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Ferguson tractor: what goes around comes around...


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Apologies for those of you who know this already, but it's interesting to us "Classic British Kit" collectors. The very first Airfix kit was a Ferguson tractor. Initially released in 1949 as a built promo for the Ferguson company, it was also released as a kit from 1955-59:

It's about 1:20 scale.

And now, here come our friends from Heller, almost 70 years later!

bestest,

M.

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But that's a new kit, right? Not a reissue of the old one?

Completely new and in honest to goodness 1/24. I just think it's cool that the "Holy Grail" of Airfix collectors now has an alternative, state of the art, new-tool kit. Sometimes it can take decades, it seems, so don't give up hope on some of those subjects that have never been done by anyone except Palmer...

bestest,

M.

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I'm really looking forward to this.  My grandad has an Ford 8N that I grew up riding on and learing to drive.  Shouldn't be too hard to convert, mayybe if we're lucky we might even get a resin conversion kit or if we're reeeeallly lucky Heller will see fit to do the Ford version.  

93515_Front_3-4_Web.jpg

Not my grandad's actual tractor, but it looks just like this - only dirty!

Edited by Brett Barrow
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But that's a new kit, right? Not a reissue of the old one?

I suspect that it's a reissue.  It's doubtful that a new model kit of the Ferguson, or even the Ford-Ferguson 9N or 8N tractors would sell well enough today to pay for the tooling.  While the Ford-Ferguson N-series tractors were widely seen, certainly here in the Midwest when I was a kid growing up, the later Ferguson (Canadian-built version) that was in many ways, that company's continuation of the tractor built by their partnership with Ford) saw just limited distribution here in the US.

FWIW, while I, in no way, can speak authoritatively on the N-series Ford tractors, essentially those grew out of Henry Ford the First's passion for farming, and Harry Ferguson's development of the hydraulic 3-point implement hitch (which greatly improved the safety of row-crop tractors, by limiting to a great extent, the problem of those tractors from "rearing up" under hard pulling, to the point of flipping over backward, often injuring or even killing the operator.  While a neat tractor, the Ferguson-Ford partnership never really panned out for Ford Motor Company--was barely profitable from the outset, and by 1947/48 became a financial burden, so Henry Ford II terminated the relationship with Ferguson, who then went on to produce the tractor with a different engine.  Where Ford engineered a new flathead inline 4cyl (based on flathead V8 internals),  Ferguson went to an OHV 4 when the split happened (Ford was to build the N's in North America, Ferguson in the UK).

I can remember the vast farm tractor and implement displays at the County and State Fairs as a kid growing up in the 50's, and Dad explaining to me why the Fergusons looked so much like the newly discontinued 8N's.

But, I WANT one of the Fergusons!

Art

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This kit is all-new.  

The Heller kit looks to be way more detailed -- "124 pieces" versus the "over 50 components... with cement" of the Airfix. With luck, it'll be in the great tradition of Heller 1/24 kits, with plenty of parts that are very faithful to the prototype. At least with a tractor, the engineering of the real thing is pretty chunky, unlike some of the suspension components of the "golden age" cars that they are just starting to re-issue!

I'm definitely having one!

bestest,

M.

Edited by Matt Bacon
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The Heller kit looks to be way more detailed -- "124 pieces" versus the "over 50 components... with cement" of the Airfix. With luck, it'll be in the great tradition of Heller 1/24 kits, with plenty of parts that are very faithful to the prototype. At least with a tractor, the engineering of the real thing is pretty chunky, unlike some of the suspension components of the "golden age" cars that they are just starting to re-issue!

I'm definitely having one!

bestest,

M.

Cool!  Now all that would be needed is for a resin caster to come up with the engine, and other necessary parts to convert this one into a Ford 8N

Art

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