| Usual Caterpillar branded box. | | | Plenty of grab rails | | Underside view. | | The cab is pretty much plastic. | | Complex mechanism on the front axle. | | Detailed moldboard. | | Don't try this showing off behaviour at home. | | It looks fine on a big low loader. |
| The Caterpillar 24M Motor Grader is the largest in the Caterpillar range and it is listed as a 'Mining Motor Grader'. The Gross Vehicle Weight is over 62 tonnes and the moldboard width is 7.3m.
Packaging
As usual the model comes in a standard Caterpillar box style and it is tightly secured to the packaging. The review model had no defects or missing parts.
The box has no information about the real machine, but some of the features of the model are described.
Detail
The underneath has some simple detailing of the main components with the front axle being particularly intricate. The wheel hubs are plastic and nicely detailed and the tyres are made of hard shiny rubber. The tread pattern is different to the tyres shown in Caterpillar literature and would have looked much better with a different pattern.
The engine compartment is reproduced well with door panels and grilles. There are plenty of plastic grab rails, but although they are perhaps a little fat for the scale they look alright. The wheel arches are plastic.
At the rear the ripper is made well with the painted hydraulic hoses being a nice touch.
The cab is another area that is largely plastic, and it has a reasonable detail level with the interior looking a little basic in flat grey.
The front frame structure is well detailed with lights and hydraulic hoses and the side panels are plastic. Strangely the '24M' model designation is not applied horizontally like on the real machine. The front axle looks good with the complicated steering linkages looking authentic.
Details around the circle are quite good with hoses to the cylinders, and the moldboard has the bolt locations indicated.
Features
The rear wheels pivot in joined pairs with a large range of movement. The front axle has a good range of steering movement and very large float up and down. Although the mechanism to lean the tyres is modelled, it barely allows any movement which is a pity.
Articulation of the body can be achieved and the maximum angle is similar to the real machine.
The cab doors can be opened.
The ripper mechanism can be raised and lowered although it is hard to fold right up as the hoses tend to resist.
The circle can be raised and lowered, and also tilted although the mechanism was quite stiff on the review model. The circle rotates, and the moldboard position can be adjusted side to side and also tilted fore and aft.
Quality
This model has a fair amount of plastic used on it but it is generally executed well with no issues about colour match with the metal parts. The paintwork and graphics are good.
Price
The 24M is quite a large model measuring over 30cm long and is good value for the price.
Overall
Norscot has produced a nice model with a good level of detail and it is only a little unfortunate that the tyres do not look a bit better. However the main functions work and it makes for an impressive display with other models, and it is recommended.
Footnotes
The model first appeared at the end of 2010.
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| | Tread pattern on the tyres does not look great. | | The ripper assembly. | | Wheel hubs are detailed. | | The back support to the moldboard is plastic. | | It is a reasonably large model. | | Plenty of detail on the circle. | | Somehow the Cranes Etc team loaded it on the Drake Trailer. |
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