Designed to replace the AMX-30 as France’s main battle tank, the Leclerc entered service in 1992. In addition to providing the French army’s armored fist, the third-generation tank has been sold to the United Arab Emirates, whose armed forces have deployed them to Yemen as part of Saudi-led combat operations.
Originally produced by Ace for Revell, the tooling for Academy’s 1/72 scale Leclerc plastic model tank dates back to the early 2000s. The surface detail on the plastic parts comprises restrained panel lines, small, raised rivets and bolts, and decent engine screens. The suspension arms are molded in place on the separate hull sides and the various wheels get fitted with link-and-length tracks. The tracks aren’t bad on the outside surfaces, but lack detail inside, and the individual links to the sprockets and idlers are fiddly. They were, for me, the only problem during the build, but I waited to install them until after painting the assembled hull rather than before attaching the sides and running gear to the hull. Otherwise, the engineering is designed to capture some features, like the inset vision ports on the hull with minimal parts.
Decals provide registration numbers and names for five tanks in standard French camouflage, three in Kosovo and two in France.
Leaving the wheels on the parts trees, assembly of the hull moved quickly helped by good fits. Note there are detailed color callouts throughout the instructions, but you may want to hold off painting things like headlights and sighting optics until the camouflage is done.
Small parts such as towing rings and lifting hooks are separate, and by nature tiny, but nothing a steady hand and tweezers can’t deal with.
The main gun is divided in half, but the cleanup of the seam was a snap. It is designed to snap into the mantlet and be movable, but the friction fit didn’t work. So, I established a position and glued it in place. The loader’s and commander’s hatches are posable, but there’s nothing to see inside, so I left them buttoned up.
I left the side skirts off for painting and attaching the running gear. Unfortunately, the marking instructions are black-and-white, so telling the colors apart is difficult. I used the instructions from a Tamiya 1/35 scale Leclerc to get them right. The decals come off the paper quickly so don’t leave them in the water; they responded well to Microscale Micro Sol and Micro Set over gloss.
Other than getting the tracks wrapped around the wheels under the fenders, the final assembly of the Academy 1/72 scale Leclerc plastic model tank went off without a hitch. The final model looks the part and would be perfect next to a 1/72 scale Abrams or Leopard. If you’ve built a couple of models with small parts, you shouldn't have any problems.