Hi guys,
This is my first post on the Armor Forum…[:D]
Well, I have a question: I have a 1/48 scale Leopard II main battle tank (from Belmonte, very little known modelcompany in Portugal)
But the decals are really bad, and there is no instruction how to paint this thing.
It’s my first tank model, and maybe someone can help me with the questions above.
And: Could you give me some general advice on painting tanks?
Cheers,
Jürgen
welcome to armor forum. 1/48 Belmonte?? well now we know.
Leopard 2’s are either the 2A4, 2A5, or 2A6 which one do you have? No matter really they all can be painted with the NATO camo scheme. light green, orange and black. This scheme is standardized so each tank looks exactly the same but each version has a different template. Figure out which one you have. Get some refernce pictures of all sides. Paint the light green. Draw the black with a pencil and paint that. Draw the orange and then paint that. Primer is optional depending on what kind of paint you use.
I left alot of steps and specifics out but hope this helps some anyway.
All leopards are not the NATO scheme though some are all green. Versions for other countires are even more different still.
Orange? The standard NATO 3-color scheme is forest green, black and dark brown. The exact shades vary from country to country, but I have never heard of orange being used.
Have to agree with Rob on this one.
It has a German version.
But as I live in Belgium and the Belgian Army uses Leopards I want to make a Belgian one.
I think they just have a dark green, does someone know?
Does a tank really needs decals?
And what about wheatering: same techniques like aircrafts?
Cheers,
Jürgen
Well I kinda had a feeling I was going to get pegged for that one [B)] I was just giving a general response. Sorry. I know it’s supposed to be brownish but in some pictures it looks like bright rust or even yes orange.
Jurgen, If you haven’t started building, you should join the MAD Leopard Week build. I think there are some references for the Belgium leopards in that thread maybe. I did a simple search in google and found alot of Belgium Leopard 1’s but Belgium Leopard 2 pictures are harder to find. Yes I agree they all look dark green.
Thank a lot guys!!
I just went to the library and found a book with all the tanks ever served in the Belgian Army.
It says that most newer Leopard II have the NATO colour finish.
Forest green,dark brown and black.
Cheers,
Jürgen
Jürgen- if you can buy Tamiya paints, they have all three NATO colors- XF67 (Green), XF-68 (orange…just kidding- brown) and XF-69 black