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Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 6:17 pm
by Uni150
Acquired old a tamiya leopard 1 via eBay. Came in bits but included new turret parts and rear panel.
First thing is to check have all the bits and luckily most of it seems ok. . Next convert to twin motors which was pretty easy.

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 6:23 pm
by Uni150
Dry run using temporary Heng long plastic gearboxes from my scrap box.

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 6:53 pm
by john1970
Is this the 1 that came with the challenger 2?

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 7:15 pm
by Uni150
yes ended up paying way more than wanted to but hopefully can sell some of the parts back.

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 7:38 pm
by john1970
i thought what you got for the price was reasonable wasnt there a clark board in there as well

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 7:46 pm
by Uni150
yes actually i was very happy when i recevied it as there was 3 clark boards but not sure if they are any good yet. it was a strange lot of items as the challenger had loads of metal parts but plastic gear boxes. but its two tanks i really wanted so i am happy.

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 7:54 pm
by john1970
Leopard is a nice rare tank will be watching on

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 10:02 pm
by Uni150
Progress but realised just how difficult 40 year old plastic can be. Started assembling hull will need painting still as that is how it was.
PXL_20220620_205624443.jpg
only had one headlight so modified some taigen  leopard 2 ones to fit and of course now have LEDs
only had one headlight so modified some taigen leopard 2 ones to fit and of course now have LEDs
of course you need lights
of course you need lights
simple barrel elevation arrangement for now
simple barrel elevation arrangement for now

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 1:44 pm
by a65l
I saw that one too, and was tempted to bid. But common sense and too many other projects said no, although it never hurts to have parts lying around.

Have you given any thought to modifying the road wheels at all? I know the plastic retention caps are unobtanium and not a very satisfactory solution if you're going to run it around a lot. I see there are off the shelf solutions out there, expensive, but that's the nature of a small hobby.

But thanks for the pics and will be following with interest.

Re: Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 11:23 pm
by Uni150
Thanks for that I have a full set of everything for the running gear but agree the plastic caps are pretty rubbish solution, i will run with that for now. Also realised that the plastic this old is pretty bad and seems to just crumble so easy. Love this tank so will make the effort.