Leopard 2 A6 Full Option Build.

[Nigelr32]

Hi all,

I am totally new to your forum and pretty new to 1/16 R/C modelling, though I have been building scale models for 44 years!! I thought I would put my Leopard build up here just in case any newbies would like to see just how one of these masteriece models goes together?

Here's my little collection of kits bought over the last few months..



The Tiger was second hand off a trader at a show. The Sherman was a very good deal from Tankzone at £399 delivered with a free Tamiya CD Rom thrown in. The Pershing was bought through Ebay, and the Leopard was from the same guy who just wanted it out of the way.

Anyway, on with the build, which starts with the very fun to put together Gearbox.

The Centre Diff parts..



Built up..



Side Diffs in parts, there's two sets of these parts...



Built up..



Now we move on to the mainshaft..



Built up..



Next comes the layshaft...



Note a small mod I've done after watching a video clip on Youtube. the author is Dodoslovensko. He has put many many videos up, all about his Leopard. He managed to destroy his side gears, MG8. If you look closely, you can see that I've put some epoxy in the slots, making the three ribs into one large flat area.



Thankyou very much Dodoslovensko!!

Anyway, back to my model... the layshaft built up...



Here's the lower half of the gearbox built up.. i really do enjoy building these Tamiya kits!!



And here's the gearbox built with motors installed. I actually dry fitted the motors before laying the top half on. tamiya recommend a pinion setting of 14mm from the casing face, but one of them needed to be set at nearly 16m,m to get full mesh with the spur gears.

[Nigelr32]

Next, we move on to the output shafts. The sprockets will bolt to these shafts eventually.

The parts...



Built..



You may have noticed i have been using ball bearing races up to now, these are supplied with the kit. However, from now on, Tamiya would have you use the phosphor bronze bushes.

You can see the bushes here, on the left. On the right you can see the bearings I have bought from Ebay.



The wheels are next up in the instructions, and they can be seen here less tyres...



I've been using superglue on the bearings outer races to prevent them from spinning in the plastic parts.

One more point... the wheels and hull are made of ABS and normal plastic cement will not work on it. I have discovered a liquid glue that does work.. Plastic-weld, available from Little-cars.com in the UK.

Thanks for looking. I'm loving this build, and hope to have daily updates for quite a while...

Nige

[lister fiend]

thanks for the post nige.
jeebers!, all my tanks are henglongs & i never really paid that much attension to the tamiyas
but i can't believe how much there is to them in comparrison
still, i like my nuts in the bag there supposed to be in
so guess i'll just have to keep dreaming
keep us posted on your build progress please.
cheers
lister

[forgebear]

hi nigel
hope you don't mind but before you go to far in the build you may want to do some of the bits here
I know that the suspension arms are a weak point on the leo I have change all mine to metal
link
http://www.afv-model.com/4711shop/index.php?cPath=2_4_8

dave

[Nigelr32]

Hi Dave,

Of course I don't mind you mentioning the upgrade parts, I joined a forum for advice, and I'd be pretty stupid if I didn't take that advice!! I've just ordered a set of metal arms and the upgraded idler adjuster set. I think Tankzone were cheapest and they have stock.

I wasn't going to change them, but it appears that everyone has issues with them??

Thanks again

Nige

[forgebear]

your welcome bud sorry to make you spend more money but in the long run it will pay you back
dave

[forgebear]

i am not sure but i have had some in that i got second hand trade ins that the arms have split round the axle on the top of the arm that fits in the body they tend to go brittle after a while and i dont know why

[ruben2005]

hello , i am with eastern front my arms are oe and my leo goes round the garden up rocks and all is fine have i just cursed my leo . very nice build great to see new blood build tamiya

[tomhugill]

I'll be honest I'd leave the plastic ones, just don't over tighten then and they'll be fine. If you do end up breaking one go metal. Worst case you've lost nothing, best you've saved sixty quid.

[Nigelr32]

I'll be honest I'd leave the plastic ones, just don't over tighten then and they'll be fine. If you do end up breaking one go metal. Worst case you've lost nothing, best you've saved sixty quid.

It's a bit late now, I've ordered them!! It seemed that everyone on all the forums say it's a necessary upgrade, but now it seems they may not be at all?

Anyway, at the end of the day, if they don't come in a couple of days, I'll sell em on Ebay!!

Nige