On Heather's Workbench - 1/76th QF 3.7 inch Anti-Aircraft Gun(s) and Scammell Pioneer tractor

[Heather Kay]

As you probably know, especially if you also follow the fun in the aircraft parts of this forum, I have a thing about 1940. I am attempting to build an example of every type of aircraft that served in some military capacity during that single year. The thing is I also like to make little dioramas or vignettes of finished models. As part of that it is handy to have suitable model vehicles and figures.

 

What then happens is I disappear down the odd rabbit hole. In this case, I found myself deciding to build models representing Anti-Aircraft Command, which was responsible for mobile and fixed anti-aircraft artillery and searchlights. Although technically part of the British Army, it came under RAF operational direction as part of Air Defence of Great Britain during the late 1930s. As an aside, I also intend to represent Balloon Command, so that’ll be fun. A barrage balloon was not a small item!

 

Cutting a rambling prologue short, I have already built something representing Light Ack-Ack, using the venerable Airfix Morris CS and 40mm Bofors as the basis. For that, I built one gun deployed for action, and one in travelling mode with the tractor. For the Heavy Ack-Ack, I needed to do something similar.

 

The only kit for the most common heavy AA gun in British service at the time, the QF 3.7in, is from Milicast Models. A pair of kits were duly ordered, plus a set of gun crew figures. An impulse buy at a show found me owning an IBG Scammell Pioneer artillery tractor. Yes, I know that’s 1/72nd scale, but I think I am prepared to put up with the mild discrepancy. Besides, the only real kit alternative comes from Milicast. I think I’ll leave that there.

 

 

I have to admit that I pulled one of the Milicast boxes off the shelf and had a look over the contents, only to carefully pack it all away again. I think this photo explains why. So many small parts, so much flash, not a clue where any of it was supposed to go! The instructions were, well, unclear. At least Milicast have the gumption to apologise for them. Anyway, close inspection of the various parts revealed the worst - something I have come to expect from these kits: lots of bubbles and flash, very thin castings breaking through in places (mudguards the worst), and inevitable damage to fragile parts. I can’t fault the skill of the guy that made the masters, I have to say. I would like to see the guy that pours the resin make a better job of it.

 

 

To make matters worse, everything was covered in release agent. I am not sure anything had been washed once popped out of the mould. A couple of goes in a small ultrasonic bath, using plain tap water with a dash of washing-up liquid, got some of it off. A stiff, flat nylon brush and some 99% isopropyl alcohol dealt with the rest. I then spent a while comparing the “sprues” with the instructions and transferring the part numbers so I could find things fairly quickly. I prefer not to cut everything off the sprue unless it’s blindingly obvious what everything is. Something as fiddly as this gun wouldn’t be blindingly obvious.

 

 

The instructions don’t really follow a set path, the only important thing to know from the outset is whether you’re building the gun in deployed or travelling form. I decided to make a start with the basic shooty parts. In the upper left is the single piece gun cradle. Yes, that is daylight you can see through the casting. It is very, very thin. The barrel is moulded with a metal rod in it, which you can just make out at the muzzle end. Until I get some primer on the thing, I won’t know if that area needs more attention.

 

The instructions uses annotated photos for you to follow. Sadly, the photos are reproduced at a very low resolution, and it’s very hard to confirm the shape of a part or where it’s supposed to go. I dug around the interwebs and got as many photos of the real thing as I could find. If you’re tempted to have a bash at this kit, I recommend you do the same!

 

 

Anyway, after a while, I had the main offensive part of the gun more or less cleaned up and assembled. Some parts refused to fit on straight, but CA glue and resin being what they are, once in place that was it. Aligning the barrel in the upper carriage was trying, but I think I got it pretty straight. When I come to build the emplaced gun, I will try and figure out a way to attach things with some wriggle room.

 

 

After some more intense study, and peering at various photos, the fiddly bits were attached to the gun cradle and upper carriage. The gun is still loose at the moment, so I have a chance to prime and paint the main subassemblies before joining it all together. So, that’s the bang-bang part pretty much done. Attention turned to the limber.

 

 

For this build, the model will be in travelling mode. I have got as far as cleaning up the front and rear carriage parts, and fitting the mudguards. These will need some careful filler work, as the resin is fag paper thin and breaking through. I will leave the wheels off until they’re painted. Likewise, the towing rod will be left until it can be matched to the tractor unit hitch. There is still a lot of fiddly detail to fit, and the outriggers to assemble.

 

I got this far in about five hours or so. Although the number of tiny parts looks daunting, once you commit to actually putting it together it doesn’t take too long. More exciting resin mangling soon!

[echen]

Looks to me like you're not just really good at building wingy-things.

[Heather Kay]

22 minutes ago, echen said:

Looks to me like you're not just really good at building wingy-things.

Ssh! Don’t let on!

[echen]

OK I'll keep quiet about it.

[Maddoxx77]

This is looking really good. I've never worked with resin parts before so u think i will follow with interest. Much to learn here. 

[Dave Slowbuild]

Love your choice of builds Heather.  Looking forward to the vignette at the very end!
 

Dave

[Courageous]

Welcome down in the Armour Heather, I like your choice. I have only built one Milicast model myself, a truck and fortunately I've managed keep guns away from the stash but what you've got going here is looking nice. Good work.

 

Stuart

[TheBaron]

Five hours well spent I'd say Heather.  I very much enjoy following your fascination with 1940 no matter what the item concerned, and this is no exception. 👏

[Heather Kay]

Cheers chaps! 

 

I have, in the nooks and crannies right at the back of my mind, an idea of telling some sort of story. 1940 was the first full year of war, and you can begin to see the tectonic plates sliding into position and setting things up for the following years.

 

The next instalment will have to show some of the kit parts in close up. It’s not often pretty.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

3 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

The next instalment will have to show some of the kit parts in close up. It’s not often pretty.

Gidday Heather, close-ups quite often aren't, but I like the gun so far. Mounted in it's cradle like that it looks like a piece that "means business". Regards, Jeff.

[Heather Kay]

1 hour ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Mounted in it's cradle like that it looks like a piece that "means business".

It was no slouch. The 3.7 fired a heavier shell than most of its contemporaries in service in other countries, and could lob it to around 30,000ft. Later in the war, an automatic fuze setter device was used which meant the gun could fire up to 20 rounds a minute. The thing was heavier, around 8 tons in travelling setup which is a couple of tons heavier than the German Flak 88. Barrel wear was the biggest problem, especially if used for direct fire and anti-tank roles.

 

A fascinating bit of kit.

[Graham Boak]

"My" 3.7" was a white metal one, which certainly conveyed some of the heft.  I hadn't heard of it being used for direct fire/anti-tank, other than during the siege of Tobruk, though there's no lack of comment of the "i wish" kind.  I read that the problems were its weight, difficulty/slowness of changing it from the travelling mode and the lack of a suitable mounting.

 

I'm a bit surprised to see your problems with Milicast mouldings, not having seen any such problems with the subjects I have.  Perhaps I should make more of them and I might find some more?  I do however have their 3" AA gun. which was the other standfast of our defences.  This is an ex-Trux kit I believe.  I do agree wholeheartedly about the limitations of the "instructions", but the one that baffles me is the D7 bulldozer - the older one not the new one.  This has been put into the "too difficult for now" pile.

[Heather Kay]

After a bit of break, because the mojo bimbled off and we had a heatwave and I’ve got so much paying work to do, I finally got back to this build today.

 

 

I had left things with the front and rear limber axles assembled. I thought it would be fun to show just how thin the resin is in places. I have no beef with the guy who made the masters for this kit. He has done a superb job all told, but I do think he would have been better served by not attempting to go for scale thicknesses. A bit more beef here and there would have helped avoid having to fill holes in mudguards like these.

 

There’s not much for the filler to grab on to, so I decided to glue the wheels in as backing. There’s not a lot of air between the wheels and mudguards on the real thing.

 

Then, what with one thing and another, the limbers got attached to the gun platform assembly. Then I posed the rest of the gun, because why not. It’s quite a surprise how little ground clearance there was. I wouldn’t have liked to haul it over any rough ground.

 

Details went on. Again, the rough casting wasn’t any help. All the jack handwheels lost their handles during cleaning up. Bubbles, miscasts and broken bits everywhere. I was getting a bit despondent, if I’m honest. To make matters worse, the wheels are generally pointing in various directions due to the resin axles being twisted. It doesn’t look too bad if you don’t look too closely, but I’m not very happy about it. Thankfully, the front limber wheels are both pointing slightly off to the right, as if the unit was being steered. Could be worse.

 

 

Time to tackle the outriggers. For the travelling setup, these are glued folded up. There are cable stays to hold them in place on the prototype, which I’m going to quietly ignore at this scale.   The task is separating the screw bars, sole plates and outriggers from the pour blocks. Those long ribbed parts represent chain that was used to haul the rear limber off the deck when the gun was deployed. Most photos actually show it should be block and tackle, but I’m not arguing about it.

 

 

An outrigger, top view.

 

 

An outrigger, bottom … oh, my goodness. What a mess! Now, to be fair, on closer inspection, there is detail there. It takes a little care to carve away the excess from the pour block, and it will never win any awards, but it faces inwards in travelling mode and downwards when in firing mode. Once again, make the best of it.

 

More than once, I’ve almost decided to model a tarpaulin over this to hide the worst excrescences.

 

I drilled through the ends of the outriggers to take the raising bars. I also drilled through where the securing spikes go into the outrigger and down into the ground in firing mode. The sole plates were also drilled to take some brass rod to give a better fixing than a butt joint.

 

Outriggers kind of attached. The fit is vague, but it looks about right. Something that puzzled me at first was the sole plates being inboard when the outriggers are folded. I couldn’t work out where the outriggers could rotate to accomplish this, but I couldn’t imagine the crew being tasked with inverting the sole plates before hooking up to the tractor and scooting off to the next location. I eventually realised the outriggers rotated at the hinge point.

 

I get there eventually.

 

You can make out the curved derricks either side of the barrel. They’re the things the "chains" attach to. The rear limber is literally hoisted up and rested on the front of the gun cradle, where it swings around with the whole gun. I guess it worked as something of a counterbalance as well. Hopefully, this will show better when I build the deployed gun.

 

All this lot now needs a coat of primer and painting to begin. I’m minded to kick off the Scammell next, mainly as a break from really crappy resin parts. The quality of the casting doesn’t make me want to recommend this kit to anyone. Frankly, it would put me off the Milicast range entirely - which is why I haven’t invested in their Scammell tractor - which is a huge shame because they’re about the only source for an impressive range of AFV and soft skin models at this scale. Perhaps I’ve just been unlucky with the quality, but I’ve now built three Milicast resin kits and they’ve all had the same problems of excessive flash, miscasting and massive air bubbles.

[Milan Mynar]

This is an outstanding work, some time  I have opportunity to build resin kits. There is necessary to have a lot of detemination to build these kits. 

[echen]

IBG Scammell R100?

[Heather Kay]

22 minutes ago, Milan Mynar said:

This is an outstanding work, some time  I have opportunity to build resin kits. There is necessary to have a lot of detemination to build these kits. 

Thank you. The biggest problem with this kit is the instructions are very poorly reproduced. It is difficult to see exactly where a part is supposed to fit. Most of the time I worked it out by cross-referencing between the fuzzy images and photos of real 3.7s, followed by some careful trial fitting. Sometimes, however, I’ve had to go with a "best guess" as to where something was supposed to go.

 

6 minutes ago, echen said:

IBG Scammell R100?

 

Indeed. I’ve just dug it out and started studying the sprues and instructions. It looks fiddly, but fun. 

[Heather Kay]

I’ve never built an IBG kit before. I realise they're generally better known for their 1/35th scale stuff.
 

The Scammell was an impulse buy at a show. What’s it like in the box?

 

 

Lots of tiny and delicate parts, all neatly laid out in four frames of light grey plastic. Frames D, F and the pair of Js must be common to all the Scammell variants IBG make, while Frame A contains the bodywork for this variant. A small PE fret, some acetate with the glazing printed on it, and a decent selection of markings for three different vehicles. One vehicle is for the 52nd (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, III Corps, British Expeditionary Force, France in 1940. I’ll be quite happy using those markings for a UK-based unit, but I will check any BEF specific parts.

 

The instructions are A4 size, CAD generated and printed on glossy paper. Each step has an exploded diagram, and a diagram that shows what it’s supposed to look like when the step is completed.

 

One thing I noticed was the parts are laid out in each frame, and numbered sequentially. I've never encountered this before, and I had to check whether any Big Name kits were laid out similarly. Italeri came close in their recent Fiat CR.42 tooling, but the frame I checked got lost in the mid-teens. Airfix was all over the shop in the Beaufort box. No wonder it takes me ages to locate parts when I’m building planes! Full marks to IBG.

 

 

Here are the first seven sub-assemblies, all on the first page of the instructions. I wasn’t initially going to fit the PE to the engine, but then I thought better of it. It’ll never show, but I even twisted the cooling fan blades to look more like the real thing. The PE parts for the winch assembly were a bit fiddly, but steady hands, good tweezers, good lighting and my Optivisor all helped. I haven’t lost anything to the carpet monster - yet.

 

The next five steps are the stowage box under the cab, winch fittings in the rear roof, and the chassis. That’s a bit fiddly, and it was a worry that it might end up twisted as all the crossmembers are separate. It seems to be straight and fairly true, so that’s good. The final steps on page two cover more winch detailing, with PE parts and styrene rollers.

 

 

 

Apologies for the blurriness, but this stuff is tiny. Did I note the tow hitches are separate parts? The tiny hooks are attached to the leaf springs. A pair of infinitesimal rollers are fitted in PE brackets on the front of the chassis, too. Insane, but utterly satisfying when it fits together and stays in place! IBG have done an amazing job of reducing their 1/35th scale Scammell designs down to this scale.

 

A final shot of the chassis sub-assembly. I’m going to leave this all to harden off. The next stages bring all the previous sub-assemblies together on the chassis.

[Dave Slowbuild]

Impressive kit and start, my interest is well and truly piqued!

Looking forward to see how it all pans out, IBG have a good looking range of WW2 vehicles.

[Robert Stuart]

23 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Something that puzzled me at first was the sole plates being inboard when the outriggers are folded.

Have to admit, I found that odd, but, googled it, and found two examples that confirm this (stopped at two).

Nice build of something a bit different, Heather.

 

 

p.s. Suspect that rotation helps with locking the outriggers up while travelling.

[Heather Kay]

56 minutes ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

IBG have a good looking range of WW2 vehicles.

They have. I just had a look at the 1/72nd range available via Hannants, and there’s some interesting stuff in there. Sadly, most of the British stuff is post-1940. Some of the German gear might find its way into my stash, though.

 

The sub-assemblies were attached. I found the motor and gearbox didn’t quite meet the supporting lugs on the chassis frames at the rear of the engine. This meant it was a bit of a fiddle ensuring the motor was vertical in the frames. The winch literally clicked into place. The fuel tank was another neat fit. There are some tiny details like air reservoirs, power take-offs and drive shafts that go in underneath. The front axle assembly - I’m a bit disappointed it isn't properly articulated or allowing for the front wheels to be steered, but hey-ho - slots in. The exhaust is a bit fiddly to fit, but goes in eventually. The rear bogie needs some persuasion to sit square. The whole unit has been sat on lolly sticks to try and ensure the wheel hubs are all at the same level while the glue dries. The rear differential is a bit lower than the hub diameter, and means it won’t sit flat on the cutting mat.

 

 

Construction then turns to building up the cab. Mmm, photo etch.  I managed to glue the passenger seat frames the wrong way round. The diagonal should run the other way. It won’t show. All the levers are PE, folded in half to double up thickness.

 

Would you just look at that exquisite gear lever gate? At this point I’ve drawn a halt. A lot of bits really need some paint at this stage, so it’s a sensible place to stop for now. Still, not a bad day's benchwork.

 

 

[Courageous]

What with all your problems with the 3.7 that you have had, it looks pretty awesome built up in the photo. I'm pretty sure with paint and some weathering, it'll really look the part. Pretty impressive already, warts and all. The thing is, Milicast does so much stuff that others don't yet, so you're caught between a rock and a hard place.

The R100 is coming together really nicely and the PE is adding a little more detail and bling. Good work Heather.

 

Stuart

[echen]

Great start on the Scammell. Very inspiring to start mine. I was looking for some heavy artillery to go with it - and I bought a Strelets 1/72 6" MK XIX Cannon and really wished I hadn't.

I've never put a resin kit together but notice milicast produce a much more accurate looking version of the above weapon. One day, maybe.

[roginoz]

I'm enjoying this build very much, @Heather Kay, especially the Scammell.

 

My godfather was works manager at Scammells in Watford when I was a sprog, and he took Dad 'n' me through the works on one occasion, although my memories are very hazy of the experience.

 

I DO remember he drove a pre-war Rolls-Royce !

 

Rog

[TheBaron]

Engaging progress Heather and an 'interesting' contrast in the quality of the two kits.

[xebec]

That is some very nice work. I remember well the "good 'ol days" of having to rely on some pretty sketchy cottage industry type resin and vacuform kits if you wanted anything not produced by Tamiya, Italeri, Esci/Ertl, monogram, etc.... Building one of these into a nice model is very satisfying though. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by xebec