Nice work Colin. I hadn't realise just how much was missing from the IBG kit that is already included in the Thunder Models kit!!

Thanks guys. Nige, yes, this is definitely a very simplified version, i get depressed looking at your builds and seeing what needs to be done to bring this kit up to snuff, but on the bright side, my scratchbuilding skills are developing by leaps and bounds!

Well, dusting this one off and getting back at it. Painted and dirtied up the engine:


Some test fitting and adding some missing detail to the winch:


Shot a coat of primer and base colour on the rear diff to see how it looks:

A bit more progress, added the brackets for the hood (bonnet) clamps:

and started to work on the cargo area. Disappointingly, there is no woodgrain texture shown on ANY of the wood planking...and, the sprue attachment points are right on a formed rabbet joint face, so they have to be carefully cleaned off to ensure a proper fit. Not optimal.

Now, depending on how you will show your build, the lack of woodgrain may not be an issue, but I decided to go ahead and scribe in the grain.

Needs a bit of cleanup, but not too bad I think. There are a number of other pieces that have to be scribed as well.

You’ve done a decent job of depicting the wood grain but in my experience, wood used in vehicle construction is factory prepared, sanded and primed before painting so unless your truck has been sitting out in the open for years with no maintenance, wood grain is unlikely to be visible in 1/35 scale.

Obviously fences and barn doors are different to that usage and there may be artistic reasons to add grain but I’ve never seen it as essential.

Good point Robert, I did want to show wear and tear with most of the paint worn off but it may be a tad heavy handed lol. Oh well, good practice for me if I ever want to do some heavily weathered wood I guess! I'll see how pronounced it is after prime and paint.

Cheers

Oh dang!
There dies another favourite "fact" or "dogma" among model builders. Heavy wood grain on anything made of wood, including grain on wooden tool handles, grain so heavy it would hurt badly when using the tool ...
/ Robin

Infantry spade, used


wooden ammo-box

Next you're gonna say not all German officers point...

Well, now that you mention it.
My maternal grandfather once met an officer who actually had his pointing hand down by his side for a few minutes. On the other hand, one single exception doesn't prove that all the other officers weren't pointing all the time
/ Robin

The wood grain was very well done though!
Covered with primer and paint it will probably be just fine

I have sometimes used a sandpaper to rub in a bit of surface structure before painting it. Just to get a slightly different surface compared to the surrounding steel.
Going strictly by how the real thing scaled down would look sometimes leads to a boring model.
/ Robin

It is a known fact that only 42.73% of German officers pointed, the rest just yelled. However, 76.81% of British Officers had Webley pistols surgically attached to the hand... apparently!



Enjoying the thread Colin. Will be watching this one progress.

Nice attention to detail Colin.

The engine looks realistic with the stains

Well done.

Michael

Thanks guys. Finished off adding extra detail to the winch, I can move on to priming and painting the rest of the chassis now.

Also finished off the cargo area, went together all right, although the sides needed a bit of finessing to get a good fit. There are no locating pins for this, very shallow just rabbet joints.


The mud flaps are attached to a very narrow strip along the angled edge, less that 1mm wide, so they are very fragile. The angled bracket on the mudflap (one came off) will attach to the chassis. Putting them on at this stage you run the risk of damage and also the brackets not lining up properly. I would suggest leaving them off until you are ready to fit the box to the chassis.

Painted up the wood, base coat is Tamiya Tan then a wash of burnt umber to bring out the grain:

Then I added a layer of Vallejo chipping medium then primed the non-wood areas and then painted overall with my homebrew British Green. Once dry, I started wetting and scrubbing the wood sections to show the wear on the wood, I think it turned out pretty decent:

A lot more weathering is still needed but it gives you an idea of where I'm going. I also assembled the rest of the cab pieces. I;m not too impressed with IBG here, several of the pieces have no locator pins/slots so you end up with butt connections on delicate pieces that are hard to keep aligned while the glue dries. i really think they could have done better.

I was going to prime and paint the chassis...but I saw some more details that needed attention, so I started work on the air system. I scratched up a tire inflation air bottle (already mounted on the frame rail on the left side of the pic) and an unloader valve and reaction valve. Still have the main servo to build and then I can start running air lines.


I also started comparing some of the kit to my reference drawings and my first thought was "Wow, the dimensions are off in a big way!". Here is the side door - way too short, and that would make the cab windscreen way too short as well:

The cargo area also appears to be significantly undersized:

...and the chassis itself:

BUT, when I started measuring up the "1/35 scale" drawings and comparing them to the full size vehicle dimensions, it dawned on me that the book I am using for reference - Capricorn Publications "Army Wheels in Detail - Scammell Pioneer" has printed the reference scale drawings out of scale, closer to 1/32, not 1/35, so they are shown about 10% too big in the book, so be aware if using the draeings as scale reference!

That's it for now, cheers!

Well done article - thank you the effort and thank you for sharing! I love your attention to the adding of small details. Shaping up to be a very good model.

Your remark regarding the front axle suspension is a very good one. I recently made the almost identical remark on another blog site regarding the similarly designed front axle of just about every German halftrack. Almost all the current halftrack models can benefit from this same small, easy alteration.

As to wood grain - I always consider more detail as being better then less. I like how your worn wood flooring treatment turned out!


Not trying to divert your blog or intrude, just wanting to share and support your post. This small change will work on almost any model vehicle that has a single transverse front leaf spring suspension.

That wood effect looks really good!
/ Robin

Thank you Michael, you are not diverting or intruding at all, I really appreciate your comment and support especially seeing the high level of scratcbuilding you do.

Thank you Robin!

Finished off the air lines and associated hardware, also added hand and foot brake linkages that were missing under the cab.



Also assembled the crane, the PE strips that make up the top and bottom of the beam are a bit tricky to get to sit properly.

Got the chassis painted and put together, some washes done but more weathering will be done:



Working on the wheels and tires right now. Also started putting the cab together:

Once the cab walls are all on and windows in it will go on the chassis along with the cargo section.

Got the wheels done and mounted:

and then moved on to mounting the cab and cargo area on the chassis, this is where I ran into some problems, some of my own doing and some I believe are kit shortcomings. My work on detailing the engine caused some fit problems with the cab where it sits over the engine so some grinding was needed to get it all to sit properly. the locator tabs for the cab are very shallow and difficult to align properly, that is something I feel could be improved upon, but then again, maybe all my extra bits had some impact. Also, there was about a 2mm ga between the air cleaner after mounting it on the firewall and its connection to the air line on the engine so I had to fill that with some styrene tube and touch up.


I also had a had time getting the cargo box to align properly, again it is quite difficult to get everything to line up properly and sit right. Getting close to the end.

Beautiful!

This only remotely relates since your's is not a derelict vehicle. But this guy's brief "How To" on engine painting is really something! Could be of interest to many of us in the hobby. (IMHO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnuGIhnuU-A

I love that fully assembled chassis view you gave us. It is at this point where I am often tempted to stop on a build. I just do not want to cover up all that mechanical beauty!

Perhaps add the front fenders and the air cleaner and then go no further!

thanks Michael! I hear you, I had to put this away for awhile and come back to it. Almost done, just wipers, mirrors, shovel, tarps over side windows and hoist to add plus some oils and pastels. decided to keep the hood on to hide that spacer piece I had to put in