It's a Caterpillar, Jim, but not as we know it.
In this review we're looking at two unusual Caterpillar models and these are
models of machines produced by Caterpillars Chinese company. Both models
are by Yugao and are in 1/35 scale. Let's get the first one out of the box
and it's the SEM 822 track-type tractor, and at first it didn't want to
come out of the box until we spoke to it nicely, and after that it was just a
matter of cutting the factory seals and separating the two expanded polystyrene
trays. With the model out of the box there's a little bit more of their
packaging to remove, and that's the shrink-wrap on the crawler tracks and of
course once you cut it off you're not really in a position to put it back on
again. There are also a couple of little pieces of round tape and they are
securing the cab doors. The other model is the SEM 919
motor grader and the packaging is the same except we have a twist tie so that
does mean as a little bit of a fight to get the model free from the packaging.
But despite that the model is well packaged with bits of foam rubber also
protecting the model. Just like on the tractor there were a few other bits to
remove, but there is no assembly to do because both of these models are
complete out of the box!
Looking underneath the dozer, the metal tracks
have bolt head details and the rest is fairly simple. The outer face of the
drive sprocket is a little bit strange because it's plastic and part of the
track frame, and silver rivets would have looked better painted. On the plus
side there are some tiny graphics adding detail. Looking at the back the ripper
has some hydraulic hoses and the ripper teeth are reasonably well formed. A nice touch is
the very thin grab rails. The cab has got work lights and some more thin grab rails
and the detail inside the cab is very good with graphics on the console.
At the front the exhaust pipe has got a decent hole. There are more thin grab
rails and a very nice mesh grille. There are also some tiny graphics. At the
front there are hydraulic hoses to control the blade and the hydraulic rams
have a very good color match. The front grille is good and the big blade also
has nice wear plate detailing.
Looking at the grader it's got nice quality rubber
tyres and the structure is modelled reasonably well. There's also detailing
including hoses in the engine area. The tyres are mounted on nicely detailed
wheels but the colour match on the toolbox on the side is not so good.
However there are nice thin grab rails and one thing that is really good are
the fine mesh grilles, and it's always nice to have grilles that you can
actually see through. At the back the connection rivets on the ripper would
have looked better painted but the teeth are nicely highlighted.
There is some more nice detailing underneath the cab and it includes hydraulic hoses and
the interior of the cab is modelled well with all of the controls being provided.
The detailing of the moldboard is nice and the wear plates can be easily seen
and there are plenty of hydraulic hoses. The front work lights are very nice,
there are hoses running to the front blade, and although some of the rivets
would have been better painted there is more nice wear plate detailing
We will
start with the tracked machine and you can rotate the tracks although they are
very stiff, but it is unusual the way the drive sprocket has been modelled and
that's because the outer face is not part that rotates.
Moving to the back let's check the ripper assembly and it raises to a decent
height and if you want to lower it there's just
enough movement to sink your teeth in. At the front the blade assembly is quite
stiff to move but you can tilt it forwards or backwards although it seems to
be spring-loaded, so it won't stay tilted back. But in terms of the other movement
you can raise the blade although it is very stiff on the two hydraulic rams
that control it. A nice feature on the model is that it
does have opening cab doors and it works well with the cab door
opening widely. There are doors on both sides and that gives you a good look
inside the cab. On we go to the SEM 919 motor grader and it's a
nice smooth machine because it rolls along really nicely. There are two
methods of steering the machine. The first is at a pivot point at the cab but
the range of movement is not huge, and the other steering is provided at the
front axle and using that you can get a good steering angle on the whole machine.
In fact the engineering of the steering axle is really good. It has got huge
up-and-down oscillation and as we've already seen it's got a
very good steering angle. What's also really good and it's not something you
often see, is that it's got a very good angle of tilt on the front wheels. At the
back the two driven axles are on a pivoting arrangement and as you can see
here the wheels on both sides pivot together. The ripper assembly seems to
have a good range of movement and you can see that it could rip below the
level of the wheels. If you want to park the ripper it goes up to a good height.
Moving to the front and the blade can be raised and lowered
and if we test it out you can see that the blade does a good job of pushing
material. Moving on to the moldboard and it's got some but not all movements of
the real machine. The moldboard can be rotated on the circle it has a small
tilt backwards and forwards but can't move lengthways. But the movement on the
lift rams is good so you can raise it and lower it and tilt it. So let's run a
test and do a little bit of grading and if you're a good operator you can
probably make the cut. There are still a couple of other features on the model
and the first of these is the widely opening cab doors and the other thing
which is a little bit unexpected is the widely opening engine cover and that
lets you see the detailed engine underneath.
If you collect Caterpillar
models there won't be too many others that have these models. The SEM 822 is a nice
model rated as good, and it's a good companion to the grader model. Like the
tractor the grader has some very nice detailing but the grader does have some
better functionality. It is impressive in the larger 1:35 scale and overall
it's very good.
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