Excellent model Alfred! Exquisite detailing, as always!

To get a true idea of how different the Leopard 2A4 and the Leopard 1A5 – http://www.3dvia.com/alfredix/models/86726CBC8EA0B284 – are, open a window with each and start comparing features.

The 2A4 looks much more capable! I am surprised by the vertical slab sides on the turret. Has armor become so advanced that projectile deflection doesn’t matter any more?

Hi Don, thanks.
The A4 is about 20 years old. by that time this type of armor was enough, becasue the Leo was the only tank to be able to bust it :)
But the rest of the world was developping fast, in the meantime the most advanced model is the A6M with totally different armor on the turret.
But again… he has the apropriate amunition to bust even the new one :)

Thanks Alfred for the extra information. I’m looking at my book on the M1 Abrams tank and I think it has used the German-developed 120mm smoothbore cannon since the M1E1 version. According to http://www.army-technology.com/projects/abrams/specs.html it is still being used. It’s a good thing that we’re both on the same side now. :)

right :)

I know a former M1 Abrams tank commander (he was deployed in the Gulf War) who got out of tanks and out of the Army when he saw some of the ammunition that we were developing for our own use. It was time to “hang up the spurs” before he and his crew inevitably became Hamburger Helper.

I know what you mean, and honestly, even I do nearly 100% military vehicles, I very often ask myself “what is the use of it?” I mean you build a tank, then somebody else builds an amunition that busts it and so on. The engineer in me is simply fascinated by the technology. The human in me is just disusted by the machines men build to kill other men. Strange paradoxon…

That is a paradox that I wrestle with all the time. The manufactured things that fascinate me the most are the things that humans have used their fertile minds to imagine and then imagined incredible machines to build them. Yet almost all of them are meant either to destroy each other or to destroy the earth that we rely on. I hope that we can turn our imaginations towards more sustainable purposes. That will be amazing too!

Congratulations Alfred! Your model has been included in the 47th weekly Top 10 models blog with pictures and links to your model.

Go to http://www.3dvia.com/blog/3dvia-top-10-models-047/ to check it out!