My possession of a Radio
Controlled (RC) 1:25-scale Leopard-2A5 Main Battle Tank (MBT) is
not the result of a male toddler's instinctive fancy to play on anything that
emits loud grinding motor sound, blinking lights, and rolling wheels but rather of a
grown man who never got his childish genome totally deactivated. I saw the
featured replica battle tank in a local hobby store more than a decade ago, and although I
don’t know what kind of Tank it is since then was the days before reliable Internet; its multi-function remote
control features is curiosity-candy to the innermost seven years old me. The
scale model has a full function directional control, 360 degrees rotating
turret and 30 degrees angle traversing main gun barrel, two forward speed, detailed
rubber caterpillar tracks, and for me the most "impaktoful" feature is the 6mm-BB balls firing system; you can
shoot “BB balls” while simultaneously running the model at full speed, rotating
the turret and traversing the barrel … “if”, your fingers is flexible enough to
handle its awkwardly shaped remote “transmitter”. Although the owner's manual advice users to be cautious when using the “shooting “
function because it may cause injury to the eyes and other facial entry points, in actuality
the force of the BB projectile is not substantial enough even to scare away that
sleeping mongrel cat on our outdoor-kitchen’s floor.
Ancient systematized armies like of
the Roman legion, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians etc… have use some form of
enclosed monstrous apparatus to attack enemies with relative protection from
hostile missiles being counter slung at them. Fourteenth century Italian Renaissance man Leonardo da’ Vinci’s draft of a human powered “armored vehicle” with
protruding array of cannons is
acknowledged by many as the “Great Grandfather Concept” of a modern battle tank
proposed four hundred years before the British use the first purpose built modern “tracked” tanks in an
organized offensive at the 1916 “Battle
of Somme” in France during World War I (WWI), in the same era the French also
introduced the tank’s familiar present-day design configuration. Originally
to be called “Land battleship” by the Brits the codename “Tank” was adopted to hide the
true nature of the new secret weapon from the Germans.
After WWI the
victorious U.S, Britain
and France
continue to rely on large infantry forces as the effective measure of their
nation’s armed forces, armed armored vehicles are only viewed as support weapons in offensive
actions, the defeated Germany
on the otherwise secretly rebuilt its military with emphasis on developing
tactics for a highly mechanized force consisting of tanks and warplanes that
will operate in conjunction to each other this resulted in the chaotic derouting
of combined “Allied” armies during Germany’s
“Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)” invasion of mainland Europe
at the onset of World War II (WWII).
In keeping with Germany’s
reputation as innovative tank designers in basis of their legendary “Tiger I” of WWII, the real twenty-first
century Leopard 2-A5
is a variant
in the line of Leopard tanks which begun its development in the shadow
of the Cold War in the former "West Germany”, it's basic mission as part
of the NATO forces is for a mass face to face
confrontation with “Warsaw Pact” nation’s MBTs in the wide open plains of Eastern Europe
and Russia. As
the “cold war” eventually ended, the Leopard’s development was re-aligned as
the service demand of the time changes. The Leopard 2 is reputedly the “best tank
in the world “for some independent weapons reviewer, the basic unclassified characteristics of the
tank is its “on the move” self stabilizing 120mm
main guns, computerized target
acquisition and firing system, composite reactive armor, up to 70kph
road speed, poison gas and radioactive fallout protection for its four crew, other Leopard
II’s with specialized capabilities are designated as 2-A6 and 2-A7s. Leopard
IIs was used by the Germans as part of the controversial NATO intervening force
in “Kosovo”, by the Danish and
Canadians as part of “International Security assistance Force (ISAF)” in “Afghanistan”. Other notable present operators of the Leopard II are Singapore,
Indonesia, Norway and Portugal.
The 1:25th scale Leopard 2A5 “plastic” model that is the main visual subject of this blogpost is by “Academy scale models” and its radio control functionality is quite an appealing premium at the time I got it considering the limited variety of such novelty item in my location, I though I had to own it to better appreciate its beautiful panel details, intricate mechanical assembly, sophisticated electronic composition and the impressive technical and artistic know-how that was harnessed to create such a scale model; or in none mumbo-jambo terms … I bought it out of shameful impulse.
No crew figures was included with the Tank model, the figures in the photo(above) are scratch-modified generic toy action figures, the height are in scale but body mass proportions are quite inaccurate.
A short demo Video of the 1:25 scale model German Leopard 2
