Soldier almost left model (7)
I believe the answer is:
paragon
'model' is the definition.
(paragon is a kind of model)
'soldier almost left' is the wordplay.
'soldier' becomes 'para' (para is a kind of soldier**).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'left' becomes 'gone' (I've seen this before).
'gone' with its last letter removed is 'gon'.
'para'+'gon'='PARAGON'
(Other definitions for paragon that I've seen before include "Exemplar" , "Very good example" , "Perfect diamond" , "Perfect embodiment of a concept" , "Role model" .)