Reference Number: 03180
Review by: Geoff Coughlin (Feb 2012)
Thanks to Revell for supplying our review sample.
Background
The German Army has been equipped with the Leopard 2A6 since 2001. As an improvement over the Leopard 2A5, it had a gun (L55) that was 1.3 metres longer and, combined with new munitions, is widely regarded as the most powerful in the world.
Only three years later, the Leopard 2A6M with improved anti-mine protection was delivered to the German Army. Of the 225 Leopard 2A6s, 70 received this additional protection. This gave that force a vehicle that was based on the highly successful Leopard 2 family.
Despite its age (the first Leopard was delivered in 1979), the Leopard 2 is still a model in great demand, with 16 nations using the type.
Initial Assessment
Moulding quality is to a high standard, with very fine levels of detail across the board. The images within this review should speak for themselves and you can decide what you think, especially as armour is probably your area.
The Package
Five sprues moulded in dark green plastic form the basis of the model, a set of instructions and small decal sheet make up the package.
Click on the thumbnails below to the enlarge the images and see for yourself!
Sprue Trees
You can see above that the hull top is very clean and crisp, as is just about everything else.
The detail is cleanly and accurately moulded onto the textured surface. It will look excellent when spraypainted and given a subtle wash and maybe filters (see your Techniques Bank for how to apply these weathering techniques) in keeping with the small scale.
The moulded detail throughout is good and, although I can’t give an opinion on accuracy, what you get certainly looks consistent with some of the images I have seen around the internet.
The fact that the few vehicle tools are provided moulded into the chassis might not please everyone, but remember that this is 1:72 scale and a subtle wash should create a sufficient demarcation between the two to look convincing.
Other highlights include…
The detail on the hull top, track links and one-piece gun barrel – the latter being easy to drill out with a pin vice hand held drill and bit.
There are some ejector pin mould-release circles left during the making of the kit, but these are well placed in out of the way or hidden locations – nice touch. The engine grills look fine for the scale and I can just see that they will look good after a wash and dry-brush (again, see your Techniques Bank for how to dry-brush).
The tracks are broken down into small sections that should allow you to pose them fairly naturally. In fact, if you add the side skirts then much of the track section along the upper run will be invisible, so what’s provided looks to be just fine in 1:72 scale.
There’s no flash or excess plastic on any of the parts, so this will help build time greatly.
Decals
There’s a small sheet with the respective number plates and unit badges for the options contained in the kit.
I notice that, while the quality looks good overall, the yellow is slightly out or register which is disappointing. Having said that, the markings can be carefully cut around the German flag (for example) to remedy this error.
Versions are:
- Leopard 2A6, PzBtl 104 Pfreimd, 2008
- Leopard 2A6M, PzBtl 203 Augustdorf, 2010
- Leopard 2A6, PzBtl 33 Neustadt a.R., 2007
- Leopard 2A6M, PzTrS / AusbZ Munster, 2007/10
Instructions
These follow the usual Revell format, with Revell colour references, parts and sprue layout diagrams followed by a 41-Stage build (no less) and finishing sequence.
The sequence looks to be logical to me, but of course you will want to leave off all the small, delicate parts like the aerial until near the end of the build to avoid damage.
In Summary…
Well, I really like this well detailed little kit. The last time I built an armour kit in this scale was when I was about 7 and, looking at this, it might just be time to get re-acquainted with the scale.
FEATURE STAR RATING (out of five)
Quality of moulding ****
Accuracy ****
Instructions ***
Decals ***
Subject choice ****
Overall ****
Geoff C.