Heir To The Panther

Historical Background

In the mid-1950s West Germany's rapid industrial recovery from World War 2, allowed it, among other West European nations, to rebuild its military to face the Soviet threat. A new main battle tank was part of the Bundeswehr's plan and in November 1956, a project known as the Standard-Panzer was started. On 25 July 1957, the detailed specifications were released, calling for a 30-ton tank with a power output/weight ratio of 30 hp/ton, armour able to resist rapid-fire 20mm rounds, treated against NBC and armed with a 105mm gun. Armour was given the least priority here as it was assumed that all AFVs cannot be protected against hollow charge projectiles. At the same time, France was interested in the Standard-Panzer, following the failure of its AMX-50 project. The two countries agreed to jointly develop a common tank called the Europa-Panzer, which was intended to equip Western European armies, replacing the American-supplied M47 and M48 Pattons. Three West German and one French team would submit their proposals. The West Germany teams were Arbeitsgruppe A led by Porsche, Arbeitsgruppe B led by Rheinmetall and Arbeitsgruppe C led by Borgward. In September 1958, Italy joined the development programme.

Although the Phase I prototypes weren't finished, it was decided to start Phase II prototypes in 1959. In 1961, Arbeitsgruppe A was assigned to build 26 pre-series (O-series) prototypes, Arbeitsgruppe B 6 vehicles but Arbeitsgruppe C, with its AMX-13-like design, failed to submit their original prototypes in time. In 1963, Arbeitsgruppe A's design, with a new cast turret and several hull changes were chosen as the winner. Before mass production of the standard version can be started, it was decided to add an optical range-finding system which led to an increased height of the turret and the addition of bumps on the turret sides to accommodate the sights. In 1963, France decided to leave the programme and pursued their own design, which led to the AMX-30. The new tank was given the name 'Leopard' to continue with the tradition started with the Panther and Tiger tanks of World War 2 fame. The production line was set up at Krauss-Maffei in Munich from early 1964 with the first batch being delivered between September 1965 and July 1966.

Following the lessons learned during World War 2, the Leopard has a well-sloped hull although not very thick (the thickest, for the turret front and mantlet, was 70mm). This was later rectified by the use of add-on armour plates. The turret was originally of cast construction which was later changed to welded joints. The Leopard is powered by a multi-fuel  MTU MB 838 CaM 500 engine generating 819 hp at 2,200 rpm. With the relatively lightweight hull, it gave the tank a sprightly performance. Cross-country ride was very smooth, courtesy of shock absorbers on three front and two rear road wheels. The Leopard is armed with a license-built Royal Ordnance L7 105mm rifled tank gun firing all kinds of ammunition available to NATO armies. 55 rounds were carried. Secondary armament comprise of a 7.62mm MG42/59, MG3 or FN MAG machine gun co-axially mounted with the main gun and another similar weapon mounted in the commander's cupola. 5,000 rounds of 7.62 x 51mm ammunition were carried.

The Leopard (also known as Leopard 1) was produced in a number of basic variants, designated A1 to A5. The 1A3 version, entering production in 1974, was fitted with a new welded turret, incorporating two spaced steel plates with a sandwiched plastic filling, and a distinctitive wedge-shaped mantlet. This turret is roomier than the earlier cast turret while doubling the protection. 110 were built. Next was 1A4, forming the sixth batch of vehicles, 250 in number. Externally similar to 1A3, this variant included a new computerised fire control system and a new EMES 12A1 sights. The commander was also provided with the PERI R12 independent night sighting system. These additions however resulted in the reduction of the main armament ammunition from 55 to 42. The Leopard 1 chassis was also used for the Flakpanzer Gepard AA vehicle, Bruckenleger Biber armoured bridgelayer and Bergepanzer II armoured engineering vehicle.

Apart from the Bundeswehr, the Leopard 1 enjoyed considerable export success, being sold to (or having building license issued to) Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Australia, Canada, Turkey and Greece. Most of these countries no longer operated their Leopard 1s, which were then transferred to Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Lebanon. The Leopard 1 MBT was used in combat during peacekeeping operations in The Balkans during the 1990s. On 29 April 1994, during Operation Bollebank, the Danish contingent of the UNPROFOR came under artillery fire from Bosnian Serb forces. Their commander decided to return fire using the seven Leopard 1A5s in the column, firing 72 rounds which destroyed several artillery pieces, bunkers and an ammunition dump. Almost six months later, on 25 October during Operation Amanda, a Bosnian Serb T-55 fired upon three Danish Leopard 1A5s, One of the Leopards suffer a slight damage while return fire knocked the T-55 out and also destroyed a recoilless rifle. Canada sent their Leopard C1 to Kosovo in 1999 and the upgraded C2 variant to Afghanistan from 2006 to 2011.

The Kit

Meng's Leopard 1A3/A4 is my second armour model kit from them (and the third kit overall when the F-102 is taken into account). It was first released in 2013 and comprised of 283 dark green parts, 180 brown parts (the separate-link tracks), ten clear, the PE, two lengths of vinyl tracks, poly caps, a length of string and the usual decal and instruction sheets. The parts are all well-detailed and moulded crisply while the vinyl tracks have good details with no ejector marks; the separate tracks have even better detail but were marred by two shallow ejector pin circles.  Options were given for turret details and the kit allows the building of either the A3, A4 or the Greek GR1 so one needs to pay attention to instructions. Accuracy-wise, well, some online reviewers mentioned about inaccurate shapes but hey, is there really such a thing as a perfect model kit? They can be rectified but I think I'll leave them as they are. The decal sheet provide markings for:

1. Leopard 1A3, 2nd Squadron, 304th Panzer Battalion, mid-1980s (tricolor camo)

2. Leopard 1A3, 4th Squadron, 301st Panzer Battalion, 1980s (dark green)

3. Leopard 1 A4, 4th Squadron, 293rd Panzer Battalion, 1980s (dark green)

4. Leopard 1A4 (GR), Helllenic Army (four-colour camo)

Construction

Before starting, it should be noted that you must make a choice at this time as the four marking options feature different details. I decided to build the third option. As usual, construction started at the bottom by cementing all the suspension parts to the lower hull. After building their excellent T-10M, it was quite a surprise when I found that the shock absorbers and suspension arms have minimal detail. Perhaps the designers have the opinion that 'if it can barely be seen, why bother with details?' Also like the T-10M kit, the Leopard also feature moveable torsion bar suspension to help modellers pose the model in a diorama setting. There was also the possibility of mounting the return roller mounting upside down by mistake. However, the mounts already moulded on the lower hull can be used as a guide. The wheels is one of the shortcomings of the kit, having wrong details on the outside wheel and hollow on the inside face of the inner wheel. Anyway the wheels were assembled but not yet mounted, save for some test-fitting (which was great).

I then concentrated on the upper hull. Construction here was pretty straightforward as the parts all fit nicely. The engine exhaust grilles however were too shallow- I might need to apply a heavy dark wash here later on. Anyway, I worked in a counter clockwise direction beginning from the driver's hatch cementing the smaller parts onto the upper hull shell. However, the headlights and rear-view mirrors were left off for the time being. The former was because of the need to facilitate painting and the latter in order to avoid them being knocked off and worse, becoming the meal for the Carpet Monster. The rear panel was then worked upon with most of the smaller details cemented onto it. The upper hull and the lower hull was then cemented together, followed by the rear panel. While there weren't any problems with the upper-lower hull joint, there was a gap at the back panel/hull joint which required some puttying and sanding. With the modern tanks' feature of the side skirts, I usually painted the lower hull and put the tracks onto the model at this time. This time however I left them unpainted, with all the wheels and tracks mounted later; the side skirts would be painted separately from the hull.

Moving on to the turret,  I deviated from the instructions by working on the turret shell first. I struggled a bit when inserting part H12 into place but ended up OK. The trunnion was assembled and I was quite concerned as it was loose, and could make the gun point downwards (more on this later). The turret shell was the cemented together with the rear panel falls on the weld seams, requiring just a small correction to restore the beads. There are alternative parts here, chiefly the gunner's and commander's sights. While the alternate sights were shown, what to do with the raised placement marks were not. Common sense prevailed and the excess plastic was removed. The gun barrel and the mantlet was assembled and again, I wish for a one-piece turned aluminium (or even plastic) barrel. The IR searchlight was assembled but left alone at first, while I place the gun assembly to the turret. As expected the gun pointed downwards, but when the mantlet cover was cemented into place, it put the gun in a roughly zero-angle plane. The IR searchlight was then put in place. The rest of the parts were assembled and cemented onto the turret without any problems.

Painting and Decaling

The markings I chose was for the Leopard 1A4 of the 293rd Panzer Battalion. This option, together with the 1A3 of the 301st Panzer Battalion was in overall Dark Green. Moving away from my traditional paint supplies (specifically Tamiya), the kit was painted using Vallejo US Dark Green. Although the paint is formulated for airbrushes, I find it suitable (way better actually than Tamiya and Mr. Color paints) for hand brushing, although it may not be economical for hand brushing in the long run. Although I think (and I didn't bother to check internet forums beforehand) the paint already has the scale factor built in, I added a bit of white. The rest of the tank was however painted using my usual Tamiya paints. The 'metal' portion of the tracks were painted XF-64 Red Brown and then washed with AK Interactive Track Wash while the 'rubber' parts were painted Mr. Color H77 Tyre Black. The model then received a gloss coating prior to decalling. The decals, printed by Cartograf, performed beautifully on the glossy surface. There is no need to use decal setting solutions here but I just dabbed a bit of Mr Mark Softer out of habit.

Finishing

I started at the bottom by placing the wheels. Since I'm using the one-piece tracks (the tension of which may pull the wheels up), the first and the last suspension bars were frozen in place using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. The tracks were then laid on as usual and they were followed by the side skirtings. There are seams between on the mud flap (split between the hull and the side skirtings) which need to be smoothed over (and the paint retouched afterwards). The tools were painted XF-59 Desert Yellow and Vallejo US Dark Green and was then placed on the model. There are two options for the rear mudflaps - one hanging open and the other folded - I chose the hanging one. Although not mentioned in the instructions, I painted the road wheel hubs XF-7 Red, as the German vehicles were regularly seen with the hubs painted so. The model then was washed with a brown-black paint mixture. The hull was then washed with Buff and afterwards an application of dust pigments was done to the lower hull. A guitar string was cut and superglued to the aerial base.

Conclusion

The Meng Leopard 1A3/A4 is a nice kit. Yes it has a number of shortcomings, most notably the road wheel detail and accuracy and the shallowness of the engine exhaust vents. Despite that, it was still better than the old Tamiya and Italeri Leopard kits with regards to fit and (the rest of the) details. Although a number of shortcuts were made by Meng they were mostly negligible for a casual modeller (or hidden, in the case of the suspension).