There it is:
For the few who would not know it yet (since I’ve been posting in progress pics for quite a while now!), it’s the 1/72 Revell kit that came out last year. The kit is a Series 2, batch T5 vehicle, as used in Kosovo, but I wanted mine to be the more modern variant, the T6. Out of the box, the kit is really fine, and in any case, the only production Leclerc available. Heller will be releasing a T6 later this year apparently, in 1/35 and I’m quite curious to see it…
In any case, the T5 to T6 modifications mostly involved the addition of the A/C unit on the right side of the turret, but as I also had a ton of great detail pics of the vehicle, I ended up super-detailing the Revell kit. This process involved the making, cutting glueing of possibly 250+ parts, made of plastic card, plastic rod, stretched sprue, metal wire, lead foil, plus a bit of milliput epoxy putty.
The vehicle was primed in black acrylic, then masked and airbrushed with a Dark Earth tone. However, removing the masking did damage some of the finest details I had added and eventually painted the Dark Green with a brush. Weathering was done my usual way, with watercolor-based washes, drybrushing with artists’ oils and dusting with pastels.
All in all, I’d say I spent over 50 hours on this little kit. But I enjoyed every single one of them, bar the masking agent removal phase, which was punctuated by a number of swear words, in French of course!
I would recommend this kit to all modelers. The now usual Revell system of individual link + sections of tracks did not pose any problem, just requiring a bit of patience. If built as in the box (i.e T5 variant), the only thing that shoyuld be added are the anti-skid panels that cover a large part of the turret and hull. I achieved this with masking tape. The (pre-cut) tape was stuck into place then ‘sealed’ with liquid glue. It resisted well to anything I did to it, from drilling into it to insert hooks and handles, to painting, washes and drybrushing. It was worth adding, as it’s quite visible on the real vehicle.
This is how the kit looked like before priming:
