Restoring an old Tamiya Leopard A4

[SoCalBobS]

Record the cost, and when the spawn reaches adulthood, present him with the bill...with interest. Include labor.

[Meter Rat]

Final job on this repair was to the gearbox. If anyone has read the drivel I write, then due to the offspring of spawn, the gearbox out drive was damaged.
Rather than use a new pair of gearbox, which are book marked for a second Leopard 1 restoration, I would attempt to repair them., with a bit of old school engineering.


First job was to drill and tap both parts of the drive shafts.

A screw was installed, and both parts fitted together.


This was all aligned, and crossed drilled, and small pin fitted.

These pins were held in with a small amount of JB Weld.

Unfortunately, I pined it to well, and the screw broke, on the first drive.


I admitted defeat, and installed the pair of new gearbox.

While seeking solace at the bottom of a pint pot some further ideas, came to mind, so I have not given up yet on the repair of these gearboxes.

[RichJohnson]

I like your mount, coming along nicely. I finally built my spotlight bracket last month and mounted it. I used brass and made it actually screw on and off,
.. ugh crazy needless work.

[SoCalBobS]

I like the rough texture. You do so well, perhaps you should have your nephew knock a couple more tanks off the shelf!

[Meter Rat]

Repairs got underway with my Leopard 1A5DK. The gearbox output shaft was drilled out 2.5mm, then tapped out 3mm. A 3mm threaded bar was stewed in, and fixed with JB Weld. When this had dried, the second part was screwed on and again fixed with JB Weld. No photos as I forgot.

Today, as it is summer in Scotland, and the rain is coming sideways , some more repairs were carried out. Scratch built a new reversing wand.

Then new fixings were installed for the mantlet cover. This will have fine elastic threaded through it.



While this was all drying a start was made on scratch building a new mount for the EMES18. I’m now waiting on it all drying, so it can be carefully trimmed down, and the EMES fitted.

It looks rough in the pictures.

[Chris curran]

This is sad to see the destruction of such a fine model. It can be fixed. It will be fixed.

[RichJohnson]

Unfortunately so many parents today do not teach their kids NO and are raising brats. My son is 11 and is quite respectful most of the time.
I once experienced a couple young teens maybe 10 and 13 who were invited into our tank battle area with their grandmother. The older one was caught grabbing the barrel of my 3d DKlM M60a3 while it was on my table, it’s a very expensive custom Tamiya grade model I built before Tongde existed. When I returned home I found everything inside the turret broken apart. I wept greatly and sat it on the shelf and retired the model.
The same child suckered my son into letting him drive his Tamiya Pershing when I was not aware and he proceeded to ram it into a concrete wall over and over until he broke the whole barrel and mantlet off. My son is a generous and kind kid and shares his toys freely but we had to have a talk about limits and strangers and it’s ok to say no especially on special expensive toys.

[Meter Rat]

Wow. So sorry to see this. I can imagine how the succeeding events transpired. How old is the child?

Thank you.

I say nothing, on grounds of incriminating my self. The child is seven. Even our neighbours boy, who is the same age, and frequently asks to use my models, and has gained the skills to use them with care, and respect. Just turned and told him he would be in trouble
Oh well, it can be repaired.

[Meter Rat]

Visitation rights have, understandably and rightfully, been firmly revoked.

I say nothing, on the matter. Because I will be the one whom is wrong. Oh well! **** ‘appens. We will be diswayding future visits, as this is not the first time he has wrecked objects when he been unable to get his own way.

[RichJohnson]

Wow. So sorry to see this. I can imagine how the succeeding events transpired. How old is the child?

[cleong]

Visitation rights have, understandably and rightfully, been firmly revoked.

[Meter Rat]

The niece visited, with the child who is the spawn of satan, and simply does not understand the word no. As it could not get his own way, he pulled the shelf off the wall with the Leopard on it. Damaged the transporter it was on, and wrecking the Leopard.

Damaged transporter cab.


Broken search light and gun.

Barrel broken in three places.

Gear box output shaft broken.

[RichJohnson]

Pretty nice. I drove both of my finished ones around this weekend in our San Diego battle.
each one is set up slightly different and I’m not quite satisfied with either one as far as driving and battling and loosing speed during the hit knock out process.
my Belgian BE 1 has taigen trannys (39:1 ratio) with 380 motors using a Tamiya dmd11 and uses 8.4 volt battery and 3d printed plastic Tamiya tracks and it’s slow. Then as it gets hit it gets even slower until it just can’t move, I had 390 motors in it but was drastically overpowered and put too much torque on the ground and would whip around nearly uncontrollably in turning.
My modernized 1a7 with all the fake armor I added, has Henglong red ultimate II tranys (33:1 gear ratio) with 390 motors and uses a 7.2 volt battery and the metal rubber pad track and is quite a bit faster. It is just slightly squirrelly when driving but performs better when dashing across an open field, and as it takes the 6 hits and slows down on each one.
Im still not quite satisfied with either but I like the performance from the 1a7 better.

I still have several more tanks to build yet and am trying to work through what is the best way to set them up.
The dmd11 has a very different driving algorithm in it designed for the centurian kit and trying to get a good trany design to match it is challenging for a good smooth logarithmic curve while driving.

[Meter Rat]

Managed to complete most of the weathering on my Leopard 1A5DK. A few bits have come off in the construction, and will need remaking. Now just waiting on some matte finish to seal in the weathering. Looks like one of the smoke dischargers needs back in place.
I can not believe that I started on this just over 5 years ago.

[tank_me]

Cool build. I spent about 3 months in Bosnia back in 1996.

[RichJohnson]

Nice work. Cool, detail on the lighting.
Another leopard 1 comes back to life.

[Meter Rat]

After stripping the paint off, and a thorough clean, new paint was applied.Stencils were used for the UN markings. I need to paint the bridge weight marking on the front lower hull, then weathering can continue. The lights were wired to give headlights and taillights, and separate switched convoy marker lights. Weathering, is going to be enjoyable, as these got filthy due to the kosovan weather.

[Meter Rat]

Cleaned up the mess. Went old school, with emery paper, then wet and dry used wet. Two hours of my life I will never get back. At least I was able to do it in cooncil time. And use their heating to dry it.

[SoCalBobS]

I had something similar happen once. I used Testor's paint and decal remover to get down to the bare plastic. I don't know if it would work on your project. There also a lot of "old wive's tales" chemicals that strip paint without affecting the plastic. One I did use was carburetor cleaner, but I can't remember the brand. Good luck however you proceed.

[RichJohnson]

Yikes that paint reaction sucks. That can just ruin a great model. Love your work on the DK A5 upgrade,
live finshed two so far, My BE1 and a fictitious 1a7 upgrade which was my mechanical prototype for upgrading uperations in the models.
My AS1 is half done, I haven’t decided in the camo pattern yet but it will be a version of mudcam not Auscam.
I also have a C2 mexas sort of half done, working up the 3d printed armor is a real pia.

Good luck with the paint solution. I hope your able to smooth it out and repaint it to be a good coat for such a nice build.