ihatepoundland

Thanks again everyone. On the above point, I was pretty annoyed at myself for not taking more photographs during the painting and detailing parts...but something I used to make the decals may help others (although it may have been discovered before) - To ensure the decals fitted, I placed the tractor bonnet and mudguards flat onto a scanner, which gave me a 1:1 image on the computer which meant when they were printed out, they were still 1:1. All of the lettering used came from scans of the brochure. These may not fit another tractor, but may as well post them incase they are useful to someone;

Sounds like a nightmare, is it possible with just one colour? Still better than ROS's hay bales though, they are almost glow in the dark

Thanks guys I glad it didn't turn out a pigs ear, took me long enough

What can you do with one of these? And one of these? (please note, Claas for illustration only standard Valtra C used) And the photograph that started it all; First thing needed were dimensions; the wheelbase, length, height and tyre sizes were known so from these it was possible to scale a photograph to 1/32. The photograph was then drawn over in a CAD programme to give the dimensions of the basic shapes. Although the lonestar tractor is way out in almost all aspects, the cab thankfully very close in scale. The Valtra C was the closest match for the tyre size and wheel style of the Marshall. The Valtra C, being a four cylinder tractor, had a wheelbase that was a few mm too short for the 6 cylinder Marshall, but it could be adapted. Engine detail was of no concern as much would be hidden anyway. The Valtra C gets stretched; At this point the wheels were also repainted white - UH have unfortunatly used a nasty off-white plastic for their wheels. At this time, the lip of rubber on the sidewall beneath the tread was also removed from the tyres. Next the Lonestar had to be split, retaining just the cab and floor pan, which was adapted from the Case mudguard style. First fit to check all of the parts after the major structural work and fitment of the bonnet built from plastic card - cab roof filter was later rebuilt. Once happy, the Marshall was primered and painted. The colour was achieved by mixing NH clayson yellow from Nigel Ford with Humbrol matt #103 until it matched the colour in the brouchure. Details and glazing were added and the front weight bracket was completed. Which resulted in this; Extra wheelbase visible here; Difference in the colours of the wheels Last one - What a Lonestar Marshall looks like in comparison;

Coming along nicely If I am allowed one criticism, it would be the painted lines on the cab, they detract from what will be a very neat model

Hubba hubba look at the height of that bonnet! crazy. You're tempting me to modify a 9880

no pictures chap?

Good pictures there, all angles covered Are they combine tyres on the front

I love those traction engine photographs...I had no idea people brought trains to GDSF!

They are the customer - Agree with the short on men part , awful lot of hassle if you don't have the workers

Thanks again for the compilements guys...that Massey picture you mention Tris came out very similar to my favourite shot from last year, the Claas ;

All I know is that it was NH...wouldn't have a clue on the exact model, does look similar to what you describe though

Good question I think Only one baler/tractor at a time - the sledge lives in that field just for this occasion. The farmer does his own bales as round bales and wraps them, he had been around the outskirts of our friend's field earlier with the round baler before using the conventional to make the bales for our friend's use, the fields have their own small barn for the horses and keeping their hay in - they knew how many small bales it would take to fill this barn, so tried to bale that many as small ones (about 800 - 900), the rest the farmer uses. Whilst the tractor was baling we loaded straight onto pickups and horseboxes so they could take them to the barn, between their trips back and forth we used the time to arrange flat 8s, so that once the baling was finished the farmer could come back with his loader and trailer to take them across to the barn and then we could load straight off at trailer height, which was a big time saver It is hot work, but at least the field was pretty square and the farmer did his best to group them anyway.

yep, the opportunity arrose, would never get that close unless I knew them!

I like the steering a lot, clever stuff. Coincidentially, I also have a M.A.N truck with a hiab, well technically an Epsilon, I took it off of a siku log trailer

Spent a great afternoon helping out some friends with the hay for their horses, had to arrange some of the bales into flat 8s for the loader and the rest got loaded into horse boxes and pickups to be taken to the barn (about 100m away) where we had to stack it. Inbetween the drinking and loads, had time for a few photos

Sounds good Sean, must say I'm not aware of many round here, strange. Thanks John, you had a great year last year for combines, less luck this year? I think these three will be the last harvest pictures of the year...pretty much been wrapped up locally, quite a few bales to be loaded around and about but that's not interesting....looking forward to spuds and particually maize now

Ooo, you've wetted my appetite A sprinkle of UH or a touch of 7200? If you need high res images of anything, let me know

poll added, i'm wondering if loading times are an issue \

Maybe of interest.....the nearest lines (lighter coloured) of straw came from the CX860 on it's aborted harvest attempt two weeks ago..there seems to be more straw from the MF Nice fat tyres on the rear Anyone done a conversion of one of these?

Well I said I hadn't seen a MF combine for a long time...so this one was a surprise....all the way from Germany! Are these common else where in the UK because I can't remember seeing one? Run by the same contractors as the last NH combine.

big picture party! I love that first photo...keep posting the big ones!

No, you da man! Thanks...i think