powerrabbit

And don't forget that you must fit the two top-link bars and the two stabaliser bars to each end of the 9 hole bar otherwise (without the top-link bars) you will be suceptable to vertical-jacknife!

They would probably make more on eBay. I would say that 5 euro for one is'nt a bad price considering the time and thought that's gone into it. C'mon, cut the chap a bit of slack!

Now that does look the part. Make a few and put them on eBay to see what they will make. Yuo could make some outdoor mineral feeders in the same style as well. Ever thought about making a trough with the ballfloat box on one end like the galvanised ones?

Received the second one of Autumn Ploughing today that is supposed to be for a mate, I say supposed to be but I'm going to keep this one as it is a much lower number, 028. The first one was number 195 so he can have that one!

I think that this would come under agricultural contracting and be up to the contractor to set his prices according to the operation and costings of type of machinery used for any specific operation. A lot of farmers around here are now dispensing of certain operations that they previously engaged a contractor for and for such things as hedgetrimming, hiring a tractor and trimmer for the required period where breakdown costs are covered in the hire 'contract' and the farmer only has to provide the fuel for the tractor. This is particulaly the case now when a farmer just needs an extra or larger tractor for a short period of time to jet a job done that he can do himself. Of course there is another 'angle', I know of a few particularly 'tighter than most' farmers that when they want a tractor for a short while, they will go to their dealers and have a new one on demonstration. The dealers will probably get wise to it now!

Well, we know of at least 2 that they will not be doing then.

KiwiNick, you will find the 'Lone Star' (with a star between the two words) name on the underside of the tractor below what looks like foot-plate behind the rear right-hand wheel on the side of the casting, you can see it if you look behind the wheel. Oh. And by the way, the Denzil Skinner tractors (Nuffield & D.B. 25D) were made of all diecast, The D.B. had tin mudguards, made in 1957.

Yes, the 1960 is Lone Star. they used the same casting for all their tractors, Ford, MF, Marshall, David Brown, Case (D.B.) Case IH and those horrid blue and the red Internationals. The clockwork D.B. crawler tractor (Trackmaster) was made by Shakelton, not Chad Valley and Denzil Skinner also made a Nuffield Universal as well as the D.B. 25D.

These are the only ones that I know of Andy that this chap produced but there may well have been others as I would imagine if someone could produce such a good quality tractor product from plastic like these two that there should be more than two makes produced; But it was several years ago now and how long Lipkin was in buisness I don't know. Perhaps it would be a good topic subject, 'minor farm model producers'.

Made by Ranaulph Lipkin Andy, same chap as the plastic BMC Nuffieild. Would love to find one for my collection, one day!.

Totally agree. See what happened to 'The Plough'. 2 issues and gone. Everyone has their 'favorite' tractor make but generaly, anyone with an interest in tractors, is a general interest. We do not need or want 'overkill'. I have bought other magazines of 'one make' and to be honest, after a while I find them rather boring and the majority of the content is covered in the now mainstream magazines anyway and in an unbiased way. If you take any of the main magazines anyway, the content of the one make ones will be pretty predictable anyway in my veiw. I'm more than satisfied with what we already have and may they long continue and have our support.

Those that belong to The David Brown Tractor Club will already know that they do a quarterly magazine, nothing like the other tractor mags but still some interesting articles in it, Will cost you £22 a year sub to be a member which includes the magazine and they will probably shoot me for suggesting it but you do see them on eBay from time to time. The current one is number 47.

Yes. It's the Honiton branch of Hambly's where I get my Class models. As I said previously, the chap that gets in all the models, I forget his name, is really on the ball and knows what's going to be scarce and knows the regular customer/collectors plus my eldest Nephew is a fitter there and he collects as well and he always lets me know when anything new comes in and they give him a model to take home with him to give to me when he sees me. I know when he's got something as the invoice very often gets to me before the model. The Siku Jag 960 in the Claas box from them was £30.96p. The other hard to get one is the Claas Ares tractor and Liner rake set, that was £46.08p. As for the Massey stuff, the dealers at Whiddon Down near Okehampton, Saunders, are just a short hop out the road from me and knew nothing about the MF 50th anniversary stuff untill I told them about it and will only get it to order but they are quite good and reasonably priced for their models.

I have one, got it from my local Claas dealer. The chap there that gets in the models is very knowledgeable, himself being a collector, told me at their recent open day that in the Claas box they were very hard to get hold of, he said that they could only get three of them at the time they first came out. This dealership carries an extensive range of Claas boxed models and anything that is in a Claas box, they have it.

I've just given Gray's a ring and ordered another 'Autumn Ploughing' for a mate that is impressed with the one I have. Have been a bit crafty and told the girl there that I have the voucher card and sticker/stamps to fill half the card, if i stuck them in the card and filled out the name and address bit and sent it to them, would they stick in the stamps I would have for the second one in it so I can have my full £10 off? She said 'No problem'.

Very late model, very good though. Celophane is easy enough to replace if you so wished.

Border are going to bring their tractor studies a little more 'up to date' with more from the 'classic' era, the first was the D.B 1412 Silver Jubilee tractor 'Getting ready for Smithfield'. This one was more of an experiment to see how a cabbed tractor would turn out and what sales would be generated, a natural progression some might say. I have heard through the grapevine that more cabbed tractors are on the cards.

I think that with the changeover that it has been difficult to search for older topics within the Forum. I may be giving my age away but the first tractor I ever drove, or at least remember steering from my Fathers lap, was a David Brown 30D. However I did learn to drive the same tractor when my legs were long enough to reach the clutch and brake pedals. I passed my tractor test for the road, at the time, on our then brand new D.B. Selectamatic 880.

Covering the front of the Caterpillar is a bit of a cop-out, the coat was probably easier to represent rather than the intricasies of the radiator and bars on the crawler, laziness on the part of the modeller? Still a very good study though. I'm certainly very pleased with my Autumn Ploughing.

No Natted, none that we are aware of, as I say, look at the web site link I put in my last post, it's the second book in the list, click on 'more info' and it will give you a little more on this book. Having this book will change your life if you are a keen Britain's collector and have a look at Ebay as well to give you an idea of what some people will pay for these tractors.

Hi Natted and a very warm welcome to the Forum. There were several variants of this tractor made by Britain's and the model you have posted up started life in 1986 and the final variant was in 1997. Your model with the red cab is one of the earliest models of this tractor . I won't go into chapter and verse as it would take a week to type up all the details of them. Can I suggest to you that you look out for a very comprehensive book on Britain's tractors, a hardback book titled 'Pocket guide to Britains model tractors 1948-1998 by David Pullen. This book covers everything anyone would wish to know about Britain's tractors and is a 'bible' for the collector which lists every tractor produced between those dates plus an index up to 2000 with catalogue numbers, original prices, box types, changes and improvements, years or time span of production, variations etc etc. This book was published in 2003 by 'Old Pond Publishing' ISBN Number 1 903366 40 2. This book is still readily available and is priced at £17.95 and well worth it. have a look at www.oldpond.com (Stuart Gibbard). Hope this is of help. Happy collecting and I hope you have fun here.

Funny is'nt it! I am only 21 miles from Mike and have to read it in the CT mag for the date. Anyway, good day last year and I will be going. Wonder if any of the stalls will have any of the MF anniversary stuff? Would be a good oportunity for any of you chaps with Fergy related stuff to sell, models etc, to give Mike a ring and book a stall.

I think that I paid a little under a tenner for the tractor.

I've got a bulldozer tractor in the same series boxed that I had from eBay a few months back; I don't think that these tinplate windup toys are particularly old but like you say, a little different. All it says on the lid of the box with the picture is 'this is not a toy; For adult collectors only. MS 357.Made in China. On the bottom of the tractor there is a label with the name Tobar Ltd Harleston U.K.

The best way to grow teddies, tatties, spuds or whatever you call them in your region. If you are growing them in 'virgin' soil that has been down to grass for a number of years, you should get a good crop. Firstly consider the variety you would like to grow, first earlies, second earlies or maincrop and for which purpose, chips, roast or boiling. Look in your local seed merchants catalogue for this. You will need to get your seed spuds as soon as they are available and put them in a moderately warm dry place in slatted boxes or trays to 'chit' out, start growing shoots, when you have strong growing shoots on them, about 1 inch and a 1/2 they are ready to plant, normally 2nd week in April. To prepare your 2 acres spray off the grass with 'Roundup' in mid March and let the grass go yellow to brown and plough fairly deep. Rotovate the soil to a fine tilth, again fairly deep and ridge out. 2 acres is a small enough area for you to 'drop' the seed spuds by hand, 1 foot to 18 inches apart with the growing shoot upwards in the bottom of the 'trench'. The closer you till seed spuds together, the smaller the size will be of the mature spud at the harvest time, the further apart, the bigger the spud. Sow a low or nil content fertaliser such as 0-14-14 down through the drills with the seed spuds preferably before you drop them, when that's done cover them in with a set of seed drags. It is better to ridge-up or bank the growing spuds when the tops are about 8 inches high. You can dig spuds, for 'new' potatoes just after they have flowered or when the tops have died off to dry stalks, or at least nearly, for mature and keeping ones. There should be no need to spray for weed as the Roundup will act as a pre-emergant as well but will not affect the spuds. The only thing that you will have to watch out for is the potato 'blight', an airborne fungus that travels with the fog on wet days in particular, the best way to prevent the blight is to spray the growing crop with a blue-green powder called 'Bordeux Mixture' that you mix with water and apply once a week during the growing period. Remember that the new spuds form above the one you planted, so within reason, the deeper you plant your seed spud and the wider apart, the heavier crop you will get from them. Hope this helps and good luck.