As model companies seem intent on outdoing each other in search of new subjects, fans of anything British have been the beneficiaries. IBG has produced several trucks used by the British army in World War II, and is the first to the market with a 1/35 scale plastic kit of the Scammell Pioneer. The initial offering is the SV2S heavy breakdown tractor.
Cleanly molded in dark yellow plastic, the kit includes clear parts for the windows and light lenses, and a fret of photo-etched (PE) details. Take care removing parts from trees as the attachment gates are thick and some parts have placement pins right at the gates.
Decals provide markings for a captured vehicle in German service, a Russian Lend-Lease truck, and three Commonwealth vehicles: one each in British, Polish, and South African markings.
For anyone who has previously built an IBG model the directions will look familiar, with CAD images of the exploded view and of the finished step, parts list, color marking guide, and color callouts for Vallejo Model Air, Hataka, Mr Hobby H, and Lifecolor paints.
You start by building several subassemblies, such as the tires, fuel tank, engine, and storage rack. At this point, I looked ahead and built anything else that would speed up assembly later. When assembling the three-part tires, study the direction of the tire tread; as the front and rear direction are different.
A well-detailed engine is included and is a good starting point if you want to add more detail. In Step 8, thread Part F22 through the two halves of the front suspension (G25 and G26) before gluing them together — it cannot be glued in afterward without breaking F22.
The frame is made of multiple parts. I used the cabin floor to make sure the frame was aligned and straight. When assembling the rear winch rollers in Step 11, parts H13 and H14 need to be switched to the opposite sides. When assembling the front counterweight in Step 18, one of the cross supports labeled PE15 should be PE16. There is no mention of cable for the power winch, but if you decide to add some you will have to source the cable end.
The rest of the frame assembled without any trouble. Due to the way the suspension works on the actual vehicle, I glued the suspension in place after the model was painted to make sure that all six wheels sat flat on the ground.
The crane arm can be extended in multiple positions. You can see the completed rigging in the last step, but nothing is shown on how to rig it properly. The string that is provided is too thin, so I replaced it with nylon. Instead, I used the smaller thread for the rigging that moves the crane, also shown in place in the last step.
The tool locker doors on the side are the entire height of the toolbox. On the real vehicle, they are actually only about 1/3 the height. There is also no interior detail on the door to the back of the truck — there should be a ladder and other stuff.
The cab interior is fairly complete. However, the doors are molded shut. I left the roof and rear of the cabin off until I finished painting. The windshield wipers are PE that do not have any detail and are easily damaged. I glued one side of the hood to the cab. The other side was left off to show the engine.
After looking at each of the five painting options, I chose a vehicle from the 6th South African Armored Division in Egypt, January 1944. I weathered with several filters and washes. The directions do not give any detail colors, such as for the engine or cab interior, so back to the internet I went to check more photos.
The decals, printed by Techmod, were thin but moved easily and settled easily around rivet detail. Under a clear coat, the carrier film disappeared. One disappointment is that no decals for the instruments or the gas tank gauge are included. Also, one of the divisional markings was not fully formed.
The 372 parts took me 40 hours to put together. A great resource was Armorama.com, which has 200 pictures of a restored vehicle. Due to the overall good fit of parts and PE that was relatively easy to use, this would be good for someone who has built several models and would make a good starting point for someone who wants to superdetail the vehicle.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the December 2017 issue.