Belgian JPK 120 tank destroyer
1
October 25, 2022Lower hull, still without suspension arms and idler wheel mounts. Light grey parts (mounts for return rollers and drive sprockets) are from a Leopard 2.2
October 25, 2022Kit front plate and crew hatches. These need to change because they don’t look like what you would want to have on an actual operational vehicle.3
October 25, 2022So I went and cut up a perfectly good, brand-new kit 🙂4
October 26, 2022Edges of hole in upper hull cleaned up, inner side walls added and the whole dry-fitted onto the lower hull.5
October 27, 2022Replacement glacis plate, with Takom details. More bits will be added later.6
October 29, 2022New roof cut from 0.75 mm plastic card, with Hobby Boss Leopard 2 hatch and Takom commander’s hatch that will now be for the driver.7
October 29, 2022Roof in place on hull, as well as Hobby Boss ice cleats in racks from a few thicknesses of plastic strip.8
October 29, 2022Reinforcements/supports on the inside of the roof to give something to glue the Takom hatch to, and have it at the right depth.9
October 31, 2022Moved the idler wheel arms and hydraulic cylinders forward, because the idler wheels hardly reached the bow plate with the original idlers, never mind the smaller Leopard 2 ones.10
November 5, 2022Panel lines and bolt heads on hull side filled.11
November 5, 2022Section cut from left roof so it can be rebuilt as a mirror image of on the right12
November 5, 20221 mm plastic card glued in place to form new roof.13
November 5, 2022Commander’s cupola made from Hobby Boss Leopard 2 parts, periscope heads from Asuka Shermans and plastic card and strip.14
November 6, 2022Handles on engine deck replaced by copper wire, and basics for hatch for autoloader built on left-hand side.15
November 6, 2022Upper and lower hull halves glued together.16
November 8, 2022Gun pods modified by cutting off the bit of pipe on the inside and then sawing a slot on both sides (very slightly narrower than the hole). This will let the pods click into place after painting, rather than having to be fitted before painting. I glued the pipe on the pivot on the hull instead, just far enough that it will be up against the gun pod.17
November 9, 2022Hull sides on, after painting under the roof overhang.18
November 9, 2022New left rear section, from plastic card and seams puttied shut. Obviously, that still needs sanding.19
November 9, 2022Axles of drive sprocket and return rollers lengthened by 0.5 mm with punched discs of plastic card. This is necessary because the Hobby Boss roadwheels and idler sit 0.5 mm further out than the kit’s wheels.20
November 9, 2022To fit the Leopard 2 wheels, I wrapped 0.5 mm copper wire around the Takom axles, which allows the Hobby Boss poly caps to grip the axles. The wire will be superglued in place, of course, to make sure the wheels won’t just come off.21
November 10, 2022And that’s all the axles with a copper-wire wrap.22
November 10, 2022Overview of the model as it is now. The gun pods, gun barrel and drive sprockets are still loose. At this point, I still need to fin a second Leopard 2 barrel …23
November 11, 2022Exhausts replaced by spares from a Dragon Kampfpanzer 70, because I don’t like the VT 1-2 ones and these are at least plausible. The tow hooks are from the Leopard 2A4 kit.24
November 13, 2022Bolt heads and lifting eyes on the crew compartment roof.25
November 13, 2022Tools from an Italeri Leopard 1 kit on the engine deck, and areas around autoloader hatches finished with panel lines and bolt heads.26
November 14, 2022Parts for tow cables: Hobby Boss eyes and copper wire (from an electrical cable) twisted together with a hand drill.27
November 14, 2022Cables cut to 13 cm long and eyes glued on.28
November 14, 2022Hooks and post installed on engine deck, for holding tow cables.29
November 16, 2022Gap between exhausts filled with a T-34 air intake grating and some plastic strip. The night-driving shield is from the Dragon KPz 70.30
November 16, 2022The gunner’s sight received optics from the etched fret in the Hobby Boss Leopard 2A4 kit (they’re not even used in that) plus a roof from plastic card with punched bolts.31
November 19, 2022Doors for the gunner’s optics added.32
November 19, 2022Tow cables installed on rear hull. I had to add an extra hook on the rear plate to keep them in place.33
November 19, 2022Doors and muzzles added to gun pods, to suggest coaxial machine guns.34
November 19, 2022Corrected direction of four of the tow cable hooks, because they weren’t working as I had envisioned they would. Now they look like they retain the cable much better.35
December 4, 2022Gun from the Hobby Boss Leopard 2A4 kit (front) and from another, donated by a fellow modeller.36
December 4, 2022Unfortunately, the second barrel is clearly thicker than the first 🙁37
December 4, 2022Compare this photo with the previous and it’s obvious that the barrel on the right-hand side of the vehicle is thicker than that on the left.38
December 4, 2022Solution: rebuild the part in front of the fume extractor from 5.5 mm and 4.8 mm plastic tube. The rear end of the donated barrel was also replaced by part of an Italeri Leopard 2 barrel (I only had that bit in my spares box, sawn off from the rest, else I would of course just have used the whole barrel).39
December 4, 2022… and the difference between the two is much less noticeable.40
December 11, 2022Smoke launchers on the front plate, from the Italeri Leopard 1 kit with a scratchbuilt base.41
December 11, 2022One track complete (73 links, which gives the same length as the kit tracks), and parts for the other.42
December 16, 2022Leopard Workshop MAG machine gun for the commander’s hatch.43
December 18, 2022The (nearly) complete model. I forgot to add the rearview mirrors before taking the photo, but other than that, construction is done.44
December 23, 2022Model sprayed the wrong colour, caused by Vallejo labelling a bottle “yellow olive RAL6015” when YELLOW olive (the right colour for German post-war AFVs) is 6014 …45
December 24, 2022Now in a better colour, Mr. Aqueous Olive Drab (1).46
March 1, 2023Panel highlights sprayed with Mig Gelboliv lightened with some Hataka MRG Stone.47
April 16, 2023Black rectangles for unit markings masked off and hand-painted. I still need to apply suitable numbers.48
April 16, 202316 Armoured Division decals from the Italeri M108 kit have a black-and-white shield, but it should be red-and-white. I painted out the black with sand and then put red over that — completed on the left, still sand only on the right. The sand is necessary because red alone won’t cover the black: you’ll be hard-pressed to see you’ve painted anything at all.49
April 16, 2023Wheels and tracks painted.50
April 16, 2023Tow cables painted on the rear, with GW Boltgun Metal and Tankya Sm51
April 19, 2023Part of the markings applied. The registration number is from the old Italeri M108 but cut up to give 97559 instead of 59597. The 16 Armoured Division shield is from the same kit, but with red paint added to correct the part of the badge that was erroneously printed in black. The bridge classification of 44 is from the Italeri Leopard 1A2 kit52
April 19, 2023Markings on the hull rear, much the same as on the front. I had to put matt varnish over all of them after taking these photos because they don’t really want to stick well to the model.53
May 4, 2023Markings now finished with 024 made (four times) using numbers cut from a very old decal sheet from the Italeri 1:35 Willys jeep kit.54
May 4, 2023The figure is from Hobby Fan, intended for the Belgian AIFV kit. My painting skills do not stand up well to close photography 🙂55
May 7, 2023Model given a wash of thinned-down Revell dark earth acrylic paint.56
May 7, 2023The wheels won’t fit over the axles I thickened with copper wire 🙁 It needs to be replaced with thinner, as shown in the photo: original on the left, thinner on the right (not as neatly wound because there’s hardly any room to work).57
May 7, 2023I had moved the idler mounts forward, but did that too far, so there’s no room for the track between idler and mudguard 🙁58
May 7, 2023I drilled through the idler arm and hull side, then sawed through the piston rod and carefully broke off the arm from the hull.59
May 7, 2023I could then glue brass rod into the arms so I can reposition them slightly more angled down.60
May 8, 2023Wheels and tracks installed, which was a bit of a struggle but they’re on now.61
May 8, 2023The tracks had to be shortened by a link because they were too loose. Luckily, this is easy enough to do with workable tracks.62
May 8, 2023I replaced the mirror stays with 0.5 mm brass rod, glued into holes drilled front to back through the brackets. This was mostly because the plastic parts had broken off, but they’re also closer to scale.63
May 11, 2023… and we’re done!64
May 11, 202365
May 11, 202366
May 11, 202367
May 11, 202368
May 11, 202369
May 11, 202370
May 11, 2023
Komentáře
35 25 October 2022, 11:51
![](/profiles/img/66321-723-s.png)
Thanks 🙂 I try to do "what if" models more realistically than just slapping on in-service markings and some stowage, and IMHO, that usually makes them more interesting almost automatically.
28 October 2022, 08:43
![](/profiles/img/48972-166-s.jpg)
That's true, Jakko 😉 I will follow your project with interest and pleasure 😉
8 November 2022, 17:01
![](/profiles/img/66321-723-s.png)
Cool 🙂 I hope you like what it'll end up looking like … not that that's completely set in stone yet, though 🙂
8 November 2022, 18:23
![](/profiles/img/48972-166-s.jpg)
Quite a professional reconstruction is going on here... looks really good!
4 December 2022, 17:11
Album info
A "what if" version of the VT 1-2 testbed, as it might have been had it gone into production.