Projects In Metal

Master Toy Builder

Although you know me as a builder of all sorts of models, what you don't know is that I come by my interest in building things from a much earlier time when as a youngster I hung out in the shop with my dad who was a builder of both full size machines and later on scale models.

With a very well equipped workshop located in his home, he continued to build all sorts of things of interest after he retired from farming. Being a retired farmer he always kept an interest in what was going on with the latest innovations on the farm. Attending a farmshow years ago, he discovered that most machinery manufacturers also offered scale models of their various full scale machinery. It wasn't long before he started collecting farm toys, and would make a yearly visit to the largest toy show in the world located in Dyersville Iowa.

Now where it gets interesting is the fact that no one offered a 1:16 scale model of a Wagner WA 14 articulated tractor like the scale model Wagner that he built seen in my photo. The reason he wanted to add a model of the Wagner to his collection was because he actually owned the exact full scale tractor that he farmed with when he was still farming.

After making the patterns for a model WA 14 out of aluminum, he took the patterns to a local foundry where he had aluminum castings poured. With the castings in hand and back in his shop he assembled the model with many steps required that included tig-welding the various pieces together, having decals made, sourcing the proper size tires, etc. Once the model was assembled, it required finishing on a belt grinder with various grits to finish the model before it was placed in his paint-booth for a professional epoxy finish.

Now my dad did nothing in a small way, and he didn't stop with just one model tractor, but built them in multiples. With the Dyersville toy show happening the following year after he first started building model tractors, he drove down with his car filled with scale models of the WA 14 Wagner where he immediately made a reputation for himself as a high-quality custom builder with his toys highly sought after by collectors.

Over the years he designed and built scale models of many other makes of articulated farm tractors in 1:16 scale, many of his models gracing the desks of the CEO's of major farm machinery manufacturers.

The insert photo gives you an indication as to the size of this model, the tractor being held by myself.
Just so you know, I actually operated the full size Wagner depicted by the model on my dad's farm as a 19 year old. For the gearheads amongst you, the full scale tractor had a turbocharged 262 Cummins engine under the hood, and easily pulled a 50 foot deep-tillage cultivator behind it.
We farmed with this Wagner long before the major manufacturers like John Deere, Massy Ferguson, International, Case, amongst others offered an articulated tractor of their own. The Wagner tractor was manufactured in Portland Oregon until bought out by John Deere who painted them in John Deere colors and sold them with their name on them, until they developed their own articulated tractors before dropping the Wagner, but that's another story.

Expand the photo for a closer look.....

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