RN Flight Deck Tractor

[825]

As I have finished my other four builds for this GB, when I was doing a stash tidy, (Oh the delights of lockdown) I found a small bundle of resin flight deck tractors and thought, 'well these are Naval aren't they? so let's build one'. I thought I'd go for the most modern in the bundle and here it is.

 

 

You might question my sanity, and I do myself frequently, but it hasn't got many parts, it's basically all the same colour apart from the tyres and superglue dries really quickly. And the mould gates are not that big so should be reasonably straightforward to saw off. And there's no canopy to mask and fit. 

 

The contents of the box. 23 pieces of resin, including 5 for the tow bar, and they're all nicely moulded and little or no tidying up will be necessary once removed from the pour blocks and they're sanded clean. 

 

 

And a small piece of etch, with a manageable number of pieces. And a diminutive transfer sheet. 

 

The instructions are simple and small. But very comprehensive. 

 

 

 

So lets get started. 

 

 

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Parts separated from their mould blocks, cleaned up and then washed and waiting to dry. 

 

 

The main parts glued together

 

 

 

and an initial coat of paint, Revell's NATO Olive, on

 

 

and now most of the parts painted up as well as a furthe coat of Olive on. I'm not convinced by the red, Humbrol 19, for the fire extinguisher tank. Perhaps a yellow base coat might help. 

 

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A steering column and handbrake fashioned from a pin. More paint on and some of the etch added but not much to see in this picture. I've also switched to using a Citadel paints red which has given decent coverage over the yellow. There's also a coat of Klear over much of the Tractor to give a bit of a sheen. I was worried of the Olive getting stained with handling and some further finishing. 

 

[rob85]

This is a build you don’t see every day, great work.

 

Rob

[825]

On 5/4/2020 at 4:19 PM, rob85 said:

This is a build you don’t see every day, great work.

 

Rob

Thanks Rob. I often think that airfield, and Carrier, vehicles are often forgotten. So this build helps redress the balance. 

 

More work done, most of the painting has been done and a number of the etch added. The wheels are on too. The wheels have beautiful trad moulded into the resin but unfortunately the pour blocks are quite big and some is lost. Rather than spend weeks re-scribing I smoothed them off and fixed the wheels so that the smooth bit can't be seen. 

 

 

 

And here is the tractor sitting on its wheels with the tow bar which has been assembled and got an initial coat of paint. 

 

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A few bits more attached but I'm not 100% happy with the wheels which seem a bit loose and not particularly well finished as yet. Hopefully a little more glue and once that is set I'll put some more paint on and then some matt varnish. The tow bar is done too. 

 

 

Only only half a dozen or so bits to add but they're all tiny etch apart from the wheel hubs. And some small transfers. 

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Almost finished, a couple of coats of Kleer on to give a nice glossy finish. I was going to weather it a little but as far as I can see these are kept pretty clean and well looked after finish wise. The tow bar has also had some glossing up done but I'll need to check photos as I think it should have some colour bands and sections. There's not much to do apart from transfers but I don't know how many times I've knocked the steering wheel off. 

 

 

[Edge]

She's looking great! I bought a few of these kits when Hannants had stock, so know just how tiny it is! 

 

Top modelling mate.

 

Edge

 

[Ray S]

This is a great little departure from the norm!

 

Good work on this, now I know what the blobs were supposed to represent on my 1/350 Illustrious model!

 

All the best,

 

Ray

[825]

Thanks @Edge and @Ray S for your encouragement, it's not too tiny but there are some fairly small pieces of etch. The transfers are tiny as well but behave beautifully. You definitely need a good pair of tweezers and reading glasses if you use them. Here we are now, almost finished. Just some varnish over the transfers once they've bedded down, the etch handles for the tow bar to be added and a little bit of paint for the extinguisher nozzles. I would like to fabricate a hose for the rear and will have a thought about how best to do it. I was thinking some wool smoothed off with PVA and painted then wrapped round and secured with PVA. 

 

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Now finished and will go into the gallery

 

 

 

Enjoyable, if slightly different build. I've a little collection of deck tractors, all in resin and I should do a personal Group Build one of these days. I did an Air Frame version of this same Tractor alongside this build but the resin finish wasn't as good and strangely it was a little smaller. Can be seen in the background below

 

[Andwil]

Lovely little tractor, makes a great display accompaniment for aircraft models.

 

AW