Meng 1/35 Leopard 1A3/1A4 Quick Review

[Dave Williams]

Recently popped the lid on new Meng Leopard 1A3/1A4 kit and the first impressions are good. The parts are crisply molded and well detailed, as you expect from Meng. The kit includes clear parts for the periscopes, and two small PE frets for the engine deck screen and periscope covers. The thin PE screen for the engine deck is an improvement over the coarse metal mesh you get in the old Italeri kit. The kit comes with a choice of nicely detailed and flexible vinyl one-piece tracks or individual links, although the latter are non-workable. The kit can be built as either a 1A3 or a 1A4, which is welcome news as the old Italeri kit was never released as a 1A3, even in the Revell Germany boxings, to my knowledge. Both the smaller periscope and the round cover on the turret roof for the close-in defense weapon are included for the 1A3. The kit also includes a PZB200 LLLTV with a nicely molded one-piece protective cage for a late 1A3. A nice touch is the inclusion of a separate muzzle for the main gun, with molded in rifling. The suspension is flexible in that the road wheel arms have plastic torsion bars that run across the hull so they allow a little movement due to the flexibility of the plastic. Decals are included for two German 1A3s in three-tone and overall green camo, a German 1A4 in overall green, and Greek “1A4” (which appears to actually be a 1A3) in 4-tone camo. Overall, the kit looks more accurate and better detailed than the old Italeri kit.

A couple of small nits, though. Meng didn't include the power cable that runs between the searchlight and PZB200 (if fitted). Also, the wraparound front mudguard is molded partially with the upper hull and partially with the one-piece side skirt, resulting in a seam where they join that needs to be filled. The top mantlet cover is molded in solid plastic instead of soft vinyl like some of their other kits, which defeats the purpose of having the gun being able to elevate (to be fair, a lot of other kit have the same issue, and few people really move the guns around anyway). Finally, the individual links are non-workable, which means that the “movable” suspension really only works with the vinyl tracks. Again, not many people play with the suspensions either, so that's not much of a big deal either in my mind.

One other admittedly personal gripe is that my first impression after opening the box is being slightly underwhelmed for what you get for the price. After seeing their T-90 kit, this is a simpler kit, and taking out the individual tracks, there aren't many more pieces than the old Italeri kit. True, the T-90 is a more complex tank with the applique armor and ERA, as well as the various sensors and countermeasures seen on modern tanks, plus a more complex secondary weapons station, so it's going to need a lot more parts to represent all of the external detail than an older 70s era tank. Without including an interior or engine, there are only so parts that you can break a Leopard kit into without making things overly complex just for the sake of having a higher parts count. But with a lot less parts, simpler one-piece individual links, and the lack of the engine that Meng put in the T-90, it seems to me that the Leopard should be cheaper than the T-90 (or the Merkava kits). The old Italeri kit is still out there for a bit cheaper and to be truthful holds up very well for a 35 year old kit (it may be one of the best armor kits Italeri ever did IMHO).

Overall, I think it's great for the 1A3 option. For the 1A4, it's definitely overall better than the Italeri kit, but it's also more expensive, and people will have to decide whether the improvements are worth the cost to them (especially if people start dumping their Italeri kits at fire sale prices). Definitely try to find it as cheap as possible.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Dave Williams

[dylan]

thanks for the review Dave