The usual glossy covered instruction booklet completes the package with nice clear instructions in black and white.
Inside the box is quite a lot of styrene, including seven sprues in a dark olive-green styrene, five in a dark brown styrene, the hull and upper turret parts, clear sprue, Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret, a sprue of flexible poly-caps, and a single flexible "rubber" flap that attaches to the mantlet. The box is typical Meng - top-opening, satin finished and with a nice painting of the tank in front of a French flag. The size of the beast was evident to all, and although it dominated the stand, it was evidently a compact MBT. News of the AMX-30B was announced flamboyantly at Scale Model World 2012 by Meng, who as well as sponsoring a hall, arranged for an AMX-30B to be present next to their stand. 30 of this type were used by the French during the cold war, and each one had a small drone that could be used to obtain up-to-date information on targets before launch.
The AMX-30B was the first variant into service, but a basic AMX-30 was produced for export, along with a bridge-layer, recovery vehicle, Anti-Aircraft vehicle, and even a nuclear missile launcher, which was a curious looking beast with a rectangular missile tube that housed only the rear of the Pluton short-range missile. They achieved their aim, destroying several tanks, and various soft skinned vehicles during their mission. Qatari and French forces last used them in the first Gulf War, with their force placed strategically to avoid the more modern T-72s that the Iraqis had on strength. The new Leclerc sounded the death knell for the AMX-30 with the French army, with drawdown beginning in the late 90s. It was an export success, with orders from Cyprus, Qatar, Saudi and Chile amongst others, with a total of over 3,500 produced over its long life span. Its transmission turned out to be a weak point however, so was soon upgraded to cope with the power of the engine.
The AMX-30 weighed in at 36 tonnes, and was faster than its competition due to its lighter weight and powerful 700+hp diesel engine. The result was the AMX-30, which was a non-standard solution for the time, sacrificing armour in the name of size and manoeuvrability, the thinking being that the weight of armour needed to survive a direct hit from modern weapons of the time would result in a large ponderous tank that would present an easy target. After dabbling with home-grown and US purchased M47 Patton tanks following WWII, and then attempting to collaborate with other nations to produce a suitable modern Main Battle Tank ( MBT), France decided to go-it-alone after the nations couldn't agree on a common set of requirements (nothing new there).
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