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, […]

Split rail fence and Forced Perspective

The split rail fence goes straight into the background, where other elements are about 3/4 size. So, to bring the two together, the fence diminishes in size as it recedes into the distance. To accomplish this forced perspective, I went through all the rails yet again and sorted them into three piles by size. The […]

Split rail fence proof of concept

Two sides of the pasture are demarked by a double-post split rail fence. I’ve been keeping an eye out for suitable twigs all summer, but they’re all either too curved or too difficult to split or otherwise unsuitable. Then I came up with the idea of using bamboo skewers: they’re straight and plentiful and they […]

Pasture Background in Place

I was almost surprised to find that my old staple gun packed enough oomph to blast right through a layer of aluminum flashing, another of laser board and into the plywood that forms the bottom layer of the pasture. It made quick work of the operation, and then all I had to do was come […]