Ol’ GW is in a quandry.
The Black Cattle are Lifelike.
The Brown Cattle are Walther’s Cornerstone
Shouldn’t they be roughly the same size.
Whats that thing in the far upper left corner - the infamous Golden Calf?
I have found “HO” scale living critters (including humans) to be a tad on the small side. For example, the little engineer figures and such seem to be about 15% undersized. Could be me…but…
In any event, I figure the LL ones look to be about right. True to my first comment, the WS stuff seems too small…as do their human figures.
Different ages? Different breeds of cattle? Maybe both?
Cold be more reasons why growing animals are not all the same size. Like people, some animals grow fast, some slow, some big, some small.
Paint them different colors and call them mixed breeds!
Darrell, quiet…for now
otherwise it’s a great case for forced perspective! have the smaller ones in the background!
Danny
Hormones?
One of the differences is that the LL stuff is supposed to be Dairy Cattle (sure wouldn’t place high at the fair…LOL) and the Walthers are Beef cattle. Dairy cattle (Particularly Holstiens) are taller and longer than Beef cattle which are shorter and stockier. This in addition to the fact that different manufacturers spec things out different. Even within Dairy breeds, there is a wide variety of sizes. Holstiens and Brown Swiss are half again bigger than Jerseys and 1/4 larger than Guernseys.
I spent my youth showing Guernsey cattle at the fairs in Central NY. Almost never see anything except Holstiens today on dairy farms. So if you are modeling a dairy farm of the present time, they should be Black and White. (OK put one Guernsey or Jersey in the herd so the farmer’s family will have some milk to drink! LOL.)
I’ve found this in other brands of figures and animals to, maybe we should take the calipers with us when we by animals and figures. Seems to be no standard out there as far as size.
Comparing to the horse I have only seen one team of ox as big as the black cattle. Compared to the human the black cattle look about right.
If they are dairy cattle they need to be Barbie enhanced. If they are heifers you are out of luck because even at this angle it don’t look like there is a bull in the heard.
Just an old farm boys observations. The Cincinnati Zoo has a few cattle in the children’s section that are suppsed to be an ancient breed, I can’t remember the name of, but they are about as small as the brown ones compare to the human.
FYI,
I’m planning a cattle drive through Train City to the loading docks. Won’t be a lot for forced perspective. (They don’t sell off the bulls.)
Well, if they are supposed to be beef cattle, then the black ones would be Angus and the brown ones would be Herfords (Which I believe Walthers say they are). I believe Herfords are slightly larger than Angus…??? This is set in what year? If there any Texas Longhorns, the pointy things on the head are way too short, and the Angus appear to be polled (bred to have no horns). For the 1800’s, these are probably not accurate for you. On the other hand 99% plus of model railroaders out there wouldn’t notice the difference. (Wrong stack on the 4-4-0 - that they would notice) You are going to find it very hard to find cattle that are correct for the time and place as there aren’t a lot of choices out there, as you already know. If it were me, I would just go ahead and mix and match. Hold the presses! Dyna Model Products has some Longhorns: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/260-15121
BTW, dairy Cattle (Guernseys in particular) look like this: http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/guernsey/
bukworm is right! The ones you have need, uhm, well, let’s say they need some “implants”(?) if they are female. LOL (That’s why I said they wouldn’t place high at a show [:D]) One last thing, You would be sending Steers to market. they don’t call them “bulls” after the operation. [;)]
Uh, the are glued to the block for painting The black ones are black because they have been primered. The Walther’s have not gotten that far. The golden calf in tha background is cast metal also not primered. They will all be getting the Hereford look Rust and White coloring. With the bigger ones placed somewhere inconspicuous I think like already penned or at least behind a fence.
Maybe you’ve stumbled onto the reason we have rising beef costs at the grocery store. Smaller cows mean less meat per cow, so the price of steak goes up! [:D]
You are correct about not having a chance for forced perspective. If I remember from the old “Rawhide” TV show cattle of all sizes were included in the drive.
As far as selling off the bulls my brother made that mistake when I turned my rabbits over to him. We kept up to 30 cows and only needed one bull to service them all. In larger herds the ratio is likely higher. Most of the male calves were altered at a few months of age so while not many “bulls” went to market about half of the cattle shipped had a Y chromosome. Most of the animals shipped were adolescent “yearlings” so external evidence of gender would be hardly noticeable. Way to much information.
I would be afraid of the cost of buying enough scale cattle to model even a small drive. You could probably buy a good locomotive for that money. Have you thought about casting your own?
Chip,
The simple truth of the matter is that, like baseball, steriods have sadly seeped into the MRRing business. I was hoping that we could stall or delay the introduction of it, BUT …it appears it is just TOO much of a temptation for some of the manufacturers to deal with. Bigger cattle means larger profits. Larger profits means bigger cattle. It’s a vicious cycle.
What most modelers and manufacturers don’t reailize is that this is just the tip of the ice berg: It’s really a sinister plot and scheme devised by the folks at MTH. They have somehow successfully infiltrated and brainwashed the manufacturers into thinking that these so-called “product enhancement drugs” are important and necessary to help right the struggling MRRing industry.
Eventually, what’s going to happen is that all “non-MTH” user locomotives, structures, and figures will gradually grow and grow in physical size till there is no more room on their layout to run their trains and we’ll be forced to abandoned what we have. We will then be coerced to give up our particular scales and purchase MTH ONLY products (MOP) in order to continue to thrive in our beloved hobby.
This so-called MOP cleanup operation is expected to take as much as 15-20 years to successfully implement. But MTH has already sunk a lot of money, time, research, and lawsuits into it to abandon the effort now.
AND…inside sources have it that MTH’s #1 goto guy…and the head of Tactical Infiltration and Clandestine Operation’s “Fueling Force” (or TICOFF, for short) is none other than the diabolical…
mthrules
Hey, you heard it here first!..
Tom
ROFLMAO!
The brown ones could be steers. They sell them along with the other cattle.
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by bukwrm
I have 25, six of the black, 16 of the brown, and 3 cast. Oh, and two longhorns.–Not counting Mongo’s Bull. It’s a narrow street. With 6 cowboys riding herd, it might look reasonable. If not, I’ll get back on eBay. I got the 16 Walther’s for $5 and $3.85 shipping.
Actually the vast majority would be steers. Ranchers kept most of the heifers so that they would have more (steers) to sell next year. On dairy farms, you keep the heifers also… (those turn into Cows and give milk after they “freshen”) You sell Bull Calves for Veal. On Beef operations, you castrate the bulls (Then they are called Steers) and those are the ones that get sent to market under normal circumstances. At fairs, we always had the mommy that would tell her children how to tell cows from bulls. “That one has horns, so it’s a bull”. We used to delight in telling mommy and the kids that horns are not the way to tell them apart, and used to show them the equipment that made them different. “See, the bull has these two things hanging between the legs, this here’s a Bull! Now the cow has different equipment way up here under the tail…” LOL Well, I was only 14 at the time [;)]
If you are going to use the black and brown ones, I would keep the longhorn for some other scene on the layout. Just my [2c]
It’s easy to see you ain’t a country boy. You ever seen cows that were all the same size on a farm? Yer thinkin too much again. Do you do that about EVERYTHING???