Italeri 1/72 Leopard 1A2

Italeri 1/72 Leopard 1A2
Kit Number 7031
Reviewed By Jim Pearsall, #2209

MSRP: $14.50 USD Distributed by Testors in the US. Thanks to Testors/Italeri for the review kit. The Tank: The Leopard was a joint German/French project. The basic concept was that the American M-48 was becoming obsolete, and there was a market for a replacement. The US produced the M-60. Germany produced the Leopard, after France decided to go their own way on the project. So we have a piece of 1960s heavy iron here. And since design engineers tend to find nearly identical solutions to the same problems, the Leopard looks vaguely like an M-60. The Kit: This kit is a re-box of the Esci Leopard kit from the 1980s. This is not to say it’s in any way a bad kit, or that you should avoid buying a couple of copies. I just happened to have one of the Esci kits in my stash, so here’s a comparison. The molding is quite fine on both kits, with no voids in the parts (the new kit did have one incomplete spot in one of the sprues), and no ejector pin marks anywhere that show. The track is “length and link”, which allows a good-looking assembly with minimal fuss.


To be fair to the new kit, it has decals which are better, both in quality and selection, the directions are more complete, and the plastic is a little easier to work with. The kit contains one complete tank, with markings for 3 different vehicles, one Bundeswehr, 6th Panzer Grenadier Division, one Belgian 1st Army Corps, and one Italian, 19° Gruppo Esplorante “Cavaleggeri Guide” Divisione Corrazzata Ariete at two different times. So you actually have 4 choices. I did find one problem which pertains only to the new version, however. The instructions call out Olive Drab, FS37087. I looked for 37087. And looked some more. OK, Olive Drab is 34087. I found it by looking up the Testors stock number on their web site. And they’re consistent. All 4 painting instructions call for 37087. Assembly: The assembly instructions call for putting the suspension and track assemblies together, then the hull, followed by the turret assembly, which is added to the completed hull and suspension. I worked ahead a little, working on the detail parts on the hull and turret as the paint dried on the road wheels, and putting the track together while waiting for the glue to set up on the small parts on the turret. I was pleased with the track and suspension. There is a small mold part line on all the road wheels, but I mounted each wheel on a toothpick (friction fit) and turned them with my power drill/driver while holding a piece of #400 sandpaper against the wheel. It cleaned the lines and slightly roughed the wheel for me. After mounting the road wheels and return rollers on the suspension, I added the track. The suspension is pretty basic, but it’s also hidden behind the road wheels and the optional skirts.

I also had an adventure here. One of my peeves with this kit is that Esci didn’t leave enough room between the parts identifier tab and the part to do a really clean cut. And when I was cutting off one of the individual track links, the part “spoinged” off the cutter, and went over my right shoulder. The part is really, really small….

And I was certain the Carpet Monster had it. It was down there, somewhere!

No, that’s not the Carpet Monster, but before I found the part (under the chair, from backspin worthy of Tiger Woods!) I was seriously considering a comb-out for “la Poocharacha”. Generally, fit was excellent for all the small parts. I had a bit of trouble with one of the rings on the turret which surrounds one of the hatches. One of the rings has 3 locating pins, and the associated hatch also has 3 locating pins. It’s a breeze to get both parts on and aligned. The other has no locators on the ring and only one pin on the hatch. Why? The suspension/track assemblies are glued to the bottom of the hull, and the top of the hull is added to this assembly. There is a large locating pin in the bottom of the hull, and a corresponding socket in the top. I couldn’t get them to go together. It’s difficult to see anything inside the hull as you assemble it, and it’s a nice, tight fit. But I wound up cutting the pin off. Then everything almost fell together. It might be that I didn’t get the suspension correctly vertical on the bottom pan, or Venus was incorrectly aligned with Cygnus and the Moon, but until I cut that pin off, it wasn’t going to join. The turret detail parts went together cleanly, except for the aforementioned hatch. The turret has two holes behind each hatch. I added straight pins through these holes to simulate VHF antennas. I also drilled the barrel of the main gun behind the muzzle for extra depth. The turret fits cleanly to the hull, and rotates without bind or shake. One last compliment. That tiny little machine gun on the turret top is just a thing of beauty. The trigger guard is cleanly molded, the cooling ports on the barrel jacket are nicely done, and it’s just a little work of art in 1/72. It compares very favorably with some of those plastic blobs we’ve had to work with on some other kits. A quick spray of Future, and it’s ready for decals. I finished the kit in the Belgian markings. They aren’t included in the Esci kit, and I was just sort of intrigued by them. The decals went on nicely, snuggled down on the gloss, moved when I needed them to, and stayed put when I touched them with a tissue to wick off the excess water. The decals for the vehicle ID were slightly off register in the yellow, making the Belgian flag look slightly askew. But if you get close enough to see this in 1/72 scale, you’re probably going to impale your forehead on those pins I used for VHF antennas.

Overall Assessment: A good kit. A beginner could build this AFV and do a credible job. The problems I had with assembly are not the types which require advanced engineering to solve, just common sense and a sprue cutter. A real armor expert could turn this into a cold war icon. If you’ve got the Esci kit in your stash, get it out, it is worth your time. If you don’t have one, it’s available again, and it’s worth your time and money.

Thanks to John Noack for providing another adventure in scale modeling.

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