I acquired this rather lovely (IMHO) model of a Hanomag tractor from a well known auction site. I intend to add it to my German O gauge layout, once I can work out how to get it off its plinth. For some reason it is secured to the base by a triangular headed screw that I have never encountered before. It is an Atlas Editions model, that I thought was a French company, but it seems they are actually Swiss. I assumed that something like this at this price (£13) would be made in China, but according to the packaging it is made in Bangladesh!
Hi David, I bought several of the earlier tractors to use as wagon loads on my grouping era stock, two of them are excellent and really fit the part. Then, some years later I bought another. Although it looked good in the advert, when it arrived it was somewhat underscale when compared to the other two. So I haven't used it. Having reread your post, I note that yours was marketed as Atlas First Editions, whereas mine were from the Hachette partworks magazines. However they came with the same bizarre screws in the base with the same triangular slot. So they must have been produced by the same company. I wasn't as bright as Brian, so didn't think of trying an allen key. I just used some pliers and brute force to get them out.
Lovely job Rob, the joys of 7mm scale. These vintage tractors are quite something, real or model, fascinating chunks of hardworking machinery. I have always been more interested in commercial and agricultural machinery (vehicles) than cars, even went to more commercial motor shows at Earls Court as a teenager than car shows. I'm an oily rag at heart and proud of it! Jim
Those tractors are lovely! I think the tractor I bought might be slightly underscale as well. I have been doing some research on Atlas Editions and it seems they have their models made by a variety of manufacturers, some are even made by Oxford Diecast. Apparently because of this it is quite common for the scale to wander a bit. I think they are mainly sold as display items and are not intended to be 'used'. So they are probably not that bothered whether they are 1/45 or 1/43.
I remembered that many years ago I bought a driver set from Maplin to enable me to change the battery in a a Garmin SatNav. I was sure that would have triangular bit in it, but it didn't! It did have a selection of very small hex bits though and one of them worked.