Leopard 2 A4 1988 1/35 Meng

[Dmitriy1967]

5 hours ago, LeeM said:

Excellent work so far on your build. I have just built the same model but not to your standard.

 

Thank you for your kind words.

But this is not my standard, but the MENG standard, which has very good plastic and detailing. I'm just gluing the parts out of the box. 🙂

[Dmitriy1967]

And the most unpleasant thing is that the shape of the uniform was different then. And these tank figures won't do. We'll have to look for others. And I didn't come across any other German tankers in post-war uniforms. 

[Dmitriy1967]

Judging by the photos, they had simple olive-gray overalls.

 

Bundeswehr of the 70s. Tankers

[Terry1954]

Hi Dmitriy,

 

Re the uniform of the German tankers circa 1988. My colleague suggested that the camouflaged version didn’t come in until 1990, so the Panzerkombi would be the olive green/grey type. Olive when new but soon washed out to a sort of field grey. His suggestion would be to use a Cockpit Green form Humbrol or similar. He wasn't sure when the padded Soviet-type helmet came in.

 

He knows his stuff as he was an active member of BAOR based in Germany for much of his Army career. He has some great stories to tell!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Terry

[coneheadff]

Terry's colleague is right.

 

The olive overalls faded pretty quick and looked more "greyish" than green

 

Here's a page of one of Tankograd's great booklets...

 

[Dmitriy1967]

55 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Hi Dmitriy,

 

Re the uniform of the German tankers circa 1988. My colleague suggested that the camouflaged version didn’t come in until 1990, so the Panzerkombi would be the olive green/grey type. Olive when new but soon washed out to a sort of field grey. His suggestion would be to use a Cockpit Green form Humbrol or similar. He wasn't sure when the padded Soviet-type helmet came in.

 

He knows his stuff as he was an active member of BAOR based in Germany for much of his Army career. He has some great stories to tell!

 

Hope that helps!

 

Terry

 

 

Thank you, Terry!

The stories of eyewitnesses and experienced people are especially valuable.

 

[Dmitriy1967]

33 minutes ago, coneheadff said:

The olive overalls faded pretty quick and looked more "greyish" than green

 

 

Thank you, Alex!

Obviously I'll have to find other figurines.

But, there is also a positive point - olive green is easier to draw than Flecktarn. 🙂

[FrancisGL]

Hi Dmitry,

Your work with the Leo is excellent so far, both in detail and painting, a good base to work on. I made a couple of 2A4s a long time ago, but from Italeri, nothing to do with MENG...

Cheers

Francis 👍

[Dmitriy1967]

4 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi Dmitry,

Your work with the Leo is excellent so far, both in detail and painting, a good base to work on. I made a couple of 2A4s a long time ago, but from Italeri, nothing to do with MENG...

Cheers

Francis 👍

 

Thank you, Francis!

I hope my Leopard will be added to your Leopards 2A4 soon. 🙂

[Jochen Barett]

On 05/10/2024 at 19:34, Dmitriy1967 said:

Judging by the photos, they had simple olive-gray overalls.

 

Bundeswehr of the 70s. Tankers

On "day 1" (first few weeks before mom washed the Uniform) they looked like these guys colorwise (nobody standing is wearing rank insignia for a Gefreiter, so within the first six months of their service) - the first row kneeling (Uffz, StUffz and Feldwebel having served some years). Pants of the 2nd from left show "regular color" after being washed a few times (almost like RLM 02). Most of the men already invested some elbow grease to scrape paint off of the Koppelschloß (so they don't look too unexpeerienced), Regular Kampfanzug, not the Panzerkombi;

 

 

Oberstleutnant (right) wearing Panzerkombi, giving yellow Spießschulterschnur to Hauptfeldwebel wearing regular Kampfanzug (left)

 

 

Panzerkombi worn by StUffz. G3-ammo pouches not to be worn by regular Leopard tankers. These guys are working on the Dreiwegegurtzuführer of our beloved MK (FK in this case) 20 Rh-202. Note collar and zippers:

 

Edited October 7 by Jochen Barett

[Dmitriy1967]

19 minutes ago, Jochen Barett said:

On "day 1" (first few weeks before mom washed the Uniform) they looked like these guys colorwise (nobody standing is wearing rank insignia for a Gefreiter, so within the first six months of their service) - the first row kneeling (Uffz, StUffz and Feldwebel having served some years). Pants of the 2nd from left show "regular color" after being washed a few times (almost like RLM 02). Most of the men already invested some elbow grease to scrape paint off of the Koppelschloß (so they don't look too unexpeerienced), Regular Kampfanzug, not the Panzerkombi;

Oberstleutnant (right) wearing Panzerkombi, giving yellow Spießschulterschnur to Hauptfeldwebel wearing regular Kampfanzug (left)

Panzerkombi worn by StUffz. G3-ammo pouches not to be worn by regular Leopard tankers. These guys are working on the Dreiwegegurtzuführer of our beloved MK (FK in this case) 20 Rh-202. Note collar and zippers:

 

 

Thank you Jochen for the photo and such a detailed description of the form!  This is very useful. 👍

 

I thought that I could also describe the uniform of the USSR military personnel with all the minor differences in years of service in detail and color, but I don't know anything about the German one. 🙂

[Jochen Barett]

On 08/10/2024 at 00:35, Dmitriy1967 said:

 

Thank you Jochen for the photo and such a detailed description of the form!  This is very useful. 👍

 

I thought that I could also describe the uniform of the USSR military personnel with all the minor differences in years of service in detail and color, but I don't know anything about the German one. 🙂

The pictures' origin is the link given by you 😉 I just added comments.

 

To get more images of the Panzerkombi (grab the pictures while the auctions are available):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/395767205393

https://www.ebay.de/itm/404622673347

https://www.ebay.de/itm/133312487494

https://www.ebay.de/itm/394000061728

https://www.ebay.de/itm/314607415947

https://www.ebay.de/itm/224975751514

 

A few years earlier (tanks RAL 6014) but nice shots of the Panzerkombi (no belt visible) and Kampfanzug (ignore the dialogues) at 1:22 more scenes including halfways realistic orders given by handsign (Marsch Marsch (on the double), Stopp (stop), Motor aus (shutdown engine)), 1:28 shooting (red flag on tanks, red and white armbands for officers in charge)

 

[Dmitriy1967]

7 hours ago, Jochen Barett said:

To get more images of the Panzerkombi (grab the pictures while the auctions are available):

 

 

Thank you, Jochen, this is very interesting and useful. Now I really know exactly what Panzerkombi is. 👍

 

 

And I will definitely watch the whole movie, not just the fragments about clothes, at dinner in the evening.

And, of course, thanks for the links to Ebay, I have already purchased 3 Panzerkombi, now I will give them to the tailors so that they can change them to 1/35 scale.

[Dmitriy1967]

To paint the tracks, I mixed Dark Gray, Khaki and White colors.

Don't ask me why I chose this color, I don't know myself. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

To paint the rubber on the wheels, I naturally took the color Rubber Black. But the color seemed very dark to me and I diluted it with White. Carefully painting a lot of wheels with a brush is a very soothing and meditative process.

 

 

 

 

 

I am glad that ahead of me there is a brush painting of this infinite number of rubber squares on the tracks... I love modeling!

 

 

 

 

[Dmitriy1967]

I finished painting the rubber linings on the tracks.

 

 

 

 

The color of the tracks is starting to look like this

 

 

 

 

 

[Stef N.]

Your patience with the painting has paid off very well. 👍👍

[VinBizz4786_]

Really nice job here! Congrats

[Dmitriy1967]

I tried to draw with an airbrush 0.18 on an unnecessary part. It turns out well, I can draw camouflage without a mask.

But there is one problem.

The green color is smooth and matte. And the brown one is shiny for some reason.

 

 

 

 

Both green and brown are TAMIYA colors of NATO. I diluted them equally with white and solvent.

 

 

 

Green was applied with an airbrush 0.3 and brown 0.18.

What am I doing wrong?

 

 

[Dmitriy1967]

I conducted various experiments with an airbrush and by reducing the air pressure and minimizing the supply of paint, I was able to get a good result.

[Dmitriy1967]

I have never painted tank tracks in my life.

I took the paints, which in my opinion should be suitable for this work.

 

 

 

 

That's how it turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like metal to me.

 

The most unpleasant thing is that only one tank track is drawn. And I need to draw the second one... 🤪

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Dmitriy, I might suggest an aircraft modeler's trick if you are getting different gloss versus flat effects for paint: apply a gloss coat, followed by decals, then a flat / matte coat.  It evens the paint out, so you will have a uniform coat.  You probably used it on ships, too.  

 

I'm fascinated by these old photos!  Ah, the Bundeswehr of the 70s and 80s, with hair worn grossly out of American regulations.  I am told, however, that the conscripts were quite good in quality and very competitive.  They were well trained and highly motivated, and often beat our volunteer forces during Canadian Cup shoot-outs.

[Bullbasket]

9 hours ago, Dmitriy1967 said:

That's how it turned out.

And it looks good to me. Nice work.

 

John.

[Dmitriy1967]

17 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Dmitriy, I might suggest an aircraft modeler's trick if you are getting different gloss versus flat effects for paint: apply a gloss coat, followed by decals, then a flat / matte coat.  It evens the paint out, so you will have a uniform coat.  You probably used it on ships, too.  

 

 

Thank you. Yes, I read about this method when applying decals. But I love it when everything goes right at every stage. Apparently I'm a little bit, just a little bit, barely noticeably a pedant. 😄

Edited October 29 by Dmitriy1967

[Dmitriy1967]

8 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

And it looks good to me. Nice work.

 

John.

 

Thanks John.

I'm happy too. I was afraid it would be worse for the first time.

[Dmitriy1967]

Today was a free day. But, for some reason, instead of a tank, I decided to clean the pool for the winter. Because we may already have negative temperatures at the end of the week. Winter is coming soon. Skiing and mountains are coming soon! 🙂