 2,000 on strength at the height of the Cold War, Germany later sold off a number of this variant to other NATO countries, which makes it one of the most successfully exported modern MBTs. Time marches on, and the 2A5 replaced the A4 with the aforementioned armour, then the 2A6 that changed out the original Rheinmetall 120mm gun found in the M1 Abrams for the later L55 variant.

The Kit
Meng have been on a bit of a Modern German armour thing for a while now, so it's hardly surprising to see the Leopard 2A4 making an appearance. It's up to their usual standards, and you get a very comprehensive package inside the snazzy satin-finished box, as follows. There are eight sprues, two hull parts and one turret part in mid-grey styrene, four track sprues in a darker grey styrene, a clear sprue, two sprues of poly-caps and flexible parts, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass parts, a length of braided synthetic cord, two self-adhesive mirror stickers, decal sheet and a glossy instruction booklet with painting guide on the rear pages. Everything is individually wrapped, and the clear sprue is also wrapped in a sheet of "self-cling" soft clear film to further protect it from damage. The PE is bagged with a white protective card, and the mirror decals are also bagged to save them from harm.

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After reading up about the 2A4 in one of the four languages in the initial pages, the build begins with construction of the running gear, which comprises of fourteen pairs of road wheels, two drive-sprockets, and two idler wheels, the latter of which are made from two parts, while the road wheels have a poly cap trapped between the halves, and a separate end-cap on the bore hole. A gaggle of suspension parts and return rollers are added to the sides of the lower hull, and the final drive housing is built up from two parts plus a poly-cap before being attached to the hull at a specific angle, as described in a scrap diagram. The torsion-beam suspension is replicated by slotting the beams into the hull and locating them in slots in the opposite side of the hull, leaving the swing-arms and their detailed cover parts projecting from the side of the hull. The rear bulkhead is attached to the back of the lower hull and detailed with lights, mud-guards and towing hooks, as well as either a set of three stiffening rods or rods and an additional armoured panel under the rear of the vehicle to protect the engine compartment.

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The tracks are individual links that are each made up from three parts on a jig that holds six while you work on them. Lay the track pads in the recesses, add a spruelet of six track-pin parts on top without glue, then push the inner pad with the guide horn into position. That's it – no glue, just a click-fit track that takes very little time to create. There are two sprue gates on each track pad half, plus another two on the pins, one of which you clean up before installation, the other you cut off after. The last one is placed on the side of the pin, so can be cut off without damaging any detail, but take care not to apply too much force for fear of bending the tracks. Because the centre of the inner track pad is narrow, this is also a weak-point, so again take care when cleaning up the sprue gates. The final word of warning is to ensure that you always apply the track pins from the same side, as the inner edge is curved, while the outer is flat. Get this wrong, and the eagle-eyed point-scorers will have something to laugh at you for! With those caveats in mind, it won't take you long at all before you have a track run done, totalling 84 links each side. The run is joined once fitted by pressing the last pad into place, and if my rough-handling of the short length I made up for this review is anything to go by, you won't have any parts popping off unless you seriously abuse the tracks in some way.

The upper deck is next, and this has a couple of inserts to make the basic part version specific. In this case the engine deck can have one of two types of circular vents on the top in a rectangular housing, with a tapered panel that fills the rest of the void. Then it's a case of adding towing hooks, mirrors using those funky self-adhesive stickers, light clusters, the driver's hatch, bullet-splash guards, and a bunch of spare track links on the glacis and front fenders. On the rear deck there are a set of pioneer tools, a pair of towing cables made from the cord with styrene end parts, raised air intakes with PE mesh wrapped around the sides, and travel lock. The large circular vents on the deck are covered with a two-part PE lamination of mesh and supporting structure, which is visible through the top mesh layer. Most modern tanks have side-skirts to protect the road wheels as much as is practical, because no matter how good your armour, if a tank becomes immobilised, it is a sitting duck. There are two styles of skirt included, but both have ERA blocks at the front, which attach via separate mounting brackets, while the rear skirts are rectangular with large raised bolt-heads, or have undulating lower edges and raised stiffening.

The turret is made up from one large moulding that has a few facets missing from the side to ease moulding and provide the optional rear panel with snorkel attachment. These are added as separate panels, along with a few skin panels and vision blocks in clear styrene for the commander, the hatch ring, the base for the commander's periscope and some other small parts. This is mated to the lower turret part trapping the gun assembly in place. The barrel is split vertically, with a single or two-part part muzzle brake, and the mantlet fits to the rear with a collar between it and the barrel. The barrel elevated via a stub with poly-caps that act as brakes on the spindle, and these glue to the floor of the turret during assembly. There is no breech, but this is fairly usual with AFV kits. The PERI R17 and EMES 15 sighting devices are added to the roof of the turret and recess to the side of the mantlet respectively, and the latter's protective doors are added around the assembly. The commander has an MG3 machine-gun, which is based heavily on the WWII MG42, with the option of omitting the butt-stock by exchanging the gun with another part. The mount and ammo box are added, and then the relatively simple hatches are dropped into position, whilst adding ring around the loader's hatch so that it sits at the same level as the commander's. Unusually, the smoke dischargers fit at the rear of the turret on brackets, facing at various angles forward, and if you wish to, you can fit a palette on top of the mantlet that holds a number of canisters that are used on exercise to simulate gunfire. A couple of mantlet plugs on PE chains, optional convoy flashing light and two aerial bases are also added to the top, along with some rather hefty looking lifting eyes for what must be a very heavy turret. To add the turret to the hull, just slide it in and rotate toward the front to lock it on the bayonet fitting.


Markings
There are four markings options included in the kit, but they all share the same three colour green/brown/black NATO camouflage, so it's up to the decal sheet to differentiate between them unless you go off-piste and make up your own scheme. From the box you can build one of the following:

  • Armoured Corps School, German Federal Armed Forces, Munster, 1992 – turret number 605 and "A-Team" on the front left fender.
  • 4th Company, 33rd Panzer Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Luttmersen, 1988 - Turret number 396.
  • 2nd Company, 393rd Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Bad Salzungen, 2003 – PFOR in yellow on turret.
  • 3rd Company Training Unit, Combat Training Centre, German Federal Armed Forces, 2005 – Hinze on turret front, and charging knight motif on turret bustle.

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The decal sheet even though small has been printed by Cartograf with good register, colour density and sharpness, while the carrier film is matt and cropped closely to the printed edges of the decals.


Conclusion
This kit is in a league of its own when it comes to detail, and leaves any previous Leopard 2A4 kits in its dust. The optional parts give you greater personalisation, although they could have been better explained for the novice. If you wanted to depict your 2A4 with the front skirts raised, as is often seen, you will need to do a little surgery, as the kit parts aren't set-up with that in mind. There is so little to gripe about that it really isn't worth finding something more than a slightly skinny fume extractor to mention.

Very highly recommended.

Discounted by 35% at time of writing!

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Review sample courtesy of
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The colour of that plastic really shows off the details well

It was surprisingly hard to get the exposure just right to show off the detail :unsure: Black, dark grey, green and white sprues are the hardest to photograph :photo:

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