Nick's Heller 1/24 Ferguson Tractor - Lee W's Four Wheels on my Wagon GB

[Nicko]

Yes, apologies for the lack of recent updates. I have been making some progress and there are some pictures to add, which I will hopefully get around to tomorrow. Unfortunately the combined requirements of grandparenting duties and the recent upturn in the weather has somewhat reduced bench time in the past couple of weeks.

Nick.

[Jim R]

Good progress with all your added detailing. Nice to see some paint.

[Nicko]

So, first proper update this month, and we're already half way through!

Anyway, a fair bit of progress has been made despite there being a fair bit of procrastination mainly surrounding the need to get away from the - to my eye - rather dark Fergusen Grey. But first there was a bit of detail painting to do. I also fashioned an attempt at some hose clips....



You can also just about see my first attempt at dry-brushing some lighter grey onto the paintwork. The less said about that the better.

Battery all painted up. Looks quite poor this close up!



I then took a hold of trying to get a worn and faded look on the paintwork.







After which, I got the radiator fitted and added some oil and grease stains around the engine and pivot points.





Started work on wear and tear on the wheels and dirtying the tyres.



Lastly I got the fuel tank fitted followed by the instrument panel and battery...



So this is how she's currently sitting...




Not really that much left to do: Finish up dirtying the rear tyres; Fit the seat and steering wheel. And that will leave me just the bonnet and exhaust, which is where I've found a couple of anomalies. Firstly, although the bonnet appears to fit nicely, it can only be fitted either open or closed - the pivot works nicely but the mechanism doesn't allow the bonnet to clear the radiator as it opens. I will be cutting off the pivot pins so the tractor can be displayed with the bonnet either fitted or removed. Also, I was planning to fit the high-level exhaust but I can't get it to fit without fouling either the front suspension/steering arms or the bonnet. I'm therefore painting up the low-level exhaust and will use that instead.

Not too much more to do on this one now. Thanks as always for looking in.


Nick

[Hecky]

That's looking great Nick. The correct Ferguson gray was always a bone of contention among the purists. I suspect they just used what was cheap/available at the time and there was some variation in colour. They even used surplus paint from the Royal Navy at some stage.