Sturdy, die-cast, scale model tractors and farm machinery are built for the ages. Ed Erb has assembled a large collection of the durable replicas made by Scale Models.
"Farm machinery is built to perform and last for decades. That's why I like toys made the same way. Dads who played with the die-cast toys often held them over for their children't fun. I've assembled 1/8 model built by Scale Models. They have good detail and they're made to last," Ed said.
Growing up in Ohio and maintaining his Amish lifestyle begs the question: What spurred your interest in scale model tractors? Ed responded, "My family farmed with horse-drawn equipment. However, Dad owned a Case tractor on hard rubber. It was used as stationary power for silo filling and threshing. The only time it went to the field was to pull something that got stuck, like a manure spreader. I did not operate the tractor rowing up. But, I learned to appreciate the power it provided for those tasks."

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Lane Jensen of Ankeny, Iowa, is no stanger to building displays and competing with them at large shows around the country. The teenager is a triple-crown winner, meaning he is a three-ttime winner in farm display contests, he explained. His winning spree has taken place over the last few years.
Lane was a sixth-grader when he took home first prize in the Youth Division of the 2018 National Farm Toy Show. 
He came in second at the 2019 National Farm Toy Show in the Youth Division of the small scale contest. He has also exhibited and won display contests at the Lafayette Farm Toy Show and the Gateway Mid-America Toy Show in St. Louis, Mo.

2018 Display
In 2018, Lances display featured an Iowa farm scene with a beef cattle lot and a corn field being harvested. An Allis-Chalmers MFD tractor can be spotted in the field pulling a John Deere grain cart, transferring corn into a Parker gravity wagon pulled by an IH 86 Series tractor with MFD as well. In the nearby farmyard, a Ford grain truck is dumping corn into an auger leading to the grain bin.

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In the world of custom scale models, Dan Forbis has attained superior craftsmanship. An exceptional achievement is Dan's weathered look applied to his customized and scratch-built farm equipment replicas. Through an informative chat, Dan shared a glimpse into his quest to master this high level of artistry.
Dan's drive is a combination of several facets. His love for agriculture and its associated equipment reigns supreme. Dan't partnership in the Rocky Mountain Agromomy Center in Riverton, Wyo., has exposed him to specific equipment. And then, the aspires to build realistic scale model farm machinery. With humility, Dan stated succinctly, "I'm simple an amateur. Doing what I'm doing is like playing golf. You can learn to master it. I'm continually searching for ways to improve my modeling."
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EARLY TOY FASCINATION
One of Dan't earliest toys was a 1/16 scale, cast-iron John Deere D made by Arced. "Since that was my first toy, I've held onto it. Shortly after receiving the Model D, I received a John Deere two-row corn picker. At age 7, my next toy was a 1/16 scale International 1456 tractor. Back then, it seemed like a huge tractor with its duals, cab and front weights. It farmed many acres as a kid. I restored and customized the Model 1456 slightly larger than life. For example, I was able to retain the identifiable wear marks in the wide front from the tires rubbing into the metal spindles," Dan reflected.

Victor Purvis strived for authenticity in a farm display which memorializes his family and the farm where he was raised in the mid- to late-1970s in Edgecombe County, N.C.
Now living in Winston-Salem, N.C. but born and raised on a farm in Edgecombe County, Victor has fond memories of living on the family farm.
"I loved the farm life," he says. But as a young adult, he felt the need to pursue life off the farm, going to work in local factories.
The. he began to lose family members, and his heartstrings returned to those farm memories.
"But my heart was still with the farm life. I no longer lived on the farm and all of my family no longer lived on the farm anymore, but I always still loved and had that craving to be around the farm life, so I guess it got in me and I couldn't shake it," he shares.
So, he began scratch budding pieces to creat a display depicting a North Caroline farm.
"To remember the good times of us being together was just the happy days of being on the farm and being out there together and enjoying one another's company, so I wanted to do something to commemorate their memory and way things were when I was a child," he says.
Victor wasn't new to building toys. As a child, he loved to build his own play toys, he says.
"I never really wanted to buy my own toys, I always like building them, because it just seemed to work better for me," he says.

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Glenn "Junior" Bower Jr. has amassed a treasure trove of pedal tractors and implements. When queried about his early collecting, Junior recalled playing hard with toys as a youngster.
"Early toys as a kid were mostly construction toys. The one I remember best was a dump truck made by Buddy L. In addition, a special John Deere pedal tractor received at Christmas as a child made a lasting memory. With six kids in the family, our toys didn't stand the test of time. As a result, none of those made it into my collection. As I progressed into my late 20s, collecting scale models started to interest me, he shared.
Collection Evolution
Junior worked on a friend's farm as a teenager in Ohio. The farm equipment was almost exclusively Allis-Chalmers. With that brand familiarity, Junior collected a few pieces of the iconic orange equipment while still employed at the farm.
"I bought my first toy tractor at a nearby Allis-Chalmers dealer. It was a 1/16 scale, die-cast Allis-Chalmers D17," he said. Serious collecting started a number of years later. As with many collectors, his interest changed with the small-scale models.

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Gavin Redman of Wellington, New Zealand, collects English-made die-cast Matchbox toys, including tractors and farm-related models from the Lesney years of 1954-1982. The collection is comprised of the I-75 series of miniature replicas, with both Regular and Superfast wheels, sold as individually boxed toys.

His adult collection began in 2001, and contains few of his childhood toys. At least one representation of each tractor's issued colors is included, such as No. 46f Ford Tractor, painted in both blue and green finishes.

From its inception, Lesney used zamak, also known as Mazak, a zinc alloy, for casting Matchbox toys. The company was always conscious of children's safety and never cast models from lead or painted them with a lead-based paint.

Gavin likes the compact size of the models, which makes storage easier. "There's always the challenge to find something new," he says. "The more you have, the harder it is to get new ones. The ones you're looking for are ones that everyone else is looking for."

He will have some competition at the annual Wellington Toy Fair that he and Tony Dowman organize. This year, the event's 10th anniversary show, will be held in the Chilton St. James School hall, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, on Sunday July 5, COVID-19 restrictions permitting. Collectors and sellers of farming models and other toys come from as far as Auckland and Thames to attend the largest fair of its kind in New Zealand's lower North Island. When there's a lull in the hall, Gavin will leave their stall to Tony while he canvases the venue, searching for what he's after. Or Tony may have gone first, as they take it in turns.

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For this year's National Farm Toy Show, the Toy Farmer is offering collectors two models of a well-loved, orange fallen flag. The 1/16 scale National Farm Toy Show tractor for 2020 will be the first-generation Allis-Chalmers 190XT with a bar grille and slant fenders. Continuing the series of 1/64 scale four-wheel-drives, the other 2020 National Farm Toy Show tractor will be the Allis-Chalmers 4W-220.
In 1965, Allis-Chalmers introduced a new logo while dealers were showing off what Norm Swinford calls "the hottest tractor they ever had to sell." The venerable diamond corporate logo, with the A-C letters inside a gear motif, was reshaped as a pyramid incorporating both letters. The hot new tractor was the 93-PTO-horsepower 190XT, introduced in late 1964 and put into full production in 1965. (It is interesting to note that some of the earliest 190XT tractor grilles showed the gear motif logo.)
The "XL" designation was significant, because just one year earlier, Allis-Chalmers had introduced the 190 model, initially proposed as the D19 Series II. But because there was "a strong desire for an all-new line designation to support the modern styling and features," the "19" in D19 became 190. At 75.37 gas PTO horsepower and 77.2 diesel PTO horsepower, the 190 tractors had been "met with great disappointment," because other makers could offer more power in the same sized tractor.
Eve though the West Allis factory continued to put out the 190 through 1972, the 190XT outsold the lower-horsepower tractor nearly five to one (22,419 190XTs vs. 4,703 190 tractors.)
The 190XT tractors were available with a 89.53-PTO-horsepower LP burner. However, most of the 190XT tractors sold with A-C's 301-cubic-inch turbocharged diesel. In the right hands, the diesel 190XT "would easily outperform the D21," When farmers and dealers cranked up the turbocharged engine, "it was not unusual to hear of 120-horsepower XT diesels." At 7,738 pounds shipping weight ("One-Ninety," p. 23), the 190XT diesel could be lightened up to qualify for the 7,000-pound puller class, so the tractor soon became a favorite for competition (Swinford 103). In fact, the 190XT's 301-cubic-inch diesel, gas, and LP engines were all newly engineered, designed from the outset to be readily enlarged for even more power.

Gene Gregory's craftsmanship of scratch-built models could be better defined as artistry, due to the design quality and the detailed handwork. Through time, Gene has perfected his artistry. His more recent build is a radio-controlled Minneapolis-Moline UDLX tractor. This superbly crafted model could be considered Gene's magnum opus, or his grandest accomplishment!
Gene's scratch building goes back nearly a quarter-century, when he crafted a Silver King pedal tractor. From his Loudonville, Ohio, residence, he went on to build numerous pedal tractor models, with limited numbers of each one.
"Making pedal tractors from scratch was enjoyable, but, after a time, I wanted something more satisfying; unique models for my personal collection. That's when I decided to make them operational and just one-of-a-kind. Having them powered by gas engines could be messy, with potential maintenance issues. Eventually, I went the battery-powered route with radio-control," Gene indicated.
In 2006, Gene built his first high-detailed, quarter-scale radio-controlled (R-C) tractor, a John Deere 8020 diesel. After that achievement, he constructed an industrial John Deere 5010 diesel. Gene next considered the challenge of building a Caterpillar. Subsequently, he crafted a CAT D5N bulldozer with a high track. Gene then moved onto the trucking industry by building a quarter-scale Peterbilt 379 day-cab truck. To make a complete rig, he added a fifth-wheel, lowboy trailer.

There was a day when folks gathered around the potbelly stove in the general store to share news, tell stories and gossip. Today, that setting has changed to the local barbershop in small-town America. In the case of Sonner's Barber Shop in Hillsboro, Ohio, the potbelly stove has been replaced with farm equipment models.
Little did Marty Sonner and his fellow barber, Matt Butler, realize their collections would create such a draw. Along with a haircut, the farm toys became a gathering point for customers to jaw about their favorite farm equipment brand.
"We always thought our quality barbering was what customers came for. Evidently, the toy tractors were the customers' excuse to stop by," Marty chuckled.
Marty explained, "It all started a number of years ago, when Matt decided to put some of his John Deere tractors on display shelves in the barbershop. That's when I brought some of my collection in for display as well. This evolved into more than we ever anticipated. We became aware of more farm toy collectors than we could have imagined. It also became an exchange point for some to sell or barter their extra models."