Quoted Text
Right then, I suppose I ought to post a pic of my intended build! (Shamelessly scanned from the excellent Tankograd book on the Leopard 1 "Later Years"...) It's a shop tractor, basically a decent runner pulled from the scrapline of Leos, Gepards, and Marders scrapped in the early '90s when a sudden attack of peace broke out in the Cold War. Aside from removing the gun and tools the only major change was the addition of a beam to support the semi-permanent tow-bar mounted at the rear. I'll be using an Italeri kit (once I dig it out of storage, hence no "box" pic today), and doing a ton of corrective surgery to bring it up to date before "tractorizing" it. Tracks will be the Meng indy-links even though my previous use of them showed the connectors to be a tad fragile.
@Bob, those wheels are so typically extreme! Thought abouty making one ring & resin-casting the rest? Or is sanity no longer your thing? 
Can't wait to see the build unfold...
Tom.... I have to admit that I am getting to love the odd ball stuff even more than the gun tanks. This one is definitely one that I would love to do one of these days, so if you end up casing some parts let me know if copies will be available.
As for the wheel weights, they weren't to bad. The worst part was drilling out the large center hole. Part of my issue is that I don't have access to a decent 3D modeling program... used to use Rhino 3D and Autocad, but since I retired I can't touch them. Suggestions?
Speaking of the wheel weights, they are all finished and put aside for later...
Lots and lots of little Meng boltheads....
Got the rear plate pretty much done. Just need to do the new light boxes and the spare track.
Speaking of box shots... this is the 8 sprues out of the kit of 20 that I am using... And I have the right track on its way, so I am not even using the track. Although I do need to modify the sprockets to "look like" the ones from the PzH 2000.
Bob
,
Associate Editor
