Cliff Hutchings - How about an MH Arty Tractor?

[Bill Murray]

Evening Cliff:

Regarding your MH project the following may help a bit.

I assume you will use as the donor kit the Tamiya Quad Gun Tractor which will at least get you the better part of the power train, tyres/wheels and a lot of accessory type stuff.

You might consider to use the Revell/Monogram 1940 Ford Pickup kit which is in 1:24 scale for the bonnet and wings. The whole front end of that kit is quite similar to the 40/41 full size truck and I have seen mods done that come out quite impressive with a little tucking and fitting. In my case, I went the other way and made a LRDG pickup using the wheels etc. from the Tamiya LRDG Chev along with a lot of the extra parts from that kit "re-sized" as best I could. At least you start with the proper bits even if a bit too large or a bit too small.

To change scales a bit here, if you are not absolutely stuck on 1/35 as a scale there is an awful lot of stuff out there in 1/25, 1/24, 1/18 and 1/36-38 scale that can be more easily adapted into examples of Australian soft skins.

You are perhaps aware of some/ all of these but I will list a few here that come to mind.

AMT/Ertl: 41 Plymouth Coupe, 36 Ford Coupe, 37 Chev Coupe and Convertible, 40 Ford Coupe, 2 door sedan and Panel,truck, 1941 Ford Wagon. Revell/Monogram did the 40 Ford panel truck,
39 Chev Coupe and 40 Ford Convertible. There are others but I just throw these out real quick. All are suitable conversion projects.

In 1/18 scale, I have the 1939 Chev Wagon and a couple of their Model A Fords as future military projects. These are Die Cast models. Also in die cast 1/24 scale I have the Yat Ming 41 GMC Fire Truck and their 38 Ford Fire Truck. In 1/16 scale, I have the Highway 61 1941 Chevrolet and GMC flatbed trucks as well as the 1940 Ford Navy stake bed. Beautiful models these.

SpecCast offer in 1/25 scale die cast a 32 Ford Wrecker, a 37 Ford Ambulance, a 40 Ford Coupe, a 40 Ford pickup, a 37 Ford tanker, 40 Ford Panel, 32 Ford Pickup, 37 Ford Convertible, 37 Ford Pickup and perhaps a few I missed. These are the ones that I currently have.

Sadly, other than the Tamiya GT, I know of no other suitable starting points for any kind of Ford in 1/35 scale other than the Wespe resin kits from Romania. They are frightfully expensive, about $110 US and mostly are of the smaller Ford models not the GT

Sorry I could not be of more help.
Bill