1/43 1990s Seddon Atkinson Lorry build

[37114]

A bit of a different project to engage in some nostalgia of my youth; As a kid I always wanted to be a Lorry driver and in addition to my love of railways, I was a fan of trucks in the 1990s, particularly the British makes of Foden, ERF and Seddon Atkinson, all marques sadly no longer with us. 

 

As part of my O gauge layout set in 1977 (Peasevern Yard) I took great care to get 1/43 scale lorries, modifying IXO models of 1970s Bedfords, rather than using more readily available Corgi models as these are 1/50. I recently bought a Heljan class 60 as I like them and may in the future do a 1990s era layout so decided to build one of the trucks of my youth. An easy option would be to respray an IXO model of a European make such as a Volvo or Scania but I really wanted one of the British makes however there are no models of an ERF, Foden or Seddon Atkinson that suited my 1990s era.

 

However last year a potential option was presented by IXO in the form of a Pegaso Troner model if I was prepared for a "little bit of work"...

Now 99% of the UK logistics population would never have heard of Pegaso as they were only sold here for a few years and only a handful were sold. Pegaso were a Spanish manufacturer whose owner (ENASA) happened to have acquired Seddon Atkinson in 1980s. Seddon Atkinson was the result of the merger of Seddon and Atkinson trucks in the 1970s and by the mid 1980s their cab was somewhat dated. ENASA collaborated with DAF to design a new cab to be used by all 3 brands. Branded the "Strato" the new cab coupled with the proven chassis and running gear enabled Seddon Atkinson to grow their market share and won them plenty of new customers albeit some of the growth was short lived as the cab was prone to rust, there were electrical gremlins and a few other niggles. ENASA were bought out by Iveco who replaced the cab with their own which  was even more prone to rust and electrical gremlins and Seddon Atkinson ceased production in 2005.

 

The Pegaso was the closest visually to the Seddon Atkinson so is the obvious choice for this project. IXO have produced a couple of Pegaso Troners but while they have produced a Paris - Dakar rally truck with a sleeper cab, the most suitable starting points for the conversion are either the less common day cab or even rarer cab top sleeper version (a variant Seddon Atkinson never did). IXO models can be quite expensive at circa £70 to £100 plus postage from Mainland Europe but I picked up my donor model on ebay for a bargain £27  and no postage. From looking at the pictures of the model I worked out the cab top sleeper was a separate moulding so hoped the standard roof would be present underneath. 

 

Most day cab Stratos were owned by fuel or tanker operators and I didn't fancy making a tank trailer. I was lucky to find this photo of an ex Esso tractor unit sold to another operator with a curtainside trailer so ideal for my donor model:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16212470@N03/51309366403/in/faves-49261102@N07/

 

 

So the basic plan is;

- convert to Right hand Drive

- replace fuel tank and battery boxed which were different between Pegaso and Seddon Atkinson 

- remove the high roof sleeper 

- Modify the cab front grille to represent a Seddon Atkinson

- Add the fuel regulation specification modifications such as fire screen at the back of the cab and Exhaust pipe under the cab

- Modify and detail the trailer running gear

- Repaint and add transfers. Jo @Steadfast at Steadfast models has kindly agreed to do the transfers for me.

 

So the first part was to dismantle the tractor unit... Suffice to say that every part had been either riveted or glued with the strongest superglue ever. The more I dismantled the more I realised that this will be a bit more than "a little bit of work'..

 

The biggest challenges are;

- The cab roof under the sleeper pod is not detailed and will need a lot of work to get it to look anything like the real thing. I am surprised that IXO didn't reuse the standard day cab tooling and put the pod onto but it is what it is and I love a challenge. 

- The bumper is attached to the cab not the chassis. This makes the grille modifications hard but not impossible as I am likely to fill the current area and rely on a transfer for the grille.

 

The paint on the cab is easily chipped and will therefore get a bath in paint stripper to take it back to bare metal. Plan of attack is to do the cab mods first as it affects the grille transfers before doing the chassis with the trailer last.

[fodenway]

Good to see an 'O' gauger shunning the 1/50 models, and doing it 'right'. It's a great pity that so many take the easy option, but there are 1/43 British lorries out there, some not so obvious or needing a bit of work to bring up to scratch, but doable. It will be good to follow your progress with this one.

[37114]

Progress on a couple fronts, the first front being the front. As the paint on the cab was peeling off behind the air filter and was quite thick I decided to totally strip the cab of paint. With the aid of a grinding disk in the mini drill I ground off the Pegaso badge and lettering on the front.

The cab is incredibly touch die-cast so rather than to try and carve out the grille the plan is to fill the channels completely and then use a transfer for the full grille. Hopefully this will be fine at normal viewing distances.

 

The chassis has had surgery as well. The Battery box has been cut off as it is on the opposite side on the Seddon Atkonson. Also removed is the spare wheel carrier, most UK Hauliers having ceased to carry spare wheels by the early 90s.

 

Hopefully that's most of the destruction done!

[37114]

The project has been progressing reasonably well, focused on the cab which has received a lot of filler...

 

As per the last post under the high roof sleeper was a plain flat roof which looked nothing like the original. As removing the battery box was hard work and the roof locates the glazing I decided to modify what was there rather than cut it out. I filled and rounded the recessed edges and filled the holes.

 

 

On the chassis, I have put the rear mudguard assembly back in place and secured the battery box in its new location 

Visible in the above photo is a screw holding the cab on which stands out like a sore thumb, more anon..

 

I decided to detail the roof of the cab next. I retrieved the roof hatch from the original raised roof

 

In addition to the roof hatch, I also made a headboard for the front and added some strengthening ribs. 

 

While there has been some complexity with my chosen  prototype lorry such as the need to add the headboard, one 'gift' it has given me has actually worked in my favour. As the lorry was originally a fuel tanker, it was fitted with a fire screen at the back of the cab, the purpose being to shield the hot engine parts from anything flammable. The fuel screen of course requires scratchbuilding but is handily shaped to cover the cab screw. I used plastic section and strip to build it. The photo below shows the section on the cab being nearly finished, I still need to build the part on the chassis.

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by 37114
typo

[Steadfast]

Nice work so far Rob. As I was reading about the flat roof I wondered about butchering the high top for detail parts... then lo and behold, that's exactly what you went and did!

 

Jo

[37114]

13 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Nice work so far Rob. As I was reading about the flat roof I wondered about butchering the high top for detail parts... then lo and behold, that's exactly what you went and did!

 

Jo

Yep, saves waste Jo! 

[37114]

Having made most of the upper part of the fire screen, I started to modify the air intake which is bespoke to tanker specification tractor units. The lower part of the air filter assembly is encased by the fire screen but parts of the original Pegaso assembly can be modified to fit. I chopped the lower part  of the air filter stack and glued it to the filter assembly while the upper half was temporarily put in place after being cut down. This was attached by a rather rudimentary bracket in real life, a piece of plastic strip will be used for this.

 

 

The lower part of the air filter was encased in the fire screen. This was fibreglass in real life and was sloping so I have used various strips of plasticard on top of which filler will be added.

I also went through the stash of photos I had, taken in the early 90s to see if I could find any helpful reference pictures and dug up this archive shot of me in front of a Strato! It was taken in 1992 at Truckfest South West. I would love to have modelled this truck as it belonged to a family friend who I owe for getting me into logistics however it is very different to the IXO model so not feasible unfortunately. 

 

[quicksilvercoaches]

Great to see someone putting so much effort into accurately modelling a UK truck. It looks a lot more involved than the Strato I've just finished in 4mm, a Road Transport Images cab on an Oxford chassis representing one of the last Stratos that were just Iveco cabs with the big A badge grafted on.

 

 

There was still a Strato in haulage use a couple of years ago but it's on SORN now. It was 22 years old and 300 miles from home when I encountered it.

 

 

[37114]

On 26/12/2023 at 19:22, quicksilvercoaches said:

Great to see someone putting so much effort into accurately modelling a UK truck. It looks a lot more involved than the Strato I've just finished in 4mm, a Road Transport Images cab on an Oxford chassis representing one of the last Stratos that were just Iveco cabs with the big A badge grafted on.

 

 

There was still a Strato in haulage use a couple of years ago but it's on SORN now. It was 22 years old and 300 miles from home when I encountered it.

 

 

Looks a nice project! Yep there are very few Stratos left in the road as even the newest ones will be 18 years old.

 

A couple of bits of progress on the model, firstly with the rear light clusters. Seddon used generic rear light units which were the same used by all the British manufacturers at the time as well as some trailer manufacturers. I scratchbuilt 4 units as I need 2 for the trailer as well. These were fixed to scratchbuilt stays which also held the number plate on one side and a Seddon Atkinson badge on the other.

 

With the chassis nearly finished (except the diesel tank) I made a start on the dashboard conversion. This is one of the hardest parts as the dash is handed so unlike some of the earlier conversions I have done, the bits are curved 

 

I basically kept the top vent rail intact and then chopped out 4 sections containing the glove box, heater,switches and dashboard then re ordered them. It is not perfect and needs some more filler but will be passable when completed.

 

With the build advancing well, I have also started work on gathering the artwork for Jo to the transfers. It is actually quite hard to find square on photos of things like the grille but persistentence paid off and I was lucky to find other photos of my reference truck. Some of the artwork was hand typed but Jo has better skills and software than me to finesse some of the bits. The photo below show bits I printed on paper to get the sizing right (the images below being slightly too large so were subsequently reduced)

 

[37114]

Loads of little jobs today as the physical modifications come to an end.

 

I had been scratching my head over what to use for a fuel tank as Stratos were fitted with cylindrical fuel tanks which was unusual by the time as most other manufacturers (including sister company Pegaso) used rectangular tanks as for the same chassis length you had a greater capacity of fuel, especially important for 6 wheel tractor units which had to accommodate the extra axle in the same chassis length. The ex fuel tanker tractor unit I am modeling had quite a small tank as it would return to its base depot at night and thus was not required to do long distances and it is desirable to minimise weight on a tanker anyway as they meet the maximum legal weight before they are full. In the end I decided to repurpose a recently purchased 3d printed oil drum which was spare. I sanded off the existing detail and made some new tank straps from plastic strip

 

 

Once dry I made some fuel tank mounts and a filler cap

 

On the otherside I made a step below the battery box from 0.7mm brass rod and scratchbuilt the cat walk from some 0 gauge chequer plate. This is a later addition as when the tractor unit was a fuel tanker it would very rarely be uncoupled from the tank trailer and so removing the cat walk saved weight however this would be impractical for the vehicles later life.

 

Also nearly finished is the air intake, some further sanding and filler required but it is getting there.

 

A further modification was to move the exhaust pipe to behind the front bumper, with the exit just under the step, another fuel tanker specific requirement. I repurposed the original exhaust silencer and some pipework.

 

Final modification was to convert the mirror setup from left hand Drive to right hand drive. This entails moving the extra wide angle mirror from the UK drivers side to passenger side, I was lucky to be able to carefully cut the mirror of the original mirror arm

 

 

After I took the above it has been taken into the garage for a coat of primer so I can see any bits needing more filling etc.

[37114]

As the tractor unit is in primer, I decided to make a start on the trailer. The trailer as supplied at first glance looks a close match (barring replacing the box underneath with side guards) however as ever it is not always that simple. 

 

From behind the rear lights and under run bar are very continental looking so will be replaced and "Long Vehicle" plates will be fitted. It is also fitted with doors which have the locking mechanism hidden however this wasn't very common on UK built trailers in the 1990s so the doors will be adapted,  I will reuse the handles if I can.

 

At the front the the front panel was flat on my prototype trailer on the lower section while the upper part was a fibreglass fairing. The plan is to cut away the lower part and replace with flat plastic card then fill and smooth the top part. 

 

First stage was to dismantle it. 3 screws and the pallet box hold the die-cast chassis in place. I will leave the floor in the body as I can't access the  triangular head screws in the deep shafts. The chassis will be detailed as it is basic, I will probably scratchbuild some axle casing and add some winding mechanism to the trailer legs.

 

The rear lights etc were easy to remove, I need to Chop off the retaining plate from the chassis, which hopefully will be easier than the chassis mods on the tractor.

 

In other news Jo has sent me some of the artwork he has modified to test fit which will be tomorrow nights job and I am looking forward to getting stuck into.

 

Edited January 1 by 37114
Typo

[37114]

I had to drive to one of my fulfilment centres in Burton on Trent today and the M5 was particularly full of curtainside lorries at 5am this morning so great for doing some research. My particular area of interest was the locking bars and hinges on the rear doors as I don't have any reference pics of the rear of the trailer I am modeling. The most common arrangement was 2 vertical locking bars on each door with the handles one above the other. 

 

My first job was to liberate the 4 handles from the lower section I had cut out under the doors

I then made some doors out of thin plasticard which was overlaid on the original doors. After a bit of trial and error I managed to mark up the doors for the bars which are made from 0.45mm rod. Next to follow is hinges and some end pieces for the bars.

 

Up front I chopped away the lower part of the front and replaced the removed section with a flat sheet. Not pictured but the upper section has had a skim of filler as I start the process of smoothing it out to represent the fibreglass fairing of the prototype trailer. 

[37114]

The anglicising of the trailer continued today. I have been busy building the rear end, with the rear under-run bar, number plate holder and lamp brackets being made from plastic strip. I also added the scratchbuilt lights that I made when working on the tractor unit.

 

Next job on the rear will be to finish the door locking bars and hinges

 

Up front I added some detail to the landing legs as they were light on detail. The legs are wound down by hand using a handle, via a gearbox which has 2 gears (the lowest setting will allow you to lift the front on a fully loaded trailer). Also the drive mechanism has a bar connected to the second leg.

 

I also managed to get the paint today so will crack on with the trailer so both tractor and trailer can be sprayed together.

[37114]

Progress has slowed due to getting on with some decorating in the house as well as a myriad of daily life jobs however the good news is most of the plastic bashing is complete! 

 

The last big job was to make the side guards for the trailer which were made from plastic rod, copying the photo of my chosen lorry as best I could.

I made the uprights over length as these slide in corresponding holes I drilled in the floor, they will be fitted permanently after painting.

 

Talking of painting part of the delay since the last update was I spent nearly 6 hours removing the printing from the side of the trailer. I didn't fancy using nitromors on plastic so resorted to IPA on a cotton bud which worked fine on other IXO trucks, however the printing on the one was resilient but got there in the end.

 

With the major bits done I couldn't resist putting the main parts of the unit and trailer back together to see what they looked like. The shot below shows the completed trailer doors.

 

Some 3/4 shots before it gets dismantled for spraying. It is definitely looking more like a UK truck now.

 

 

[D6775]

Looking fantastic Rob.

[37114]

1 minute ago, D6775 said:

Looking fantastic Rob.

Thanks Al!

[46444]

Brilliant conversion and build Rob.

 

Always liked these Seddon Atkinson trucks.

 

The snap of you in front of the Torridge Transport tractor unit brings back some good memories of living in Devon and seeing these vehicles at work. I always remember they were immaculately turned out.

 

Looking forwards to further updates.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark 

[37114]

1 hour ago, 46444 said:

Brilliant conversion and build Rob.

 

Always liked these Seddon Atkinson trucks.

 

The snap of you in front of the Torridge Transport tractor unit brings back some good memories of living in Devon and seeing these vehicles at work. I always remember they were immaculately turned out.

 

Looking forwards to further updates.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark 

Thanks Mark, I am looking forward to seeing this finished. The guys at Torridge did try and keep the wagons tidy but that was hard with the Devon roads and quite a bit of their work was timber related for the wood chip works at South Molton which meant the trucks were often on muddy tracks.

[37114]

I have had a few non modelling bits and pieces on at home at the moment and coupled with some cold weather which doesn't lend itself to spraying, however Jo sent me the latest artwork to test fit today before the transfers go to print so I have some impetus now!

 

As the transfers are custom made drawn from photos, Jo always sends me a PDF before hand so I can check the artwork fits and I have all the bits I need; these are printed at home on my printer to size which I then cut out and let Jo know any tweaks to be made. We have an issue with our home printer so the artwork in the images below are nowhere near the quality of the transfers but that is not important at the moment. Jo has picked up on a couple of bits I had missed such as the "Conqueour" name on the cab door and I have asked him to add some duplicate copies of the tax discs and O licence disc which are missing from some of my other models.

 

Trailer logo is spot on, I counted the curtain buckles to check it was the right size

 

Cab artwork, again mostly spot on

 

The front grille is nearly there are brings the front to life. It is slightly oversize but Jo will fix that before it goes to print

 

Now the weather is better I will crack on with the spraying.

 

[Steadfast]

Nice progress to date Rob, the trailer is definitely looking a lot less European now.

 

As mentioned, I've been doing the decals for this project for Rob. I always find custom projects like this a bit of fun, and a step outside my comfort zone!

The will be going off to print shortly, Rob supplies me with a research pacakge which I work from, with back and forth discussion through the development.

 

I look forward to seeing them applied, especially seeing how that grill comes out for real. It is hand rendered from scratch, with graphic effects to create the shadows and recesses.

 

Jo

[37114]

19 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Nice progress to date Rob, the trailer is definitely looking a lot less European now.

 

As mentioned, I've been doing the decals for this project for Rob. I always find custom projects like this a bit of fun, and a step outside my comfort zone!

The will be going off to print shortly, Rob supplies me with a research pacakge which I work from, with back and forth discussion through the development.

 

I look forward to seeing them applied, especially seeing how that grill comes out for real. It is hand rendered from scratch, with graphic effects to create the shadows and recesses.

 

Jo

Thanks Jo, am looking forward to seeing these on the lorry, this project has definitely been a labour of love.

[37114]

The livery of the truck is relatively simple but there is still plenty of bits that require paint. Now the rolling chassis of the tractor unit is complete I have been able to make a start on painting the smaller details.

 

Despite being only 4 years old when I am modeling it, the lorry had been repainted as it was on it's second owner and by the looks of it things like fuel tank, air filter and mudguards which are usually removed when a truck is painted were left in place, hence there aren't that many bits to paint. The obvious ones are the lights and also the battery box cover. The lights were done first and are the very typical 1990s light clusters used across many UK truck and trailer builders at the time

 

On the tractor the mudflaps were painted (Jo has some Seddon Atkinson transfers for these) as well as the fifth wheel plate which would be covered in grease.

 

A bit out of sequence but earlier on I  the day I masked up some bits requiring black paint including the windscreen surround and the bottom bumper.

 

 

Again out of sequence but prior to painting the second coat of black I assembled the truck. The trailer side guards have been removed for spraying and I still need to do the grey on the bottom of the cab and trailer front.

The trailer is a little bit behind as I need to do the buckles and also am having problems with some pen marks on the rear door which I stupidly didn't remove before spraying.

[fodenway]

Have a word with your tyre fitter - the offside rear outer isn't seated on the rim !!!!

[37114]

18 minutes ago, fodenway said:

Have a word with your tyre fitter - the offside rear outer isn't seated on the rim !!!!

Already been spoken to! Sods law I noticed it as soon as I had taken the photo.

[37114]

The transfers arrived earlier this week so I managed to get a few of them on today as the rolling chassis is finished for both the tractor and the trailer. This project is the first time I had used Tamiya Acrylic sprays so was grateful Jo @Steadfast had included a few spares in case of issues but they all went on perfectly first time.

 

The chassis now have the appropriate number plates, long vehicle warning plates and badges for the tractor unit chassis.

 

 

The cab and trailer body have received their first coat of grey so all being well, the rest of the transfers should be on within the week on the tractor unit at least. The trailer will be a bit longer as I need to spray the roof and paint the buckles on the curtains.