W.I.P Tamiya Leopard 2 A6 - Part 1

Ok... I may be suffering from some restless model-building syndrome or something ( LOL ) as I keep building one after another. Well, I'm not complaining. My time in the UK is limited and I don't know when I will wind up nor how soon I can pick up the pace on my hobby so I guess it won't hurt to keep building while I still can.

Anyway, with the Lowe finished ( I just need to take photos of it, which will come soon I assure you ) and finally finished painting the infernal digital camo on the ZTD-05, I decided to unwind and start a new build. This time, I will be a building a lean,mean killing machine, one of the top MBT known as the Leopard2.

The kit was a gift from a dear friend, the name is Bret and goes by Mech Tech on our Mecha Lounge Forum. Thank you dear Bret for giving me this kit. It would have cost me nearly £40 if I have to buy one myself. As a sign of gratitude, I sent him a Zvezda T-90. He really loves it.

Well, no special introduction would be needed for this kit.

Here is the sprues and parts laid out for you guys -

Per Tamiya Standard, some of the parts are really simplified so I bought a set of Eduard PE.
Here is the set of P.E laid out -

Alright, lets get started -

The very first thing I did was put on a piece of Photo Etch part on the arm for the return roller -

Followed up by a complete attachment of the Suspension arms, shock absorbers and return rollers -

After ward, I moved on to putting some more pieces and photo etchs on the rear hull -

You can see those itty bitty P.E parts I put on the tow hooks. Here's a close up on one of them -

I decided to get rid of the kit supplied mud flap and put on the after market P.E.

Followed up by some more P.E on the front hull -

More P.E on the side of the sliding-driver-hatch

Some more P.E on what I believe are a storage for the Gun-cleaning rods -

More P.Es and other parts put on the front left -

Front right -

and this is how the entire nose looks like -

That's the Front hull taken care of Next update, I will try to finish the rear hull.

See ya next update

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WIP - 1/35 ZTD-05 AAAV - Part 3

Right guys. I got an update for this baby. Last time, I stopped at the turret. This time, I will be pushing myself to take extra care and make those workable flaps. Firstly, I put on the the hydraulic cylinders on the upper/front part of the main flap - 

and  followed that up with more cylinders on the lower/back part of the main flap -

Followed up those teeny tiny little hinges ( I believe they are called hinges ) on the lower/back where the upper/front will join - 

More of those teeny tiny parts that will be glued on to the main attachment points on the lower front chassis. I had to put down small strips of plastic to stop those bloody things from popping out from weight and stress. 

And these are the hinges on the upper/front which will be let the two flaps join -

Followed up with some kind of arms that will hold the rod on the hydraulic pistons -

The rods goes on with the arms closed off on each ends- 

A few number of curses flew by as the plastic that was supposed to be inserted all along the axis of the hinges broke. But I managed to salvaged the situation. WHEW.After making sure every glue is dry and the attachments are strong, I can now move the flaps -

I had a series of mini heart attack putting these flaps together. And this is the rear flap with its two main hydraulic rods ( the rear flap was easy to put up )-

I moved on the complete the turret. I had to put on yet more tiny pieces. I honestly have no idea what these are and putting them on was a pain in the back side... oy vey 

Right- 

Left - 

And then, I put on the turret basket, WHICH comes in one complete piece in  a separate sprue, nicely casted and easy to clean up-

And I put on various bibs and bobs throughout the turret and finished everything except the optics -

I also put on the secone PE engine grille and that finished up the hull -

Primed and the first colour laid down for my digital camo to come -

Boy, I am so dreading this digital camo. That's it for now, I will keep you guys updated. 

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Amusing Hobby 1/35 Lowe WIP - Part 5

Alright Gentleman.. time for an update. I do apologize for the delay between the updates as I was distracted by the Dicker Max, the tiger, the t-90 and many other family problems. 

I'm terribly sorry to leave you all hanging, IF you guys are looking forward to it. Let's get on with the update.

Last time, I stopped at the question if I should paint the tools in metallic colours. Well, I decided for it and I went ahead and painted them in a dark grey-ish metallic. 

As you can see from these pictures, I have also painted the turret, chipped and applied the decals.

As you can see from the turret front photo, I applied the barrel in grey. I read ( AND suggested ) that late war German tanks were applied in some kind of heat resistant lacquer which is a grey ( or dark grey ) colour. Having no idea what shade of grey exactly it is, I just went ahead a spray a grey I saw in front of me. 

The turret was suggested by my sister. Like the Chinese, we Burmese believe in numbers as well. I was going to pick a number ( I forgot which exactly ) that has some kind of connection with death and she said no and suggested me to pick '' 3 7 9 '' and I went with it. 

I have also finished painting the crew figures. Due to the bad lighting, I took two pictures ( with and without flash ) for each figure -
Here is the commander -

I made him a loader as I will be putting him next to the loader hatch -

This is the gunner -

I don't know what he would be - 

And I don't what is he either but he's a grumpy guy, that's no doubt LOL - 

and remember I bought a box of Great Wall hobby IR device? Here is how it look out of the box -

The box provided two options on how to put on the IR device AND provide enough parts to make two as well. I build two out of the box and scavenged the commander's IR device of the Trumpeter E-100 for the third one. Here they are - 

Here's the Driver IR device -

This is the Gunner's device -

And this is the Commander's - 

I still need to build a little hub for the wire and video feed ( if any ) to go into. I will do it later. I'm tired for now.

I also rusted up the exhaust - 

And here is how it looks minus the crew - 

Oh yeah, I also put on spilled fuel and oil stains on the wheels, the engine deck and other moving parts like the hatch. I forgot to take pictures of that. I will just show them on the finished product.

Well, that's it for now. I have bought Panzer Divisions decals and waiting for it before I finish this. I'm planning to put on the markings of the famous division my favourite general commended - The Ghost Division. Wish me luck with my research. 

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