ploughmaster

Good review Jason, thanks for taking the time to post it up. I've just bought one of these from G&M, and I would agree it is a very pleasing model. Mine doesnt appear to have any serious flaws - the only problem was that whoever packed it caught the rear right side light stalk on the polystyrene packaging and it was bent right round the back of the combine (a couple of minutes with a little light heat to make it easy to bend back into position and that was sorted). It has a good heavy solid feel to it - the main casting/panel work up to the bottom of the upper part of the grain tank is diecast (including the opening rear quarter access panel), so it feels similar to the Britains Massey 7200 or the new Holland CX880/8080. Steering angle is good, and even the outer dual wheels being firmly fixed to the axle don't impede the turning circle too much. Odd though, they haven't modelled the header knife; the header stops at the front of the draper belt (or is there a lump missing from mine???) The only thing I have found that I don't like is that Ertl have retained the stupid spring system in the rams which hold the header down, and it can't be locked up. I could see the need on earlier Britains/Ertl combines to have the extra downward pressure to help the drive wheel for the header to grip the floor (as they were smooth), but this model has a gear driven reel and the drive wheels for it are slightly serrated so grip and drive quite well (although the middle cog does tend to catch the ends of the reel bars and jamming - a common problem on Britains early combines, and easily fettled with the light application with a file. Now looking forward to the Britains European version on tracks in the Autumn.

I can only agree with the opinions above. It is a good venue, light, bright and airy, with good access, but, had it not been for the traders who had come, there would have been very little to look at. Most of the (very few) displays were well laid out and the exhibitors had obviously put some effort into them, but where were all the people who have been repeatedly wittering on FTF about needing a dedicated display section at Spalding, and more emphasis on displays and dioramas generally at farm toy shows??? Today has rather shown that there isn't any point. It's a great shame - I wasn't expecting a show of displays to put Zwolle in the shade, but I had thought there would be more people with something to show off

Yes, both versions

It has been unfortunate that the introduction of Imber has roughly coincided with the launch of several other model tractor manufacturers/brands, and also becoming available at a time when we have seen an unprecedented proliferation in the number of new models of vintage and classic tractors etc which has severely diluted the potentiasl market for each individual brand. Combined with the flood of models of classic Fords which have recently appeared, and those which we know are coming later this year, any new variation from IMber will have a tough time competing for the cash from Blue Fans, so I would not be surprised if a new version 40 series is held off for a little while until perhaps the initial rush for the new releases from Britains, MarGe, and UH cools off a little

Trailer manufacturers are fairly territorial on the whole; often having grown out of what was originally a blacksmithing business or small local agricultural engineers. Only a few makes have gained nationwide visibility. Norton are one such make; they have been around for some years but will be cheifly known around their home area of Somerset (surprised they haven't stretched down to Devon?). Makes which are common in their locality are virtually unheard of elsewhere - round my area in Lincolnshire most trailers are Baileys or Marston/AS (or one of their sub brands), with a few Armstrong & Holmes (who are a fairly small scale maker). I have come across an odd Fraser and one or two Triffits. Some other makes which some members on here look upon as commonplace are unheard of here - I've never seen or heard of a Kane round here for a start, nor a Stewart, a West or a Norton for that matter. Years ago we had Martin Markham Trailers in Stamford, and Michael Brunton Trailers of Claypole, both long disappeared now, but I doubt many people outside of the immediate area would have heard of Bruntons even when they were in operation. However, (and seeing the original title of this thread), I don't think there is much hope of Britains/Ertl making any vintage trailers (or other vintage implements - it's been hard enough getting them to do any up to date ones!

Yes, the one on the County is the right one for both County and Ford TW25/35/8730/8830. The TW25, TW30 and TW35 were not fitted with a pre-cleaner bowl.

That clears that one up then Thanks for posting that Atte. Those square centres were certainly in use before that - I used to drive a Force II TW35 (an August 1987 model on a 'E' registration) which had square dishes on the front wheels when new. Near enough I think - it is the correct roof type, but it looks as though the shape isn't quite right around the front, and I don't know about what appear to be holes for something to be mounted in - I don't know of any standard or optional equipment which would fit in those places. It is difficult to tell from the photo, but the top of the roof looks a little odd, but may well be modelled from a real one with an escape hatch in the roof. These were fitted in the early bubble cab for some markets where an escape hatch was a legal requirement - notably Scandinavia. I went on a factory tour of Cranes Farm Road in about 1983, and at that time there were 26 different versions of the bubble cab being assembled in a dedicated 5 acre cab assembly building on the site. There were I think 4 basic frames to suit the different models: 2610 - 4610; 5610 - 7610; and 6710 - 8210 (at that time the TW range was still being built at Antwerp), and then various spec levels to suit different markets such as the escape hatch for Scandinavia, or sliding back windows for Australia etc.

Front mudguards were a factory or dealer fit option for the UK market on the early Series 10 and the TW#5 series, but I don't actually recall seeing any fitted (they were rather expensive!). However, I don't think they had been available for the earlier TW10, TW20 or TW30. Options in other markets were sometimes different however. They weren't fitted as standard even when the Force II came out, although some farmers did spend the extra on having them fitted. Apart from the farmer fitted front roof mounted ploughlamp (Ford didn't offer such a thing even as an option until the Super Q Force II came out)..... ....the air pre-cleaner is also incorrect...... ....I am pretty sure the side plate fastened to the engine rail was only fitted to the later super Q cabbed tractors...... and I have never seen any of the TW series sold without rear wheel ring weights (without them, none of the TW's could hold their feet if using all their pulling power). Ford only stopped fitting them as standard on the later 30 Series, which had the heavy Funk powershift gearbox, the weight of which made extra wheel weights unneccessary in most situations..... ....and whilst it's not actually wholly incorrect, most of the early type TW#5 series would have been supplied with the 6 point scolloped front wheel centres as I think the 4 point square GKN centres were only introduced in the last year or so of production before the Super Q cabbed Force II versions went on the market. I would also like to know whether square headlights were ever actually fitted as original equipment, and if so, which market they were fitted for - ALL UK market TW's and 30 Series were fitted with round headlights ex-factory, and all the brochures I have seen show them with round headlights. Otherwise, it doesn't look a bad model

You can disagree all you like, without the amount of subsidy money being put in the direction of wind power, wind power would be making huge losses. The figures speak for themselves. Even those in the wind power industry haven't yet found a way of fiddling the figures to hide that fact. The government have already woken up to the reality that solar energy is uneconomic, and I believe they will do likewise with wind in the future (probably more likely now they have got rid of that wind-obsessed fool Huhne from the energy department). And don't fall for the con that electricity from other sources will be hugely more costly in the future than wind either. Electricity prices would at present be substantially lower if we had no turbines at all - the main reason for the size of electricity bills at present is because the subsidy for wind turbines is largely being raised via a hidden energy tax on our bills. An farmer sinking money into these turbines will think he is getting a great deal of income at the beginning. but as time wears on and the turbines begin to wear and need costly repairs, and the subsidy reduces, they are likely to become a millstone round their neck. Denmark has realised the futility of wind power; we should be learning from their experience with turbines, not trying to repeat it.

^^^^^ Exactly this. The only thing that makes wind power economic at present is the subsidy (which comes out taxpayers pockets ie. you and me). Their biggest problem is that they rarely (read that as never) produce their projected capacity, and a significant proportion of that is generated when it isn't needed (such as overnight). In other words, a substantial proportion of the time when they can generate will simply go to waste. There is also the small matter that when you have a big demand for power (eg. in cold weather) this often coincides with periods when there is little wind ...... On top of which the cost involved in building, transporting, erecting, and maintaining them, plus the cost of installing suitable access is likely to be for greater than the value of the (usable) power they generate in their working lifetime. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the amount of energy consumed in their construction and erection is less than the amount of usable energy they will produce before they need to be replaced. If wind power is the answer, someone has asked a very silly question. Ultimately, the real answer is that we have to learn to use substantially less energy than we currently do.

I imagine they have only made one mock up so far (the 2620), and have taken one pic of it with the 2WD axle and a pic with it fitted with the 4WD axle - I assume they will do another version with the exhaust the other side for the 2640 (or will they? ). The air cleaner does appear rather large in that pic (might just be the distortion of perspective by the camera), and I have to say I have only ever seen that type of pre-cleaner on a 2720......... The view ahead with the configuration shown would be somewhat restricted to say the least

That certainly seems very likely - when I look through my recent Britains I get a distinct feeling that some are made in a different place from others. In particular, the recent very good JD 7280R and 7260R give a very different impression from the one I get from the latest JCB 3CX (which even I, with my pro-Britains bias, have to admit is pretty badly put together :'( ).

Nearly double what I would rate it at in the present climate. Absolutely tip top ones were going for top side of £350 - £400 a few years ago, but Britains values have certainly fallen back quite a long way in the last 2 or 3 years. He does describe it as ex shop stock, and they don't come up all that often, but very high even so . The three in the Nils Fischer sale made £150, £150 and £160 respectively (approx £187, £187 and £200 with fees), which was a bit on the low side. Oddly the two lower valued ones were the rare olive brown one and a blue with the rare green plastic farmer Even the very rare metallic blue one in the set with the horsebox only made £200 (£260 with fees). The olive brown one in a similar set only reached a final bid of £190. (All the previous auction catalogues are available on the Vectis website, although you have to register and log in to see the prices realised - http://www.vectis.co.uk/Page/Index.aspx ) £461 is definately over the top (a bit of an anomalous value similar to the Britains Fordson Super Major in the Nils Fischer sale which made over £1600 including fees ), but if you are desperate for one that is mint and in a mint or near mint box, they don't appear very often.

hardly surprising as Siku is significantly more expensive . What is it with some you that you cannot allow a single opportunity to have a dig at Britains go by unmissed Such a comment is neither relevant nor helpful to this thread! I thought we had put that childishness behind us recently, but perhaps not

Quite genuine

I have just been through all my recent Britains acquisitions, and I can honestly say I can't find any issues with any of them. Certainly all the decals on my International 956XL and Case IH 1056XL are in place with no sign of coming unglued (indeed, just as they were when I bought them), neither are there any fingermarks or nail marks in the cab quarter decals.

I'd agree, the recent releases have generally been made to a much higher standard than those of the early 2000's (though I too found a couple of poor paint marks on my T8).

Perhaps the Britains Kane trailer isn't a terribly good example - extra detail on what is primarily a toy will significantly add to cost and will possibly fall foul of regulations governing the 3+ age group they are aimed at.. I do know what you mean though regarding most of the model production, and I fully agree with you. Very often the model manufacturers don't seem to do their research properly and particularly with older machines that need to be physically measured up, they don't take account of 20 or 30 years of farmers and operators adding bits and modifying bits, and faithfully reproduce all these oddites onto the scale model, thereby losing some of the accuracy and appeal to collectors. All it would take is a look at a contemporary brochure in many cases, or a first hand discussion with someone who really does know what is correct. The classic example was the perfectly modelled farmer-bodged plough lamp bracket on the UH 16th scale Ford 5000 (and them also fitting the UK tax disc holder on the North American version ). I also agree with the multi variations all coming at once (they could perhaps string them out a bit). However, with the way that toys are manufactured now, it may be that they need to make the full number they need all in one go - the factories making them are basically contractors and the model has to be built in a 'slot' in the schedule, before the factory moves on to another model (possibly from another manufacturer). It's not like the old days when Britains, Ertl Siku, ROS et al had their own factories in their home country and had full control over what to produce and when, and could do a shortish run at a whim. Particularly with models (rather than toys) it is a limited market and producing lots of variations garners more sales from the same tooling, which keeps cost to an acceptable level. However, I think we are fast reaching saturation point for what people can a. afford, and b. find room to display (or store), and I feel there is a danger of those manufacturers who put out lots of different versions could end up killing the goose.......

......and a few more:- Some epic negative camber here:-

I expect they probably did I have come across several IH 634s with Roadless conversions, but whether Roadless actually built them all or not I don't know. Roadless Traction supplied front wheel drive kits to dealers and others which were retro fitted to standard tractors, so there are quite a few tractors about which have a Roadless manufactured front wheel drive, but were not actually built up at Hounslow. Here are a few I've picked out from the Roadless 90 held at Scopwick in 2009:- .................

Whilst some of you seem very anti-plastic, it is a fact that use of plastic allows for far sharper moulding and finer detail than is possible in metal Bill Walters posted about the takeover elsewhere, and his opinion seemed to be that it would not really have any significant affect on how Ertl operate (and therefore Britains too) . I would think the change in management of the Britains brand in Exeter (the departure of Craig Varley last summer and his replacement by Emilia Lawes) may possibly have greater implications for the future.

If they were fitted that size when new, I would suspect that one may have been used for drainage operations for forestry - specialised application You would only have found that size of tyre on a very small number of County tractors when new, and those almost exclusively in specialised operations, usually outside agriculture. Seeing an odd one or two in preservation fitted with silly sized tyres, doesn't overide the simple fact that they are not as 99% of people would recognise them . Looking at the photo of the Belgian one, I hope to goodness that MarGe don't faithfully copy the bonnet decal as it is on that tractor - a big lump of it is missing around the front end I also rather hope they put the rear reflectors and their frames on the mudguards (which UH have left off their County, in spite of them being present on the Fords )

I was given to understand that John Deere won't allow the North American dealers to sell the Siku, Wiking etc models and toys because of licencing conflicts with Ertl (who historically had an exclusive licence for JD toys and models).

Marston Agricultural Services will paint a trailer in any colour according to customer wishes (as most trailer manufacturers will), and red is most probably a special order colour to match someones tractor fleet (probably for a farm running MF or Case-IH tractors) - MAS have certainly painted some trailers in John Deere green with yellow wheels by special request of customers with JD tractors. Of course, back in the 1980's, Massey Ferguson sourced most of their 200 series trailers from AS Trailers as they were then known, and of course these left the factory in red with silver wheels. Most of the main colours they use nowadays relate to the trailer brands that MAS own and market trailers under:- AS Trailers/Marston, Collins and Salop - Blue Gull Trailers - Yellow Griffiths - Orange Wootton - Blue and Orange ECE - Green However, it is not unusual to see a brand decal on the 'wrong' colour