Leopard C2 1/35 - Revell/Italeri and Maple Leaf

[pigsty]

This is the second Canadian version of the Leopard, the C2.  They got there by buying a load of Leopard 1A3 with changes to make the C1, then buying a load of Leopard 1A5 a few years later for the better sensor fit, and dropping the turrets into their C1 hulls - et voilà, the C2.  The 1A5 had spaced armour bolted onto the turret, making it equivalent to the 1A3.

 

The kit is almost as convoluted.  It’s the Italeri Leopard, in a Revell box with new parts (Revell’s own design, I think) for the extra armour and a range of new sensors; and I’ve added a resin conversion from Maple Leaf Models.  This was well before Meng and Takom turned up with their Canadian Leopards.  The decals are from Echelon.  The first couple of pictures show the hull and turret with all the resin added, apart from the machine-gun.  As you can see, there’s a lot of it.  The stowage bin dominates, in more ways than one - it’s so heavy that if you turn the turret 90^o, it tips itself out of the hull.

 

Special mention is due here to redfinn25 on eBay.  They sold me the decals for about the same as buying them in the UK, and got them here in only a couple of weeks, despite sending them from Australia at a time when it looked as though it would be quicker to swim.  Trade with confidence!  This meant I didn’t have to break off and start something else to tide me over - so the slow build is all my fault.

 

When I finished a Leopard 1A2 last year, I covered a lot of the Italeri kit’s features.  So here I’ll stick to the C2-specific aspects.

 

Revell’s kit differs from earlier versions only around the turret.  The mantlet armour fits brilliantly with four neat little spacers.  The side panels fit woefully.  There’s nothing to guide you on location - in particular, no sockets on the turret sides.  You have to shave several of the big connecting pins, and make sure the ends are better chamfered, and even then you’re left with a few that don’t reach the turret.  That may be deliberate, who knows.  And, naturally, the right side fits differently from the left.  There are slots for the smoke launchers.  My advice: don’t try to attach them to their proper locations through the slots, cos if you do, the armour fouls them.  Rest them on the lip of the slot and they’ll be fine.  Then, pick the correct sight from the several offered, and you’re away.

 

Maple Leaf give you upgrade parts like modern antenna mounts and GPS, and that stowage bin - and it’s a poor fit too.  The problem seems to be two projections on the front face, which hold it away from the turret.  Whether they’re part of it, or just part of the casting process, I can’t tell, and nor do Maple Leaf.  I suspect it makes more sense - and it’s a much firmer fit - to cut them off and attach bin to turret.  The other main structural joint is at the back edge of the side armour.  Be careful with this.  You have to cut the end off the armour and fit it into a slot at the edge of the bin.  It fits well, but you need to trim the kit part at the right angle - and don’t believe Maple Leaf when they tell you there’s a panel line to follow.  Mine is cut too far forward at the bottom.  The cleaning rod containers hide the gap, but it’s less solid than I’d like.

 

On the hull, the glacis plate and sides are littered with extra parts, most of which are for attaching even more armour, or other things like camouflage nets and a dozer blade.  There are no fit problems here, although the cable duct for the driver’s wipers is a bit tricky.  On the bow plate go two more dozer mounts.  They should be handed; they’re not, but you need only cut off one end and shift it along.

 

The resin is variable.  The stowage bin is lovely, with a great anti-slip finish, though it has pin holes and a few broken-off handles.  But many of the smaller parts are a bit rough, with parts that should be identical all coming out different, and there’s a lot of lumps and fuzzy flash to tackle.  Sometimes, you really have to scratch your head working out what you need to remove to find the part.  One antenna mount looks just like a spring, as it should, but the other was too rough to save and is really more of a blob.  The jerry can racks are a bit Swiss-cheese, too.

Still, the overall effect is good.  I’ve lined this conversion up against an earlier tank to give an impression of how heavily modified the C2 is.

 

The tracks are Meng again.  If you’ve seen my Leopard 1A2 from last year, take no notice of what I said about the tracks.  I still maintain they won’t simply press together as Meng claim.  But you don’t need to drill out the sockets.  The key is three-fold.  One, each outer pad has an ejector pin mark that fouls the fit, so scrape it away.  Two, use glue.  A tiny blob on each locating pin is possible.  Three, use pressure.  Once you have the outer and inner sides in place, they need a strong push to make them engage properly.  Tweezers, a straight edge, anything will do, so long as you can apply pressure evenly.  You may break a few connecting bars, but the pads should hold them together.  And if you break both the bars on one part, they’ll probably fall out, but you can slip them back in with a pinch of glue.

 

The paint is simply Tamiya NATO green, mainly aerosol.  I undercoated with Halfords matt black, really good paint, and it’s given me a bit of pre-shading too.  I’m very glad I nipped down to SMC in Worthing shortly before all the virus business got going, as I was going to collect my paint from Hannants at the Hornchurch show, and we all know how that went.  (SMC really is worth a visit.  Their plastic kits aren’t extensive - they’re mainly about radio control - but their tools and accessories are brilliant.)

 

The Echelon decal set (D356221) covers all the recent Canadian Leopards (C2, 2A4, 2A6M CAN) and so has relatively little for each type.  I’m guessing they augment what’s in the more modern kits, so you’re on your own for stencils and such.  I’ve cheated and used German markings on the glacis, as they’re fairly close to the real thing.  Still, the Echelon items are pretty good.  On the C2 they depict a tank from the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps School in Gagetown, New Brunswick.  I have very nearly all the Leopard 2 decals from that set, if anyone’s interested.

 

Weathering is watercolour washes (slightly different for tracks, lower hull and the rest) with dry-brushing and pastels for the slightly dry, dusty look.  Colouring in is much the most fun, I generally find, but I enjoyed every stage of this build.  The knotty bits were something to overcome, not endure, and the rest was very rewarding.

 

 

[Lightningboy2000]

Totally new to building tanks, normally addicted to wingy things. Your Leopard C2 looks really nice & nice to see some info of the Canadian version of the early Leopards. Something I really know next to nothing about.

Just finished the Tamiya 2 A6 which I think was a really nice model to start on. 

 

Martin

[ivan-o]

Nicely done 👍

[Jasper dog]

Hi, super Leo, and interesting report to accompany it.

Early Leo's are a bit of a rarity and I can't see why, smart looking thing, as far as MBTs go.

 

Great job!

Darryl 

[Harry Callahan]

I like your Leopard very much, especially the paintjob is well done, but what me a little bit disturbing are the tools, why did you make it in silver, is that really like this in Australian army?

 

And the rest of saw blade is normally in body color, here you can see what i mean.

 

[pigsty]

4 hours ago, Harry Callahan said:

why did you make it in silver, is that really like this in Australian army?

 

And the rest of saw blade is normally in body color, here you can see what i mean.

Thank you!  To be honest the Canadian army seems to have black tools, but I thought, boring.  So, it’s artistic licence.  I may give in and do it properly on my next Leopard.  Anyone know how the Finnish Army treats its tools?

[Ian]

Superb conversion work and excellent finish on the paintwork aswell.

 

 

Ian.

[SoftScience]

That subdued weathering is a breath of fresh air. Very tasteful.

[Ernst]

Those old italeri kits are still a lot of fun, I've build the 1a4 two years ago. I like the way the cables hang, in a sort of nonchalant manner. Most Leo's have the cables wrapped very tight, especially the Leo 2 but this looks better, more vivid. Excellent work.

[Buzby061]

Great job. The finished result belies the grief you've had with it.

 

Pete