COBI Leopard 1 Set 3105

COBI's Leopard 1 is a 1:72 model built from 147 blocks, 12.5 cm long, with a turret that rotates and a barrel that elevates. Bundeswehr markings are printed onto the blocks.

They decided armour was pointless

The Leopard 1 is thinly armoured for a main battle tank, and that was a deliberate decision rather than a compromise.

When it was designed in the late 1950s, shaped-charge warheads had just become widespread and cheap. A single infantryman with a rocket launcher could burn through armour that no tank could realistically carry, and the conclusion drawn in Germany was that trying to armour against it was a losing race. If you cannot be protected, do not be hit: be fast, be small, and do not stay anywhere long.

So the Leopard 1 got a 830 hp engine in 40 tonnes, excellent mobility, and the British 105 mm gun that most of NATO adopted. It could go where heavier tanks could not and get out again.

The reasoning turned out to be wrong — composite armour in the 1970s made protection viable again, which is why the Leopard 2 is a very different vehicle — but the Leopard 1 sold to a dozen armies and some are still in service, including in Ukraine.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:72 mini series. Set 3104 is the M48 Patton, its NATO contemporary.

Specifications

Pieces: 147 · Scale: 1:72
Model dimensions: 12.5 × 5 cm (4.9 × 2.0 in)