Another Tamiya Leopard A4

[zooma]

Looking good meter rat !

The TK50 is a mystery to me too! I have had one board loose its sound ( apparently quite a common fault) and (when working) the engine sound is not loud enough, but the main gun and machine gun sounds have plenty of volume.

[Meter rat]

Had a productive week with the Leopard 1. Been installing some missing details, like the mantle lifting point and the deep wadding plugs for the machine gun, and gunners sight.

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Also installed, by modifying the original parts, are the turret bins on the side for the flags. I have also have to install the tubes on the turret for the flags. Also seen are the turret lifting lugs, which I installed incorrectly thirty odd years ago, and finally made good.

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Magnets have been fitted to hold down the top deck, which look so much neater than Tamiya’s original fixings with screws.

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A job I have been putting off is the lighting. The rear lights have been mocked up. Tail lights, and convoy lights. I used some old Christmas lights,and fibre optics. By happy coincidence the lights can both work off the same circuit, but switch off the same switch on the transmitter. The back lights should be split into tail, and brake lights. But that is a bit too difficult for my mediocre skills.

Convoy lights

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Tail lights

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Assistance was not given in any way by our house chicken, Squeak. I don’t even think she was particularly interested in the work, more the food that was about.

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[Meter rat]

One of the jobs I had not been looking forward was getting the turret to rotate. First job was marking out a base for the turret to sit on, which doubled as retainment for the turret.

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With careful measurements the turret ring was centrally positioned. This was carefully trimmed to allow for elevation and depression of the main gun.

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However as, there was a small amount of play in the assembly, on testing, thus it did not mesh fully on some parts of the movement. Small plastic tabs were fitted to the deck, to push the ring against the motor.

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Also fitted at the same time was small amounts of plastic, to remove some of the upwards slack.

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A start was also made on the internal layout, with a large speaker box, and mount for the switches installed at the front. This had to allow for adjustments of the tracks.

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[Meter rat]

One thing I have found locally is a modelling group. Most are building plastic kits, and find someone building an RC tank, without the use of plans quite fascinating. This week I managed to build the spotlight for the gun mantel. This is a scratch build aid, as is a lot on this tank. Building this taxed my skills as the more I looked the more details became apparent.

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It was finally attached.

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This is how the model looks.

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And this is the end goal.

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It has been tested (played with) around the garden, and it performs very well.

[Panzermechaniker]

Nice. Even as a kid in the late 60's I was a fan of the Leopards and had a couple of models. I much prefer the earlier versions

[jhamm]

Hi,
the chains on the details look a bit too thick...
There are thinner ones, wich look better:

[Meter rat]

Hi,
the chains on the details look a bit too thick...
There are thinner ones, wich look better:

They will do for me. There will be a lot of inaccuracies, which can live with.

[Meter rat]

Spent two hours, replacing the Tamiya screws with 2mm bolts.

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Most of which will not even be seen.

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This is the final build for the lower hull, so all the bolts and screws have been installed with Tamiya red thread lock. Hopefully tomorrow, depending on weather, the lower hull, and rear panel will be in paint.