not a big cat, but a little cat!!

[sturmbird]

well I was up in DeafPanzer's neighborhood today, and stopped by Hobby Town looking for a MK.IV donor kit. Nothing fit my needs that I didn't already. Anyway I did pick up another Revell JU88 in 1/72 scale (great kit by the way). Well I see a Tasca M4 Jumbo, and just had to have it. Then under it a kit caught my eye. It was a Leopard in 1/35th. Not the one most are going to think of but the one that looks like a "mini Panther." Never heard of the brand name before, but the price was OK. So I buy the two kits before DeafPanzer found them!

The Leopard was built by Amusing Hobby (never heard of them). Looks like a scaled down Panther D with a Puma turret (50mm gun). Came with a small PE fret and metal schurzen plates. Molding looks to be good, but the decal sheet leaves a lot to be desired I didn't take the sprus out of the bags, but did study the instructions, and it doesn't go together like a Panther! I wouldn't call it Dragon Quality, but still looks nice. Has two different radio masts for three different tanks called out in the instruction sheet. Got to dig out my Puma kit to see if the barrels are the same. The turrets are close, but not quite interchangeable. The tracks look like Model Kasten. The main gun has the breech assembly, and will have to hunt the only reference I have for that one.
gary

[deafpanzer]

LOL! Lucky you I didn't buy them before did. Wish I knew you were coming so I would have met you there. Funny thing I was planning to stop by around 4pm before the big football game just for paint bottles.

[deafpanzer]

I live like 7 or 8 minutes from that shop... next time just let me know.

[wbill76]

Nice little score Gary. Leopard was one of those 'paper panzer' designs. Should be fun!

[sturmbird]

Jan 4, 2014 23:41:30 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

LOL! Lucky you I didn't buy them before did. Wish I knew you were coming so I would have met you there. Funny thing I was planning to stop by around 4pm before the big football game just for paint bottles.

that was when I was there. I stopped at Golf Smith, and then on over to Fly Masters. Boy you can buy a lot of kits for the price of one good eight or nine weight fly rod! Really need to find a nice donor kit with a good and accurate MK. IV turret and Schurzen. May end up parting out a Dragon kit, and use the hull for a furniture van build I want to get moving on.
gary

[sturmbird]

Jan 5, 2014 11:34:48 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Nice little score Gary. Leopard was one of those 'paper panzer' designs. Should be fun!

Amusing Hobby shows three different examples that were used in Russia. Accurate? I don't know.

There's been a little bit of an argument about the hull shape and size, but the kit scales very closely with David Doyle's drawings. There's also a Hobby Boss kit, but it's ten to twenty percent smaller! The tracks in this kit look like Panther D tracks, and suspect they are. Now I also have two Tasca Luchs setting in my stash, and want to get busy on them this year.

and while on the modeling subject, expect a boat to roll out of the yard late this year. (hint: it's big!)
gary