JeroenS

I spotted one of those chunky big Granada's too, yesterday

Amazing, love the colour. It looks real indeed.

Wow John, another lovely truck!

I think you are the man to talk to when it comes to "number of kits started" Alan

Thanks Spiny. Well, I like having finished a kit very much, unfortunately, actually finishing it goes first I like the energy starting something gives me, and now that I have I can put this energy to good use for the Benz. It will get done, don't worry!

I totally agree... Very nice. It looks absolutely marvelous in the pictures with the airplane.

Having just finished a small scale Scammel over in the AFV section, I wanted to start a new build. I like starting much better than finishing so I've been looking forward to this one for a while. I allow myself two builds at the same time, otherwise I'll just end up with a bunch of half built kits. Anyway, I have a few nice trucks in my stash but the first I wanted to start is this T143, I just love the looks of these Torpedo nosed Scania's. The plan is to build it OOB, but I want to lift the rear axle and I also want to sneak in some plumbing and a wire or two on the chassis. And maybe have the standing exhaust pipes. Plus, I don't know about the wheels provided with the kit, they're not bad but I might get a resin set like I have for the Benz. I'll have to see how they look with some paint on. This is the box: Now, I know this truck actually exists in this colour scheme, but I'm not going to put poultry on my truck. I have a lot of reference shots and I always like something like this or this So, we'll see. I kind of like the dark blue for now. The box contains a good heap of plastic, I'm not doing sprue shots but there's quite a few of 'm. I got started and I've built up the chassis. The thing is over 30cm long. Interestingly, the first thing the instructions have you do is make a couple of cuts in the chassis beams, remove 12mm from them, then glue them back together ... The same chassis is probably used for another Italeri truck which is 12mm longer. Later on, the driveshaft will also have to be shortened by the aforementioned 12mm. Anyway, I got it back together nice and straight, but it's no warming-up and straight in the deep end on page 1. The fit of the parts is good so far, very little flash but rather prominent mold lines on just about every part. So, lots of sanding which slows the build down a bit. I've been doing quite a bit of research on whether this truck has leaf spring suspension in real life (like in the kit) or air. Luckily, I found that although some have air suspension, a lot of them have the leaf spring suspension with the lift axle. Which is great, because what I'd like to do is lift the rear axle like in the photo of the blue T143 above. Here you can see the suspension with the lift axle. The kit does not provide an option for lifting the rear axle so I had to make some modifications (uhm well, that's more like "cut away some plastic") to be able to move the rear axle up on both sides (the middle part is fixed in place) while at the same time making sure the drive axle stays in the correct place (it is connected to the leaf springs only). You can see that I removed some material from the end of the leaf spring where it connects to the "drums" on the rear axle. I didn't glue these drums in place so they now move freely up and down. In the end, after I mount the wheels, I can move the axle up and glue it in place. I did a dry fit with the wheels and mud guards in place and I was relieved to see that it worked out like I wanted. This is the completed chassis, with wheels and rear mud guards on one side. The front wheels move, that's nice, and all wheels touch the ground which is also very pleasant. Rear axle in down position: And in lifted position: Nice! Next up is adding battery box, air tanks and fuel tank to the chassis so I can figure out how much wires I'm adding and where. Thanks for watching!

Very nice. Which grey did you use on the bumper and mud guards?

Cracking build Rich, love it!

Do you use hot water to heat the plastic?

That's some nice scratchbuilding! What's your method of bending rod, like you did with the D-rings?

Hi all, I'm calling it done. RFI here:

Well, here's my first ever armoured build, and it will definitely not be my last. I started out wanting to build something in small scale and I got the Scammel tractor / transporter combination for a small price from a second hand site. Then I thought, what's a tank transporter without a tank so I purchased the Cromwell to go with it. I don't know very much about armour but I figured they would fit together. Both are nice kits to build although it's evident that the Scammel is a much older kit. The Cromwell went together just like that, while the Scammel took a bit more effort. The Scammel does lack a bit in detail so I added some small things like a rearview mirror, a pulley and some more items on the back of the tractor. Also the headlights were horrible but I managed to make them look a little better. To the transporter, which is also quite basic, I added track guiding blocks, stays for the ramps and a couple of pulleys. I didn't add anything to the Cromwell apart from the two aerials (thin copper wire), but I did replace the headlamp brush guards with brass wire as the ones from the kit were out of scale. The tank is not loaded with boxes and stuff and has no battle damage, I figure it's a new tank which has been out for a test drive or something. As I was building the kits and looking online for reference material it became clear that you cannot just put the tank on the transporter and be done with it. I wanted to add detail for that so I found some nice looking chain, shackles, tow hooks and cables on ebay. Apart from that, I scratched a towing yoke and a pulley block. I spent quite a bit of time on all of this but I find it's well worth it. WIP here: Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out, but there's enough to improve on the next build. I liked this one so much I went ahead and got Takom's 1/72 M1070 / M1000 combi with the bulldozer on it, which should keep me busy for a while Enough said, here are some pics: Full album here Thanks for watching, and for the tips and encouragements along the way! Much appreciated.

Looking good, sorry to hear about your troubles with the marriage of chassis and body. It's always a nervous moment .... One thing, isn't it sitting a bit high in the back?

Wow, nice project and it's going very well by the looks of it. I love those Scania trucks.