Hobbyboss Leopard 2A4 – A ‘perfect’ cure for AMS ??
Last year I finally gave-in to my 'need' for a 1:35 Leopard tank, and bought the superb TAKOM 1A5 kit... Upon opening it I very quickly realised that my limited abilities simply were't up to the task of painstakingly assembling 712 pieces of individual tracks, so reluctantly I sold it to someone who has far more time and patience than I, and bought this Hobbyboss 2A4 kit for just £10.50GBP off an eBay seller based in China.
Within three days of it arriving, it was on the bench and just a hair over three weeks later here it is done. All Tamiya acrylics, mixed and lightened as suggested by Spencer Pollard in his 'How to Build...' book from a couple of years back. Weathering limited to just a little dry-brushing, an 'oil dot' wash and some light dusting with MIG pigments (European Dust). The (Spanish) decals were courtesy of a good friend in Holland, and come from the RoG Leo kit, as did the camouflage pattern.
The details are soft, there's a mass of mould release marks, the wheels are at best described as 'round' and the tracks are toy-like, however I've really wanted a Leopard tank in the cabinet for as long as I've been modelling, so... I thouroughly enjoyed every minute of this build and the answer to the question in the title, "A 'perfect' cure for AMS ?" - in my case, a resounding YES !
Looks great !
Ian, never say die! You can always go back and get another Tacom, now that you've pulled the trigger on this one. Them tracks would have put me off, too.
Nice job on this.
Maybe you could "farm out" the tracks to some really focused individual?
712 individual track parts...?! I'm with you, Ian... I'll pass. 🙁
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
Nice work on that one.
One thing I've accepted about manufacturers' blurbs re big parts' count, is that with armour kits the tracks make up at least a third if not half the parts' total. Best to ignore a high count and look closer at the detail. As you mentioned, the Takom is a great kit, certainly better than the HB, but the latter kit still offers scope to test your skills with camo and general armour construction.
My personal choice is Meng Models for the Leopard, as they have a nice range, the detailing is superb, and the cost is around £30 - a bit more than HB but worth every penny.
From the skills on show here it looks like you could tackle another genre subject with confidence. In my view almost all armour subjects benefit from a vignette setting rather than a static bench shot, so maybe a terrain display would give it even more 'punch'.
Nice effort, and good to see a Cold War armour subject for a change.
Thanks Rob (et al).
Interesting you say that about the Meng kit - Based upon how much I enjoyed this Leo, I plan on buying the Meng 1A3/4 to build/finish in the overall dark green as a 'counterpoint' to this one.
If you have a quick look in the AFV/Armour section you'll see a Hobbyboss V100 that I've almost finished. Already made the (Vietnam) groundwork for that one to give it some context - No Verlinden buddha's will be included...
Ian.
I like it a lot Ian. The armour aficianados might be able to spot the HB kit's shortcomings, but to me it looks like a very well put together Leopard.
great work on this, I especially like the finish and weathering. Question: Did the antennas come with the kit?
No Ralph, simply stretched sprue. The mounts for the antennas have the tiniest diameter though, I used a palm-drill and my two finest 'bits'; it took an age to tunnel down enough to sit the 'aerials' inside without flopping over !
Ian.
Takom tracks look daunting, but its not so bad. Take two boxes in front of the TV or a PC and watch a show that doesn
t need your full attention and just cut the pieces away from the sprue. Next day take a big ole file and clean up the pieces and your ready to assemble-here it`s easy as it just clicks into place. Whistling the tune from the Bridge on the river Kwai is a must...wish I'd known that before I sold the kit !
Ian.
A very nice Leopard, Hobby Boss Leopartd series can t compete with Meng and Takom, but for a good price, the modeller have an easy to build and well detailed kit on the bench.
Trumpeter offers single track links for the Leopard 2 series, with the nummer 02039 .
There is a HB Leopard 2A5 from the danish army on my bench, its fun to build and straight forward so far.
Lovely paint job & weathering, Ian. Nice one! I'm intrigued by this Takom kit; new to kit builds so will check it out. I was impressed with Tamiya - you guys mean there's more? (Mind you... the tracks...)
More ? - Oh h*ll yes !
Steve I'm not an armour modeller, but just now I'm in a wee bit of slump with my aircraft builds, so when I did feel like going to the bench again, I pulled out two kits from the 'Shelf of Forgetfulness' and this Leo was an 'impulse buy'.
I simply don't have the skills, time or patience for some of the current generation of 'Ultra (AFV) kits' coming from the likes of Tasca, Takom, Meng and the like, (that's modelling on a whole new level and TBH I'll never be at that level), however it shouldn't stop you or anybody striving to reach that level, have fun, enjoy the hobby and just go for it !
Ian. .
Great looking tank, very nicely weathered also!