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Modeller Build Logs
Scammell Pioneer R100 |
| By Alex Hill | | Started: | Sep 18, 2004 | | Updated: | Jan 31, 2005 |
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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.
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| Chapter 5 - A few components | Nov 20, 2004 |
This is a chapter in four parts to cover the modifications to some of the larger elements that won’t be getting attached until the final assembly stages, beginning with the stowage box.
On the full size vehicle this was intended as the home for the overall tracks. I intend fitting some of these, (more of which later) so in this case I’ll be leaving the box empty, but it seems that for most vehicles, the box is a good place to dump anything that would cause a hernia if you had to stow it in the rear body. A.A’s depiction of this part is a bit over simplified. For me it was a toss up whether to ditch it and scratch build another or try and improve on the original. Building my own would have given a more scale thickness to the walls of the piece, but, being reluctant to start chucking bits of a £100+ kit in the bin, I opted for the latter. The modifications shown in the picture are pretty straightforward. The main point to note is the re-shaping of the metal channel where the front of the box bolts to the chassis. The standard kit item will potentially foul the steering drop arm if it’s left in its original form.
Onto the doors. It would be nice to claim that I remodelled these bits to achieve the aforementioned ‘scale thickness’. However, thanks to an error on AA’s or (somewhat more likely) my part, I found that the kit items were a tad too small for the holes they had to fill and no amount of shuffling at the dry run stage would make up that critical half mil’.
Next up is the fuel tank. Very minor alterations here. Both steps were replaced, simply because the kit items were a little rounded on the edges. Not a fault as such, just a limitation in the casting. There’s also a bonus to doing this, as it allows a little daylight to pass though the upper step. Not particularly noticeable on the finished vehicle, but it’s a little extra refinement. The other change here was filing off the cast on level viewing glass and replacing it with a ring, which will take a Fingerprint Designs dial later on.
Last, and most complicated, part of the four is the radiator. AA provides mounting points for the core elements evenly spaced across the width of the radiator. This isn’t right. The elements should actually be in pairs, however, this is easily corrected by filling the existing slots in the radiator housing, trimming the elements to fit and reposition with some home made spacers. At this stage I fitted the kit photo etch back panel and did all the detailing work pictured. It was then that I had to vigorously kick myself. I’d done my dry runs to check the fit of the major components without attaching the fan to the engine. More fool me. Not only did the fan fail to line up with the fan tunnel I’d fixed onto the P.E back plate, it pushed the radiator well forward of it’s mounts on the chassis rails. Much swearing, measuring and juggling of parts followed. The end result is not perfect, (note the hole in mesh to accommodate the bolt which holds the fan) but it’s the best compromise I could achieve.
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