1/64 John Deere 7700 and Chevy C-60 Truck

John Sampson's 2004 St. Louis Farm Toy Show display captures the classic American Mid-West fall harvest.  Corn harvest, tillage and farm chores were captured in this 1/64 display.  
 
Customized and scratch built farm toys can greatly add to a display.  Collectors will remember a display for the interesting items on it.  John Sampson  enjoys creating displays replicating the the average Iowa family farm using a variety of older equipment.  To reach his goal of a displaying a farm using 20-30 old equipment John customizes and scratch builds many pieces. 
 
John's St. Louis display portrays an Iowa grain and cattle farm.   The most interesting piece on the display is the 1/64 John Deere 7700 combine.  John scratch built the 7700 from plastic resin.   The 7700 is one of the most popular combines of the 1970's and the 7700 is still a common sight across Iowa corn fields during the fall harvest.  John crafted the 7700 because it put a top rated combine on his display not currently offered by a toy maker.   The 7700 is by far the most requested 1/64 combine.

Not every farm runs big semi trucks and ten wheeler straight trucks.  Many farms across Iowa rely on classic dump trucks like the Chevy C-60.  Jason Jeffers, John's partner in J&S Farm Toys share, shared his building talents to create the blue Chevy pictured above.  The John Deere 7700 and Chevy C-60 are classic matches for the corn harvest.  

The fall harvest is a busy time in Iowa.  Many farms till the fields right after the combine to prep the soil for spring planting.   John customized two AGCO 4wds for his fall tillage tractors.  The first model is an Allis-Chalmers 4W-220.  The 4W-220 was a 220 hp that shared a cab and hood with the 2wd AC 8000 series.   John used an Ertl Allis-Chalmers 8070 to create a 1/64 4W-220.  He used a 4wd articulation kit to to mount the 8070 body on to create the baby AC 4wd.  The other AGCO 4wd on John's display is the White 4-270.  After reading Dave Tallon's November 2003 T.T.T Tallon Tip's article on detailing a Scale Models White 4-270, John decided to use Dave's tips to customize the White 4wd.  An added muffler and detailed cab interior make a great change and add another nice 4wd to the display.

John also customized an Ertl Oliver 1950-T to add a plow tractor to the display.  John added new flotation tires and an Oliver cab.  The 1950-T is hooked to a custom made Oliver plow.

Cleaning out the cow pens is an important fall chore.  John customized an Ertl 8070.  He added new tires to beef up the old 80's casting to match the new larger 1/64 size.  FWA tires and adjustable rear axles were added.  The AC 8070 is hooked to a large New Holland box spreader.  John cut two Ertl NH 145 spreaders in half and added tandem axles to make the largest box spreader from New Holland.  

John Sampson and Jason Jeffers of J&S Farm Toys have combined their talents to build a new display for the 2004 National Farm Toy Show.  Look for their new display featuring beet harvesting in the November Toy Tractor Times.

e-mail: toyfarmer2@msn.com