Ertl Massey Ferguson 1155 1/25
The crown Jewel of my tractor collection is this Ertl kit from the late 70's. I built it first time when I was just a kid and did a lousy job (I glued the cylinder heads on backwards and ended up cutting them off with a hot knife to fix them!), so now I can finally say I have done it right - well, mostly right. After spending a LOT of money to get the kit, I balked at paying for genuine MF paint in big spray cans just to do this little model. This is due not in small part to the fact that I lost my job in the meantime, so I'm a bit more picky about how I spend my money.
At any rate, I ended up using what I had, which was Testor's red, Testor's aluminum, and an oddball spray can of gloss gray in my stash of spray paints. It actually turned out pretty well, in my opinion.
I didn't take any chances with the 40+ year-old decals, spraying them with bonder and adding thinned white glue when applying them. But remarkably I had no problems with them, they slid off the backing just fine.
The only kit left to add to my collection is the Heller MF 2680 that I ordered from Europe before covid19, and still has not arrived due to shipping restrictions. Some day...!
Hi Robert!
Another wonderful built!
Massey Ferguson had, and still have, a great reputation as tractors here in Greece. And they are very imposing machines as well!
Equally imposing is your model, bringing out some memories of my childhood as well.
I love the last pic. Such a cool collection!
P.S. Sorry about your job - hope it will converge better. At least, you had some extra modeling time!
@fiveten Thanks for your kind words, Spiros. Presently I've given semi-retirement a try, working part-time retail, so we'll see how that goes. You're right, though, I had lots of modelling time this past summer!
Really nice! The slightly burned muffler is a really nice effect. It makes it look like a show/pulling tractor. I also like the family portrait. I would like to try the Porsche Junior myself.
@jpatt1000 Thanks for noticing my subtle weathering, Josh. The 1155 I see in my neighborhood are either well-worn, or spic-and-span restored like what I've done with my model. The Porsche is a fun little kit, give it a go!
Tractor modeling isn't a sub-genre of the hobby I had heard of, but looking at your very nice - very realistic-looking - collection, I now think "of course!" Very nice work on the latest one and they're all very interesting.
@tcinla Thanks, Tom. I do wish there were more kits to choose from - over half my collection is out-of-production stuff from the '70s!
I’m an aircraft guy, but I love seeing your models! I grew up in an agricultural section of southern Delaware and did some farm work as a teen in the 1970’s. I loved driving tractors and combines. Let me know if you ever find a kit of an early 1960’s vintage Oliver tractor! My fave.
@angus64 Thanks, Jim! You're an Oliver guy, eh? That would be a fun color to paint on a kit tractor!
Oliver green. One summer I drove one pulling a combine (viner) on peas. She was painted black after a rebuild from when she blew up and caught fire. We called her Black Beauty! Best damn tractor in the fleet. She loved me. I was only 15!
Great job, great collection!
@roofrat Thank you, Robert!
Robert, great looking Massey. Those babies churned a black cloud of diesel when working. We had a neighbor who put one of these on the blower for silo filling. You could always tell when he was filling silo because of the cloud rising from the barn. Sorry to hear about your job. Things will get better. Keep the faith!
@coondog Thanks, Matt. You know, I see 4440's all over the place, now that I know to look for them! Apparently they were popular tractors... 🙂