Pz 87 Leo of the Swiss Army

[Andre Meylan]

So, today the first batch of paint job started ... I used to work with a friend of mine who runs a car body paint and repair shop and he is familiar with all kinds of colour types and techniques we use in our hobby. We did some topten-Finishers at several Jet World Masters.

For today, I took all the parts from the floor assembly and prepaired them for priming and painting. We will use a thin 2K primer especially for alu and for steel, then paint the parts using RAL 6031 bronze green as a base coat and then coat it with 2K flat transparent coat. With these three layers, we can paint rather thin, thinner than with using 2K paint.

Photos will follow, I can hopefully pick the parts up later this week.

Cheers, Andre

[Chang]

Nice photos. Well done Andre.

Rgards,
Lerh Chang

[Andre Meylan]

Nice photos. Well done Andre.

Rgards,
Lerh Chang

Thank you very much Chang,

I am only happy once the parts are painted and I can continue ... tomorrow is the date with the Swiss Army for the photo shooting. Let me know should you have some more details that I should focus on.

Best regards, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

The big day happened today ... I went to have a sexy photo shooting with "mommy" ...!!!

My kit has now it's scale original. It's M+77301 and I managed to take about 300++ photos ... knowing that when it comes to one particular detail, I will kill myself not having gotten the right angle nor taken the measures ... but so far so good.

The head of the tank maintenance center and his staff were enormously helpful and I enjoyed my session. And, I learned alot ... and they were equally impressed about the 1/6 scale parts I brought with me ... next time, we will go for a ride in the real one !!!

The version of the M+77301 is in its original delivery status as 2A4 and did not show the various modifications just like the outside exhaust system ...

Even the Leopard is not an aged WWII tank, there is plenty of room for weathering effects now ...

Best regards, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

This morning, drilling all the vulcanized threads and cleaning the pads to glue and fasten with the track links ... alot of pieces !!!

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

What a productive Sunday ... all track links are done and the pads are fastened ... I did not count them yet but I have 3 spare links and some screws left ...

Best regards, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

Hi guys ... me again ... while taking the photo shooting of "mommy", I realized that the welds are some decades younger than the WWII aunts and it might be different to make them ... any thoughts on how to imitate those ?? (I have not done one so far ... it's my first tank)

Thank you so much for your assistance and best regards, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

... some parts are back from the painting ... let's start that built !!

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

Some more pics ... the outer side of the parts are being slightly sanded using Scotch Brite, since they will be repainted after all fasteners are hidden with 2K paste and sanded again for a smooth surface

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

Starting on the rollers ....

Good night, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

... further goes with the rollers ... I will be using Loctite 480 to glue the gums to the roller wheels ... the bearings are glued in using Loctite 638.

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

While we let this 638' dry, working a bit more through the build instructions ... starting with the bogie housings ... two in, everything smooth !!

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

After the 638 is dry, my bearings sit forever and still work as bearings (no spillover of Loctite!). I will now grease everything using a special wheel bearing grease with use for our large busses at the local company where I work. They go for 1 Million kilometers and more, so why can't I use it for my little Leopard ??

The room between the bearings is completed filled, as well as the inside (spacer) after I cleaned everything with brake cleaner and loctited the fastener into the axle.

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

The left side is complete ... still without rollers ... this will be a Sunday's work with the use of Loctite 480 for the first time in my modeller's life ... help me anyone ... by the way, I start to study the bolts and nuts used on my original ... they really use lock nuts, at least on the wheels ... this changes the plan a little ... having tried lock nuts here, which makes sense!

Cheers, Andre

[Andre Meylan]

mmmhhh ... the kit is well done ... but looking at the rollers underneath (sorry!) ... scale built is nearly impossible if one does not change everything from rollers to bumpers ... and I was not looking at other sections yet ... forget scale ???

I think so ... my intention was to build it "technically" inside (for the eye) without any scale paint inside or scale details ... now my conclusion is that I will just build it as the kit comes and use paint and details to come as close as possible ... but forget about scale built just like with the tracks and so on ... right ??? Any other thoughts ???

Best regards, Andre