Leopard 1A5

Ingo F
Here comes another german cat that is resting on my work bench right now. This kit was finished between the T-10M and the start of the King Tiger.
Very nice and interesting kit and really fast to build. Unfortunately no clear parts for the sights.
This one is an Takom kit and also have no information about the number of track links per side.
For you guys its 83 tracks per side. 🙂
The tracks are from Orochi and workable. Really easy to build.

Dan M
Oooooh, nice subject! I'm in. I have the Meng's version, the A3/A4.

Ingo F
James i am going t build the german one with NATO camo sheme. The longer turret version, you mean Leopard C2 the Canadian version?

Ingo F
Hey Dan i was planning to get the Meng's version to build the A3 version despites that i already have the old A4 version from Tamiya finished.

Dan M
I just love the early Leopards with their round turret, so I had to get the A3. I'm also considering the Revell kit 03240 which is an even earlier version. And it also doesn't have anymore the much hated green plastic 🙂

Ingo F
Dan, the A3 version got the same turret as the A4. A welded angular turret.
I got te new Revell Leo also on my list. 😄
Going to replace the tracks with the AM tracks from Leopard Club.

Ingo F
Little update on this one. Applied the base color NATO Green from Tamiya and painted the tracks.

Dan M
Looks good 👍. What color did you use for the tracks ?

Ingo F
Thank you Dan. The tracks were primed with NATO black. Then i masked the inner tracks and sprayed a mix of rusty tracks and dry light mud over the whole track. It was about 80% - 85% rusty tracks and 15% - 20% dry light mud. The inner tracks were then drybrushed with steel color. The rubber blocks were painted with dark rubber from Vallejo. You can read about it here:
themodellingnews.com..-finishes-mengs.html
I really liked the way the tracks looks in this build and decided to test it out on my model.

Dan M
That's an interesting article, thank you Ingo!

Ingo F
Finished the camo and detail painting. I think its turned out good. Next step will be weathering.

Dan M
Looking very good Ingo! 👍

Ingo F
Thank you Dan.

Ingo F
Thank you James. This kit is straightforward and fast to build. The most time consuming are the Orochi tracks that are very good. In my opinion the advantages of this kit are the tracks, the possibility to build the canadian C2 version of the Leo and the nice and detailed figure.
Unfortunately there are also some disadvantages in this kit. First of all the instruction. There are some missing informations, also again there is no information about the count of the tracks per side. The most disappointing part of the instruction is the painting part. The painting instruction shows the tank only from three sides: front, rear and left side. There is no right side and top down view on the camo. I mean its not like the boths sides of the tank got an mirror camo sheme. :-/
This view is only good it you are building the italian KFOR vehicles that is painted in overall green.
I had to search for an instruction from another kit like, Revell or MENG. Found and used the last one.
The next disadvantage of this kit is that Takom do not provide clear parts for the turret and hull periscopes. This parts are molded in plastic. The only clear parts that you get are the headlights.
Another disadvantage of this kit is that you have to glue the shock mounts on the turret and this is not even the bad part of it. There are no markings provided on the turret where to glue this shock mounts. You have to compare it to the instruction. Ok, at the end this mounts wont be visible because of the addon plates on the turret.
If you have to decide which one to buy: the Takom or the MENG one, i would say go for the MENG Kit. 🙂

Ingo F
Thank you James! This will be my first model where i am going to use the oils from Abteilung 502. OK actualy the second one as i am going to test it out on an old model first. 😄

Ingo F
Haha i hope so. 😄 What varnish did you use before applying the oils? Satin or gloss. I have read somewhere that you need to use the satin varnish for the work with oils.

Ingo F
Finished this one. At the beginning of the weathering process i was a little bit sceptical how the model will look like with the oil wash but in the end i really like how it turned out. Will definitely use oils for weathering in the future. 😄

Murad ÖZER
1a5 is the best look leo variant of them all imho, nice one Ingo, cheers 👍

as for the oil dot filtering my understanding is that the smoother the surface easier they are to handle, caveat being a smooth surface means removing more than needed is easier as well since the pigments won't have anywhere to get a grip on, so a light touch in application and a light touch in cleaning is a must whilst factoring in the amount of details on the model, case in point the applique armor around the turret of a 1a5 for ex, it's already like a porous surface as it is so i'd want as smooth a varnish as possible.

Ingo F
Thanks Murad. For this one i just used Buff from Abteilung 502 to create a wash. For oil dot filtering the 1A5 got not that much free surface to use it. Maybe on the engine deck. For this model i decided not to apply the dot filltering.

Bart Goesaert
Very nice...

Ingo F
Thank you Bart and James.