Tillage work typically means big, four-wheel-drive (4WD) tractors.  For this month's how-to article, I thought I would share with you the process I went through to customize one of the less common 4WD's, the White 4-270.  Although you man not have or be able to find a 4-270 of your own to customize, many of the principles I will show you can be applied to other models as well, especially the Scale Models Oliver and Minneapolis-Moline 4WD models. 

The real White 4-270 "Field Boss" tractor was built from 1983 to 1988, with the total number produced slightly less than 1000.  At the time, it was the tractor was the largest, most powerful tractor that White had ever built, although there was rumored to be several 4-325 prototypes that had been produced for testing purposes.  The 4-270 was powered by a Caterpillar 3306 motor rated at 270 engine horsepower.  The power was transferred to the ground through a four range, four speed powershift transmission.  Faced with financial difficulties, White ceased production on all of their 4WD tractors, including the 4-270 in 1988.

Scale models produced a 1/64 scale model of the 4-270 in the 80's, and although they are getting harder to find, you still regularly see a few on Ebay or at toy shows.  As models go, the 4-270 is not one of the most detailed you will find, to say the least.  The parts that make up the model are painted in solid colors, with the red stripe decal being the only added cosmetic detail.  Other than the standard Scale Models tires and wheels, the grill is the only plastic part on the tractor, which lacks details like an air cleaner and exhaust stack that are found on most other models.  Although it has an open-windowed cab, there is no interior.  All of these features, or the lack thereof, make this tractor a prime candidate for customization and detailing. 

The first step with this project, similar to many of the others I have done, is to disassemble the tractor.  This can be done by drilling or grinding out the rivets on the body and the axles.  With the rivets and axles gone, you should be able to separate the tractor into five pieces; the grill, the left and right hood and cab pieces, the rear frame, and the front frame.  You will also want to remove the decals from the hood and cab at this time.  Although these decals are not completely accurate, (The stripe should extend onto the rear fenders, and the "WFE" logo should be located closer to the front of the tractor.) unless you can make your own decals you will probably want to re-use them later.  Slide a modeler's knife under the decals to remove them in one piece, and place them on a piece of wax paper for safe keeping. 

The rear frame, front frame and grill require little, if any modification.  You may want to clean up any casting flash or rough spots on the rear end and rear fenders.  Other than that, unless you plan on adding a three-point hitch, PTO, etc., you can leave it as is.  The only modification you might need to make to the front frame piece is to allow the hood and cab to fit over it.  Since the two halves will be joined when you go to reassemble the tractor, they may not fit the same way as when you took them off.  Hold the two halves of the hood and cab together and make sure to you can mount them on the front frame without pulling them apart.  Grind off material from the front frame and/or hood to eliminate any interference. 

A detail you may want to take care of before you join the two halves of the hood and cab is if you plan on adding glass to the cab.  This can easily be done with a thin piece of clear plastic, such as you find on packaging of many models and toys.  Cut the piece of plastic so that it can be folded to form the front, rear and side windows.  A rough sketch of the pattern I used is shown here, although yours may vary slightly in size and shape.   You want each of the flaps large enough to cover the entire window, but not so big that the whole thing can't be folded up small enough to fit through the front window opening.  Fitting through the front window opening in one piece will be essential, since you won't actually assemble your cab glass into your model until after it is painted and the two halves are joined together.  However, it is best if you fine-tune your cab glass before you glue the two halves together, because at that point it becomes much more difficult to insert and remove it. 

The next area to turn your attention to is the hood and cab.  On most of the 4-270 toys I have seen, the gap between the two halves of the hood and cab is fairly large.  Because of this, filling the seam is even more critical on this model than it is on most other custom projects.  To start, clean up any casting flash or rough spots along the mating edges of the two pieces. Glue the two halves of the hood and cab together and fill the center seam with body filler.  You will also want to fill in any rivet holes that are exposed.  Once the filler has dried, sand it smooth.  Add additional coats of filler as necessary to get a smooth, flat surface. 

Once you get the seam filled and smooth, you will want to drill your holes to mount the exhaust and air cleaner.  For both of these, I used parts off of a cheap, plastic toy semi that I picked up for a couple of bucks.  Both should be located along the center of the hood, with the air cleaner just ahead of the windshield, and the exhaust mid-way between the air cleaner and the grill.  Use caution when drilling the holes for these components or you may split the two halves that you have just worked so hard to join.  I recommend starting the hole with a small drill bit and working your way up gradually.  Repair any chips in the filler that may break off as you are drilling the holes.

Paint on the 4-270 is fairly straightforward.  You can probably get by without repainting the front frame unless you made modifications to it in visible areas or your project tractor had paint chips to begin with.  The hood and cab and rear frame sections can be painted silver.  Use some chrome paint to paint the grill.  Once your base colors have dried, you will want to mix up a batch of dark gray paint that matches the front frame, and paint the lower portions of the rear frame and the sides of the hood in front of the engine opening.  The interior of the cab, as well as your added interior components should be painted red.  If you like, use a fine tip black paint pen to paint some weather stripping around the window frames.  Wheels should be painted silver with red centers. 

With all the painting on the cab done, go ahead and install your windshield.  You should be able to fold it up and insert it through the front windshield opening.  Once you have it in the cab, unfold it and press it into place.  If you glue it into place, make sure you don't use regular "super-glue".  Many types of super-glue give off fumes that will cause a white film to form on clear plastic.  Testor's makes a glue especially for windows that works well, and water based glues like Elmer's School Glue will also work.  Unfortunately these glues also cure slower, so you may have to hold the windows in place until they dry.   If, by some chance, the glue you choose does leave a white film on your windows, you can clear it up by dabbing a little petroleum jelly on them with a cotton swab. 

Another detail you will likely want to add is an interior.  The cab of the 4-270 is fairly open, so one can easily be added.  For a dash, cut a piece of wood into a 3/16" cube and drill a 1/16" hole in it to mount a steering wheel.  The steering wheel I used came from a Tonka tractor.  The Tonka tractor also provided a seat, which I mounted on a thin piece of aluminum, cut to match the cab floor opening.  Paint the dash and the seat with the same red you painted the interior of the tractor cab with.  Mount the dash to the front frame, on the part that angles toward the cab.  The cab floor can also be mounted to the front frame, although be sure to line it up with the rest of the cab. 

Once the glue for the dash and seat has fully dried (usually about 8 hours), go ahead and mount the hood and cab piece to the tractor frame.  If you have test fitted the hood and cab piece along the way as I suggested earlier, you should not have any problems now.  Here again, since the windows are now installed in the cab, it is essential to wait for the glue on the seat and dash to fully dry to prevent white film on the windows.  Also take care when mounting the cab and hood piece to keep glue out of the interior of the cab, as it will trap the fumes inside and ruin your windows. 

At this point, your tractor should be fully assembled and you are ready to add some details.  One detail from the real tractor that is missing from the cab casting is the marker lights along the roof.  For these I use tiny black beads.  You can find these beads at most craft stores.  Just put a dab of glue on one side and stick it to the cab.  Add a dab of orange or red paint to the center to make them look like the warning lights.  The black beads can also be used for work lights on the rear fenders, with a dab of white paint for the lenses.  The decals also can now be added.  If you save the original ones, just put them back on. 

The tires and wheels you choose for this project are largely up to you.  For mine, I used the tires and wheels from an Ertl STX375.  They fill the rear fenders nicely without any rubbing.  One note of caution when sizing tires for this tractor though; although large tires will fit easily on it, they may look unrealistic because the tractor has a relatively low profile.  Also keep an eye on drawbar height as larger tires will make it too high to use with some implements.

After following these steps you should have a nicely detailed tractor for your shelf or farm display.  For display purposes, the 4-270, rated at 210 drawbar horsepower, would be appropriate with a 5 shank ripper, 27' soil finisher, or a 9 bottom plow.  Regardless of how you display the tractor, it will be a good, less common tractor to add to your collection.