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Revell 1/35 Leopard 1; Full Build Review
Topic Started: Dec 28 2015, 05:52 PM (674 Views)
Disorder
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Lt Paddy 'Chancer' Boyle
Posted Image

I've been looking forward to making a start on this. I'm off work to the 4th of Jan, so plenty of time to work on it.

First up was the lower hull assembly. It is made of four separate parts - bottom, rear and two sides.
To be honest, I prefer the lower hull supplied as a tub, with maybe just the rear to add.
It took a bit of filing to get the parts to sit properly, but a few small gaps remained. Nothing major and they'll be easy to fill.

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Assembled lower hull and wheels:
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Pay attention when adding the suspension arms, as they are numbered. This applies to the return rollers as well, as there are two types of these.

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Next is the upper hull. The fit of this is very good. You have a choice of side panels, depending on which version you want to build. (I'm building the Batch 2 Bundeswehr version). These are not so good a join. Fortunately, the rear seam is covered by the radiator grills and the top seam has a separate fillet piece that helps cover it.
Before fixing the upper hull, you have a to add the drivers vision blocks. These are supplied as plain styrene, which is a shame when they could have been supplied as transparent pieces instead.
As this is a build review, I'm building OOB, but I'd recommend you fill the vision blocks with Micro Kristal Klear or the likes.

Edited by Disorder, Dec 28 2015, 06:24 PM.
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Mark M
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Hawk T1
Good start mate
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Cimmerian
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Lt. Ken 'Albatros' Jeffrey
Good start. At the moment I still want one. :grin:
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Olde Farte
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Lt. Derek 'Smurfy' Reeve
Looks good so far Paddy, I love your tank thingies.
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Disorder
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Lt Paddy 'Chancer' Boyle
Thanks guys.

I filled and sanded the joints on the side and added the remaining parts of the upper hull (minus pioneer tools cables etc)
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The front headlights are a little tricky. They consist of four parts each including the brackets.
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Moving onto the turret. This kit is marked as a level 4 (out of 5) for difficulty and assembling the turret basket confirms that!
The basket consists of the back (including the integrated searchlight storage box), two side pieces and two bottom pieces.
Make sure each piece dries before trying to add the next.
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The side pieces seemed to be a little short, as they didn't reach the locating points on the turret.
All other parts lined up and located properly, but maybe it was just this kit.
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The smoke discharges are another tricky bit. Again the locating points are pretty minimal.

You are given the choice of open or closed rangefinder covers (The little bumps on either side of the turret) But the joint is pretty bad
I ended up closing them so I actually had something to fix them to.
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One minor drawback with this kit are the seam lines prevalent on most parts. Cleaning up the small pieces was a bit of a pain, but necessary as they'd stand out like a sore thumb when painted.

99% complete. I didn't add the rear view mirrors yet either, They wouldn't last five minutes during painting!
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Next up - Paint :grin:




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Mark M
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Hawk T1
interesting to see the poor fit and seam lines, certainly not Revells usual standard
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Jonesy113
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Nick 'Token' Jones
:pop

Coming on nicely although doesn't seem to be without issue.
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Disorder
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Lt Paddy 'Chancer' Boyle
Mark M
Dec 29 2015, 09:51 PM
interesting to see the poor fit and seam lines, certainly not Revells usual standard
The seam lines on the side panels could have been so easily dealt with if Revell had extended the interchangeable pieces to reach the front angled panel. Meaning the joint would have been on a natural seam. Having said that, the filler makes it look worse than it is, I just wanted a smooth finish along the side.
As I mentioned, it is a level 4 kit and definitely not a shake and bake. But we are looking at probably the best kit of an early Leo 1 on the market.

Thanks for looking in guys.
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Nikon User
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"BEAVER"
One of the good things about tank/AFV models is that as a constructor, you can get away with murder with regard to the joins. Having worked around armour in the distant past, I'd be surprised if any two vehicles are the same and some of the joins on the real items were horrendously rough & ready!

It looks really good.
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Olde Farte
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Lt. Derek 'Smurfy' Reeve
Looking good, that texture on the thingies turret looks to be as it comes from the casting, most realistic.
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Disorder
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Lt Paddy 'Chancer' Boyle
Cheers, Guys :grin:
And yes Nigel, thats why I always liked AFV modelling - You can easily pass off your mistakes as battle damage :whistle :grin:

Before painting I had to fill the seam on the rangefinders, which come as three parts, including the part moulded onto the turret.
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Revell recommend Gelboliv as the main colour. Its their match for post war Bundeswehr vehicles. I thought I'd struck lucky as I have a container of it from the Revell Aqua range. Unfortunately it had sat that long it had turned to gloop.
To be honest, I always thought olive drab was a good match and while the Vallejo OD is rather dark, Tamiya OD came to the rescue as its about a 98% match!!!

So here it is after a base coat of AK primer and two coats of Tamiya OD:
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This is turning out to be one of the coolest looking tanks I've built :grin:
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Mark M
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Hawk T1
:cool
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tc2324
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LCDR Tony `Banana's` Clay
:cool
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Cimmerian
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Lt. Ken 'Albatros' Jeffrey
Looking good.
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Olde Farte
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Lt. Derek 'Smurfy' Reeve
:cool
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