Leclerc (T.5)

Manufacturer: Revell AG.(Kit #03131)

Until now, anyone wantingto build a model of the newest French main battle tank had tofind one of the rare ADV Mini Leclerc kits, which is not easy.Although it is an awesome model, the ADV kit is resin, which manypeople find to be a turnoff. So Revell is continuing with theirseries of modern main battle tanks of the world, with thisoutstanding kit.

As with all of Revell'snewest kit, this one is a superb example of model engineering,with only a few minor deficiencies, those being the closeddriver's hatch and no crew figures. The molding quality isfirst-rate, with no flash or sinkmarks on my sample, and thedetail is very crisply molded.

Revell also continues thepractice of allowing us to completely build and paint thewheel/track assemblies before attaching them to the hull, afeature that I really appreciate.

As a general comparisonwith the ADV resin kit, it is difficult to say that one is betterthan the other. I really like the ADV kit because the resin wasable to hold much finer detail than plastic, such as sharperedges on the grenade launcher ports, and the very finely-castnon-stick surface on certain areas of the turret and hull. I knowthat some people say that this surface should not be visible atthis scale, but I disagree. All Revell needed to do was have avery rough, or matte finish on the areas that needed thisnon-skid surface, instead of making it highly polished like therest of the tank surfaces, but they didn't. I also appreciate thefact that the ADV kit came with a crew figure, as well as morestowage on the rear of the turret, and all the tiny handholdsmolded onto the kit. But the Revell kit is superior in havingboth turret hatches molded open, as well as the possibility ofeasily opening up the driver's hatch, with some careful surgery.There are also more options as far as the wheels, tracks and sideskirts are concerned, and it comes with spare fuel drums.

The markings are simple,giving two options. Although thin, as you can see they areprinted out of register, as always.

Unfortunately, I have onlya very few general references for this tank. According to these,the kit scales out well to 1/72nd, but I'll be able to bettermeasure it once it is built. All in all, this is anotheroutstanding model from one of the leaders in the today'smarketplace.

If anyone knows of a goodEnglish-language reference for the Leclerc, I would like to hearabout it. Thanks.