Team Yankee - A tale of two Leopards!

I'm really excited about the new Team Yankee release - Iron Maiden! This time the British Army of the Rhine gets the TY treatment!

I wonder where they got the title from!

Anyway, back to the point - Leopards...When this most recent release was announced, all I could think about was getting stacks of Leopard I's to do the Canadian 4th Mechanised Brigade Group, having read so much about them in Kenneth Macksey's future history novel/training manual; First Contact!


But as soon as the models were released and I got to look at the quality and detail of the hard plastic Leopard II models, I was hooked - looks like I will be doing the Bundeswehr as well as the Soviets, the Canadians, the Brits, etc etc!

I did also pick up a box of the resin Leopard Is, but they paled by comparison in terms of quality of detail.

BF resin 1:100th Leopard 1

On their own, judged without comparison to the hard plastic Leopard IIs,

BF hard plastic 1:100th Leopard II

they would have still been the best on the market. But to my mind at least they have been overshadowed by the superb Leo II kit.



I was anxious about attempting the complex NATO tri-colour scheme, which I associate with the Leo 2, but I have a collection of Dragon Armour 1:72nd scale Leos which provided a useful reference:

Dragon Armour diecast 1:72nd Leopard II

And I think I've managed a passable interpretation of that scheme - enough to pass the '3 foot rule' at least!

As for my Leopard I's, well in Bundeswehr service in 1985 the majority of them would have been in OlivGelb overall, which is one thing in their favour. But to my eye they don't have quite the same 'Oh wow!' factor as their prettier younger sisters!

So now off to paint this complex scheme on the next 9 Leos - just so long as in my excitement over the November Iron Maiden release I can hold my brush still enough!