Leopard 2 Prototype

[Fabian Bekkers]

Oh yes that's super news I love it

[Markus Beer]

Hello Kian

I think your decision is very good and I am pleased about it. I am very happy to accept the waiting time.

Best regards

Markus

[Mark Heaps]

I applaud the decision by Armortek !!
No doubt costly to rectify at this stage, and I understand how annoying & frustrating for them it must be to have the discrepancy identified at this stage of the production.
My understanding of the term prototype is an initial model used to do one or more of the following - proof of concept, gauge interest in the possible customer base, identify faults and correct them, identify methods to streamline the production process thereby reducing costs - all done before starting on the production run.
I would be very surprised if there was a Western nation armoured vehicle in use in the last 40 years that no forum member had actually served on, and would gladly provide constructive input during the prototyping process. They are the ones most likely to purchase the finished product.

[John Clarke]

Good news indeed, your right Mark, those that have worked with the equipment will have had the training and actual hands on experience on these beautiful machines. Who better would be in a position of knowledge of the workings and operation than the actual owner / loaner for that period of service.
I do think that idea of Kian putting the L11 A5 on the original line drawing wasn't a bad mistake.
There's nothing wrong with being able to lob HESH with accuracy. Banned now to the history books with the latest Challenger 3 I suppose.
Hopefully we'll be seeing some thicker British armor on the Leopard 2 with the mods too. 3mm frontal plate, surely not.
Otherwise, sorry lads, it's a Leo 1

[Chang]

Very glad to read that Armortek's decision to fix the Idler wheel's size issue. Believe every enthusiastic Leo 2 modeller feels the same , and accepts any possible delay.

Regards,
Lerh Chang

[Mark Heaps]

those that have worked with the equipment will have had the training and actual hands on experience on these beautiful machines. Who better would be in a position of knowledge of the workings and operation than the actual owner / loaner for that period of service.

I was not meaning knowledge of the workings and operation, or the training on how to maintain it and use it they had recieved. I was meaning the actual hands-on experience, years around them, weeks, even months, on end living in, on and around them on exercises ( maneuvers) or operational deployments.
Those people could just glance at a prototype or model, and it will appear either right or wrong. If wrong, they may not be able to say straight away what is wrong with it but they will know it is just wrong. Their eyes will be continually drawn back to the area of the discrepancy untill they do identify it and can provide feedback about what it is, and provide proof. Their familiarity with the vehicle will spot errors that no normal museum visitor or history buff would notice.
Armortek could then use this feedback during the prototyping stage and assess whether it is something that needs to be corrected before the production run starts, or if it is something trivial that they are willing to accept.

[Kristoffer Persson]

[Armortek]

A few pictures from today:

[Armortek]

[Armortek]

[Armortek]

Shipping date is getting closer - although we still have a lot of packing to do.

New batteries are on order for the leopard and once they arrive we will get some more footage of the tank running.

[David Brady]

Looks lovely, well done Armortek! ...would be good to see a size comparison with a Tiger 1

Cheers

[Fabian Bekkers]

Wowwie heads off this looks awesome super armortek team cannot wait to start building

[JesseGuthritsch]

Man I am getting pumped! I keep showing my wife all the updates, like a little kid window shopping and im pretty sure this will be my new obsession/hobby.

I gave up on converting my Leopard to a Gepard (that's next project now) but I need something a little extra to keep my ADHD mind in check and motivated. I was thinking about making a fireable armor piercing discarding sabot version. Ill probaly make it a manually breach loaded airgun for saftey. I even have some perfecty sized 99.95% tugsten rods laying around that I could turn down to make the sabot. And I would only be using this in the deep woods while I stand behind my PC blast shield and I'll be sure to tune the air pressure so it can't penitrate too much.

On another side note, anyone else got plans for workable smoke screen launchers? The tubes on the armortek pictures look like this model is begging for a smoke grenade firework with a small pyrotechnic laucher in each tube.

[Alex Easten]

Any chance of a video of the prototype running with its turret, folks?

Cheers!
Alex