Heller MF 2680 Tractor 1/24
Here's the latest addition to my tractor collection, Heller's Massey Ferguson 2680. I bought this kit off of eBay back in late March from a company in Germany, and was informed by the seller that they would not be able to ship right away because of COVID. I told them that was ok, I could wait. Fast forward six months to October and I still had not received the kit! I emailed the company and they replied, "Who are you?" They had forgotten all about my order and shipped it right away by boat, so I finally(!) got the kit the second week of November.
This is one of the few modern tractor kits out there, and it is a press-fit kit with not a lot of detail. It only has 46 parts, whereas the old Ertl kits have 125. The kit also suffers a bit from the "moving parts" issue in the front axle and the 3-point hitch (the 3-point is actually moveable up and down) which makes it less accurate. You can see from the cabin shot that it was pretty sparse - just a seat! I scratch built the floor mats, control panels and gear shifter from plastic sheet and rod, with balls of white glue for the shifter handles. Since I was making this one a working tractor, I muddied up the floor and added a scratch-built shotgun and box of shells. Other than those modifications I didn't change much. I was glad the kit came with tractor weights hanging on the front, but they looked like a uniform block of plastic, so I scored the block to delineate the individual weights, and modified the handles to look more realistic.
I muddied up the front axle and fenders with blobs of putty painted brown, and sprayed light gray as a film of dirt over the lower half of the tractor. The mud on the tires is not totally satisfactory to me, I might revisit that again later. Note the clean sweep of the windshield wiper - I'm kind of proud of that. 🙂
The real tractor was produced in the early 1980's, so it's a good companion to my Ertl 1155 which was produced in the late 70's. Since I work part-time at a farm supply store now, I was able to buy Massey Ferguson Red spray paint at an employee discount, so I could paint the tractor the genuine color. I was pleased to see that the genuine color is a very close match to the Testers Red that I painted my 1155 with. I hope you enjoy my latest tractor!
This is (another one) wonderful tractor build, Robert!
Those scratchbuilts added up a lot to the final result!
Nice painting and weathering and I loved the clean swep of the wipers!
Well done!
@fiveten Thank you, Spiros!
I grew up working summers on my Grandad's farm, and loved the little utility MF 125 we had. I have a fond attachment to tractors - well done.
@gkittinger Thanks, Greg!
Robert, great looking tractor. Your scratch building talents really add to the model. I have always wanted to build a tractor model but haven't gotten around to it yet. They make for interesting and unusual models.
Cheers,
Scott
@scott57 Thanks, Scott!
We had an 1155 on the farm I worked on in the summers of 1979, 80 and 81 when I was a young lad. As a 15 year old I felt like a badass driving it for the first time. I really enjoy these tractor models you post. Thanks for sharing.
@angus64 thank you for the comments, Jim! I always enjoyed driving my dad's John Deere 3020 and 3010. I have one more to build, Ertl's International 1466.
I love the dirty floormat. Good realism!
@tcinla Thanks, Tom!
Looks great!
@roofrat thanks, Robert!
Very nice.
@tiking Thanks, Charles!
Your scratchbuilt extras definitely add a lot to this kit, Robert, and the tyres look OK to me. Certainly liked.
@chinesegeorge Thank you very much, George!
Great looking build and not the often seen
@jacman Thank you, Anthony!
Robert, @robgenev665
What a fantastic Massey ! You have a peculiar habit of making your builds look extremely realistic. Each time I take a look at this one, I notice yet another detail that pushes it even farther off the charts.
Years ago I worked on a lot of these real life "full sized 1 to 1 scale" tractors. It wasn't too bad fixing them, unless I had to split the case apart and replace a clutch / pressure plate. That was a job ! I would then refer to the tractor using a few choice words (that also had the same initials as "Massey Ferguson")... We had several of the Massey's at this job where I worked as the lead mechanic. Most were the MF235 series, and I think one was a MF280 (or 285 it's been while). We even had one that was made by Jacobsen, which in all reality was still a license built Massey with different stickers, and wearing Orange paint.
Well done my friend. I pressed the "liked" button too. Stay safe...
@lgardner Thank you for your kind words, Louis, and for your comments about working on tractors. I've seen a number of tractors split apart, but never tried to do one myself. It looks like a big job!