Das Werk 1/16 Leopard 2 A7V

[Merad]

Hey folks, first post here.  I got back into the hobby about 6 months ago and this is my first truly large scale build.  This is a newly released kit, I had it on preorder and it came in Thursday.  It's probably going to be an out of the box build, haven't seen any aftermarket available yet and the detail on the kit is so incredible that I'm not sure I could improve it much with my skills.  I'll be doing Bundeswehr markings - the only downside of building the Leo is that they're all basically identical (I read that they're painted by robots).

I'm now at the super fun track assembly step.  😅  Honestly it's not been too bad, about 2 hours Friday evening got all of the track pins off the sprue and cleaned up, another 2.5 hours last night got half of the track links off the sprue and about 1/4 of them assembled.  The tracks are so big that they go together easy!

 

Finally a few close ups of some of the amazing detail on the kit.  Pretty decent looking weld seams IMO, able beautifully crisp bolts and casting marks.

[FullArmor]

Hello. And welcome to this forum. 🤝

Nice to see this new kit build. And all 1/16 builds are very welcome👍

Those track reminds me about my 1/16 abrams build😬

[BlrwestSiR]

Welcome aboard! This is a kit I plan to get in the future so I'm glad to see one being built. Great to hear it's going together nicely. 

As for AM, there's a couple MG3 guns have been announced/released but that's it. 

Carl

[DocRob]

Another friend of heavy metal, welcome to LSM. Good to see you building the big Leo as the first one here.

Cheers Rob

[RalphSarc]

Oh wonderful another Dark Side enthusiast! Welcome and I look forward to following your build!

[belugawhaleman]

Looks like a great kil! Will follow and welcome to the forum😀

[KevinM]

Nice! I may have to one day breakdown and buy a 1/16 just for the heck of it.

[RalphSarc]

48 minutes ago, KevinM said:

Nice! I may have to one day breakdown and buy a 1/16 just for the heck of it.

I’ve started the Das Werk 1/16 Sd. Kfz..251/1 Aust.D German Halftrack. It has at the very least a million parts, lol!!!

[Merad]

1 hour ago, KevinM said:

Nice! I may have to one day breakdown and buy a 1/16 just for the heck of it.

I have a couple other 1/16 in my stash but this is the first I've actually built!  It's a fun change of pace from from working with "tiny" 1/32 or 1/35 parts 🤣

[Merad]

Tracks are complete.  I used an 80 grit sanding stick to scuff up the pads and took some random chunks out of them with a hobby blade.  I think looks overdone in the photo but it's more subtle in person and hopefully will be even more so after paint.

 

 

 

Rear panel of the body is together and on the chassis.  Probably can't tell at a glance but 30+ parts went into detailing it.

 

 

Working on the top of the body now, which gives us the chance to see just how big this big boy is going to be (Extra Thin for scale).

 

 

Last but not least the track support rollers got painted and clear coated with a touch of black wash.  I think I'm go ahead and start painting the tracks and road wheels since there is going to be so much painting to put on this thing.

 

[DocRob]

Very nice looking huge Leo, but wouldn´t it have been a bit easier to paint the tracks and rubber pads before assembling them? 

Cheers Rob

[Merad]

6 hours ago, DocRob said:

Very nice looking huge Leo, but wouldn´t it have been a bit easier to paint the tracks and rubber pads before assembling them? 

Possibly!  The track parts came on 4 large sprues, about 75 cm x 50 cm.  I have a large 30" (76 cm) Paasche spray booth, so they would've just barely fit.  The assembled tracks are about 1 m long but at least you can fold them up to work in sections.  This Leo is so big it's going to present more than one painting challenge.

Edit: The tracks aren't actually on the tank yet, in the first pic from my post I held the final link together with blu tack just to put them on and see how they look.  All of the wheels are also dry fit so I can take them off for painting.

[Merad]

On the topic of track painting, does anyone know what color the metal parts of the track would be from the factory?  The instructions say to paint them "rust", which definitely feels wrong.  This pic is the the best I've found where they aren't completely covered in dirt/mud.  I'm think that looks like NATO Green with a healthy amount of dust ground into it.

[DocRob]

13 minutes ago, Merad said:

On the topic of track painting, does anyone know what color the metal parts of the track would be from the factory?  The instructions say to paint them "rust", which definitely feels wrong.  This pic is the the best I've found where they aren't completely covered in dirt/mud.  I'm think that looks like NATO Green with a healthy amount of dust ground into it.

This pic is the best, I could find, it´s directly from the German Bundeswehr. If you click at the rear sprocket you get a close up.

Ausrüstung und Technik: Der Kampfpanzer Leopard 2

Cheers Rob