Assembled model 1/35 tank Leopard 1A4 Heller 81126

Leopard 1 is a modern German main battle tank of the second generation. The first prototypes of the machine were created in 1961, and serial production continued in 1965-1979, ending with the release of more than 4,700 tanks. Leopard 1 is equipped with an MTU MB 838 Ca-M engine with a capacity of 830 hp. The machine is armed with one L7 A3 105 mm semi-automatic cannon and two MG3 7.62 mm machine guns.

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Leopard 1 was created in response to a demand for a new main battle tank announced by the Bundeswehr in 1956. The new machine was supposed to replace the American tanks M47 and M48. Design work and design tests were continued until 1965, which can be partly explained by an unsuccessful attempt to establish cooperation with French companies on the new machine. But in the end, a highly advanced tank was created, with good weapons for those times, good armor, low failure rate and, as it turned out, very susceptible to modernization. In the course of serial production and operation, several experimental versions of the Leopard 1 tank were created. The first was version A 1 with a new gun stabilization system. An A 3 version was also created with a completely new turret design and better armor. In 1974, production of the A4 version began, with a new SKO (fire control system) and even more advanced turret armor. The last mass production version was the A 6 with an improved SKO over the A 5 version and better hydraulics. There were also upgrades made by foreign users, e.g. Leopard C2, that is, the modernization of the Canadian Leopard 1 tank of 2000, which consists in strengthening the armor and using the turret from version A 5. Due to its high combat value, Leopard 1 was exported to many countries, including: Brazil, Belgium, Chile, Greece, the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy. It is still in use in some of them (Italy or Greece).

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< span style="background-color: #ffffff;font-weight: bold;">glue and paints are not included in the set