the dutch Leopard 2A6 as it is in use with the "Koninklijke Landmacht"
or the royal dutch army in English.
there are some differences between a dutch leopard 2 and a german one.
the most obvious differences are the smoke mortar systems with six barrels
on each side which are of a dutch design.
further more the MAG machine gun on the turret for air defence and another co-axial with the main gun,is also
a feature of the dutch leopard.
these weapons are also widely in use within the dutch armed forces,using the same ammunition.
the driver has a passive night periscope of dutch making,and philips radios are installed with U.S style antenna bases.
The Leopard 2A6 is a upgrade version of the earlier Leopard 2A5.
the greatest improvement was the gun barrel that was replaced by the 120mm L-55 gun tube which was longer for a greater muzzle velocity.
also the protection was improved against landmines and last but not least..airco !.
about 180 of these main battle tanks were upgraded to the A6 configuration.
only Germany and the Netherlands have the upgraded version of the Leopard 2A6 in use.
the costs of a single leopard 2A6....around 10 million Euro's...yes...that's a lot.
in a tank"eskadron"there are 14 leopards 2A6 tanks,tankbattalions are divided in three squadrons A,B and C squadron making a total of 42 leopard 2A6 tanks
available in the battalion.
this tank belongs to the 11th tankbattalion Regiment Huzaren van Sytzama. and this regiment is stationed in Oirschot.
some specs :
combat weight : 59,9 tonns
maximum range :340 km on road - 220 km offroad.
engine : MTU 12cilinder watercooled diesel
power : 1.100 kW or some 1500 hp.
maximum speed :70 km/h on roads.
ammo supply :42 rounds.
the model :
light grey plastic some photo etch and transparent plastic parts and a string of rope.
without to much trouble you can build this kit into a nice model.
i even used the vinyl track that came with the kit,mainly because most of the track is not visible,due to the skirts on the sides.
the roadwheels and suspension was done first,painted and a wash with oilpaints,before the skirts were glued on.
the paints used were the exellent Tamiya range of nato-colors :xf-67 nato green xf-68 nato brown and xf-69 nato black.
at first i wanted to build this model straight out of the box,but whenm i looked at the decals,i found these to be a bit..simplified.
after some research i found that the decals from the kit were somewhat crude and not entirely correct.
and on the Twenot forum i heard about echelon decals, a special set of decals of all kinds of vehicles used by the dutch army.
and with some luck i was able to buy a set from a fellow modeller from the Twenot site, many thanks Ronald !
but this was the only aftermarket item that was used on this model,some other details came from an old revell model of the leopard.
which i saved in my spares box,a long time ago..such as the grenade launchers on the front of the turret,an axe on the rear deck and the antenna
for the rearview camera.
also i decided not to use the photo-etched engine grills in the kit,because this just didn't have the right look.
instead i found in my spares box a thin mesh like cloth and simply used the p.e grill as a reference to cut the new grills out of this fine mesh.
