IH 1466 Puller
The seed for this project idea came when I was building the prior IH 1466, and noted that the tractor looked pretty cool without the cab on. Looking around at IH 1466 photos on the internet, I came across a number of tractors set up for pulling, so the idea formed to build one like that. The idea came to complete fruition after I found an Ertl kit on eBay at a lower-than-usual price, so I snatched it up and the project went forward.
Several modifications were made to the stock Ertl kit tractor. The first was buying another Heller MF 2680 kit just for the rear tires and rims to replace the stock rear tires. The Heller kit tires were wider and had flatter tread, more like a pulling tractor would wear. The Heller wheels were cut away leaving only the rims, which were then modified with an extra layer of styrene to fit the wheels from the Ertl kit.
I then began building the weights. As you can see from the photo, each weight was made of 5 pieces of styrene glued together. After doing 10 of those, I decided that would be enough!
After that I chopped away the hitch, top link, and PTO portions of the tractor body. I also removed the molded-in cab mounts, which partially obscured the prominent batteries on each side of the transmission. This then required reshaping the remaining plastic to finish off the batteries. I did some puttying to blend the side rails into the bell housing and built the weight mounts.
I then was ready to build the custom hitch and the wheelie bars. Using reference photos from the internet, I built the hitch from styrene and the wheelie bars from aluminum tubing, which was superglued together. I was very pleased with how all this came out looking.
After the difficulties I had building the hood on the first IH 1466 kit, I took a different approach this time. I assembled the hood pieces and the grill all at once so I could so some sanding and get the fit to look better this time around. I painted this assembly separately with the rattle can, then hand painted all the grillwork with Vallejo acrylics - which was handy because I could fix any screw ups with just a damp cloth.
The last challenge was to build the fenders completely from scratch. They are basically just folded and shaped sheet styrene, which, to my surprise, was not all that difficult to do. The real trick became getting two of them to look alike! I ended up building three and using the two that were most similar 🙂
The last thing was scratch-building the clutch and brake pedals, again using aluminum tubing bent to shape, then hammered flat.
After that I did final assembly and decals. As usual I sprayed bonder on the decals and applied with white glue, but even so, the one "Turbo" decal pretty much disintegrated. I'll have to try and replicate that one some day. The last step was adding the side panels in sheet styrene covered with aluminum foil, and adding the "BIG RED" decals.
This was a fun project, and a bit of an indulgence, since these kits are worth a LOT more money in the box with the plastic on, than they ever will be after I get done building them. I hope you tractor lovers like my latest effort!
A real nice Puller, Rob @robgenev665
The modifications you made are superb.
"Big Red" it is, well done.
@johnb Thank you, John!
Fine job, Robert. I love seeing your tractor builds
@gwskat Thank you, Gary!
Had you placed the model in front of a plowed field, I would have thought it was the real thing. Neat seeing something with out a military theme give the news as of late.
Two thumbs up Robert.
@stephen-w-towle Thank you for your kind words, Stephen! Tractor pulls are a nice distraction from world events at this time of year.
Nice!, you certainly have a knack in building these machines
@roofrat Thank you for your comment, Robert! I appreciate it.
Not sure exactly what a "puller" is but it looks great. I really enjoyed reading how you modified this kit, definitely liked.
@chinesegeorge Thank you, George! A "puller" is a tractor that has been modified for competition pulling. Tractor pulls are popular here in America, as well as in England, see this website:
https://tractorpulling.co.uk/
Tractor pulls started out as local farmers bringing their row crop tractors to compete to see how far they could pull a sled with weight on it, and over the years it has gotten very sophisticated. My model depicts a stock tractor that has been somewhat modified for competition. I'm thinking my next project might be to build a model of a custom-built pulling tractor - that would be alot more scratch-building!
I like this a lot because I worked driving an IH in my youth. Thanks for the memories Robert!
@angus64 Thanks for your comment, Jim! I'm glad the article brought back good memories for you.
An amazing job, Robert!
Excellent scratch building skills, fenders and pedals definitely included.
Your Puller looks superb!
@fiveten Thanks, Spiros! Each project that involves scratch-building is increasing my confidence levels. Who knows what I might try next! 🙂
Man, that's cool! I love tractors; a scale model of my Kubota would be really neat. Great modeling work @robgenev665!
@garybrantley Thank you, Gary!
Tractors are unusual models, and yours is truly well-done, Robert (@robgenev665). My wife's father restored tractors, and his workshop would be full of old tractors in various states of restoration when we visited. He lived on the plains in Colorado, and he would pick up his tractors at auctions for farm equipment. After he restored them, he would sell them for prices that more than made up for the cost of restoration.
@gblair Thanks for your comments, George! My neighbor back on the farm restored old John Deeres. When he passed they auctioned off over 150 tractors - I imagine they made a lot of money off of those!
I haven’t been on the site much lately, but this caught my eye. As a fellow tractor model fan, this one is great. The fenders & weights are very well done. Back in my youth a buddy & I ran a 1066 puller. Spent way too much money to win at county fairs, but it was a fun ride. Looked a lot like your model. Thanks for sharing
@coondog Thanks, Matt! I thought you might like this one, didn't know you had actually participated in pulling. An with a 1066, very cool!
Wow, this is different. I've often wondered whether anybody actually builds commercial farm machinery - Revell has done a couple of tractors recently - and now I know somebody does! A stunning effort and well done to you sir!
@nickn Thank you for your kind words, Nick!