[91ken]

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and almost bid on it. The seller doesn't give a manufacturer, material or scale, although it looks to similar to the 1:60 scale Del Prado Leopard. Also, the inscription on the base doesn't make any sense. A West German Gepard in Leipzig in 1979? At that time, Leipzig was part of East Germany. As for "RDF", the only thing I can think of is "Rapid Deployment Force", but did such a unit even exist in 1979 - and in Leipzig of all places?



Edit: If the inscription read "1999", it might make sense. Maybe that's the error.

[Legio LXXII]

That's a 1/72 scale Altaya vehicle. At the moment they're only sold in Europe, but should be available in North America at some point. The complete listing can be found at the following link below...

Military Diecast 1/72 - Altaya

[watou06]

Originally Posted by 91ken

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and almost bid on it. The seller doesn't give a manufacturer, material or scale, although it looks to similar to the 1:60 scale Del Prado Leopard. Also, the inscription on the base doesn't make any sense. A West German Gepard in Leipzig in 1979? At that time, Leipzig was part of East Germany. As for "RDF", the only thing I can think of is "Rapid Deployment Force", but did such a unit even exist in 1979 - and in Leipzig of all places?



Edit: If the inscription read "1999", it might make sense. Maybe that's the error.

I believe RDF means east germany

[91ken]

Originally Posted by Legio LXXII

That's a 1/72 scale Altaya vehicle. At the moment they're only sold in Europe, but should be available in North America at some point. The complete listing can be found at the following link below...

Military Diecast 1/72 - Altaya

Thanks, that appears to be it.

[91ken]

Originally Posted by watou06

I believe RDF means east germany

I doubt it. I speak German and I can't think of anything abbreviated RDF in that language, militarily related. You might be thinking of DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) or NVA (Nationale Volksarmee).
If you google rdf army, nothing substantial comes up either, at least not on the first two pages, just a bunch of stuff about Ireland's Reserve Defense Forces and various rapid deployment forces in Africa and Asia. At first I thought RDF might be a reference to the Franco-German brigade, but apparently that's not it either.
Regardless of what RDF means, the inscription on the base would only make sense if the 1979 is a typo which should instead read 1999.

Unless politics is even more conspiratorial than I thought, there were definitely no Gepards in Leipzig in 1979.

[Canucklehead]

RDF also stands for "Radio Direction Finding", which might refer to the radar mounting. I'm not too up on my armor, is it possible to have an AA tank with radar controlled guns?

[Armour Addict]

Uhm, the NVA or DDR definitely had no Gepard SPAAGs!!!

The Gepard has been used by the Bundeswehr only!

It can only be a typo by Atalya.