Bundeswehr Leopard 2A5

Moritz Fentzahn
I started this kit two years ago and laid it beside because of some gaps and the necessary filling and sandig.
A couple of weeks ago i grabbed the kit again and here I am now.
The main assembly is done, just some scratchwork to do, begore I can start painting.
Except the filling and some poor details (handles, stowing baskets, lenses) the Revell Leopard is a nice and cheap kit.

Moritz Fentzahn
Todays progress was scratchbuilding the DARKAS with sheet and a PE Set from Voyager. Turned out ok in my eyes.
Next I have to spend some time on the stowage baskets. I will replace the cable hooks (because of low details) before I can disassemble the tank in its groups and start painting.
I will keep you posted

Simon Nagorsnik
good looking dio base! -nice work!
the rubber traces on the concrete and the tar joints are an eye catcher, also the vegitation looks quite real
wait for the results of the tank 👍

Bruce Huxtable
Loving the tiny chains too 👍 Soo glad you are back on this, as this is a stunning piece of real estate already 👍🙂 Now I will do my homework and find out what DARKAS is 🙂

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx mates.
@Bruce I can help. It's a tool for practicing and imitating a shot from the main gun in german DARstellung KanonenAbSchuss

James C
Looking good and watching 👍

Bruce Huxtable
Ah ha, thanks Moritz.

Michael Kohl
great work on the concrete slabs. Anxious to see the tank being painted.

Moritz Fentzahn
James, Michael welcome aboard mates. Thx for your keen interest

Christian Bruer
Count me in Moritz, anyhow it will need some more two years to finish 😄
P.S. I know what I am talking about because of my delaying projects

Dietmar Bogatzki
Nice base and great detailing 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Welcome Christian and Dietmar
@ Christian
That is my cryptonite 😉 but I hope to finish this one straight in the next weeks. Wish me luck

Christian Bruer
Hahaha, I have also a lot of this cryptonite 😄

Moritz Fentzahn
Last update before disassembling and painting.
I finished the build, with the last details and scratching the frames of the stowage baskets. Way better than the kit part.
I hope you can enjoy the pics. Wish me luck for the painting.
Cheers and enjoy your weekend

Jean-Michel Tilquin
Looks promising, Moritz; I like the base anyway!

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx Jean-Michel.
A little Update, I finished the basic paintjob using ak Real Color on black primer with white highlights.
Next some more decals and detailpainting

Michael Kohl
Nice progress. How did you like the Real Color colors? As far as you can judge from the pics, the colors look pretty spot on for NATO 3-tone.

Ingo F
Looks realy good mate! 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thank you mates,
@Michael
The colors are nice to use, you just need to dilute them , but they ran without any problems through my airbrush with a 0,2 needle

Michael Kohl
Hi Moritz, thanx for the info. Did you use the original thinner or something from your shelf?

Moritz Fentzahn
Hi, I used the original thinner, worked very well in a 1/8 dilution

James C
Nice job on the camouflage 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thank you James.
A little sunday afternoon update, i finished the detail painting, painted a light chipping, scratched a broom and covered everything with a coat of varnish. Next step weathering, starting with a pinwash and some dust applications.
Cheers

Bruce Huxtable
Yes, let's just knock out a house-hold broom 🙂 Quircky extras making all the difference 🙂

Michael Kohl
The broom is a cool idea. How did you make it?

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx mates,
@Michael it is a down-sanded toothpick and a bit of balsawood for the handle. Then I painted the top of a brush with red color, added superglue to the balsawood and fixed the bristles before I cut them from the brush in the required length

Patrick Hagelstein
That's a real cool idea! And it looks extremely realistic!

Simon Nagorsnik
a very good idea with the broom, nice gimmick 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thanks Patrick and Simon

Moritz Fentzahn
A little progress here, I scratched the Miles II Training Laser System. Took me 5 hours. After painting this, I finally can start the weathering.

Simon Nagorsnik
Good build! It's a top work👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thank you Simon, much appreciated

Patrick Hagelstein
Ooh! That MILES II looks awesome! 👍

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Looking great! 👍

Kim Branders
Love the vignet and the tank. Very nice so far Moritz.

Dietmar Bogatzki
Beatifull training equipment, moritz 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Patrick, WhiteGlint, Kim, Dietmar - thanks a lot for your encouraging words.

Today I started the weathering with a lot of pigments and enamels before I put on the tracks.
Last 10% of weathering to be done, before I can add it to his base. Maybe I can celebrate the final roll out before Christmas.
Looking forward to your comments and critics.
Cheers

James C
Nice and subtle dirt and dust build up 👍

Michael Kohl
I like the A6 with the long barrel a bit better, but you build a very nice A5. Thumbs up.

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx James.
@ Michael I like the 2A6 too and will go for the new RFM Kit

Simon Nagorsnik
Nice dirt effects!, can't wait to see it placed in your dio!
Like the 2a6 too and have one 72' in stock, just looking for a good time to start😁

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx Simon,
I will add the last mud spots and the antennas later. After this I can fix him to the base and finish the groundwork.
Too bad that I am out of arguments not to paint the figures very soon. I am a little bit afraid of the Flecktarn pattern

Bruce Huxtable
Liking the way your subtle touch is bringing it all to life 🙂 Don't rush the figures, we're all enjoying the landscape you've created, and it'll be nice to see the beast in its environment 🙂

Michael Kohl
Hi Moritz, there are quite a few figure painting tutorials out there. "Nightshift" might be a start. Most of it is technique and practice. So, let´s start!

Patrick Hagelstein
Indeed! Uncle Nightshift isn't a figure painter persé, but has easy to follow steps that will get you to great results. And about Flecktarn; stipple, stipple, stipple… 😉

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx mates for those hints, i will search for those videos.

Tonight I finished the tank with some last touch ups. I fixed it to the base, after this is dry I can finish the groundwork and start the figures.
Looking forward to your comments and critics
Cheers

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Can't critize much, Moritz. 🙂
It's a great Leopard, nicely weathered with cool little details, like the broom.
The base looks also very promising and I think I can take some inspiration from it.
Looking forward to the crew. 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thank you mate

Ingo F
Looks awesome mate. Love this subtle weathering. 👍

Bruce Huxtable
It's just getting better and better 🙂 Superb in every way, Moritz. It really sits well in the landscape you created - heavy and dominating!

Moritz Fentzahn
Ingo, Bruce thank you mates, much appreciated.
@ Bruce yes this is really a huge tank in relation to world war two tanks. I started the assembly of Meng's PZH 2000 today that will come out even more heavy 😉

Christian Bruer
Looks great, excellent work and finish Moritz 👍

scalemates
very nice!

Nick Hunt
Hi Moritz, the tank is fabulous and the groundwork simply stunning!

James C
Both the tank and base look exceptionally good mate.
Looking forward to see what you do with the figures 👍

Ricardo Reis
Very nice, love this! 👍

Jan Peters
Very nice, great base too👍🏻

Viking93
Super realistic Leo, looks great. You should just change the yellow flag to a green or red one. Yellow means the tank is broken and out of order. Green flag shows a secured tank without ammo in the chamber and a red flag means ready to fire which would fit best here best bc it looks just like a tank driving on the shooting range.

Moritz Fentzahn
Mates, thx for your keen and encouraging comments, I am totally happy about your feedback.
@Viking93 thx for this hint, I stumbled across the meaning of those flags this morning and thought the whole day about it and if I should change the color. While painting I thought those flags are for different „teams" during exercises because I saw pictures of different colors. Now I know better. I will repaint the flag in the next session.

Michael Kohl
Hi Moritz, you definitely have to redo the flag, as - thanks to Viking93 - now we know the meaning of the flags too. 😉

Moritz Fentzahn
No worry Michael, the flag is already red and the figures got their primer and basic colorcoat. Next Update on the weekend

Michael Kohl
Tip Top. If the figs are only as half as good as what we saw so far they will complement you dio very nicely. Crossing my fingers.

Dominik Weitzer
Looks awesome - like a real deal!
Good to see, that the wrong color of the flag is pointed out.

to make the colors complete - they have different meanings:
red on the range: "ready to shoot"
green on the range: "unloaded"
-> on the range doesn't matter if vehicles or soldiers in their trench - always the same significance. at night with changing colorlenses on the torch

on convoys:
blue marks a vehicle in the convoy. every one. except the last,
green marks the last vehicle from a convoy
yellow means broke down vehicle (like the hazard-lights)

if the broken vehicle is in tow:
yellow the operating, towing vehicle
red the broke down vehicle in tow

😉

Dominik Weitzer
ah, and another "good to know":
the red cross means enemy ("bad boy"), if a vehicle has a white cross = good boy (mostly logistics in the background 😉 )

Viking93
i just know the white cross for referees and supervision so they don´t count as part of the training. The blue team has normally no markings and the enemy red team the red cross.

To make your list complete Dominik,

the leaders vehicle on the convoy has a black and white flag

if somebody wants to build a Puma on the range, it is the only vehicle which has its own lights in green and red so it doesn´t need the flags.

When there is no real ammo in the training, the flags are used for dismounted personal for many different things e.g. to mark the different platoons in the forest fight formation, for wounded gathering point (often yellow flag with red cross) to mark the break in point (most times red) and to mark the foremost own troops while clearing a trench or mark cleared houses. The tactical leader will give the order which colour is used for what before the operation starts.

Then there are the different colours of the companys, they go back to the prussians so every german army has used them until today. Moritz used blue BII on his tank so it is the third tank of the second platoon (B is the first one and the Platoonleaders tank) of the fourth company. In the modern german army the colours are inofficial but widely used.

1./ company white
2./ company red
3./ company yellow
4./ company blue
5./ company green, today in the german army black
6./ company brown or if artillery black

Those colours has been used by the Wehrmacht tank crews too, so if you don´t know which colour the numbers had they have often been written in the companys colour.

Moritz Fentzahn
Michael, Dominik thanks - glad you like it.
Dominik and Viking thanks for those informations, I am really happy about this.

The groundwork is finished and only the crew is missing.
I started with the camouflage pattern on one figure, takes a lot of time and I am not happy at all with the result, will continue tonight, so I hope to post s little update tomorrow.

Dominik Weitzer
@viking93: i have to rectify - sorry. the leader of a convoy in the german army never had a black and/or white flag! trust me.
in the on-board equipment are only four flags: yellow, red, green and blue.

all other flags could be from "housemade" rules from units...

Viking93
@Dominik, sure he does, i use it every time when i lead a convoy. It is not very common today but it is the correct flag and you can find in the regulation. Or just google "Flagge Kolonnenführer" and you will find it.

The yellow flag with red cross is made of the yellow flag and red duck tape. I have seen this flag very often used as wounded gathering point flag in different combat units. They use it at infantry school courses too, so it is nearly a standard.

Patrick Hagelstein
I agree with Viking93. In the Dutch armed forces (while on route in Germany) that same black/white flag is used for the convoy leader. As such the convoy leader can accelerate or slow down along the convoy where he sees fit. It's a flag with a diagonal demarcation between the black and white.

Rui S
Great work, as usual 👍

Dominik Weitzer
Hm. interesting. In all my rides in convoies, i never saw one driving with this flag....and i drove a lot. Never to old to learn something!

Patrick Hagelstein
I never knew until I was told my vehicle would have to carry one. It was for a big exercise in Germany. The unit was divided in several convoy packages to minimize stress to the German roads we were traveling on. Every package had a package commander with that flag attached to his/her vehicle, whereas the others had the blue and green flags. Interesting note: at the border we had to switch sides, can't remember if we went from left to right or vise versa. That's where pictures come in handy. 😉

Patrick Hagelstein
Also, that's what the black rectangles on the sides of vehicles are for. The package identifier is chalked onto those rectangles and they consist of dates and package numbers.

Daniel Klink
Bravo Moritz👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thx for all those information round convois; i appreciate this a lot.

Thx Daniel

The figures developing slowly, but in the meantime I can show the repainted flag, the finished groundwork and two little bunny's

Patrick Hagelstein
Those bunnies are great Moritz! 😄

Simon Nagorsnik
I completely forgot to congratulate you on this very good result - the dio is really a feast for the eyes!
it could be that i will remember this scene when i will start my leo😁

Konrad -
Very nice presentation👍!

Moritz Fentzahn
Thank you mates, I hope to come back to the mood of painting those figures soon. This camouflage pattern is really a hackwork 😣

Moritz Fentzahn
So, right before Euro Model Expo 2022, I was finally able to finish this project.
Painting the Flecktarn camouflage pattern on the figures was no fun and did not come out as I wanted it, but I am happy to have them done.

Hugh CAST.
Your Leopard is so nice!!!!! The whole painting and weathering work is perfectly harmonious and ultra realistic.😍😍

Moritz Fentzahn
Thank you mates, much appreciated

Neuling
I agree with Roland and Hugh. 👍👍

Michael Kohl
Absolutely. One of the most convincing Leos I have seen so far and the top groundwork is the cherry on the cake.

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Stunning result, Moritz. 👍

Moritz Fentzahn
Neuling, Michael, WhiteGlint, thx mates. Glad that you like it.