powerrabbit

A David Brown will always be a David Brown no matter how hard anyone tries to disguise one.

Bit of a bu**er that. I have been with the NFU since 1961 and never had a problem with them. Your branch sounds like they have some questions to answer, I bet that if you were insured third party fire and theft, they would have paid out. You ought to confront them and say that a fully comprehensive policy is just that and wonder where they would stand legaly if you were to take it higher and further. Your comp policy should have covered you but, like you say, if it was in the small-print that you were not covered, I would say that a fire is a fire and you saved them a fair bit of money by not letting it total the tractor. Sounds like a fob-off. My policy with them covers such things as fire also implements, machinery, trailer, load, even if what's behind the tractor is someone elses, I think the wording is, 'any implement, machinery, trailer and load, wheather owned by, hired or used by the insured connected at the time to the tractor'.

As regarding the 18 mile rule, the Police only have to do a registration check and the address of the owner/keeper is obtained and from that the distance travelled will be known. Tractors on the road will always be a bone of contention but the non-farming community has to be educated more on tractors as there are more accidents caused by people not giving them the respect required, only yesterday down here a lorry drove into the back of a New Holland towing a grain trailer and pushed it off the road killing the tractor driver. Drivers of other faster vehicles come up to tractors too fast and loose it. Then there are tractor drivers, coming home from town yesterday morning I was following a fairly new JD and mower conditioner, the tractor was travelling at 35mph and when it went around the corners the check chains or stabalizers were so slack that the mower was swinging right out on the other side of the road, absolutely stupid, a lot of tractor drivers need educating as well. If you are on the road it is only common sense that your tractor must be maintained to a high standard, if you do this and anything untoward should happen then you should not have too much to worry about, in fact, I would say that tractor drivers have more of a responsibility on the road, treat everyone else on the road as idiots, they often are. I always say, with the pace of life now, a lot of people don't have a minute to live but you're a bloody long time dead. We ought to start a new subject on tractor legislation, responsibilities and do's and don'ts.

Printing a 'tax disc' for fitting to a model tractor is perfectly feasable but not so much for a cabless ones. On 1:16 scale models it is more feasable and for 1:32 scale cabbed tractors. Just photocopy a good clean old disc and reduce to the size you require and print on label paper but you will have to apply it to the outside of the window. Corgi used to supply tax discs on a sheet that you could apply to the windscreen of the cars back in the 60's, go on their website and email them and see if they could still do them. Regarding the taxation rules on agricultural tractors/vehicles, there is no fee but if a tractor is registered and has a current V5C, to take it on the road you need a valid disc which must be displayed clearly, all agricultural and historic vehicles qualify. If you don't tax a tractor you will have to declare it SORN (Statutary Off Road Notification), if you fail to do this you will pay a fine of ?80. You will still receive a renewal form from DVLA every 12 months and if you decide to put your tractor on the road between that time you have to fill out the appropriate aplication form. Most forms can be downloaded from the DVLA website. I always use my local Post Office to renew my tractor tax, easier and no hassle. documents you need to show are, current insurance certificate and tax renewal form and some offices will ask for the registration document as well, it's all done electronically now with barcodes. One final point, did you know that if your tractor is classed as 'agricultural' the maximum distance you can travel on the road is 18 miles in one day, total journey.

A Britain's JCB handler cut down with a 5000 skid and a JCB Farmaster backhoe digger arm could be the answer. Possibe perhaps?

Siku seem to be churning out a lot of Fendt tractors in various colours, the Deutz ones are getting this treatment as well, perhaps it's an excuse to make more money out of them. There are so many 'limited edition' models about that we are getting spoilt for choice.

JK. Your Fergy tractor is as follows. T= Tractor. E= English. (Banner Lane Built). D= TVO. ( Fuel, Tractor Vapoising Oil)(Petrol/TVO). The number is the tractor build or serial number and denotes that it was built in the last quarter of 1953. The other numbers on the same plate that you can't read are the patent numbers as these are printed rather than stamped into the plate but the number you quoted is the important one for identification. The engine block being red sugests that the block has been replaced at some time probably due to common frost damage and replaced with one sourced from one that was a French built 'continental', these French ones were painted red all bar the tin-work that was the usual grey, the continental ones were straight petrol, the difference with the TVO engine was that the engine was the same except that it was fitted with a vaporising manifold and the head gasket was thicker to lower the compression. The T20 engines were made by the Standard Motor Company that later became Triumph, after that Fergies had the Perkins engines Hope this helps but there will be others that are more up to speed on Fergies than I am.

I know that there will be 2 there and may be three but I am sure that there will be the usual smattering of farm stuff as they know it's popular here, just hope they don't want London prices as they do usually, we're gradually educating them though!

Sorry for wrong date, should have looked at the calendar better. Now corrected in original post to the correct date, 12th August. Appologies.

The next toy fair at Westpoint Exeter is on Sunday 12th August. Not sure at present how much farm stuff will be there but should be the usual stalls. I shall be picking up a few bits that I previously ordered, thats if they remember to bring it! Will be getting the 1:16 UH 'Estate' Fergy T20 and a 1:32 McCormick yellow Cornish County Council tractor amongst other stuff. One stallholder rang me a couple of nights ago to say that he has reduced his prices so lets hope others will follow suit as I don't think much was selling last time.

Near me, there is one in Cornwall as well, Trago Mills, very good range of spray can paints in 'Plastikote' and double acrylic at a lot cheaper price than paint cans from the likes of Sparex and Vapormatic. These last two companies spray can paints are priced at ?17.50p for a 400ml can and that is the TRADE price, the reccomended selling price (rsp) is ?25.75p per can. The Trago Mills cans come in various sized cans, and vary between ?1.79p to ?3.98p for 100ml to 400ml cans, some of the larger cans are as cheap as the small ones. Anyone going to Trago for paints would be advisable to take something they wish to match the colour to as there are many different shades. As for paint matches. Rover Vermilion..............David Brown Power red. Volxwagen Pargas Blue.....All early Fordsons, Dexta, 5000, 6600. Vauhall Pastel Blue..........Weeks Trailer, Early Twose equipment.

I know this has been said before but what are Britain's RC2 thinking about. It says on the boxes of all the models 'compatible hitch for all Britain's implements'. Well, this statement is blatently untrue. If the company wish to keep their market happy and buoyant then they will have to be educated.

I've done hundreds of Corgi and Dinky stuff and the way I do it is to drill out the rivets just enough so that you can seperate the base, you then have a slight 'burr' on the end of the rivet post that I just take off with a fine file and before anything else being done, place the base back in position again to make sure it fits snug and nothing is bent. You have a slight 'shoulder' on the rivet post that the base sits on, this gives a glue platform. When all your re-spraying is done, put a little strong superglue around the rivet post shoulder and pur the base back on. then, this is what I do, cut the head, at the widest point, off a .177 air rifle pellet with a very fine hobbies type saw blade, making sure you have a flat and level cut, put it flat-side down, stick a pin in the dome of it to pick it up, put a smidging of superglue on the flat side and apply over the rivet hole. Job done. Alternative is to drill the rivet post deeper and buy some replacement rivets from a chap called Steve Flowers. (www.dinkyclub.com) http://www.dinkyclub.com/ and click on white metal parts. May be helpful.

I find that on most clear plastics and perspex that T-cut polish is very good at removing most things like paint, grime and shallow scratches, may remove certain glues. Jewelers use T-cut to polish watch glass so next time you need the face of your watch cleaning, don't pay a fortune to do what you can do yourself. That was the second tip!

http://www.eden-holidays.co.uk/model-tractors.shtml. http://www.totalmediafusion.com/difuria/Merchandisemodels.htm http://www.model-tractors.com/stores/viewstore.aspx?id=401732&op=1&hint=tractor%2c+fordson%2c+ferguson http://www.nationalminitrac.com/trade.php Or go to MSN Search and type in 'scale model tractor'. Loads of it listed.

How much character these old building have is just great. It's a pitty that we don't find any around, although they must be out there. Together with the old lead and hollowcast animals, horse and cart and period implements really takes us all back to our real childhood and to our Granddad's time, when farming was farming and life was hard but good. I've nearly got a tear in my eye now! :'(

There is a shop near me that are selling the new 5000 for ?8.95. Think I may get a few, keep them for a while and put them on Ebay in dribs and drabs. \

The French were a bit weird, they turned out some very odd numbered Ferguson tractors.

Crescent did'nt make a Major, would be a Dexta, 1959 type. The steering wheel wheel and rod through the casting to the wire steering link is one casting and is available from Brian Holmes (01646 661645) at ?1.75p. You would have to split the casting of the tractor to fit the new part but not dificult. There are a lot of these Dextas around so don't be in too much of a hurry to aquire one as a complete one could be found for less at toy fairs. They were made between 1962 and 1980 in 6 various versions and sets. The rarer one is all orange. Crescent made another tractor between 1949 and 1960, this was an orange and silver trimmed Fordson E27N Major with steering, the wheels were black rubber and the driver was a 'Land Girl'. Various implements were made for this model.

Not sure of the model number but an old retired farmer neighbour 'downsized' and moved to a smallholding and bought one of these exact MF tractors, wish I took a pic of it now but alas, hindsight and all that. The rear tyres were not quite as wide but everything else is pretty much exact. The old chap is dead and gone now so don't know where the tractor is. I remember though that he bought it in 1999 at a cost of around ?5,000.

Was that the chap selling the Britain's stuff etc? I got his card with his mobile number as he said he is of no fixed abode at the moment. He's called Paul Thorne (don't think he's related to Mike) and lives only a short distance from me. I gave him my contact details and he said he would be in touch as he's got 3 or 4 large cardboard boxes full of Britain's for spares/repairs/convos to shift.

Hav'nt built many of these but have built the Fordson E27N crawler, MK1 MF65 and the Bolinder Munktels Volvo and have got the David Brown Selectamatic 990 standard but not started it yet. The earlier kits were good and the current kits are really good but there was a time when the quality of the castings was quite poor as the parts needed a lot of filing to fit together properly but I think this was at a time when there was a change over in the ownership. Hav'nt I heard somewhere that Scaledown is on the market? I did hear that someone was interested in aquiring it but when they discovered that there were no license of copyright for the kits, they pulled out. Anyone know any details or wheather there is any actual truth in it? Perhaps Nigel could fill us in and put these 'rumours to bed'.

Not an expert on the subject but I do know that if you are intending to solder together white metal kits as opposed to glueing, it is very difficult as the metal will not take very much heat, therefore you need a very low temperature solder otherwise your kit will end up as just a puddle of melted down metal. On the other hand, if you intend to scratch-build with brass and/or copper the normal hobbies soldering equipment like an electric 'gun' or mini blowlamp type would be best as you have to get enough heat into the parts you intend to join. Solder types vary quite a bit, some have a higher lead content, some are lower, there are ready fluxed solders in the form of a 'wire' roll and bar solders but with brass soldering, the best would be plummers solder and even with the pre fluxed type it is always better to use flux paste from a tin as you can never be sure that there is adequate flux in the pre fluxed type of solder and with a good coating of flux on the joint you will get a better flow and end up using less solder and ultimately a better joint. I hope that the experts will agree.

This tractor is one of the Hachette series of models. The guy that lists these un-boxed seems to list a lot of these models is from China and we all think here that he must either work in the factory or in the packaging plant and 'filters' a few off. Look out for a French chap who's Ebay name is MickyVs (Michael Vassiliou), he usually has a good range of these models complete with packaging and the magazine that goes with them. He usually lists them in his 'shop' for around ?14 each plus p+p under 'buy it now'.

Cracking set of pics. Is'nt it nice to see so many tractors WITHOUT those unsightly hideous rollbars. Putting rollbars on tractors may be ok for the insecure tractor driver but to me just makes a tractor look like it should be hung on a hook somewhere!