I cannot resist the pull of Team Yankee any longer. I have decided to start a West German army. This is all down to the Leopard II. In 1979, the Leopard II was at the cutting edge of tank design and still in use decades later. Leaving it's effectiveness aside, the Leopard II is a great looking tank, add to this the amazing camouflage pattern of the mid 80's and this gamer is ready for a new project.
History:
The Leopard II had a problematic design process. Originally the tank was to be a US-German project. However when this fell apart, the Germans provided the approval to Krass-Maffei and MaK for 1800 Leopard IIs. The main 120mm gun was supplied by Rhenmetall. The stabilized 120mm gun fired both APFSDS-T and HEAT-MP-T rounds.
Between 1979 and 1985, 4 batches of Leopard IIs were delivered by the 2 manufacturers. Each of these batches saw improvements and the model numbers changed with each batch.
The Leopard II was a new high watermark for tank design as this new advanced main battle tank was well armoured, well armed and highly mobile. The tank had a running weight of 55 tonnes.
 |
| Mid 80's Leopard II. Picture from http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/leo2.htm |
Review:
The Leopard 2 Panzer Zug comes with 5 Leopard 2s - all in plastic. Like always, the box shows some full painted models.
 |
 |
| Back of the box. |
Opening the box, I find 5 sprues and a bag. The bag contains unit cards, decals and tank commanders. All seems in order so far.
 |
Each tank is completely contained within a single frame - except for the resin commander. The good news is that there are not tonnes of tiny pieces here. This should be simple to assemble.
 |
| A single frame. |
The instructions on the back of the box are very basic and will probably do the job. However given this is my first TY pack, I looked up the flames website and read the spotlight article. It has a great step by step assembly guide.
 |
| All the hull components. |
 |
| All the turret components. |
After breaking out the components and cleaning them up, I went ahead and put the first beasty together. It look about 5 or so minutes and I had no problems what so every.
 |
| Assembled turret |
 |
| Assembled hull. |
 |
| Assembled Leopard II |
 |
| Another view |
 |
 |
Overall this is a terrific model. The points where the pieces join the frame are largely then out of sight when the model goes together. A very nice design feature. All my components were dry fitted first but they are went together really well.
The inclusion of the decals are a nice touch and will make it easy to finish these up quickly. The model comes with a turret plug which I have avoided till now. I will try these out and give them a chance. I am concerned they will snap off. Not a big deal, I guess I can always then add magnets.
This is a great model. It looks really impressive in nude gray. I cannot wait to see what it looks like with some paint on it. I will post again when I paint up these bad boys.
I hope you enjoyed my first post for my new TY force.
Thanks mate, great review, and I agree with your conclusions entirely!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sparker. Looking forward to getting into some of the other lovely models too
DeleteA great write-up. They're a great model to assemble and paint. Sure you're not playing TY at Cancon...
ReplyDeleteWell I have two assembled now. That is already 22 points! No, not for Cancon
Delete