Dragon 1/72 Armor Series Kit No. 7232; Leopard 2A6

by Cookie Sewell

128 parts (124 in grey styrene, 2 black vinyl, 1 section wire, 1 screw); price USD $8.95

Advantages: very nice, clean kit of this modern tank; great level of detail with optional position parts as well
Disadvantages: some parts may be tricky to fill, molded on tools spoil the fine details provided elsewhere
Rating: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: for all modern armor fans

Small scale is now one of the most active areas of armor modeling, and new kits of a wide variety of subjects beyond the usual WWII ones are now common. This is DML's offering of the new spaceship-like German Leopard 2A6, and it appears to be a very nicely done kit.

The kit actually builds up as either a 2A5 with the short 120mm gun and basic side armor panels or the more exotic A6 with the long gun and modified skirt panels. Both are included in the kit. The modeler has an option for all three entrance hatches (open or closed) as well as the "flipper" armor on the turret sides. The directions do not indicate this, but they are separate parts and it is not hard for even a moderately experienced modeler to make the adjustments. However, note that parts C4/5/6 appear to be a Hoffmann main gun simulator device for training and not a smoke grenade or flare launcher system (e.g. these can be left off.)

The tools come molded on to the engine deck, which is a shame, as DML took great pains elsewhere providing very nicely done details. The mirrors are near scale in size, for an example.

The tank comes with three sets of markings, all of which use the standard NATO tri-color scheme of black/brown/dark green.

Overall this is a nice little kit and will look good with the Challenger 2s and M1A2 kits already out there.

Thanks to Freddie Leung of Dragon for the review sample.