MiniArt’s 1/35 German Tractor D8506 Mod. 1937: a Lanz Bulldog, the tractor that did more than any other to bring the engine to German farms.
The history
Heinrich Lanz AG of Mannheim introduced the Bulldog in 1921. Its single-cylinder, two-stroke hot-bulb engine was simple, rugged and able to run on cheap, low-grade fuels, and over the following decades the Bulldog became one of the most widespread tractors in Germany, a byword for farm mechanisation. Production continued until 1960.
The D8506 belongs to the Bulldog range of the late 1930s, and MiniArt’s kit represents the 1937 model. It was first and foremost an agricultural machine. Tractors like it also appear in wartime photographs, because many civilian vehicles were taken into use during the war, but nothing on this model points to a particular military role.
Real tractor and the 1/35 model
The big rear tyres, narrow front wheels, open driving position, tall exhaust and large flywheel cover make the Bulldog easy to recognise. A 1938 D8506 preserved at Agrarmuseum Wandlitz is a good reference for the details of the MiniArt model. The museum example dates from 1938 and the kit depicts the 1937 model, so they are not the same machine; the two photographs were also taken by different people.
The build
Built from MiniArt’s kit, Item 38029. The photographs below follow the model from the sprues through primer to the finished tractor in green with the Lanz name on the flywheel cover and red-brown wheels.
From sprues to primer
Gallery
Sources
- MiniArt 38029 kit data, Scalemates
- German Tractor D8506 Mod. 1937 review, AutoModeler
- IPMS Deutschland, Ackerluft-Bulldog D8506 — MiniArt 38029 first look
- Lanz Bulldog-Club Holstein, technical comparison of Lanz hot-bulb engines
- Koneviesti Konedata, Lanz Bulldog technical data
- Wikimedia Commons, 1938 Lanz D8506 at Agrarmuseum Wandlitz, Anagoria, CC BY 3.0
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