Pasture in Place

Except for cattle, the pasture is as finished as it is going to get. They’re getting painted with oils, and those will take a week or so to dry completely, so in the interest of tidying up, I’ve put the pasture in place for now. Depending on how herd installation goes, it may be in […]

Pembroke87 Joins the Fediverse

I first became aware of the idea of a decentralized social network through Kim Stanley Robinson’s science fiction novel, The Ministry of the Future. Here is his fictional account For everyone else, using these sites means they’ll control their data, rather than it being used and mined. That privacy can then be a resource to […]

Cattails Start to Sprout

To explain away the stream that heads straight into the ditch by the tracks, the area is going to get swampy. To produce these cattails, I borrowed a design idea from Noch, but cut my own, rather than plumping for their probably excellent product. Forty-seven plants in an area about 2.5x3cm looks about right. The […]

The Dairy Herd

Now that I can have as many cattle as I desire, the question becomes how many should I have? My cousin’s husband keeps about 100 cows producing milk, and at least another 100 heifers and pregnant or nearly pregnant animals, but he has machines that do most of the milking. Surely hand-milked herds in 1905 […]

Pasture Bushes

Most of the pasture consists of grass and weeds, but the stream is lined with bushes to such an extent that it often disappears. A couple of years ago, after reading Gordon Gravett’s books, I ordered a small square of rubberized horsehair from Treemendus. When it arrived, along with a small shank of postiche, I […]

Blending a Cow

A quick online search, and indeed a visit to the hobby shop, confirmed that populating my pasture with a herd of Ayrshire cattle is going to be a pricey proposition. Moreover, even if I were to spend $20 or more on a hand of cows, they will be in three different poses: grazing, mooing, and […]

Weeds around the pasture

I’ve put the static grass away for now. I still have the bit next to the backdrop to finish up, but otherwise, I think it’s time to stop and consider before it gets worse. Some techniques are worth mentioning so I can remember them for when I get to work on the near side of […]

Pasture gets first layer of grass

Well, there was no more procrastination to do. So, the pasture finally became green enough that it might actually feed some scale livestock, provided they don’t fuss too much over a belly full of tiny plastic filaments! The near side of the fence will receive deeper weeds, and so, it will be completed in the […]

Blending the background

If I’m honest with myself, I might be procrastinating. I do this whenever there’s a new skill to develop and apply and I’m nervous about getting started. However, I convinced myself that the background should be blended with the landscape before starting on static grass. The blending started with a small piece of blank backdrop, […]

Optimism and Industry

On Thursday, my friend, Mark Dance of Columbia and Western fame invited a few of us over for an evening of pizza and beer and talking about model trains. The question he wanted to discuss was whether model railroads can be art, and what are the implications if they are. It was a fun evening, […]