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1937 Seagrave Tractor Drawn Aerial


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I built this model starting with photos and measurements back in 2000. Finished it up 2-1/2 years later. Amazing part of this build is that all of the original gold leaf that was done by Seagrave in 1937 was still intact. So I photographed it, scanned it to the computer, cleaned up the details and printed them out on clear decal film. So the lettering and gold leaf designs you see are as they were more than 75 years ago.

Tractor has a brass hood and cab doors. The windshield frames, tiller tub and front bumper are also brass. Fenders are carved from plastic porch railing stock. Rest of the tractor is plastic. Trailer is all plastic stock. Ground ladders are basswood.

Tires and wheels are from an AMT ALF kit. Headlights are from a Ford Vicky kit but with the lenses turned backward so they would be flat faced. The grill is aluminum wire surrounded by the "sweetheart" portion trimmed in bare metal foil.

The engine is scratch built following the V-12 that was in the actual truck and from photos in Matthew Lee's book of Seagrave history.

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Here are the photos of the engine. Not enough room in the first post.

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This one shows the engine installed in the tractor. At first I thought it was too small but with the radiator in place and the hood on the engine compartment got filled up real fast.

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The engine from the left side. It has dual ignition with two distributors and wiring for 24 spark plugs; two per cylinder.

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Engine from the right side. Those heat shields above the spark plugs help dissipate heat from the exhaust manifolds that are between the carbs and plugs.

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I've had the chance to see this in person on a few occasions, to say that it's impressive is really an understatement. I can also vouch for the model in Charlie's avatar as well.

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Charlie, Thanks for sharing this in this forum, To all the forum users you could swear you could stick ignition keys in Charlie's models and they would start. I have seen his works for years and here is a real master. Very proud to be able to call him friend

greg

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