Urban Leo A4 - Finished!

[frank2056]

BTW, nice model, and love the paintjob/scheme! Add a little extra stuff to the turret, bags, storage, etc...and it'll be a very great model! And it may be place on a simple desert diorama

Thanks! I still need to add the antenna farm that goes behind the tower support. Right now I'm looking at the bag of DML Magic track links (for the M1A1) and wondering what I've gotten myself into.

[frank2056]

Man, it's been a while, but I've finally made progress on this. One problem I had with my design was that I knew that the turret - low as it is - would need some protection from RPGs. With a round turret, extra armor or ERA would be difficult to attach. The answer was a slat shield, but I really, really didn't want to make it.
I saw a great T-62 thread on Armorama and the author showed how he made slat armor using a simple jig. So I adapted his idea to make some slat armor. It took me about 1/2 an hour to figure out the best way to use my jig, and another 45 minutes to make a total of 9 panels. Here's the tool with a spare panel:



I only used the left side of the tool - I lined up the slats so that they were all flush with the right side of the tool and used some blue-tac on the left side to hold them in place, then superglued the support beam. When that was dry, I just slid the assembly to the right and superglued the other support beam.
I cut off the excess supports and used the cast offs to make short legs to space the slats from the curved surface of the turret.

Here's a view with the slats painted and in place:



I had small plastic bars in place on the turret, and unfortunately didn't pay close attention to their spacing when I put them on. This made placing the slats a little harder. I want the slats to appear as a not depot level and not quite in the field addition, so they aren't as dusty and discolored as the rest of the tank. I used some Gator Glue to make sloppy weld marks where the spacer legs met the slats and turret, then painted that over with some of the (fresh) tan base color. Overall, I'm pleased with the results.

I also painted the optics tower a sky blue - RLM 65 - to help it blend against the sky. Fully extended, the tower is 155mm (6.1") from the top to the base of the tracks; in 1:1 scale, that would be 5.4m (17.8ft) above the ground, so a light gray or blue would help disguise it better than tan or green:



This is a big vehicle, even without the tracks in place. Here it is with a highly modified/corrected Trumpeter PMC figure. The VIP figure was in a meeting and could not join us for the photo shoot:



Next up is continuing the endless, endless task of gluing individual track links together. Have I mentioned how big this tank is? I may not have enough DML M1A1 Magic Track links to go all the way around on both sides, so I'll cheat and just add what will be visible past the side skirts.

Frank

[rickshaw]

Looks interesting. You don't think the gaps between each slat array are a little large?  They'd be obvious aiming points for any RPG gunner.

[frank2056]

Looks interesting. You don't think the gaps between each slat array are a little large?  They'd be obvious aiming points for any RPG gunner.

That's the problem with going with a round turret. I could have made 16 instead of 8 arrays and that would have reduced the gap, but it would have taken a lot longer to build. There's a reinforcing bar between the slat arrays (where they mount) so that area should present a slightly thicker (around 25mm) surface.  At least the gap between slats is about 80mm which is less than the diameter of an RPG-7 round.

[GTX]

I also painted the optics tower a sky blue - RLM 65 - to help it blend against the sky. Fully extended, the tower is 155mm (6.1") from the top to the base of the tracks; in 1:1 scale, that would be 5.4m (17.8ft) above the ground, so a light gray or blue would help disguise it better than tan or green:

If this is designed for urban ops, wouldn't the background more often than not, not be sky but rather buildings or rubble?  Just a thought.

Regards,

Greg

[frank2056]

Greg, the top of the mast is about the height of a two story building. I looked at pictures of M1s and other armor in Iraq, and most of the buildings were 1-3 stories high. In any case, I think a camo colored mast would stick out even more than a grayish-blue mast.

I decided to skip the DML "magic links" they are a pain. Instead, I used the kit's vinyl tracks. One of the tracks broke a while ago, when I tried stretching it to fit the tanks. So I just superglued one end of the track to the underside of the fender and stretched it around the wheels until it looked tight, then glued the other end to the top of the fender. The side skirts completely hide most of the upper track runs, so no big deal.

Before doing this, I sprayed a heavy mist of sand color on both sides of the track, and when it was dried, I removed the paint from the track pads with some denatured alcohol.

I also added the thermobaric rocket launchers (they're not as dark as they appear in this picture) painted the optics and made the armor belt for the mini-gun:





I made the ammo belt by taping some Tamiya tape to aluminum foil, then I cut a long strip the width of the belt. I rubbed the aluminum foil side against the ribbed plastic lid to a spray can until I had a deep impression in the tape. Next, I folded and glued the tape in half (with the aluminum on the inside) and painted it flat black. Unfortunately, you can't see the detail in these pictures, but it's there. Here's a detail of the turret:



I still have to add the vision port clear bits, finished the weathering and add the antenna farm behind the turret.

Frank

[Silverfox]

This is looking superb! I really like the way it's turning out, and the weapons mount and turret are ace. Great work on the slat armour too. You've dealt with a lot of things I'd have found challenging in good ways, so well done Love seeing the WIP and how it's evolving.

[buzzbomb]

purty.. this has come along just dandy.

good solution on the slat armour as well, prolly a deal quicker than the soldering brass method I did.

[frank2056]

Thanks guys!
Brian, I did think about soldering a cage, and even went as far as curving a couple of wire lengths to fit. I couldn't get the wire to be stay circular and the difference between the two circles became obvious after even a little manhandling.

After my experience with the jig for the slats, I could have probably made one (out of wood) for the cage.

[Mossie]

I guess there's a few ways that you could get around that.  One would be to mount a square around the round shape of the turret.  You get full protection, with the drawback that there's a large amount of dead space & the extra clearnce that's needed.  The other option is to simply mount extra slats between the spaces.  The ideal situation would be curved portions, but I gather there are problems with fabricating curves into some types of armour.

I'm not suggesting you change your model, I'm just adding to the discussion.  The 'problems' with the slat coverage could just be put down to an impromptu field mod that's not 100% ideal, but what ever is?  To me, most soloutions have their flaws & a model that shows that just adds a bit of 'reality'.  I think when we're whiffing, we can get a little bit obsessed with the 'perfect' soloution.  Great model, looking forward to the finishing touches!

[frank2056]

I finally finished this tank. I would have been done last week, but I dropped the turret and about 10 slats went flying all over the place. The turret wasn't damaged, so I guess they did their job.

Top view:

I added two smoke grenade launchers to the front of the hull, and four next to and slightly behind the minigun. I used some bristles from a cheap paintbrush to make the cables that hold the launcher caps on.

Side views:




The antenna mount at the rear of the turret has a GPS done and two antennas. The flexible part of the antennas was made by wrapping some 30 gauge wire wrap wire around a drill bit. The hull has some plastic dust on it from another project; I should have cleaned it with a tack cloth before the photo session...

Front views, from about 1/35 eye level:





I didn't add markings. All in all, it was a fun project. Thanks for looking!

Frank

[Mossie]

Thanks for building!   Very different looking tank, great work!

[Doc Yo]

 Neat-O! The slats are terrific, and I can see the jig having a host of uses. I would have been tempted to make
it a series of stacked discs, but then it would have wound up looking like something out of Forbidden Planet.

[sotoolslinger]

That is most kick arse.