Retired Saffron Walden engineer builds remote control tank

Roland Hopper, 79, who lives near Saffron Walden, used the controls to drive the lorry around his garden, though he said the tank has not been driven for some time.

Roland Hopper built his tank after saying he was bored to tears' during retirement (Image: PA Images/Joe Giddens)

The pensioner said he bought the 1:6 scale model kit to build a Sherman Firefly tank from British firm Armortek, after learning about them through his nephew’s friend.

He put together thousands of pieces to complete the tank. He then decided to construct a 1:6 scale Scammell Pioneer Tank Transporter from scratch, having previously restored a full-sized original for a hobby project.

He worked on and off on the scale model transporter over a period of 10 years, getting some of the parts made at his former engineering firm in Saffron Walden.

He is to sell the model tank and transporter at auction at Cheffins in Cambridge on April 22.

"I was a bit bored to tears in retirement and my nephew had got a business friend in Braintree who built model tanks as a hobby," he said.

"I went and had a look. Anyway, I bought a model tank from Armortek.

Roland Hopper's tank and transporter lorry is expected to reach between £20,000 and £25,000 at auction (Image: PA Images/Joe Giddens)

"It comes in thousands of bits. You put it all together and it’s remote control.

"While I’m fiddling with that and making that I think I’ve got enough information to make my tank transporter the same scale and then the tank will sit on the back.

"I finished the tank then started to make the articulated trailer and then the lorry part.

"I’m basically an engineering draughtsman by trade, so I had a number of drawings from Scammell years ago then I was able to produce drawings.

"Some of the parts I obviously had to get made – some were made in my old company, some were made in other machine shops, then I bought all the driving gear."

He said that he believed the 1:6 scale transporter was unique.

Mr Hopper added that his wife Diana Hopper, 79, a retired schoolteacher, had been "very supportive".

"She doesn’t really understand any of it, but she’s put up with me doing the original lorry all those years and that’s unique."

The tank has a power pack, remote control unit, sound system and smoke generator, and is complete with the Armortek certificate stating this is number nine supplied by them in kit form.

Roland Hopper has been working on the project for 10 years (Image: PA Images/Joe Giddens)

The scale model transporter is described as having all axles, steering and trailer linkage working just as the real thing.

It is remote controlled with the power pack and smoke generator fitted into the cab, and there is also a sound system supplied that would require fitting by the new owner.

The auctioneers said that the "practicalities of moving a model of this size and massive weight have proved too much" for Mr Hopper and it has "never been shown and only ever driven around the family garden".

In a listing, Cheffins said it was "absolutely of exhibition quality and deserving of museum space", adding: "Some recommissioning will be required due to it remaining static for the last 18 months or so."

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Mr Hopper described the full-size transporter, that he previously restored and sold, as the "only complete World War Two English tank transporter in existence".

He had sourced a tank from a ship breakers in Portsmouth to go on it, but was unable to find an English tank.

Jeremy Curzon, of Cheffins auctioneers, said the scale model tank and transporter were the "definition of a big boy’s toy and a true feat of engineering".

He said: "This is an unusual find and I am sure it will capture the imaginations of many of our buyers."