Tamiya leopard 1 restoration / upgrade.

[a65l]

I modified an older Nichimo ship model for R/C, and their plastic is even worse than the Tamiya. I wound up designing and printing multiple parts to replace stuff that, as you said, literally crumbled in my hands.
I'm in the same boat as you as I acquired an older Leo 1 on Ebay, I wasn't lucky enough to get the back panel. Seller said it was there, but it wasn't.

Ludwig to the rescue! Also some side skirts.

So far I've been pretty luck with the plastic, nothing seems to terribly brittle. I need to do a total disassemble and paint, but I did put an ESC in it and run it around a little bit. The stock tracks lasted about 1 minute before disintegrating, I fitted the metal tracks I bought off eBay for the Gepard and they are much better. So now I need another set, of course.

[Uni150]

latest photos , been a challenge but pleased with the result, note some things probably not technically correct in a few ways but now running henglong steel gearboxes and 6.1S radio and drives well drives well, no breakdowns on the test drive lucky that mine had metal tracks and spockets

base coat on and now to dirty it up and add bits and bobs

Nearly finished just need tow cables and a couple of missing fixings sometime

Modified the exhaust to use smoke know not to everyones taste but looks good when moving

added a led machine gun

Now in the collection will finish it later (may be one day)

[john1970]

Looks very good

[tankme]

Yes, it is a good looking tank you have there. I've drooled over these since I was a kid with the Tamiya catalog.