Hello I am working on a new small dairy farm with other live stock. Cows, pigs, chickens ect. There will be a pasture for grazing. But I would like to have some kind of field corn, hey?
I had a plowed field on my last layout so I would like to try something else. I would like to try and scratch build the crop if I can. The size of the field is 18’’ x19’’ it can be one big one or two small one’s. Any ideas on things you would do or not do or change in your field? Thanks Frank
That’s quite a sizeable field. What time of year are your modeling? It would make a difference as to whether you had standing hay or cut grass and bales in the field. For corn, it would make a difference in height.
There are corn plants available from several different manufacturers, but a bit pricy for my taste, expecially in a field that size. Some folks have made some good looking fields. Don’t know if the whole field is corn plants or if it is just the edges and the center is just tops.
If you make it a hay field, there are seveal options. Standing, fairly tall grass, probably best done with static grass, but I’ve never used one. Could also find a mat or piece of rug that looks like standing hay. Another part of the field could be freshly cut grass. Burnt grass, fine turf I think would look like a freshly cut field. Then have some windrows of hay drying in the sun, waiting to be baled. Those could be anything from green (freshly cut) to a light greenish brown (fully dried). Another part of the field could have some bales in rows around the field, that haven’t been picked up yet. If you are doing modern era, you could be doing round bales, which are mostly baled green. They range in size from 4’x4’ to 6’x6’ you could use pieces of dowel of the correct diameter, cut to length (round the corners just slightly). After they are wrapped they are white (wrapped in white, shiny plastic). Most are wrapped and stacked, can be left around field edges to be brought in later or stacked near the barn, not more than two high…
Having some of the field plowed wouldn’t be too unusual either, especially in the spring or fall.
I just put the fence posts up around my pasture. Invisible fence seems to be holding the cows in alright. Have been working on a load of bales for the wagon, but haven’t gotten
Look at “Astroturf” doormats. I’ve seen them make very convincing mid summer corn in HO when painted the right color. The price is good and the tufts are already in rows.
Frank,
For furrowed fields, Cliff Powers (MA&G) had a clever idea of soaking sections of cardboard in water to get the corrugated inner layer out. The corrugated part has raised areas and valleys; perfect for creating furrowed fields. You only want to soak the cardboard just long enough to remove the outer flat layers.
Here’s what it looks like with green tuft added to the high spots:
Hope that helps…
Tom
Gidday, Great idea Tom.
Here’s a link to a previous thread regarding corn fields…
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/204217/2233339.aspx#2233339
Hope it is of use.
Cheers, the Bear.
Actually it would sort of depend on era! The size of your field would be pretty small by today’s farming standards, just a bit bigger than a 1/4 of 1/4th section; or, a little more than 40 acres. In the early 1900 this would have been a pretty good sized field to work with a horse. Once the tractor appeared on the scene, things changed.
There was a fairly recent article in Model Railroader on making corn rows from foam packaging material. I wasn’t overly impressed with the material as a representation of corn. Consider that if your modeling up to the 50s, much of the corn was planted in “Checked” fields (meaning it could be cultivated vertically as well as horizontally) so, this would look different from a modern corn field; but, maybe that is unimportant. Getting a corn field to look like any corn field, is the goal. For that reason, I would tend model something else, like oats; or, some other small grain. Good luck!
Hello Sorry I should have given more info. Ho scale The ear summer July 1935-45 northeast Ohio. Right now I am thinking corn.
It’s about 2-4 feet tall that time of year and the color goes from light green to dark depends were it is in the field. If I stay with corn I would like to get a look like that.
Cowman I like the hey field also now that you gave me some ideas for a scene. What did you make your fence post and hey bales from ? I have some plastic fence from my dads stuff and I don’t like it .And the farm will need hey bales anyway.
Tom thanks for the photo. That’s how I did my last field but it was just dirt no plants. It’s works really nice and looks good just don’t use a lot of dirt. I found that a pizza box works the best. Stiffer and wont warp as bad.
Bear Thanks for the links I did see the x-mas garland one and tried it. I don’t know maybe I did something wrong but it did not look like corn to me. I will try a different kind of garland I have some in the storage space some where.
Redore astroturf I will have to give it a look. But so far what I have seen in the craft stores wont work.
Np2626 I will most likely be planting this field by hand so as long I lay it out right it should work. And if don’t hey would be next. I looked up oat fields and it would look close to hey.
Any other ideas on how to make corn plants or any other crops I could plant. Thanks for all the help Frank
Just a couple of months ago MR had an article on various crops. Can’t recall the issue of the top of my head.
I found the article you were referring to, although, it was for crops in N scale.
0-6-0,
For the fence posts I split some tooth picks with a hobby knife. Most of my cedar fence posts here on the farm are 2"-4" on the tops, I tried to make my posts about scale for those sizes. I have not put wire on the fence, it is set back on the layout so wire would be hard to see. Cody Grivno did a little video on stringing wire. Don’t remember what he used, but he wrapped it around each post with an occasional drop of CA.
For bales, the best I have seen were in the Photo Gallery (above), posted by Pit, back in late December or early January, a fellow feeding his critters from the back of a truck. He used felt weather strip, cut to size. His was the correct color for bales, what I have is too gray. Haven’t tried to do a spray paint job on them as he suggested. Just doing other layout things. Most bales of your era were probably 14"x18"x36" that way, they stack squarely. Some early balers made larger ones, but not the monsters of today and Allis Chalmers made one that made small round bales (not to be wrapped) that were about 12" in diameter and 24" long. I’ve seen those, never worked with them. Another suggestion I have seen for bales was to cut square basswood or balsa strips, that were close to the right scale dementions (3/16" is close) into 36" pieces and painted. I’m still a work in progress to get them to my satisfaction.
Good luck,
Richard
Here are some Walthers links to ready made hay bales
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=&scale=H&manu=&item=&keywords=hay+bales&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=240&Submit=Search
Also, if the size of the field you are thinking of seems to be a bit daunting, think selective compression. You do not need to model acres of new corn to give the impression of a corn field
The June 1995 issue of Railmodel Journal has an article on making cornfields using christmas tree branches and wreaths and using a heat gun. Probably wont be able to find any of those this time of year but im pretty sure those fake branch meterials for use in Christmas type decorations are used for other things throughout the year, might be worth walking through Michaels or even Wally World. Trainlife website has Railmodel journals on thier website so you can read them for free.
I have also seen plowed fields done with ground goop and a credit card cut with pinking sheers to give it a serrated edge. Plan to try this method when I get the new benchwork up and a place for a plowed field.
Have fun,
Richard
Hello well I have tried a few things with no luck its harder then I thought it would be. I tried the x-mas thing again but the all the stuff I have is to thick and it does not look like corn
So I am going with a hey field. But I will have a garden. I found some corn at a craft store 32 stalks for $8 had a 40% off coupon. So I got one pack. Its made by JTT scenery it’s good for a garden but still to much for my field. They make all kinds of stuff for the garden. The corn is to tall for my time of year but that’s ok. Here is a photo of it
I still have more to do around the farm before I plant the garden. I need to do the hay field first. I will show my progress here. Thanks for all the Help Frank
Hello well here is my first try at a hey field. I didn’t really like the color it was to white so I tried to make it a little greener. And now I really don’t like it. I was thinking about trying some staticgrass? Has anyone made there own grass? Is this to big of a spot for staticgrass? I have never used it before. So I am not sure how to work with it.
I have looked at a few craft stores and a fabric store for some kind of fur or something that would look better but no luck any ideas? Thanks Frank
Some suggestions from my modeling bibliography:
CORN
cornfields from artificial turf Mod RRer Apr93 p.120
corn w Astroturf Great Model Railroads 2008 p.49
cornfield from bread tie wrappers NMRA Bull Feb83 p.31
corn stalks ModRRer Aug94 p.104
from plastic asparagus fern Mod RRer Apr81 p.98
cornfield w Busch HO kit Model Railroader Sept06 p.40
farm field, for cotton, grapes, strawberry, tomatoes or cabbage, using thread and foam
Model Railroader Mar2010 p.30
farm- soybeans with Faller scenery mat Model Railroader Oct09 p.32
farm- wheat field with Busch plastic wheat stalks Model Railroader Oct09 p.32
GRASS
dead grass along r.o.w. after weed control Model Railroader Mar08. p.55
fake fur Model RRer Aug96 p.86
felt grass & weeds ModRRer Jan82 p.118
grass patches from 3M synthetic steel wool ModRRer Aug98 p.82
grassy clumps w pot toppers Model Railroader Sep10 p.28
knee-deep grass, modeling w/ “Silflor” a new German product
ModRRer Feb 2001 p.72
meadows w elevtrostaticf applicator Model Railroader Sept 07 p.71
prairie grass, from fake fur stuck in plaster and pulled out the
wrong way through the back. N Scale NovDec99 p.47
&
There were a couple of articles in RMC on making your own TiteLock fence using E-Z-Line from Berkshire Valley. I decided to try it, but my initial effort didn’t turn out as well as the one in the magazine. I need at least 12’ of it, but I may do some of that in either split rail or stone with split rail - both types were common in my modelled locale and era. I’m pretty sure that with a little practice, my next effort will look better, but many of my fences aren’t all that close to the viewer, and this stuff is difficult to see at any appreciable distance, as you can see below. (If you click on the photos, you’ll get a larger view, and clicking on that will give an even bigger picture - doing so for the last photo should make the fence material just barely visible.)
The fence posts are styrene rod, distressed a bit by dragging a razor saw along the length of the rod before cutting the individual posts, then brush-painted with PollyScale paint.
Wayne
The corrugated cardboard field can be pretty realistic looking
The “astro-turf” cornfield can look good in “real life” but not so good when photographed.
The best corn field I ever saw used – of all things – an etched brass set of corn where the various little parts of the husk were teased out. It looked (and photographed) just great! But yeah it was pricey.
A couple of years ago on a layout tour I saw a corn field that i thought looked wonderful. I did not take pictures nor did I have the chance to talk to the layout owner about how he did it. But if I grasped his method correctly, and quite possibly I did not (and I have not tried this myself so beware that this is “vaporware” type advice) I think he took narrow strips of clear but dulled plastic (or perhaps it was green but dulled plastic strip), so no shine, then applied a glue or cement in close parallel lines, and applied green foam material, or very possibly it was static grass material. I assume he then did the exact same thing to the other side of the plastic strip, matching the lines exactly.
If he did use static grass material perhaps he trimmed it as it approached the bottom of the stalk.
When stood on edge in other words, it would look like corn stalks standing up, very close to one another. I assume he had a narrow slot or slit to stand the plastic on edge.
He would then insert the strip of plastic on edge as his corn row. he had a large field of corn.
Have I made myself clear here?
Dave Nelson
This first photo is a Google Earth pic of a plowed field close to where I live.
This second photo is a piece of corduroy cloth from an old pair of pants.
Here is the real field from a higher altitude.
Using corduroy for farmers fields is an old trick. You can darken the earth colour if you spray the back with an India Ink solution or dark paint of your choice, though India Ink seems to work better. Then dry brush the colour(s) of the crop of choice over the tops of the bumps. It can look very good if care is taken.
Hello
Leighant thanks for the list I have to go though a couple of stacks mags but I should have few of them.
Dave yes thanks
Wayne love the cows and fence what’s the diameter of you fence post? Mine look way to thin now.
Batman they still make corduroy. It does look good Ill see if I can find some and give it a try.
Thanks for the help Frank