Conversion of a Tamiya Leopard 2A6 to 2A4

[Herr Dr. Professor]

The difference of volume between the earlier and later turret is quite apparent, obviously putting the squeeze on room for electronics. Hats off to you and your skills at squishing things inside and creating such a success.

[r32]

Its barely a success - just marginally workable!

I bought the Ludwig turret without really understanding how I would fit it onto the Tamiya. I thought I could perhaps mate the 2A6's turret ring to the 2A4 bottom. However, I quickly realised I would have had to engage in extensive construction of mounts for the rotation gearbox, gun barrel mount as well as elevation servo. Given how it all worked as a unit, I settled on removing the lower half of the 2A4 turret. Even though I liked to say that Heng Long copied Tamiya's 2A6, it wasn't an exact copy, as the Tamiya lower required quite a lot of trimming to allow the 2A4 to fit over it. The 2A4 also needed some extension on the sides.

Given how sparse in detail the Ludwig turret was, I tried to salvage some details from the Tamiya, but found that the turret hatches didn't quite match. I also did some minor scratchbuilding and modifications to lengthen the turret side grab handles to represent the correct dimensions.

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[Ecam]

Oh the joys of custom work. Just think that once it's over you can be proud of a fine build!