Modern Era Die Cast Farm Machinery Models

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Modern-Era Die Cast 

Farm Machinery Models

    Spring arrived last week, so I'm sure farmers around the world are busy doing something. I thought I'd  post today about farm machinery. I don't know what I'm more impressed with - the actual models or the "real" machines.  The models have so many parts, and some of these items weight up to 5 pounds ( 2.3 Kilos). Yet price wise, they';re not as expensive in cost as the large-sized earth movers or cranes. The farmers certainly are getting a great deal here (they like to collect farm machinery models)!

    It's hard to believe that about 102 years ago, most farming was done with horses, and now almost all farming is today done with machines. Of course, there are  some groups of People who still use horses (e.g. Amish, Mennonites). 

Please click this sentence to be redirected to the Diecastmodels Website

The  machine aboive is called a "seed drill". What it does is to make holes in the soil, and then drop  seeds precisely in the  holes. However, these machines are very precise in order to plae the seeds at exact increments and distances fromeach other.

The Gregoire  Besson is a tiller that "churns up the soil before planting. 

The company is French.

The Class Volto 1320 T is a machine called a "tedder". What this does is to fluff up hay after it has been cut. The fluffing or aeration allows the hay to dry faster in the sun, before it will be arranged ir narrow long piles. At that point a baler will come and form bundles (bales)  of the dry hay.

The machines above and below will make bales (piles of hay) so that the hay can then be stored in barns.

 The Kuhn SPV 14 mixer wagon must be extremely popular as a model. When I did a search, all I got were die cast models, whereupon, I had to add the word "farming" to the search. At that point I found the "real" machine. What this machine does is to mix different food that would be used for feeding cows on a dairy farm.

    As with everything else in the world, farming has become big. The farms are larger, the herds of cows are larger, and the machines are larger. All of these have led to bigger production of crops and produce such as milk. When you go to a supermarket these days, it's unbelievable how many different dairy products there are form around the world. As well, I never even heard of yogurt 55 years ago, when I was an adolescent. Nowadays, yogurt is extremely popular in North America. Of course, with the larger farms and production, as well as population growth in North America, more uses for dairy products needed to be created. I also forgot to mention 1 more thing. Today's 2013 cow produces lots more milk that here great-great-great grandmother 100 years ago!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day,

Stacey

CMC Classic Model Cars

Tuesday, March 20, 2013
            (Post # 2 of the day)

CMC Classic Model Cars

Introduction

   On Monday (March 18, 2013) I received  great news. I would be permitted to use the photographs of a model maker company  located in Germany called CMC GmbH.  The CMC stands for Classic Model Cars. I wrote about Mr. Marshall L. Buck on February 19, 2013, and recently about Pocher. 

  A "model"  is totally different from a toy in the sense that it is a collectible item, and not something to be "played with". Also, most companies making models warn the owner not to allow very young children to play with these items,or to get too close to them.  They have many small metal parts and other materials that could easily be swallowed, or broken off.

  After I had discovered Marshall L.Buck, an exceptional and talented model maker when I first learned about this "new world". From there, I was hooked, and have been writing bout models, as well as old and antique toys.

The Company : 

CMC Classic Model  Cars

   CMC established its own factory in Stuttgart, Germany in 1998. The company is headquartered there, and crafts their excellent products in China.  Lots of research and effort is made before any model is finally destined for production. Accuracy attention to detail are synonymous with CMC, and they have been very successful in the manufacture of these cars. their high-quality has led to many awards from various associations around the world. You can easily find that information at their site.

   The company produces a range of scales from 1:12 (very large in the model world)  to 1:18, 1:24, and 1:43 (the smallest). Assembly is carefully done by hand,  and involves "on average" 1200 parts!

Recent items such as the Mercedes SSKL (M-055) have increased to 1,888 parts, an astronomical amount of parts for any item!

   The parts are made from stainless steel, copper, or aluminum, and can also be made of zinc alloys. Quality paint is used for the body finish, and certain parts may be made from leather, textile, or carpet, depending on the part or areas in question.

   I'm not going to present my usual number of photos, because, that I'm going to save for later posts.  However, with today's photos,you will see the superb quality, detail, and photography that this company had placed in their product. 

  There is one final piece of information to mention with regard to these models. There is lots of information about the original cars that these models re made from. That is fantastic, if you like to know what the original car was all about!

PRESS HERE for the CMC USA Link

Press Here for List of World Websites

Please enlarge these photos to see the unbelievable detail that goes into each and every car. I'm unable to present these photos larger, since Blogger doesn't allow the writer to change templates. Consequently my 362 posts all have to be in the same layout and design!

I decided to post today because this company and website are so interesting.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great day, wherever you may be.

Stacey

DIECASTMODELS.CO - The Industry Source

Thursday, March 14, 2013

DIECASTMODELS.CO- The Industry Source

    I first came across DIECASTMODELS.CO when I started to write about die-cast models.  For those who don't know, a "model" is a collector's item rather than a toy. Also almost every site selling these models usually has a notice to the effect that these models are not for small children under 5-6 years of age. The reason for this is the numerous parts and components that make up these models, hence the caution against swallowing anything! I even saw 1 warning with the age level placed at 14. The reason for this is that these models can be very expensive, and as such,   any collector would be wise to know if the young person is mature enough to handle these items.

  Returning to the DIECASTMODELS.CO  company, they are 1 of the largest distributors and sellers of models in the USA. There were several reasons that this fine site caught my eye. First, their photography is A+++.  The images are colour-balanced, isolated against a white background, in focus, plenty of shadow detail,  and large. Secondly, almost any type of model that you can think of is probably sold here. 

   I had spoke with Mr. Ryan Reagles (President) and Mr. Nicholas Neumann a few times, eagerly awaiting to get the OK. Of course, I'm a retired blogger, and these men are hard-working  people running a great company. Yesterday, I got the OK.

   I can't say enough about this site. I get to see all kinds of machines that are based on real machinery that  always is working somewhere in the world. Also their photography is exceptional. 

Ryan suggested that I add a link to each photo, so that you'll be able to go directly to where I had screen-captured their images. I would suggest that you go directly to the link. When I screen-capture and group photos together, Blogger only allows me a maximum of 5 MB / image or composite. As such, the images are "shrunk" even though I set them to 144 DPI for magnification. However when you go to the DIECASTMODELS.CO  site, you will see even better photos! 

   Ryan does the photography himself, or perhaps with assistants. I asked where he learned his "craft" ( his work is excellent), and he said on Youtube.  Whoa! Now that's an achievement. But never mind the skill. Where does he find the time to take the photos and then upload them to the site after resizing them cataloging them , and so forth. He must have assistants to help out, since of course, he has to run the company.

  The company offers fast  shipping, great pricing, and a 1-800 telephone number to  answer any questions.  Now that's service. 

  I thought toys were a big industry, but models appear to be big on the list of collectibles, especially for those people who actually work or power these machines. So for today, I'm just "introducing" you to this company. Please note that the company website does not have an "m" at the end.

www.diecastmodels.co

(please click to be redirected to this great site and resource)

    Don't forget that I've added links under each image for you to be redirected to the actual company site and to the specific model. This certainly was a great idea from Ryan!

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Buffalo Road Imports- A Start

Monday, February 25, 2013

Buffalo Road Imports - A Start

     You're probably wondering why I titled this post "Buffalo Road Imports - A Start". 4 Days ago (February 21, 2013), I wrote about EMD - a company that is owned by Buffalo Road Imports LLC. That company makes their own diecast brand of modern-era models. However, Buffalo Road Imports  has many,many, many  models, and I thought I'd have a real look. So I looked and looked, and looked even more.

     If you want to look at lots of models, or compare models, or find a particular model that you're looking for, you have to come here! I spent about 30 minutes perusing the site, and all models are referenced ob the OEM (the company that makes the "real" item", and by the model manufacturer. f you bookmark, this is definitely 1 site to record when it comes to models.

    If you've noticed, I use the term "model" here. From what I can gather ma model is more of a collectible that's for display, rather than  a toy, that would be played with by a child. And almost every model maker and seller of models will have somewhere on their site a "warning" that models are not for young children as they have many small parts that may post a potential danger to children. 

   I decided to present Komatsu models via several different manufacturers.I've been trying to get permission from several manufacturers who make very big models (large scale), but  I have to wait and wait. Thankfully,  Brandon Lewis, the owner of Buffalo Road Imports LLC gave me permission to use his photos from this site. Someone at the company has taken thousands and thousands of photographs of their numerous models, as well as using some of the manufacturers photos.  However, I only will use the distributors own photographs for copyright reasons. Some of the manufacturers are very "guarded" about how they allow distributors to use their photos.

    Last week, I checked on Komatsu, which is a Japanese company. They had revenue in FY 2012 of  1.981 trillion Yen, or  1,981,000,000,000.00 Yen - That's a lot a Yen!  Komatsu, like most other large-machinery companies have a big following in terms of model manufacturers, and collectors. The main reason for my checking out Komatsu, is that they make HUGE machines, just like CAT, and of course, those gargantuan earth movers by Bucyrus-Erie.

 While I was checking on the Buffalo Road Imports site for Komatsu, I realized that there were at least 3-4 model manufacturers who are licensed to produce the Komatsu machines.That's certainly a fair amount just for manufacturing 1 OEM's machines! SOme of the models are made of brass, some of diecast metal,and some are a combination of diecast and resin or plastic.

 Buffalo Road Imports' photographs are well-taken, but what I've done is separate the models from their custom-made foundation (what an item sits on) and place them on a white background. I find a model presents itself best against such a background. What's great about Buffalo's photographs are that they are in focus, properly-exposed, and large! A true toy and model blogger's delight!

 Material: Diecast

Size: 1:50

Material: Brass
Size: 1:87

Material: Diecast
Size: 1:50

 Material: Diecast

Size: 1:50

Material:  Zamak (A composite  metal alloy of zinc and other metals) and  Resin
Size: 1:50

     Don't forget that you can look at these image in a slide show format.  As well, you can magnify them larger than they are as you view them. That allows you to see the fine detail that goes into many of these models.

     I'll only "touched the surface" of this excellent site for models.  So if you're looking for a place to search out models of all kinds of trucks, machines, and so forth, this is the place!

Thanks for visiting, and as always,

have a great part of the day wherever you may be - morning, 

afternoon, or evening.

Stacey

EMD (Engineering Model Developments)

Wednesday, February 21, 2013

EMD

(Engineering Model Developments)

The History

    I was looking on the Net, when I came across an interesting toy. I then went to their site, and I found a company called Buffalo Road Imports LLC. I looked around their site, and  then I found a company that Buffalo owns titled EMD which is an abbreviation for Engineering Model Developments. I wrote to the company, and I got a reply to go ahead and write about them. 

    The owner of Buffalo Road Imports LLC and correspondingly EMD is Mr. Brandon Lewis.  Brandon's father started to collect models when Brandon was born, and that kickstarted a fascination for collecting. Eventually,the passion for collecting became a business in 1978, as Brandon was growing up.  Brandon is a petroleum engineer by education and profession, but in 1982, the market for  these specialists was slow, and so Branson jointed Buffalo.

    The  company has flourished, and eventually outgrew its premises which were in the original home of Brandon's parents. The current location is still in their hometown of Clarence, New York, and is on the main street of the city. However, they now have a large warehouse to store their inventory

    I'll be returning to write another post about Buffalo Road Imports LLC, the patent company, but I decided to write about EMD. This company produces their own line of diecast  models.  I chose  to write about EMD initially, because the photos on their site were larger than most of the other ones, and as such , I was able to look at these in more detail. Also, it's easier to do some enhancement in Photoshop with larger-sized images.

   Buffalo Road Imports LLC site is www.constructionscalemodels.com, and www.emd-models.com is the EMD website. Buffalo is a cornucopia if information for anyone interested in collecting. Of course, the vast inventory of models and especially the photos is for me my first interest. After that their are large lists of manufacturers and the companies that these toys are modelled after (the original "real" trucks, dozers, cars, busses, and so forth).  

http://www.constructionscalemodels.com

http://www.emd-models.com

The Euclid C6 Dozer below much be quite popular.
EMD offers this model in 4 different variations.

 

I had asked Brandon Lewis if it would be alright for me to remove the nice-lloking models form their original backgrounds and he agreed. His customized foundation( a photographic term for what a tabletop products sits on) is very nice with the company name and globe design.

However, I thought that the models would present themselves better against a clean white background. I've also decided to add the company logo to each photo of every post that I write about, and at the same time to  lighten up the Copyright notice. I also felt that too much bright text detracted from the manufacturers' models.

Of course, I'll be sending a note to Brandon for his perusal , since he's the best one to decide- he's the company owner of these fine models!

Thanks for dropping by,
and have a grteat part of the morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you may be.

Stacey