Dear Leopard Work Shop
I'm an Italian modeller. For over 11 years, from 1979 to 1990, I commanded a company of tanks Leopard 1A2, and this beautiful tank has always remained in my heart (the first love is never forgotten!). I was an Officer of Italian Army (I was a Colonel of the Tank Troops) now in the reserve. Many years ago, unfortunately too many, I commanded first the Leopard Tank Platoon when I was Lieutenant, and then the Tank Company when I was Captain and the Tank Battalion when I was Lieutenant Colonel.
I always liked the Leopard Tank during all of my career and now that I am retired, I like make the models of this superb tank. After thinking of building my own template for my tank, and after seeing some of my photos and others taken from the web, I thought I would reconstruct an incident that happened to me many years ago when I was in training camp with my soldiers.
This is an old picture of my tank. It is recognised as a tank for Commander platoon/company because it has two antennas of the RV4 213-V radio system consisting of a transceiver apparatus and an auxiliary receiver apparatus. Other tanks of the platoon have only one transceiver apparatus RV3 13-V, and therefore only one antenna.
This photograph was taken during a training exercise at the Polygon Training of 'Cascina Pelato', near Biella (Vercelli).
Basically, when I and my company finished the transfer of the column of 18 tanks from the barracks to the camp, in the engine of my tank - my own! - a sleeve of the cooling system broke and my mechanic had to step over the entire engine to replace the broken piece. I therefore decided to build a small diorama with models of Bergepanzer driven by my mechanic, which raises the engine of my tank to replace the broken piece just like in the picture I found on the web. This is the picture I took from the web and it reminded me of the incident that happened in 1986. From this picture I took the inspiration for realise my diorama.
I therefore decided to build a small diorama with models of Bergepanzer, driven by my mechanic, which raises the engine of my tank to replace the broken piece, just like in the picture I found on the web.
Late last year (2011), I have therefore taken from my stash of kits, the Italeri Leopard 1A5 (catalog No. 6481) and I started to modify it to become a 1A2 since I could not find a model of this version. The one produced by Italeri (catalog No. 374) is not a 1A2, but a 1A1.
To properly portray the scene, it was necessary to remove the top plate that covers the engine compartment or completely rebuild the interior ... my first serious scratch-built construction. I started this only after I had collected and catalogued all the images of the parts to build (about 2,000 images) through an in-depth research and by having the user's manual.
These are some pictures of my work. I hope you will like my work.
The full story of this spectacular build appeared on Armorama in 2012.
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