LeClerc T5

Manufacturer: ADV Mini

By Ludovic Bertrand.

These are some step in the building of the LECLERC kit that I do follow:

Remove all the casting blocks from the various parts.

• paint the road wheels, the idler wheels and all the area under the skirts in flat black,
• paint the sprocket flat black and the attached track links per the instructions,
• paint the track sections per the instructions (I use XF16, a mix of XF10 and XF16 for the metallic parts and a black permanent ink marker for the rubber parts),
• assemble the sprockets and track sections on the chassis and form the track sections to fit the wheels,
• paint the inner part of the rear skirts black and assemble them to the chassis,
• paint the inner parts of the front mud guard black and assemble it on the chassis nose,
• assemble the rest of the chassis parts except the towing cable (which should be black with steel dots to represent the wear).

At this stage I use paper tissue and maskol to mask the running gear before paint. I then assemble the turret minus the commander hatch, the figure and the rear storage box and basket.

Paint the commander station hole flat black and mask it.

The parts are then painted green XF 5. DO NOT USE THE LATEST TAMIYA NATO GREEN as it does not fit the french original colour. XF 5 with a wash of black oil paint gives a perfect colour.

Then I apply the camouflage of black and brown (you can use the TAMIYA NATO brown or the mix I recomend). Do not forget the commander hatch exterior face camouflage.

When the paint is cured, remove all the masking and finish the kit. The antennae are painted Humbrol 163 as are the antennae bases. The grenade launcher caps are satin black. The fire extinguisher and the decontamination bottle located near the front lights are Humbrol 163, the decontamination bottle is on the right side and has a yellow rectangular marking area on it. The fire extinguisher is aft of the left lights and has white markings. The exhaust pipe is black with silver dots to represent the paint wear, the top collar is silver on the outside. The wind sensor has a black tip.