Scammell + Valentine

Jean-Michel Tilquin
Looks promising!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Jean-Michel. I now built the engine, but it can still be improved upon. The replacement radiator is also used. It's important to remove the pinmarks, or the engine top will not fit.

Steven Van Dyck
It's a chore to clean up the two halves of each leaf spring, but at least they are well cast. It's also hard to line out the frame with the few traversing beams you get in the first steps. But I think the result is nice. I did have to add some detail to the front bumper leaf spring, this could have been copied from the aft one but for some reason they made the front one deficient. I drilled out the steering axle so I can change the wheel posiotion if I need to.

Jv
Looks amazing
Taking a seat

Steven Van Dyck
Welcome, JV. Today I discovered that the cogs in the winch don't have teething. I have a lot of spare cogs from cassette players, but none had enough teeth and the right diameter. I think you get to see only part of the wheel, so I removed the teeth of a smaller wheel and put these in stead of the edge of the kit wheel. I found a second cog for the drive wheel. Then I installed the winch.

Steven Van Dyck
The seats are covered with wine bottle foil to give them some realism.

Steven Van Dyck
I've done some work on the cabin now. It appeared that the Yahu set is completely useless for a Thunder Scammell transporter. The instrument panel is grossly undersized (though matching at least in lay-out with a design in my book) and the winch series number plate is for a Pioneer pick-up truck. So I had to go for the kit PE after all, this also matched with another image in the book so there were probably multiple lay-outs. Why did Yahu announce this to be a universally fitting set? I suppose that the Thunder Scammell has the same dashboard PE as the tank transporter? Further on I replaced the tarp with some sheet metal, to me the best option for folding tissue. To paint the interior, I used Tamiya Khaki Drab after removing some, but not all pinmarks.

Steven Van Dyck
I had to machine a part off the benches to make these fit, that's because of my added foil. But also the back plate has an impossible shape to assemble to the cabin in one piece, so I removed two strips of plastic. I used a brown wash and a drybrush and then the cabin was assembled. I will coat this matt later on.

Steven Van Dyck
The frame is completed with the after drive train, four wheels all on one axle. This is a dry-fit, I will first paint the frame and that means we'll now concentrate on the trailer first. One picture shows a frail part that even got a non-connected port.

Lex Jassies
Building the same model but then with the Matilda as cargo I will follow this build with great interest.
I had the same issue with the Yahu instrument panel, even for the IBG model it is to small. Very sloppy job Yahu! Decided to build my own.
The IBG kit (had this kit also) has nice small teeth on the big gear but the rest of the kit isn't up to the Thunder Model kit so I sold that kit. I think that your solution for the lack of tooth is ingenious 👍.
For so far I find both the tractor as the trailer build without any major issue.
Keep up the good work! 🙂

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Lex. I included here some pictures showing why I think the air filter has the wrong proportions. It is 10.5 mm through in the kit and I am replacing this with a 9mm aluminum tube. This way it is also easy to replace the springs with copper wire. I also had to replace some PE that was missing in the kit to connect the fifth wheel to its shock absorbers.

Lex Jassies
Good work Steven 👍.
Remembering your build of the Atomic Gun, I knew you are very able to make something very detailed of this kit 🙂
I agree that the oil filter is to short in the kit, about the diameter, hmm.....
[img1]

Don't you think that the etchings in the kit are way to thin? I replaced the majority with 0,3 0,4 and 0,5 styreen.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Lex. I did notice that it is used for objects with varying thickness.

Steven Van Dyck
The trailer is further assembled. The floor planking looks better if regraved and I suspect it is missing support profiles.

David Taylor
Watching.

Steven Van Dyck
The ramps are reinforced with a metal pin, it's easy to oversee and clip the kit part. The towing eyes have a bad fit in the rear profile and can cause some warping.

Steven Van Dyck
A figure from SKP is made. The jacks under the trailer get some intricate PE. For the trunk on the underside it is important to first glue the sides, its possible to assemble it all wrong if you first build the front.

Steven Van Dyck
The Scammell is now painted in Tamiya Khaki Drab. The engine is painted metallic. The EZ Models wheels, painted in semi-gloss black masked with a circle cutter are now fixed to the truck. This will prevent damage to the frail underside of the trailer. The Valentine hull is now under construction.

Lex Jassies
Glad to see this one back in the theater 😉

Steven Van Dyck
The dio for the Scammell is cast in plaster. Some figure sets are ordered to make an El Alamein setting out of it. Some Italian captives will be ushered forward by English infantry and an Arab coffee vendor with a lazy dromedary will appear. This Firestorm animal is not yet on Scalemates but I'll add it when it arives here. Some Verlinden palm trees will be a good fit here.

Steven Van Dyck
The Verlinden palm trees are completed after the resin bubbles are filled in. I got no instructions with them so I hope the botanists among you will not be upset. Lots of other accessories were entered today, I had to make an item for the Firestorm dromedary on Scalemates. The English Infantry will guard some Italian POWs while an Arab vendor will pass by offering a drink. I completed some of the easier figures, but the injection kits will be built later today. The Valentine got some Voyager hinges making use of a small drill to align them with the hull.

Steven Van Dyck
Seven figures are made. Five of them will be prisoners of war, so some of them have their hands in the air. Some other changes will have to be done to them, they have still their ammo bandoliers left. The English seem eager to rein them in.

Lex Jassies
A lot is going to happen there 😉

Steven Van Dyck
It seemed necessary to remove the engine hood to make the protective hatch fit, but it was all caused by an error I made earlier on. Anyone building this model should pay very much attention to the intended location of the rear plates, even the reviewers admit they made errors there. Luckily the PE hinges were perfect, though the bolts can go missing. I also did some painting on the dio base.

Steven Van Dyck
The tracks are now finished from the extra AFV set. They can be assembled like a real workable set,j if you remove some damaged parts. Some of these were warped on one corner of the sprue. If you remove these and count the extras that came with the kit, you get about 10 spares. The most tedious job is removing the hunderds of ejector marks, thsi works fastest on the assembled tracks. I also took a look at the the Voyager fender parts.

Pietro De Angelis
Great and impressive work,
fantastic attention to detail,
congrats!

Bruce Huxtable
A great deal of careful and skilled work going on here! Watching, learning and being inspired! 👍

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks for the compliments, gents! The fenders are assembled to the Valentine, but you have to choose between the straight kit parts or the wobbly embossed PE set. The fender brackets can only mend this a bit, but these are riddled with microscopic PE hexnuts.

Lex Jassies
Yep, sometimes working with PE can be a real pain in the butt. But when you succeed it's very rewarding 😊

Steven Van Dyck
Some metal boxes get piano hinges. These are made using a brass wire. Contrary to the manual, the hinges are best fixed before they are bent.

Steven Van Dyck
In another topic (Scammell Transporter in North Africa | Album by Higgscott (1:35)) it was made clear to me that there is an error in my setup. Apparently the early 30 ton TRCU, the trailer without the goose neck has never been seen on North Africa pictures. After some preliminary investigations I found out that there are some modellers out there that made the same mistake or just did not care about the difference. At first I thought I had a dilemma, either buy the right trailer that is still widely available, pry my LZ tyres off the existing trailer and onto the new one, or dump the Valentine again, set aside the still loose figures and remodel the Scammell dio in an European theatre. But I realize that my newest addition to the project, bought at SMC this weekend, only leaves open the first option: [img1]

Steven Van Dyck
A new trailer it will be. It's a good thing the bogies with the resin tires are so fiddly, they could be reused from the old trailer.

Bogicevic Vladimir
Steven, I am so glad that you have found a solution. Following...

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Vladimir. The new trailer is almost finished. It has a lot more PE but it is also harder to assemble the front part with all the angles in it. I included an old picture of the tank with the exhaust on it. I still have to start on the turret.

Steven Van Dyck
The LZ Models figures are assembled; The Enfields are nicely detailed but the soft resin is very warped.

Steven Van Dyck
Some tools are added in photo etch or schrach. I use the Voyager pieces though some are identical to the kit PE. The tank turret is now assembled and sports the aluminum barrel, though I also got some BESA barrels.

Steven Van Dyck
The Brengun is mounted on the turret, but the drum magazine seems positioned wrong by AFV. I think I need to remove the carrying handle from the gun to be able to add the drum correctly. I also wonder if the English at Alamein would still have white hatch insides as proposed by the manual. The Orange Hobby Besa magazines are a neat little kit, but I replaced the all-around embossing with a thread to avoid warping.