Modeller Build Logs

Scammell Pioneer R100

The Scammell Pioneer must surely rank as one of the most charismatic military vehicles. Having been around in various guises since 1927, many Pioneers are still earning a living as show-mans wagons and recovery trucks, so the design can probably lay claim to the title of longest serving vehicle as well. This kind of longevity only comes from good solid engineering and strokes of genius from the designers at Scammells’ Watford plant and Gardners’ Manchester engine factory. In many ways it was the fitting of the Gardner 6LW power unit to the Pioneer that made the vehicles reputation for soldier proof reliability. The engine featured advanced (at the time) lubrication and injection systems. Combined with Scammells’ transmission and static, non-pressurised, cooling system (hence the ‘coffee pot’ radiator), Pioneers could be expected to give a hundred thousand miles of trouble free running. Most of Gardners’ competitors were struggling to produce an engine that would pass one third of that mileage without at least needing the main bearings replaced. The attention to longevity didn’t stop there. The winch mechanism is something close to a work of art. At a time when a winch was basically an overgrown cotton reel hitched to the vehicles’ p.t.o, the Scammell employed every trick in the book (to be covered in more detail in later chapters) to ensure the winch rope was never kinked or over stressed. Truly a magnificent machine with a capacity to invoke a sentimental fondness that means there will probably still be a handful of Pioneers earning their living on (or off!) the road in fifty years time when most of the current crop of M.V’s are relegated to gathering dust in museums. Which brings me to my (hopefully never-ending) quest to build the perfect 1/35 Pioneer. The kit is of course the excellent Accurate Armour rendition of the R100 artillery tractor. In my BLOG I’ll be adding as much detail to the base model as I can, improving those parts which can be improved upon and making one or two changes just to illustrate the differences which were built in during the Pioneers’ production run. Of course an artillery tractor needs something to hang of the rear hitch, so I’ll be adding Accurate Armours’ 7.2’’ Howitzer.