Meng Leopard 2A7 1/35

This is the Meng Leopard 2A7 in 1/35 with an aftermarket metal barrel from Orange Hobby. This is also the second model I have ever done a base for, and a rather ambitious one in a snowy base. I wanted to replicate the box art of the Meng Leopard, which shows it driving through a flat snowy plain. I added some more snow half for fun and half because various reference photos I found showed at least the wheels pretty snowy, even if the rest of the tank looked pretty clean. 

The base was cut from XPS foam, and covered with left over, years old VMS smart mud, which still sculpted very well and is how I got those very distinct tracks in the snow. I then quickly painted it a more natural brown color, before smothering the whole thing in AK terrains snow paste, dusted with AK snow microballoons. The compressed snow in the tread marks was a combo of AK terrains snow and AK snow sprinkles. I wanted there to be a sense of movement as well, which is why I placed the tank so close to the edge of the base (and the front actually extends past the base). The paneling is 0.4mm wood veneer that I threw a coat of danish oil over. 

You have probably noticed the little bit of snow that is on top of the side skirts. To be honest, that is really only there to hide the excessive amount of superglue I applied over many applications and subsequent breakages of the side skirts. I also dropped the whole thing once as well; it's a miracle that it held together as well as it did. 

The build itself was Meng at it's best. Good detail and only minimal annoying small pieces. The photo etch wasn't as bad as some reviewers made it out to be, and the metal barrel was nice because this kit is still from the old days of split two piece barrel. For the antenna, I tried a new method that I will be using for all 1/35 antenna from now on: I drilled out the base and glued in 0.5mm copper wire. This was so much sturdier, and less annoying, than my old method of stretched sprue. I also added the small antenna on the rear view camera as well, which really adds a lot of depth for a tiny bit of work. You can't really see it on the photos, but I also added photoetch chain to the smoke launchers. 

As always, I free handed the NATO camo. I think the NATO green is a little off, but not that bad; I still think my best NATO green mix was on my 1/35 RFM M1A2 Abrams. I didn't get any amazing pictures of it, but I also used AFV club anti reflection stickers, and like they always are, they look better in person than on photos. 

This is also the first model I tracked exactly how much time I spent on it: 34.93 hours on the build (of which, 4.88 was the tracks!); 14.35 hours on painting and weathering; and 9.07 hours on the base. This all combines to be a total of 58.35 hours over eight months, which is honestly a pretty fast pace for me these days (to be fair, it was more like 6 months because of various breaks I took in the process). 

Overall, I'm very happy with this model, and I want to make more snow bases in the future!