First non-German customer for the Leopard 1, the Belgian Army received 334 Leopard 1BE between 1968 and 1971.
Apart from the Belgian FN 7.62mm MAG co-axial and top-mounted machine gun, the Belgian Leopard were at first almost identical to the German ones. Some modifications were implemented in the 70s, like the big external toolboxes and a thermal sleeve for the main gun. Also between 1974 and 1977 all the Belgian Leopard were updated with a weapon stabilisation system and part of them (120) also received a new and very modern for the time Fire Control System developed by the indigenous firms SABCA (the rest were only updated between 1980 and 1985), this version of the Leopard becoming know officially as the Leopard 1 AVLS/SACT.
© C.Bray
© C. Bray
© C. Bray
For all informations about these vehicles and fantastic photo walk-around, I can only recommend the exceptional serie of books by Patrick Winnepenninckx by Trackpad publishing.
The kit is the Leopard 1A2 from Italeri, an old one but still a very good base to work with. (made 2014-15)
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