C-65 Farm Tractor (crawler) @ 24th scale

[Ray Dunakin]

Looks great to me!

[turtle]

Gordon - be careful for what you wish   , Santa might bring a late Chrissy present  . At least that saves me the hassle of painting  .
and cheers Ray.

Thought I'd better slop some glue around and see what happens:





and it's time to start on the part I'm dreading - the engine  . Quite a bit of time spent breaking it down to it's simplest form and into sub-assemblies, so with the engine divided into 60 sub-assemblies off I embark on what will no doubt cause massive hair loss and sleepless nights  :

first off the 1:1




and my simplified start  :



If anyones looking for me, I'll be the one sitting in a corner quietly talking to myself and wearing a 'special' jacket that ties at the back  .

[NORCALLOGGER]

Basic model building, I love it!!!

Great work so far, I will continue to follow your build with interest.

A couple of questions/observations.

At the start you say that this is a knockoff of the Caterpillar so I assume they followed the same painting colors as Cat used, is this a correct assumption?

From June 1925 until December 1931 Caterpillar painted all their tractors Gray  (actually a gray/green color, more info available if you need it)  In January 1932 they changed to "Hi-Way Yellow" with black lettering  and used that until June 1979.

During the research to build my Cat 60's I found several "restored" examples that were painted in a similar "Industrial gray" color as in the restored example you posted a picture of above.  I soon learned that most of these were just painted an "available" Gray color with no thought to actually researching  to find the true color shade.

But like I said this information is about Caterpillar,  the prototype your building from could have been purple for all I know

Great project
Rick

[turtle]

Hi Rick,
the Soviets licence produced (with modifications) both the Cat 60 and 65's, as to the correct factory colour - I seem to have created a rather heated debate on a Russian modelling forum  as to what the original colour was, so far the general consensus agrees that it differed from the Cat Gray in that it was a pale gray/blue. However to make life difficult a few colour photos have shown up with them painted in the red/crimson as trialled by Cat  , and there a few few photos showing a very dark gray (even darker than the Cat gray). So I'll just wait till the heat dies off on the other forum, they are getting technical which my basic Russian isn't quite up to  , and see if they reached a conclusion.
Somewhere amongst all my junk I have an actual Cat gray colour chip from the Caterpillar Experience Museum here in New Zealand - all their stuff has been restored to exact Cat specs  .
Cheers for looking in and the input.   

[Barney]

Please please please continue with this fantastic model it's a bit of a mind blower - but and as always there is always a but (as Gordon F knows) don't let the rivet counters and in this case " the paint chip" brigade start poking the hornets nest - as we all know with exception of the "paint chippers" paint and colours do all manor of things when age sets in even in its first hours from new plus many other factors that can effect the actual colour  plus the fact a paint chip/ sample is 1 to 1 and a model is a miniature ! Well that's my view on the subject so just paint it the colour you want it
Barney
Don't start them off just wind them up !   

[LesTindall]

A can of Barney Green/Grey - always available  (yes winding you up)

Les

[finescalerr]

You have heard of rivet counters? I am a PAINT CHIP counter. Proceed at your own risk; I am ruthless. Ask my mom!

On second thought, don't.

ssuR

[JohnTolcher]

Hi Roger
Marvellous work so far, an education and inspiration!

Cheers

[Mr Potato Head]

Russ
your mom always liked you best
MPH

[finescalerr]

Actually, Gil, she always like YOU best! -- ssuR

[turtle]

Cheers all for having a poke around.
Think I'll just prime it and leave the paint dilemma to Gordon  .
Just rebuilding a few pieces I wasn't too happy with, plus messing around seeing what this Mr Surfacer is good for - had the stuff sitting in my paint box for about 5 years   so "waste not".
I'm far from the quickest builder and tend to just plod along so apologies if it slows down for a while  .

[marc_reusser]

If you insist on continuing to post this level of work here.....well, I wont know what to say.

[shropshire lad]

If you insist on continuing to post this level of work here.....well, I wont know what to say.

You could always say ..."here's one I made earlier " . To quote the legendary BBC children's programme Blue Peter .

[turtle]

If you insist on continuing to post this level of work here.....well, I wont know what to say.

Cheers Marc, well I think I'll save you having to say anything for a while, due to various reasons I've decided to cease modelling for an undefined time period  .
Many thanks to all members for the encouraging words on my various builds, always appreciated particularly considering the very small NZ population we often get the feeling of being "outside the circle".
I'll be dropping in periodically to see what everyone's up to and maybe poke a stick at those with 'stalled' projects (pot, kettle, black  ).
Hope everyone's projects continue as planned and the glue sticks in the right places.

Regards to all.

[finescalerr]

Roger, that's not particularly good news. I've been away from the bench for about two years so I understand how all of us may to come and go. Still, if I or any of us can encourage you to return to modeling even a day earlier, everyone here will be pleased. -- Russ