Canadian Leopard 2A6M Completed 1/7/2011

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Canadian Leopard 2A6M Completed 1/7/2011; Tamiya Leopard 2A6 with Storm Minatures resin and Eduard Slat Armour
Tweet Topic Started: May 21 2011, 05:54 PM (7,783 Views)
Nemesis	May 29 2011, 06:36 PM Post #21
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	Thanks Steve! So not a huge amount of progress today, but in between watching the Monaco GP i managed to get on with the turret.Next step was the Loaders hatch, quite an impressive looking thing when completed. Attaching the spring assemble to the turret. I did consider trying to rebuild the spring with wire, but it is not going to be seen when competed so i thought it would be extra effort for very little gain Turret ring and hatch in place. Next step was the smoke/grenade launchers. The resin ones are better detailed than the Tamiya ones and i added the PE chains and end cap to them as well There are 16 all in total and each one has to have a chain attached. The finished items Now to place them on the Leo That was certainly the most time consuming task today, and with that out the way, construction started to pick up pace. Next on the list to do was the attenna's which are very different to the orginal 2A6's Attenna bases The mounting plates for the antenna bases, indicated by the green arrows. The assembled antennas The pace really picked up after finishing the antennas and i added the personnel weapons box The box behind the Commander's cupola is believed to contain anti IED equipment, although this has not been confirmed yet. The antenna mounts have also been added.As you can see the reson parts are very good. Excellent levels of detail and fit perfectly without any trimming. have been having trouble uploading all the photos i have and the ones showing the Commanders hatch and the MG3 i cannot upload, So the next three photos show the Leo complete, apart from the tracks and side skirts. For now though the easy part of the build is over. Next weekend i will wash and prime the kit, and hopefully be able to start painting it. Once the painting and weathering is complete i will then start building the slat armour. Hope you like it so far? Regards from the Swamp Eth



fatfingers	May 29 2011, 07:14 PM Post #22
Advanced Member Posts: 446 Group: IPMS Member Member #277 Joined: November 12, 2010	Aye up Eth, Superb job so far matey! Looking forward to seeing more! Regards, Steve



seanrgb	May 29 2011, 07:19 PM Post #23
Advanced Member Posts: 620 Group: Members Member #354 Joined: February 25, 2011	Brilliant Stuff



cookie	May 29 2011, 08:52 PM Post #24
Advanced Member Posts: 75 Group: Members Member #447 Joined: April 13, 2011	Still looking good! I'm assuming since your putting the anti IED boxes your going for the ISAF paint job? cant wait to see this painted, but I don't envy you on painting the tyres on those road wheels... bain of my life!! Cookie



Nemesis	May 30 2011, 04:27 PM Post #25
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	Sean and Steve, thanks guys, i appreciate you taking the time to comment Cookie, yes it will be the ISAF paint job, which is basically NATO. For painting the wheels i use a draughtsman circle template. I paint the tyres first then use the template to mask them and then paint the centre of the wheel. It takes a while to do but is quicker than using a paint brush. Regards from the Swamp Eth



f4sooty	May 30 2011, 05:25 PM Post #26
Advanced Member Posts: 1,146 Group: Members Member #31 Joined: September 22, 2009	lovely stuff Eth.The smoke launchers are very nice and the chain is a nice touch. I am looking forward to watching you paint it.



Mike W	May 30 2011, 06:53 PM Post #27
Hook down, wheels down... call the ball Posts: 4,864 Group: Admin Member #12 Joined: August 25, 2009	I'm still relatively in the dark with you Eth, I have really not a lot of clue what a lot of what you say is about . But...... that said, it looks fab to me!! Your attention to detail is amazing.



foxy	May 30 2011, 09:37 PM Post #28
Happy modeler Posts: 2,237 Group: Members Member #330 Joined: February 5, 2011	Great job there Eth matey, like the PE work lol. Comeing on just fine and dandy mate. Did you use pva for the mesh to fix on turret bins.



snipersmudge	Jun 1 2011, 01:13 PM Post #29
Release the hounds! Posts: 875 Group: IPMS Member Member #245 Joined: August 26, 2010	great work on the leopard very smart



Nemesis	Jun 5 2011, 04:24 PM Post #30
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	So, between my last post and now i have managed to get quite a bit done. The Leo is now painted and weathered and i have started work on the slat armour. First though a bit about the painting. All Canadian Leo 2A6's were painted in the NATO three colour scheme. To replicate this i used Vallejo Model Air Dark Green, LifeColour Black and Tamiya NATO Brown. I sprayed this on over a coat of Halfords Primer Grey. Once the paint was dry i did some detail painting using Vallejo Model Colour paint. Then i sealed eveything with a coat of gloss varnish, let that dry and then added the decals and then sealed them with a second gloss coat. For the weathering i started by mixing up some Tamiya Buff, 5% and some Tamiya thinners, 95%. This i applied using a flat brush and let it puddle around the raised detail. The whole tank was treated this way. When this was dry i mixed up some Mig Pigments Gulf War Sand with some Tamiya thinners and started to work on the wheels, i do this with the model on it' side and i leave it that way for half an hour or so after i have finished to let the mixture dry. While the wheels where drying i did some more work on the turret with the buff mixture. However i wanted to the turret to look cleaner than the hull, and so did not add any of the Gulf War sand pigment to it. When the wheels were dry i turned it over and gave the other side the same treatment. I then started weathering the rest oif the hull, again worling with the pigment mix. Most of the photos i have seen of Canadian Leo's in 'Stan show a very heavy covering of dust and sand and this was the look i was going for. See what you think. Some of you may notice that the Comander's machine gun is the MG3. This is correct for a 2007 Leo, however if you want to do a more up to date one then you would need to replace the MG3 with an FN MAG, however i did not have one in the stash so used the MG3 instead. It is eeasier to see the weathering on the hull top and the turret by eye, it is not eas yto catch the effect with a camera.



Nemesis	Jun 5 2011, 04:33 PM Post #31
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	Now that the painting and weathering is out of the way, i turned to the slat armour. This is the set i am going to use It looks a daunting PE set, but looking over the instructions, construction looks straight forward enough, just very time consuming. I started off with the side pieces of the slat armour. This is the simple part of the construction and went together quite easily, however it is a very fiddly process. The next photo shows one of the slat armour pieces as it is removed from the fret The next photo shows the assembled piece. Assembly is not that difficult. I bent up the side pieces first using an etch tool. Then i "teased" the center pieces up enough so that i could form them using just the tips of some tweezers. Once all of them were bent into position i then added the strengthening uprights. It looks worse than it actually is. I found it best to apply superglu to the bottom two slats, the middle one and the top two. Once fully assembled they are quite strong and can be manipulated quite easily. The next photos are of the rear hull slat. This is slightly trickier than the side slat. This is more because of the length of the slat than anything else and the same technique will work. However, i did have one of the top pieces of etch break off at this stage. I found it best to leave the broken piece off until the frame was assembled and then it was easy to place it correctly. One thing you do have to take care with is the end brackets. They are bent in the opposite direction to the uprights they are mounted on. Again take your time and this will not be a problem. And here is an over view of the completed hull slat. And there is still the turret slat to do. I'm sorry about the clarity of some of the photographs but my camera is about as co-operative as a German who has just heard there are only vegatables for dinner Regards from the Swamp Eth



Mike W	Jun 5 2011, 07:14 PM Post #32
Hook down, wheels down... call the ball Posts: 4,864 Group: Admin Member #12 Joined: August 25, 2009	My goodness Eth! That etch work is fabulous, it does look very tricky. I also love the weathered look to your paint job, very mucky, thanks for describing how you do it. I must try some more armour.



cookie	Jun 5 2011, 08:42 PM Post #33
Advanced Member Posts: 75 Group: Members Member #447 Joined: April 13, 2011	The paint scheme is looking really good, youve done the weathering really well, one thing I can say from my time in afghan is that damn sand gets everywhere!! its a really fine dust that is a real pain and you've got the look spot on! that bar armour is really looking the part as well, must of been pretty fiddley, Im only just getting into brass etch myself and im finding it pretty tricky so im in awe of that effort! Cookie



Nemesis	Jun 6 2011, 03:19 PM Post #34
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	Thanks Mike if you do decide to give some armour a go give me a shout if you need anything Hi Cookie, thank you for your kind words i do appreciate them.....do not be put off by the PE. All you really need is a steady hand and to take your time, although i admit that some of the smaller parts, which you will see later on in the build, could try the patience of a saint regards from the Swamp Eth Edited by Nemesis, Jun 6 2011, 03:20 PM.



Nemesis	Jun 10 2011, 05:08 PM Post #35
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	This week i have mostly been driving myself nuts with small pieces of PE This is the next step to tackle,the brackets that fit on the hull, in this case the rear of the hull. These brackets are the mounting points for the slat. First off there are four mounting plates that need to be bent to shape. Then there are the top mounts. These are formed from three parts, one of which needs bending and they are a total pain to assemble There are also the brackets for the slat that go on the sides, these are the mounting plates for the side slat and the rear, now in place. The location points for the rear slat. Mostly,today, i worked on the arms that are mounted on the Leo and hold the slat, if only they were as easy to construct as it is to write about them. Most of the arms are made up of six parts and look like the folowing : I apologise for the quality of the photos but the parts are very small and it is not easy to photo graph something this small. Anyways what you have there are the mounting arms for the turret and there are five of them for the rear of the turret It is way easier to mount them on the rear of the turret compared to building them. I also did some work on the hull brackets, mainly concentrating on the lower hull at the front. The brackets in this position are made from one flat piece of PE and are easier to form. As you can see there are three per side for the lower brackets. The upper ones, not yet made, are six per side. Progress is slow though, this little lot took a good 4 hours to make and mount. However i do think i have reached the halfway point with the etch, so it is all downhill from here....i hopelol Regards from the Swamp Eth



snipersmudge	Jun 12 2011, 08:06 AM Post #36
Release the hounds! Posts: 875 Group: IPMS Member Member #245 Joined: August 26, 2010	nice work with the etch, it can be a bit demanding!



foxy	Jun 13 2011, 08:17 AM Post #37
Happy modeler Posts: 2,237 Group: Members Member #330 Joined: February 5, 2011	Etchings do take a bit of time, but well worth it to finish a model. Eth, thats a big project you have started there and for the size of componants very good pictures. Great work so far matey .



seanrgb	Jun 13 2011, 12:56 PM Post #38
Advanced Member Posts: 620 Group: Members Member #354 Joined: February 25, 2011	Stunning work so far



Nemesis	Jun 16 2011, 07:05 AM Post #39
Advanced Member Posts: 56 Group: Members Member #406 Joined: March 26, 2011	Thanks guys, i appreciate you taking the time to comment. I hope to have some more progrees this weekend, might even be able to finish off the slat......he says with fingers crossed. Regards from the Swamp Eth



f4sooty	Jun 17 2011, 03:07 PM Post #40
Advanced Member Posts: 1,146 Group: Members Member #31 Joined: September 22, 2009	fantastic work with the PE. It looks so much nicer and more detailed than the Hobbyboss slat armour.


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