I've embarked on another anti-shackwhacky project - wanna see?

Downeaster

Downeaster

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I don't want to clutter the Lounge with stuff nobody is interested in, but my various projects in brass seem to generate some interest. Whether genuine or just being nice to the daffy feller I can't say...:laugh2::whistle:

I used to be into model railroading in a pretty big way and always enjoyed the structure building and scenery part - more so than actually running trains. Got out of it as I ran out of room and tired of trying to keep things running in a damp basement.

Anyhoo, I've decided to combine my interests in building structures and scenery, working with brass and country life/farming. I'm building a farm diorama in 1/64 scale (since I have a crapload of farm toys in that scale) which conveniently enough is the same as "S" scale in model railroading, so structures and scenery materials are readily available.

As always, if anyone is interested I'll post pictures. If not, no biggie as I understand this is WAAAAAY off topic and a fairly narrow field of interest.
 
barn.jpg


The barn is a basic kit I bought and assembled when I was doing model railroads. It has set on a shelf in the basement for years. It's HO scale (1:87) but it works okay as a smaller barn in S scale (1:64) All my tractors and equipment are 1:64 so everything else will built to that scale.

bents.jpg


floor.jpg


The barn in kit form does not have a detailed interior. I'm building a hayloft floor and supporting bents to put inside, and will include a clean out gutter, feed bunks and miscellaneous stuff you'd normally find in a dairy barn.

silo.jpg


The silo and silo house will be attached at one end of the barn. The silo is a piece of PVC gutter downpipe that scaled out to a 16 foot silo, cut to 30 feet high. The top is a fruit cup cut to fit and painted. The silage blower is one of my toys with a pipe and snout added out of brass. The silo will be detailed with weathering. The silo house will get shingles and some detailing as well. I have silage wagons and will stage one unloading with some green ground foam as the load.

hay.jpg


I scratch-built the hay elevator out of brass and cut the "bales" from a green kitchen scrubbie. I'll cut a crapload more and stack them in the mow where they can be seen from the door. The elevator is powered by a scale John Deere M.

manure.jpg


I scratch built the Patz gutter cleaner using pictures from the 'net. Also from brass. The "manure" is Woodland Senics ground foam died with a little water color paint. Needs to be a little darker.

I'm working in general from the era when I grew up on a farm: 1955-1970. As far as my inventory will permit, all equipment will be from that time frame.

Further plans, awaiting materials and time, include a windmill (brass) and stock tank (plaster), a fuel tank (plastic) an LP tank (plastic), power poles and lines, an equipment shed, pickup with feed bags (I have an excellent '50 Chebby pickup), a pipe fence feedlot (brass) and anything else I can think of. I haven't decided on an overall maximum size yet, but probably about 3 feet square.

Suggestions/ideas for things to include welcomed.
 
Well, at the risk of getting railroaded outta' here... I'm in. :rolleyes:
I gotta bunch of "HO" stuff I been collecting over the years. One day I'd love to find the room for a big diorama. Bring on the pics... jus' not in 1/64th scale. I already have trouble with full size as it is.:D
 
There is a Railroad museum in Mesa or Tempe area up Mailman way. They have this HUGE building that has several large layouts. One for each scale. From Lionel to "Z" scale.
 
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Downeaster said:
Suggestions/ideas for things to include welcomed.
Click to expand...
I bought these from Ebay about a year ago to add to my HO collection. About 3 bucks gets you a pack of 20 shipped. I think they'll trim and weather pretty good. They're sold as HO scale. I've often wondered how you "scale" a tree. :umm:

IMG_20191215_185303.jpg
 
I'll have a peek on Fee Bay.

I generally make my own trees using stranded copper for the trunk, twisted "artfully" and drowned in brown paint to fill in between the strands. Then weather and add foliage.
 
Downeaster said:
I don't want to clutter the Lounge with stuff nobody is interested in, but my various projects in brass seem to generate some interest. Whether genuine or just being nice to the daffy feller I can't say...:laugh2::whistle:

I used to be into model railroading in a pretty big way and always enjoyed the structure building and scenery part - more so than actually running trains. Got out of it as I ran out of room and tired of trying to keep things running in a damp basement.

Anyhoo, I've decided to combine my interests in building structures and scenery, working with brass and country life/farming. I'm building a farm diorama in 1/64 scale (since I have a crapload of farm toys in that scale) which conveniently enough is the same as "S" scale in model railroading, so structures and scenery materials are readily available.

As always, if anyone is interested I'll post pictures. If not, no biggie as I understand this is WAAAAAY off topic and a fairly narrow field of interest.
Click to expand...
Heck ya, post it up. I'm interested to see any new ways to use tools or create art.
 
Not to clog up your thread DE, but Halfmile couldn't get this to upload so I uploaded it for him. Bein' a lover of models and airplanes and such, we figured you'd enjoy it....
 
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hwfc1.jpg


hwfc2.jpg


The base of the diorama is going to be blue styrofoam insulation board. Very rigid, light and easy to shape. It'll be covered with "dirt" and grass/weeds/gravel as appropriate.

In order to facilitate working with styrofoam, I built a hot wire foam cutter. The idea was cabbaged from YouTube and adapted to my needs and on-hand supplies. All I had to buy was a roll of 34ga Nichrome resistance wire. The cutting wire is hard to see but it's stretched between the two 5/16ths carriage bolts. The bolts have hex nuts under the wire and wing nuts on top so the depth of cut can be adjusted up and down as needed.

The second picture shows the adjustable spring tension device to account for the fact that the wire expands as it heats up. That keeps the wire tight for smooth cuts.

It took some messing around with various power supplies to get it to work efficiently. The cutting wire is ~ 20 inches long. After testing 5, 12, 18 and 24 volt supplies in various amperages, I wound up using a 30v 1.5 amp power supply. I have a stash of "wall warts" and power supplies stripped out of junk printers, as well as a couple of DIN-rail mounted units I got when I worked at the cannery.

I'm going to attempt a smaller, hand-held version for freehand shaping cuts. Think "wire cheese cutter". The shorter (I'm thinking about 6 inches) span of wire should allow me to use a much smaller power supply. I'm hoping to use a 12v wall wart, but I'll have to experiment to see what works.
 
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fence1.jpg


Speaking of fiddly...

Scale pipe gates. In S scale, they're 16 feet long by 5 feet high. That translates to a 3 inches long and an inch high in round figures. Made out of .020 brass wire and soldered together.

fence2.jpg


I scribed the layout on a piece of aluminum flashing, laid the outer perimeter over the pattern and then soldered the cross pieces in while holding them in place with a dental tool. Once I got my technique down, it took 2 or 3 minutes per section. One of those jobs where it's best to do a few at a time and take frequent breaks. I'll build several more.
 
I grew up on the farm. Our barn never looked that good.
Never saw an elevator pto driven. Neat Idea.
I like what your doing.
I used to use safety wire to build bike models. Not very detailed but it kept me occupied.
Keep up the good work.
Leo
 
As things progress, the barn will get weathered and show some age.

We had a paddle-type elevator that we used for both hay and grain and it was PTO driven. Dad built a "power unit" using an IH cub engine but it was such a miserable sonofabitch to start that we never used it. Usually wound up hooking the John Deere B to the elevator.
 
hhslicer.jpg


I prototyped the hand held hotwire styrofoam slicer using an old strainer. Works perfect with a 5v wall wart power supply. Waiting on a receptacle for the power lead and a small momentary switch and I'll build the final version.

My initial trial run was with a 12v supply. You could read by the glow from the wire...
 
Downeaster said:
...Suggestions/ideas for things to include welcomed...
Click to expand...

Ah, the memories.
Seems that more than a few of us have had some farm experiences.

My uncle's dairy barn (near Oshkosh) was quite similar to your Dutch-roof model, about twice as long, so we could herd about 80 holsteins and jerseys in there. There was a side door, with a concrete pool alongside, filled with cold well-water. We'd put the milk canisters in the pool to keep them cold, and the dairy truck would back up to the pool to pick up and dropoff canisters. There was also an outrigger timber and hoist pulley emerging from the roof peak, just above the hayloft door...

DairyBarn.jpg
 

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