Leopard 2A6 Portugal (WIP)

Glueing

Glueing the tracks; you have to be really careful and glue the upper and lower part, leaving the axis unglued in the middle to make them movable; the jig helps but sometimes a little Tamiya glue sips between the two halves and glues the track to the jig

Tracks ready

Painted the bottom black (with diluted Mr Surfacer 1500) to prepare for the green (Tamiya X-67); I expect this to make this area of the tank darker and with some artificial shadows

Painting Vallejo Air Tire Black (71.315) over NATO Green (Tamiya X-67) - tedious job... actually, more tedious than assembling the tracks!

The Perfect Scale Modellbau set arrived in the mail today! 🙂

Painting the tracks, red brown (Gunze H47) and the central part where the wheels run Gun Metal (AK Xtreme AK 483)

Rubber pads painted rubber black with Vallejo Air 71.315

Tracks ready

Wheels and bottom part ready for the mud 🙂

Markings for the resin bolts

Holes drilled for the resin bolts

Resin bolts going in (with a bit of CA glue to make sure they stay in)

Resin bolts applied

Some more build time - kit is very good, so I'm not using much of the extras; also, the Voyager set assumes impossible manouvers over the PE, so not using the locks for the tools for that reason

Replaced the wire cutter with a tool used to open the engine compartment, which comes with the Voyager set

Putty time

Acrylic putty cleaned up; it's far from perfect, the resin parts have less resolution than Borders' plastic, but now it's much more similar to the portuguese tank

The maps box does not fit. I removed to much material (stupid) now a serious intervention is needed

Milliput to the rescue

The smoke cans will come from the resin set, so these wonderfully molded plastic will have to come out 🙁

Plastic removed and some Mr Surfacer 500 dabbed on top, to allow for a smoother surface; resin will go on top of this

Preparing the anti slip surface in the map case with stippled thick Mr Surfacer 500

Inching forward

Glueing the smoke dischargers from the Perfect Scale Modellbau resin kit

Smoke dischargers assembled, and rear plugs (?) scratch built on both sides

Cleaning rod supports in place - the portuguese tanks never show the part assembled

PE applied on this "periscope"

Map case integrated and textured, as per reference photos

Rear metal cases scratch built - they are not very straight, but I confess I used all my patiente and have none left 🙁

Work so far - I have started to weather the bottom part with Ammo Nature Effects Kursk Soil (A.MIG - 1400) so that I can then place the wheels, tracks and outer skirts

Working on the machine gun and on the rear baskets

Some black primer applied (Mr Surfacer 1500 diluted with Mr Levelling Thinner)

Some dust airbrushed over the tracks

Tracks dusted and assembled

Tracks dusted and assembled

Rear round photoetch parts glue in place with super glue and primed with Mr Surfacer 1500 diluted with MLT

First color applied, using Tamiya XF-67

Now, in color!

Now in color!

Scratches applied and tools painted

Scratches painted, and some chipping applied

Decals glued, unfortunately they are low quality

Decals glued, unfortunately they are low quality

Decals glued, unfortunately they are low quality

Ready for the pin wash