Oxford Diecast trucks in N

[Revolution Ben]

Hello all,

 

Recently Oxford Diecast have been bringing out some more "modern image" vehicles; among them a Scania Highline truck with three axle curtain side trailer in Eddie Stobart livery.

 

Our club layout Horseley Fields requires some modern road vehicles so these were too good an opportunity to miss.

 

 

The Scania truck is nicely moulded and finished and looks the part.  With the exception of the now-defunct Farish/Intertrans series of six vehicles, British N gauge has lacked modern commercial vehicles; most make do with 1:150 scale Tomytec models of Japanese prototypes such as Hino; or even with the significantly underscale continental models.

 

 

From the front the tractor certainly looks right to me, though I am no expert on trucks.  The model can be very easily taken apart and features a diecast chassis unit with injection moulded bodies and interior.

 

 

I decided to relivery one example so the first step was to get rid of the distinctive Stobart livery.  I masked off the cab windows (it's moulded in clear plastic for a nicely flush-glazed look) and sprayed the whole thing white.   I used Tamiya tape, which I have always found the best by some margin.  The mirrors are moulded as part of the cab but this is surprisingly effective.  Annoyingly I forgot to mask off the front where the silver "Scania" lettering is; though I am not sure whether the fading green of the Stobart livery occuldes it slightly.  Academic now!

 

 

Having browsed online, I decided to attempt a conversion into the attractive colours of Malcolm's logistics.   Warning: purists might wince at some of my shortcuts, but I wanted this to be a "fast and dirty" job, so didn't bother with the airbrush; instead choosing from the various Halford's car paints I've accrued over the years.  I decided "Ford Olympus blue" was a good match for the pale blue.  There is some bleed around the top edge; irritating but easily smoothed out later and I hoped the black around the windows would hide it.

 

 

Rover Nautilus blue was used for the darker shade; again Tamiya masking tape.

 

 

Unfortunately I did not have any very small Malcolm lettering that would be suitable for the white areas on the cab.

 

 

However I did have some decals from the forthcoming NGS Rover cube wagons, produced by Microscale, which were used to add small "rampant lions" to the cabside; these are smaller than scale but better than nothing, while the fine red stripes were just old intercity lining stripes from Fox cut to shape.  I used Microset and then a coat of Johnson's Klear to ensure everything snuggled down.  The black areas were just "painted" with a Rotring pen; in keeping with the intention of keeping things simple and quick.

 

 

Part of the reason for selecting Malcolm's livery was that the truck's chassis is also red; so the tractor was reassembled without any further painting being required.

 

 

The next step was the trailer; the large Stobart lettering was rubbed down and the whole thing sprayed matt white.  After masking the blue (Rover Nautilus blue again) was added, along with a thin strips of matt black and silver arount the top edge.  Bodyside markings were a set of C-Rail 4mm decals designed for a Malcolm's container; again not quite right but close enough to give the right impression.

 

 

The markings for the rear doors and the front of the trailer were produced on the computer using CorelDraw, then printed onto self adhesive photo paper labels which were sprayed with a UV fixative, cut out and fixed in place.

 

 

It's by no means perfect but with a little weathering around the wheels and tyres (though not too much elsewhere; Malcolm's trucks seem to be kept pretty clean) it will do until Oxford Diecast decide to do their own!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[roundhouse]

Ben

 

It's a very nice model to start with and you have done a superb conversion.

 

This truck along with the Ford a Transit now give us a bit more variety in modern N scale.

Let's hope that there are more to come.

 

Ian

[MRDBLUE17]

Hi Ben,

 

That looks a great job on that conversion, I saw the model in the shops on Thursday and it does look nice. I reckon a 2mm flat bed can be done too looking at the trailer construction in a scaled down form similar to what I did with a 4mm model.

 

Thanks for sharing

Mark

[bridgiesimon]

Very tidy repaint there Ben,

I have one of each and am converting the T cab into a racing team support vehicle leaving the trailer free to use with another tractor unit I have. Will post piccies later as the conversion develops.

I am also looking forward to some of the modern releases from Oxford diecast, I believe they are developing a tipper trailer and a refridgerated one for the near future.

 

Best wishes

Simon

[PhilJ W]

I am also looking forward to some of the modern releases from Oxford diecast, I believe they are developing a tipper trailer and a refridgerated one for the near future.

 

Best wishes

Simon

They are in the current catalogue.

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hi all,

 

Yes, I'm looking forward to the tipper and the refrigerated trailer too. More variety. And if they sell well maybe we'll see some more useful vehicles such as a modern cement tanker:

 

http://static.commercialmotor.com/big-lorry-blog/hanson2.jpg

 

Or a 4-axle mineral truck:

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/TRUCK-PHOTO-HANSON-SCANIA-R400-TIPPER-WX13VUU-/00/s/NjY3WDEwMDA=/z/ZBwAAOxyHQlSE8sZ/$(KGrHqNHJFQFH+s2IPcNBSE8sZO1lg~~60_35.JPG

 

These would both go well with lineside industries.

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[shanks522]

Hi Ben,

 

 Really nice job on the truck, looks spot on, makes me want to repaint one of mine now!

 

Graham.

[Steadfast]

Hi Ben, that's a cracking bit of modelling. I've got a few to respray, hack up etc, thanks for providing the proof that it's doable! Just extra items on my ever growing list of unfinished models...

I plan to do a few alternative trailers for the Stobart cabs too, as a 'small' project as a first step working with the Oxford trucks.

Incidentally, some of Malcolm's fleet were bought second hand after Stobart had finished with them.

 

jo

[Porco Rosso]

It would be nice if Oxford brought these trucks out in plain white with just the Scania name and lights painted on. This would make repaints and brandings so much easier.

[PhilJ W]

It would be nice if Oxford brought these trucks out in plain white with just the Scania name and lights painted on. This would make repaints and brandings so much easier.

They are doing so with the 1:76 scale range so keep your fingers crossed.

[Porco Rosso]

They are doing so with the 1:76 scale range so keep your fingers crossed.

 

That would make modelling very difficult

[Calnefoxile]

Oh dear, oh dear, the 70's and 80's once again the forgotten decades    

 

Otherwise, well done Ben.

 

Cheers

 

Neal.

[jpendle]

Looking good Ben, I just ordered two and it looks like it would be fairly easy to convert the trailer to take a Dapol Stobart swap body.

 

John P

[justin1985]

Resurrecting an old thread here. I've just got one of the new Oxford tipper trailer models, with the Scania t-cab tractor unit in a bright yellow demolition livery. I want to depict a grain truck for a 1990s era layout from it. I was going to strip and repaint the white trailer into a matt aluminium type finish, but I'm not sure about the cab. I also have a Stobart conventional cab Scania - I'm wondering about swapping them - but the flat front cab seems very new in appearance. I get the impression the t-cab might be older and therefore more suitable, even if it is less common.

 

Does anyone have the dates that the prototypes of the two types Oxford have modelled were launched? 

 

Cheers

Justin

[Steadfast]

The bonneted T cab is a 4 series, introduced mid-late 90s. Often seen on tippers or containers, as a standard full length trailer would put the combination over maximum allowed length.

The othe cab Oxford have tooled is an R series, introduced mid 2000s. Whilst using the same basic shell as the 4 series, it's heavily facelifted on the outside and introduced a new cab roof height (Highline, modelled by Oxford) that wasn't available on the 4 series. The Oxford model represents a second facelift to the range, giving angled upsweeps to the ends of the grill slats, dating from 2011, 2012 or so onwards

 

jo

[justin1985]

Many thanks Jo, thats just what I needed to know - the T-cab will stay then!

 

Does anyone know if the Oxford printing can be removed from the case colour with any of the normal solvents etc? I'd like to minimise the amount of extra paint going on to re-livery it.

[PhilJ W]

Many thanks Jo, thats just what I needed to know - the T-cab will stay then!

 

Does anyone know if the Oxford printing can be removed from the case colour with any of the normal solvents etc? I'd like to minimise the amount of extra paint going on to re-livery it.

If your going to repaint it you might be able to remove any lettering with fine sandpaper or use a tiny amount of T-cut on a cotton bud. If you use T-cut make sure you clean it thoroughly using detergent before you commence painting.